Sunday, June 30, 2013

blue-voids: Margarita Georgiadis - Landscapes, 2009 - oil on...

An array of art/politics/comics/health and fitness... you name it

Austin TX IT professional, geek, comic book lover (most things vertigo), internet addict, martial artist-- ok - a little out of practice,

marathoner - 2 full, 1 half , INTJ and i juggle ;)

http://www.facebook.com/allen.c.marshall

Twitter: @AllenCMarshall

politically and philosophically focused

http://moreleftthannot.tumblr.com/

health, fitness, movement...

http://primalkimbaredancer.tumblr.com/

G+ eddietg@gmail.com

http://eddietg.deviantart.com/

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eddiethegeek/portfolio

Source: http://eddietg.tumblr.com/post/54171499395

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NCAA 14 sc playbook






IMO the playbook they've used contains a lot of standard, traditional Spurrier plays... Fun N Gun stuff... they also had a wide assortment of options out of the Shotgun if I recall correctly. Considering that we seem to be making a move back to traditional, behind center, Fun N Gun offense, I'm not sure why we'd take that stuff out of the playbook now. We may also implement a good bit of pistol this year.

__________________
::toothsuck::

Source: http://www.cockytalk.com/showthread.php?t=193350&goto=newpost

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Spurs Name Jim Boylen Assistant Coach

SAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Spurs today announced that they have hired Jim Boylen as an assistant coach. Boylen, who brings over 27 years of coaching experience to the bench, spent the past two seasons as an assistant with the Indiana Pacers.

Prior to the Pacers, the Michigan native served as head coach for the University of Utah from 2007-11 and compiled a 69-60 overall record. In his second season, Boylen led the Utes to the Mountain West regular season and postseason conference championships. That earned Utah a fifth seed in the NCAA tournament, the highest ever for the conference at that time.

Prior to his stint with Utah, Boylen served as an assistant for the Michigan State Spartans on two separate occasions from 2005-07 and 1987-92. He also served as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks (2004-05), Golden State Warriors (2003-04) and the Houston Rockets (1992-03). As a member of the Rockets coaching staff the organization claimed a pair of NBA Championships in 1994 and 1995.

Jim and his wife, Christine, have two daughters, Ashlen Clare and Layla Blue.

Source: http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/130628_spurs_name_jim_boylen_assistant_coach

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Snowden's stealthy exit: How WikiLeaks and maybe Russia helped

The NSA leaker is traveling to Moscow en route to a third country. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman told journalists Sunday that he knows nothing of Snowden's travel plans.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / June 23, 2013

A giant screen at a Hong Kong shopping mall shows Edward Snowden, the former contractor accused of leaking information about NSA surveillance programs. He left Hong Kong on Sunday.

Vincent Yu/AP

Enlarge

The fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has sprung yet another surprise. He's on the move, and reportedly traveling to Cuba, and then perhaps on to Venezuela or Ecuador, via Moscow.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

Recent posts

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Mr. Snowden left his temporary refuge in Hong Kong?Sunday?morning, just one day after the US government charged him with espionage and launched an urgent effort to extradite him from the former British colony. He boarded an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, and news reports say he has an onward ticket with the Russian national airline to fly to Cuba?on Monday.

In addition to the clear suggestion of official Russian aid with the fleeing whistleblower's logistics, Snowden appears to have received help from a more kindred source. WikiLeaks tweeted?Sunday?that it had "assisted Mr. Snowden's political asylum in a democratic country, travel papers and safe exit from Hong Kong."

Kremlin authorities earlier hinted that Russia might be willing to grant asylum to Snowden. But President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists?Sunday?that he knows nothing about the NSA leaker's travel plans.

Authorities in Hong Kong announced Snowden's departure?Sunday?in an official statement?that noted he had left "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel," and added that US authorities had already been informed.

The statement said the urgent US warrant to arrest Snowden could not be carried out "since the documents provided by the US Government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.... ?As the HKSAR [Hong Kong] Government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

The statement included an extraordinary passage that may go far toward explaining why Hong Kong, which does have an extradition treaty and good relations with the US, appears to have turned so uncooperative in Snowden's case: "Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government has formally written to the US Government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong."

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement?Sunday?that his organization was providing legal and logistical help to move Snowden to a safe haven in a "democratic country."

"Mr. Snowden is flying in an Aeroflot aircraft over Russian airspace, accompanied by WikiLeaks legal advisers," Mr. Assange said.

Upon arrival in Moscow he will be "met by diplomats from the country that will be his ultimate destination. Diplomats from that country will accompany him on a further flight to his destination," he added. The third country is still not named, but experts say it's most likely to be Venezuela or Ecuador.

"Owing to WikiLeaks' own circumstances, we have developed significant expertise in international asylum and extradition law, associated diplomacy and the practicalities in these matters," Assange said.?"I have great personal sympathy for Ed Snowden's position. WikiLeaks absolutely supports his decision to blow the whistle on the mass surveillance of the world's population by the US government."

Snowden's latest revelations, published in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post?on Sunday, indicate that US intelligence agencies have been hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to steal millions of text messages.

Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov, who edits Agentura.ru, an online journal that focuses on the secret services, says that in addition to granting Snowden safe passage to Cuba on an Aeroflot jetliner, Russia may have played a deeper role in helping to arrange his flight.

He suggests that the Kremlin's English-language satellite news network, RT, which enjoys very close relations with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, could have used its offices to help Wikileaks hook up with Snowden in Hong Kong,?

"There are reports that Assange's assistant, Sarah Harrison, is flying on the same plane with Snowden," says Mr. Soldatov.?"Involvement of RT would make sense, since RT has close cooperation with Assange, and he did a series of programs for them last year [Russia gives WikiLeaks' Julian Assange a TV platform]. The involvement of WikiLeaks requires no explanation. It wants to maintain itself as the key center for all disclosures of the kind that Snowden brought to the world," he adds.?

Soldatov says Russian assistance is also logical, for wider reasons than just an opportunity to stick it to Uncle Sam.

"Russia and China have been involved in a so-far unsuccessful struggle to change the rules of the Internet, by taking control of it away from the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and giving its functions to a wider, non-US-based entity," he says.

"The Russians and Chinese have been posing, for these purposes, as big defenders of Internet freedom. This political context helps to explain RT's close relations with WikiLeaks as well.... So, it makes sense for them to help Snowden too. Russian authorities see an opportunity to present themselves as the new center of refuge for whistleblowers against US dominance in Cyberspace. It's a coup for them," he adds.??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/iTa4yt3JIhE/Snowden-s-stealthy-exit-How-WikiLeaks-and-maybe-Russia-helped

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California tops auto theft list ? Bankrate, Inc.

