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Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=48451
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Sunday, August 4, 2013
Twitter boycott is my small symbolic gesture against online misogyny | Suzanne Moore
The Twitter boycott, as protests go, is about as easy as it gets. Photograph: M4OS Photos/Alamy
To be frank I don't know how Twitter is going to cope without me. People will just have to pull through somehow without me tweeting a picture of a baby hedgehog or linking to some Funkadelic. Never mind all the important "research" I do on Twitter. None the less, everyone will have to manage as I am making the weeniest symbolic gesture of boycotting Twitter on Sunday.
A conversation has begun that is a long way from over. Women ? the majority of social media users ? should not be subject to rape and death threats. And yes thanks, I know the difference between disagreement and a description of dismemberment. We want the company hosting these threats to be less lackadaisical and able to respond faster. We provide the content and can it take it elsewhere. There are other platforms out there and Twitter has felt past its peak for a while anyway.
The perception that this is merely the concern of some self-important newspaper columnists who will collectively flounce depriving everyone else of their wit and wisdom is one I understand. Simply though, this idea wouldn't have any legs if all kinds of people were not disgusted when online misogyny is made visible.
Plus, as protests go it's about as easy as it gets. You have to NOT do something instead of doing it! If you don't want to be silent then tweet Simone De Beauvoir all day and shout back at the abusers (troll is not the right word). All is fine.
There have been previous discussions about misogyny online but this has hit a nerve. We watched a week of Twitter dithering and the police making the right noises but unable to achieve much.
What has been eye-opening is the outpouring of hostility to the very notion of a boycott. The ongoing discussions about the technical difficulties abound and the essential complicated ones about free speech will continue. But what remains is the simple and essential fact: right now it possible to threaten rape and kill women online without any consequences. Behaviour can and does change. When Lord McAlpine successfully sued prominent tweeters for libel, Twitter woke up a bit.
The past week has opened a can of worms. Some of the worms get off on each other. This strange goon squad of sub-Clarksons, bedroom anarchists, useful idiots and hardcore woman haters gives most of us the creeps and they will be slithering about on Sunday.
In cyberspace, as in the real world, they will not prevail. Join us or don't. The boycott has already worked. Because Twitter, the company, is nervy and watching its back. Hello? That's how it feels when strangers abuse you en masse. Personal apologies to high-profile women feel nothing but patronising. A 24-hour boycott has made us talk much more openly about what could happen, what is happening. That's all. Funny chaps us women? Because once we start talking, we won't stop.
? This article was amended on 4 August. The original included a reference to Travis Bickle. This has now been deleted.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/twitter-boycott-gesture-online-misogyny
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John F. Russell: Baseball finding its place in Ski Town USA
John Russell
John Russell's sports column appears Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com.
Find more columns by John here.
Steamboat Springs ? Sure, we live in a ski town, but this summer has proven there is room for other sports in the shadows of Howelsen Hill.
Steamboat Springs long has been known as a baseball town ? at least for many teams from across the country that travel here to play in the Triple Crown baseball tournament every summer. But baseball is one of those sports that has always struggled to find its place in the mountains of Northwest Colorado.
But things seem to be changing.
In late July, Dave Roy and the American Legion Post 44 baseball team from Steamboat Springs collected the Legion B state championship. The win marked the end of a 27-5 season that the coach is hoping will carry over to the high school season in the spring.
Last week, a 13-and-younger baseball team from Steamboat Springs played in the Triple Crown World Series. Things started off slow for the hometown team, but after watching the team play a couple of games, I couldn?t help but feel the players were on the verge of a big win. It came Friday afternoon when the local team came out on top of a 17-11 score beating another Colorado team.
It might be just one game, but teams from Steamboat rarely have success in the tournament that draws top players from across the country. There were no expectations, at least outside the team?s dugout, when the all-star team took the field Wednesday.
The idea that Steamboat could throw a team together in a few weeks and pull out a win in this tournament was a long shot. I think the Colorado Rockies would have a better chance of sweeping the Atlanta Braves in every series for an entire season.
I?m not saying it was impossible, but after 20 years of covering Triple Crown tournaments, I would say a Steamboat team winning is unlikely.
Let's face the facts: Playing baseball in Ski Town USA is an uphill battle. It?s like riding your mountain bike to the top of Storm Peak in the highest gear with two flat tires. It?s like attempting to ski down the Why Not ski run on Alpine skis the first week of August.
In places like Denver, Houston or Danville, Calif., the baseball season consumes most of the year. The players on those teams were hand picked, and their parents already are busy planning the children?s high school and college baseball careers.
In Northwest Colorado, we have players committed to the game and players willing to train in gyms or travel for the chance to play in the spring. We have coaches like Roy who see a future for baseball in the shadows of Howelsen Hill.
This summer, the American Legion Post 44 team won a state title, and last week, the young players from Steamboat Springs proved with their play that they can hold their own in any tournament ? even one that takes place in their own backyard.
To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209 or email jrussell@SteamboatToday.com
Source: http://www2.steamboatpilot.com/news/2013/aug/04/john-f-russell-winning-isnt-always-reflected-score/
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Asked About Privacy In A Post-PRISM World, Ad ... - Business Insider
Greg Sterling / Facebook
Greg Sterling
The PRISM scandal ? in which the NSA has been accused of accessing data on people from Facebook, Google and other online service providers ? has got the adtech business worried.By focusing the nation's attention on the ease with which private data can be collected online, might this provoke a backlash against online advertisers?
After all, they've been doing this for years, in various ways. Not for national security, but for their own lists and databases. And, of course, the extent of the government's data collection from Google, Facebook et al. has turned out to be much smaller and more focused than initially feared.
Might PRISM get people thinking about how much of their private information they're giving for free to online advertisers?
AdExchanger asked that question of several adtech execs recently, and we were most struck by the answer of Greg Sterling, the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, a local search? marketing consultancy. He noted that anyone who wants to control their privacy online is in for a shock. The only way to guard your data is to opt out of internet life almost entirely.
No Facebook. No Google.
And most people just aren't going to do that.
He said:
"These are services that they use everyday like Google, Facebook, etc. and there?s really no alternative. Realistically there?s no choice in the matter for many people unless they were to completely stop using these tools and technologies that have become so ingrained in our lives."
Read his full quote here, in which he gives a bit more context. Broadly, he believes consumers feel powerless because they don't know what to do to guard their privacy.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/greg-sterling-says-google-and-facebook-offer-no-choice-2013-6
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
'Most Wanted' US Fugitive Arrested in Mexico
A former U.S. college professor who was recently placed on the FBI's notorious list of most wanted criminals has been arrested in Mexico.
Authorities say Walter Lee Williams was captured late Tuesday in the southern resort city of Playa del Carmen, just one day after he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The 64-year-old is facing four charges related to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
Williams is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines in 2011 to engage in sexual acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online the year before. He is also accused of taking sexually explicit photos of one of the boys.
