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Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Apple Adds A New iPod Touch With 16GB Of Storage And No Rear Camera For $229
Apple today dropped a mid-cycle refresh of the iPod touch, its iOS-based iPod, with 16GB of storage on board and without a rear camera, for $229. This slots in its existing lineup between the refreshed, fifth-generation iPod touch, which has a rear camera (and a loop for attaching a wristband), and the iPod nano.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HXGJmApVQrc/
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UN mulls ethics of 'killer robots'
29 May 2013
Last updated at 23:12 ET
So-called killer robots are due to be discussed at the UN Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva.
A report presented to the meeting will call for a moratorium on their use while the ethical questions they raise are debated.
The robots are machines programmed in advance to take out people or targets, which - unlike drones - operate autonomously on the battlefield.
They are being developed by the US, UK and Israel, but have not yet been used.
Supporters say the "lethal autonomous robots", as they are technically known, could save lives, by reducing the number of soldiers on the battlefield.
But human rights groups argue they raise serious moral questions about how we wage war, reports the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
They include: Who takes the final decision to kill? Can a robot really distinguish between a military target and civilians?
If there are serious civilian casualties, they ask, who is to be held responsible? After all, a robot cannot be prosecuted for a war crime.
"The traditional approach is that there is a warrior, and there is a weapon," says Christof Heyns, the UN expert examining their use, "but what we now see is that the weapon becomes the warrior, the weapon takes the decision itself."
The moratorium called for by the UN report is not the complete ban human rights groups want, but it will give time to answer some of those questions, our correspondent says.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22712752#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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CA-NEWS Summary
Syria fighting rages, more chemical attacks reported
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Heavy fighting raged around the strategic Syrian border town of Qusair and the capital Damascus on Monday and further reports surfaced of chemical weapons attacks by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on rebel areas. Intensified government offensives are widely seen as a bid to strengthen Assad's position before a peace conference proposed by the United States and Russia for next month.
Three Lebanese soldiers killed near Syria border
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen killed three Lebanese soldiers at an army checkpoint in the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday before fleeing towards the Syrian border, Lebanese officials said. It was not clear who carried out the attack, which is the latest incident in a frontier region which has been increasingly drawn into the violence in neighboring Syria.
Nigerian army says kills three Islamists in Boko Haram crackdown
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian soldiers have killed three members of Islamist militant sect Boko Haram and arrested 25 more in the northeast, the army said on Tuesday, two weeks after the launch of a major ground and air offensive to crush the group's four-year rebellion. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa on May 14 and ordered thousands of additional troops to the area where Boko Haram has established bases and weapons dumps.
Afghan police defectors return to fold, kill seven colleagues
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two Afghan police officers who had recently rejoined the force after defecting to the Taliban, shot dead seven of their sleeping colleagues on Tuesday, a police chief said. The killings came during a particularly bloody 24 hours for Afghan forces, with another 16 soldiers, police and bodyguards killed in different attacks, underscoring concern about government forces as foreign troops prepare to leave.
Chinese hackers access major weapons systems: Washington Post
WASHINGTON/CANBERRA (Reuters) - Chinese hackers have gained access to designs of more than two dozen major U.S. weapons systems, a U.S. report said on Monday, as Australian media said Chinese hackers had stolen the blueprints for Australia's new spy headquarters. Citing a report prepared for the Defense Department by the Defense Science Board, the Washington Post said the compromised U.S. designs included those for combat aircraft and ships, as well as missile defenses vital for Europe, Asia and the Gulf.
Insight: Syrian village gives up secrets after dawn killings
BAIDA, Syria (Reuters) - Awakened by the sound of gunfire, Ahmad could hear the armed men knocking on his brother's door, shouting insults and calling the family "dogs". Ahmad's sister-in-law said the gunmen told her husband to "bow to your god, Bashar" -- the Syrian president. She and her husband and their two teenage sons were dragged towards the village square.
African neighbors to help fund Zimbabwe vote: Mugabe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said regional leaders will hold a summit to discuss how to fund an election later this year in which he is seeking to extend his three-decade rule, state media reported on Tuesday. Impoverished Zimbabwe needs $132 million for the election but conditions attached to the cash have divided the already fractious unity government, whose main players will be rivals for power in the vote.
Greece's ruling conservatives extend lead in opinion polls
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's ruling conservatives have widened their lead over anti-austerity opponents, three polls showed, in a sign that improving business sentiment has bolstered support for the crisis-ridden country's government. A survey by GPO pollsters for Mega TV released on Tuesday put support for the New Democracy party at 21.3 percent, 1.8 percent ahead of the leftist Syriza party, which opposes Greece's international bailout.
Pirates kidnap crew off Nigerian coast: security sources
ABUJA (Reuters) - Armed pirates attacked an oil products tanker off the coast of Nigeria in West Africa and abducted an unknown number of crew, security sources said on Tuesday. Increasing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea region, which includes Africa's No. 1 oil producer Nigeria and is a significant source of cocoa and metals for world markets, is jacking up costs for shipping firms operating there.
