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.

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Source: Google Operating System

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/google-maps-redesign-leak/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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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

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/05/18001075-there-is-no-food-post-revolutionary-economic-turmoil-dashes-hopes-in-egypt?lite

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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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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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Boston bombing: Man accused of lying to investigators asks to be released

One of the three men who visited Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarvaev's dorm room after the bombing is seeking release from jail. Robel Phillipos, 19, is charged with lying to investigators.?

By Associated Press / May 5, 2013

This courtroom sketch shows defendant Robel Phillipos appearing in front of Federal Magistrate Marianne Bowler at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Mass. on May 1. Phillipos, and two other college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were arrested and Phillipos was charged with lying to investigators about visiting Tsarnaev's dorm room.

Jane Flavell Collins/AP

Enlarge

Lawyers for a man charged with lying to investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings are asking a federal judge to release him from jail, saying he had nothing to do with the deadly bombings and isn't a flight risk.

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Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, faces a detention hearing Monday in US District Court. Defense attorneys said in court documents filed Saturday that authorities' claim that Phillipos gave them conflicting accounts is "refutable."

"This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation," lawyers Derege Demissie and Susan Church wrote. "The weight of the federal government under such circumstances can have a devastatingly crushing effect on the ability of an adolescent to withstand the enormous pressure and respond rationally."

Phillipos was charged last week with lying to investigators about visiting bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college dorm room on April 18, three days after the bombings. Two other friends were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by taking a backpack with fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev's dorm room.

Phillipos was at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where all four men had studied, by coincidence on April 18, his lawyers said in the court papers. He had taken a leave of absence in December and hadn't spoken to Tsarnaev or the other two men for more than two months, they said.

"By sheer coincidence and bad luck, he was invited to attend a seminar on campus on April 18," the night the three allegedly went to Tsarnaev's dorm room, according to the documents. "As such, he did not have much to offer the authorities regarding the investigation of the suspect."

To support their request for bail, the lawyers filed affidavits from friends and relatives of Phillipos who described him as a considerate, thoughtful and friendly young man, the son of a single mother who emigrated to the United States from Ethiopia. They said he wasn't a flight risk, noting that he is lifelong resident of Massachusetts and has many relatives there.

Phillipos faces a maximum of eight years behind bars and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, are accused of carrying out the April 15 bombing, which used pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards. The attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with police days later. Dzho

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ZcqH4jkKlyU/Boston-bombing-Man-accused-of-lying-to-investigators-asks-to-be-released

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The Onion Explains Exactly How Much Your Social Media Cred Is Worth

With some characteristically sharp little jabs, The Onion makes it clear exactly how much all your online friends are worth with this great clip. And still, I have to admit I'm a little jealous of Wasserman's follower count. I mean, damn.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ga_r34H8u-s/the-onion-explains-exactly-how-much-your-social-media-c-491536784

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Ask Engadget: best desktop PC speakers?

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from James, who wants to break into audio mixing, but needs some noisyboxes for his desk. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

I'm no audiophile, but I would like some decent quality sound for my desktop. I've tried 4.1, 2.1, 2.0 setups but none of them made me very happy, which isn't helping my attempts to get into professional audio work. Is there a lower-end line of speakers that the pros use that I'd be able to afford?

Fortunately for you, James, we can turn this question over to our podcast producer, who suggested that you could do worse than a pair of KRK RP6G2 Rockit speakers, which come in at $400 for a pair. They're studio monitors rather than purely desktop speakers, but if you want to start working in audio then you're probably better off with these. Of course, it wouldn't be Ask Engadget unless we turned this question over to our clever crew of commenters, so if you know of anything that's better (or cheaper) then fire your answer into the comments below.

Filed under: Desktops, Portable Audio/Video

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/04/ae-desktop-speakers/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Charter Members to be Inducted into Zeta Pi Chapter of Chi Alpha ...

A lifelong resident of Trenton, Ishiya Ashley Hayes was yet a young girl when her mother instilled in her the importance of earning an education and contributing to her community. Simply put, Hayes was taught to make a difference ? both in her own life and in the lives of others. At Rutgers?Camden, she found the much-needed support of the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) staff, which helped her to achieve her personal and academic goals ? sometimes in her greatest hours of despair. But she also learned that, although others were there to help, she had to do her part.