Until 2011, Williams was an anthropology professor at the University of Southern California, where his field of study was gender development.
Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/most-wanted-us-fugitive-arrested-in-mexico/1684629.html
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Why Gaming Is Still A Great Bet For Investors | TechCrunch
Kristian has been at the forefront of the rapidly transforming game industry since 2001.?After serving as Electronic Arts? executive vice president of digital, he left three months ago to focus on startups. Today, he leads seed-stage investments with Initial Capital and serves on the board of Supercell, the #1 iOS grossing game company in the world. Before that, he co-founded, ran and then sold social gaming pioneer Playfish to?Electronic Arts for $400M in 2009. He was also?a co-founder of mobile gaming pioneer Macrospace ? today Glu Mobile (Nasdaq: GLUU) in 2001 through the successful IPO in 2007.
TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler and Benchmark Capital general partner Mitch Lasky recently wrote two insightful pieces on venture investment in games (here?and?here) ? both expressing some degree of skepticism of venture capital models for funding game startups. I agree venture funding is not for every game startup, and certainly not every game startup makes for a great venture investment. However, I would argue the case for venture funding for games is today stronger than ever.
Here is why:
Why game startups are better off with venture investment than publisher funding
There are broadly speaking three models available for a game startup today: bootstrapping (including crowd-funding), publisher financing and venture financing. For those who can afford the risk and have cash readily available, bootstrapping always trumps the other two. It comes with maximum freedom, control and upside in a success case.
But the risks are very real and significant.?Those unable to bootstrap because of the risks or ambitions of the project should in my view consider venture investment over publisher financing models.
Publishing as an idea for digital pure plays is simply turning out not to work very well. Many have tried it with very little to show for it. This is because the typical publisher value-add of financing, marketing, technology and distribution through retail channels doesn?t translate well to the digital world. It says something that not a single game in?today?s iOS top-25 grossing?has been ?published? by a third party as far as I can tell.
While developers continue to need financing, the rest of the ?publishing services? have become obsolete in four key ways:
- Publishers can?t compete with atomized marketing services by specialists:?As the digital market has matured, player acquisition, telemetry, cross-promotion and other marketing services have become widely available as independent specialist services that compete on price and quality of the service. Companies like?Swrve?(one of our portfolio companies at Initial Capital),?Chartboost,?HasOffers,?Nanigans,?Flurry?and a host of competitors are evolving their services at a blistering speed, requiring only a small set of increasingly available talent at the developer end. Doing it directly is not just cheaper and more flexible as the world changes, it also forces a more profound understanding of player flows and distribution challenges, which ultimately helps uncover product design insights.
- Publisher channel access may accelerate your success, but will not define it: Much has been made out of the advantage that big game publishers have in?terms of access to Apple or Google in terms of promotions. Clearly, being featured helps generate initial downloads. However that success is short-lived if?you are unable to retain your audience and acquire users independently at a profitable cost?of acquisition. Plus, you won?t be re-featured unless you generate the numbers.?A game investor worth their salt will be able to make the right introductions here?anyway. The incremental publisher value here is small.
- Holding on to rights to extend IP has become critical to value creation:?As Lasky emphasizes in his post, gaming even in the games-as-a-service world is inherently hits driven. For a game startup to become valuable over time, it needs to find ways of anchoring its success around building franchises. Ownership of intellectual property (IP) and all extension rights becomes important. Angry Birds-maker Rovio and Moshi Monsters-maker Mind Candy have shown that game originated IP is an increasingly viable base to build out a broader IP following with over 40 percent or revenue from each being attributed to non-game products. At the same time, the halo marketing effect from these non-gaming products can still contribute value to the core gaming product. Publishing deals are typically structured for the publisher to get hold of this.
- Long term margins help you hold onto key talent:?Perhaps most importantly, success in games has always been about key?creative talent. The more cash a game startup is able to create, the more it can?afford to invest in everything from the office to culture to individual, innovative?compensation models for rockstar talent. Signing away a revenue share limits?these options and ultimately is likely to encourage the best talent to leave.
Venture financing from a specialist fund that understands games should therefore be seen as a compelling alternative for game startups. It provides the financing value add, typically at far more flexible terms, without any of the restrictions to value creation that lower margins or complicated IP terms can create. And you could even get good folks around the table for advice how best to build for long term success and shareholder value. It should be no surprise that today?s most promising game companies including?Supercell,?King,?Kabam,?Rovio?and?Kixeye?are all venture-funded.
What about the case for investors ? does it still make sense to invest in games?
The digital pure play market growth has recently been characterized by the rapid?rise and occasionally fall of new entrants. Zynga is cited as the key example by both?Cutler and Lasky. A thoughtful?article by Tadgh Kelly about ?Peak Mobile??further?highlights the cycles any individual platform tends to go through. In a world of few?game acquirers and a troubled IPO market, does the venture model therefore need a?re-think?
In my view and that of Initial Capital, which is an?investor in?Supercell,?Brainbow,?Supersolid,?Space Ape Games?and others, the case for continued investment is strong.
Even though some VCs are shying away from games, here are five reasons why I and Initial Capital are doubling down on games:
- A continued virtually unopposed growth opportunity in digital:?The next generation consoles are doing a wonderful job at distracting the big publishers away from the fastest growing parts of the game industry. That clears the water for pure digital plays to gradually build up dominance with new IP on new hardware platforms. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick?s?recent dismissive remarks about mobile, and EA?s strategy of ANDs: consoles and?PC and mobile and online (which dilutes their excellent talent across too many opportunities) are cases in point.?The innovators? dilemma confronting the big guys is creating continuing unopposed growth opportunity for new and established digital pure plays alike. That is giving new players time to build up the brand and marketing advantages that big publishers have held for years on what are rapidly becoming legacy platforms.
- There are plenty of ?blue water? opportunities on new platforms:?Very few game play styles or categories on personal screens, like four- to seven-inch screens across mobile phones and tablets, feel mature at this point. Clash of Clans? take on the tower defense genre, Candy Crush Saga?s interpretation of Match Three games and Hay Day?s way of approaching farm games are possibly the most mature examples out there. But who is making the category-defining racing game, the best first person shooter, sports game, real-time strategy, monster breeding or puzzle adventure game on these platforms? The console guys are hamstrung by their lack of focus.The starlets who already dominate one or two categories will have similar focus?challenges due to successes to date. Seldom have there been such clearly profitable, well-defined opportunities for new startups to re-imagine these experiences for personal touch screens.
- The opportunity has gone global:?The traditional gaming ?Galapagos Islands? of Japan, Korea and China have been overrun by the great global equalizers of Android and iOS. This creates unprecedented opportunities to go global. Supercell?s Clash of Clans is currently the #1 game on iPad in China and #11 in Japan. For Candy Crush, the same positions are #64 in China and #4 in Japan. This is not to belittle the differences in local tastes, marketing channels and in some cases app stores or distribution mechanisms. But the opportunity to reach the other half of the game industry that these countries represent has never been more tangible.
