kurtkurtrussell: 2013

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Predatory lionfish now a confirmed invader in the deep Atlantic

Scientists have confirmed that the hardy, Indo-Pacific fish that has invaded waters?off?the US East Coast and the Caribbean?is now living deep in the Atlantic, possibly imperiling smaller fish there.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / July 12, 2013

A saltwater volitan lionfish displays it's huge number of venomous spines in Amherst, Ohio, in 2010.

Nate Parsons/The Morning Journal/AP

Enlarge

An expedition down to the Atlantic depths has confirmed for the first time that the lionfish, an invasive species, is living there. The expedition verifies anecdotal evidence that the predatory animal is eluding eradication and imperiling native fish.

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Last month, the first expedition to send a deep-diving submersible down to investigate the Atlantic Ocean lionfish invasion found at 300 feet deep large populations of the predatory fish. Scientists believe that native fish are becoming lionfish prey, as the lionfish hunts any fish smaller than it, and are also losing out against the foreign fish in the competition for food.

?This data has confirmed for us that we have a problem there,? said Stephanie Green, lead scientist on the project and a post-doctoral associate at Oregon State University?s Hixon Lab, noting that researchers are still investigating the exact scale of the issue. ?This is the first time we?ve had a look at what the problem is in deep depths ? it?s the next frontier in this study.?

Scientists have traced the lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific and the first exotic fish to invade the Caribbean, to the aquarium trade between oceans in the 1980s. The fish were likely released into the ocean near southern Florida.?

?Genetic work has showed that the whole invasion began from a few releases,? said Dr. Green.

Divers have been relatively successful at removing lionfish from Florida?s shallow coral reefs, and there have been various efforts in the region to drive up dinner-table demand for the fish. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation Fund sells a cookbook devoted to lionfish recipes, as well as a list of local restaurants that serve lionfish. Conferences on the invasive species have ended with tastings of lionfish cuisine.

But deep-sea dives to the depths that the lionfish has now claimed are not possible, and humans have not been able to remove them. That raises concern that the fish might use the deep sea as a base from which to retake the shallower water.

?There?s some concern that the lionfish might be using a deep-sea refuge,? said Green, noting that further study is needed to confirm that hypothesis.

The effect of the lionfish, venemous fish that plumes like a Japanese fan, is well known in the shallower Atlantic, but its impact on the deep sea is less well known. The animal is what is known as a gape-limited predator, which means that the fish is limited in food consumption by the size of its mouths. The fish, growing up to 47 cm in length, can consume predators up to half its size, which puts about 70 percent of the fish population within their gulp. Studies have shown that at least 40 species of fish have dropped in number since the lionfish was introduced to their Atlantic environment, Green said.

?There is strong evidence that the lionfish is having negative effects on the native population,? she said. ?We don?t see any signal that anything is controlling lionfish population.?

As big fish tend to live longer, the lionfish also reproduce more efficiently than do smaller fish: one female lionfish can spawn some two million eggs per year; the eggs are bundled in gelatinous blobs of some 12,000 to 15,000 eggs and distributed throughout the ocean. That means that the invasive lionfish population has grown in disproportionate number relative to native fish deep in the Atlantic.

And a separate study released this week from UNC Chapel Hill also suggested that a lack of native predators in the Atlantic has further boosted the lionfish?s disproportionate growth: Nothing is down there to eat them.

Researchers are now investigating possible solutions to the lionfish problem, including creating deep sea traps that could nab the large fish, said Green. Scientists are also hoping to catch one of the fish ? using mounted suction cups ? in the deep environment to better understand the changing ecosystem there.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UDxrNVil9Vk/Predatory-lionfish-now-a-confirmed-invader-in-the-deep-Atlantic

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

NBA Free Agency Rumors: L.A. Clippers Metta World Peace’s First Choice? N.Y. Knicks Still In Running? Bulls, Heat, Thunder, Nets, Spurs, Pacers Other Options?

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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Recently amnestied Metta World Peace only wants to play for a contending team next season, which might scare off clubs from plucking him off the waiver wire. ...

Source: http://www.ibtimes.comhttp:0//www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/489906/20130713/nba-free-agency-rumors-la-clippers-metta-world-peaces-first-choice-ny-knicks-still-running-bulls.htm

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Severe heat-wave grips Japan: 12 dead

The Extinction Protocol
Fri, 12 Jul 2013 09:12 CDT

A severe heat-wave that hit Japan a week ago has claimed at least a dozen lives, reports said Friday. The mercury has topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in areas right across the country for several days, with no immediate end to the misery in sight, forecasters say. Thousands of people have been taken to hospital suffering from heatstroke or exhaustion, with at least 12 of them dying, Jiji Press and other media reported. Most of those affected are over 65, but there have also been groups of schoolchildren who were participating in school activities outside. One recent death was that of a 90-year-old man whose body was discovered by his son inside an apartment. The air conditioner was turned off, Jiji said. On Friday, the day's highest temperature was 38.3 degrees Celsius (101 F) in Kawanehon town in Shizuoka prefecture. More than 40 other spots recorded highs of 35 degrees or more, Japan's meteorological agency said. News reports feature frequent reminders to drink plenty of fluids and avoid prolonged periods outdoors, in what has become a regular feature of Japan's sticky summer months. - Space Daily

Source: http://www.sott.net/article/263849-Severe-heat-wave-grips-Japan-12-dead

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Martha Thomases: California, Here I Come ? Except?

Thomases Art 130712 Martha Thomases: California, Here I Come ? Except? In a few days, I?ll be in California. Not in San Diego, but in California. I?ll get the good weather without the mobs.

It is the habit of old farts (check out our editor-in-chief?s tirade in this space next Wednesday morning) such as myself to complain about the San Diego Comic Convention. It?s too big. It?s not about comics anymore. Nobody kisses my ass anymore. I don?t have an expense account. (Those last two might be unique to me.)

My major philosophical objection is that a fine, non-profit educational organization has been completely co-opted by Hollywood. True, comic book companies used the occasion of the convention to promote their books, but the convention was at least about comics. Now, it?s a stop on the promotional train for television, movies and video games, complete with red carpets and stylists.

And, apparently, rock bands. Metallica will be performing a live concert for those lucky enough to get tickets (in case you haven?t waited in line for Hall H long enough), to promote their new movie.