Endowed with tenacity, Hayes responded in kind by giving back. She served as the state representative for the Rutgers?Camden student chapter of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), where, among her many contributions, she advocated for affordable textbooks, and raised money to combat hunger in the city of Camden. She was also active in the university?s student chapter of Amnesty International, and participated in community and service-learning projects while studying abroad in South Africa.

All the while, Hayes still managed to maintain a 3.63 GPA, while pursuing dual bachelor?s degrees in English and Africana studies, with a minor in sociology. As she nears graduation on May 23, she aspires to a career that stays true to her activism and engages her love of writing, focusing on stories that emphasize the importance of tenacity in spite of one?s circumstances.

On May 3, Hayes will be one of 23 Rutgers?Camden honorees to be inducted as charter members of the Zeta Pi chapter of the Chi Alpha Epsilon National Honor Society. Founded in 1989 by Elbert Saddler, a Rutgers?Camden alumnus, Chi Alpha Epsilon recognizes first-generation college students who enter colleges through developmental and opportunity program pathways. The Zeta Pi chapter is open to Rutgers??Camden students in the EOF and TRiO programs who have a minimum 3.00 cumulative grade point average.

Saddler, a 1975 graduate of Rutgers?Camden with a bachelor?s degree in psychology, and Rutgers?Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett will deliver opening remarks at the ceremony, held during the EOF graduation celebration. Forever known as charter members, Hayes and her fellow honorees will take the society?s oath to continue to excel academically, to promote academic excellence in others, and to help those who genuinely aspire to achieve these goals.

?I cannot fully express how much it means to me to be inducted into an honor society that Dr. Elbert Saddler, a former Rutgers??Camden student, founded,? she says. ?This achievement further supports the fact that EOF students cannot only follow in the footsteps of the ones who came before them, but they can also use the platform to lead others.?

While it is an honor to be recognized as an inductee, it will be a distinguished achievement for the first group of Rutgers?Camden students to receive this honor, says Tammy Russell, the director of the EOF program at Rutgers?Camden. ?Graduation is a goal in itself, but being a part of this honor society provides them with an added incentive.?

Chi Alpha Epsilon is recognized as a premiere honor society by a number of national academic organizations, including the Council for Opportunity in Education and the National Association of Developmental Education. Zeta Pi now joins more than 200 chapters nationwide, including those based at Rutgers??New Brunswick.

According to Russell, the honor society exemplifies Rutgers? mission of leadership and public service. ?We encourage students here to be active and civically engaged,? she says. ?It is a mission of the honor society as well, so it will go a long way in helping us to achieve those goals.?

For Russell, the charter resonates with her on a personal level as well, as she too was a first-generation college student. ?I never had the opportunity to participate in something like this,? says Russell, who will be inducted as an honorary member, along with Jose Robinson, senior counselor for the EOF program. ?It makes me proud to see students who were considered academically at risk achieve such an honor. It proves once again that there should never be this stigma that these students can?t perform, let alone thrive, on this level.?

EOF contributes to the development of a college-educated public that reflects the diversity of New Jersey. EOF works in partnership with New Jersey colleges and universities and the K-12 educational system to provide access to higher education for students from families and communities disadvantaged by low-income and the lack of access to the quality educational preparation necessary to attend college. EOF partners with established pre-college efforts and seeks to initiate additional opportunities to identify and prepare students for college at the pre-collegiate level.

For more information about Rutgers?Camden news stories, visit us at news.rutgers.edu/medrel

Source: http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/news/charter-members-be-inducted-zeta-pi-chapter-chi-alpha-epsilon-national-honor-society

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Urville: The Booming Metropolis Inside an Autistic Artist's Mind

Spending a decade (or two) on a project isn't uncommon amongst urban planners. Gilles Trehin is one of them. Except in Trehin's case, the project is entirely fictional, and the scale is monumental.

