Sunday, June 30, 2013

Finally A Chance To Bend The Weather To Your Will

It always rains the day you're moving or gets really icy when you have a lot of driving ahead of you. Murphy's Law definitely applies. If you could control the weather things would be much easier, and Design I/O wants you to feel like you can. Their installation allows participants to make it rain, produce wind, drive snow and bust out of ice blocks, all with a wave of your arm.

The exhibit uses multiple HD CCTV cameras and a Blackmagic UltraStudio Mini to track users' heads, hands and feet and react to their gestures. These data work with special green screening effects created through openFrameworks to enable lightening bolt wielding and tornado conjuring. If you've ever wondered how good a Poseidon you would be, this is the way to check. [Creative Applications]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/finally-a-chance-to-bend-the-weather-to-your-will-627975724

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Chinese trio held by Indian troops near Line of Actual Control

After dealing with the PLA incursion last month, army personnel have now apprehended three persons of Chinese origin along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) carrying political maps in Arabic language in the same area.

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?The three men, identified as Adil, Salamo and Abdul Khaliq, were nabbed inside the Indian territory on June 12 near Sultanchku and it took nearly 10 days for the authorities to make them give their name, official sources said.

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?All the three men are Sunni Muslims aged between 18 and 23 with fair complexion but their language was not comprehensible, they said. The three men -- one of whom is one-eyed -- were at present in the custody at Murgo post and efforts were on to comprehend their language which did not have any similarity with either Chinese or Balti spoken in Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir's Baltistan.

It was also not clear where from they had come as the nearest habitation across the LAC was in North of Karakoram range. Authorities are working on the possibility that they could have entered through either Raki Nallah, Jeevan Nallah or North of Daulat Beig Oldie, where Indian and Chinese troops had a face-off for nearly 21 days from April 15 to May five.

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The three men, who are well built, cannot be interrogated until they are brought to Leh town where translators could be used to understand their language, the sources said.

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There was a possibility that the language could be Yarkandi spoken in Xinjiang province, close to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and touches DBO tip in north of Ladakh. The area has a huge Uyghur population.

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Both summer and winter road connectivity to this post were cut off due to bad weather in Ladakh region this year.Now the authorities have sought permission to airlift the trio to Ladakh for a detailed questioning.
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Source: http://english.samaylive.com/nation-news/676532311/chinese-trio-held-by-indian-troops-near-line-of-actual-control.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Mark Kirk Survived A Stroke. Now He's Picking Fights in Congress

After suffering a massive ischemic stroke in January 2012, Illinois senator Mark Kirk was unsure if he would ever return to full form. For days Kirk lingered in the intensive care unit, floating in and out of consciousness. At one point, Kirk recalls, he saw angels with New York accents talking to him, urging him to come with them like in all those near death, white light stories you hear.

But against the long odds, the freshman Republican senator has not only managed to recover enough to perform his busy day job, he's placed himself in the middle of the most heated Washington fights. Kirk slammed Eric Holder at a recent Appropriations Committee hearing, probing to see if the spy agency was listening in on Congress and livid about Holder's seemingly evasive answer. Kirk's threat not to support immigration reform unless border security was strengthened surprised many of his colleagues and endangered Republican support for the bill. He got in a fight with Rep. Bobby Rush, the Chicago congressman, who chided Kirk for his plan to "crush" Chicago's gangs saying it was an "upper-middle-class, elitist white boy's solution."

And he says he's already planning to run for a second term in 2016, despite the rigor it will take to defend a seat in one of the most Democratic states in the country.

Kirk's recovery has been remarkable by the standards of a stroke patient even as it's still left him without his pre-injury vigor or ability to hustle the way politicians must to keep their office in competitive seats which his surely is. He walks slowly. His voice is weakened. He's not all he was. But his comeback has been inspiring.

"If people knew how catastrophic this stroke was, they'd be blown away by his recovery," says Illinois Rep. John Shimkus who was the first member of the state's House delegation to visit Kirk in the hospital in 2012. Asked if he ever had any doubts that Kirk would want back in politics, he recalled the senator, even though he was in rehab, staying up late to watch the HBO film Game Change. "That was the signal to me that he was coming back."

Kirk's stroke largely spared his cognitive function but has left him disabled, dependent on the kind of four legged cane you usually see on the elderly, and a wheelchair for longer hikes. "The Senate is appropriately designed for older men," he jokes. He was just 52 when the stroke hit.

When he walked up the Capitol stairs in January to the bipartisan applause of his colleagues including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, his home state senator with whom he has a close relationship, it was an emotional moment that left many feeling that the stroke had in some ways made him a more important force--less an object of sympathy than an inspiring example of perseverance.

To understand Kirk, you have to know that he's a creature of the Chicago suburbs and a creature of Congress. He loves both. Raised outside Chicago, the son of a telephone company executive, he graduated from Cornell and worked for Rep. John Porter while he was at law school at Georgetown becoming the congressman's top aide. Porter represented Chicago's North Shore, the lakefront district that includes the leafy suburbs glorified in John Hughes movies and Kirk's hometown of Kenilworth. When Porter retired, Kirk won his seat and carried on Porter's moderate GOP politics as Illinois became more and more blue. When the U.S. Senate seat opened up in 2010, Kirk went for it and beat an Obama ally, the state treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias, a hoops buddy of the president, in the wave of discontent.

Kirk was no tea partier but he wasn't a bland moderate, either. He'd been a critic of the stimulus which other Republican moderates had backed and he loathed Obamacare. "I'm a fiscal conservative, a social moderate and a national security hawk," Kirk told me, using a mantra he repeats frequently.

Just a year into his term, in January 2012, Kirk, a slim, former intelligence officer in the Naval Reserves began to feel dizzy while back home. Aides rushed him to Lake Forest Hospital and then transferred him to the Northwestern University Medical Center when it became apparent that he'd had a massive ischemic stroke. The attack put his left carotid artery out of business and his life in danger. He had to undergo three operations, two of which were craniectomies to remove portions of his skull to allow the brain to expand. "There was a remarkable amount of swelling," notes Richard Fessler, a professor of neurosurgery who operated on Kirk. "The surgeries were life saving but he's doing great."

