Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sprint boosts buyout offer for Clearwire

(AP) ? Sprint says it has raised its buyout offer for the stake in Clearwire it does not already own by 14 percent.

Sprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday that it is offering $3.40 per share for Clearwire Corp. Its previous offer, from December, was for $2.97 per share for the wireless data operator.

Sprint says this is its best and final offer. A vote on the previous offer had been scheduled for Tuesday.

A representative for Clearwire could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Sprint is Clearwire's only major wholesale customer, and uses its network to provide "Sprint 4G" service.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-21-US-Sprint-Clearwire/id-9818cc02c3c04c39b2be72114b60ddc3

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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

HBT: Angels' Trout hits for cycle against Mariners

Saving the home run for last, Mike Trout recorded his first career cycle Tuesday as the Angels crushed the Mariners 12-0.

Trout struck out in his first at-bat of the night before singling in the third, tripling in the fourth, doubling in the sixth and homering in the eighth. He ended the game with five RBI, and he also picked up his ninth steal to go along with his ninth homer.

The Los Angeles Times? Bill Shaikin pointed out that the 21-year-old Trout is the youngest player to hit for the cycle since Hall of Famer Mel Ott did so in 1929. It was also the perfect answer to Miguel Cabrera?s three-homer game Sunday in light of the subsequent revisiting of the 2012 MVP race.

After a slow start, Trout, the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up last season, is currently on pace for 32 homers and 32 steals, as well as 112 runs scored and a whopping 122 RBI. He?s hitting .343 in May to raise his overall average to .293.

Of course, as impressive as his numbers are, they?re still not a match for Cabrera?s this year. And his defense isn?t yet making up the difference, at least not according to WAR. Plus, any chance of Trout factoring into the MVP race will likely hinge on the Angels? playing much better ball from here on in. At 18-27, they have a better record than only the Astros in the American League.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/22/mike-trout-hits-for-cycle-in-angels-rout-of-mariners/related/

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Zalora, Rocket Internet's SE Asian Zappos Clone, Raises $100M ...

Zalora, a Zappos-style fashion e-commerce site in South East Asia backed by the Samwer brothers? Rocket Internet incubator in Germany, is today announcing its latest investment ? $100 million, led by Rocket Internet itself, along with regular Samwer investing partners Summit Partners, Investment AB Kinnevik, Verlinvest and Tengelmann Group. The is the largest investment in Zalora to date, and one of the biggest in an e-commerce startup in the region.

Zalora has operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and this round comes amid a new flush of money for fashion e-commerce companies: just yesterday it was reported that Fab is raising $250 million at a $1 billion valuation (a deal that only one month ago appeared to be for a $100 million raise).

This is not the first flush of money to come to Zalora. The startup had raised at least two other rounds since launching in March 2012, a ?significant double-digit million? investment from JP Morgan in September 2012, and $26 million from Tengelmann in March 2013. It?s been using the funds to build out its footprint into more countries, invest in its logistics and also in R&D, out of its HQ in Singapore, and new platforms ? among those, the launch of a iOS app.

As seems to be par for the course with Rocket Internet portfolio companies, Zalora has been no stranger to being subject to the negative rumor mill. In March 2013, Zalora was reported to be shutting down its regional operations in Taiwan, although the company said that it was streamlining and moving some functions to Singapore. That comes after other reports that Oliver Samwer had to go hands-on soon after Zalora?s launch for a little staff motivation. The company appears to already have changed MDs at the company. Today it is being run by Michele Farrario; in September 2012 the MD was Mato Peric.

But any signs of turmoil seem to be behind the company, for now at least. The company is claiming ?months of steady growth,? recently delivering its one millionth order, although it doesn?t spell out what those revenues are specifically, noting just ?double-digit million USD revenues.? It says that mobile sales make up 25% of all of its sales, which cover 500 brands and some 20,000 products per country site.

?Our company is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in South-East Asia and has bright prospects,? said Ferrario in a statement. ?It is an honor for us that investors of such great repute have invested into an e-commerce company as young as ZALORA. Our goal is to continue serving up world-class products and services, so everyone in South-East Asia can benefit.?

Rocket Internet got its beginnings building out e-commerce startups across Europe. Mimicking the functions of well-funded e-commerce startups in the U.S., some of those Rocket Internet startups even got acquired as part of the Americans? inorganic growth strategies.

Rocket Internet still has a strong presence in Europe, but the Samwer brothers have been putting a lot more of their efforts lately into emerging markets like those in South East Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and further afield (case in point: Azmalo, a new Amazon-style online marketplace site in Pakistan launched just this week). The idea is to try to reach a swathe of consumers that represent a new middle class who are only starting to go online to shop, and therefore represent a faster growing user base than consumers in more mature, and more penetrated, markets.

Often the Samwers? movements are in countries that Rocket?s U.S. counterparts have yet to tackle, making companies like Zalora into potential acquisition targets. In the meantime, adding more Rocket Internet e-commerce startups in each country to bolster existing ones means that they can share backend systems, logistics and get faster economies of scale, essential in getting e-commerce businesses to profit. You can see the full extent of the Rocket Internet empire here.

zalora singapore


ZALORA is a fashion website based in Singapore. It operates across seven countries in South East Asia. ZALORA is your one stop destination for fashion and footwear. Bringing you an insight on global trends, we source the best that fashion has to offer as well as all your favourite international designers. We are constantly adding fabulous new styles and a host of trend tips and fashion advice, allowing you to shop with confidence. At ZALORA we believe your shopping experience should be...

? Learn more

Rocket Internet GmbH invests in the development of innovative companies in the internet industry. Their passionate, dynamic, highly motivated team works to establish promising business models in the market.

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/22/zalora-rocket-internets-se-asian-zappos-clone-raises-100m-more-from-summit-kinnevik-and-more/

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NASA launching experiment to examine the beginnings of the universe

May 21, 2013 ? When did the first stars and galaxies form in the universe? How brightly did they burn their nuclear fuel?

