Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180825333?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Altec Lansing A1 Custom Single Driver Earphone
Recently, Altec Lansing partnered with ACS Custom, a British earphone and musician monitor manufacturer, to design its first line of custom-molded earphones. The result is a three earphone lineup, topping out at $999.95, and starting at $499.95 (direct) with the Altec Lansing A1 Custom Single Driver Earphone. The key differentiator between the Altec Lansing custom series and competing custom in-ear monitors from Ultimate Ears and JH Audio is the smaller, medical-grade silicone earpiece. Altec's earpiece material choice brings obvious comfort advantages, but also less obvious annoyances. As for the sound signature, the A1 is a beautiful-sounding, flat response pair that neither exaggerates bass response nor ignores it. Unfortunately, at high volumes on deep bass tracks, the A1 distorts slightly?not a deal-breaker, but still surprising given the high price-range.
Design?
The design of the A1 is about as simple and unadorned as it gets, lacking any logos on the earphones. A black cable, with no iPhone controls or microphone, extends from the dark gray, translucent-silicone earpieces. The A1's cable extends upwards, over the top of the ear and behind it, and terminates in a 3.5mm connection. The earphones ship with a hard case, an earwax cleaning tool, a tube of comfort cream (which helps create a more comfortable seal), and a protective pouch.
As with all custom-molded pairs, the A1 requires a visit to an audiologist?Altec will connect you with one once you place your order. The audiologist will create molds of your ear canal and then send them on their way for the manufacturing process.
Altec Lansing isn't the first company to offer soft custom ear-molds. ACS, the company's partner for the custom series, has been doing it successfully overseas for some time now and Etymotic, the flat response earphone specialists, now offer a $100 custom-earpiece upgrade for nearly all of its models.
The earpieces for the A1 are quite small, and unlike the A2 and A3, which respectively house two and three drivers, the A1 only utilizes one balanced armature driver. Obviously, this means that less of the ear is obstructed, but since the ear canal is still sealed off completely, the passive noise reduction is still quite significant at approximately 27dB?these are basically earplugs with earphones built-in. The soft silicone is also quite comfortable, even for long listening sessions, though the smaller earpieces are a bit more difficult to put in your ears properly than larger pairs. The silicone eventually warms to your body temperature and expands slightly in the ear canal, helping maintain a perfect seal. One weird downside to the soft silicone: It acts like a magnet for everything from dust particles to pet hair. I found myself wiping them clean nearly every time I put them in, so it's a good idea to make use of the protective pouch to keep them as dust-free as possible.
One particularly annoying design move is the lack of a detachable cable. Unlike, say, the JH Audio JH16 Pro ($1,149, 5 stars), a far more expensive custom model, or the Shure SE215 ($119, 4 stars), a far less expensive model that isn't even custom-molded, the A1's cable is hardwired. So if the cable gets gnarled or damaged, the earphones must go in for repair. However, the cable is at least reinforced with Kevlar, and seems both stronger than the average headphone cable and less affected by low temperatures.
Performance
Audiophiles who prefer less exaggerated bass frequencies and a generally flat response will enjoy the sound signature of the A1. Like the Etymotic ER-4PT ($299, 4.5 stars), the emphasis here is on clarity in the mids and highs. Low frequencies exist, but subtly. On songs with tremendously deep bass, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the A1 still adequately covers the sub-bass frequencies, but not with the kind of boosted response that is common in modern earphones. Unfortunately, at high volumes, there is minor distortion on deep bass tracks. Granted, it isn't advisable to listen at such high levels, but earphones in this price range should not distort when used with an iPhone or a laptop.
On classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," the low-end response takes a backseat to the articulate, crisp presence of the mids, highlighting the attack of middle- and high-register stringed instruments, as well as brighter percussion. Still when a large drum is hit, you definitely experience a fullness in the bass response?it just isn't overdone. The experience is a nice approximation of what you might actually hear in a concert hall when listening to the same piece.
Altec Lansing's clinical approach to audio puts the A1 clearly in the camp of Etymotic and less so with bass-heavy offerings from JH Audio and Ultimate Ears, like the similarly priced, Editors' Choice UE 4 Pro ($399, 4.5 stars). Musicians and music lovers seeking more bass response should probably steer clear of the A1, but fans of flat response and articulate highs will be pleased. Thus far in the custom realm, there just aren't any bad options, only different sound signatures and fits. It's advisable to read all of our custom in-ear reviews from JH Audio, Ultimate Ears, and our reviews of Etymotic pairs with custom-fit options before settling on the A1 or any other pair.
More Headphone Reviews:
??? Altec Lansing A1 Custom Single Driver Earphone
??? Phiaton PS 20 BT
??? Polk Audio UltraFit3000
??? Klipsch Image ONE Headphones
??? TDK ST700 High Fidelity On-Ear Headphones
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Pno_aY1NePI/0,2817,2398029,00.asp
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Facebook Messenger for Windows is more than a chat app
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Source: http://www.mashtoday.com/2011/12/30/facebook-messenger-for-windows-is-more-than-a-chat-app-9.html
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Friday, December 30, 2011
NY bill would require bachelor's degrees for RNs
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? New registered nurses would have to earn bachelor's degrees within 10 years to keep working in New York under a bill lawmakers are considering as part of a national push to raise educational standards for nurses, even as the health care industry faces staffing shortages.