Austria says peacekeepers to stay on Golan for now
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria retracted a threat to pull 380 peacekeepers from the U.N. buffer zone between Syria and Israel, saying on Tuesday that only Britain and France - not the whole European Union - were ready to arm Syrian rebels. Vienna had led efforts to extend an EU arms embargo on Syria, arguing that sending more weapons to the region would only fan the fighting, dash hopes for a peace deal and make Austrian peacekeeping troops potential targets for retribution.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-000337983.html
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
White House says it was aware of McCain's Syria trip
With less than two weeks until George Zimmerman goes on trial for second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the judge in his case ruled Tuesday that that some of his defense team's key evidence ? including Martin's history of "violence" and marijuana use ? will not be?allowed in court. But the way George Zimmerman's defense team has been handling things, well, they're making sure to leak enough that the jury is aware of every last absurd detail about Trayvon Martin anyway.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-aware-mccains-trip-syria-advance-151105064.html
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Edward Furlong arrested in West Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman says 'Terminator 2' star Edward Furlong has been arrested on suspicion of violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said that deputies responding to the scene Thursday in West Hollywood found Furlong hiding in a nearby property.
Jail records show he was released Saturday just after noon after being held on $100,000 bail.
In March, the 35-year-old actor had been sentenced to six months in jail for violating his probation in a 2010 case for violating a similar restraining order.
He has been the subject of such orders taken out by both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend.
The actor was also charged in January of battery of an ex-girlfriend.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/edward-furlong-arrested-west-hollywood-011851520.html
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Authorities: Hofstra student was killed by police
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) ? Authorities say a police officer's bullet killed a New York college student during the response to a home invasion at an off-campus home.
Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said Saturday night that Andrea Rebello was killed by a police officer as she was being held in a headlock by a masked intruder.
Azzata says the police officer opened fire as Dalton Smith made a motion to fire at the officers early Saturday morning.
Azzata says the officer fired eight shots, hitting Smith seven times and Rebello once in the head, killing her.
Earlier Saturday, police said Smith had an extensive criminal history and was wanted on a parole violation related to a first-degree robbery conviction.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-hofstra-student-killed-police-003456565.html
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Reading rock to understand how climate change unfolds
May 18, 2013 ? What happened the last time a vegetated Earth shifted from an extremely cold climate to desert-like conditions? And what does it tell us about climate change today?
John Isbell is on a quest to coax that information from the geology of the southernmost portions of the Earth. It won't be easy, because the last transition from "icehouse to greenhouse" occurred between 335 and 290 million years ago.
An expert in glaciation from the late Paleozoic Era, Isbell is challenging many assumptions about the way drastic climate change naturally unfolds. The research helps form the all-important baseline needed to predict what the added effects of human activity will bring.
Starting from 'deep freeze'
In the late Paleozoic, the modern continents were fused together into two huge land masses, with what is now the Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica, called Gondwana. During the span of more than 60 million years, Gondwana shifted from a state of deep freeze into one so hot and dry it supported the appearance of reptiles. The change, however, didn't happen uniformly, Isbell says.
In fact, his research has shaken the common belief that Gondwana was covered by one massive sheet of ice which gradually and steadily melted away as conditions warmed. Isbell has found that at least 22 individual ice sheets were located in various places over the region. And the state of glaciation during the long warming period was marked by dramatic swings in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.
"There appears to be a direct association between low CO2 levels and glaciation," he says. "A lot of the changes in greenhouse gases and in a shrinking ice volume then are similar to what we're seeing today."
When the ice finally started disappearing, he says, it did so in the polar regions first and lingered in other parts of Gondwana with higher elevations. He attributes that to different conditions across Gondwana, such as mountain-building events, which would have preserved glaciers longer.
All about the carbon
To get an accurate picture of the range of conditions in the late Paleozoic, Isbell has traveled to Antarctica 16 times and has joined colleagues from around the world as part of an interdisciplinary team funded by the National Science Foundation. They have regularly gone to places where no one has ever walked on the rocks before.
One of his colleagues is paleoecologist Erik Gulbranson, who studies plant communities from the tail end of the Paleozoic and how they evolved in concert with the climatic changes. The information contained in fossil soil and plants, he says, can reveal a lot about carbon cycling, which is so central for applying the work to climate change today.
Documenting the particulars of how the carbon cycle behaved so long ago will allow them to answer questions like, 'What was the main force behind glaciation during the late Paleozoic? Was it mountain-building or climate change?'
Another characteristic of the late Paleozoic shift is that once the climate warmed significantly and atmospheric CO2 levels soared, the Earth's climate remained hot and dry for another 200 million years.
"These natural cycles are very long, and that's an important difference with what we're seeing with the contemporary global climate change," says Gulbranson. "Today, we're seeing change in greenhouse gas concentrations of CO2 on the order of centuries and decades."
Ancient trees and soil
In order to explain today's accelerated warming, Gulbranson's research illustrates that glaciers alone don't tell the whole story.
Many environmental factors leave an imprint on the carbon contained in tree trunks from this period. One of the things Gulbranson hypothesizes from his research in Antarctica is that an increase in deciduous trees occurred in higher latitudes during the late Paleozoic, driven by higher temperatures.
What he doesn't yet know is what the net effect was on the carbon cycle.
While trees soak in CO2 and give off oxygen, there are other environmental processes to consider, says Gulbranson. For example, CO2 emissions also come from soil as microbes speed up their consumption of organic matter with rising temperatures.