Scientists will seek to gain answers to these questions with the launch of the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRIment (CIBER) on a Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket between 11 and 11:59 p.m. EDT, June 4 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Jamie Bock, CIBER principal investigator from the California Institute of Technology, said, "The first massive stars to form in the universe produced copious ultraviolet light that ionized gas from neutral hydrogen. CIBER observes in the near infrared, as the expansion of the universe stretched the original short ultraviolet wavelengths to long near-infrared wavelengths today. CIBER investigates two telltale signatures of first star formation -- the total brightness of the sky after subtracting all foregrounds, and a distinctive pattern of spatial variations."

"The objectives of the experiment are of fundamental importance for astrophysics, to probe the process of first galaxy formation, but the measurement is also extremely difficult technically," he noted.

This will be the fourth flight for CIBER on a NASA sounding rocket. The previous launches were in 2009, 2010, and 2012 from the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. After each flight the experiment or payload was recovered for post-calibrations and re-flight.

For this flight CIBER will fly on a larger and more powerful rocket than before. This will loft CIBER to a higher altitude than those previously obtained, thus providing longer observation time for the instruments. The experiment, which will safely splash down in the Atlantic Ocean more than 400 miles off the Virginia coast, will not be recovered.

CIBER previously flew on two-stage Black Brant IX sounding rockets. Bock said, "The collection of data from the three flights allows us to compare data and rigorously test sources of potential systematic error from both the instrument and astrophysical foregrounds. We have been through the end-to-end process in analyzing our data, so we understand the benefits of going with a non-recovered Black Brant XII. We also know the performance of the instrument very well from these flights and that makes us confident going forward with this more capable but final flight."

The 70-foot tall four-stage Black Brant XII rocket will carry CIBER to an altitude of about 350 miles. According to Bock, "This flight is pioneering a new direction in the astrophysics program in that we are flying our instrument on a non-recovered Black Brant XII. The XII gives us a significantly higher trajectory, providing about 560 seconds of flight time above 250 km (155 miles) altitude, compared with 250 seconds on standard Black Brant IX flights out of White Sands."

"Our experience in the near-infrared waveband is that we see appreciable emission from the atmosphere up to 250 km. The higher trajectory allows us to do some new things that are not possible on a Black Brant IX. For example, we expect to have enough independent images of the sky to directly determine the in-flight gain of the infrared cameras, which will allow us to measure background fluctuations in single exposures. This gives us a much more direct way to compare with satellite data than the statistical combinations we have had to use to date. The higher trajectory of course comes with a price in that the payload is not recovered," he said.

CIBER is a cooperative instrument designed and built by the California Institute of Technology, University of California Irvine, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). The same team is also developing an improved follow-on experiment, with more capable optics and detector arrays, that will be completed next year.

Backup launch days for this project are June 5 -- 10.

To find out more about NASA's sounding rocket missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/sky5GQFeHfc/130521134036.htm

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Websense to go private for $907 million

(Reuters) - Websense Inc said it had agreed to be taken private by Vista Equity Partners in a deal that values the online security firm at about $907 million, a move that should come as a relief to investors after years of weak sales from its legacy business.

The offer of $24.75 per share represents a roughly 29 percent premium to Websense's Friday close. Websense shares rose to just above the offer price to a near two-year high in morning trading on the Nasdaq.

"After years of speculation, investors will be rubbing their eyes this morning that Websense finally got acquired and will go the route of other security software vendors that got the private equity bid," FBR Capital analyst Daniel Ives said.

The company joins a list of security software vendors, including Blue Coat that was bought by Thoma Bravo in 2011, to get private equity bids.

The company's growth rate has slowed in the past few years as its core web filtering business weakened and it reported a slight revenue decline last year.

Websense stock, which peaked at $34.87 in 2005, has since fallen 22 percent until Friday's close.

"This morning's acquisition speaks to the value of security software ... a surge of M&A activity is poised to hit the sector over the next six to 12 months as larger technology players and private equity look to get a larger piece of the security pie," he said.

Ives added that the acquisition would allow Websense to focus on its promising Triton business that makes web security gateway and e-mail security products.

Websense, which said it expected the deal to close before the end of the third quarter, said its senior management was expected to continue with the company and its headquarters would remain in San Diego.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the financial adviser to Websense and Cooley LLP its legal adviser.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is Vista's legal adviser and J.P. Morgan Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Partners have agreed to provide debt financing for the deal.

Vista Equity is a private equity firm that invests primarily in software companies and has about $6 billion in assets.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon and Don Sebastian)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/websense-private-907-million-124705624.html

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The digital design imperative | Feature | Computer Arts magazine

Opinions matter. And mine has always been that if bad typography and Photoshop work don?t make your blood boil then you shouldn?t be a designer. If you can sit on the train opposite an ad featuring poorly kerned letters or view a Frankenstein?s monster comp of a ?lead character when young? movie prop photo and not twitch, you are creatively dead inside.

Slink away now if you?re unmoved by either example, or hang around and get motivated. The role of designer has changed beyond all recognition since I left college (it?s moved fast; I?m not that old). So what is graphic design? Well, before ?digital? it used to be relatively easy to define: branding, brochures, editorial layouts, posters, flyers and packaging, for starters.

That list still exists, but many brochures are now interactive, from PDFs to eBooks with websites that either replicate or deliver the same content. Great editorial layouts are still essential for tablet-based magazines and eBooks because the eye is arrested by the skilful juxtaposition of stunning images and intelligent typography. Posters, meanwhile, work on various levels, from the 48-sheet variety now on many digital Jumbotrons to our ever-increasing desktop screen sizes offering the scale previously reserved for printed posters. And flyers, unless they come from a local pizza delivery business, are now emails, Facebook posts or Tweets. We haven?t lost packaging from our high streets yet, but the online marketplace offers increasing numbers of virtually packaged downloads.

So, who gives a crap? Things change. Technology advances and forces us to move with it. It?s a take that can lead to the kind of sloppy Photoshop, branding and layouts that make me want to punch inanimate objects (or designers). It?s an attitude cultivated by creatives who don?t live and breathe design, as well as clients who believe our computers do all the work.

So snap out of it. And appreciate the incredible opportunities to not only design great visual experiences, but also to bring them to life as incredible user experiences. The graphic design label has been well and truly scrapped ? welcome to the wonderful new world of design, where the brief to create postage stamps becomes the task to build instantly recognisable icons or miniaturised album covers and book jackets, where the fight to be seen and remembered provides the ultimate pixel-pushing challenge. Wearable technology and smart TVs will provide your next playgrounds, so start thinking about future opportunities to make a design difference.