Trehin has devoted the past twenty years to designing Urville, a city of twelve million on an imaginary European island. He started drawing when he was five and began working on Urville when he was fifteen. Since then, he's produced hundreds of architectural drawings of the city, many of which are collected in a book of the same name; we've included a handful below to give you a sense of the scale of the undertaking. Remarkably, Trehin has also imagined the city's cultural and economic history, which begins almost three thousand years ago:

Urville was founded under the name 'Qart-Sous-Yam' in the twelfth century BC by the Phoenicians. It became Urbis (Urville) under the Romans in the first century BC [...] In 1789, at the time of the French Revolution, Urville had 2.8 million inhabitants, but the housing was too limited to cope with the sharp increase in population resulting from the Industrial revolution. Faced with this problem, the Prefect of Urville called on the architect and town planner Oscar Laballiere (1803-1883) to undertake extensive work which continues to shape Urville to this day.

Trehin's story is similar to that of Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic British artist who can draw incredibly accurate cityscapes based on memory alone. In a foreword to Trehin's Urville book, the autism specialist Uta Frith wonders at Trehin's talents, writing:

What is similar about Gilles' talent to that of other autistic artists? It is an obsession with the physical world... It seems as if the spotlight of attention sweeps indiscriminately and equally intensely over the important as well as the unimportant, the interesting as well as the tedious.

The unique talents of autistic artists lend themselves to incredible scale and scope. In a matter of decades, Trehin's created one of the most interesting, complex cities in the world?and it exists entirely on paper. [Urville via Brainpickings]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/urville-the-metropolis-that-lives-inside-an-artistic-a-489134753

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Good enough for government work: BlackBerry 10, Samsung Knox get DoD blessing

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/good-enough-government-blackberry-10-samsung-knox-dod-125509109.html

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All Things D is reporting that Spotify has acquired Tunigo, a music discovery engine with a popular

All Things D is reporting that Spotify has acquired Tunigo, a music discovery engine with a popular Spotify app, for an undisclosed sum. Basically, hopefully, one day soon Spotify will offer up its own killer recs for new music.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/all-things-d-is-reporting-that-spotify-has-acquired-tun-489021304

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Warriors eliminate Denver with 92-88 win in Game 6

Golden State Warriors' Andrew Bogut celebrates after scoring against the Denver Nuggets during the second half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. Golden State won 92-88. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Golden State Warriors' Andrew Bogut celebrates after scoring against the Denver Nuggets during the second half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. Golden State won 92-88. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green (23) celebrates after making a three-point basket against the Denver Nuggets during the second half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. Golden State won 92-88. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry celebrates after a 92-88 win over the Denver Nuggets during Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green (23) ceelbrates after scoring against the Denver Nuggets during the first half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry, left, is fouled going to the basket by Denver Nuggets' Wilson Chandler (21) during the first half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Draymond Green threw his arms in the air and ran to Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson for an emotional hug. Jarrett Jack squatted down, put his right hand on his head and closed his eyes. Stephen Curry wanted to see it all ? teammates parading around the court, gold confetti in the air, smiles all around the announced sellout crowd of 19,596.

Forget that "We Believe" team.

These Warriors proved they belong.

Curry had 22 points and eight assists, Andrew Bogut broke out with the best performance of his injury-saddled season and the Warriors eliminated the Denver Nuggets with a 92-88 victory in Game 6 on Thursday night.

"When we go in the locker room, we're jumping up and down, we're hugging, we're changed men," Jackson said. "This is the greatest group of men as far as a team that I've ever been around or seen in my life."

Bogut had season-bests and career-playoff highs of 14 points and 21 rebounds, and Green added a career-high 16 points and 10 rebounds to power Golden State into the second round for the first time in six years.

Bogut also became the first Warriors player with 20 rebounds in the playoffs since Larry Smith had 23 on May 12, 1987 at the Lakers.

"It's very emotional for me because I've had a nightmare of a year," said Bogut, who added four blocks and three assists in an unforgettable performance after rehabilitating his left ankle most of the season.

The Warriors went ahead by 18 points early in the fourth quarter before holding off one final Nuggets flurry.

Andre Iguodala scored 24 points and Ty Lawson had 17 in another disappointed early exit for Denver, which has lost in the first round nine of the past 10 seasons. The Nuggets won 23 of their final 26 regular season games to earn the Western Conference's third seed, then lost four of six to the hot-shooting Warriors.