"The high latitudes today contain the largest amount of carbon locked up as organic material and permafrost soils on Earth today," he says. "It actually exceeds the amount of carbon you can measure in the rain forests. So what happens to that stockpile of carbon when you warm it and grow a forest over it is completely unknown."
Another unknown is whether the Northern Hemisphere during this time was also glaciated and warming. The pair are about to find out. With UWM backing, they will do field work in northeastern Russia this summer to study glacial deposits from the late Paleozoic.
The two scientists' work is complementary. Dating the rock is essential to pinpointing the rate of change in the carbon cycle, which would be the warning signal we could use today to indicate that nature is becoming dangerously unbalanced.
"If we figure out what happened with the glaciers," says Isbell, "and add it to what we know about other conditions -- we will be able to unlock the answers to climate change."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/lad7DFFJLRs/130518153259.htm
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Ben Affleck Hosts SNL & Explains Oscars Speech (VIDEO)
Ben Affleck Hosts SNL & Explains Oscars Speech (VIDEO)
Ben Affleck hosted “Saturday Night Live” for his fifth time last night for the season finale. He took a chance to try and explain his Oscar speech about his marriage being “work”. The episode was also a farewell for cast members Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen. Check out the highlights of last night’s ...
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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/ben-affleck-hosts-snl-explains-oscars-speech-video/
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Google Glass 'prescription edition' makes a cameo at Google I/O
Google I/O is always full of surprises, and we came across yet another elusive bit of hardware on the show floor today: Google Glass "prescription edition". No, it's not actually called that (we made up the name), but what you're looking at is definitely Glass that's been neatly integrated with a pair of prescription glasses -- in fact, it looks a lot like the version of Glass that Google recently mentioned on its blog. We don't really know anything else about this device, but we've reached out to Google for comment. Is this a custom design built by combining Google Glass Explorer Edition with off-the shelf eyewear? Is this a Glass prototype that's designed specifically for people who wear prescription spectacles? Share your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to check out the gallery below.
Update: Google's confirmed it's a prototype the company's experimented with.
Brad Molen contributed to this report.
Filed under: Wearables, Mobile, Google
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qG5_ZBR-RfE/
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Probe begins after commuter trains crash
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) ? Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in a crash that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor.
Three patients remained in critical condition Saturday morning, with two of those stable, according to officials at two Bridgeport hospitals.
The crash happened Friday evening on the Metro-North Railroad, which serves the northern suburbs of New York City. Passengers described a chaotic, terrifying scene of crunching metal and flying bodies.
"All I know was I was in the air, hitting seats, bouncing around, flying down the aisle and finally I came to a stop on one seat," said Lola Oliver, 49, of Bridgeport. "It happened so fast I had no idea what was going on. All I know is we crashed."
About 700 people were on board the Metro-North trains when one heading east from New York City's Grand Central Terminal to New Haven derailed at about 6:10 p.m. just outside Bridgeport, transit and Bridgeport officials said.
The train was hit by a train heading west from New Haven to Grand Central on an adjacent track, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan said. Some cars on the second train derailed as a result of the collision.
"We're most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system," Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash.
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was headed to the area to survey the crash site Saturday morning with Malloy, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and other Connecticut officials, according to Malloy's office.
Officials planned to update journalists on the crash following the tour.
Malloy said most people in the crash were not seriously injured.
The nursing supervisor at St. Vincent Medical Center said Saturday morning that 44 people from the crash had been treated there, and that five of those were admitted. One of the five remained in critical but stable condition, the supervisor said.
Bridgeport Hospital spokesman John Cappiello said two patients were admitted in critical condition, and one of those was now stable. The hospital treated 24 other patients from the crash, and many had been released already, with the rest expected to be released by late Saturday morning, Cappiello said.
The Metro-North Railroad, a commuter line serving the northern suburbs, described the crash as a "major derailment." Photos showed a train car askew on the rails, with its end smashed up and brushing against another train.
Malloy said there was extensive damage to the train cars and the track, and it could take until Monday for normal service to be restored. He said the accident will have a "big impact on the Northeast Corridor."
Amtrak, which uses the same rails, suspended service indefinitely between New York and Boston.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said the disruption caused by the crash could cost the region's economy millions of dollars.
"A lot of people rely on this, and we've got to get this reconnected as soon as possible," Finch said.
Investigators on Friday night did not know what caused the first train to derail. Malloy said there was no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident.
Passenger Bradley Agar said he was in the first car of the westbound train when he heard screaming and the window smash behind him.
"I saw the first hit, the bump, bump, bump all the way down," he said.
Agar had returned to work this week for the first time since breaking his shoulder in January. And since he was still healing, he thought it would be safer to take the train than drive from his home in Westport.
The area where the crash happened was already down to two tracks because of repair work, Malloy said. Crews have been working for a long time on the electric lines above the tracks, the power source for the trains. Malloy said Connecticut has an old system and no other alternate tracks.
By late evening, Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett said everybody who needed treatment had been attended to, and authorities were beginning to turn their attention to investigating the cause.
"Everybody seemed pretty calm," he said. "Everybody was thankful they didn't get seriously hurt. They were anxious to get home to their families."