- Unprecedented margins:?Because of the margin structure and low headcount requirements of the industry, companies can become very profitable very quickly. Recent lessons from other companies that have grown too quickly are causing newer companies like Supercell to be more thoughtful. They are banking their profits, stabilizing their mid-double-digit operating margins and re-investing carefully into nurturing and expanding their talent base. This is also great news for top talent as it gets to increasingly share in the financial success both through company perks, private and public share sales and also dividends.
- The M&A and IPO markets will be back. And there?s nothing wrong with dividends either:?It will just take time. Large M&A deals in games are unlikely to be on the horizon. The traditional console folks are too busy fighting each other and do not have the resources to acquire an increasingly confident set of digital pure plays. The leading pure plays on the other hand are mostly focused on ensuring their own model scales before embarking on aggressive M&A. M&A is particularly hard an industry in the middle of a disruption where talent and inspiration are more important than scale. While Zynga?s troubles may have damaged the IPO prospects for the next 18 months or so, if the new generation of companies can show sustained profitability, they will be in an incredibly strong position to consider listing later. Some will undoubtedly choose to stay private and pay out dividends in the medium-run, which is fine from a venture investors perspective. But the option will be there.
The next few years for games will be choppy. But the fundamentals for gaming investments are stronger than ever. As Lasky says, you have to be building a game company and not just a game for venture funding to make sense. And for a venture fund to consider gaming investments, you need to understand the sector.
But neither of those mean that venture investments in games aren?t alive an well. In fact, the team at Initial Capital remain as bullish on the sector as we led the seed round into Supercell. We continue to seek out the very best, most inspired design and coding teams who want to define where games will go next and help them get started with capital, advice and structure.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/17/gaming-venture-capital/
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G-8 advances on Syrian peace talks, tax evasion
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a media conference after a G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a media conference after a G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool)
President Barack Obama walks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, center, and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the site of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
G-8 leaders from left, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama leave the podium after a group photo opportunity during the G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Leaders of the G-8 member countries attend the second plenary work session at the G-8 Summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday June 18, 2013. Leaders are from left, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. (AP Photo/Ian Langsdon, Pool)
G-8 leaders from left, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy walk to a group photo opportunity during the G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other G-8 leaders took a united stance Tuesday on seeking a negotiated Syrian peace settlement to forge a "united, inclusive and democratic" government ? but couldn't agree on whether this means President Bashar Assad must go.
The declaration at the end of the two-day Group of Eight summit sought to narrow the diplomatic chasm between Assad's key backer, Russia, and Western leaders on starting peace talks in Geneva to end a two-year civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives.
G-8 leaders also published sweeping goals for tightening the tax rules on globe-trotting corporations that long have exploited loopholes to shift profits into foreign shelters that charge little tax or none. But that initiative, aimed at forcing the Googles and Apples of the world to pay higher taxes, contained only aspirations, no binding commitments.
The Syrian declaration said the country needs a new coalition government with "a top leadership that inspires public confidence." It made no reference the possibility of sending U.S., British or French weapons to rebels, an option being kept open by all three G-8 members. Russia refused to back any declaration that made Assad's ouster an explicit goal, arguing that it would be impossible to start peace talks with a predetermined outcome.
Reflecting the profound divisions that remain, the British host, Prime Minister David Cameron, declared in response to reporters' questions it was "unthinkable that President Assad can play any part in the future government of his country. He has blood on his hands. He has used chemical weapons."
Putin, speaking simultaneously to Cameron at a different location in a gesture that some diplomats construed as rude, rejected Cameron's views as unproven.
And referring to last month's butchery of an off-duty British soldier in London by ax- and knife-wielding Muslim extremists, Putin warned Cameron that the weapons sent to Syria might end up being used to kill people in Europe.
"There are many such criminals in the ranks of the (Syrian) opposition, such as those who committed the brutal murder in London. Do the Europeans want to provide such people with weapons? ... We are calling on all our partners to thoroughly think it over again before taking this very dangerous step," Putin said.
Reflecting growing unease at the behavior of Muslim extremists in the ranks of Syria's splintered opposition forces, the G-8 declaration said participants in any peace talks must agree to expel al-Qaida-linked fighters from the country.
The declaration condemned human rights abuses committed by government forces and rebels alike, and called on both sides to permit access by U.N.-led chemical weapons experts trying to investigate the contentious claims of chemical weapons use.
In its only concrete commitment, the plan commits a further $1.5 billion in aid for Syrians driven from their homes by the conflict: 4.2 million within Syria and 1.6 million more taking refuge in neighboring countries. The G-8 noted that the new funds would cover only part of the United Nations' 2013 appeal for $5.2 billion in Syria-directed aid.
Earlier, G-8 leaders announced new goals to combat tax avoidance by multinational companies. In a joint statement they said tax authorities should share information "to fight the scourge of tax evasion" and make it harder for companies to "shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes."
Britain heralded the agreement as a good first step toward creating a new environment of corporate transparency. A key principle in the plan would require multinationals to declare how much tax they pay in each country.
U.S. Senate hearings this year investigating the tax payment policies of Apple found that the smartphone and computer innovator also has developed some of the world's most innovative tax-avoidance policies. Apple admitted it used, legally, two companies registered in Ireland ? but in one case managed from the U.S. state of Nevada ? to manage much of the company's non-U.S. profits worldwide and paid taxes at a rate of less than 1 percent.
British lawmakers likewise have sharply criticized Google UK for registering all of its regional sales in neighboring Ireland, which charges half the rate of corporate tax.
Many of the world's leading companies, and even bands like U2, employ complex corporate structures involving multiple subsidiaries in several countries to minimize the tax bills in their home nation. One such maneuver, called the "double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," allows foreign companies to send profits through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company and finally to a second nominally Irish company that is headquartered in a usually British tax haven.
Campaigners for greater tax transparency appealed to the G-8 to ensure that reforms benefited the poorest countries of Africa, South America and Asia as well as the rich West. Anti-poverty campaigners stressed that shell companies provide a key mechanism for embezzling government funds in corrupt countries.
Cameron says Britain will lead by example by creating a registry of who really owns companies, and will consider making it public ? an idea viewed skeptically by many other countries fearful of scaring companies out of their jurisdictions.
And Britain itself stands accused of being one of the world's main links in the tax-avoidance chain. Several of Britain's own island territories ? including Jersey, Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands ? serve as shelters and funnel billions each week through the City of London.
"Of course, Britain's got to put its own house in order," said Britain's treasury chief, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who addressed the G-8 meeting on corporate tax reform along with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
She commended the G-8 initiative as necessary to address taxpayers' indignation at corporate tax-dodging and reflected the fact that "almost all governments need additional revenues."
Before the summit, Britain announced a provisional agreement with the finance chiefs of nine British offshore dependencies and territories to improve their sharing of information on individuals and companies banking cash there.