California's car culture, long celebrated in such Beach Boys classics as "Little Deuce Coupe," "409" and "I Get Around," has also spawned an equally robust car theft industry, judging by the latest "Hot Spots" vehicle theft report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

California once again dominates the list of metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, where car owners and auto insurance companies were most vulnerable to theft in 2012. Communities in the Golden State claim eight of the top 10 slots:

1. Modesto, Calif.
2. Fresno, Calif.
3. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.
4. Stockton, Calif.
5. Yakima, Wash.
6. San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward, Calif.
7. San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, Calif.
8. Vallejo/Fairfield, Calif.
9. Spokane/Spokane Valley, Wash.
10. Redding, Calif.

Six of the California hot spots also placed in last year's top 10. Expand the list, and the state claims 14 of the top 20 best places not to park your car.

Theft goes west

In fact, the western states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming -- saw a 10.6 percent increase in vehicle theft last year. By contrast, the South was down 2.9 percent, the Midwest saw a 3.1 percent decline, and thefts in the Northeast were down 7.9 percent from the previous year.

The NICB ratings are consistent with preliminary FBI statistics for 2012 that point to a 1.3 percent national increase in vehicle thefts, following eight years of declines. The final numbers are due this fall.

So how many car thefts are we talking here? In Modesto, there were 4,260 reported thefts. But drive west to the more densely populated San Francisco Bay area, and you're looking at 28,220 thefts last year. Because the Hot Spots report is based on population, areas like Modesto with fewer total thefts but smaller populations often rank higher than areas with more stolen cars overall but a smaller incidence per capita.

Safety in Hawaii -- or at home

Where's Waldo to park without risking his ride? He'll find an absolutely safe space on the lovely isle of Maui, Hawaii, where nary a single vehicle was reported missing last year in the Kahului/Wailuku/Lahaina MSA.

The NICB recommends this "four layers of protection" approach to avoid vehicle theft and its potentially negative impact on your auto insurance rates:

? Common sense: Remember to take your keys with you, close your windows, lock your doors and park in a safe, well-lit area.
? Anti-theft devices: Invest in visible and audible alarms, brake and wheel locks and other theft-deterrent devices.
? Ride immobilizers: Prevent "hot-wiring" with smart keys, fuse cut-offs and other onboard technology that prevents thieves from starting your vehicle's engine.
? Tracking devices: Install a GPS or other tracking device that alerts you if your vehicle has been moved, and helps police locate it if it's stolen.

Follow me on Twitter: @omnisaurus

Subscribe to Bankrate newsletters today!

Jay MacDonald is a Bankrate contributing editor and co-author of "Future Millionaires' Guidebook," an e-book by Bankrate editors and reporters.

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/insurance/california-tops-auto-theft-list/

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Alec Baldwin: The Latest Twitter Twit

Alec Baldwin's at it again, tweeting gay slurs and profane threats at an (admittedly) irritating reporter, who deigned to derogate Baldwin's wife, Hilaria Baldwin. Ironically, the reporter's put-down was about Twitter -- and the fact that Hilaria appeared to be sending tweets during James Gandolfini's funeral service.  Hilaria set the record straight -- she was not tweeting during a funeral -- by sending a follow-up tweet:

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/alec-baldwin-quits-twitter-after-rant-reporter/1-a-540340?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aalec-baldwin-quits-twitter-after-rant-reporter-540340

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Interplay of ecology, infectious disease, wildlife and human health featured at annual conference

Interplay of ecology, infectious disease, wildlife and human health featured at annual conference [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Scientists discuss spillover of infectious diseases among wildlife, domestic animals and people; find links between environment and human health

West Nile virus, Lyme disease and hantavirus. All are infectious diseases spreading in animals and in people. Is human interaction with the environment somehow responsible for the increase in these diseases?

The ecology and evolution of infectious diseases will be highlighted at two symposia at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting, held from Aug. 5-9 in Minneapolis, Minn.

One symposium will address human influences on viral and bacterial diseases through alteration of landscapes and ecological processes.

Another will focus on the emerging field of eco-epidemiology, which seeks to integrate biomedical and ecological research approaches to addressing human health threats.

Much of the research presented is funded by the joint National Science Foundation- (NSF) National Institutes of Health Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program.

"These sessions show that basic research is critical for managing disease threats," said Sam Scheiner, NSF EEID program director. "They also showcase the need to link scientists with public health professionals."

The first symposium, on Monday, Aug. 5, will take a deeper look at the connections between human activities and infectious diseases.

Though we often think of diseases as simply being "out there" in the environment, human actions--such as feeding birds--can influence the abundance, diversity and distribution of wildlife species and thus, infectious diseases.

"New human settlements, the spread of agriculture and the increasing proximity of people, their pets and livestock to wild animals increase the probability of disease outbreaks," said session organizer Courtney Coon of the University of South Florida.

"We're interested in learning more about how urban and other environments that humans dramatically change affect the susceptibility and transmission potential of animals that are hosts or vectors of disease."

What are the key determinants of spillover of wildlife diseases to domestic animals and humans?

Why is the prevalence of pathogens in wildlife in urban areas often altered by counterparts in less developed environments?

Speakers will address these and other questions.

The second symposium, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, will continue the theme of infectious diseases, but with an eye toward integrating biomedical and ecological approaches into the investigation and control of emerging diseases.

"Environmental processes and human health are linked, and we'd like to chart a future in which ecologists and epidemiologists more routinely work in tandem to address health problems," said symposium organizer Jory Brinkerhoff of the University of Richmond.

Scientists studying human diseases may overlook possible ecological factors.

For example, most Lyme disease cases in the eastern United States happen in the North even though the black-legged tick, which transmits the bacterium, is found throughout the Eastern states.

Human life histories and interactions with the environment, researchers say, are critically important to the success of managing a mosquito-borne virus called dengue fever.

"Disease ecologists and epidemiologists address some of the same kinds of questions, yet operate largely in isolation of one another," said Brinkerhoff.

"We're bringing them together to share their approaches and study designs, and to strengthen our ability to address public health issues."

###

Disease Ecology in Human-Altered Landscapes: Monday, Aug. 5, 2013, 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m., 205AB, Minneapolis Convention Center.