The MTA operates the Metro-North Railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the nation. The Metro-North main lines ? the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven ? run northward from New York City's Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut.
___
Associated Press writer Michael Melia contributed to this report from Hartford, Conn.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/probe-begins-conn-commuter-trains-crash-070249473.html
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Calif. doc promising cancer cure to be sentenced
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? At the age of 3, Brianica Kirsch was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Her parents, desperate to find alternative measures for their daughter who had undergone surgeries and chemotherapy, turned to Dr. Christine Daniel, who offered an herbal supplement with a success rate she claimed was between 60 and 80 percent.
Brianica's parents spent thousands of dollars on the herbal product and their daughter spent much of her time in those last few months before she died in the summer of 2002 being shuttled from her Ventura County home to Daniel's clinic in the San Fernando Valley.
Daniel, 58, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in a Los Angeles courtroom where federal prosecutors are asking for 27 years in prison for crimes they deem cruel, despicable and heinous. Daniel's lawyer is seeking a nearly six-year prison term.
In all, authorities believe Daniel siphoned about $1.1 million from dozens of families between 2001 and 2004.
She was convicted in September 2011 of 11 counts, including wire fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering. Authorities said Daniel used her position both as a doctor at the Sonrise Wellness Center and a Pentecostal minister to entice people from across the nation to take her herbal product to remedy cancer, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.
Federal prosecutors argue that Daniel preyed upon people in their most vulnerable state and gave them false hope.
Daniel "repeatedly demonstrated a merciless and callous indifference to the suffering of her patients and their family members," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns wrote in court documents. "It is unlikely that our federal criminal justice system will see the like of defendant Christine Daniel again."
Some of her patients, relying on her product, died from complications of cancer within three to six months after taking the supplement. In one case, prosecutors contend a 22-year-old woman who had highly curable form of neck lymphoma died because she relied on Daniel's recommendation to avoid radiation or chemotherapy treatments.
For Brianica's parents, they implored Daniel for the stark truth given their daughter's condition.
"I remember telling Dr. Daniel before we started, 'If this isn't real, if you can't really help my daughter, please don't take away our last time with her,'" LuAnn Kirsch testified at Daniel's trial. "'Just let us go home if you can't really help.' Because you don't get that time back."
For other patients, they endured additional pain and suffering because they took the herbal tonic provided by Daniel. At trial, experts called by federal prosecutors said chemical tests of the product showed it contained beef extract flavoring and a sunscreen preservative among other ingredients.
"I live with the guilt that I should have seen that none of what she was going through was helping her, but instead was hurting her," Debra Harris wrote in a letter submitted to the court about her sister and Daniel's one-time patient Barbara Davis who later died. Harris said Daniel's patients were not only convinced by the physician that they could be cured but so were family members who "wanted to believe it just as bad."
Paula Middlebrooks also put her faith in Daniel, who billed her nearly $60,000 over a five-month period to help treat her terminal breast cancer. Eventually, Daniel pronounced Middlebrooks was free of cancer and threw her a party. But in reality the cancer was spreading and Middlebrooks died shortly after she returned to her home in Georgia.
"This heinous conduct was a clear effort to rid herself of a problematic patient, to lull other cancer fraud patients and to create yet another miraculous 'marketing' example of the success of her herbal cancer treatment that would be sure to spread throughout the evangelical Christian community," prosecutor Johns wrote in court documents.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/calif-doc-promising-cancer-cure-sentenced-134459685.html
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Google Play Music
With its All Access subcription service, the updated Google Play Music has come of age. The inclusion of this subscription service trumps Apple's iTunes, and Google delivers an excellent, well-designed system, with a large catalog of any music most people are likely to crave, and a beautiful, full-function interface similar to Rdio's. Equalling iTunes Match is Google Play's scan and match feature, which saves you from having to upload all your music files to your Google digital locker. Unless you're tied to your iPhone or iPad, Google Play Music, and in particular, its new All Access option, at $9.99 a month, is worth a very close look. But Play Music still falls slightly short of the best streaming services in some ways, and if you use Apple's mobile devices, you're out of luck.
Google Play Music All Access
We've complained about Apple's not offering and all-you-can-eat music subscription in the iTunes Music Store for years, so maybe Google's move here will finally force Apple to reconsider its policy on music subscription. Facebook users already have easy access to Spotify app, which over 10 million users have used. Another strong contender and Editors' Choice is Slacker Radio ($9.99 a month), which offers fine-tuning of your custom internet radio stream. Google's All Access costs the same $9.99 a month as Spotify, but only $7.99 if you sign up before June 30. Google, however, surprisingly doesn't offer a free ad-supported account type. If you want an excellent free music player, you're well served by Songza, our Editors' Choice for free streaming music services. The also excellent Rdio also costs $9.99 a month for full access.
As mentioned, Apple has no equivalent to All Access, but you do get some pretty great stuff with the iTunes ecosystem that you don't get with Google Play Music?AirPlay, podcast playing, access to public internet radio stations, and the ability to play easily to a home theater system through Apple TV. This last is important to me, since when I'm serious about listening to something, I want to be able to do so on my hi-fi system. Microsoft offers subscription with its Xbox Music Pass, also $9.99 a month, but it only works Windows 8, Windows Phones, and Xboxes. The Xbox part, however, solves the problem of getting your music to you home theater sound system, to which Google Play Music has no simple answer.