Also Tuesday, Cameron won commitment from all eight G-8 nations to stop paying ransoms to kidnappers in hope of deterring the practice following January's bloody capture by al-Qaeda-linked militants of an Algerian gas facility. Ten Japanese, five Britons, three Americans and a French national were among the 40 civilians killed as Algerian forces retook the facility.
Hostage-taking of foreign workers for cash payments is on the rise across much of West Africa, particularly Nigeria with its own oil industry dominated by Western companies and foreign managers. Italian and French authorities have been accused of paying ransoms on the quiet.
Cameron invited the leaders of Libya and the African Union to join the talks over lunch to discuss the issue.
___
Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and David McHugh contributed to this report.
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Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent
June 18, 2013 ? The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for stress relief was found to increase the lifespan of fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, according to UC Irvine researchers.
But it's how Rhodiola rosea, also known as golden root, did this that grabbed the attention of study leaders Mahtab Jafari and Sam Schriner. They discovered that Rhodiola works in a manner completely unrelated to dietary restriction and affects different molecular pathways.
This is significant, said Jafari, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, because dietary restriction is considered the most robust method of improving lifespan in laboratory animals, and scientists have been scrambling to identify compounds that can mimic its effects.
"We found that Rhodiola actually increases lifespan on top of that of dietary restriction," Jafari said. "It demonstrates that Rhodiola can act even in individuals who are already long-lived and healthy. This is quite unlike resveratrol, which appears to only act in overfed or unhealthy individuals."
The researchers proved this by putting flies on a calorie-restricted diet. It has been shown that flies live longer when the amount of yeast they consume is decreased. Jafari and Schriner expected that if Rhodiola functioned in the same manner as dietary restriction, it would not work in these flies. But it did. They also tested Rhodiola in flies in which the molecular pathways of dietary restriction had been genetically inactivated. It still worked.
Not only did Rhodiola improve lifespan an average of 24 percent in both sexes and multiple strains of flies, but it also delayed the loss of physical performance in flies as they aged and even extended the lives of old flies. Jafari's group previously had shown that the extract decreased the natural production of reactive oxygen species molecules in the fly mitochondria and protected both flies and cultured human cells against oxidative stress.
Jafari and Schriner, an assistant project scientist in Jafari's laboratory, are not claiming that Rhodiola supplements will enable humans to live longer, but their discovery is enhancing scientific understanding of how supplements believed to promote longevity actually work in the body.
Rhodiola has already shown possible health benefits in humans, such as decreasing fatigue, anxiety and depression; boosting mood, memory and stamina; and preventing altitude sickness. Grown in cold climates at high elevations, the herb has been used for centuries by Scandinavians and Russians to reduce stress. It's also thought to have antioxidant properties.
Jafari's research group is currently exploring the plant's potential to kill cancer cells, improve Alzheimer's disease and help stem cells grow.
Rhodiola is readily available online and in health food stores. Jafari, though, has analyzed several commercial products and found them to not contain sufficient amounts of the reputed active compounds -- such as rosavin and salidroside -- that characterize high-quality products.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/AhqPHvYGpj8/130618125112.htm
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013
China is outsourcing carbon: Key findings on regional, global impact of trade on environment
June 10, 2013 ? In the wake of concerns over climate change and other emergent environmental issues, both individuals and governments are examining the impact of consumer and producer behavior and policies. In two new studies, three researchers from the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical Sciences publish groundbreaking findings on the environmental impact of globalization, production and trade on both regional and international scales.
Professor Klaus Hubacek and researchers Yang Yu and Kuishuang Feng's "Tele-connecting local consumption to global land use" appeared in Global Environmental Change and is available now online. Hubacek and Feng, with co-authors from leading institutions worldwide, published "Outsourcing CO2 within China" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Tele-connecting local consumption to global land use"
As local consumption is increasingly met by global supply chains, often involving great geographical distances, the impact of consumer behavior on the environment is becoming increasingly apparent. Hubacek, Yu and Feng's research concretely connects local consumption to global land use through tracking global commodity and value chains via international trade flows. Specifically, they have zeroed in on land use attributed to "unusual" sectors, including services, machinery and equipment, and construction.
Their findings show how developed countries, such as the United States, consume a large amount of goods and services from both domestic and international markets, and thus impose pressure on their domestic land resources and displace land in other countries, creating an impact on how land is used, and consuming land that could potentially be used in more environmentally friendly ways. For example, 33 percent of total U.S. land use for consumption purposes is displaced from other countries, which is actually at the lower end of the global spectrum: the ratio becomes much larger for the EU (more than 50 percent) and Japan (92 percent).
The researchers have also illustrated the vast gap between consumption habits of rich and relatively poor countries. Their research shows that rich countries tend to displace land by consuming non-agricultural products, such as services, clothing and household appliances, which account for more than 50 percent of their total land displacement. For developing economies, such as African countries, the share of land use for non-agricultural products is much lower, with an average of seven percent.
"In addition, the emerging economies and population giants, China and India, are likely to further increase their appetite for land from other countries, such as Africa, Russia and Latin America, to satisfy their own land needs driven by their fast economic growth and the needs and lifestyles of their growing populations," Hubacek said. "Obviously, there are significant global consequences when these types of demands exceed the supply of land. We are all competing for the same resources. Land can be used to produce factories for fashion items or food for people or important ecosystems for non-human species."
Hubacek said the very countries that are putting the most strain on the global stage and on developing countries must emerge as leaders to address this problem. He believes that the U.S., as well as the EU, Japan, China and India, should play a key role in reducing these environmental impacts through an international framework.
Yu, Feng and Hubacek hope their findings and recommended next steps can be applied to other timely environmental problems, and allow them to link local environmental degradation to specific groups of consumers within a country.
"Outsourcing CO2 within China"
Going beyond recent studies demonstrating that the high standard of living enjoyed by people in the richest countries often comes at the expense of CO2 emissions produced with technologies of low efficiency in less affluent, developing countries, Hubacek, Feng and their coauthors have now shown that this dynamic can exist within a single country's borders. Focusing on China, the world's largest CO2 emitter, the authors illustrate that rich regions consuming and exporting high-value goods and services depend upon production of low-cost and emission-intensive goods and services from poorer regions, creating an environmental burden on those poorer regions.
Tracking CO2 emissions embodied in products traded among Chinese provinces and internationally, the researchers found that 57 percent of China's emissions are related to goods that are consumed outside of the province where they are produced. For instance, up to 80 percent of the emissions related to goods consumed in the highly developed coastal provinces are imported from less developed provinces in central and western China where many low value added but high carbon-intensive goods are produced.
"The carbon intensity of imports to the affluent coastal provinces is much greater than that of their exports -- in some cases by a factor of four, because many of these imports originate in western provinces where the technologies are highly inefficient, the economic structure is energy intensive and heavily dependent on coal," Hubacek said. "The more ambitious CO2 mitigation targets set for the coastal provinces may lead to additional outsourcing and carbon leakage if such provinces respond by importing even more products from less developed provinces where climate policy is less demanding."