The "BSN in 10" initiative backed by nursing associations and major health policy organizations aims to attack the complex problem of too few nurses trained to care for an aging population that includes hundreds of thousands of nurses expected to retire in the coming years. But some in the health care industry worry that increased education requirements could worsen the problem by discouraging entrants into the field.
Currently, most registered nurses have two-year associate's degrees. No state requires a four-year degree for initial licensing or afterward, though New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered proposals similar to New York's over the past several years. New York's legislation died in committee last session, but it has bipartisan support in both chambers this year and could be debated as early as January.
Demand for more skilled nurses is increasing as the population gets older and has more chronic diseases, and as the new federal health care law promises to help 32 million more Americans gain insurance within a few years.
Federal health officials have recommended upgrading nurse education to BSNs for more than a decade, and the idea got a boost in a 2010 report, "The Future of Nursing," by the National Academy of Sciences nonprofit Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As of 2008, about a third of RNs had bachelor's degrees or higher, according to federal statistics. The institute recommended increasing that to 80 percent by 2020.
Advocates say that in addition to improving patient care, a key reason for requiring more education is to put more nurses in position to move on to jobs in administration and in-demand specialties like oncology, and to teach at nursing schools, where the average faculty age is 53.
"More and more hospitals are looking to hire BSNs, but the catch is that not that many schools offer the RN-to-BSN program or have the faculty to teach it," said Sharon Shockness, an adjunct teacher at Mercy College in Westchester County.
The New York bill's main sponsors, Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Morelle of Rochester and Republican Sen. James Alesi of Monroe County, said the bill is needed to further professionalize nursing. Both serve on their respective higher education committees and represent districts that include University of Rochester Medical Center and St. John Fisher College, which have BSN programs.
In addition to helping provide future teachers, the lawmakers say the added education and critical thinking skills are needed as patient care has become more sophisticated and studies show staff with higher levels of education serve patients better.
In a memo supporting the bill, the New York State Nurses Association cites a 2003 University of Pennsylvania study that found every 10 percent increase in staffing by nurses with bachelor's degrees results in a 5 percent decrease in surgical deaths.
Current registered nurses would be exempt from the education requirement to prevent driving more nurses from the field.
"This bill shouldn't discourage anyone at this point because it doesn't involve anyone even applying for licensure right now ... and 10 years is a long time to get a degree that will give you better pay," Alesi said.
Alesi contends the measure will "improve the landscape of nursing" by increasing the pool of RNs who can go on to obtain master's degrees and teach.
Researchers say almost 900,000 of the nation's roughly 3 million licensed RNs are older than 50, and while there's been an uptick in new, younger nurses, shortages are still expected as the health care industry continues to add nursing jobs. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 2009 that almost 582,000 new RN jobs would be created by 2018.
Federal projections in 2004, the most recent available, forecast a shortfall of 54,000 RN jobs in New York by 2020; the state currently has about 170,000 working nurses. But the state and national shortage estimates have varied greatly as the overall economy and national health policy have changed. A study published this year in the journal Health Affairs reports a surge among younger RNs entering the workforce, pointing to an easing of a national shortage previously forecast to reach 400,000 by 2020.
That shortage concerns New York's health care providers.
William Van Slyke, spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, said the organization representing health care networks and hospitals supports having a better educated nursing workforce, but opposes a four-year degree mandate.
One problem, he said, is the lack of nursing faculty ? the same issue advocates say the bill would address.
"If you start the clock and you don't have the educational system, we may find ourselves having to turn away staff and have shortages," Van Slyke said.
The association has proposed legislation that would provide incentives like loan forgiveness to encourage people to become nurse educators, he said, but lawmakers haven't taken up the idea.
Morelle, the Assembly sponsor, said the state's community colleges also have expressed concerns that the requirement will cut into the number of people seeking the 2-year degrees they offer.
"Their classes are overflowing," Morelle said, and there is a "whole host of programs" that allow students to progress from a 2-year to a 4-year program.
A spokesman for the New York nurses association said New York City metropolitan area hospitals are increasingly requiring new RNs to have a bachelor's degree or earn one within five years, creating a disparity in standards between downstate and upstate, where fewer candidates have four-year degrees.
"Even without the legislation in place, hospitals and other medical facilities are making hiring decisions that favor those with BSN degrees over those without them," said Dr. Peggy Tallier, program director and associate professor in nursing school health at Mercy College.
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Tim Tebow has as many Android apps as all of the 2012 Pro Bowl QBs combined
Fun fact: Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has at least six Android apps and a live wallpaper in the Android Market. (Make that eight total if you count the misspelled "Tbows World.")
There's "Tim Tebow." (with a period). "Tim Tebow" (without a period). "Tim Tebow!" (because dude deserves an exclamation point). The "Tim Tebow Unofficial App." "Tim Tebow News & Stats." And our favorite (although likely a little offensive to some), "You-R-Tebow," in which your face is planted on top of the genuflecting QB's body.
That's more than a half-dozen Tim Tebow Android apps. Guess how many the wonder boy Tom Brady has? Two. And his fellow 2012 Pro Bowlers don't fare much better. Aaron Rodgers (3). Drew Brees (2). Eli Manning (1). And poor Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers don't even merit a single app. (Not even a search for "meathead" turns up any results for those two.)