Setting up Google Play Music All Access couldn't be easier. It's far less of a process than you have to go through to get up and running with Spotify, which you can't even use unless you specify some contacts whose music choices you want to follow. This brings up the point of social integration: if you really need the input of your friends' music ideas, you're better off with Spotify or Rdio, but if you just want to discover on your own All Access serves you well. All Access does of course require your entering a payment method, and if you have a Google Wallet account, you'll simply have to okay the transaction.
The service worked fine in all browsers?even Internet Explorer 10! Remember, competitor iTunes doesn't run in a web browser at all, but it does have the advantage of an unobtrusive mini player window.
Sound quality was excellent. The service detects your internet connection speed and serves up an appropriate bitrate. Fast connections get a very fine 320Kbps bitrate. While listening, you can click the full-screen icon to show the album art moving around the browser window.
Creating a Station
Once you're in your Google Play Music All Access account, you just search for a musician, and a grid of tiles with artist images shows up. Click on one, and you've got a playlist of related tunage. Google only claims "millions" of songs in its catalog, where competitors like Spotify boast 15 million, so you may not find what you want. I didn't have much problem with the selection.
I first tested with Ulrich Schnauss, an otherworldly German electronica artist, and then with a lesser known artist, Leggo Beast, and neither tripped up the service. Switching musical gears drastically, the service did find Stile Antico, a top-notch vocal early music ensemble, but the group's latest album wasn't available?but it wasn't on Spotify, either, but Rdio did! It did find an impressive 88 albums sung by Kings College Choir.
I like how the All Access radio's music affinity engine finds not just a very limited genre of nearly identical songs with the same "musical DNA," the way Pandora does. Instead, it pushes the edges of the style of the musicians you select. This lets you create playlists including everything you like, not just a narrow band of musical style. I also found Google Play Music's interface easier on the eyes than the busy iTunes-like Spotify, though Rdio's slick web interface is its equal.
But there was one major problem with Google Play Music All Access's radio stations: After an hour, its browser window told me, "The queue is currently empty." This would never happen in Pandora or any other of its ilk. It could be a sign that Google doesn't have as large a music library or that its algorithm still needs tuning.
Another downside was that there was a sometimes a significant pause before the next song in the playlist started playing. I couldn't find any setting to omit this gap. Another problem is one shared with most digital music is that you don't get all the performance information you would on a CD booklet?soloists for choral performances and other credits.
You can thumbs up or down any tune in the playlist at any time, and switch to any song to play immediately. In the browser, no matter what you've got going on in the main window area?settings, library, whatever?you'll see the play controls with the album thumbnail, repeat, skip back, pause, skip ahead, and shuffle. The volume slider, thumbs up and down, and playlist buttons are to the right of these. A nice touch is that the song you're playing becomes the browser tab title?this means, that in Windows 7, you can hover the mouse cursor over the browser's taskbar button to see the track name. The same goes for when you're working in another browser tab and you hover the cursor over the Google Play tab.
At any time while you're playing the radio stream, you can add the current song to your library, create a new playlist, or share the song. The sharing option at first looks like it's limited to acquaintances with Google accounts, but you can also type an email address in the To box. Unlike a lot of streaming radio services, you can see several songs ahead, and nix those you don't want to hear or play those you do immediately.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/9J1aS6WoKDs/0,2817,2385570,00.asp
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Friday, May 10, 2013
Immigration bill backers thwart conservative amendments
By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A landmark bill backed by U.S. President Barack Obama to overhaul the nation's immigration system survived unscathed on Thursday during the first day of consideration by a divided Senate Judiciary Committee.
On bipartisan votes, the panel rejected conservatives' attempts to thwart implementation of a centerpiece of the bill - a pathway to U.S. citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
By day's end leading Democratic and Republican senators said the committee had improved the bill.
The panel, composed of 10 Democrats and eight Republicans, accepted 21 relatively modest amendments that focus largely on border security and increased congressional oversight. All but one amendment were agreed to on bipartisan votes.
Eleven other amendments were rejected or withdrawn, many of them Republican bids to bolster border security in ways that went far beyond the steps spelled out in the bill, while also delaying or even killing proposals to legalize undocumented immigrants.
"It is a better bill now than it was this morning," said Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the committee and the Gang of Eight senators who wrote the measure.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, another committee and Gang of Eight member agreed, hailing the amendments as "good-faith improvements...that make our proposal stronger."
As currently written, the bill would boost funding for border security, revamp visa programs to allow for more high- and low-skilled workers and chart a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.
The committee is expected to complete work on the bill by the end of this month, sending it to the full Senate to face a tougher test. That debate could extend through June or longer.
Backers will need the support of at least 60 of the chamber's 100 members to clear what are expected to be Republican-led procedural roadblocks.
Although the Republican Party has urged its members to embrace comprehensive immigration reform as a way to reach out to the growing number of Hispanic voters, a number of Republicans have resisted.
This, despite Hispanics rebuking Republican candidates in last November's elections, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney, with 71 percent of them voting to re-elect Obama.