Metallica is no doubt a fine group of people (although their music is not my genre), and, since they?ve been together since 1981, they aren?t exactly amateurs at attracting and keeping fans. They should live and be well.

But, as the New York Times story in the link reports, there is going to be a panel about rock music at the Con. And it will include people who score movies, but not the people behind the new Dark Horse graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle, which actually combines rock music and comics. It won?t include John Holmstrom who was combining rock?n?roll and comics even before Metallica was a band.

Look, I enjoy soundtracks as a musical form. Mark Knopfler did some of my favorites. It is an interesting and a demanding musical form with its own unique challenges and structures. There are lots of places that could host interesting panel discussions on the subject with a variety of experts, including composers, directors, and editors. I just don?t think the panel, as described in this article (and maybe it?s not accurate? Could happen) is that kind of conversation.

If you are going to San Diego, I hope you have a fabulous time. I hope you get into The Black Panel?because it is so much fun. ?I hope no one hits you in the face with a backpack.

And, if you?re really lucky, I hope you find some cool new comics.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

Source: http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2013/07/12/martha-thomases-california-here-i-come-except/

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Replace Your Car's Gear Shift with a Gaming Joystick - Lifehacker

Replace Your Car's Gear Shift with a Gaming Joystick

If you want to add a little geeky flair to your car (and elicit laughter from anyone who rides shotgun) this quick project is a good use for an old or broken flight stick: Pop off the shift cover in your car's center console and replace it with a joystick. It may not add functionality, but it'll make driving more fun.

The project itself was easy, as the author over at GeekGreek points out. All he had to do was remove the shift grip and slide the cover down, exposing the column. The joystick (a 1991 era serial-port model) body was actually two halves that screwed together, so he opened them, removed some of the extra plastic, and put it over the column, attached them with a little epoxy, and screwed the halves back together. That was all there was to it.

Interestingly enough, the actual buttons on the top are intact and still click when you push them. As Hackaday notes, it would be pretty cool if those buttons connected to something, like the horn, the lights, or even start the engine. One of their commenters even pointed out someone who did the same thing with a Thrustmaster joystick and did connect up the buttons (see the second and third pages of the thread for photos and video) to cruise control and a few other features, so the possibilities are there. You can go cosmetic, or take it all the way and make it functional?either way, the choice is yours. Besides, it'll make an interesting story to tell the next time a friend or coworker hops in the passenger seat.

Manual Transmission for Gamers | Hackaday

Source: http://lifehacker.com/replace-your-cars-gear-shift-with-a-gaming-joystick-749157843

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India's telegram service goes dark after 163 years

NEW DELHI (AP) ? For 163 years, lives across the vast Indian nation have been upended by the knock of the khaki-clad postal worker armed with a telegram.

Families used them to announce births and deaths, the government used them to post job openings, young lovers sent them to tell their folks that they had eloped.

No longer.

On Monday, the state-run telecommunications company will send its final telegram, closing down a service that fast became a relic in an age of email, reliable landlines and ubiquitous cellphones.

The fact that the telegram survived this long is a testament to how deeply woven it is into the fabric of Indian society. In much of the rest of the world, telegrams long ago were relegated to novelty services used by people who wanted to indulge in a bit of nostalgia.

Just 30 years ago the telegram was king in India. But the service has lost $250 million in just the last seven years as national cellphone subscriptions hit 867 million in April, more than double the number of just four years ago.

"Most people who come in now are those who want to send a telegram for an official reason," said Lata Harit, a telegraph officer at Delhi's historic Kashmere Gate Telegraph Office. "It's no longer about a birth in the family or a death. For that people rely on their telephones or cellphones."

The nearly empty telegraph office was a far cry, she said, from the days when long lines of customers crowded in the British-colonial style building close to the teeming heart of old Delhi to send a telegram. From 10,000 telegrams a day, the office now sends about 100.

The government still uses telegrams to inform recipients of top civilian awards and for court notices. India's armed forces recognize telegrams from troops extending their vacation or from soldiers' families demanding their presence at home for a funeral. Lawyers still send telegrams to create an official record, for example, to prove to a judge that they had complained their client was subjected to police abuse.

When Harit joined the service more than three decades ago, she underwent six months of training at a school for telegraph operators. Telegrams were sent using the complex dots and dashes of Morse code that had to be decoded at their destination.

"It required enormous concentration to decipher, but some of us were so good at our work, and so fast, that at the end of a day, we would feel exhilarated," she said. "It made us feel proud."

Other operators felt they were important messengers for crucial news.

Baljit Singh, who became a telegraph operator in 1972 and will retire in a few months, recalled the frenetic rush following the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the days of political turmoil and street violence that followed.

"People came in droves to send telegrams. We worked round the clock. I don't think we went home for days," he recalled.

Over the years, Morse code gave way to telex machines and teleprinters, and finally electronic printers and computers.

Before India overhauled its erratic landline network in the 1980s and 1990s ? and well before the mobile phone revolution ? the telegram was the only dependable means of conveying news across this vast nation.

At its peak less than three decades ago, a network of 45,000 telegraph offices served the sprawling country. Now there are only 75.

At the Kashmere Gate office, the growing irrelevance of the telegram is reflected in the flyblown calendars on walls graying with age, soot-blackened ceiling fans and a dust-covered chart showing 43 commonly used telegram messages to help customers find the shortest one for the occasion.

For the rare telegram user, it's the end of a way of life.

Abhilasha Kumari, a New Delhi-based sociologist, recalled the crucial role telegrams played in her small hometown of Sitamau in central India.

"The telegram was the only source for getting news quickly. So whenever there was any development in the large extended family ? whether it was a death, or a birth, or news about that much-coveted government job, the telegram was the quickest way to get the news," she said.

In countless remote towns and villages, the telegraph worker knew everyone ? and their family business.

Kumari recalled the time a telegram informed her family that a cousin died in an accident.

"The postmaster himself came to deliver the telegram. We saw him at the door, and realized something drastic had happened," she said.

While most of the remaining telegraph workers will be given new assignments in the telecommunications company, the informal economy that thrived on the telegram will disappear.

For nearly 35 years, Jagdish Chand Sharma has made a living helping illiterate customers write telegrams from his mat in a dusty corner of the Kashmere Gate office's patio.