Yep, dude's everywhere.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/WZsgn6ATLgM/story01.htm
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Face and Voice Recognition May Be Linked in the Brain, Research Suggests
[unable to retrieve full-text content]New research helps explain why a person with face blindness may still have difficulty determining who a person is even after he or she has begun to speak.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6add0602254cb23b994bd564e1232aaf
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How You Can Teach Friends to Budget [Budgeting]
We all have the friend or family member who can't seem to grasp the idea of budgeting. It can be difficult to intervene and teach simple budgeting skills without breaking the bond of friendship. We'll outline the ways you can teach budgeting by creating an expense report, cutting those expenses down, and then help them monitor the budget.
Photo remixed from Max Strzelecki.
We've covered our fair share of budgeting tips and they've ranged from using webapps to track spending to using envelopes for cash. Here, we'll look at how to intervene in your friends financial business and how you can guide them through creating an expense report with hands-on techniques. Once they have a good idea of their expenses, you can walk them through the process of cutting those expenses down with webapps, ditching unnecessary services, and lowering the cost by calling all their providers.
How to Handle the Budgeting Intervention
A budgeting intervention is almost as difficult to bring up as a drug intervention. While many of your friends and family might need your help, many might not be interested in it.
It's not required that you handle the intervention as carefully as say, a heroin addiction, but you still need to follow some basic rules for bringing up and handling the subject. For an intervention, Mayo Clinic recommends doing your homework ahead of time, which in this case means coming up with a plan so you're able to talk about and work a budget on the spot. If you have the time, don't wait, it only takes a few minutes. It's also recommended you stay on track the whole time. Don't veer off into gossip or conversation and move the discussion somewhere that feels more like a formal meeting place so you can get the job done.
In my experience, I found it best to wait for them to open the discussion when they complain about not having any money. For instance:
Them: Man, I'm short on rent again this month.
You: Really, why?
Them: I don't know, I just don't have enough money.
You: Have you ever tried making a budget? It's super easy, let's do it right now.
I'm no financial expert by any means, but teaching ends up being as much a learning experience about your own budgeting as it is about showing someone the ropes. If you're excited about it, they might be as well, and it's not too difficult to make it an enjoyable experience. Most of these tips can be applied to any age group because at its core, the idea of budgeting is a simple one: make sure you have more coming in than going out. The trick is finding a method that someone will actually stick to.
Photo by MadLab Manchester Digital Laboratory.
Teach Them How to Make and Understand Their Own Expense Reports
It's a good idea to consider the type of learner you're attempting to teach budgeting. It might sound a little like elementary school, but if you want to make it an enjoyable experience you have to show them how to do it in a way they'll understand and actually implement in the future. This might mean you need to use visualizations or speak clearly about everything you're teaching them. Basically, you need to teach the budgeting in the same way you would to a child, but use grown up language. The biggest thing to remember is that you're not setting up a budget for them. You're guiding them through doing it. The basics are always the same: you can't spend more than you earn, but the methods are going to change from person to person. The overarching goal is to minimize expenses and learn to save, but the first step is to get a better view of what you're working with. You may find doing the initial expense sheets by hand instead of using a web or software service works better to lay down the foundation. Here are some ideas for doing it.
How to get the numbers: The most difficult and time-consuming part of making a budget is tracking down all the numbers and expenses you need to correctly make a budget. Monthly bills should be easy enough, but they'll need to take a look back at their monthly expenses on groceries, gas, and other random charges to properly get an idea of average expenses.
If you're teaching someone more technologically inclined, they can use a service like Mint to get a quick breakdown of the monthly expenses without a lot of work, but doing it by hand might work better for people new to budgets. One way they can do this is to print out a couple months of their bank statement and then highlight the different types of expenses with different colored highlighters. For instance, they'd highlight all the bills in red, entertainment expenses in yellow, and transportation in blue. This gives the whole thing a more tactile feel and while it takes a little longer, it can embed those expenses in their memory a little better than having a service do it automatically.
- Write Out a Simple "In and Out" Expense Sheet
If you're working with someone who doesn't have a lot of complicated finances but needs to get a good gauge on where their money is going, a simple two-table list might be a good way to go. Have them round up the expenses they categorized above and make sure they're being honest with the numbers. At this stage, there's no expense that should be left out, no matter how embarrassing or trivial it is. - Start by listing out all monthly expenses in one column, with the other dedicated to the average monthly paychecks.
- Compare the two and make sure they're not spending more than they're bringing in. If they are, we'll go over some ways to cut your spending down in the next section. If money is left over, they're in good shape, and we'll figure out how to deal extra cash in a little while
- Put the list somewhere it will be visible every day so it can be seen, remembered, and understood.
Graph the Expenses for a Visual Guide
If you're working with someone more artistically inclined, you might consider teaching to his or her strengths. For budgeting, this includes graphs and pie charts. With all of the data they collected in the above steps they can do this pretty easily.- To figure out your percentage, divide the expense by the total monthly income. For instance, if you're paying $60 a month for internet and you make $1500 a month, you divide 60 by 1500 and get four percent. Do this for each of the monthly expenses. If on average there is money left over, put that in its own category.