Kirk had the kind of emotional reckoning that comes with a near-death episode. He decided to spend more time with his sister, for instance. But he never doubted he wanted to return to the Senate. He told his speech therapists that he wanted his public speaking voice back. And he told those who worked on his physical therapy at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) that he wanted to be able to climb the Capitol steps when he returned. Mike Klonowski worked with Kirk--putting him in a harness so he could move on a treadmill, putting him through the paces of a research study that pushed Kirk to do more intense physical training than the typical patient.

"There was initial shock when I found out I was going to be working with him," Klonowski remembers about the prospect of putting a U.S. Senator through the paces." But he responded to very specific goals and wanted to make sure that we were focused on his return back to the Senate."

Now he's back and working on his recovery and working to help other patients are on his mind. This coming week he'll be in Chicago where he'll join Durbin and Emanuel to celebrate the $550 million expansion of the RIC. "My concern is what happens if you have a stroke and you're not in the U.S. Senate and you have no insurance and no income," Kirk told me. "That's the question I have been asking and the reality is that if you're on Illinois Medicaid are a stroke survivor, you will get just five visits to the rehab specialist." When I ask Kirk where the money might come from for more extensive benefits, he notes that he's working with Sen. Tim Johnson on a "stroke agenda." (Johnson himself suffered a stroke.)

Since his return, Kirk has cut an interesting path, weaving left and right in ways that aren't predictable. When Iran elected its new president who many hailed as a moderate, Kirk denounced him as more of the same. He stuck with moderates on gun control, earning him an attaboy tweet from Obama's consiglieri David Axelrod. But he also took a hawkish line on immigration that surprised many before he relented and supported the bill. By contrast, Kirk was full of kind words for Rahm Emanuel when I saw him. "He's doing a very, very good job," says Kirk who served with Hizzoner when they were in the House. The two graduated in 1977 from New Trier High School in Winnetka but didn't know each other. (Donald Rumsfeld went there, too, 27 years earlier.)

With his military intelligence background, Kirk has emerged as a compelling voice on the NSA maess, leaning closer to the privacy advocates than the voices in both parties who say everything's fine with the way we collect intelligence. "It's bad intelligence work to be focusing on 121 million Americans who aren't doing anything particularly terrorist related," he says. Kirk notes that in the post-9/11 world with its efforts to limit stovepiping of intelligence, low level operatives in the field like Bradley Manning in Iraq or Edward Snowden in Honolulu have dangerous access. "We have a classified Internet on the backside of the intelligence community and if you're on that system then a Bradley Manning can download the presidential book of secrets like in the movie [National Treasure].

Kirk says he's interested in running again in 2016 and Republicans expect he will. In a state as Democratic as Illinois, he likely to have a serious race. He rejects the idea that Republican moderates are an endangered species but he sounds the refrain that his party has been myopic. "What often happens is that people or politicians get out of date and that's my worry about the Republican Party. It apparently doesn't understand how multicolored and how multicultural our country has become." Kirk was the second GOP senator, after Rob Portman and before Lisa Murkowski, to support same-sex marriage which puts him ahead of Illinois which has yet to grant it. Divorced, with a girlfriend and no kids, and unmarried until 41, Kirk gets modern families in a way that many Republicans don't. Whether that'll make him an outlier or a lodestar in the GOP remains to be seen.

For now, Kirk has bigger tasks. He regularly hauls himself up to Walter Reed Medical Center where he gets physical therapy in the Traumatic Brain Injury clinic, along with young vets, often missing limbs in addition to their head injuries.

"You're having a tough day and you look over at a soldier who might be missing a leg or two arms and he is doing great," Kirk said. "And you think to yourself, 'There is nothing challenging me like what is challenging him.' "

Recalling that, Kirk tells an aide that he wants the Walter Reed therapists to push him harder--just like the ones back in Chicago.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mark-kirk-survived-stroke-now-hes-picking-fights-060021154.html

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NSA PRISM Program: Facebook Gets Busted Again, This Time For Scooping Up Phone Numbers

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NSA PRISM Program: Facebook Gets Busted Again, This Time For Scooping Up Phone Numbers

Facebook was hit with yet another privacy complaint last week when an anti-virus company determined Facebook?s Android app was indiscriminately collecting user cell phone numbers and sending them back to company servers.

Symantec, the company that made the discovery, posted a statement to their blog explaining how the Facebook application for Android ?leaked? the number of the device that was running it. ?The first time you launch the Facebook application, even before log in, your phone number will be sent over the Internet to Facebook servers. You do not need to provide your phone number, log in, initiate a specific action, or even need a Facebook account for this to happen.? Symantec?s mobile anti-virus software, Mobile Insight, noticed suspicious activity coming from the app during a test.

?This was a bug in the Facebook for Android app,? Facebook said in response, ?and we thank Symantec for bringing it to our attention. We?ve fixed it in the next version of the app, which is available for anyone to download as a beta today.? The company maintains that the collection of phone numbers was a glitch, and that they were promptly deleted from internal servers.

Though data from Google Play indicates that the hugely popular application has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times by Android users, Symantec says that because Facebook deleted the data, it?s impossible to determine exactly how many users were affected.

?Based on my understanding,? said Symantec security response manager Satnam Narang, ?the bug would have been found on any version of the [Facebook] Android application that?s out there, for any device it runs on.??

Facebook is understandably jumpy regarding user privacy following the public outrage this month over the company?s involvement in the National Security Administration?s PRISM surveillance program, made public by former security contractor Edward Snowden. Mark Zuckerberg released a statement shortly after the program went public reaffirming the company?s commitment to user privacy, saying that they ?will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure.?

Following negotiations with government officials, Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants received permission to release previously classified data regarding the number of requests they receive from the federal government under the auspices of the FISA Act, as well as National Security Letters.

Source: http://www.policymic.com/articles/52049/nsa-prism-program-facebook-gets-busted-again-this-time-for-scooping-up-phone-numbers

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Russia's Aeroflot considers leaving SkyTeam alliance: source

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state-controlled airline Aeroflot sees no benefits from its membership in the SkyTeam alliance, but a decision to leave the group is not for management to take, a source close to its board told Reuters.