Knock down the mental barriers and apply great design thinking to everything you do. Don?t assign different standards to different work or clients ? we live in a world in which a local butcher can have as much global visibility as Wal-Mart. The world?s eyes are on your kerning, your cut-outs and your colour palette.
?

Discover 10 amazing examples of experimental design at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

Source: http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/digital-design-imperative

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Facebook's native Share Dialog for iOS exits beta, now ready for developers

Facebook's native Share Dialog for iOS exits beta, now ready for developers

Now that Facebook's share feature has settled into its own mobile apps, the firm has pushed its native Share Dialog for iOS out of beta, which allows developers to bake the function into their own applications. With just an extra line of code, apps will allow users to share things, tag friends and note their location without having to log into the social network or connect the app to their account first, removing some hassle from the equation. In addition, the built-in sharing options in iOS 6 can be bolstered with Open Graph actions. Click the source link below to snatch Zuckerberg and Co.'s latest SDK for Apple's mobile OS, or hit the second link for the docs.

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Comments

Source: Facebook Developers (1), (2)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/W_VIfWWszbU/

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Retired Anglican priest convicted of sex abuse

LONDON (AP) ? A retired Anglican priest has been convicted of 36 separate sex offenses against children in the 1960s and 1970s.

A jury found Gordon Rideout guilty Monday of 34 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape on 16 children in the southeastern English counties of Hampshire and Sussex between 1962 and 1973. The victims included boys and girls.

Most of the charges that the 74-year-old Rideout was convicted of related to his work as an assistant curate at St. Mary's Church in Crawley, when he would visit a children's home nearby. Prosecutor Philip Bennetts said Rideout would visit children when they were sick and alone in bed.

Rideout was arrested in March 2012 and charged five months later following a police investigation. He denied all the charges.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/retired-anglican-priest-convicted-sex-abuse-143213069.html

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Still waiting on an ADN invite? Well third time's the charm! As in 300!

Want to try out App.net for free? Here's 200 invitations!

We keep giving away App.net (ADN) invites and you keep gobbling them up faster and faster. The last 200 went in what felt like 2 minutes, so this time we've got 300 to give you. If you're still not familiar with ADN free accounts, they're a great way to try out the many services ADN offers, including the Twitter-like microblogging platform, the better-than-DM messaging service, and the cloud storage offering. ADN is a complex, chocked-full-of-potential service, and it's smart to let people try it out for themselves and get a feel for it before deciding to go all-in on a paid account.

If you're still looking for an invite, hopefully 3rd time will be the charm! And if you're fine, tell your friends. Tell all your friends. But fair warning, they'll go fast. So, if you want want one, grab it now!

By using an invitation, you'll automatically follow iMore. (Since you're here, we're hoping you don't mind, but you can promptly unfollow us if you like, and while we'll be sad, we'll understand!)

You can also find the iMore staff on ADN via accounts below. You should follow us. We'd love to hear what you think!

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Jhz9Us_IWFw/story01.htm

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Jay-Z: Beyonce is NOT Pregnant!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/jay-z-beyonce-is-not-pregnant/

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Beauty Mantra ? Healthy Natural Face Packs ? Health & Beauty Tips ...

Related eBooks

Beauty Mantra ? Healthy Natural Face Packs ? Health & Beauty Tips. Making natural face packs according to the skin type is important, as it will benefit more?

Related Reading:

No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean CosmeticsNo More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean CosmeticsIt started with a harmless quest for perfect wash-and-go hair. Every girl wants it, and Siobhan O?Connor and Alexandra Spunt finally found it in a fancy salon treatment. They were thrilled?until they discovered that the magic ingredient was formaldehyde.

Shocked, O?Connor and Spunt left no bottle unturned. If it went on their body (and thus, was absorbed into their skin and bloodstream), they researched it. As it turns out, many of those unpronounceable ingredients in your self-tanner and leave-in conditioner are not regulated and the ?natural? on your face wash doesn?t mean what you think it does.

Now, with the help of top scientists, dermatologists, and makeup artists, the authors share their compelling findings and the easy way to detoxify your beauty regimen. No More Dirty Looks also reveals the safest, most effective products on the market and time-tested home recipes. Finally, you don?t need to sacrifice health for beauty?because coming clean is the best look yet.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Beauty ProductsThe Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Beauty ProductsA natural treasure for every body.

Whether it's about saving money, living greener, or treating sensitive skin, The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Making Natural Beauty Products has everything the hobbyist will need to create organic, natural beauty products.

?Includes everything from face creams to mineral makeup to shampoo and more

?Each formula is clearly presented in recipe style, with notes on prep time, storage, and uses

?All products are made from natural ingredients which will appeal to people going green as well as to people with sensitive skin

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against WomenThe Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

The bestselling classic that redefined our view od the relationship between beauty and female identity.

In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."

The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and FragrancesThe Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances

Go green and get gorgeous

The promise of beauty is as close as the drugstore aisle?shampoo that gives your hair more body, lotions that smooth away wrinkles, makeup that makes your skin look flawless, and potions that take it all off again. But while conventional products say they'll make you more beautiful, they contain toxins and preservatives that are both bad for the environment and bad for your body?including synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, and even formaldehyde. In the end, they damage your natural vitality and good looks.

Fortunately, fashion writer, nutritionist, and beauty maven Julie Gabriel helps you find the true path to natural, healthy, green beauty. She helps you decipher labels on every cosmetic product you pick up and avoid toxic and damaging chemicals with her detailed Toxic Ingredients List. You'll learn valuable tips on what your skin really needs to be healthy, glowing, and youthful.

Julie goes one-step further?and shows you how to make your own beauty products that feed your skin, save your bank account, and are healthy for your body and the environment, such as:

? Cleansing creams and oils ? toners?? facials ? under eye circle remedies?? anti-aging serums ? lip balms ? scrubs ? exfoliators ? clay and cleansing masks
? moisturizers ? acne treatments ? makeup remover ? teeth whiteners ? shampoos, conditioners ? fragrances ? sun protection ? bug repellants ? baby products ? and much more!