Organizer/Moderator: Courtney Coon, University of South Florida
Co-Organizer: James Adelman, Virginia Tech

Speakers:

  • Parviez Hosseini, EcoHealth Alliance
  • Matthew Ferrari, Penn State University
  • Marm Kilpatrick, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Raina Plowright, Penn State University
  • Sonia Altizer, University of Georgia
  • Becki Lawson, Zoological Society of London

Eco-Epidemiology: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Addressing Public Health Problems: Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m., 205AB Minneapolis Convention Center.

Organizer/Moderator: Jory Brinkerhoff, University of Richmond
Co-Organizer: Maria Diuk-Wasser, Yale School of Public Health

Speakers:

  • Maria Diuk-Wasser, Yale School of Public Health
  • Daniel Salkeld, Colorado State University
  • Mark Wilson, University of Michigan
  • James Holland Jones, Stanford University
  • Harish Padmanabha, National Center for Socio-Environmental Synthesis
  • Jean Tsao, Michigan State University

-NSF-


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

?


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


Interplay of ecology, infectious disease, wildlife and human health featured at annual conference [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation

Scientists discuss spillover of infectious diseases among wildlife, domestic animals and people; find links between environment and human health

West Nile virus, Lyme disease and hantavirus. All are infectious diseases spreading in animals and in people. Is human interaction with the environment somehow responsible for the increase in these diseases?

The ecology and evolution of infectious diseases will be highlighted at two symposia at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting, held from Aug. 5-9 in Minneapolis, Minn.

One symposium will address human influences on viral and bacterial diseases through alteration of landscapes and ecological processes.

Another will focus on the emerging field of eco-epidemiology, which seeks to integrate biomedical and ecological research approaches to addressing human health threats.

Much of the research presented is funded by the joint National Science Foundation- (NSF) National Institutes of Health Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program.

"These sessions show that basic research is critical for managing disease threats," said Sam Scheiner, NSF EEID program director. "They also showcase the need to link scientists with public health professionals."

The first symposium, on Monday, Aug. 5, will take a deeper look at the connections between human activities and infectious diseases.

Though we often think of diseases as simply being "out there" in the environment, human actions--such as feeding birds--can influence the abundance, diversity and distribution of wildlife species and thus, infectious diseases.

"New human settlements, the spread of agriculture and the increasing proximity of people, their pets and livestock to wild animals increase the probability of disease outbreaks," said session organizer Courtney Coon of the University of South Florida.

"We're interested in learning more about how urban and other environments that humans dramatically change affect the susceptibility and transmission potential of animals that are hosts or vectors of disease."

What are the key determinants of spillover of wildlife diseases to domestic animals and humans?

Why is the prevalence of pathogens in wildlife in urban areas often altered by counterparts in less developed environments?

Speakers will address these and other questions.

The second symposium, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, will continue the theme of infectious diseases, but with an eye toward integrating biomedical and ecological approaches into the investigation and control of emerging diseases.

"Environmental processes and human health are linked, and we'd like to chart a future in which ecologists and epidemiologists more routinely work in tandem to address health problems," said symposium organizer Jory Brinkerhoff of the University of Richmond.

Scientists studying human diseases may overlook possible ecological factors.

For example, most Lyme disease cases in the eastern United States happen in the North even though the black-legged tick, which transmits the bacterium, is found throughout the Eastern states.

Human life histories and interactions with the environment, researchers say, are critically important to the success of managing a mosquito-borne virus called dengue fever.

"Disease ecologists and epidemiologists address some of the same kinds of questions, yet operate largely in isolation of one another," said Brinkerhoff.

"We're bringing them together to share their approaches and study designs, and to strengthen our ability to address public health issues."

###

Disease Ecology in Human-Altered Landscapes: Monday, Aug. 5, 2013, 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m., 205AB, Minneapolis Convention Center.

Organizer/Moderator: Courtney Coon, University of South Florida
Co-Organizer: James Adelman, Virginia Tech

Speakers:

  • Parviez Hosseini, EcoHealth Alliance
  • Matthew Ferrari, Penn State University
  • Marm Kilpatrick, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Raina Plowright, Penn State University
  • Sonia Altizer, University of Georgia
  • Becki Lawson, Zoological Society of London

Eco-Epidemiology: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Addressing Public Health Problems: Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013, 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m., 205AB Minneapolis Convention Center.

Organizer/Moderator: Jory Brinkerhoff, University of Richmond
Co-Organizer: Maria Diuk-Wasser, Yale School of Public Health

Speakers:

  • Maria Diuk-Wasser, Yale School of Public Health
  • Daniel Salkeld, Colorado State University
  • Mark Wilson, University of Michigan
  • James Holland Jones, Stanford University
  • Harish Padmanabha, National Center for Socio-Environmental Synthesis
  • Jean Tsao, Michigan State University

-NSF-


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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/nsf-ioe062813.php

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Poncho: The Best Weather Service You've Never Heard Of

Poncho: The Best Weather Service You've Never Heard Of

The weather. It's all anyone talks about these days. But there's never been one single service that gets it right, or even bothers to tell you what you actually need to know. Well, Betaworks' Poncho, a new weather service, might have just figured it all out?with a simple text message in the morning.

With constant internet access and real-time data at our disposal, the simple act of checking the weather has gotten rather complicated, when all you need to know is whether or not you need a jacket and/or umbrella. Launched back in mid-April, Poncho is the brainchild of Kuan Huang, a resident hacker at Betaworks, who's looking to change just that.

"We're not a real-time weather service. Poncho is something you read in the morning to help you plan your day. We're trying to help optimize your routine," Huang recently told me.

If anyone can dream up a better system, it's Betaworks. These are the same folks who resuscitated Digg in just six weeks, created one of the most addictive iOS games in recent memory, and launched a new RSS reader this past week.

Ironically, Huang admits to never having checked the weather before joining Betaworks and starting Poncho. He says the most useful weather service was his mother who would alert him to any drastic shifts in temperature while he was in college. "I went to school in China and would study late in the library till 2 or 3 AM. She'd never tell me the exact temperature or wind speed, she'd just tell me the information I needed to know," Huang reminisces. That experience served as inspiration for Poncho's weather service, which is personalized and context-based.

When you sign up for Poncho?limited to New York City for now?you fill out a quick survey of your habits and routines, like what time you wake up or what train you take, and whether or not you have pets or allergies, and when you usually leave work. Once you've done all that, you can opt to have a custom weather forecast texted or emailed to you in the morning when you wake up. Huang and a contract writer come up with the copy the night before and like clockwork, Huang gets up at 5:30 to make sure the information is still accurate for the day before pulling the trigger. Take, for example, a few texts I've received in recent weeks:

  • Partly cloudy skies & a clear evening. Temps hitting the low 80s. You guys, could this change our attitudes about Mondays?
  • Prime June day in the low 80s. Hot enough, but comfortable. June, you're much chiller than other months. Looking at you, July.
  • It'd be all fire hydrant sprinklers if we were in old school NYC. Similar to yesterday with temps in the high 80s. Get tan or get to shade.