Aeroflot is considering leaving the SkyTeam alliance because of unfavorable agreements with other members, in particular U.S. Delta Air Lines Inc , the Kommersant daily reported on Friday.

"There is no point in cooperating with them," a source close to the board told Reuters. He doubted, however, that Aeroflot would drop out of the alliance unless there is a political decision to do so.

The agreement to join SkyTeam in 2004 was signed in the Kremlin, a political stamp of approval largely due to close ties with France. Air France-KLM is a leading member of the group.

The newspaper cited sources close to Aeroflot's board of directors as saying the company was not happy with the development of its routes in the United States, where Delta Air Lines charges relatively high fares.

Dropping out of the alliance could cost Aeroflot $20 million and the airline may consider joining Star Alliance, the biggest airline marketing group, with 27 members.

As a member of SkyTeam, which brings together 19 global airlines, Aeroflot cannot undercut prices offered by other members and could become more competitive by joining the Star Alliance, Kommersant said.

Aeroflot declined to comment on the report.

(Reporting by Maya Dyakina and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Douglas Busvine)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-aeroflot-considers-leaving-skyteam-alliance-paper-053936639.html

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Some gay couples now due to receive benefits under 'Obamacare'

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court's ruling on Wednesday that same-sex couples are eligible for federal benefits will mean more gays and lesbians can reap the benefits of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul that take effect January 1, advocates say.

In a landmark decision, the court effectively legalized same-sex marriage in California and struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied same-sex couples federal benefits such as healthcare.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act already bans discrimination in health coverage based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The law, known as "Obamacare," was passed in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court nearly a year ago.

With the Supreme Court decision, same-sex couples who live in states that recognize them can apply for the law's tax subsidies, meant to offset healthcare costs, as a couple rather than as two individuals, said Tim Jost, a health law expert and law professor at Washington and Lee University. This will help the law reach more people, he added.

Some couples will be newly eligible for spousal protections under Medicaid, a federally funded program that provides care to low-income parents, children, seniors and people with disabilities. It covers more than 62 million Americans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

If couples decide to file taxes jointly, though, they may no longer qualify for Medicaid or tax credits because their combined income will put them above the level for eligibility.

In the District of Columbia or one of 12 states that have legalized gay marriage - where about 40 percent of same-sex couples live - applying for health coverage through federal employers and the exchanges will be as simple for them as it is for heterosexual couples, said Kellan Baker, associate director for LGBT progress at the liberal Center for American Progress.

But outside of those borders, it is more complicated.

"We know from the IRS there's a lack of clarity about how exactly marriages are recognized across state lines," Baker said. "There's the legal question of, does the IRS consider you married if you're living outside of the state that recognized your marriage?"

Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which the court did not take up, does not require states to recognize gay marriages that took place in other states.

Despite the uncertainty, many advocacy groups lauded the court's decision because it will improve access to healthcare for many gay couples.

Obamacare establishes state and federal exchanges so people can explore all of their health coverage options in one place.

States that run their own exchange programs decide who qualifies as family members, but the court ruling means that now the 26 federally run exchanges "have no bar to recognizing and including same-sex spouses as protected family members," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The Supreme Court ruling will also enable older same-sex couples to receive marital benefits under Social Security and Medicare, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders said in a statement.

"Many of these federal benefits, from Social Security to Medicare, are founded on the presumption of marriage," the group said, "yet (the Defense of Marriage Act) denied access to these benefits even to legally married same-sex couples."

(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-couples-now-due-receive-benefits-under-obamacare-162659730.html

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DigitalOcean Wants To Challenge Amazon, Linode And Co. With Better Prices, Marketing And Focus On Simplicity

Digital-ocean-logo-4x3DigitalOcean is quickly becoming a household name in the web-hosting world. For $5 a month, the company lets you rent a basic virtual private server (or "droplets," as the company calls them) with 512MB of RAM and a 20GB of SSD-powered hard disk space in one of its three locations (two in the U.S. and one in Amsterdam). The company, as its co-founder and CEO Ben Uretsky told me, believes that its focus on simplicity, speed and keeping prices low will allow it to effectively challenge the incumbents in this space.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8MRzGoMhnTU/

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Facebook introduces Android app beta testing via Google Groups

Facebook

Proper beta testing with a feedback network to help squash bugs and improve performance

Facebook has had a rocky past of questionable app quality and a couple instances of side-stepping Play Store guidelines for updates, but the social network is hoping to correct some of those issues today by introducing a proper beta testing program for its app. In an effort to try and solve some of the issues associated with having an app that needs to be able to run on probably the widest range of hardware of any other app -- from the cheapest unlocked device in the developing world up to the Galaxy S4 -- Facebook will now enlist the help of beta testers to flush out bugs.

Somewhat surprisingly, Facebook will use Google's newly created beta testing feature tied to Google Groups, which it introduced at Google I/O this year. The process will be pretty simple -- just join the Google Group that Facebook has set up for its app beta testing, opt-in to the test and go download the latest version of the app from the Play Store. Further discussion about new versions and associated bugs will continue in a specialized Facebook group, where beta testers will have the ability to discuss issues directly with the developers.

read more

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ec1zElSDkec/story01.htm

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

'Star Wars' creator George Lucas weds

Celebs

11 hours ago

Image: George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

Richard Shotwell / AP

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

The force was undoubtedly with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas as he wed longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson Saturday afternoon, as a director's spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

The pair tied the knot at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif. surrounded by and attended to by a bevy of stars: Former Senator Bill Bradley gave away the bride, PBS' Bill Moyers officiated, Van Morrison and Janelle Monae performed at the reception, Steven Spielberg offered a toast and Francis Ford Coppola read a poem by Maya Angelou.

But there was room for Lucas' family as well: His son Jett was best man and his daughter Amanda and Katie were bridesmaids.