In the 1980s, he would write about 150 telegrams a day, conveying the joys and sorrows of his customers with brevity and precision ? for a small fee.

Today, he might get three customers on a good day.

Sharma has already equipped himself with packaging material and sealing wax, and has switched to helping people send parcels and mail packages.

"But it's not the same. With a telegram, you instantly made a connection with people when you wrote out a telegram for them," said Sharma, idly swatting flies as he waited in the sweltering heat, a pile of dog-eared telegram forms gathering dust beside him.

Since the June 12 government announcement about the telegram's end, telegraph offices across the country have seen a small rush of people wanting to send some last historic messages.

"We've decided to send telegrams to each other," said Tarun Jain, an IT professional, who had come to the telegraph office with a friend. "Soon this will all be history. Our last telegrams will become collector's items."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indias-telegram-goes-dark-163-years-065614283.html

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Thursday, July 11, 2013

LG announces world's slimmest full HD smartphone display panel

LG's new slim display

It takes thin parts to make a thin smartphone, and LG is leading the pack when it comes to display technology

LG is showing off a new 5.3-inch LCD display that they claim holds the title of world's slimmest full HD display. Checking in at only 2.2mm in thickness, they also feature an ultra-slim 2.3mm bezel. This means your great-big smartphone can be a little less great-bog overall.

They credit their new technology, dubbed Advanced One-Glass-Solution, for enabling suck a thin panel. It uses dual flexible printed circuits opposed to a single circuit, that has been inserted between the glass itself and the touch film. This reduces the number of lines etched onto the panel circuit by more than 30-percent. In addition, a new bonding system using optically clear resin to mate it all together into one very thin piece.

These panels are said to offer superior visibility outdoors, along with a better contrast ratio and an increased brightness of 535 nits. The 1080x1920 panels are use a true RBG pixel layout -- none of that pentile silliness here. Combined, these features make the new panel outperform every other current HD LCD panels, and we don't have to take LG's word for it -- Intertek has officially certified the results.

I'll stick my neck out and say it -- I'll bet we'll see these panels in the upcoming LG G2. It should be an interesting Q3 in the mobile space. Hit the break for the full press release.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Tsf2LUD1EJs/story01.htm

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AG: Guilty plea by SarCo insurance agent who bilked couple

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman?s office secured a guilty plea against Joseph A. Marvullo, a Saratoga County insurance agent who admitted to bilking an elderly Dutchess County couple out of more than $300,000 over an eight-year period.

Marvullo, a 64-year-old Greenfield resident who ran his agency out of Queensbury, is no stranger to state law enforcement: He was initially arraigned on a charge of grand larceny in 2010, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was serving as AG. At that time, Marvullo was accused of offering to sell a Fort Ann couple annuity policies as high-yield investments; he took $26,100 in checks made payable directly to him and never purchased any annuity policies or returned the money when the couple demanded it back. Following his plea in that case, Marvullo?s insurance license was pulled by the state.

But that sum was pin money compared to what the AG?s office revealed on Thursday: The Dutchess County couple ? who met Marvullo through their church ? sold their own annuities and wrote Marvullo more than 80 checks totaling at least $308,652.71. None of it was used to buy insurance or investment products, the AG?s office said.

From the release:

When the victims sought to withdraw funds from the investments that Marvullo falsely claimed to have made on their behalf, he strung them along for years. He avoided meetings and calls while seeking to retain their trust and sympathy. He claimed various personal misfortunes, including health problems and marital troubles, and laced his emails with various religious references, typically signing them ?GOD BLESS-JOE.? He was caught when the victims got fed up with his excuses and reported him to the Attorney General?s office.

Marvullo pleaded pleaded guilty in Dutchess County Court to one count of grand larceny in the second degree, a felony.

?Today a financial predator is being held accountable for brazenly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from an elderly couple,? Schneiderman said in a statement. ?My office will swiftly bring to justice those who abuse the trust of vulnerable New Yorkers to steal their life savings.?

Marvullo faces between two and 15 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 10. He also agreed to pay more than $300,000 in restitution and will be barred from working ?in any consumer, insurance, or investment matters,? according to the AG?s office.

The AG?s office invites anyone else who thinks they might have been bilked by Marvullo to call their helpline at (800) 771-7755.

Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/191082/ag-guilty-plea-by-sarco-insurance-agent-who-bilked-couple/

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Justin Timberlake Teases New Track 'Take Back The Night,' Coming ... Soon?

JT gave fans a taste of the next chapter of The 20/20 Experience, which drops on September 30.
By Brenna Ehrlich

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1710308/justin-timberlake-take-back-the-night.jhtml

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Monday, July 1, 2013

Mumford & Sons bring Glastonbury jigging to an end

By Isla Binnie

PILTON, England (Reuters) - British folk band Mumford & Sons brought the annual Glastonbury festival jigging to a close on Sunday, capping three days of music, good-natured mayhem and minimal mud.

The bluegrass-inspired set completed a trio of headline acts after British indie band Arctic Monkeys and veteran rockers the Rolling Stones played to crowds on the site attended by up to 150,000 music fans on Friday and Saturday.

Rain held off over the 900-acre (365-hectare) farm in southwest England, part of the Vale of Avalon in English folklore, where festival organiser Michael Eavis first hosted 1,500 hippies in 1970.

Mumford & Sons' appearance at the festival looked uncertain until last week, when the band said bassist Ted Dwane had recovered from emergency surgery for a blood clot on his brain.

Dwane, distinctive with his full beard and broad-brimmed hat, appeared in fine fettle on Sunday as the four-piece band belted out hits "The Cave" and "I Will Wait".

"We've danced together, we've celebrated the fact that Ted is alive together, shall we sing together, Glastonbury?" frontman Marcus Mumford asked a cheering crowd.

For their final number, a cover of the Beatles classic "A Little Help from my Friends" accompanied by fireworks, Mumford & Sons were joined onstage by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend, British group The Vaccines, British acoustic trio The Staves and Swedish duo First Aid Kit.

"It's a great way to end a festival," said Toby Gugolz, 28, from Stevenage in southeast England.

"COMPLETE IDIOTS ON THE FARM"

In the lead-up to Sunday's headline slot, crowds basked in the sun watching 85-year-old British TV presenter and all-round entertainer Bruce Forsyth or country music's Kenny Rogers.