Many Republicans favor an incremental approach, one that would focus more on strengthening the 1,969-mile (3,170-km) U.S.-Mexican border. They want to do so without a pathway to citizenship, which critics denounce as "amnesty", for those who entered the United States illegally or overstayed visas.
Throughout the day, two Republican co-sponsors of the bill, Flake and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, joined with Democrats on critical issues to protect the legalization provision from being derailed.
The voting pattern left the most conservative members predicting the eventual demise of the legislation.
"The committee has voted down every serious border security amendment today," said Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz. "If it doesn't have real border security, it will not pass (Congress)."
Schumer angrily rejected Cruz's characterization, saying, "It's tough as nails."
In roughly eight hours, the committee plowed through about 30 of the 300 amendments submitted.
Some of the amendments are designed to appeal to the Democratic majority, as well as many Republicans, as ways to improve the measure, which would be the first comprehensive change to immigration laws since 1986.
Others are seen as possible ways to kill it. Four of the "Gang of Eight" senators who crafted the complex measure are on the committee, and those two Democrats and two Republicans have agreed to jointly oppose any amendment seen as a "poison pill."
AVOIDING 'MISTAKES OF THE PAST'
The day began with a warning from the panel's top Republican that he would make the process as long and "arduous" as possible.
"I plan to ask many questions throughout this process," Iowa Senator Charles Grassley warned. "I want to know how the bill doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past."
Grassley, in a statement, promised an "arduous" and "robust" debate.
Grassley followed up with an amendment to require that the Obama administration achieve full control of illegal immigration at every part of the U.S. border before any undocumented people now in the United States could be considered for legal status.
"This amendment would set a standard that would basically delay probably forever" the legalization of the 11 million, Schumer said.
The committee defeated a move by Cruz to delay legalizing illegal immigrants until 40,000 more border patrol agents were hired to join the 21,000 already there. Opponents said that would cost as much as $40 billion and take 10 years to achieve.
POLL BACKS IMMIGRATION POLICY OVERHAUL
The kickoff of Senate Judiciary Committee debate on the bill came as a new Pew Research Center poll found 75 percent of Americans believed immigration policy needed major changes and 73 percent said there should be a way for illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.
But less than half, 44 percent, said they favored allowing illegal residents to apply for citizenship.
During a break, Schumer told reporters he worried "all the time" about a Democratic amendment that Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has offered that would cover same-sex couples in the bill's new immigration reform policies. He said the Gang of Eight was evenly split over that amendment.
It was not yet clear whether Leahy will try to attach that amendment to the bill during the committee's work on the bill or possibly wait until the bill reaches the full Senate.
The panel is to resume work on Tuesday.
Negotiations on a bill in the more conservative Republican-led House of Representatives slogged on.
According to one House source familiar with the negotiations, disagreements remained over several important matters, including how many low-skilled workers should be allowed into the United States for jobs ranging from cooks and hotel maids to construction workers.
(Editing by Fred Barbash, Jackie Frank, Peter Cooney and Bob Burgdorfer)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-launches-crucial-debate-over-immigration-bill-153154854.html
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Swimsuit Issue Aside, 'Sports Illustrated' Cover Is a Female-Free ...
Serena Williams on the cover of SI. (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED)
That recent?Sports Illustrated?cover featuring Jason Collins was, in one obvious respect, a landmark. But in another way, it was business as usual for the venerable weekly.
The openly gay Collins is, after all, a man?and men are featured on the cover of SI about 95 percent of the time. That?s the conclusion of recently published research, which finds that, from 2000 through 2011, women appeared on just 4.9 percent of?Sports Illustrated?covers.
?SI covers have both reflected and swayed their audiences toward corporate sport, particularly lucrative football, basketball, baseball, and even hockey.?
That figure is ?comparable to levels reported for the 1980s,? write University of Louisville sociologists Jonetta Weber and Robert Carini. ?Indeed, women were depicted on a higher percentage of covers from 1954-1965 than from 2000-2011.?
For their research, published in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Weber and Carini looked at 716 SI covers from January 2000 through June 2011. They excluded the annual swimsuit issue, ?as its focus is not on sports performance per se.? While they found considerable variation from year to year, the total added up to a paltry 35 covers, or 4.9 percent of the total. A grand total of 11 featured women of color.
The imbalance looms even larger as you dig further into the numbers.
?Of the 35 covers including a female, only 18 (or 2.5 percent of all covers) featured a female as the primary or sole image,? they write. ?Three covers included females, but only as insets (small boxed image), or as part of a collage background of both male and female athletes.?
The contrast with the magazine?s first decade of existence is stark. Between 1954 and 1965, women were featured on 74 SI covers, or 12.6 percent of the total.
Weber and Carini note that while that era was ?not known for progressive gender ideologies? (as any viewer of Mad Men can attest), it was ?a period in which SI featured a wider variety? of sports on its covers, including recreation and leisure activities. ?In subsequent decades,? they write, ?SI covers have both reflected and swayed their audiences toward corporate sport, particularly lucrative football, basketball, baseball, and even hockey. Female representation on covers dwindled over the period, and has remained at low levels for decades.?
Then again, if women athletes were on SI?s cover more often, they might have to sacrifice their dignity for the publicity. A recent survey of Rolling Stone covers found 83 percent of female musicians were portrayed in a sexualized fashion (often wearing minimal clothing), compared to just 17 percent of men.