Samuel L. Jackson (who played Jedi Mace Windu in the "Star Wars" prequels" tweeted good wishes to the couple:

And Ron Howard, who attended the ceremony, later tweeted his report:

The pair were engaged in January after first meeting in 2006; Hobson, who serves on the board of directors for Hollywood studio Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc., cosmetics company Estee Lauder Companies Inc., coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp. and Internet coupon company Groupon Inc., is 44. Lucas is 69.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/star-wars-creator-george-lucas-weds-mellody-hobson-6C10435403

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No, We Are Not All Like Paula Deen

Cooking show host Paula Deen visits Fox & Friends Christmas Special at FOX Studios on December 6, 2012 in New York City.

Paula Deen in 2012

Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

I have no idea if Paula Deen is typical of white Southern women of her generation, and I doubt others do, either. (If they do, I?d love to see the data.) But I do know that a lot of people are thinking this?whispering that Deen?s casual racism is just how those people talk?particularly as another white Southern woman of a certain age, author Anne Rice, has taken to Facebook to defend Deen. How can people believe such a simplistic generalization about Southerners? Perhaps because those people (people like me) have been too quiet?too ?polite? is maybe a more accurate word?over the years. Well, to hell with that.?

First, allow me to establish my Southern bona fides. I was born and raised in Georgia, just like Deen, and like her, I am white. My roots in the South go way back, just like hers?at least five or six generations for me, and I imagine something similar for Deen, since Southerners as a group tend to stay put unless we are driven to hit the road by extreme conditions. Deen is eight years older than I am, but we?re close enough in age for me to say we are roughly of the same generation. ??

But I?ll be damned if I can figure out how anybody can listen to Deen?s comments without cringing. I say this not because of my delicate, politically correct sensibilities or because I am tortured by liberal guilt. I say it because I grew up in the South during the civil rights era and because I was paying attention. ?

Don?t get me wrong; I know exactly where Deen is coming from. The vast majority of white Southerners of her?our?generation were taught a version of regional history that was some variation of the old ?lost cause? narrative, the most important elements of which were that a) the South had fought the Civil War to defend the constitutional principle of states? rights (the aforementioned ?lost cause?) and b) that except for a few bad apples, antebellum slavery had been a fairly benign institution in which many white slave owners considered their ?darkies? as extended family. Generations of Southerners have been fed this folderol, but my generation had the unique opportunity to compare it with events playing out before our eyes?and believe me, there was no possible way to reconcile one with the other. If all those black people had been like family, then why was that particular branch of the family so poor, and why weren?t they ever invited over for Thanksgiving? If slavery had been such a benign institution, why were so many black people claiming to be suffering from its long-term effects a century later? If the N-word wasn?t really a racial slur, why were we told that ?nice people? never used it except maybe when there were no black people within earshot?

We reacted to these contradictions in one of three ways. You could simply ignore this massive cognitive dissonance and go on with your life. You could get obsessed with the whole problem and become a Southern novelist or a Civil War re-enactor or go into academia?or maybe, like me, torture yourself by writing a book trying to explain the whole conundrum. Or you could spend your life trying to figure out ways that the history you?d been taught might be mostly true, sort of?all the while adjusting your habits and expressions to be in sync with the emerging social consensus. Hey, my church has some very nice black members! One of my best friends at work is black! I don?t judge people by the color of their skin; we are all God?s children.

In some ways the third option was the easiest, since you didn?t have to question too much of what you?d been told and you could congratulate yourself on being able to change with the times. And this, it seems, is the path Deen took.

I base this conclusion not on the fact that she has admitted to using the N-word in private. (I thought she was refreshingly honest about that, and yes, as a kid, I used it, too.) I base it on other things she said, both in the legal deposition that sparked this whole controversy and in a videotaped interview she did with the New York Times in front of an audience in the fall of 2012. The South, she says in the interview, ?is almost less prejudiced, because black folks played such an integral part in our lives. They were like our family.? Well, yes?a lot of them were literally family, as more than one amateur Internet genealogist has discovered in recent years. But ?like family?? Not unless those 19th-century slave owners also harbored paternal feelings for their livestock.?

The kicker in the video comes when Deen produces visual proof of her lack of racial prejudice: a real live African-American assistant named Hollis Johnson, who she assures the audience she loves ?like a son? and ?would trust with my life.? The aforementioned Johnson?who I sure hope is getting paid big bucks?is asked to stand up so the audience can see him, since the stage background is also black. ?We can?t see you against that black board!? Deen chortles. Oh, Lawdy.

Another white Southern woman of my generation, a co-worker of mine at the Washington Post years ago, was talking to me once about the strain of visiting her extended family in South Carolina over the Christmas holidays. ?What do you do,? she asked me, ?when the stone-cold racist at the dinner table is a person you love and are related to?? Nothing, I told her, and in many ways I still believe that; as St. Paul advised the Philippians, we must each ?work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling,? and I?m still working on my own.??

Yet as a group, white Southerners of my generation have been way too easy on the ones of our cohort who don?t seem to get that you cannot magically erase the wrongs of history by cheerfully asserting, as Deen did, that ?color ain?t got nothin? to do with it.? Race has everything to do with what it means, and has meant, to be an American. Race is the central conundrum of the American democratic experiment, and the American South has wrestled with that problem more than any other region. That is both its tragedy and its amazing strength, and it?s why so many white Southerners of my generation cling to our regional identity. But it?s time we stopped being so dern polite. Paula Deen and those like her deserve more than a shrug. ??

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/06/paula_deen_is_a_racist_as_a_southerner_i_know_exactly_where_she_s_coming.html

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Is Twitter photo of Kate Gosselin racist?

Celebs

1 hour ago

It doesn't look good. But what, exactly, does this photo -- posted on Twitter, featuring Kate Gosselin but not apparently posted to the former reality TV star's account -- actually say?

Here's what we know: Someone calling him or herself "KatieDeen" created a fresh account on Twitter on Sunday evening, and posted just one item -- this picture, with the accompanying caption information.

The comment -- that Gosselin "makes fun of Asians with 8 half Korean children" is making an assumption about what's going on in the picture, which shows Gosselin wearing a dark-haired plastic wig (with a bun on the top that could be said to resemble a geisha hairdo) and pulling the far corners of her eyes back.