- Now you should have a set of percentages that up to 100 percent, so it's time to make a pie chart.
- The chart doesn't need technical accuracy, it's more about the act of drawing it. For a pie chart, they can estimate the size of each slice. Have them color everything so it's nice and clean looking, and then hang it up somewhere noticeable.
Figure Out Where and How to Cut Expenses Realistically
Now that the current spending habits are in front of them, it's time to figure out how to cut expenses. This is going to depend on where their money is going, what type of entertainment they like, and how close to their limit they are each month.
To start, figure out if any money is getting wasted away. Take a look at all those discretionary purchases each month individually and see if you can find a trend. Often, it's as easy as noticing the $150 spent on coffee every month at a coffee shop instead of making it at home. Perhaps they have some monthly purchases that go to waste but are kept because they've always been there. Cable is often a good example of something that might only get used to watch a few shows but could easily be replaced with cheaper services. We've outlined how to ditch cable before, and it's a good way to quickly get rid of a expensive and underutilized service. Other common expenses include:
- Alcohol
- Restaurants
- Gas
- Groceries
- Entertainment
- Phone
- Insurance
To reduce the cost of expenses, you can make a few sacrifices, or spend some time on the phone with service providers to get them to lower costs. Services like BillShrink can be used to find cheaper gas, wireless service, and television. To cut the grocery and restaurant bill, consider our previously mentioned tips to start eating well at home while keeping shopping costs down. If they're more the type to spent money on movies, books, or video games, discretionary spending on entertainment is one of the easiest to curb. If they're a big gamer, consider our tips for selling off used games at the best price, or using rental services like Redbox or GameFly. If they spend a lot on purchasing movies all the time, Netflix or Blockbuster might be the way to go. For books, the easiest solution is the local library, but a good used book store works just as well. The important thing is to stress that it's possible to keep up the entertainment habit without breaking the bank every month. If they are one of the avid collectors that will purchase everything despite their financial situation, stress the importance of cutting in other places in order to do so.
Once expenses are cut as low as possible, they need to figure out what type of savings they need. If no potential vacations, credit card repayments, or big purchases are on the horizon, that money should go into an emergency fund to help pay for any unexpected expenses that may come up. If you're dealing with a person who seems to hate saving, remind them of a recent emergency like a car repair or medical bill they've had to pay out of pocket.
Now they should have an optimized budget, where expenses are cut, the bills are as low as they can be, and it's as close to breaking even as possible. To show off a little, have them redo the expense sheets highlighted above to get a better idea of what has changed. Now it's time to figure out how to use those numbers and keep the budget on track in the future.
Photo by MoneyBlogNewz.
Three Easy Ways to Keep Them On Budget
Figuring out where the money is going and finding ways to cut expenses is only half the battle. The next part is figuring out a way to keep them on the budget. When they're starting out, a lot of people like to keep their monthly expenses on a wall where they can see them every day as a reminder. One person I talked to recently did so while surrounding their budget with pleasant images and quotes so it wasn't such a downer to look at it. A lot of different ways exist to track a budget, but lets look at the simplest forms for beginners with simple expenses. These are easy, month-to-month style budgets for people who aren't dealing with capitol investments or large oncoming expenses. They'll need to tweak the methods over time to fit their lifestyle, but these will start them with a strong foundation to build on.
- Envelope Method: If you're teaching budgeting methods to someone who is more comfortable with cash than a card, the envelope method is one of the simplest to follow. This method involves coming up with specific categories and stuffing the budgeted amount of cash into that envelope. For instance, a monthly set of envelopes might include: food, entertainment, gas, and emergency. Some expenses like rent, utilities, and bills can't be paid in cash, so this only works for people who might struggle with their discretionary spending. In this example, you would help them come up with their proposed monthly budget, then hit up the bank and take out the cash. Each envelope gets filled with the budgeted amount and that's all that can be spent for the month (or week or bi-weekly, whichever they prefer). It's as easy as that. When the envelope is out of money, the spending needs to stop.
- Webapps and Software: A lot of different methods for tracking a budget on a computer exist and we've highlighted the best before. For complete beginners, we rather like Mint for this, and our guide to setting up and tracking your spending is a good place to start. Mint's mobile apps and reminder system are good for those new to budgeting because they'll get alerts when they're close to zero dollars or when a strange expense comes up.
- Multiple Bank Account Budgeting: We've talked about the idea of bucket budgeting with multiple bank accounts before, but it's a really handy tool for those who are struggling to make their bills each month. Basically, set up two accounts, one for fixed expenses and one for everything else. This helps ensure the rent and bills will always get paid first and the rest of the spending can be doled out as needed. It's good for budgets that need flexibility or for people who just got a lump sum payment like a student loan or insurance payout. While the idea revolves around a checking account and two saving accounts, it could also be worked as two checking accounts. One account goes to bills and you deposit money in at the beginning of each month, while the other goes to the rest of the expenses. It takes a few steps to transfer money, so impulse purchases won't be as easy to make. Once the budget is in order, another account can be used as a savings account as well.
-
Photo by Lisa Brank.
While we've talked about many of these tips in a way for you to help teach budgeting to someone else, it's just as applicable to your own budgeting. In my personal experience, I've found that helping friends set up their expenses always makes me revisit and retool my own. It's hard to gauge when it's a good time to intervene to help a friend or family member out, but hopefully this will help you teach them in a direct and simple way. Have you ever helped someone create and manage a budget? What methods did you use?