The researchers warn that without policy attention to this sort of interprovincial carbon leakage, the less developed provinces will struggle to meet their emissions intensity targets while the more developed provinces might achieve their own targets by further outsourcing. Consumption-based accounting of emissions can thus inform effective and equitable climate policy within China.
"The same effect occurs on a global scale, as richer countries outsource polluting industries and manufacturing to developing countries -- including China -- where costs are lower and regulations may be more lax," says Feng, "we must reduce CO2 emissions, not just outsource them."
"Developed regions and countries need to take some responsibility, providing technology support or investment to promote cleaner, greener technology in less-developed regions. Current attempts to tackle climate change may simply encourage richer countries to outsource their emissions to poorer regions of the world, placing an unfair and unmanageable burden on those regions," he says.
Hubacek hopes the research can be used to inform consumers, as well as policy makers, about the carbon consequences of their choices.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/8U2bj2gpvXM/130610152131.htm
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Apple's iRadio Plans Mean Apple Will Need to Sell Radio Ads ...
Asa Mathat | D: All Things Digital
It took a while, but Apple is finally ready to announce its iRadio service. It should get a formal introduction at Apple?s WWDC event today, and a launch later this year.
We don?t know if Apple is actually calling iRadio ?iRadio.? But at this point we do know quite a bit about the streaming music service:
- Apple has been trying to launch it since last fall, but only started getting the formal backing of the big music companies in the last few months. Sony, the last big holdout, signed on late last week.
- iRadio is meant to be a ?Pandora-plus? offering: It will be free, and will give listeners more control over their music than Pandora or other Web radio services, but not as much as paid subscription services like Spotify or Google Play Music All Access (they really call it that).
- Like most digital music services, Apple will pay the music owners a fraction of a penny every time someone plays one of their songs. Unlike most digital music services, Apple also plans to sell advertising, and will give music owners a cut of that, too.
If you?re trying to gauge iRadio?s prospects, it?s that last part that should be most interesting. Because it sets up the possibility that iRadio could work very well for Apple ? by creating a sticky feature that keeps people using its iOS platform instead of jumping ship to Google/Samsung/Amazon/whomever ? but end up disappointing music owners, who are still looking to replace the giant pile of money that Napster and file-sharing evaporated way back in 1999.
The problem: If Apple wants to generate real ad money for iRadio, then that means it has to try to crack the market for radio ads. And that is a very, very un-Appley business.
Radio is a $14 billion industry?that has proven remarkably resilient to digital. It doesn?t really matter what kind of precision targeting the Internet offers ? the bulk of that $14 billion comes from local ad sales, which means you need to get ad reps reaching out to car dealers, grocery stores, etc.
And it?s a slog. Pandora, by far the biggest play in Web radio ads, has been diligently trying to build out an ad business for a long time. It is on track to do something like $630 million this year. Google and Yahoo have both tried digital audio ads, and bailed out.
Meanwhile, Apple?s previous forays into ads, which started off when the company bought Quattro three years ago and launched iAd, haven?t amounted to much. And at the D: All Things Digital conference last month, CEO Tim Cook sounded profoundly unenthusiastic about ads.
Again: Apple could end up with a goose egg for iRadio revenue and still consider the service a success. If iRadio helps sell more iPhones, or keeps iPhone users from ditching their handsets for a Google X phone or whatever, then it?s well worth the hassle. But it?s hard to see this making real money for the people who own the songs.
RELATED POSTS:
Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130610/why-iradio-could-be-a-hit-for-apple-and-a-dud-for-big-music/
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Inside the different Android Versions
If you've heard of Android, chances are you've heard all about its various versions. Some call it fragmentation, some say it's the nature of open-source, but in reality it's both a curse and a blessing. Regardless, it's good to have a little context about what all these version numbers and names mean when you see them posted on the Internet.
Each major version of Android has a dessert-based nickname, and they are all in alphabetical order. We like to think it's because of the delicious things they each have offered, but the folks at Google are pretty tight-lipped about why they used the internal code names they did. They certainly have a good sense of humor, and seem to like tasty deserts.
Below is a quick primer on the the different versions of Android that are still alive and kicking, from newest to oldest:
     |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Qbsqzuyk__k/story01.htm
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Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Screenshots of redesigned Google Maps surface, show web UI without a sidebar
If you can trust a couple of screenshots posted by the unofficial Google Operating System blog this evening, we'll soon see a new Google Maps experience on the web. As shown above, the sidebar is toast, gone in favor of overlays for the necessary information, a move that more resembles its mobile app, the apps / websites of some of its competitors, and even its own Google Maps Engine view. Also noted as different are elements like the icons and colors, but the most major change could be integration with Google+ to filter search results to locations recommended by your friends. With Google I/O just days away this could be a perfect time for changes to roll out from Mountain View, we hope to know by then if one of our most used websites is getting a fresh coat of paint.
Source: Google Operating System
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'There is no food': Post-revolutionary economic turmoil ... - World News
Charlene Gubash / NBC News
Hany Sayed, 40, and his wife Layla Ali, 30, sit with four of their five children in the two-room windowless shack they were forced to move into after he lost his job as a carpenter's assistant.
By Charlene Gubash, Producer, NBC News
CAIRO, Egypt ? Egypt?s revolution has not been kind to Hany Sayed and his family.?
When Sayed lost his job as a carpenter?s assistant in the capital six months ago, he, his wife and their five children were forced out of their three-bedroom home and into a two-room shed used to store saddles and tack.
Together the couple earn $143 a month, most of which is spent on food. Still, the children, aged?2 to 13, rarely eat meat or chicken. A doctor at a free clinic told them that the children were calcium and iron deficient and needed extra vitamins, which Sayed said he cannot afford.?
Even the youngest children don?t drink milk, only water and tea, he said.
?Sometimes when we watch them sleep, we just cry,? said the 40-year-old, who now works mucking out stables. ??We see there is no food and we don?t know what to do.? ?
Ahmed Youssef / EPA
Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.
Sayed and his family would be forgiven for expecting better. When the Arab world's most populous country rose up to depose President Hosni Mubarak two years ago, the desire for change went beyond the political ? hopes ran high that a new regime would usher in a revitalized economic era.
Protesters?that helped bring down the old government adopted the slogan: ?Bread, freedom and social justice!???
So when Mohammed Morsi came to power in June on promises of economic and political reform, as well as and help for the poorest, many thought their lot would improve.
But instead of getting better, the economy has stagnated, the country?s currency lost much of its value and inflation bumped up food prices.
While the government subsidizes basic types of bread, other staples are becoming more expensive: Kidney bean prices grew by nearly 24 percent in the year to March, onions were up 12 percent, ?and tomatoes 10.1 percent, according to Egypt Independent newspaper.?