"It's not usually my bag but he's great," said Kevin Watt, a 32-year-old computer games tester, as he watched Rogers play hits including "We've Got Tonight" and "Just Dropped In".

The average age of ticket buyers has gone up to 36, and the lineup reflects the range of ages.

Forsyth said: "I'll try to do a program that will suit every one of you," before impersonating Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to chants of "We love you, Bruce!" from the crowd.

The main headline act was the Rolling Stones who played to more than 100,000 fans on Saturday in a two and a quarter-hour Glastonbury debut described by Eavis as the highlight of the festival's 43-year history.

Organizers said the event had run smoothly despite rain on the first day temporarily turning the site into a mudbath, but the downpours stopped on Friday and festival-goers dispensed with their waterproofs.

"We watch every year on TV and say we're going to go but this is the first time we have," said Louise Vickery, 49, from Taunton in southwest England, who went with her husband Mark and daughter Alex.

"The atmosphere has been great. It doesn't matter about the acts - the weather makes all the difference!"

A team of about 300 police officers were on duty at the site, and they reported a 30 percent drop in crime since the last Glastonbury festival held in 2011.

Mumford & Sons keyboardist Ben Lovett thanked organizers for the festival, which included zany pastimes such as a tomato fight and laughter workshops as well as the music.

"Having us here and letting us be complete idiots on their farm for a couple of days - it's really very kind."

(Additional reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Alison Williams and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mumford-sons-bring-glastonbury-jigging-end-001932066.html

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Katie Holmes Drinks Juice In The Big Apple

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Source: http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=298826&goto=newpost

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Telenor, Ooredoo win Myanmar telecom licenses

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Myanmar granted licenses Thursday to Norway's Telenor and Ooredoo of Qatar to set up the country's first foreign-owned mobile phone networks.

Currently less than 6 million of country's 60 million people have mobile phones, one of the lowest connectivity rates in the world. Hoping to spur economic growth, the government is trying to push penetration rates to 80 percent by 2016.

The licenses were awarded despite an eleventh hour push by lawmakers to delay a decision until a new telecommunications law is passed.

Of the more than 90 companies that submitted bids, 11 were short-listed.

Myanmar, located in the heart of one of the fastest growing regions in the world, became one of the most isolated and poorest nations during its half-century of iron-clad military rule.

After taking control of a quasi-civilian government in 2011, former general Thein Sein started implementing promised political and economic reforms.

The communications industry, long-neglected by the country's military rulers, is in need of a complete overhaul. That's in part because the original network was intended for only a tiny number of subscribers, mostly the rich. Up until a few years ago, the cost of SIM cards could reach $2,000.

Ooredoo was formerly known as Qatar Telecom.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-27-Myanmar-Telecom%20Race/id-8673dc5738d4456380b39456e7f5c6fb

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Samsung puts curve in OLED televisions

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? After delays, Samsung Electronics Co. rolled out Thursday a curved TV that uses an advanced display called OLED.

The 55-inch TV will sell for 15 million won ($13,000) in South Korea, more than five times the cost of LCD televisions of the same size.

But Kim Hyunsuk, the executive vice president of Samsung's TV division, said the company is optimistic about demand for the high-end TV.

"OLED is about picture quality," Kim told reporters. "We are sure that we realized the perfect picture quality."

It remains to be seen if consumers will be willing to pay a premium for enhanced imagery. The TV industry has been struggling to excite interest with its latest technologies. In recent years, attempts to boost sales by introducing 3-D TVs and TVs that are connected to the Internet have failed to end the downturn in the TV industry.

Samsung is not the first to introduce a curved TV using OLED. In May, its rival LG Electronics Inc., the second-biggest TV maker, launched a 55-inch curved TV in South Korea.

LG's model, which also sells for 15 million won, is not sold outside South Korea.

LG spokesman Kenneth Hong said the company will ship curved OLED TVs to other countries in the near future.

Samsung will ship its curved OLED TVs to overseas markets starting July, Kim said. The company does not plan to manufacture flat OLED TVs this year, he said.

The concave display gives viewers a sense of being immersed in the images, according to Samsung.

Samsung and LG, which are the only TV makers in the world to begin commercial sales of OLED TVs, had promised to launch them in 2012 but delayed the launch to this year.

The two South Korean TV giants tout OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode, as the next-generation display technology that will eventually replace older displays. But mass producing OLED displays still faces many challenges, leading to high prices.

In addition to curved OLED TVs, Samsung launched two ultra-HD TVs, with about four times the resolution of regular high-definition TVs.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-puts-curve-oled-televisions-060257066.html

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Miley Cyrus on Strange Music Video: Based on Real Events!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/miley-cyrus-on-strange-music-video-based-on-real-events/

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Obama to unveil climate change plan with sweeping emissions cuts

Obama is expected to announce Tuesday a comprehensive new plan to combat climate change that includes cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants ? a move that could lead to a wave of plant closings.

By Mark Clayton,?Staff writer / June 25, 2013

Smoke rises from the stacks of the La Cygne Generating Station coal-fired power plant in La Cygne, Kan. President Obama says he'll unveil a national plan to combat climate change in a speech Tuesday.

Charlie Riedel/AP/File

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Recognizing that Congress is unlikely to pass significant climate change legislation during his second term, President Obama will take some of the most sweeping measures available to him to unilaterally combat global warming.

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The new plan, which Mr. Obama will unveil Tuesday at Georgetown University, is expected to include a ramping up of energy efficiency and renewable energy in addition to national preparations to deal with the meteorological and financial impacts of climate change. But by far the strongest element of the plan is a set of new regulations intended to slash greenhouse-gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants ? not just power plants built in the future.

Obama intends to issue a presidential memorandum directing the Environmental Protection Agency to implement new regulations of greenhouse-gas emissions under the authority of the Clean Air Act. The president's plan is an attempt to deliver on his promise to cut carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, White House officials told reporters in a conference call Monday.

The move has the potential to cut annually hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) ? a potent greenhouse gas ? and far overshadow any carbon-emissions cuts the Obama administration has achieved so far through improved fuel-efficiency standards. But it could also accelerate the closure of many existing older coal-fired power plants across the country, which are already struggling to meet current standards.