With her friendly, thorough, and helpful advice; fabulous beauty recipes; product recommendations and ratings; Toxic Ingredients List; and a complete appendix of online resources, Julie Gabriel gives you all the information you need to go green without going broke and become a more natural, healthy, and beautiful you.

Source: http://www.jackiesbazaar.com/womensinterests/beauty-products/beauty-mantra-healthy-natural-face-packs-health-beauty-tips

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FBI searches apartment in ricin letter case

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ? Authorities in hazardous materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.

Few details have been released in the case, and no arrests have been made. Federal investigators have been searching for the person who sent the letters, which were postmarked Tuesday in Spokane.

The letters were addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building, but authorities have not released a potential motive. They also have not said whether the letters targeted anyone in particular.

Ricin is a highly toxic substance made from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms, the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult if inhaled or ingested.

There have been no reports of illness connected to the letters.

FBI agents, Spokane police and U.S. Postal Service inspectors descended on the three-story apartment building Saturday morning and the investigation continued into the afternoon.

FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandalo Dietrich would not say whether agents were questioning anyone in connection with the case.

"We are not actively looking for a subject," Sandalo Dietrich said. "We are not asking the public's help in bringing someone in."

Despite the hazmat suits, officials said apartment residents were not at risk, and people were seen coming in and out of the brick building in the city's historic Browne's Addition neighborhood.

"There's no public risk," Sandalo Dietrich said.

Sandalo Dietrich would not say specifically why the FBI was searching the apartment.

"Information we developed led us to believe this was a productive spot to search," she said.

Two letters containing the substance were intercepted at the downtown Spokane post office Tuesday.

The Postal Service has received no other reports of similar letters, said Jeremy Leder of the Postal Inspection Service on Saturday.

In a statement following the discovery, the Postal Service said the "crude form of the ricin suggests that it does not present a health risk to U.S. Postal Service personnel or to others who may have come in contact with the letter."

The Spokane investigation comes a month after letters containing ricin were addressed to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. A Mississippi man has been arrested in that case.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-18-US-Ricin-Letter-Spokane/id-e85a88900a2348929a52a4dd3ef4d906

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $1.1 billion cash deal

Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $11 billion cash deal

That cat's out of the bag a day early, it seems. Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion cash deal to purchase the blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal. We were expecting Yahoo to announce the acquisition during tomorrow's NYC media event -- CEO Marissa Mayer may instead use the last-minute gathering to detail the company's plans for integrating the popular platform.

Developing...

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Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/yahoo-to-acquire-tumblr/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Can Dolphins Really ?Hear? Human Tumors?

Can dolphins detect cancer in people? To some scientists, it?s not even a legitimate hypothesis; and to many animal-rights activists, ?swim-with-the-dolphin? cancer diagnostic centers would be no less objectionable than any other form of captivity.

?Thank God to this little dolphin, Keppler. He saved my life,? Stoops says.

But what if the rather far-fetched idea were true? What if we tested dolphins and discovered they can detect tiny tumors and abnormal growths in humans, perhaps even those missed by state-of-the-art technology? Instead of x-rays, MRIs and CAT scans, will patients one day be clamoring for cetacean-grams?

Probably not. But I, for one, believe the hypothesis is plausible. Others are positively convinced it is fact, including Patricia Stoops of Panama City, Florida, who claims that a captive dolphin named Keppler saved her life after a chance meeting at a swim-with program in the Caribbean.

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Stoops was on a Carnival cruise in the British Virgin Islands when she eagerly signed up for the ?dolphin excursion? on the island of Tortola.?

She and about 15 others entered the water as a group of captive dolphins approached them and began interacting as normal. But one dolphin, Keppler, took a keen interest in Stoops and refused to leave her alone.

?He did a flip in front of me,? she told WJHG-TV news in Panama City. ?He kept running into me and I explained to the trainer that the dolphin had hit me. He said, ?Oh, that's unusual.? The dolphin trainer said the dolphin detected something wrong with me.?

Stoops was taken aback by what the trainer?s said next: He asked if her trip was sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, to fulfill a final wish of swimming with dolphins.

?He asked if I'd ever had cancer. I said, ?no way!?? she said. In fact, she had never been healthier in her life. But, she would soon discover, that was not true.

A week after returning home, Stoops noticed some pain in her chest. Thinking it had something to do with the dolphin encounter, she went to the doctor, who discovered a spot on her lung and diagnosed her with lung cancer. Now cancer free, she hopes to visit the animal in the fall.

?Thank God to this little dolphin, Keppler. He saved my life,? Stoops says.

Of course, the chain-of-events are likely coincidental, even though eerily similar, unverified accounts are posted online. Michael T. Hyson, PhD, research director at the Hawaii-based Sirius Institute, which advocates captive dolphins as therapy for people with autism and other disorders, writes about a dolphin named Dreamer possessed with seemingly miraculous abilities to heal and diagnose humans.

?A woman swimming with Dreamer thought she had been rammed,? Hyson writes. ?The woman was taken to hospital for examination. The woman had a large bruise. X-ray revealed that under the ribs, near the center of the bruised area, there was a small tumor.? It is my feeling that Dreamer likely "zapped" the tumor with a powerful sound pulse, perhaps to heal it, and the high intensity sound left bruising from hydrostatic shock. At the least, the bruising called medical attention to the tumor.?

Meanwhile, ?Dolphins have been known to detect certain types of cancer and pregnancy in some people,? WJHG reports, ?But experts say there is no clinical research to back up those behaviors.

There has been no research in this regard, though it would be fairly simple. Dolphins could be put in the water with people with various stages of cancer and healthy controls. You could have, say, 15 controls and one patient. If a dolphin displayed unusual behaviors around that person, it?s possible the animal detects something.

Most experts I asked didn?t really know how to answer the question, ?Is this possible??

Michael Miller, spokesman at the National Cancer Institute, tells TakePart that NCI ?has never conducted research of this type and I don?t know of anyone we could point you to for more information.? A search of the published literature turns up nothing.