Now, if you take the train or drive, the web version of your forecast (below) would tell you of any delays on your particular line or whether or not you had to move your car to the other side of the street. And if I had a dog, it'd even tell me the best time take the pooch out.

Poncho: The Best Weather Service You've Never Heard Of

Before even writing a line of code, Huang tells me he'd wake up at 5:30 every morning and email 20 people from the Betaworks office to see what information they actually wanted about the weather. He began working on Poncho in February, pulling openly available data from the MTA, New York City Department of Transportation, Weather Underground and Forecast.io, the makers of the Dark Sky iOS app. From those four sources, Poncho is able to tell you exactly what you need to know to go about your day?in plain English.

"My job at Poncho is to explain all that data to people. I don't want to just give you a number," Huang says. "I'll tell you what's actionable."

And an app is in the works, too, though Huang is still figuring out what additional functionality it will give users. For now, he wants Poncho to be a passive experience?something that, in his words, "you'd never have to open." By tracking your habits based on location, Huang thinks he can anticipate your behavior in the future?information that will help him better understand how to deliver the forecast to you.

Poncho: The Best Weather Service You've Never Heard Of

Obviously not a GIF

In recent weeks, Poncho has rolled out a couple of new features, including an animated GIF that refreshes to reflect the day's weather on the site. And in the coming weeks, users will be able to opt into an afternoon edition that pushes an alert to you before you leave work with traffic and weather updates, along with a forecast for the next day.

I've been using Poncho for the better part of the last two months and it hasn't steered me wrong. I've been caught out in the rain once due to my own idiocy and I've only launched the other weather apps I have to check the extended forecast. Checking the weather just isn't something I need to do anymore.

Poncho is limited to New York City for now, and Huang isn't in a rush to expand just yet, though he is looking at San Francisco or Chicago down the road. When I asked when he would be, he simply said, "Not until it's the best experience that it can be." [Poncho]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/poncho-the-best-weather-service-youve-never-heard-of-574886711

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100,000 killed since start of Syria conflict

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican security forces on Tuesday rescued 52 kidnapped migrants, mostly Guatemalans, who were being held in a house in the violent state of Tamaulipas near the U.S. border. The migrants had been held for several days in a house in the city of Reynosa, where they were found by a group of federal and state police, officials said. The group was made up of 48 men from Guatemala, two from El Salvador and two more from Mexico, a press release from the state government said. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/100-000-killed-since-start-syria-conflict-monitoring-082129672.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Kerry trip starts with tough Syrian, Afghan issues

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry began an overseas trip Friday plunging into two thorny foreign policy problems: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taliban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.

Midway through his two-week trip to at least seven countries, Kerry also will try to make progress on an elusive peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians and will visit India, the world's biggest democracy and a rising power often viewed as a counterweight to China. He ends his trip attending a Southeast Asia security conference in Brunei.

Kerry lands Saturday in Doha, Qatar, where representatives of 11 nations in the so-called Friends of Syria group will discuss how to coordinate military and other aid to rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad and "change the balance" on the ground, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama announced that in addition to nonlethal aid, the United States would begin sending arms and ammunition to the rebels, who are engaged in a tough fight against Assad's better-equipped air and ground forces. That announcement came after Assad's military dealt the rebels serious setbacks and a U.S. intelligence assessment claimed the regime had used chemical weapons ? a "red line" for the Obama administration.

On Thursday, Kerry went to Capitol Hill to brief members of Congress on the two-year civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives. The meeting in Doha also aims to gain momentum for starting peace talks in Geneva to end the crisis.

Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said that as long as there's a conflict, there remains a need to find a framework for a dialogue because ultimately the Syrian opposition and some parts of the government are going to have to find a political solution. Geneva is the only framework that exists right now.

"We are trying to find a way for the Russians to play some type of constructive role and to stay engaged in the process," Rhodes said, referring to Moscow's continued support of Assad's government.

Kerry arrives in Qatar ahead of planned U.S. talks with representatives of the Taliban at a new political office they opened this week in Doha. The secretary himself was not expected to meet with the Taliban, but other U.S. officials are to sit down with members of the militant group in coming days. The discussions would be the first U.S.-Taliban talks in nearly 1 1/2 years.

The way the Taliban unveiled their new political office, however, angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, the Taliban hoisted their flag and a banner emblazoned with "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." That was the name the Taliban used when they were in power more than a decade ago and made it appear that the office was an embassy and rival to the Afghan government.

The U.S. said it was disappointed with the rollout, which the administration believes was a Taliban game of one-upmanship. In response, Karzai halted negotiations with the U.S. on a bilateral security agreement governing America's future military footprint in his country and said he would not send members of his peace council to Doha to talk with Taliban representatives. Kerry called Karzai twice this week to allay his concerns.

The diplomatic rift temporarily delayed James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, from leaving for Doha, but State Department officials say he will hold talks with the Taliban there in coming days. It's unclear if Afghan officials will be talking with the Taliban in Doha following the group's discussions with the Americans.

In India, Kerry will be giving a policy speech and meeting with officials to discuss economic issues, trade, energy, climate change, education and security and counterterrorism. It will be his first visit to India as secretary of state. Talks in New Delhi also are to address India's cooperation with Pakistan's new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed archrivals, but while they have fought three major wars since their partition in 1947, they have taken steps to improve relations in recent years.

Kerry also is to hold meetings with officials in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Israel.

In Saudi Arabia, senior State Department officials told reporters in a pre-trip briefing that Kerry would talk about how the U.S. can address concerns over extremists inside Syria and the intervention of foreign fighters from Iran and from Hezbollah. U.S. officials estimate that 5,000 Hezbollah members are fighting alongside Assad's regime, while thousands of Sunni foreign fighters are also believed to be in Syria ? including members of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate that is believed to be among the most effective rebel factions.