Sports Illustrated did launch a female-oriented offshoot, SI for Women, but it folded in 2002 after only 20 months. If that publication?s content was be folded into the main magazine, it was not reflected in its cover choices.
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Office manager/PA at Bespoke London | Dezeenjobs architecture ...
Interior design and architecture studio Bespoke London is looking to recruit an office manager/PA.
Office manager/PA
Mayfair, London
Bespoke London are an industry-leading interior design company based in Mayfair, specialising in high-end residential projects across London and Europe. We are now recruiting for an office manager and PA to join our team of ten to oversee the day-to-day running of our office. The ideal candidate will have several years? office management experience, and ideally be from an interior design studio background because in addition to the classic office manager duties you will also be working closely with the design team procuring goods for million pound interior design projects. You will be practical, exceptionally methodical, confident and have an aptitude for figures. Confident on Excel and generally IT savvy, you will have a positive attitude and enjoy being the ?go to? person in the office.
Please send CV?s to along with two references to gill@b-bespoke.com
From ?30,000 to ?40,000 per year dependent on experience
Application deadline: 31 May 2013
www.b-bespoke.com
Please mention that you saw this position on?Dezeen Jobs
Newsletter?|?Twitter?|?Facebook?|?Info and rates?|?Contact us
Source: http://www.dezeenjobs.com/2013/05/09/office-managerpa-at-bespoke-london/
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Thursday, May 9, 2013
First Legal U.S. Gambling Site Will Comp You Windows 7
In the real world, casinos entice gamblers with free booze and discounted rooms and shows. Online, the first legal internet gambling site in the U.S. is offering Apple users a free copy of Windows 7 and the VMFusion virtualization software.
Why the largess? ?We don?t have a Mac client,? admitted Chris Derossi, CTO of Las Vegas-based?Ultimate Poker.
Internet gambling became legal in Nevada last week, and?Ultimate Poker, the first company to jump into the game, has already dealt more than 500,000 hands and held its first tournament, with a payout of $10,000.?But Mac users were left out of the Texas hold ?em draw at the nation?s first state-sanctioned online gaming site, which doesn?t support Apple?s OS X.
Derossi was the lead architect of Apple?s ?System 7? operating system in the 1990s, and he acknowledges the irony. ?Windows has a higher market share than does the Macintosh,? said the 48-year-old Derossi, a keen?poker player and co-author of?Winning at Internet Poker for Dummies. (.pdf) More than nine of 10 computers are running a Windows-based operating system.
That?s where the financial dynamics of the lucrative gaming industry come in. Rather than let potential Mac gamers slip away, Ultimate Poker is offering to?reimburse?players for the cost of emulating Windows on a Mac, until the company can ship an OS X version of its gambling software. It?s an opportunity for Apple fans to lose their shirts like everyone else.
Of course, there?s no such thing as a free lunch, no matter how many trips you take down the free casino buffet line. That?s because UltimatePoker?s ?free? software comes with a hitch. You have to gamble enough first that the company has earned the amount of?reimbursement?from you.
Ultimate Poker?s rake is about 4 percent of wagering, and includes a host of caveats. At the 4 percent level, however, a gamer would have to wage at least $5,000 to get reimbursed the maximum $200 the online gaming company promises to return with a valid VMFusion and Windows sales receipt. The site only mentions VMFusion, and not Parallels, the main and more expensive competitor in the Windows virtualization space.
?We want to do everything we can to get them to play,? said Derossi, who described himself as ?a geek through and through.?
So far, he said, not a single Mac user has taken him up for reimbursement.
Legalized online gaming was authorized in February, when Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed legislation he said would ?usher in the next frontier of gaming in Nevada.?
New Jersey and Delaware have also passed online gaming legislation. Those states have yet to deal their first hands, however.
The states had been bearish on online gambling until two days before Christmas in 2011, when the Justice Department?s Office of Legal Counsel said the 1961 Wire Act did not prevent them from selling lottery tickets to adults over the internet. (.pdf) That decision has been interpreted to allow online gaming, except for internet sports wagering.
?Now that the department charged with enforcing the law has limited that statute to cross-border sports bets, there is literally no federal law standing in the way of a state authorizing intra-state online games, and even entering into compacts with other states and nations to pool players,? according to I. Nelson Rose, a Whittier Law School professor and one the country?s most noted gambling scholars.
Initial gaming is just Texas hold ?em, but more games are on the way, Derossi said.
The law, at least for now, requires online gamblers to be inside the four corners of the Silver State when playing. That could change, however, if Congress steps in or if Nevada signs gaming compacts with other states.
Until then, Derossi said the site initially checks an IP address of a gambler to see if it?s in Nevada, and also verifies that it is not a known proxy or VPN.
Players must be at least a verifiable 21 years of age and have a mobile phone. Gamblers, he said, agree to enroll in a location-tracking service, so Ultimate Poker can verify one?s whereabouts via their phones when they log in.
?We can locate your phone based on the cell tower that phone is talking to,? he said. ?There?s a few other things that we are not disclosing. We don?t want to create a roadmap.?
That location-tracking feature is critical, Rose said, because gaming regulators are watching UltimatePoker like a hawk.