Neuroscientist and dolphin expert Dr. Lori Marino of Emory University and The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, rules out the idea.

?This is all a coincidence and nothing more,? says Marino, an outspoken opponent of dolphinariums and other forms of captivity.??Despite the mythology, there is no evidence that dolphins can detect cancers and other diseases in the human body,? she says.??Why was the dolphin ramming the woman and getting excited? It could be for a number of reasons?agitation, play, but none of them show the dolphin detected the cancer.?

There is evidence to suggest that dogs, and cats, can be trained to detect certain forms of cancer in the breath or urine of people, though the science on that is slim. ?We are not aware of any convincing evidence to show that dogs can detect cancer in patients,? says Andrew Becker, director of media relations at the American Cancer Society.

There are few published studies on dogs, cancer and diagnosis. A literature review?published last year in an ?effort to determine whether dogs have a role to play in modern health care as an alert tool or screening system for ill health,? especially cancer, seizures and hypoglycemia, highlighted ?weaknesses in the work? and proposed ?directions for future studies,? hardly a decisive conclusion.

As for low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), in one study of 138 diabetes patients with dogs, 65.1% of respondents said their pet ?had shown a behavioral reaction to at least one of their hypoglycemic episodes, with 31.9% of animals reacting to 11 or more events.??

If dogs can detect human cancer, they do so with their keen sense of smell. But dolphins have little or no ability to smell. Underwater, their world is informed primarily by sound and electric waves.

The ability of whales and dolphins to emit and receive high-frequency sounds, called echolocation, has long baffled and awed scientists. Even today, we do not fully understand the remarkable process, which literally lies outside our own brains? ability to perform.

I became fascinated by echolocation when researching Death at SeaWorld,?a book about killer whales, the world?s largest dolphins.

Dolphins have a sac atop their skulls called the ?melon,? filled with a fine, waxy oil. They can manipulate nasal sacs behind their melon to make clicking noises, which sound like fingers running over a comb and each last from one to five milliseconds. As I wrote in the book:

Sound travels through water about four and a half times faster than air - around one mile per second. When each click pings off an object, part of the sound wave is sent back toward the dolphin, where it is received through fatty tissue located in the lower jaw. From there it is transmitted to the middle ear and the brain.

Each click is exquisitely synchronized so that outgoing sounds do not interfere with incoming ones: each echo is received before the next sound is dispatched. The amount of time that lapses between a sound and its echo tells the dolphin how far away an object is. By sending and receiving a continuous string of clicks, all dolphins can follow moving objects (like food) and home in on them. ???????

The visual and auditory regions of dolphin brains are highly integrated, allowing them to construct visual images based on echoes. Their accuracy is astonishing.

Dolphins can differentiate between objects with less than 10 percent difference in size, down to a few millimeters. They can do this in a noisy environment, even while vocalizing. And they can echolocate on near and distant targets simultaneously, something that boggles the imagination of human sonar experts. ?? Even a modern supercomputer using thousands of times more energy could never produce such an accurate visual image based merely on the echoes of pings.

For example, resident orca populations in the Pacific Northwest covet Chinook salmon, which are large and energy-rich. Thanks to echolocation, they can ?distinguish a species of salmon by its size, or by echolocating inside the fish?s body to determine the dimensions of its air bladder,? I wrote in the book.

Researchers wonder how female dolphins discover they?re pregnant, and some believe other dolphins detect the fetus through echolocation and communicate that to the mother. In killer whales, such information would be crucial for mothers to prevent sexually mature daughters from mating with the bulls who sired them.

Even Marino agrees that, ?There is some anecdotal evidence that dolphins may be able to detect pregnancy.? But, she adds, ?in that case, it is plausible because they can use echolocation to examine a woman's anatomy and determine if there is another body inside of her moving about. That is not the case with cancer and disease.?

But maybe dolphins can ?read? our electromagnetic waves, and tell if something is wrong. The new issue of Science News?reports on the recently discovered ability of dolphins to sense electrical signals from other animals in the water, such as those emanating from heartbeats, muscle contractions or gills. Believed to be the only mammals capable of ?electroreception,? dolphins are equipped with unusual sensory organs on their rostrums (snouts) called crypts that can detect electric impulses.

One former dolphin researcher, who asked not to be identified because it?s sensitive, ?and I put it in the highly suspect category,? did admit that cancer detection by cetaceans was ?possible,? albeit through intelligent observation, not echolocation or electroreception.

?If Make-a-Wish takes people down there, the dolphin could?ve figured out that some people get special treatment and attention from others, such as help in swimming, and decided to figure out what sets the special people apart,? my source said.??The dolphin may have made a game of seeing what is different about the swimmers, then pointing it out.?

The ex-researcher, and many other cetacean activists, couldn?t justify captive dolphins for detecting human illness. I have not made up my mind. If I knew my mother might be saved through early detection by a dip with some dolphins, would I try to stop her? It?s a hypothetical topic for another day.

We may never know if dolphins can ?hear? our cancers. But we do know their echolocation is exquisite enough to copy. Researchers at Tel Aviv University are studying echolocation in bats, moles and dolphins to help develop sophisticated ultrasound machines for prenatal care and cancer detection.

?But,? they caution in a press release, ?when it comes to more accurate sonar and ultrasound, animals' ?biosonar? capabilities still have the human race beat.?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Can Dolphin Self-Healing Save Human Lives?

? Dolphin Pod Saves Woman and Her Dog From Drowning (VIDEO)

? Taiji, Notorious Dolphin-Hunting Town, Plans Dolphin Amusement Park


David Kirby, a regular?contributor to the Huffington Post has been a professional journalist for 25 years and was a contracted writer for?The New York Times, where he covered health and science, among other topics.?He has written for national magazines and was a correspondent in Mexico and Central America from 1986-1990. His third book,??Death at SeaWorld,??was published by St. Martin?s Press.?He is also an experienced writing coach and media trainer: For more info visit?www.davidkirbycoaches.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dolphins-really-hear-human-tumors-173446951.html

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Saturday, May 18, 2013

Firefox 22 beta enables WebRTC by default, HiDPI displays on Windows

Firefox 22 beta enables WebRTC by default, HiDPI displays on Windows

Though Mozilla has long been a proponent of WebRTC for plugin-free video and voice chat, it hasn't been ready to enable the full protocol in Firefox as a matter of course. It's more confident as of this week: the newly available Firefox 22 beta turns on complete WebRTC use by default, allowing for both live web conversations and peer-to-peer file swaps. There's more to the release as well, depending on the platform. Windows users receive support for HiDPI displays, like that of the Kirabook; every desktop user also gets gaming-friendly OdinMonkey JavaScript tuning, a web notification API and a font inspector. Android users won't have WebRTC and other upgrades for now, but everyone can experiment with the latest Firefox beta at the source links.