"We didn't lose this series tonight. This is a proud loss," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "We lost this series in Game 1 and 2. We didn't play well enough to sustain the confidence. We won Game 1 on a last-second layup. In Game 2, we gave away everything we worked for with 57 wins in the season. And that's on me."

The Warriors only outshot the Nuggets 40.3 percent to 34.7 percent in the finale but dominated the rebounding matchup again, 55-44. They also overcame 21 turnovers ? including 10 in the fourth ? while the Nuggets only had seven.

Golden State, seeded sixth, will open the second round at second-seeded San Antonio on Monday. The Spurs swept the Lakers in four games.

"I'm exhausted," Warriors owner Joe Lacob said after emerging from the locker room celebration.

Jackson ratcheted up the rhetoric after the Nuggets won a physical Game 5, saying Denver sent "hit men" out to take "cheap shots" at Curry. The accusations earned Jackson a $25,000 fine from the NBA for an "attempt to influence the officiating," though neither side ever got out of control in the finale.

Except Curry's shooting ? again

On the ball or off the dribble, Curry connected all over his home court in another dazzling second half. Curry swished all four of his 3-pointers in the third quarter and brought the frenzies fans roaring to their feet each time.

Green also made a corner 3 in front of Denver's bench, and Klay Thompson hustled for a rebound and a quick put-back to put the Warriors up 80-62 with 9:11 to play.

The Nuggets failed to score for nearly six minutes during the stretch. But they rallied with 13 straight, held the Warriors scoreless for almost five minutes and gave the fans in Oakland reason to worry.

After the Warriors went back ahead by nine, they nearly collapsed again. Wilson Chandler stole the rebound from Green for an easy layup to get within four, Iguodala hit another from long range and Kenneth Faried made 1 of 2 free throws to bring Denver within two with 32.4 seconds to play.

Iguodala stole Thompson's pass on the ensuing play. Chandler's running layup rimmed out, he missed a put-back and then knocked the ball out in a scrum ? a call that stood after a video review and had the Nuggets questioning whether the ball ever bounced out.

"They made the call. The refs make mistakes," Nuggets guard Andre Miller said.

The Nuggets were forced to intentionally foul Jack, who made both free throws to give Golden State a 92-88 lead with 7.3 seconds remaining to seal the victory. Miller missed a 3 and Faried clanked a meaningless jumper as the buzzer sounded, touching off the emotional celebration.

The Warriors advanced to the second round for the first time since 2007, when the "We Believe" team upset top-seeded Dallas in similar fashion ? at home and in Game 6. Golden State lost to Utah in the second round that season.

"To finally get it done, it's kind of a hazy feeling," Curry said. "Just a sense of relief the way the game finished."

Golden State seemed to have an answer for everything Denver threw its way in this series.

Even All-Star forward David Lee made a surprising return ? "part of it was for inspiration," Jackson said ? for the Warriors after not dressing the previous four games with what the team had called a season-ending hip injury. He grabbed one rebound and missed one jumper in 87 seconds off the bench in the first quarter.

Bogut's big first half ? 10 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and two assists ? allowed the Warriors to erase a nine-point deficit, and they sliced Denver's lead to 42-40 at the half behind a late surge of shooting from their guards on the perimeter.

Faried, the target of Jackson's accusations of "dirty play" in Game 5, picked up his fourth foul with 10:23 to play in the third quarter. Three of those fouls came in the first 1:37 of the third before Nuggets coach George Karl took him out.

Soon after, Curry took control to send the Nuggets home for good.

NOTES: Aaron Hern, an 11-year-old from nearby Martinez, who was injured in the bombings during the Boston Marathon, attended the game with his family and was honored on the videoboard during the first quarter. ... The Warriors are 10-1 in home playoff games in which they had a chance to win the series since moving to the Bay Area prior to the 1962-63 season.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-03-Nuggets-Warriors/id-768157afd3a744058edfefbaea544e19

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Swype leads Android Apps of the Week

If this week's list had to have a theme, I'd say it's "Making Life Easier." Every app aims to make your life a less stress free or annoying by helping you hunt for jobs, keeping track of receipts, confessing your feelings to that special friend, and even helping you type faster and more accurately, as it is with our top app of the week Swype. Yes, a keyboard app is our top Android app of the week. It's that cool.