Dr. Nadia Belhaj Hassine, of the International Economic Research Centre, a Canadian organization that supports researchers and experts in the developing world, cited a slew of issues that help ensure families like the Sayeds are stuck in crushing poverty. They include the global downturn, regional turmoil and Islamist rhetoric frightening away international investors.
But she also blamed the ?huge problem of inexperienced government.?
?They are not aware of what has been done in the past and what should be done,? she said. ??They don?t have any vision about what kind of economic reforms to undertake in the short and long term and how to improve the investment environment.?
Officials at Egypt?s planning and finance ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Some hope a $4.8-billion International Monetary Fund loan will help stabilize the economy, but the deal has not been signed. Foreign reserves, which were $36 billion in 2011, now stand at $13.5 billion, just enough for three months of such crucial imports as wheat and gas. ?
Ahmed Ali / AP
Egypt holds its first elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian pound has lost 13 percent of its value against the dollar in the past year. ?This makes essentials more expensive, which hits families like the Sayeds directly.
Life is difficult, and looks to getting worse for many, according to Gian Pietro Bordignon, World Food Program country director. ?
Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, with another 20 percent hovering just above?it. And while there are no statistics for the period 2012/2013, indications are that malnutrition rates of around 30 percent are also on the increase, he said.
Poverty and malnutrition has visible and long-term effects, he added.
?Without essential nutrients, minerals, vitamins, children cannot grow their brain potential. They have a lower academic performance,? he said. ?Malnutrition is not only a personal problem of human suffering but impacts the nation as a whole.??
It isn?t only meat, milk and new clothes that have disappeared from the Sayeds? lives. The chance of a better future is also fading: All five children stopped going to school when even the meager expenses needed for free education became too much. ?
?I feel sad when I see my friends go to school,? daughter Fatma, 13, said.
Her father has darker thoughts: ?Sometimes, I even think of selling my kidney to live.?
Related:
Egyptians fear wave of vigilantism
Egypt's Mubarak ordered back to prison ahead of retrial
Full Egypt coverage from NBC News
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Anti-depressant link to Clostridium difficile infection
May 7, 2013 ? Certain types of anti-depressants have been linked to an increase in the risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) finds a study in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Awareness of this link should improve identification and early treatment of CDI.
CDI is one of the most common hospital acquired infections and is responsible for more than 7000 deaths annually in the USA alone. Several types of medications are thought to increase risk of CDI, including anti-depressants, and given that depression is the third most common medical condition worldwide a team from the University of Michigan investigated the exact nature of this risk.
Firstly the team studied Clostridium difficile infection in people with and without depression and found that people with major depression had a much higher chance of CDI (a 36% increase) than people without depression. This association held for a variety of depressive disorders and nervous or psychiatric problems. Age and family support also impacted risk of CDI. Older, widowed Americans were 54% more likely to catch C. difficile than their married peers. Just living alone increased risk by 25%.
Secondly they looked to see if there was an association between antidepressant medication and hospital acquired CDI. They found that use of most types of antidepressants did not affect CDI risk -- out of the twelve drugs tested only mirtazapine and fluoxetine increased risk of CDI, in each case the risk was doubled.
People who have been prescribed these types of anti-depressants need to keep taking them unless otherwise advised by their physician. The researchers stress that it is not yet known whether the increase in CDI is due to microbial changes in the gut during depression or to the medications associated with depression.
Dr. Mary Rogers who led this study explained, "Depression is common worldwide. We have long known that depression is associated with changes in the gastrointestinal system. The interaction between the brain and the gut, called the "brain-gut axis" is fascinating and deserves more study. Our finding of a link between depression and Clostridium difficile should help us better identify those at risk of infection and perhaps, encourage exploration of the underlying brain-gut mechanisms involved."
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/6menTD7yQfw/130507061048.htm
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Monday, May 6, 2013
Delaware to vote on becoming 11th state to allow gay marriage
By Edith Honan
(Reuters) - Delaware lawmakers will take up a gay marriage bill on Tuesday in a bid to make the state the 11th to allow same-sex couples to wed.
The scheduled vote in the state's Democrat-controlled Senate follows the General Assembly's passage of the bill several weeks ago. Governor Jack Markell, an outspoken supporter of gay marriage, has vowed to sign the bill into law if it clears the Senate.
The vote follows a string of victories for advocates of same sex marriage. Last Friday, lawmakers in Rhode Island gave final approval to a marriage bill, which Gov. Lincoln Chafee quickly signed into law.
Last November, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington state approved ballot measures legalizing gay marriage, marking the first time voters in any state extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in a popular referendum.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition for same-sex couples.
Other states that allow same-sex marriage are: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and Iowa. Delaware has allowed same-sex couples to enter into civil unions since 2011.
A majority of U.S. states, including much of the South, have approved constitutional amendments that define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The amendments effectively bar those states from formally recognizing same-sex relationships.
(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Paul Thomasch)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/delaware-vote-becoming-11th-state-allow-gay-marriage-050127136.html
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10 Tech-Savvy Hotel Innovations | Travel News from Fodor's Travel ...
You probably used some form of technology to book your room. You're Instagramming like a maniac. You've brought along your favorite travel gadgets. So it's only fitting that modern hotels jump on the tech bandwagon themselves. We started taking note of some ways that technology is making your hotel stay even easier; herewith some of our favorite tech-savvy accommodations across the country.
1. Check In Easier
In addition to the traditional front desk experience, the Hyatt Regency Chicago offers check-in via a lobby ambassador holding a special iPad. Guests can also use a nearby kiosk to select a room, inquire about an upgrade, and obtain an RFID key. (That's a card key with a fancy chip inside, so it can't become demagnetized, saving you those frustrating calls/trips back to the front desk!)
Similarly, Radisson is currently experimenting with kiosks at four pilot locations (La Crosse, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle). Guests can virtually check in online 24 hours ahead, receive a confirmation email with a barcode, scan that barcode in the lobby, and receive their key.
What to do if you're ready, but your room isn't? ARIA Las Vegas will take your cell number, give you your key, and text you the room number when it's all set. That way you're not tied down to waiting around and can head right to it without having to wait in another line.
2. Connect and Charge Your Gadgets
Building on the work of whatever genius thought to place an electrical outlet in the base of a lamp, all ARIA rooms feature a desk-side panel with a multitude of multimedia connections. It starts with two adapter-friendly electrical outlets plus two USB ports, to flexibly power your devices. Then you've got HDMI, VGA, RCA, and S-Video ports, so you can view images from a computer, camcorder, or any other video device through your room's TV. Likewise, you can pipe audio in through a standard 3.5mm jack or a docked iPod/iPhone connection. And in case you don't feel like going wireless for whatever reason, there's also a wired Internet port.
3. Remotely Control Everything in Your Room
One of the best features of the LodgeNet service (that powers the TV menu in your room) is that you can use its free companion app (available for both Android and iOS) in over 630,000 hotel rooms across North America. With it loaded, you can use your own phone or tablet to power the TV on/off; change the channel; browse, order, and control in-room movies.