The pose could be interpreted as a Caucasian trying to make "Asian eyes," a particularly offensive, racially-imitative motion that has popped up occasionally in odd places, including in 2008 when the Spanish Olympic Team were photographed en masse for an advertisement making the gesture.

Us Weekly speculated that the photo may have been taken prior to her separation from Jon Gosselin in 2009, owing to the band on her wedding finger.

Worth noting: The comment appended to the Twitter post itself is somewhat ill-informed. Gosselin's children, with her ex-husband Jon Gosselin, are not "half Korean": Jon Gosselin was born in Wisconsin, and his parents are a mix of European and Korean descent. Not that this should matter -- but it's clear a lot of jumping-to-conclusions are being done with one photo.

A representative for Kate Gosselin did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/twitter-photo-kate-gosselin-racist-6C10435408

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AP sources: Obama to limit carbon at power plants

The Capitol Dome is seen behind the Capitol Power Plant in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. The plant provides power to buildings in the Capitol Complex. President Barack Obama is running out of time to make good on his lofty vow to confront climate change head-on, and Congress is in no mood to help. The executive actions and regulations Obama announces Tuesday will take years to implement. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Capitol Dome is seen behind the Capitol Power Plant in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. The plant provides power to buildings in the Capitol Complex. President Barack Obama is running out of time to make good on his lofty vow to confront climate change head-on, and Congress is in no mood to help. The executive actions and regulations Obama announces Tuesday will take years to implement. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Capitol Dome is seen behind the Capitol Power Plant in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. The plant provides power to buildings in the Capitol Complex. President Barack Obama is running out of time to make good on his lofty vow to confront climate change head-on, and Congress is in no mood to help. The executive actions and regulations Obama announces Tuesday will take years to implement. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama's national plan to combat climate change will include the first-ever regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, as well as increased production of renewable energy on public lands and federally assisted housing, environmental groups briefed on the plan said Monday.

In a major speech Tuesday at Georgetown University, Obama will announce that he's directing his administration to allow enough renewables on public lands to power 6 million homes by 2020, effectively doubling the capacity from solar, wind and geothermal projects on federal property. He'll also say the U.S. will significantly expand production of renewable energy on low-income housing sites, according to five individuals briefed on the plan, who were not authorized to discuss it publicly ahead of Obama's announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The far-reaching plan marks Obama's most prominent effort yet to deliver on a major priority he laid out in his first presidential campaign and recommitted to at the start of his second term: to fight climate change in the U.S. and abroad and prepare American communities for its effects. Environmental activists have been irked that Obama's high-minded goals never materialized into a comprehensive plan.

In taking action on his own ? none of the steps Obama will announce Tuesday require congressional approval ? Obama is also signaling he will no longer wait for lawmakers to act on climate change, and instead will seek ways to work around them.

The lynchpin of Obama's plan, and the step activists say will have the most dramatic impact, involves limits on carbon emissions for new and existing power plants. The Obama administration has already proposed controls on new plants, but those controls have been delayed and not yet finalized. Tuesday's announcement will be the first public confirmation that Obama plans to extend carbon controls to coal-fired power plants that are currently pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

"This is the holy grail," said Melinda Pierce of Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group. "That is the single biggest step he can take to help tackle carbon pollution."

Forty percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and one-third of greenhouse gases overall, come from electric power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's statistical agency.

Obama is expected to lay out a broad vision Tuesday, without detailed emission targets or specifics about how they will be put in place. Instead, the president will launch a process in which the Environmental Protection Agency will work with states to develop specific plans to rein in carbon emissions, with flexibility for each state's circumstances. Under one scenario envisioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, states could draw on measures such as clean energy sources, carbon-trapping technology and energy efficiency to reduce the total emissions released into the air.

Obama also will announce more aggressive steps to increase efficiency for appliances such as refrigerators and lamps, according to people briefed on the plan. Another component of Obama's proposal will involve ramping up hydropower production from existing dams.

Heather Zichal, Obama's senior energy and climate adviser, told environmental groups Monday that Obama is working with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan on a target for renewable energy to be produced at federally assisted housing projects.

She framed the Obama's efforts in the U.S. as part of a broader, global movement to combat climate change, trumpeting the role the U.S. can play in leading other nations to stem the warming of the planet.

Paul Bledsoe, who worked on climate issues in the Clinton White House, said Zichal renewed a pledge Obama made in in his first year in office, during global climate talks in Copenhagen, to cut U.S. carbon emissions by about 17 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.

"This is a policy fulfillment of what the president has been talking about and trying to accomplish for five years or more," said Bledsoe, now a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

One key issue Obama is not expected to address Tuesday is Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. A concerted campaign by environmental activists to persuade Obama to nix the pipeline as a "carbon bomb" appears to have gained little traction. The oil industry has been urging the president to approve the pipeline, citing jobs and economic benefits.

Obama raised climate change as a key second-term issue in his inaugural address in January, but has offered few details since. In his February State of the Union, he issued an ultimatum to lawmakers: "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will."

The poor prospects for getting any major climate legislation through a Republican-controlled House were on display last week when Speaker John Boehner responded to the prospect that Obama would put forth controls on existing power plants by deeming the idea "absolutely crazy."

"Why would you want to increase the cost of energy and kill more American jobs?" said Boehner, R-Ohio, echoing the warnings of some industry groups.

Sidestepping Congress by using executive action doesn't guarantee Obama smooth sailing. Lawmakers could introduce legislation to thwart Obama's efforts. And the rules for existing power plants will almost certainly face legal challenges in court. The Supreme Court has upheld the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, but how the EPA goes about that effort remains largely uncharted waters.

Even if legal and political obstacles are overcome, it will take years for the new measures to be put in place, likely running up against the end of Obama's presidency or even beyond it. White House aides say that's one reason Obama is ensuring the process starts now, while there are still more than three years left in his final term.

Under the process outlined in the Clean Air Act, the EPA cannot act unilaterally, but must work with states to develop the standards, said Jonas Monast, an attorney who directs the climate and energy program at Duke University. An initial proposal will be followed by a months-long public comment period before the EPA can issue final guidance to states. Then the states must create actual plans for plants within their borders, a process likely to take the better part of a year.