?Making sure,? Rose said in a telephone interview, ?that it?s really, really difficult to play if your are in another state, if not done, is probably the most certain thing that would get them into trouble.?
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Homepage Photo: Maorix / Flickr
Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/politics/~3/bOICUt8kgaw/
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Longtime 'Young and the Restless' star dies
Celebs 
7 hours ago
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Jeanne Cooper in 2011.
Jeanne Cooper, longtime star of the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" and mother of actor Corbin Bernsen, died Wednesday at age 84, Bernsen announced on Facebook and Twitter.
"My mother passed away this morning just a short time ago, peaceful with my sister by her side, in her sleep," Bernsen wrote. "She has been a blaze her entire life, that beacon, that boxer I spoke of earlier. She went the full twelve rounds and by unanimous decision ... won! And while her light finally gave into the wind that gives flight to all our journeys, there will always be a glimmer left behind by what she stood for."
Cooper won an Emmy for playing wealthy Katherine Chancellor for 40 years on the CBS soap opera. In 1984, her character was shown having a facelift at the same time that Cooper underwent the operation herself.
Her feud with the younger Jill Foster Abbott, who stole Katherine's wealthy husband, Phillip, was a mainstay of "Y&R" plotlines.
Co-workers were quick to praise Cooper and share memories of their time together. Bradley Bell, former executive producer and son of William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, "Y&R" creators, called her "a genuine person, gifted performer, good friend to all."
His sister, Lauralee Bell, who played Christine on the show, was just a teenager when she joined the cast. "(Cooper) was the person who influenced me the most at Y&R," she said. "She was a role model to me in what it takes to be a great woman."
Kate Linder played Esther Valentine, Kay Chancellor's longtime maid on the show. "My heart is breaking for Jeanne Cooper's wonderful family and for all of us who truly loved Jeanne through the years," she said. "This is truly the end of an era, not just for fans of 'The Young and the Restless,' but for all the people she touched throughout her long and distinguished career and life. ... I can't imagine a world without Jeanne Cooper."
Cooper was also praised for breaking down barriers for women. "She faced the challenges that American women faced as they went through the decades," said Maria Bell, former executive producer for Y&R. "She took us through what it's like to get older. She faced those challenges onscreen and off. She was an absolute icon."
Additional reporting by Michael Maloney.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/jeanne-cooper-longtime-young-restless-star-dies-84-1C9847298
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Facts and Statistics About Npower - Energy - News and Society
Facts and Statistics About Npower
0 views This article is copyright free and is published in Energy ? News and Society Joined: Apr 17, 2013111 articles
Npower used to be called the Central Electricity Generating Board, but after the company was privatized in 1990, it became known as National Power, and now Npower. Npower is owned by a German group called the RWE Group. Here are some statistics and facts about Npower.How many people use Npower in the UK?
Npower currently have over 6.5 million customers. They sell to domestic customers and business customers in the United Kingdom. The only other energy companies that have more customers are British Gas and SSE.
What are Npower?s selling points?
They are a large company and are one of the few that are less likely to go bankrupt during the global economic crisis. They offer free energy efficiency advice on their website.
Npower customer satisfaction
Of the six major energy suppliers in the United Kingdom, Npower scored the worst on a customer satisfaction survey conducted by the YouGov group. Npower achieved an overall score of 51.8%. The energy company that scored the highest was E.ON, who achieved an overall score of 73.5%.
How do Npower generate energy?
Gas is used by Npower as their main source of fuel, with 60% of their energy being generated using gas fuel. Around 28% of their power is produced using coal, 9% is produced using green renewable resource, and around 1% to 3% is produced using nuclear fuel.
How much CO2 do Npower produce?
Npower are the third largest producers of CO2 in the UK. Npower produce just over 500 kilograms of CO2 per kWh. They produce ever so slightly more than SSE (who were formally Scottish and Southern Energy). Npower produce just over 200 kilograms of CO2 per kWh than EDF, who are one of their main competitors. In addition, even EDF is beaten in CO2 production by Ecotricity and Good Energy, who produce less than 200 kilograms of CO2 per kWh.
How much nuclear waste is produced by Npower?
Npower generate less than 0.0005 grams of nuclear waste per year. The national average is 0.00175 grams per kWh of power produced.
Npower general knowledge
Over 10% of the electricity used in the UK has been produced by power stations operated by Npower. They also offer a free phone number that has trained advisors available to give free advice and tips on saving energy.
Npower have made a few changes to try to improve their customer service. Their support telephone numbers are either free or operate at a reduced charge. They offer a number of tariffs so that people are able to pick the one that suits them the best. They also have an online service that allows customers to submit their own meter readings and pay their bills online. They will also send you reminders for when you need to read your meter, so that you may keep your bills more accurate.
In a further effort to improve their customer relations they have all of their call centres based in the UK, which means that customers will be more likely to reach a person who is a native English speaker.
Reference list
uswitch.com/gas-electricity/suppliers/Npower
npower.com/home/index.htm
electricity-guide.org.uk/providers/npower.html
ukpower.co.uk/gas_electricity_suppliers/npower
About author: Sam Jones
Sam Jones is the author of this article, and recommends anyone wishing to get more information about npower should visit the uSwitch price comparison website where there is a range of advice on energy related topics.
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