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Via: Mozilla (1), (2)

Source: Firefox Beta, Google Play

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/17/firefox-22-beta/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Samsung responds to GS4 storage complaints, might free up space through 'further software optimization'

After being taken to task by the BBC's consumer rights show, Watchdog, Samsung says it's looking into reducing the memory footprint of its TouchWiz features on its flagship Galaxy S 4. A spokesperson told CNET UK that Samsung, "appreciate(s) this issue being raised," and that it is "reviewing the possibility [of] securing more memory space through further software optimization." The 16GB GS4 offers only 9.5GB of space for users to fill, but at least we know it's a possibility: Google announced yesterday that Samsung's Galaxy S 4 will arrive in an entirely vanilla Android guise this June. We've got the full statement from Samsung after the break.

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Source: CNET UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/samsung-gs4-storage-complaints-response/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Scranton Versus Austin. (Willisms)

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The vegetable season: Books for all tastes | Berkeleyside

tofufry

Tofu fry from Elizabeth Andoh?s Kansha, published by 10 Speed Press

Spring running to summer, and the cookbooks keep arriving. Many of the season?s books focus on vegetables ? there?s plenty to do with items home grown or picked up at farmer?s markets.

Dukes TableLet?s start with Enrico Alliata?s The Duke?s Table (Melville House) and Elizabeth Andoh?s Kansha (10 Speed Press). The Duke?s Table was first published in Italy in 1930. Alliata, the Duke of Salaparuta, reimagined classic Italian dishes without the use of meat since he believed that a vegetarian diet would extend human longevity. Duke Enrico?s recipes have a casualness about them ? ingredients are indicated, but measures are often left vague. These are charming, simple dishes designed for the home cook. As the introduction notes ?Alchemy and ingenuity hover over every recipe.??

KanshaEighty-five years later, and from the other side of the world, we have Kansha. Elizabeth Andoh describes in deep and fascinating detail Japan?s vegan and vegetarian traditions. The very existence of this vegan/vegetarian cuisine may come as a surprise to western readers. The book describes an incredibly wide array of recipes and techniques from traditional Japanese cookery that does not involve meat or fish. Andoh describes the vegan kitchen as ?a playful place where culinary tromp l?oeil transforms vegetable matter.? Bordering on the encyclopedic, Kansha offers interesting side notes on Japanese culture. Read, for instance, the description of rectangular vs. triangular tofu cutting and you are suddenly in the world of Shinto animal spirits, with fox ears represented by triangle cuts of tofu involving the fox?s mythological role as protector of rice fields. Read also of Hijiki ? a sea vegetable banned in Britain because of its high concentration of arsenic in the water used to rehydrate it. The book is beautifully produced, heavily illustrated, and very strong on the idea of thrifty cooking ? where nearly every part of the vegetable is put to use, with little waste, and little heading into the compost bin.

Vegetable-Literacy_smAlso from 10 Speed Press, and also something of a magnum opus, is Deborah Madison?s Vegetable Literacy. Where to begin? This ample book ? 400 pages ? is a beauty to behold. It is divided into 12 chapters, each dealing with a separate vegetable ?family? and offers some 300 recipes. Just the groupings of vegetables by family is an education. The carrot family includes carrots, celery, fennel, parsnips, cilantro, dill and parsley, among others. Oakland?s Camino restaurant hosted a special dinner last month to celebrate the publication of Vegetable Literacy. Several recipes from the book were prepared ? all delicious. Here?s one recipe we look forward to cooking at home:

A fine dice of Chioggia beets and red endive with Meyer lemon and shallot vinaigrette?

1 Meyer lemon
1 Shallot
Dijon mustard
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb Chioggia beets
2 teaspoons finely chopped tarragon and parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 red endive chicons

For the vinaigrette: Put one shallot, finely diced, grated zest of a Meyer lemon, 1-1/2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt in a bowl. Let it stand for 10 minutes, and then whisk in 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard and 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil.

Steam the beets. When cool, either slip off the skins with your hands or peel them neatly with a knife. Slice the beets into 1/4-inch rounds, then into 1/4-inch strips, and finally crosswise into 1/4-inch dice. A little larger is fine, too. Put the diced beets into a bowl. Toss with most of the vinaigrette ?and the tarragon. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and refrigerate until serving.

Separate the endive leaves at the base, leaving each leaf whole. Toss them with the remaining vinaigrette, then arrange the leaves loosely on individual plates. Pile the beets in and among the leaves and serve.

For spring and summer reading, cooking and eating ? it doesn?t get any better than this.

Moe's Books logoThis review is part of?a series of Cook the Books columns?by Moe?s Books which has been selling new, used and collectable books in Berkeley since 1959.?One of Moe?s specialties is cookery books and the bookstore puts on regular cookbook-related events.?Visit Moe?s Books?at 2476 Telegraph Avenue?and on its website.

Read?previous Cook the Books columns for cookbook inspiration.

Follow Berkeleyside NOSH?on Twitter, and on?Facebook.