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/vac3HGiAMRc/how-you-can-teach-friends-to-budget
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Ebook version of Tornado
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Source: http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/ebook_version_of_tornado
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
bikyamasr: Egypt anti-military supporters stage silent rally in Abbasiya: CAIRO: The residents of Cairo?s Abbasiya neighbor... http://t.co/RrQmwijB
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Genes that increase risk of thyroid cancer identified
WASHINGTON: Scientists have discovered the genetic cause of thyroid cancer, which can lead to the formulation of more targeted treatment for the disease.
Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered three genes that increase the risk of thyroid cancer, which is has the largest incidence increase in cancers among both men and women.
Research led by Charis Eng, M.D., Ph.D., Chair and founding Director of the Genomic Medicine Institute of Cleveland Clinic?s Lerner Research Institute, included nearly 3,000 patients with Cowden syndrome (CS) or CS-like disease, which is related to an increased risk of breast and thyroid cancer.
Mutations in the PTEN gene are the foundation of Cowden syndrome. PTEN is a tumour suppressor gene, helping to direct the growth and division of cells. Inherited mutations in the PTEN gene have been found in approximately 80 percent of Cowden syndrome patients.
These mutations prevent the PTEN protein from effectively regulating cell survival and division, which can lead to the formation of tumours.
?Our investigation into the genetics behind thyroid disease raises important details relevant to diagnosis and treatment,? said Dr. Eng.
?We hope to promote the earliest diagnosis and most targeted treatment possible.?
The study found that all six patients under age 18 had pathogenic PTEN mutations. The researchers recommend that the thyroids of children with PTEN mutation-causing CS-related disease receive increased surveillance.
Children with thyroid cancer are recommended to have testing for PTEN mutations, which could warrant surveillance for additional cancers or maladies. In contrast, alterations in the SDH and KLLN genes did not associate with thyroid cancer in children.
PTEN gene testing in the setting of genetic counselling is already routinely practiced, and has been a powerful gene-enabled diagnostic test, which then personalizes clinical screening and treatment.
Once SDH and KLLN findings are independently validated, the tests could be implemented as a clinical routine test as well. Importantly, these three genes belong to different cell pathways so that specific molecular-targeted treatments can be utilized depending on which gene is involved.
The study has been published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Article source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Genes-that-increase-risk-of-thyroid-cancer-identified/articleshow/11252273.cms
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Japan hopes Europe will boost rescue mechanism: sources (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Europe should boost the total firepower of its rescue fund and frontload its funding to send a positive signal to investors and international partners that it is determined to solve its debt crisis, Japanese officials said on Monday.
Japan has repeatedly expressed its willingness to help Europe contain its debt crisis, but has also stressed it wanted to see a convincing action plan before making any firm commitments.
"Japan like other non-euro countries is prepared to do something, but unless European countries take decisive action it is hard to make those steps effective," a senior Japanese government official said.
Lifting the combined size of the current bailout fund (EFSF) and the new permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) beyond the current 500 billion euros would be a major step and an encouraging signal.
"We expect European countries will review the combined ceiling of 500 billion euro of EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund) and ESM in a very positive manner," the official told Reuters.
European leaders agreed in Brussels earlier this month to accelerate the launch of the ESM by a year to mid-2012 with an effective lending capacity of 500 billion euros ($650 billion), but questions have arisen about the size and timing of contributions.
Japanese officials said that while bringing forward the launch of the fund was positive, a more ambitious ceiling might be needed given that Europe had little success in bringing in outside investors to boost the firepower of the EFSF fund.
"The leveraging of EFSF money by investors' money doesn't look like materializing very well. That's why they are frontloading the ESM and the review of the ceiling of 500 billion euro is very important," said the official, who declined to be named.
"European countries may think what they've already decided is a major step forward, but markets want Europe to act more decisively."
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble signaled over the weekend that Europe's biggest economy and its main paymaster could boost its contribution to the fund and support its swift launch, although any decisions would have to be made in January.
Since the beginning of the crisis more than two years ago, European leaders have orchestrated bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, set up a euro zone rescue fund and earlier this month agreed to boost the International Monetary Fund's resources by 150 billion euros.
Still, throughout the crisis that has also shaken Italy and Spain, investors have repeatedly been left with the impression that whatever was agreed in Brussels was too little, too late.
Japan, the United States, Canada and others have voiced their frustration with Europe's piecemeal progress and repeatedly called for bold steps that would create effective "firewalls" around the euro zone's weaker, heavily indebted economies.
Another Japanese government official reiterated on Monday that Tokyo, which led an international effort to boost the IMF's coffers after the Lehman crisis, was open to contributing more but that its decision depended on Europe's actions.
Officials in Tokyo said markets needed to see both effective defenses in the form of funds sufficient enough to cover the crisis-hit nations' financing needs and commitments to fiscal discipline.
"Fiscal discipline is very important. Even if we provide firewalls we need fiscal discipline," the official said.
While Tokyo has repeatedly voiced concern about developments in Europe, its plans to buy Chinese government debt did not reflect lack of confidence in the euro or U.S. dollar assets, another official said.