I know it probably seems like I've gone off of my rocker for putting a simple keyboard app as the top app of the week, but this isn't just a normal alternative keyboard app. The Swype Keyboard is jam-packed with cool features, uses a super smooth interface, and most importantly of all, it can measurably help you type faster and more accurately, and learns new words very easily. You can even go hands free and just dictate what should be typed with Dragon Dictations, which is way past cool. All that, plus multiple languages and cool themes, and you'll never want to use a standard keyboard again!

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Also on Android Apps

If you?re a new mom, a mom-to-be or know one, be sure to check out Zinio?s fantastic and trustworthy list of parenting magazines.

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Even before the economy of recent memory, job hunting has always proved to be an absurdly frustrating task for most. Without people to vouch for you or recommend you, it's just so likely that your applications get lost in the ether with so many others. Proven Job Search is an award-winning way to make that process easier, and it lets you job hunt entirely from your own phone. Making it easier to create and manage resumes and the like, you can apply to tons of places easily and on the go, riding the bus, waiting in line at the bank, or wherever.

Speaking of job hunting? apps like Cryptgram have become a necessity in the age of online, where everyone is connected all the time, and true privacy is harder than ever to attain. Essentially, it lets you share photos with very specific people in your network, on top of adding all sorts of limitations, like how many times they can view it and for how long. You can even blur certain parts out. If you don't trust your own understanding of Facebook privacy settings, apps like these are a godsend. Because sometimes you just want to go nuts at a party and not worry about those risqu? pictures ruining any future job hunts!

SlipperFits is a really cute idea with a fun name, but it seems like the kind of thing that wouldn't pay off all that well. Still, it makes for an interesting social experiment, and I found it novel enough to feature here. Essentially, the app lets you tag Facebook friends who you might like to be more than friends with, and then it sends a SlipperFits to 50 random friends, plus those you've tagged. If they download it and tag you back, you are both notified. Since it stays anonymous until both parties admit their feelings, so to speak, it can make that first hurdle of confessing that much easier. Sounds like fun!

ReceiptMatch is a really cool idea that I'd like to see implemented on a larger scale, but for now, if you're an American Express Business Card customer, this could be one of the handiest apps around. It lets you snap pictures of any and all notable receipts, even letting you cross reference them with corresponding charges in your billing statement, generally making things easier to manage. I've always been awful with keeping track of receipts, so something like this is amazing. You can even add notes and annotations to receipts, print them, or send them to your account via email.

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Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts

Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps. Check out our introduction video here!

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Source: http://www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/13452-swype-leads-android-apps-of-the-week

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Central America struggles to unite for Obama trip

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Friday addressed a Central American region that continues to be plagued by violence, drug trafficking, corruption and poverty, despite the success of a seven-year trade agreement with the United States.

Central America's problems have directly impacted the U.S., as thousands from the region migrate north each year along increasingly deadly smuggling routes.

In a press conference late Friday with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, Obama said only a comprehensive approach will work to solve the region's problems, including stronger economies, better institutions, education and youth centers that give young people a sense of opportunity.

"Problems like narco-trafficking arise when a country is vulnerable because of poverty and institutions not working for people," he said. "The stronger the economy and institutions for individuals seeking legitimate careers, the less powerful these narco-trafficking operations are going to be."

Obama went on to a closed meeting with the eight-nation Central American Integration System, known by its Spanish initials SICA, which was formed to discuss regional issues.

He said he looked forward to the regional cooperation. But national rivalries that have often blocked cooperation.

Guatemala and Belize maintain a border dispute. Honduras and El Salvador are fighting over the use of the waters and shores of the Gulf of Fonseca, and a conflict between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has been escalating over the San Juan River border. On top of that, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua often feel excluded because Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras get the bulk of U.S. security aid, said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

"SICA has tried to build itself as the place where all these countries can come together and that can be the distribution point for that aid," Olson said. "But I think the rivalry between these governments gets in the way."

Still, the Central American presidents have come manned to talk about security, an issue they see as directly related to drug consumption in the United States. Some Central American countries have the highest murder rates in the world, with Honduras often called the world's most dangerous country. Leaders here say they want the U.S. to take more responsibility in the fight against drug cartels.