Source: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/05/17/the-vegetable-season-books-for-all-tastes/

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At least 6 confirmed dead in Texas tornadoes

Derrek Grisham, left, points out neighborhood damage to storm chaser Travis Schafer after a tornado damaged his mother's house on Hyde Park Lane at Country Club Rd. in Cleburne, Texas,Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain early Thursday declared a local disaster as schools canceled classes amid the destruction. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES

Derrek Grisham, left, points out neighborhood damage to storm chaser Travis Schafer after a tornado damaged his mother's house on Hyde Park Lane at Country Club Rd. in Cleburne, Texas,Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain early Thursday declared a local disaster as schools canceled classes amid the destruction. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES

An unidentified injured young girl is wheeled to an awaiting ambulance in Granbury, Texas, on Wednesday May 15, 2013. Granby was the worst hit city as a rash of tornadoes slammed into several small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens more injured and hundreds homeless. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

Lightning strikes from a storm illuminates the sky where damage is strewn about the street and light pole near Hyde Park Lane at Country Club Rd. after a tornado in Cleburne, Texas, Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain early Thursday declared a local disaster as schools canceled classes amid the destruction. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES

A trucking company trailer landed on a car that was parked in front of a Lindsey Ln. home in Cleburne Texas after a powerful storm went through Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. Neighbors say the trailer was parked on the street and was rolled over onto the car. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox)

A large hole was blown out of the roof of a home on Lakeshore Dr. outside of Cleburne, after a tornado Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. The top of the roof was still intact leaving a large hole through the roof of Lake Pat Cleburne home. Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain early Thursday declared a local disaster as schools canceled classes amid the destruction. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES

GRANBURY, Texas (AP) ? A rash of tornadoes slammed into several small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens more injured and hundreds homeless. The violent spring storm scattered bodies, flattened homes and threw trailers onto cars.

In Granbury, the worst-hit city, a tornado tore through two neighborhoods around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Resident Elizabeth Tovar said fist-sized hail heralded the tornado's arrival and prompted her and her family to hide in their bathroom.

"We were all, like, hugging in the bathtub and that's when it started happening. I heard glass shattering and I knew my house was going," Tovar said, shaking her head. "We looked up and ... the whole ceiling was gone."

The powerful storm crushed buildings as it tore through the area, leaving some as just piles of planks and rubble. Trees and debris were scattered across yards, fences flattened.

Behind one house, a detached garage was stripped of most of its aluminum siding, the door caved in and the roof torn off. A tree behind the house was stripped of its branches and a vacant doublewide mobile home on an adjoining lot was torn apart.

Daniel and Amanda Layne initially thought they were safe sheltering under their carport. But then "it started getting worse and worse," and the couple took shelter in their bathroom, Daniel Layne said.

"The windows and the cars are gone. Both our cars are messed up. I had a big shop. Ain't a piece of it left now," Layne said with a shrug.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds described the devastating aftermath and the hunt for bodies in Granbury, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

"Some were found in houses. Some were found around houses," Deeds said. "There was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we're going to have to search the area out there."

Seven people remain unaccounted and authorities hope they are all staying with family or friends, Deeds said at a Thursday morning news conference. Emergency responders were combing the area and worked to identify the six adults whose remains were found, he said.

He said 37 injured people were treated at hospitals.

Harold Brooks, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's severe storm lab in Norman, Okla., said May 15 is the latest into the month that the U.S. has had to wait for its first significant tornadoes of the year. Brooks said he would expect 2013 to be one of the least lethal tornado years since the agency started keeping records in 1954. Officials have yet to determine the exact strength of the tornado in Granbury.

Utilities said about 20,000 homes and businesses were without power early Thursday.

Another tornado that storm spotters told the National Weather Service was a mile wide tore through Cleburne, a courthouse city of about 30,000 about 25 miles southeast of Granbury.

Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said early Thursday that no one was killed or seriously hurt, although seven people suffered minor injuries. He estimated that dozens of homes were damaged and declared a local disaster.

In one neighborhood, a trucking company trailer that had been parked on the street was picked up and dropped onto a nearby car and garage.

Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

Hail as large as grapefruit also pelted the area around Mineral Wells on Wednesday evening. A police dispatcher reported only minor damage.

___

Associated Press writers Terry Wallace and Jamie Stengle in Dallas and freelance photographer Mike Fuentes contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-16-Texas%20Storms/id-3fc4e5e475054f848e81f2210704f0c1

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Everything Google Tried to Kill Today at Google I/O

Google just dropped a metric ton of Google on us. Sorting through it all, it's clear that the company's not just trying to put new goodness into the world; it's trying to blow plenty of existing products and services out of the water. Here are all the things Google's looking to unseat and uppercut into the spike pit.

GroupMe, Skype, All Other Chat

Welp, here's Hangouts. Google announced its new chat app today, which is for conversations (text, photos, albums), between one person or, more importantly, groups. It's on the web, iOS, and Android, and has a ton of group features. Video chat (for the whole group, and free) is obvious, but it gives you notifications for everyone in the chat. It's unified chat in a way that Google hasn't done before, and in a way that should make popular cross-platform apps like GroupMe very nervous.

Spotify/Rdio/Pandora/Xbox Music

This one's obvious, but Google announced Google Play Music All Access, a paid subscription music service. You'll be able to sign up for the service, which will be linked and integrated to your Google account better than existing third-party providers ever could be, and listen to full tracks, store them, or just play internet radio. Right through your Google account. Spotify, Pandora, and Rdio all have their cross-platform ubiquity in their favor, but remember: Google is Google, and the web is everywhere.

PayPal, MasterCard MasterPass

Google's new idea for mobile payments, using Google Wallet, is to autocomplete all the fields that mobile stores ask for. Your address, your credit card, your billing zip code. All of it stored in your Google Wallet account. We've seen this novel idea from MasterCard before, and PayPal's offered similar for ages, but if you're automatically logged in as soon as you sign into your phone, well, why would you use something else?

Traditional Textbooks

Classrooms haven't gotten smarter at the same rate as the trinkets in our pockets have. That's been obvious for years. Google announced a new platform to buy apps, textbooks, and videos for schools, right through the Google Play interface. Google apps have been in a lot of colleges, but setting up a platform that lets school admins buy content (through funded balances, instead of credit cards), and push it to every student in the district, is a pretty compelling idea.

Android Skins

The coolest nerd service thing of the day might have been the announcement of the new unskinned stock Android Galaxy S 4. Party time! But the subtext there, maybe, is that Google knows the skins that manufacturers shove onto their phones aren't how people should be using Android. And the more choice we have on these flagship devices, the better off we'll all be.