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-trip-starts-tough-syrian-afghan-issues-074720292.html

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NY congressman says Bravo show promotes bigotry

This publicity image released by Bravo shows, from left, Chanel Omari, Ashlee White, Casey Cohen and Joey Lauren from "Princesses: Long Island." Rep. Steve Israel, a New York congressman who represents the area where Bravo films its series "Princesses Long Island" said that it is "the most objectionable thing I've ever seen on television" and promotes stereotyping of Jews. (AP Photo/Bravo, Giovanni Rufino)

This publicity image released by Bravo shows, from left, Chanel Omari, Ashlee White, Casey Cohen and Joey Lauren from "Princesses: Long Island." Rep. Steve Israel, a New York congressman who represents the area where Bravo films its series "Princesses Long Island" said that it is "the most objectionable thing I've ever seen on television" and promotes stereotyping of Jews. (AP Photo/Bravo, Giovanni Rufino)

FILE - This Nov. 29, 2012 file photo shows Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., speaking to reporters just after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the fiscal cliff negotiations, at the Capitol in Washington. Israel, who represents the area where Bravo films its series "Princesses Long Island" said that it is "the most objectionable thing I've ever seen on television" and promotes stereotyping of Jews. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A suburban New York congressman who represents the area where Bravo films its series "Princesses: Long Island" says the show is "the most objectionable thing I've ever seen on television" and promotes stereotyping of Jews.

The network should show a disclaimer before every episode to say there's nothing real about the nonfiction show, said Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.

Bravo said Friday the new series has averaged just over 1 million viewers over three airings on Sunday nights, which is considered a very successful start. "Princesses: Long Island" is reminiscent of MTV's "Jersey Shore" in focusing on a small subculture, in this case six young, unmarried women who are generally of comfortable means with plenty of idle time.

One of the women, Ashlee White, is nearly 30 and lives at home where her parents cook her food and do her laundry. She's looking for Mr. Right, but has high standards. "I'm Jewish, I'm American and I'm a princess," White said.

"I initially thought it was all in good fun," Israel said. "But 20 minutes into the show, I realized that promoting anti-Semitic stereotypes isn't that fun. It's one of the most objectionable things I've ever seen on television, and there are a lot of objectionable things on television."

Jodi Davis, a Bravo spokeswoman, said the show is "about six women who are young, educated, single and Jewish living in Long Island, and is not meant to represent all Jewish women or other residents of Long Island."

Israel said he's not encouraging Bravo to take the show off the air, but would like a statement like Davis' shown on the air. She had no immediate comment on whether Bravo would be able to or want to do that.

"Princesses: Long Island" has already had one incident that compelled an apology. White was quoted in one episode as calling the Long Island community of Freeport a "ghetto" in a cellphone conversation with her father, who advised her to roll up her car windows.

White, in a Bravo blog post, later apologized, saying she had been "stressed, overwhelmed and not thinking" when she said that.

Israel, a former president of the Institute on the Holocaust and the Law who once worked for the American Jewish Congress, said the show "leads viewers to believe that this is what being Jewish is all about, that if you're Jewish and live on Long Island, you're narcissistic, you are all about money and that a Shabbat dinner is all about drinking and fighting," he said.

The congressman, who also wrote about the show on The Huffington Post, said he wasn't concerned that speaking out publicly would encourage more people to watch it.

"Silence never works," he said.

____

EDITOR'S NOTE ? David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter @dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-21-US-TV-Long-Island-Princesses/id-511982072fa1473c839d83d72a962621

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Pinholes and Plastic Wrap Make Solid Walls "Transparent" To Sound

First time accepted submitter benonemusic writes "Researchers have devised a means of making sound transmit easily through rigid surfaces, including walls. The process relies on creating small holes on a wall, and covering them on one side with a thin covering made from plastic wrap."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/oBP3fAcY4T4/story01.htm

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Friday, June 21, 2013

George Miller shared their blog post on Facebook

If a nation can't define its boundaries, who comes in and on what terms, then it can't sustain itself culturally, financially, politically, morally and with security. ?It's not a nation.- G. Miller?

Solution to the problem in Egypt :

They want a new Muslim leader, Give them ours.?

The administration?s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.

-????????? Roger Ailes, Fox News

When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could You please get that for me.

- unknown

"There are 27 amendments in the Constitution but only one says 'shall not be infringed,'" Steve Toth said. "The Second Amendment is the amendment that keeps the people free."

?The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently that as the parties to it, they must themselves decide in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition.? ? James Madison?

"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred." -?Niccolo Machiavelli

?We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we?ve set. We?ve got to have a civilian national security force that?s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.? - "Obama", 2008

"A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again."

This country does not need to have a conversation about how many bullets should go in a clip. It does need to have a conversation about how many parents should go in a family. It needs to talk about the ghettos of Obamerica and have a serious conversation about broken families and generational dependency. It needs to have a conversation about funneling new immigrants from broken parts of the world into areas already suffering from high levels of unemployment and street violence.- Daniel Greenfield

Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants and debt is the money of slaves.- Traditional

? ????? ????!

A federal government which does not derive its lawful and limited authority from the Constitution of the United States is by definition an occupation government?and criminal regime.? It?s authority is null and void and no one is bound by any rule of law to obey it. --Donald L. Cline

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty." -- Thomas Jefferson

?Disarmament of the populace is always the first step to depriving them of their civil rights and human rights?many African-Americans and women are actively assaulting the very document that first secured their own freedom... if you do not believe in the Bill of Rights, then you are not, at heart, an American.? ? Mike Adams

Only in America could liberals talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

We need to demythologize guns before the liberal attempt to create a totemic fear of them succeeds. If the gun control mentality promoting fear of guns themselves becomes our national mentality, we would turn the clock back to the days when a warrior class ruled over the people because only they had the confidence and expertise to deploy the means of defense and coercion. The gun control agenda will turn us into a people too timid to defend themselves from our would-be masters.?? Alan Keyes

So now that there is a new tragedy the president wants to have a ?national conversation on guns?. Here?s the thing. Until this national conversation is willing to entertain allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons, then it isn?t a conversation at all, it is a lecture. ? Larry Correia'

During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai?Stevenson: Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!?Stevenson called back: That's not enough, madam, we need a majority.

The economy is so bad, MSNBC had to lay off 300 Obama spokesmen. - Jay Leno

'Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

?What we?re watching here today is the equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein helping Nixon cover up Watergate,? he said. ?The mainstream media is Woodward and Bernstein. Watergate is Benghazi. Except this time, Woodward and Bernstein are helping Nixon cover it up.?-- Russ Limbaugh

Lets see if I have this straight...Former President Bill Clinton ... who lied to his own wife... was convicted of perjury ... disbarred from practicing law in his home state... an admitted philanderer ... who "Never had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" ... Impeached by the US House of Representatives ... is giving testimonials for Barrack Obama's character and intentions!!!???? Is this a great country or what!?