"Nothing on this scale in the Clean Air Act has ever been attempted before," says Kevin Book, an energy analyst with ClearView Partners, an energy economics consulting firm in Washington. "This step will be the catalyst for the next wave of coal-fired power plant retirements. It's almost certainly going to get hung up in the courts for years."

Obama seeks to combat global warming in a variety of ways in the new plan. Among the highlights:

Create new energy-efficiency standards for federal buildings and appliances.
Ramp up enough clean-energy production on public lands to power 6 million homes by 2020. ?
Extend $8 billion in loan-guarantee authority to accelerate investment in advanced fossil-energy and efficiency projects.
End public financing of coal-fired plants overseas and push for free trade in clean-energy technologies.

But a concrete plan to reach a 17 percent cut in carbon emissions is seen as the cornerstone of Obama's move. That figure is widely considered a requirement for the US to be taken seriously in ongoing international climate talks. Obama wants to reinvigorate US efforts to lead in those talks, White House officials said.

They said the plan to address existing-power-plant emissions has a firm timeline ? adding credibility to the effort. The goal is to finalize power plant emissions regulations by June 2015, long enough before Mr. Obama leaves office to be solidly in force before the next administration takes over.

"We know that we have to get to work quickly in order to not only propose, but finalize the rule," said a senior White House official. "The president will be directing the EPA to start that work."

Neither the briefing for reporters nor the fact sheet and background materials provided by the White House presented an estimate for the tonnage of carbon emissions expected to be cut overall. Electricity-generating power plants emit about 2.4 billion tons of CO2 each year, roughly 40 percent of the nation?s total emissions. But the plan was still received enthusiastically by environmentalists.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/IMiDoEq5xAY/Obama-to-unveil-climate-change-plan-with-sweeping-emissions-cuts

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

New York Moves to Require Audits of Preschool Special-Education ...

The New York Legislature is trying to tighten controls over the state?s preschool program for disabled children, the cost of which has soared to $2 billion annually.

The State Senate and Assembly unanimously approved a bill last week that would require audits of every special-education prekindergarten contractor by 2018.

The bill was proposed by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli after a series of audits by his office and articles in The New York Times highlighted soaring costs, poor regulation and other problems in the state?s special-education prekindergarten system, the most expensive in the country. Contractors have charged taxpayers for overseas vacations, spa trips, jewelry, groceries and home renovations; hired relatives for no-show jobs; given themselves exorbitant salaries and perks like luxury cars; billed for services they never provided; or lived in other parts of the country and rarely showed up for work, the audits and reports found.

The Times revealed how some prekindergarten evaluators appeared to be distorting their assessments of children to justify expensive instruction provided by their own companies.

The legislation now goes to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose office did not indicate whether he would sign it. Under the bill, school administrators would not be permitted to assign a child?s services to the same prekindergarten contractor that evaluated him or her, unless they stated in writing that ?such placement is an appropriate one for the child? and notified the state education commissioner of the assignment.

That is intended to address conflicts of interest that have occurred when companies evaluated children, exaggerated their disabilities and then provided the services.

Contractors would have to post audit reports on their Web sites, and would be required to ?take measures to ensure? that their executive directors work full-time all year.

?Students and taxpayers deserve much better than they are getting,? Mr. DiNapoli said after passage of the bill, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, a Queens Democrat, and State Senator John J. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican.

The legislation calls upon the State Education Department to study alternatives to the existing reimbursement and regulatory system.

Nearly all the department?s budget and personnel for oversight are devoted to calculating some 1,400 reimbursement rates for each of the prekindergarten contractors in the state. Little is left to verify that the money is spent properly or to ensure the quality of the services.

A result, officials say, has been rising costs for the state and local governments, which split the bill roughly 60-40. In New York City, annual costs now total $1.2 billion, about 6 percent of the $19.8 billion education budget. Statewide, costs have doubled in just six years.

Advocacy groups for contractors have said that they are devoted to helping children with disabilities, and that a few offenders are giving the industry a bad name.

Education officials have complained that influential lobbyists for contractors have blocked efforts in Albany to control costs.

The current push for reform has been halting: Mr. Cuomo obtained modest changes in the coming year?s state budget, but more aggressive proposals were rejected by the Legislature after contractors expressed opposition.

The final state budget included $5 million to pay for more audits by the State Education Department and by localities, but an Education Department spokesman called the shift of that responsibility to the comptroller a ?sensible next step.?

The proposal by Mr. DiNapoli, too, was watered down by lawmakers: Its initial draft would have required school administrators to obtain a second evaluation from an independent professional, and the approval of the state education commissioner, before assigning a child evaluated by one company to the same company for services.

?Regular and expected audits is really the single best way to get at the corruption,? said former Assemblyman Steven Sanders, a lobbyist for one group of contractors.

But Mr. Sanders said the state eventually needed to switch to a system with uniform, regional reimbursement rates for all providers. As it stands now, he said: ?The more you spend, the more you claim, the more you get back. I think that that methodology leaves wide open the possibility for overexpenditure.?

Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York Association of Counties, which has lobbied for more stringent spending curbs in the program, said the bill did not go far enough but called it ?a step in the right direction.?

Source: http://www.ezymedia.com/mashup/2013/06/26/new-york-moves-to-require-audits-of-preschool-special-education-contractors/

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Jezebel Is There Such a Thing as a Feminist Pick-Up Artist?

Jezebel Is There Such a Thing as a Feminist Pick-Up Artist? | Jalopnik Ten Cars That Aren't Only For Assholes | Deadspin PHOTOS: Chicago's Stanley Cup Celebrations Got Slightly Out Of Hand | io9 Confirmed: A Star System with Three Potentially Habitable Planets!

Source: http://lauren.kinja.com/jezebel-is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-feminist-pick-up-art-573352182

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Deciding Upon an Inexpensive Small Internet Marketing Business ...