Gifs and Jpegs

Google announced that it's going to be throwing its weight behind a (relatively) new file type, called WebP. It can deliver lossless images, no different in quality from Jpegs or Gifs, but at about 26 percent smaller sizes. It can even do animations. Google's pushing this format in HTML 5, and has optimized Chrome for it, to let media-rich sites more usable as it pushes Chrome OS and the mobile web on tablets on phones.

Flickr

It's the storage. Google+ upped your max to 15GB storage (from 5GB) for your full size photos on Google+. You still get infinite storage for standard size, but what matters for Flickr is that Google is moving in on the full res territory it had staked out in its fight for its life against Facebook. A unified storage bin from Google is pretty attractive, especially if it keeps working with the big, professional file sizes.

Photoshop for Newbs and iPhoto

Google+'s new Auto-Awesome and photo enhancing stuff is aimed at people who don't know much about editing a photo, but know enough to know that there's cool stuff that can be done. If it works properly (and we'll have a hands-on to tell you), it will touch up every single photo you upload, fixing wrinkles and exposure and red eyes and the like. More over, it will do this automatically, so there's much less chance this feature will just fall forgotten to the side, like so many things do.

Siri

Google's new conversational search is wildly ambitious. It's also a pitch we've heard before. Talking to your phone or computer like you'd talk to a real assistant (a word Google used throughout the presentation) is what Siri was supposed to be. But Siri's real problem was always that it was just, well, a bad search engine . You think that's going to be a problem for Google?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/everything-google-tried-to-kill-today-at-google-i-o-506906642

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Friction in the nano-world

Friction in the nano-world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Andreas Battenberg
battenberg@zv.tum.de
49-892-891-0510
Technische Universitaet Muenchen

Physicists discover a new kind of friction

This news release is available in German.

Friction is an omnipresent but often annoying physical phnomenon: It causes wear and energy loss in machines as well as in our joints. In search of low-friction components for ever smaller components, a team of physicists led by the professors Thorsten Hugel and Alexander Holleitner now discovered a previously unknown type of friction that they call desorption stick.

The researchers examined how and why single polymer molecules in various solvents slide over or stick to certain surfaces. Their goal was to understand the basic laws of physics at the molecular scale in order to develop targeted anti-friction surfaces and suitable lubricants.

For their studies the scientists attached the end of a polymer molecule to the nanometer-fine tip of a highly sensitive atomic force microscope (AFM). While they pulled the polymer molecule over test surfaces, the AFM measured the resulting forces, from which the researchers could directly deduce the behavior of the polymer coil.

New friction mechanism discovered

Besides the two expected friction mechanisms such as sticking and sliding the researchers detected a third one for certain combinations of polymer, solvent and surface.

"Although the polymer sticks to the surface, the polymer strand can be pulled from its coiled conformation into the surrounding solution without significant force to be exerted," experimental physicist Thorsten Hugel describes this behavior. "The cause is probably a very low internal friction within the polymer coil."

The key is the solvent

Surprisingly, desorption stick depends neither on the speed of movement nor on the support surface or adhesive strength of the polymer. Instead, the chemical nature of the surface and the quality of the solvent are decisive. For example, hydrophobic polystyrene exhibits pure sliding behavior when dissolved in chloroform. In water, however, it shows desorption stick.

"The understanding gained by our measurement of single-molecule friction opens up new ways to minimize friction," says Alexander Holleitner. "In the future, with targeted preparation of polymers, new surfaces could be developed specifically for the nano- and micrometer range."

###

The work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM).

Publication:
Nanoscale Friction Mechanisms at SolidLiquid Interfaces
Bizan N. Balzer, Dr. Markus Gallei, Moritz V. Hauf, Markus Stallhofer, Lorenz Wiegleb,
Prof. Dr. Alexander Holleitner, Prof. Dr. Matthias Rehahn and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hugel,
Angewandte Chemie, Int. Ed., early view, 7. Mai 2013; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301255


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

?


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


Friction in the nano-world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Andreas Battenberg
battenberg@zv.tum.de
49-892-891-0510
Technische Universitaet Muenchen

Physicists discover a new kind of friction

This news release is available in German.

Friction is an omnipresent but often annoying physical phnomenon: It causes wear and energy loss in machines as well as in our joints. In search of low-friction components for ever smaller components, a team of physicists led by the professors Thorsten Hugel and Alexander Holleitner now discovered a previously unknown type of friction that they call desorption stick.

The researchers examined how and why single polymer molecules in various solvents slide over or stick to certain surfaces. Their goal was to understand the basic laws of physics at the molecular scale in order to develop targeted anti-friction surfaces and suitable lubricants.

For their studies the scientists attached the end of a polymer molecule to the nanometer-fine tip of a highly sensitive atomic force microscope (AFM). While they pulled the polymer molecule over test surfaces, the AFM measured the resulting forces, from which the researchers could directly deduce the behavior of the polymer coil.

New friction mechanism discovered

Besides the two expected friction mechanisms such as sticking and sliding the researchers detected a third one for certain combinations of polymer, solvent and surface.

"Although the polymer sticks to the surface, the polymer strand can be pulled from its coiled conformation into the surrounding solution without significant force to be exerted," experimental physicist Thorsten Hugel describes this behavior. "The cause is probably a very low internal friction within the polymer coil."

The key is the solvent

Surprisingly, desorption stick depends neither on the speed of movement nor on the support surface or adhesive strength of the polymer. Instead, the chemical nature of the surface and the quality of the solvent are decisive. For example, hydrophobic polystyrene exhibits pure sliding behavior when dissolved in chloroform. In water, however, it shows desorption stick.

"The understanding gained by our measurement of single-molecule friction opens up new ways to minimize friction," says Alexander Holleitner. "In the future, with targeted preparation of polymers, new surfaces could be developed specifically for the nano- and micrometer range."

###

The work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM).

Publication:
Nanoscale Friction Mechanisms at SolidLiquid Interfaces
Bizan N. Balzer, Dr. Markus Gallei, Moritz V. Hauf, Markus Stallhofer, Lorenz Wiegleb,
Prof. Dr. Alexander Holleitner, Prof. Dr. Matthias Rehahn and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hugel,
Angewandte Chemie, Int. Ed., early view, 7. Mai 2013; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301255


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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/tum-fit051513.php

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