"We need the decided support of the U.S. to attack our common enemy, drug trafficking," Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said Thursday. "Unfortunately, Honduras and the countries of the region bear the dead of a war that we didn't start and that we repudiate. It's time to renew our mutual political cooperation."

The White House doesn't plan to launch any new initiatives with this trip, said Ricardo Zuniga, the lead official for Latin America policy on the U.S. National Security Council. Rather, it wants to talk about better coordination and use of the aid that is already going to the region.

"Besides the United States expressing its deep worry over the deterioration of the region, there isn't much more to expect," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center.

Since 2008, the United States has allocated $496 million in security cooperation to Central America, Zuniga said, and that number isn't expected to increase substantially.

The White House asked for $162 million for the fight against drug trafficking in its 2014 budget through the Central America Regional Security Initiative. That's $26 million more than what was allocated in 2012.

By comparison, Washington has allocated $1.9 billion to Mexico since 2008 for the fight against drug trafficking through the Merida Initiative.

Even on security issues, the countries have difficulty uniting.

"There is no effective cooperation because there is no trust," said Ignacio de Lucas, coordinator of the Network of Prosecutors against Organized Crime, an initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that brings together 10 prosecutors from Mexico to Colombia. "Sometimes big projects arise, for example creating a database to cooperate with Interpol, but what information will go there? Without trust there will not be useful information."

The more relevant forum to discuss drug trafficking in the region will be the June general assembly of the Organization of American States, said Guatemalan Foreign Minister Luis Carrera Castro.

Aside from security concerns, Central American presidents also have agreed to prioritize economic issues in their meeting with Obama.

The SICA member governments, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic, want to enhance the trade agreement they've had since 2006 with the United States, said Muni Figueres, Costa Rican Ambassador to the U.S.

Under the CAFTA-DR agreement, U.S. exports to the region have risen to $30 billion in 2012, up 25 percent from 2010 and 80 percent from 2005, according to her embassy's figures.

One of the specific goals for the Obama meeting is a commitment from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to actively participate in a commission tracking the performance of the trade agreement, Figueres said.

"The challenge now is how to facilitate trade to flow better and how to translate the agreement into more jobs and investment," she added.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/central-america-struggles-unite-obama-trip-180853537.html

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Kurtz leaves DailyBeast after retracted blog post

FILE - This April 25, 2012 file photo shows journalist Howard Kurtz at the world premiere of "Knife Fight" during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Kurtz has left online news and commentary site The Daily Beast, a day after the website retracted one of his blog posts about the coming out of NBA player Jason Collins. Both Kurtz and Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed his departure over Twitter. Kurtz did not acknowledge any link between the retraction and his departure. He tweeted that ?we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.? (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

FILE - This April 25, 2012 file photo shows journalist Howard Kurtz at the world premiere of "Knife Fight" during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Kurtz has left online news and commentary site The Daily Beast, a day after the website retracted one of his blog posts about the coming out of NBA player Jason Collins. Both Kurtz and Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed his departure over Twitter. Kurtz did not acknowledge any link between the retraction and his departure. He tweeted that ?we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.? (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

FILE - This April 25, 2012 file photo shows journalist Howard Kurtz at the world premiere of "Knife Fight" during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Kurtz has left online news and commentary site The Daily Beast, a day after the website retracted one of his blog posts about the coming out of NBA player Jason Collins. Both Kurtz and Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed his departure over Twitter. Kurtz did not acknowledge any link between the retraction and his departure. He tweeted that ?we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.? (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Columnist Howard Kurtz left The Daily Beast on Thursday, the same day the website retracted one of his blog posts in which he mistakenly accused NBA player Jason Collins of hiding a previous engagement to a woman before declaring this week that he is gay.

A person close to the matter said Kurtz was fired because this was the latest in a series of high-profile errors, which detracted from the site's efforts to bolster the credibility of its news coverage. The gaffe also comes as The Daily Beast tries to succeed only online after dropping its print magazine, Newsweek, in December.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A spokeswoman for CNN, where Kurtz hosts the TV show "Reliable Sources," said the network is reviewing the matter. Kurtz's CNN show is about "how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover," according to the website. Kurtz is a former media columnist with The Washington Post and was The Daily Beast's Washington bureau chief.