You will not find a way to advertise your enterprise solutions and products and solutions properly accompanied by a badly produced internet site. An primary artwork can be a really good basis of constructing everyone aware of how wonderful your company is. Very careful consideration has to go into making a choice on just the proper domain web hosting title to depict your organization. These are typically only some techniques that you simply will want to look at when scouting to get an internet host. As a result, online site templates, that expenses round $50 ? $200, are of helpful aid to webmasters in jogging the website significantly more competently. To verify the protection and confidentiality of knowledge, users can limit facts accessibility through login ID and password. No matter how a whole lot you study the company or job interview their revenue reps, next to nothing aids you make an knowledgeable final choice as providing the assistance a demo operate. Shared web hosting is often a web hosting account on which you host your website with a shared server with many hundreds other people?s web sites. A good number of situations online shoppers choose to do their last moment present shopping online and may also find out it easier to order a present for a beloved relative vi an on-line homepage. Shared the web internet hosting designs encompass net internet hosting an internet internet page together with more and more many people across the similar server. Zero cost Web hosting Products and services are increasingly being provided by varying establishments, and they are generally supported with commercials. Google also wishes to learn if other web pages enjoy your writing. Over the internet facilitate middle with reports, directions, movie tutorials can be very effective to master the functionality on your private tempo at your most simple time. Better than getting unfocused lists is always to let for people to opt in towards the mailing list. Also start out the selling with mentioning the advantages offered to end users and also look into your assistance positioning. It is easy to get totally free including compensated word wide web design templates at Template Kingdom. Build a method for people to sign up for electronic mail newsletters. More or less all website builders prohibit you to their premade templates. Characteristically you might only be remaining to pay on your domain identify in some cases with 100 percent free hosting. Plus the publishing of your website comprises anything and everything from hosting to updating. Additionally it is an excellent website hosting assistance which provide some primary significances like soft uploading, quick email processing, gather details and a few other particular pursuits which call for in almost any blog. Colocation internet hosting is put into use to be offered to people gigantic services who must take care of significant and big database for their internet marketing business functions these types of as telecommunication suppliers and so on. One can find also accounts for groups of individuals that will not exceed 5 email addresses, and these accounts even have comparable freebies towards 1 over, generally having a more substantial storage space. They?re much way more pricy, but they make available awesome bandwidth, entirely safe web hosting with info backup providers, and much a bit more versatility. Although, the following helpful hints might help you fully grasp the underlying meaning driving colour so that you may possibly be guided to generate the ideal solution. This decreases the chance of misconceptions and misunderstanding around the impressions the corporation has to make towards the customers. Also any organisation which is got an enormous website inside market has selections like focused hosting. In any circumstance, a devoted internet hosting buyer contains a comprehensive authority to pick the hardware configuration as well as solution of OS for his dedicated server.

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Source: http://naughtmuch.com/deciding-upon-an-inexpensive-small-internet-marketing-business-internet-site-hosting-prepare/

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Envoy, Urges World To End Rape In War

UNITED NATIONS ? Angelina Jolie made her debut before the U.N.'s most powerful body as a special envoy for refugees Monday and urged the world's nations to make the fight against rape in war a top priority.

The actress told the Security Council that "hundreds of thousands ? if not millions ? of women, children and men have been raped in conflicts in our lifetimes."

Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said the Security Council has witnessed 67 years of wars and conflict since it was established "but the world has yet to take up warzone rape as a serious priority."

"You set the bar," she told the council. "If the ... council sets rape and sexual violence in conflict as a priority it will become one and progress will be made. If you do not, this horror will continue."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who presided over the meeting, stressed that "in conflicts in nearly every corner of the globe, rape is used systematically and ruthlessly, in the almost certain knowledge that there will be no consequences for the perpetrators."

Soon after Jolie spoke, the council adopted a legally-binding resolution demanding the complete and immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence by all parties to armed conflict. It noted that sexual violence can constitute a crime against humanity and a contributing act to genocide, called for improved monitoring of sexual violence in conflict, and urged the U.N. and donors to assist survivors.

It was the broadest resolution adopted by the council on the sexual violence in conflict. Hague said Britain plans to follow-up by convening a global gathering during the annual General Assembly meeting of world leaders in September to keep up the pressure for action.

Hague said at a discussion later at the Ford Foundation that his prime motivation for pressing for global action against sexual violence was the 1990s war in Bosnia, partly because of an adviser but also because of Jolie's 2011 film, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," about former lovers who end up on the opposite sides of the conflict. He said he arranged the film's British premiere at the Foreign Office and has been campaigning with Jolie since then, including a visit to Congo in March, "to move the stigma and the shame from the victim to the perpetrator."

"The time has come for the world to take a strong and determined stand to make clear that the systematic use of rape as a weapon is not acceptable in the modern world and our objective is to change the entire global attitude to these issues," Hague said.

Getting the whole world talking about sexual violence in conflict and the need to punish perpetrators not victims "will shift attitudes ? maybe over a period of years, but we have begun," he said.

Jolie, who has traveled extensively in her role as goodwill ambassador, recalled several of the survivors she had met ? the mother of a five-year-old girl raped outside a police station in Goma in eastern Congo, and a Syrian woman she spoke to in Jordan last week who asked to hide her name and face "because she knew that if she spoke out about the crimes against her she would be attacked again, and possibly killed."

"Let us be clear what we are speaking of: Young girls raped and impregnated before their bodies are able to carry a child, causing fistula," Jolie said, referring to an injury caused by violent rapes that tear apart the flesh separating the bladder and rectum from the vagina, leaving the girls unable to control their bowels or bladder.

She continued: "Boys held at gunpoint and forced to sexually assault their mothers and sisters. Women raped with bottles, wood branches and knives to cause as much damage as possible. Toddlers and even babies dragged from their homes, and violated."

Zainab Hawa Bangura, the U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, told the council that two weeks ago she visited Bosnia where an estimated 50,000 women were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence during the war, but only a handful of perpetrators have been prosecuted.

Later, at the Ford Foundation, she said that on an African trip with Hague, she visited the village of Mambasa in eastern Congo's Ituri district where 11 babies aged 6 to 12 months had been raped, 59 children aged 1 to 3 years old had been raped and 182 girls aged 5 to 15 years old had been raped.

"Who will rape a baby?," Bangura asked. "It means you want to wipe the community away. That's the only explanation you can have."

Jolie pleaded with the Security Council ? and all countries ? to implement the resolution and not let the issue drop.

"Meet your commitments, debate this issue in your parliaments, mobilize people in your countries, and build it into all your foreign policy efforts," she urged. "Together, you can turn the tide of global opinion, shatter impunity and finally put an end to this abhorrence."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute to Jolie for being the voice of millions forced to flee their homes "and now for the many survivors of wartime rape whose bodies have been used as battlegrounds."