?"Thanking Obama for killing Bin Laden is like going into McDonalds and thanking Ronald McDonald for the hamburger. It's the guy cooking the burger that should get the credit, not the clown."

referring to 10-3-12 debate: "Obama made a lot of good points tonight. Unfortunately, most of them were for Romney." - Bill Maher, million dollar Obama donor

How can we stand up to someone that creates a 100 dollar Federal Reserve (FR) note for 2 cents and uses the face value of the note of 100 dollars to buy a 100 dollar U.S. Security where the government has to pay them 4% in interest at the end of the year? A yearly cost of 4 FR notes where it only cost the FR 2 cents to print.

This is the biggest Conspiracy you may ever encounter and this started sometime around 1913. Yes, your parents and their parents had so much of their time stolen from them at a cost of 2 pennies. And the National Debt is one big fraud. And this is not just in the United States but the whole world.- Steven Pattison

?Can you imagine a nation founded on the principles of God is being taken over by a party that despises God, denies God?s existence and wants to stab Israel in the back in order to support the Islamists who would kill the Jews and drive them out of the Middle East??-?- Michael Savage

"WE own this country, and when someone doesn't do the job "we have to let them go."- Clint Eastwood at RNC

"If you've got a business -- you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen?- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro

?Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.?
- President American Bankers Association, 1924

"I think it is wonderful that Eric holder is making sure that Mexicans' second amendment rights are preserved!" - Bobby Florenz?

?My father was a hardcore conservative and a straight line Republican voter before he died. Now he votes Democrat.? (-Unknown)

Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.' Obama is under the mistaken impression that America's symbol is the bald ego." --The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto

??In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn?t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.??Chris Kyle, former SEAL sniper

Remember just a few years ago when...

...the official unemployed was at 8.4 million instead of 12.4 million?

...the U.S. debt was at 9.5 trillion instead of 15.5 trillion?

...gas was $1.89 a gallon?

...the U.S. was friends with Isreal?

...food Stamp Recipients was at 29 million instead of 46 million?

...U.S. Astronauts didn't have to travel with Russians to go into space?

...our country's credit rating was a Triple AAA rating?

"Apparently, I'm supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than what Barack Obama does with mine."- David Burge

Rep. Randy Neugebauer put the burden into perspective: ?It will take over 24 million man hours to comply with Dodd-Frank rules per year. It took only 20 million to build the Panama Canal.?

"Sixty-one percent of debt issued by the Treasury is bought by the Federal Reserve -- which is to say the left hand of the U.S. Government is lending money to the right hand of the US Government. ... Nonetheless, in a land where every mewling babe in the American nursery is born with a debt burden of just under $200,000, the president brags that only his party is 'compassionate' to have no plan whatsoever even to attempt to do anything about this, no way, no how, not now, not ever." --columnist Mark Steyn

Isn't it amazing how every facet of Sergeant Bales life, ?high school, college, employment, why he left his employment, his brother?s employment, his wife?s employment, real estate holdings, a missed house payment , a missed promotion etc., is exposed within a week and the same fact finders can't find comparable info on the most powerful man in the world in three plus years ?

"We do not have a single document that proves Mr. Obama's birth in Hawaii or anywhere in the United States for that matter. The document is fake, the representation is fake.?Mike Zullo, Arpaio Posse Chief Investigator

" If they (SCOTUS destroy the Constitution, they will have destroyed that which created their positions." - Stewart Rhodes.

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts,?NOT to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert?the?Constitution." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Quick, name something that government does better than the private sector that doesn't involve detention, killing, or eliminating freedom." ----Bobby Florentz

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."---- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) 40th US President

?The election of President Obama by the presidential electors, confirmed by Congress, makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant,? Obama?s lawyer Jablonski said.

?

?The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.?
--Author Tom Clancy

?

But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that?my children can live in peace. " ?

- Thomas Paine.

?

"Look, the Taliban, per se, is not our enemy.?

- VP Joe Biden
December 2011

?

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and for people, equally in war and peace, and it covers with its shield of protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of men that any of its great provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government."

? Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

?

Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government ; and to declare expressly that the command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen.
I remain, dear sir,
Your faithful friend and servant,

John Jay.?

?

Calling Ron Paul "out of the mainstream" is a double-edged sword, because it also means he can?t possibly be responsible for the condition of the country today.?

<!--[if !supportLists]-->-? ? ? ? -?<!--[endif]-->Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

?

?A guy named Reggie Love leaving the White House to get a degree at the Wharton School of Business. I guess he realized you can't learn anything about economics in the Obama White House.

- Jay Leno

Laws and regulations which violate the Constitution are not obligatory upon any free man.?

(believed to be from George Washington.)

?

???We?re at that awkward stage where it?s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.?

- Claire Wolf

?

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".
-?????? The Telegraph (good job Barack!)?

?

Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable? ? ?- Robert F. Kennedy

?

?"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein

??

The four boxes of LIBERTY:
1. soap
2. ballot
3. jury
4. ammo
.....in that order!

?

"The actual need for a service, its relevance and value is always subordinate to the bureaucracy. This is the difference from the private sector: you go into a shop, and the sales assistant asks, 'Can I be of assistance to you, sir?' You go into a government agency: 'Get to the back of the queue and wait until you are called!?'

-?????? Alistair Mcleod

?

?

?"Only Malcolm X?s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words. His unadorned insistence on respect. He promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline."??

? Barack Hussein Obama?

?

?It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.?

-Oscar Wilde

?

?Anyone with an Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker is a Threat to the Gene Pool?

-?Congressman Allen West

?

?The Only People Who Don?t Want to Disclose the Truth are Those with Something to Hide."

- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro

?

"If it takes a village to raise your kid, you?re in the wrong country."

-??Seen by Tim Clack II

??

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

-Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Soebarkah Bounel

??

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. "?

- Noam Chomsky

??

"Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself." -

- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro (we are, Barry)

?

"?whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force?"

Thomas Jefferson, Federal v. Consolidated Government

?

?Better to be paralyzed from the neck down than the neck up?

-? Charles Krauthammer.

?

"Sublata causa, tollitur effectus" (Remove the? cause and the effect will cease)

?"Civilization and anarchy are only seven meals apart" ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Rate these quotes!
Click open the quote you wish to rate, and enter your comments.
Want ?quotes? Click here:
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/DailyQuotes?