CNN is also looking into Kurtz's relationship with the website Daily Download, which lists him as being on its board of advisers. A Huffington Post story on Wednesday noted that Kurtz promoted the site with more than 120 links in April, compared with around 20 for The Daily Beast and fewer for his CNN show.

In the retracted Daily Beast post, titled "Jason Collins' Other Secret," Kurtz says Collins "didn't come clean" about the fact that he was engaged to be married to a woman before declaring he was gay.

But Collins does just that in the eighth paragraph of the Sports Illustrated piece that came out Monday.

"When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue," Collins wrote.

On Thursday, The Daily Beast retracted Kurtz's post but left an amended version online, saying it "sincerely regrets Kurtz's error."

In the amended version, the website replaces the words "didn't come clean" with Kurtz saying Collins "downplayed" the engagement and "didn't dwell on it."

In 2011, Kurtz misquoted U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi criticizing the White House, which The Daily Beast attributed to him misreading a colleague's notes. A year earlier, he mistakenly attributed quotes in a story to U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, after actually speaking to his spokesman, Kurt Bardella, on the phone.

On Twitter, Kurtz did not acknowledge any link between the most recent retraction and his departure, although he did apologize.

"Apologies: Jason Collins did mention his engagement in SI article. But he didn't tell the full story--his ex says she just learned he's gay," Kurtz tweeted.

He didn't respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Kurtz also tweeted that "as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company." He added "this was in the works for some time" and that it was time for him to "move on to other opportunities."

Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown tweeted that Kurtz and The Daily Beast had "parted company ... we wish him well."

A statement from Brown highlighted moves the website is taking to bolster its coverage of Washington, including with new columnists such as Jon Favreau, Joshua Dubois and Stuart Stevens. It also mentions the site won a Webby Award for Best News site this week.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-02-DailyBeast-Kurtz/id-46d01bc6eb7d413d8bcd6330c64116ba

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Bonding with your virtual self may alter your actual perceptions

May 2, 2013 ? When people create and modify their virtual reality avatars, the hardships faced by their alter egos can influence how they perceive virtual environments, according to researchers.

A group of students who saw that a backpack was attached to an avatar that they had created overestimated the heights of virtual hills, just as people in real life tend to overestimate heights and distances while carrying extra weight, according to Sangseok You, a doctoral student in the school of information, University of Michigan.

"You exert more of your agency through an avatar when you design it yourself," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, Penn State, who worked with You. "Your identity mixes in with the identity of that avatar and, as a result, your visual perception of the virtual environment is colored by the physical resources of your avatar."

Researchers assigned random avatars to one group of participants, but allowed another group to customize their avatars. In each of these two groups, half of the participants saw that their avatar had a backpack, while the other half had avatars without backpacks, according to You.

When placed in a virtual environment with three hills of different heights and angles of incline, participants who customized their avatars perceived those hills as higher and steeper than participants who were assigned avatars by the researchers, Sundar said. They also overestimated the amount of calories it would take to hike up the hill if their custom avatar had a backpack.

"If your avatar is carrying a backpack, you feel like you are going to have trouble climbing that hill, but this only happens when you customize the avatar," said Sundar.

The researchers, who present their findings at 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris today (May 2) recruited 121 college-aged participants -- 58 female and 63 male -- from Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea, to take part in the study. The students entered a virtual reality lab and were asked to evaluate the hills. To keep the students from guessing why the researchers added a backpack, they created a cover story saying the backpack made the hiking experience as lifelike as possible.

Sundar said the study may help trainers and game developers design virtual reality exercises and games that are more realistic and more immersive. For instance, just as participants who customized their avatars with a backpack in this study changed their perception of their virtual environment, people with disabilities may feel more empowered designing their own avatars to have physical aids to navigate a virtual environment. Soldiers may want to create their own avatars to better simulate their perceptions of actual conditions in virtual reality exercises.

"Because building avatar identity is critical, it's important to let users customize it," Sundar said. "You are your avatar when it is customized." Future research will look at whether altering more elements of the users' avatar will lead to more extensive changes in how people perceive virtual environments.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/gyXa3ZDssfY/130502082247.htm

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