He said the plans, discussed during Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to Beijing, aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two nations rather than diversifying Japan's exchange reserves, mostly made up of dollar and euro assets.
"The idea is not to depart from the dollar or U.S. government bonds or the euro, so it should not be interpreted as diversification of our portfolio," the official said.
"I don't have any doubts about creditworthiness of the dollar or U.S. government bonds. The dollar will remain the most important currency for the foreseeable future."
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Obamas go to church, dine in for Christmas in Hawaii (reuters)
3 Americans Killed In Mexico After Five Gunmen Open Fire On Buses
Three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on buses in northern Mexico. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiLMajor
A group of five gunmen attacked three buses in Mexico?s Gulf coast state of Veracruz on Thursday, killing a total of seven passengers in what authorities said appeared to be a violent robbery spree.
The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters who were returning to visit relatives in the region, known as the Huasteca, said an official in the neighboring state of Hidalgo, where the mother was born.
Hidalgo state regional assistant secretary Jorge Rocha identified the dead U.S. mother as Maria Sanchez Hernandez, 39, of Fort Worth, Texas, and the daughters as Karla, 19, and Cristina, 13. Rocha said all three held dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship. A 14-year-old Mexican nephew traveling with the three was also killed.
A U.S. Embassy official confirmed the women?s nationalities, but could offer no information on their ages or hometowns. The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said consular authorities were offering assistance to the victims? relatives.
While funeral plans were unclear, Rocha said Sanchez Hernandez?s mother wants her daughter to be buried in Mexico.
Three other Mexican citizens were killed in the Thursday attacks on the three buses.
The five gunmen who allegedly carried out the attacks were later killed by soldiers.
Earlier in their spree, the gunmen shot to death three people and killed a fourth with grenade in the nearby town of El Higo, Veracruz.
On Thursday, the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros, a Mexican border city north of where the attacks occurred, said in a statement that ?several vehicles,? including the buses, were attacked, but did not specify what the other vehicles were.
The consulate urged Americans to ?exercise caution? when traveling in Veracruz, and ?avoid intercity road travel at night.?
DN
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Rihanna Releases "You Da One" Video: Watch Now!
Rihanna has just released the music video for her latest single “You Da One.”
In the video, the 23-year-old pop singer pays homage to Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange, with a variety of wigs and vintage-styled get-ups.
Director Melina Matsoukas, who created the superstar's controversial and successful “We Found Love” and “S&M” videos, is back at the helm on this one too.
Take a look at the latest from Rihanna below and see what you think ...
Rihanna - You Da One (Official Video)
“We Found Love” has just become the biggest hit of Rihanna's career by remaining at #1 for an eighth consecutive week. Can "You Da One" measure up?
Almost definitely not, but it is catchy. Your thoughts? Vote below:
What do you think of Rihanna's "You Da One"?
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/rihanna-releases-you-da-one-video-watch-now/
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The Best Airline Rewards Programs, Ranked By Ease of Accruing Miles, Award Availability and More [Travel]
The best airline rewards program or frequent flyer program for you is a combination of which airlines are near you and a gazillion (more or less) other criteria, like how easy it is to rack up the miles. Location aside, this matrix from The Points Guy can help you choose the right program to join.
It's a subjective rating, but travel blogger Brian Kelly, a.k.a., The Points Guy, carefully considers multiple criteria, from ease in accruing miles to taxes and fees for things like last-minute bookings or award redemption fees. Here's how the 6 programs he evaluated stack up:
Of these, Continental/United Airlines comes out on top, but you could use the chart to find an airline loyalty program with a specific feature you care about most (e.g., award levels: US Airways or most ways to earn miles: Delta).
Kelly also offers pros and cons for each program.
When Lifehacker readers nominated the best frequent flyer programs, results were so spread out we had to list the top eight rather than five. The Points Guy gives you another perspective on these programs.
What's your favorite?
My Ranking of Airline Frequent Flyer Programs | The Points Guy
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Tintin?s Father, Nobody?s Son
Although Remi eventually gave Tintin?s age as 17, the same as Remi?s when he left school, the character is truly ageless. He?s old enough to hold a job as a journalist, although he does little actual reporting after the first few books, but his interests?treasure, adventure, gadgetry?are uniformly those of a boy, and that went for his creator as well. For all the attention Remi paid to the design of automobiles and the details of place, exquisitely rendered in the clear-line style, his characters are two-dimensional, as simple as the flat planes of color that fill their ?clear-line? outlines. It?s not hard to see the appeal of Tintin?s world to Steven Spielberg, a child of divorce forever exploring the aesthetics of adolescence.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=18e405c2c86cb702b908d4d90d469e59
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Friday, December 23, 2011
SLAM legal action! ? Surrey Libraries Action Movement
December 21, 2011 by slamupdate
SLAM has been ramping up its activity over the past few weeks, but the public campaigning has only been the tip of the iceberg. We have been extremely busy in the background collecting a mountain of evidence and conducting talks with our lawyers. The outcome of all this work is that we are very confident that Surrey County Council has fallen short in its obligations as a public library service provider regarding its plans to implement volunteer-run libraries. And ? ?even though we would much rather it not come to this ? we are ready to take legal action to stop the Council?s library plans.