---------

Source: http://venturacountyteaparty.ning.com/xn/detail/5170468%3ABlogPost%3A92593?xg_source=activity

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App to protect private data on iOS devices finds almost half of other apps access private data

June 20, 2013 ? Almost half of the mobile apps running on Apple's iOS operating system access the unique identifier of the devices where they're downloaded, computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found. In addition, more than 13 percent access the devices' location and more than 6 percent the address book. The researchers developed a new app that detects what data the other apps running on an iOS device are trying to access.

The findings are based on a study of 130,000 users of jailbroken iOS devices, where users have purposefully removed restrictions that keep apps from accessing the iPhone's operating system. Most apps in the study were downloaded from Apple's App Store and access the same type of information on unlocked, jailbroken, phones and on locked phones, said Yuvraj Agarwal, a research scientist in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego, who co-authored the study with fellow researcher Malcolm Hall. Agarwal will present the findings at ACM MobiSys, the premier mobile systems conference, which takes place June 25 to 28 in Taipei, Taiwan.

The findings suggest that although Apple's App Store no longer accepts new apps or app updates that access the unique identifier as of March of this year, many apps can still get a hold of that information. The unique identifier allows app vendors and advertisers to track users' behaviors across all the different apps on their devices, including iPhones, iPads and iPods. In addition, some apps can associate the unique identifier with the user's email and other personal information.

The researchers believe that it's the first time anyone has done such an extensive privacy study focused on iOS-based apps across a large user population.

The ProtectMyPrivacy App

To carry out their study, researchers developed an app of their own, called ProtectMyPrivacy, or PMP. It lets users know what personal information the other apps on their devices are trying to access. PMP enables users to selectively allow or deny access to this information on an app-by-app basis, based on whether they feel the apps need the information to function properly -- for example, a map app needs to access the location of a device to provide driving directions. iOS devices currently notify users when apps try to access location, photos and contacts. But they do not notify users when apps access the unique identifier or music library and users can't deny access to those two pieces of information.

Since gathering data for the study, researchers have also added notifications and recommendations for when an app accesses other privacy-sensitive information, such as a devices' front and back camera, microphone and photos.

PMP also makes recommendations about whether to allow the other apps to access user data, based on an extensive crowdsourcing 'recommendation engine' that compiles the privacy decisions made by other users.

"We wanted to empower users to take control of their privacy," said Agarwal, who is also an alumnus of UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering. "The choice should be in users' hands."

For locked devices, researchers are currently providing a web page that tells users which information more than 150 apps for iOS -- some of the most popular -- are trying to access and gives recommendations about whether to allow or deny access. The page can be viewed at http://www.protectmyprivacy.org/liveview/

For example, Facebook, the most popular app, accesses the devices' identifier, location and contacts. PMP's crowdsourcing engine recommends denying access to the identifier and contacts music, but allowing access to location.

Findings by the numbers

ProtectMyPrivacy has already been downloaded from the Cydia store by more than 130,000 users since March 2012. Its users have downloaded and used more than 225,000 unique apps from Apple's App Store. The researchers analyzed the data accessed by those apps and found that 48.1 percent of them accessed the device's unique identifier; 13.2 percent the location information; 6.2 percent the address book; and 1.6 percent the music library.

As of January 2013, Apple reported that it had sold 500 million iOS devices. Estimates of how many are jailbroken vary, but Forbes reported in February 2013 that seven million devices had been jailbroken in just four days after a new jailbreaking tool was released. Cydia, an app store that caters only to jailbroken devices, had 23 million users as of March 2013 -a sizeable portion of Apple's mobile devices.

Recommendations to protect your privacy

Almost all of PMP's users -- 99 percent-- voluntarily shared their privacy decisions, indicating which apps they think should be allowed -- or denied -- access to their privacy-sensitive data. These decisions -- which are contributed anonymously -- are then processed on PMP servers to generate the crowdsourced privacy recommendations shown to users. As a result, PMP is able to make recommendations for 97 percent of the 10,000 most popular iPhone apps. "We have already shown millions of recommendations, and more than two-thirds of all our recommendations are accepted by our users, showing that they really like this unique feature of PMP," said Agarwal. Users chose to deny access to one or more pieces of sensitive data for 48.1 percent of apps.

The version of PMP available in the Cydia store gives users the option to feed fictitious or anonymized information to nosy apps. Examples include an address book filled with made-up entries, a random location that may be in a completely different country, and a randomly generated unique identifier.

The researchers say that they do not recommend jailbreaking your iPhone to install PMP, because doing so could potentially leave a user open to other vulnerabilities. But in order to conduct their research, they needed to be able to intercept information about the privacy-protected data that apps were accessing. This required low-level access to the operating system, which is not technically possible on locked, non-jailbroken, iOS devices.

Sometimes, it is not the apps themselves that access the data, but a third-party library or code contained within the apps. For example, Flixster, a popular app for movie reviews and recommendations, in its 5.2 version, was flagged for accessing some private data. Flixster contacted Agarwal and Hall to say that it does no such thing. The computer scientists did some digging and found that a third-party ad library used by the app was accessing users' address books and sending back information. "We provided feedback to the app's developers in case they are unaware that a third party library may be accessing their users' private data," recalled Hall, a visiting researcher in Agarwal's Synergy Lab at UC San Diego. He also pointed out that "an updated version of Flixster now uses another ad library that does not access this kind of information."

Agarwal and Hall tried submitting to the Apple Store a "lite" version of their app that wouldn't interact with the iOS operating system, but the app was rejected. That version would have given users information about the data specific apps access and recommendations about what to allow and deny. It would not have given users the ability to protect their data by providing fictitious information.

Agarwal will join the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as an assistant professor in the fall.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/mlY34Ht1veE/130620101202.htm

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A shot in the arm for old antibiotics

June 19, 2013 ? Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Medicine.

Treating bacteria with a silver-containing compound boosted the efficacy of a broad range of widely used antibiotics and helped them stop otherwise lethal infections in mice. It helped make an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again. And it expanded the power of an antibiotic called vancomycin that is usually only effective in killing pathogens called Gram-positive bacteria, such as Staph and Strep. Silver allowed vancomycin for the first time to penetrate and kill Gram-negative bacteria, a group that includes microbes that can cause food poisoning and dangerous hospital-acquired infections.

Silver also proved useful for two types of stubborn infections that usually require repeated rounds of antibiotic treatment and multiple visits to the clinic: dormant bacteria that lie low during antibiotic treatment and rebound to cause recurrent infections, and microbial slime layers called biofilms that coat catheters and prosthetic joints.