Then the EPA has another four months to decide whether to approve each state's plan before the implementation period can start.

Associated Press Writer Matthew Daly contributed to this story.

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-24-US-Obama-Climate-Change/id-c219d529562746f680f9661e0a71e1b5

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Solar-powered collars track hunting cheetahs

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2dc52164/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C5230A6468/story01.htm

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Kate Middleton Skips Friend's Wedding, Fears Early Labor

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/kate-middleton-skips-friends-wedding-fears-early-labor/

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Religious advice should not involve political interest ... - Minivan News

Religious advice should not involve political interest, says Nasheed thumbnail

The Maldivian public are often misinformed of authentic Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) because some local scholars offer religious advice with the intention of serving their political interests, former President Mohamed Nasheed said last night (June 23).

Speaking at a ceremony at the Male? City Hall to launch a second volume of Dhivehi translation and interpretations of Sahih Muslim?s Hadiths by former State Minister for Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Hussain Rasheed Ahmed, Nasheed said genuine religious advice should not involve personal interest or a political ?agenda.?

While a politician might present statistics in a way that would favour his party, ?religious advice should not be given in a way that would benefit a political ideology.?

One of the biggest problems facing the country today was the ?mixing up? of politicians and religious scholars, Nasheed added.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) presidential candidate said Sheikh Hussain Rasheed?s book should be made widely available for the public so that Maldivians could distinguish between inauthentic and authentic Hadiths.

The Hadiths were compiled by Imam Bukhari and Muslim during the Abbasid caliphate, Nasheed observed, which was a ?golden age? for Islam and the pursuit of knowledge.

?It is said that there were 700 libraries in Baghdad during that period,? he said.

Sheikh Rasheed?s second volume of Hadith translations are available for MVR 250 (US$16).

The former Adhaalath Party President?explained at last night?s ceremony that the complete translations of the 5,263 sayings would be published in a planned 12 volumes.

Parts two and three of Sheikh Rasheed?s books on prayer instructions were also released last night by former Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari and Speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid.?


Source: http://minivannews.com/society/religious-advice-should-not-involve-political-interest-says-nasheed-60131

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What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

The answer to the question of how much can you eat of different foods before you hit 200 calories varies, depending what you're consuming. Two hundred calories is a whole lot of apples, but less than half of a Big Mac. It's a plate full of broccoli, but more like a spoonful of peanut butter. But it's a lot easier to understand what that really means when you actually see the food in front of you in this video from ASAP Science.

We've seen some of this portion-sized info before, thanks to a WiseGeek project. But ASAP Science adds a little more context, like what is a calorie anyway? Or what is it that makes some foods more calorie-rich than others? And is it sometimes better to eat food that's higher in calories but have more nutritional value? The answer to that last one is yes, by the way. And while you might know some of this information, it's always a good reminder to think about the things you're putting in your body?and what portions you should be shooting for. [ASAP Science]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like-560954147

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Apple?s iOS 7 beta 2 to be released today

DEAR ABBY: I was taken away from my parents at 13 and placed into foster care, where I stayed until I aged out at 21. My biological mother is a drug addict who abandoned me to my father when I was 11. She never tried to contact me while I was in care.I am now 24 and she won't leave me alone. She sends Facebook messages that alternate between begging me to let her get to know me, and condemning me for being vindictive and not having forgiveness in my heart. Abby, this woman exposed me to drugs and all manner of seedy people and situations. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-ios-7-beta-2-released-today-144521692.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Gerrit Cole pitches Pirates past Angels 5-2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Gerrit Cole pitched four-hit ball into the seventh inning in his native Orange County, earning his third straight victory to open his major league career in the Pittsburgh Pirates' 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

The Pirates' 22-year-old right-hander out of Orange Lutheran High School and UCLA dazzled the Angels in his first career road start, repeatedly hitting 100 mph on Angel Stadium's radar gun. He struck out five and retired 11 straight before Albert Pujols' leadoff homer in the seventh.

Cole (3-0) outpitched Angels ace Jered Weaver (1-4), who yielded nine hits and four runs over six rocky innings in his fourth straight winless start.

Pedro Alvarez and Jordy Mercer homered in the second inning of the Pirates' first game in Anaheim since 2007.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gerrit-cole-pitches-pirates-past-angels-5-2-050903374.html

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Snowden to Face Espionage Charges (ABC News)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314421673?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Second look: The Samsung Galaxy NX camera

The Samsung Galaxy NX appears to be one hell of an Android-powered camera, and as such it deserves a second look. 

First, the broad strokes for those just joining the fun: The NX sports a 20.3MP sensor and interchangeable lenses, a 4.8-inch display and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with a custom UI. And it's got full Wifi and LTE capability, so you'll be sharing pictures all over the place in addition to whatever other Android goodness is added (or hacked) into this thing.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/SYdpqY1qAWc/story01.htm

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Friday, June 21, 2013

PST: Wambach praises teammates' help?with record

HARRISON, N.J. ? With history set as the backdrop, Abby Wambach exceeded even her own expectations.

The U.S. Soccer centennial banners lined the field at Red Bull Arena, celebrating 100 years of the federation?s existence. But 160 was the only number that would matter by night?s end.

Wambach had a hat trick inside 30 minutes and scored a fourth goal in first half stoppage time to reach 160 goals, breaking Mia Hamm?s previous world record of 158.

?My teammates know me super well,? she said. ?At halftime they were like, ?you are such an extremist. You are all or nothing. When you want to do something you just do it.? I?m very much like my father in that way.?

Wambach credited her teammates for setting her up throughout the night ? and throughout her career. Even on a night when the world?s attention focused on Wambach, the 5-foot-11-inch forward couldn?t help but try to pass off the spotlight.

?I really through and through believe it in my heart, I?m only as good as my teammates allow me to be,? Wambach said. ?Yes, I score a lot of goals and yes I put myself in positions to score goals, but they do to. And I can?t thank my teammates enough.?