He called on all leaders to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators "and be part of a global coalition of champions determined to break this evil."

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/angelina-jolie-unhcr-envoy_n_3491103.html

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New palm-sized microarray technique grows 1,200 individual cultures of microbes

June 25, 2013 ? A new palm-sized microarray that holds 1,200 individual cultures of fungi or bacteria could enable faster, more efficient drug discovery, according to a study published in mBio?, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Scientists at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston have developed a microarray platform for culturing fungal biofilms, and validated one potential application of the technology to identify new drugs effective against Candida albicans biofilms. The nano-scale platform technology could one day be used for rapid drug discovery for treatment of any number of fungal or bacterial infections, according to the authors, or even as a rapid clinical test to identify antibiotic drugs that will be effective against a particular infection.

"Even though we have used the antifungal concept for development, it is a universal tool," says co-author Jose Lopez-Ribot of the University of Texas at San Antonio. "It opens a lot of possibilities as a new platform for microbial culture. Any time you need large numbers of cultures, this has a big advantage over other methods."

"The possibility exists to use this same technology for pretty much any other organism," he says.

Microbiology and medicine have become increasingly reliant on micro- and nano-scale technologies because of the increased speed and efficiency they can offer, but until now the cultivation of microorganisms has mostly been conducted on larger scales, in flasks and in trays called micro-titer plates. The microarray technology enables the user to rapidly compare hundreds or thousands of individual cultures of bacteria or fungi, a big benefit in the search for new drugs to treat infections. And like many nano-scale techniques, the nano-culture approach described in the mBio? study is also automated, a feature that saves time, improves reproducibility, and prevents some types of user error.

To test the technique, the authors embedded cells of the opportunistic pathogen C. albicans in each of the 1,200 tiny dots of alginate on the surface of the microarray. Under the microscope, these nano-biofilms of C. albicans, each of which was only 30 nanoliters, exhibited the same growth habits and other outward characteristics as conventional, macroscopic biofilms, and achieved maximum metabolic activity within 12 hours. The tiny cultures were then treated with a wide range of candidate drugs from the National Cancer Institute library, or with different FDA-approved, off-patent antifungal drugs in combination with FK506, an immunosuppressant, for identifying individual or synergistic combinations of compounds effective against biofilm infections. Co-author Anand Ramasubramanian of the University of Texas at San Antonio says that the tests prove the utility of the technology in screening combinations of drugs.

"The antifungal screening results were similar to results in larger macroscale techniques. That gives us confidence that it could be used as a tool to replace existing techniques," says Ramasubramanian.

Going forward, Ramasubramanian says he and his colleagues are testing the microarrays with polymicrobial cultures -- mixtures of fungi and bacteria -- to see whether the technology can be used to explore treatments for mixed infections. They are also exploring clinical applications for the technique, testing patient samples against an array of drugs or combinations of drugs to develop tailored therapies.

Lopez-Ribot says their microarray technique is just the latest development in a decades-long trend toward the tiny in science. "Things are moving toward smaller scale, more powerful techniques. You don't need millions of cells for these assays like we used to -- maybe a few cells will do."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/giFEwbHPi0M/130625074149.htm

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Egypt's top religious authority: It's not anti-Islam to be anti-Morsi

As the Egyptian opposition's demands for the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi and fresh elections gain momentum, the beleaguered president's supporters are slamming the opposition as secular and hostile to Islam.

In the deeply religious country, it is a serious criticism, and it has brought many Egyptians to Mr. Morsi's side. But his opponents point to support from the leading voice of the Sunni establishment in Egypt.

Earlier this month, Ashraf Abdel-Moniem, a conservative preacher and a vocal supporter of Morsi, declared that it was obligatory for Muslims to confront, even kill, anyone protesting against the government. The head of Al Azhar University, Egypt's leading Sunni institution, disagreed saying ?peaceful opposition to the government is acceptable in Islam.?

Since, the political temperature in Egypt has only risen. At least two people were killed and scores injured in clashes over the weekend between supporters and opponents of Morsi.

The ongoing conflict between some Islamists ? who see the attempt to topple Morsi as an affront to his electoral mandate ? and the opposition has plunged Egypt into the ?deepest crisis since the Jan. 25 revolution,? says Ahmed Fahmy, a professor at the American University in Cairo.

A broad coalition of opposition groups ? dubbed Tamarod or ?Rebel? ? is planning to hold protests beginning June 30 and lasting until Morsi is removed from office. They say Mr. Morsi has spent the last year shoring up his party's control of Egypt's institutions instead of stabilizing a shrinking economy and mounting energy shortages.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

With his number of allies shrinking by the day, Morsi has turned to a handful of salafy Islamist groups who see his government as the first step towards an Egypt governed by their interpretation of Islamic law. Morsi's salafy allies have threatened to use violence to preserve his presidency. ?Not necessarily the Brotherhood,? says Fahmy, ?but people to the right of the Brotherhood are taking things into that direction.?

In a bid to show its street strength, the Muslim Brotherhood organized a day-long rally on June 21 in Cairo's Nasr City neighborhood.

?Yes to Islam, no to violence, no to secularism!? shouted supporters at the rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people from all over Egypt. ?There is no shame in sharia (Islamic law),? read a sign held by a protester.

Sabry Gaad, a teacher who attended the protest, said he is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but opposes Tamarod because ?they are against sharia.? He questioned the group's claim that it had widespread support ? Tamarod says that its campaign to gather 15 million signatures on a petition calling for new elections is close to reaching its goal.

Read more about Tamarod's bid to boot Morsi from office

Former President Hosni Mubarak suppressed religious groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, routinely jailing the Brotherhood's members ? including Morsi ? and charged them with supporting violent Islamist groups.

Since his election Morsi has pushed for the release of many Islamists jailed under Mubarak, including leaders from Al Gamaa al-Islamiya (GI), a former militant group that renounced violence a decade ago after a 1990s insurgency that killed hundreds of civilians and security officials.

At the rally last week, Assem Abdel Maged, a GI leader, warned that the opposition sought to overturn a democratic mandate to implement Islamic law in Egypt. "Some who lost at the ballot box want to take power through anarchy," he said.