But we need help. As you can imagine, taking legal action is not cheap and, in addition to conducting a campaign to raise a ?fighting fund?, we also need to apply for legal aid (on the basis that the case is in the broader public interest). The Government has clamped down on legal aid over the last couple of years making the eligibility criteria more stringent.
We need your help today
We need someone to come forward that qualifies for legal aid and that would be willing to be involved in the legal action. The level of involvement in preparation for the case is discretionary: we are more than prepared to do all the work necessary and we will fully protect the person, but if the person wants to be more involved then we are certainly happy to work in any way that the person is comfortable with.
Legal aid criteria basically comes down to how much capital a person holds (the limit is currently ?8,000).
If you think you may be able to help, or know someone who may be able to help, please contact us using the Contact Us tab leaving your phone number and/or email address and we will contact you today to discuss.
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Source: http://slamupdate.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/slam-legal-action/
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UN: Philippine flood destruction like tsunami (AP)
ILIGAN, Philippines ? A southern Philippine area devastated by flash floods that killed more than 1,000 people looks like it was hit by a tsunami, a U.N. official said Thursday as he appealed for $28 million in aid for the region.
U.N. humanitarian coordinator Soe Nyunt-U voiced concern about possible outbreaks of disease among the thousands living in evacuation centers after their houses were washed away last Friday when a tropical storm unleashed the flash floods.
"It was as if the cities were hit by an inland tsunami," Nyunt-U told reporters in Manila. "Entire areas were completely flattened. "
Aid workers were rushing in relief supplies, but a lack of running water was a major concern.
"We must improve this situation at the soonest possible time to avoid disease outbreaks that will further compound the hardships of the people already weakened by hunger and grief from loss of family and friends," Nyunt-U said.
He mentioned a cholera type virus that may occur due to problems stemming from congestion in the evacuation centers, where poor sanitation and hygiene posed a health risk.
Such concerns were nagging Annaliza Tumanda, who was caring for her baby daughter, Aizee, born at the height of the storm and floods that destroyed their home in Cagayan de Oro. They were at a government-run shelter in the same city.
Tumanda said she, her husband and three children ? aged 3 to 8 ? swam to a neighbor's three-story house. She went into labor Saturday morning and was brought by rescuers to the roof of a health center, where she gave birth to a healthy 6.6-pound (3-kilogram) baby.
"With God's will, we survived," she said. "It was like a miracle."
In all, 640,000 people have been affected by the disaster, the government and the U.N. said.
"Debris from houses, buildings and other structures that had been destroyed by the storm was all swept out to the sea, leaving huge areas devoid of all traces of habitation," Nyunt-U said.
Nyunt-U said he was hopeful donors and foreign governments would respond to the appeal despite the global economic crisis. An appeal launched following a 2009 typhoon that killed about 500 people in Manila collected only half the funds needed.
"It's the Christmas season and the willingness of the international community is high," he said, adding that "no country can stand alone."
About 45,000 displaced are inside evacuation centers, most of them in worst-hit Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities in the southern Mindanao region. Another 266,000 are being assisted outside temporary shelters.
Nearly 30,000 houses were destroyed and damaged. The two cities are home to nearly a million people.
Local authorities and grieving relatives were moving ahead with dozens of burials each day. The handful of local funeral parlors are overwhelmed and have stopped accepting bodies, which are still being retrieved from the sea or mud almost a week after the disaster.
___
Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski and Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS spelling of mother's name to Tumanda instead of Tumada in paragraph 7)
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Fresh iPhone Apps for Dec. 16: Liftopia, Golf Channel update, Seal Force, The Adventures of Tintin - The Game (Appolicious)
Go into the weekend with an eye toward relaxation and recreation with today?s leading Fresh iPhone Apps. Liftopia makes it easy to grab information on ski resorts and find cheap lift tickets, and an updated Golf Channel app will tie you into all the latest news and videos about the sport. The Adventures of Tintin: The Game leads our selection of games today, with plenty of puzzles and action lifted from the new animated film. And finally, there?s Seal Force, a runner game with the gameplay of Flight Control.
Liftopia (iPhone, iPad) Free
With winter in full swing and many of us about to take some vacation for the holidays, it?s a perfect time to grab the skis and hit the slopes. Liftopia is an app that?s a lot like Groupon for skiing. It links you into all kinds of deals on lift tickets in more than 150 resorts and makes it easy to book a ticket and learn about different skiing opportunities.
Liftopia is also a good way to find ski resorts. It links you into lots of information about the ones near you and makes finding them and making bookings at them easy to do. The app makes use of your iOS device?s GPS capabilities to find resorts and deals near you, and you can save your favorite resorts and find out what their snow conditions are like whenever you want.
It?s not snowy everywhere, and some of us prefer warmer climes and the relaxing (or maybe not so relaxing) sports they offer. Golf Channel makes it easy to stay connected with the world of pro golf, and the app has just gone through a major update to hit version 3.0. With the update comes a brand new user interface, and iPad users will find the ability to chat with other golf fans along with all the other features the app offers.
Those other features include tons of information about golf. You can read articles and blogs on Golf Channel, view videos, follow your favorite players and view tournament leaderboards, all within the app. You can also share articles and videos that interest you through connectivity with Facebook and Twitter, watch the latest Golf Channel shows, and even get behind-the-scenes looks at the programs you enjoy.