When you first enter your room at ARIA, you're greeted with lights automatically turning on, the curtains parting, and your TV turning on to display all your control options. From there, you can use the special remote?or one of the room's conveniently located interactive touch displays?to operate the TV, lights, air conditioning, and motorized curtains from pretty much anywhere in the room. The system has a few one-touch options for quickly setting the mood. You can even have an alarm wake you up not just at a specific time, but also with your desired temperature, curtain position, light intensity, and music playing!
4. Be Your Own Concierge
The new Radisson iConcierge app (launched early April on Android and iOS) allows guests to access a wide variety of services including the ability to order room service, book a spa appointment, set a wake-up call, get your luggage picked up, and grab a taxi.
Every guestroom at Tallahassee's boutique Hotel Duval comes equipped with a 23-inch Interactive Customer Experience (ICE) touch screen display. In addition to ordering housekeeping, dining, and valet services, guests can use them to check email, look up the weather, print boarding passes, and search local events and attractions. Other nice touches include the ability for brides and grooms to record a welcome video for their guests to play back on ICE-equipped in-room iPads.
Boston's Revere Hotel features a couple of iPads preloaded with the iKnow Concierge. In six different languages, the tablets help guests to access a wide variety of services, from finding a tailor to snagging tickets at a concert. Whether you're into finding food, spa, or sports, these devices can help you self-serve.
Grand Traverse Resort & Spa's New Digital Concierge app enables guests with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop to find exclusive on- and off-property deals and discounts; reserve tee times and view scores at one of their three golf courses; pull up meeting and event agendas; and access a plethora of other helpful information about the hotel and surrounding area.
Guests of the one-year old all-suite Conrad New York (and any of the other 20-plus Conrad locations) can take advantage of the just-launched Conrad Concierge (for Android, iPad, and iPhone). Features include the ability to arrange airport transportation, choose designer bath amenities, and time a meal to arrive in your room right as you do.
5. Have Peace of Mind
The Hyatt Regency Chicago is blanketed with a network of high-megapixel cameras. The security team can monitor all the property's public areas either from their base station or their mobile devices. It's a big place (Chicago's biggest hotel!), but it's under control.
Downtown Atlanta's Ellis Hotel is a posh haven for female travelers, offering a women-only floor with keyed access. Along with a selection of amenities like hair straighteners and curling irons, each room offers an online "kiss cam" to help keep in touch with friends and family. Just hook it up to your laptop, follow the on-screen instructions, and you're virtually face-to-face with your loved ones.
6. Stay Online Everywhere on Property
Long gone are the days of "free Wi-Fi" meaning single-bar coverage only on that one special cushion of the couch in the lobby. The Hyatt Regency Chicago has planted over 800 wireless access points around the hotel. So you can stay connected pretty much everywhere.
As soon as you walk into Bellagio Las Vegas, a friendly welcome message automatically pops onto your device, letting you know you're both on the property and online. WiFi hotspots are cleverly hidden, but there is even plentiful access by the pool. Guests (and visitors) can benefit from complimentary service at a reasonable speed (3 Mbps) or may also pay for faster service (up to 10 Mbps).
7. Find Your Way
In fact, Bellagio has so many Internet hotspots, their app (about to upgrade to version two, with all sorts of new bells and whistles) can triangulate your exact indoor location and give you step-by-step directions to whatever fun, trendy (and tangible) hotspots you choose to visit within and around the upscale casino/resort.
Over 100 interactive plasma displays (along with rotating digital convention signage) make navigating the spacious Hyatt Regency Chicago easy. And additional touchscreens with Google Maps allows guests to precisely locate meeting spaces and also find their way around the city.
Eight of Hotel Indigo's locations around the US have been testing Interactive Media Displays, with nearly a quarter million guest interactions to date. That includes 30,000 local secrets shared within the Indigo community, as guests seek to discover the hotels' surrounding neighborhoods and pass along their best tips of what to see and taste. More than 7,000 photos have been taken at the displays, which can upload pics right to Facebook.
8. Borrow Spare Gadgets
If you forget toiletries, many hotels offer a kit. But what about if you leave a gadget at home? The "Business Bar" at Eventi in New York can help pick up the tech slack. Grab a tablet, laptop, e-reader, still or video camera, headphones, wires, chargers, or other digital lifesavers for business or leisure. Honestly, with all that gadgety goodness at your disposal, you can afford to pack less?or at least not stress about having every single device on hand.
9. Do Your Business in Style
A perfect blend of fun and practical, the uber-luxurious Aria Sky Suites feature Washlets, fancy toilets with heated temperature-control seats that automatically raise as you approach; gentle aerated warm water bidet with warm air dryer; and automatic self-cleansing dual-action spray and air deodorizer. It's just one amongst many technological advances in the suites, but definitely a crowd pleaser.
10. Take Off
Simple but useful, the ARIA also pulls a direct feed from nearby McCarran International Airport and displays it right on the TV in your room. So you can confirm the timing of your flight. Especially helpful, so you don't preemptively leave the comforts of your room before you have to.
Fodors.com Travel Technology Columnist Scott Tharler is an expert in gadgets, gambling, and travel. He's written four books, hundreds of mobile and wireless tips, and dozens of freelance articles. Find links to other gadget articles, social feeds and lists of his current favorite gadgets at about.me/gadgetfans.
Photo credits: Hyatt Regency Chicago courtesy of Hyatt Regency Chicago; ARIA Las Vegas room and remote courtesy of ARIA Las Vegas; Radisson app screens courtesy of iTunes/Radisson; Bellagio app screens courtesyof iTunes/Bellagio; Eventi Business Bar courtesy of Scott Tharler
Source: http://www.fodors.com/news/10-techsavvy-hotel-innovations-6750.html
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Colombia's Santos opts for diplomacy in Uribe, Maduro spat
By Helen Murphy
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday refused to be drawn into a war of words between his predecessor - and harshest critic - and Venezuela's new president, Nicholas Maduro.
Maduro, elected last month to replace the late Hugo Chavez, said on Friday he had evidence that Alvaro Uribe, president of Colombia from 2002 until mid 2010, was conspiring with the Venezuelan opposition to kill him.
Santos was reprimanded on social media and by another former president for not responding to Maduro's explosive comments, which also included an allegation that Uribe could have been involved in the death of a Venezuelan journalist.
Santos said he would not comment publicly on the dispute - a veiled poke at Uribe, who has used his Twitter account to defend himself against Maduro's attacks that he is a "Mafioso" and "murderer."
"The dignity of former presidents is defended better - not with shouts or public insults - but through the corresponding diplomatic channels," Santos said on his Twitter account.
While Santos is playing it safe, Maduro's outburst against the former head of state threatens to disrupt the diplomatic peace between the two nations, formed by Chavez and Santos after years of cross-border bickering.