Her teammates, however wouldn?t allow the focus to be anywhere but firmly fixed on the No. 20 shirt in white.

?Honestly, we?re always looking for each other,? said Alex Morgan, who has now assisted 13 of Wambach?s 160 career goals. ?Abby, after she scored three, she was like, ?OK, can we please get it to you now? Can we pass it to you? Let?s go. We?re always looking for each other up top. Making runs for each other, so I think that we play well together; we play selflessly and it has shown in the success of the team.?

Goal No. 159, which gave Wambach sole possession of the record, came when she emphatically headed Megan Rapinoe?s corner kick into the net

?She was on two at that point, so obviously it was going through my head. Just put something good ? let her get up there and try to grab something,? Rapinoe said of her thought process on the corner kick.?

Even given Wambach?s prowess, Rapinoe didn?t think the record was reachable pregame.

?I can?t even believe it,? Rapinoe said. ?I didn?t think that she was going to have a hat trick tonight, to be honest.?

Now Wambach wants to move on from the hype and focus on getting ready for the 2015 World Cup ? a trophy that continues to elude her. And her focus on the record isn?t about herself, it?s about helping Morgan break it ?in much less time than I did.?

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/20/abby-wambach-goals-record-mia-hamm-teammates/related/

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Are you an Android User? Keep your Android Smartphone or Tablet protected agains...

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Ohio's Gargantuan Anti-Abortion Bill Is Anti-Doctor, Anti-Patient, and Beyond

It doubles the waiting period for a wealth of "misinformation." It makes ultrasounds mandatory, even for rape victims. It foces doctors to discuss with their patients a disputed study linking abortion to breast cancer, to introduce them to the myths of "fetal pain," to and tell them how much money they'd lose if they didn't have to perform abortions. Doctors hate it. Republican lawmakers love it. In a year when abortion restrictions have been getting harsher and harsher from the state houses to the U.S. House of Representatives, the so-called?Ultrasound Access Act might be the biggest and baddest piece of anti-abortion legislation to make its way through the laboratories of democracy yet.

RELATED: Mansplainers and Proverbial Frogs

The bill, HB 200, is currently sitting with the Ohio's House of Representatives. It's the brainchild of state Rep. Ron Hood (right) and 34 of his co-sponsors ? 32 men and two women, all Republicans ? and Hood says it would "protect mothers," but none of this is sitting easy with local OB-GYNs. "This bill essentially mandates misinformation," one doctor said at a House committee meeting on Wednesday. "This bill would certainly compromise our ability to provide care," said another.

RELATED: Kansas Is Scaling Back Their Strict Abortion Regulations, Slightly

And yet, Hood said at the same hearing: "There are far too many stories of mothers under the negligent care of abortionists eager to perform abortions on mothers without even confirming a woman's pregnancy."?In order to combat the, uh, "eagerness of abortions," Hood and his cohorts have proposed that in cases where abortion isn't a medical emergency, doctors and patients will have to meet the following prerequisites, which are lengthy ? and jaw-dropping in their detail:

RELATED: Steve King Never Heard of Anyone Getting Pregnant by Statutory Rape

The 48-hour waiting period?As The Huffington Post's Laura Bassett explains, the bill would double Ohio's mandatory hold-off from 24 hours, meaning that it gives more women time to think about the process. But the bill also stipulates that in that 48-hour window, the physician performing the procedure would need to introduce women to various pieces of information and that "misinformation," which we've outlined below....?

RELATED: The Deadlocked Gosnell Jury Is Still Two Big Decisions Away from a Conclusion

Doctors would have to:

  • Explain risks associated with the abortion procedure. HB 200 specifically includes risk of infection, hemorrhage, cervical or uterine perforation and infertility.?
  • Explain that abortions carry increased risk of breast cancer. That risk is not clear and has been scientifically disputed. "Both the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the American Cancer Society say no such link exists," reports The Columbus Dispatch. According to the website of the Cancer Society, "Linking these topics creates a great deal of emotion and debate. But scientific research studies have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer."
  • Provide a conflict-of-interest disclaimer. Indeed, doctors would have to tell a patient that they're making money from abortions ? and exactly how much. The disclaimer must also include "a statement concerning the monetary loss to the physician or facility that would result from the woman's decision to carry the woman's pregnancy to term," according to the bill. Meaning, the bill's sponsors want to make it very clear that doctors are making money off the procedure... like they do with all medical procedures. What's more, according to the Cleveland?Plain-Dealer, "Doctors who do not adhere to the new rules would be subject to a first-degree felony charge and a fine of up to $1 million."
  • Perform an ultrasound. And if requested, provide the a clear picture of the fetus.?
  • Explain "all relevant features" of the ultrasound, "including an audible heartbeat, if present."
  • Explain fetal pain, even if it may not be there ? even if it's impossible to exist until later. The bill states that the physician must "[d]escribe the development of nerve endings of the embryo or fetus and the ability of the embryo or fetus to feel pain at each stage of development." But according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ,which bases their judgment of The Journal of the American Medical Association's 2005 study, fetal perception of pain is?unlikely until the third trimester.?Ohio is one of 41 states with a post-viability abortion ban (except in cases of health of the mother), so this point would be pointless, since these prerequisites only apply to people without that emergency exception, who are essentially banned from abortions. But the bill seems to want to use other findings of fetal pain, like the disputed study cited by the fetal-pain legislation currently making its very controversial rounds in Washington, which fueled the conservative push for a nation-wide ban on abortions after 20 weeks.
  • Live within the newly defined limits of "medical emergency" to claim a waiver. From Wednesday's testimony, per the?Plain-Dealer:

"This bill changes the definition of 'medical emergency' from a condition that would present a serious risk to a woman's health to one that would result in a woman's death," said Dr. Jason Melillo, who is also a physician at Kingsdale. "It may sound like a small distinction but it is an incredibly important one. In other words, how sick is sick enough?

"When physicians hesitate, sometimes people get hurt. This bill will cause potential hesitation even in emergency situations where 48 hours can very literally mean the difference between life and death."