"The results suggest that silver could be incredibly valuable as an adjunct to existing antibiotic treatments," said Jim Collins, Ph.D., a pioneer of synthetic biology and Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute, who is also the William F. Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University, where he leads the Center of Synthetic Biology.

In recent years more disease-causing bacteria have grown resistant to common antibiotics, with serious public health consequences. Yet drug companies have struggled for years to develop new types of antibiotics that target these tough bacteria. That has led scientists to re-examine older methods that were used to fight infection well before penicillin use took off in the 1940s. Silver treatment, which has been used since antiquity to prevent and heal infections, is one of them.

Despite silver's long history of use in the clinic, no one understood fully how it killed bacteria. To find out, Ruben Morones-Ramirez, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute who left recently to become a professor at Universidad Aut?noma de Nuevo Leon in Mexico, treated normal and mutant strains of E. coli bacteria with a silver compound. Then he observed them under the electron microscope and ran a series of biochemical tests.

He found that silver compounds cause bacteria to produce more reactive oxygen species -- chemically reactive molecules that damage the bacterial cell's DNA and enzymes, as well as the membrane that encloses the cell. Silver also made the bacteria's cell membrane leakier.

Although silver was used alone as a therapy in the past, the scientists suspected that both changes might make cells more vulnerable to conventional antibiotics -- and they did. A small amount of silver made E. coli bacteria between 10 and 1000 times more sensitive to three commonly used antibiotics: gentamycin, ofloxacin, and ampicillin.

"If you know the mechanism, you can have much more success making combinatorial therapies," Morones-Ramirez said.

In mice, silver also helped antibiotics fight E. coli-induced urinary-tract infections. It made a previously impervious strain of E. coli sensitive to the antibiotic tetracycline.

And it allowed vancomycin to save the lives of 90 percent of mice with life-threatening cases of peritonitis -- inflammation caused by infections of the abdominal space surrounding the internal organs. Without silver, only 10 percent of the mice survived.

The scientists also did a series of toxicity studies, showing that the doses of silver needed to help antibiotics kill bacteria were far below what could harm the mice. Nor did they harm cultured human cells, suggesting that oral and injectable silver could be safe for humans as well.

"Doctors desperately need new strategies to fight antibiotic-resistant infections, and Jim and his team have uncovered one that's incredibly versatile, and that could be put to use quickly in humans," said Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., Wyss Institute Founding Director.

"We're keen to explore how smart drug-delivery nanotechnologies being developed at the Wyss could help deliver effective but nontoxic levels of silver to sites of infection," Collins said.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/en9i_TDvzXU/130619164754.htm

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Bigbrain: An ultra-high resolution 3-D roadmap of the human brain

June 20, 2013 ? A landmark three-dimensional (3-D) digital reconstruction of a complete human brain, called the BigBrain, now for the first time shows the brain anatomy in microscopic detail -- at a spatial resolution of 20 microns, smaller than the size of one fine strand of hair -- exceeding that of existing reference brains presently in the public domain. The new tool is made freely available to the broader scientific community to advance the field of neuroscience.

Researchers from Germany and Canada, who collaborated on the ultra-high resolution brain model, present their work in the 21 June issue of the journal Science.

"The authors pushed the limits of current technology," said Science's senior editor Peter Stern about the international scientific effort. "Such spatial resolution exceeds that of presently available reference brains by a factor of 50 in each of the three spatial dimensions."

The sophisticated modern image processing methods reveal an unprecedented look at the very fine details of the human brain's microstructure, or cellular level. The anatomical tool will allow for three-dimensional cytoarchitectonic mapping of the human brain and serve as an atlas for small cellular circuit data, or single layers or sublayers of the cerebral cortex, explained the researchers.

Until recently, reference brains did not probe further than the macroscopic, or visible, components of the brain. Now, the BigBrain provides a resolution much finer than the typical 1 mm resolution from MRI studies.

The project "has been a tour-de-force to assemble images of over 7,400 individual histological sections, each with its own distortions, rips and tears, into a coherent 3-D volume," said senior author Dr. Alan Evans, a professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. "This dataset allows for the first time a 3-D exploration of human cytoarchitectural anatomy."

Thin sections of a 65-year-old human female brain, which was embedded in paraffin wax, were cut with a special large-scale tool called a microtome. Then, the 20-micrometer thick histological sections were mounted on slides, stained to detect cell structures and finally digitized with a high-resolution flatbed scanner so researchers could reconstruct the high-resolution 3-D brain model. It took approximately 1,000 hours to collect the data. The resulting images reveal differences in the laminar pattern between brain areas.

The new reference brain, which is part of the European Human Brain Project, serves as a powerful tool to facilitate neuroscience research and "redefines traditional maps from the beginning of the 20th century," explained lead author Dr. Katrin Amunts from the Research Centre J?lich and director of the Cecile and Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain Research at the Heinrich Heine University D?sseldorf in Germany. "The famous cytoarchitectural atlases of the early 1900's were simplified drawings of a brain and were based on pure visual analysis of cellular organization patterns," added Dr. Amunts.

Because of the sheer volume of this dataset, the researchers say that there will be a push by those who want to use it to develop new and valuable tools for visualization, data management and analysis.

"We plan to repeat this process in a sample of brains so that we can quantify cytoarchitectural variability," said Dr. Evans. "We will also integrate this dataset with high-resolution maps of white matter connectivity in post-mortem brains. This will allow us to explore the relationship between cortical microanatomy and fiber connectivity," said Dr. Amunts.

"We are planning to integrate our receptor data of the human brain in the reference frame provided by the BigBrain," continued senior co-author Dr. Karl Zilles, who is senior professor of the J?lich Aachen Research Alliance and former director of the Cecile and Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain Research at the Heinrich Heine University D?sseldorf in Germany. "We will also transfer high-resolution maps of quantitative data on the regional and laminar distribution of native receptor complexes to the BigBrain. This will allow us to explore the relationship between cortical microanatomy and key molecules of neurotransmission."

The fine-grained anatomical resolution will allow scientists to gain insights into the neurobiological basis of cognition, language, emotions and other processes, according to the study. The researchers also stated that they plan to extract measurements of cortical thickness to gain insights into understanding aging and neurodegenerative disorders; create cortical thickness maps to compare data from in vivo imaging; integrate gene expression data from the Allen Institute; and generate a brain model with a resolution of 1 micron to capture details of single cell morphology.

Public access of the BigBrain dataset will be provided through the CBRAIN Portal with free registration, stated the researchers.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/lbH_-Te5gmQ/130620142928.htm

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