Releasing ahead of the upcoming Steven Spielberg animated film, The Adventures of Tintin: The Game puts you in the role of the famous investigative journalist as he?s embroiled in a mystery that follows the plot of the movie. You?ll play as Tintin, his dog Snowy and his friend Captain Haddock through the course of the game, engaging between third-person action in which you?ll sprint and sneak around various levels.
Tintin is more about solving puzzles than it is about action, but there are hearty portions of each throughout the game. It also looks gorgeous, with graphics that pretty closely match the look and feel of the movie. The game is meant to be fun for all ages, too, so you can feel safe handing it off to the kids.
Combine the gameplay of App Store hits like Jetpack Joyride and Flight Control and you might have something similar to Seal Force. It?s part endless runner, part line-drawing arcade title. You control an elite team of three seals ? that?s marine mammals with special forces training ? as they fight to take down an evil scientist and his army of evil crustaceans. To defeat them, you?ll need to draw a line from each seal to the krill of the corresponding color to destroy them and rack up points. If krill get through your defensive shield without being stopped, you lose the game.
You?ll also get a chance to gather up tons of power-ups and shell coins that can be spent to improve your seal team, but no matter what, you can only control one seal at a time, so you?ll need to be smart and economical with the paths you draw for them or risk being unable to deal with a new threat. Seal Force also packs missions you can complete by achieving objectives, and Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Protecting confidential data with math
ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) ? Statistical databases (SDBs) are collections of data that are used to gather and analyze information from a variety of sources. The data may be derived from sales transactions, customer files, voter registrations, medical records, employee rosters, product inventories, or other compilations of facts and figures.
Because database security requires multiple processes and controls, it presents huge security challenges to organizations. With the computerization of databases in healthcare, forensics, telecommunications, and other fields, ensuring this kind of security has become increasingly important.
In a paper recently published in the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, authors Rudolf Ahlswede and Harout Aydinian analyze a security-control model for statistical databases.
"Providing privacy and confidentiality in SDBs is not a new issue," Aydinian points out. "Privacy interests have evolved from the very first census in the United States. Recorded protests until the mid-20th century reflect constitutional issues resulting from the requirement for U.S. residents to provide sensitive personal information. Questions on census forms about diseases, mortgage values, and other items have raised many concerns."
While such databases are very helpful in aggregating data, there is a risk that confidential information about an individual's record may be deliberately compromised. "Since such data sets also contain sensitive information, such as the disease of an individual, or the salary of an employee, it is necessary to provide security against the disclosure of confidential information," says Aydinian. "Even in cases where a user has no direct access to sensitive information, sometimes confidential data about an individual can be inferred by correlating enough statistics."
Typically, statistical databases are designed to only accept queries that involve specific statistical functions (such as sum, average, count, min, max, etc.). However, the use of these queries may render databases susceptible to compromise. For instance, it may be possible to infer information about specific individuals by putting together data from a sequence of statistical queries, using prior knowledge of an individual, or through collusion among users.
An SDB is considered secure if no protected data can be inferred from available queries. "In the literature, many scenarios of compromise and inference control methods have been proposed to protect SDBs," Aydinian says. "However, to date no one security control method is capable of completely preventing compromise."
Query restriction is one of several general approaches used for security control. A "query request" retrieves a subset of data from a database that meets a set of conditions. In query restriction, the kind and amount of data that can be retrieved by such queries is limited, for example, the size of the data, or the amount of overlap between data that is returned.
In one type of query restriction method, only certain sums of individual records (called "SUM queries") that meet a minimum specified size or number, and satisfy a specified set of conditions, are available to users.
Aydinian explains with an example. "Consider a company with a large number of employees. Suppose that for each member of the company, the sex, age, rank, length of employment, salary etc. is recorded. The salaries of individual employees are confidential. Suppose that only SUM queries are allowed, i.e. the sum of the salaries of the specified people is returned. Then one might pose the query: What is the sum of salaries for males, above 50, and during the last 10 years?"
The task addressed in the paper is to provide an optimal collection of SUM queries that prevents compromise of confidential information -- such as individual salaries, for instance. A natural solution is to maximize the number of available SUM queries. The authors obtain tight bounds for the maximum number of such queries that return subsets of data without compromising groups of entries.
"Future work in the query-restriction approach includes evaluation of new security-control mechanisms, which are easy to implement and guarantee absolute security," says Aydinian. "At the same time, it is desirable that these methods satisfy other criteria like richness of available queries, consistency, cost etc. It also seems promising to develop methods combining different security control mechanisms."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- R. Ahlswede, H. Aydinian. On Security of Statistical Databases. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 2011; 25 (4): 1778 DOI: 10.1137/070689589
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111216112905.htm
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'Expendables 2,' 'Abraham Lincoln' Posters Promise Action Aplenty
You will be forgiven for not expecting nuance in the promotional material for "The Expendables 2." Despite what the marketing team might think, there doesn't need to be much other than a list of names against a black background, maybe crafted out of bullets or fire or blood.
You know those names -- Stallone, [...]
You know those names -- Stallone, [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/16/expendables-2-abraham-lincoln-posters-promise-action-aplenty/
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T to ditch Exynos, sport 4G LTE?
Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T to ditch Exynos, sport 4G LTE? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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