Mr. Abdel Maged has previously said the Tamarod campaign is led by ?communists, [Mubarak loyalists], and Coptic extremists,? who are ?hostile to Islam.? Safwat Abdel Ghany, a leading member of the group, said earlier this month that the Tamarod campaign was not a campaign in response to economic problems, but a ?war on Islam.?

Not everyone agrees. ?Egypt is a religious country, we love Islam,? said Ahmed Marghani, a dentist from Alexandria who attended the pro-Morsi rally. ?But we do not need sharia ? people do not need laws to control them.?

Marghani said he simply wanted to make sure Morsi, a democratically elected president, was not toppled by an opposition that did not respect the country's constitution.

Amal Sharaf is one of the founding members of the April 6 Youth Movement, which began as a campaign to support factory workers in 2008. It helped organize the 2011 protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak and backed Morsi in the 2012 elections because his only opponent was Ahmad Shafiq, a former Mubarak regime member.

She rejected the claims that the opposition is predominantly secular, implying the accusation was merely a vote-getting tactic.

?[The Brotherhood] is mixing politics with religion,? Sharaf says. ?To win people's votes, their attention, their sympathy. The 15 million signatures we have are not from atheists..they are using religion in a very cheap way.?

In fact, acknowledgment, if not support, of the opposition's grievances has come from a number of Islamist quarters.

The Al Nour party, the country's largest party of ultra-conservative salafis and the second-largest party in the government after the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party ? has refused to participate in the pro-Brotherhood campaign. While he does not support calls for a fresh election, Al Nour spokesman Nadr Bakr denounced pro-Brotherhood rallies by Islamists as ?only fostering the current crisis, which harms the country and its economy."

?We hoped Morsi would turn Egypt into a new country,? says Ramy El-Swissy, another founder of April 6, ?A sovereign country based on human rights and equality for everyone....but he started to work for his own benefit, for his own Brotherhood.?

?We will never accept this, after two years of fighting the old regime and then the military council.?

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

Thirdhand Smoke Damages Human Cells

Thirdhand smoke, the residue from cigarette smoke that lingers on surfaces and in dust long after the cigarette is out and the smoke has cleared, may damage human cells, a new study finds.

The researchers used two standard laboratory tests to assess the toxicity of thirdhand smoke. They showed that a compound found in smoke residue, called tobacco-specific nitrosamine, significantly damages DNA in human cells.

"This is the very first study to show that thirdhand smoke is mutagenic and causes DNA damage, which is considered as one of the first steps toward cancer," said study researcher Lara Gundel, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Though the harmful effects of cigarette smoking are well-known, the question of whether exposure to thirdhand smoke is also a health concern has often been overlooked, the researchers said.

Thirdhand smoke is the smell that remains on the clothes and hair of someone who has just smoked, or the odor left in hotel rooms where smokers stayed. The chemicals are derivatives of nicotine, and remain in indoor environments, absorbed in the fabric of curtains and carpeting, and on the surface of other objects.

However, the extent to which the chemicals could be hazardous to people is still unknown.

"The purpose of the study was to find how toxic and hazardous some compounds in thirdhand smoke are, and by what mechanisms they can cause harm," Gundel said.

In the study, the researchers put paper strips in smoking chambers. Some of the samples were left for only 20 minutes, after which the researchers measured the residue; the researchers called this "acute exposure." Other strips were left for nearly 200 days in a smoking chamber that was ventilated, to create a "chronic exposure" condition.

The researchers then extracted the chemicals from the paper strips, and exposed cells?to the chemicals.

The results showed that the chronic samples had a higher concentration of thirdhand smoke residue than the acute samples. The chronic samples also caused higher levels of DNA damage.

"The cumulative effect of thirdhand smoke is quite significant," Gundel said. "The findings suggest the materials could be getting more toxic with time."

One important characteristic of thirdhand smoke is that its residue can interact with compounds in the air, such as ozone, and produce new toxins, the researchers said.

It is difficult to say when it is safe to enter a place where a smoker has formerly lived, as the emission seems to continue for a long time.

Cleaning a home or a car that has been smoked in doesn't seem to solve the problem. The researchers said they encountered people who complained about buying a used car that didn't smell at first but after a few days started to smell as if somebody had smoked in it.

"Even when you paint the walls, it covers the smell for a short time, but then the compounds work their way through the painting," Gundel said.

"We can take up markers from former smoking months, and sometimes even years after the smoker has left," the researchers said.

Future studies should investigate the effects of nitrosamines and other compounds found in thirdhand smoke on people by looking at blood samples, the researchers said.

The study was published June 13 in the journal Mutagenesis, and was funded by the?Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, which is managed by the University of California and funded by state cigarette taxes.

Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her @alterwired. Follow?LiveScience?@livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thirdhand-smoke-damages-human-cells-123135629.html

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 series to hit US on July 7th, prices start at $199

Not to be forgotten amid other new Samsung products, the company has announced that its complete Galaxy Tab 3 lineup will arrive in the US next month. The tablet family launches in the states on July 7th, with all three screen sizes (7, 8 and 10.1 inches) going on sale at Samsung.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Office Depot and other brick-and-mortar retailers. As a refresher, the entry-level Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is priced at $199 and sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of storage (plus microSD expansion), and a 7-inch 1,024 x 600 TFT display. There's Android Jelly Bean (4.1) from the outset, as well as Samsung's various apps and built-in hubs.

In addition to having a larger screen, the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 ($299) bumps up other specifications, with a more potent Exynos 1.5GHz dual-core processor and higher-resolution (1,280 x 800) TFT display. It's got the very latest Android build (4.2), as well as a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p video capture. Storage is also doubled to 16GB, with extra space available through microSD, and 1.5GB of RAM to keep apps running smoothly.

Finally, there's the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 ($399), which packs an Intel Z2560 processor (1.6GHz dual-core) and the same resolution as the Tab 3 8.0, albeit stretched a little further. It also matches the smaller model on storage and camera specs, although RAM has inexplicably dropped to just a single gig. The larger model does include a built-in IR blaster, however, as well as Samsung's WatchON TV recommendation service. All three WiFi-only models will arrive in white and a previously leaked gold brown hue. Pre-orders start tomorrow.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 family