Patients will have to:

RELATED: The RNC Remembers the Recession; Obama Remembers the Recovery

  • Receive an ultrasound.
  • Listen to a "verbal description of all relevant features of the ultrasound." The bill says there's nothing that "prohibits a pregnant woman from refusing to listen to the sounds detected by a fetal heart monitor or from refusing to view the images displayed by the obstetric ultrasound examination." But the bill also doesn't specify whether a woman can request not to hear the verbal description that would now be required by the doctor.

The full bill is here,?but you can see that these state representatives want to make obtaining and performing abortions very difficult for both the patient and the doctor. Think about it: Not only would doctors have to awkwardly tell you how much your abortion means to them financially and how much they make off procedures ? a move that changes the relationship between patients and doctors ? but the bill would also make it rape victims be subject to ultrasounds, since the only exception to the requirements are abortions where there is a threat to the mother's life, and since the emergency waiver rules have been defined down.?

"I've never seen anything like this bill before,"?Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights,?told HuffPo.?That includes the 20-week abortion bill, designed to chip away at Roe vs. Wade,?which one?half of the United States Congress passed in a 228-196 vote on Tuesday.?The Ohio bill awaits a vote from 99 state?representatives?? 35 of whom have already sponsored it. If you thought North Dakota and Arkansas and Kansas and Alabama amounted to a national crackdown movement on abortion?from the state legislatures all the way up to Capitol Hill, it appears that you ain't seen nothing yet.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohios-gargantuan-anti-abortion-bill-anti-doctor-anti-165943699.html

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

A battery made of wood?

June 19, 2013 ? A sliver of wood coated with tin could make a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery.

But don't try it at home yet -- the components in the battery tested by scientists at the University of Maryland are a thousand times thinner than a piece of paper. Using sodium instead of lithium, as many rechargeable batteries do, makes the battery environmentally benign. Sodium doesn't store energy as efficiently as lithium, so you won't see this battery in your cell phone -- instead, its low cost and common materials would make it ideal to store huge amounts of energy at once, such as solar energy at a power plant.

Existing batteries are often created on stiff bases, which are too brittle to withstand the swelling and shrinking that happens as electrons are stored in and used up from the battery. Liangbing Hu, Teng Li and their team found that wood fibers are supple enough to let their sodium-ion battery last more than 400 charging cycles, which puts it among the longest lasting nanobatteries.

"The inspiration behind the idea comes from the trees," said Hu, an assistant professor of materials science. "Wood fibers that make up a tree once held mineral-rich water, and so are ideal for storing liquid electrolytes, making them not only the base but an active part of the battery."

Lead author Hongli Zhu and other team members noticed that after charging and discharging the battery hundreds of times, the wood ended up wrinkled but intact. Computer models showed that that the wrinkles effectively relax the stress in the battery during charging and recharging, so that the battery can survive many cycles.

"Pushing sodium ions through tin anodes often weaken the tin's connection to its base material," said Li, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. "But the wood fibers are soft enough to serve as a mechanical buffer, and thus can accommodate tin's changes. This is the key to our long-lasting sodium-ion batteries."

The team's research was supported by the University of Maryland and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/lGAYwYYOa2A/130619195221.htm

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and S4 Zoom Hands On: Funky Alternatives

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and S4 Zoom Hands On: Funky Alternatives

It's no secret that a smaller version of the Galaxy S4, known as the Galaxy S4 Mini, is on its way. Nor is it hush-hush that a camera/phone hybrid known as the Galaxy S4 Zoom is coming. While there's still no information about when these will make these over to the States, we just got a little play time with them. Here are our first impressions.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vOZ98rjS0Yw/samsung-galaxy-s4-mini-and-s4-zoom-hands-on-funky-alte-521997270

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$30,000 Raised at Ninth Annual President's Excalibur Golf Tournament in Support of Trent Varsity Athletes

A record 120 golfers participated in the ninth annual President?s Excalibur Golf Tournament at Peterborough Golf & Country Club on Thursday, June 13, 2013 helping to raise more than $30,000 in support of Trent University?s varsity programs and athletes.

The sold-out tournament was a shotgun scramble format that included contests throughout the day. Guests included leaders from the Peterborough Petes, members of the Trent Board of Governors, University senior administrators, CHEX general manager Michael Harris, and tournament sponsors.

As part of the prestigious tournament, guests were also treated to a barbecue lunch, as well as a decadent refreshment tent on the course, provided by Aramark. After a day on the links, golfers enjoyed a reception and dinner at Peterborough Golf & Country Club. A silent auction, featuring many outstanding items, including golf packages at Wildfire and Mill Run Golf Clubs, as well as a wine tasting package at Le Petit Bar, a Blue Jays ticket package, patio set, barbecue, hotel accommodations, and more, was also held.

All proceeds from the annual President?s Excalibur Golf Tournament go towards supporting the varsity program at Trent University and athletic financial awards. These awards are designed to assist student athletes with a record of outstanding academic and athletic performance and demonstrated financial need.

?Community support is essential in building a quality and successful varsity program at the university level. The success of the 2013 President?s Excalibur Golf Tournament is a fabulous example of the amazing support for the student athlete experience from the Peterborough community,? said Bill Byrick, director of Athletics at Trent. ?Money raised from this event will be dedicated to athletic scholarships used to attract the best and brightest student athletes to the University. It will also enable us to put in place additional supports, such as academic support, medical support, strength and conditioning and year-round training for our student athletes. Many thanks to all who participated and sponsored our ninth annual tournament. We look forward to welcoming the community out to our varsity games and events this fall and winter to see our remarkable student athletes in action.?

The 2013 Winning Foursome title went to the team from tournament sponsors J.J. McGuire, which included: Leo Urrassio, Paul Desousa, Jack Franzin, and Christine Morriera. Winners of Closest-to-the-Pin were Meghann Agnew (Ladies) and Brian McKinley (Men). Longest Drive winners were Sally Graham (Ladies) and Peter Lawless (Men).

Congratulations and thanks go out to everyone who participated, with special appreciation to the many generous sponsors who helped make this year?s event such a success.

Posted on Monday, June 17, 2013.

Source: http://www.trentu.ca/newsevents/newsDetail.php?newsID=5310

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