Caracas broke off diplomatic relations with Uribe's government in 2010 after he accused the leftist Chavez of harboring FARC rebel leaders inside Venezuela.
Santos, who has frequently sparred in public with Uribe, was chided by former President Andres Pastrana for not responding to Maduro's comments.
"What's at stake is Colombia's dignity," said Pastrana, who held office before Uribe. "We can't let a former president be insulted because there are discrepancies between Santos and Uribe."
For many Colombians, it was not surprising that Santos did not jump to defend Uribe, his former boss when he served as defense minister, since the two have been at loggerheads for the best part of his presidency.
A conservative and staunch U.S. ally, Uribe has been Santos' fiercest and most public critic, most rabidly against his ties with Caracas and his bid to reach a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Maduro, the self-professed "son of Chavez," has made a series of accusations since taking office last month.
He has accused the United States of seeking to kill opposition leader Henrique Capriles to stir chaos and spark a coup. He later said he himself was the target of an assassination plot by mercenaries from El Salvador.
Uribe on Sunday urged Colombia's attorney general to investigate Maduro over the "irresponsible slanders and threats," in case the Venezuelan leader ever visits Colombia.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colombias-santos-opts-diplomacy-uribe-maduro-spat-184544977.html
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The Fence Junkies
Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol stands along the section of fencing right in front of his 104-acre compound Photo by David Weigel.
HEREFORD, Ariz. ? Glenn Spencer wakes every day in pitch dark, at 3 a.m., a habit he picked up in the last couple of years. ?I do my best thinking in the morning,? he explains. The early morning is also when he usually gets an audio tape intercepting chatter between U.S. border patrol agents, which he edits for public consumption. He always uses this information to plot a map of border crossings. Spencer?s group, American Border Patrol, will release all of this online.
I wake up at 4 a.m. in the ?Coronado house? that Spencer opens for visitors to his 104-acre property on the U.S.-Mexico border. The property abuts a border fence that sinks six feet into the ground and shoots up 18 feet above it. I got there at sundown the day before, which meant turning off I-92, past a wary border patrol agent, and driving five miles of dirt roads past dozens of ranches. All of them sport sturdy fences around the dirt and brush. Many of them are for sale.
Years ago Spencer bought this compound from one of those sellers, a retired colonel who couldn?t put up with the drug cartel shootouts. Four years after the construction of that fence, there aren?t any shootouts. It?s a ?gated community,? a ?little Shangri-la,? says Spencer. The rehabbed guesthouse sits in front of a landscaped pond, and Spencer keeps a sound system and laptop outside, piping jazzy covers of pop-rock hits. At night the only light comes from the stars, the Mexican mining town of Cananea, and from a border patrol floodlight so intense you could sit on your porch and read by the glow.
But this isn?t what wakes me up. Spencer owns seven German Shepherds, and some of them have started howling for attention. At 7 a.m. sharp, Spencer drives from his place to the guesthouse on an ATV. Seventy-five years old, with the cheerful look and vocal rasp of Santa Claus in some Rankin/Bass animation, he speculates that the dogs staying with him were disagreeing with the dog staying with me. The dog that spent the night in my quarters is covered in black-and-white spots and named Migra?as in la migra, immigration police.
?She doesn?t get along with the others,? says Spencer.
Spencer, who has devoted the last 20 years of his life to the immigration wars, kicks his doors wide open for the media. When the Southern Poverty Law Center designates you ?anti-immigrant? and a ?vitriolic Mexican-basher,? what choice do you have? He?s showed up to legislative hearings in Phoenix and Democrats have walked out. He?s been in touch with the office of his congressman, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber, but apart for that he?s ?persona non grata.?
So he talks to the press?and, he says, to defense contractors. Spencer initially invited me to the border to watch a trial run of a new gyroscopic surveillance drone designed by his team. The nucleus of the Spencer operation is actually Border Technology, Inc., headquartered a short walk from the guesthouse (just past a horse stable), and made famous in 2003 and 2004 when it started running homemade Border Hawk planes on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico fence. Two years ago, Spencer buried seismic sensors, the kind that he used to find oil deposits in his private sector days, to test whether they could trace border movements.
?I was a good systems engineering thinker,? he says. ?That?s what I?m applying right now. Here I am trying to present technology trying to solve the border problem, and the whole thing is about what a hateful guy I am! What the hell is happening in this country??
What Spencer thinks is happening is that waves of illegal immigrants from Mexico have weakened America, and could weaken it further. This is specifically why he bothers the Southern Poverty Law Center. In the 1990s, while living in his native California, Spencer worked to pass Proposition 187 (which denied state benefits to the undocumented), and recoiled in horror when it was stymied by politicians and the courts. He started warning of a ?Mexican takeover of the southwestern United States,? and in 2001 he delivered a homemade video about this, Bonds of Our Nations, to every member of Congress. DVDs of Spencer?s videos about ?Aztlan? sit around Border Technology?s workrooms, right next to the CubeX 3-D printer the company just bought, to make plastic components for the new drones.
Glenn Spencer stands near a five foot "Normandy-style" fence near his property, on the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by David Weigel.
?I moved here because it was clear that California was just gone,? says Spencer. His old state went socialist, thanks to immigrants who grab at benefits, hospital care, and food stamps that we pay for. ?Here?s a question. Why are 50 percent of the students at UCLA from Asia? Why are they not 70 percent Latinos? That?s because of a different attitude [toward] education. Instead of being launched into a brave new world of science and technology, we?re going backward. We keep this up, we?re going to be a Third-World country?the only one with nuclear weapons. Nobody?s ever thought of that? Us, turning into a third world country??
This is rhetorical: Plenty of people have thought about that. That?s why the grand project of closing down the border with technology is such a risk. The senators currently trying to legalize millions of immigrants are in on the plan?not Spencer?s plan, exactly, but an impressive-sounding matrix that borrows from what we?ve learned in foreign wars. If they get their way, we?ll have a secure border and a growing immigrant population.
So Spencer and his team keep the discussion to two main topics: The reality of the border and the technology that could close it. The American Border Patrol?s compound is a short walk from the border itself, separated by rough red desert, bushes, and tufts of brown grass.
They estimate that the Identiseis project, the burying-sensors-in-the-ground plan, would cost $100,000 per mile. Sensors could be buried up to 6-feet deep, run on solar power?a massive green jobs initiative that tracks the footsteps of people trying to walk from Mexico into Texas or Arizona. The total price tag?maybe $200,000,000 to secure the entire border?sounds ludicrous, and apart from the defense contractor that Spencer can?t name (?one of the big five?), no one could verify it, but it?s roughly 5 percent of the cost of the border fence, and less than Boeing was going to ask for its own scheme?known as the Secure Border Initiative?had it actually worked before a disappointed Department of Homeland Security scrapped it in 2011.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=54f703644f16b3e0587abc6fe2c9b178
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