You know the drill. You pull up to a Super 8 Motel with the vacancy light on, you argue with the attendent about getting a room away from the ice machine, you whip out your AAA card for extra savings and then you take the 24-karat gold-plated iPad the attendant hands you and head off to your room to stockpile some free soap. Boom.
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Angelina Jolie's aunt, Debbie Martin, died Sunday in an Escondido, Calif., hospital after her battle with breast cancer, E! News reports.?
Martin's husband, Ron, told the network that he had been in touch with Jolie and that the actress's father, Jon Voight, had recently visited.
STORY: Cedars-Sinai Cancer Doc: Angelina Jolie 'Humanized' Mastectomies, Spurred Action?
"Angelina has been in touch throughout the week, and her brother, Jamie, has been with us, giving his support day by day," Ron said to E! News. "They both loved Debbie very much, and although Angie is not able to come right now, she has sent her love and support, which was very nice."
Last month, Jolie revealed in an op-ed piece that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy at?Pink Lotus Breast Center to reduce her cancer risk.?
The actress wrote in the New York Times about losing her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to cancer six years ago at age 56 and outlined the steps she needed to take to ensure her own health. Debbie Martin was Bertrand's sister.?
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Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/angelina-jolies-aunt-debbie-martin-558721
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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
News that Amazon will add three large biospheres to its downtown Seattle headquarters had the tech world buzzing this week. The domed structures will feature a mix of workspaces and gardens, and they'll be flanked by a public park. Amazon's big announcement wasn't the week's only surprise, though. A multinational consortium announced plans to develop a Dubai-style artificial island with a space hotel and a zero-gravity spa off the coast of Barcelona. And new research finds that "pinkhouses" -- vertical farms that use only pink light -- are much more efficient than those that use the full light spectrum.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/rhFuJtfNVdM/
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ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's military has freed a number of women and children held hostage by Islamist sect Boko Haram, the army said on Saturday, after its offensive in the northeast of the country overran three of the insurgents' camps.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video earlier this month that the group had kidnapped several women and children in retaliation against security forces who, it says, detained the wives and children of its members without cause.
In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
"Troops of the Special Operations have rescued three women and six children after overrunning three terrorists camps ... in the ongoing onslaught against terrorists," a statement from the defense ministry said on Saturday.
"Troops combing the forest are however yet to locate one other woman and her two children," it added.
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in the three northeastern states. The operation has targeted areas of Africa's top energy producer where Boko Haram, which is fighting to create a breakaway Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, has bases and weapons caches.
Retaking hostages was not one of the military's stated aims but the freeing of the hostages is some evidence of the progress the army says it has made against Boko Haram since launching the offensive 10 days ago.
Jonathan has also offered amnesty to Islamist insurgents who surrender and said he would release detained women and children linked to Boko Haram, one of the sect's chief demands.
An amnesty for militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta in 2009 helped end a conflict there that cut oil output by nearly half at one stage. But Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau rejected the offer of amnesty last month.
Boko Haram's four-year long insurgency has killed around 3,000 people and the group has become the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Joe Brock)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigerian-army-says-rescues-hostages-taken-islamists-182608750.html
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Rumor has it that sometimes sane people enjoy the thrill of an adrenaline rush, but Six Flags Over Texas' new SkyScreamer seems reserved for the insane.
The Texas SkyScreamer officially opens today and stands a whopping 400 feet tall, dwarfing its second tallest brother in Georgia which seems tiny at a mere 242 feet. While the Texas SkyScreamer is based on a pretty tried and true formula, parts of it were actually toned back on account of its crazy height. Unlike other models, it only supports 12 two-seat swings instead of the normal 16, and they spin at a reduced 35 mph as opposed to the usual 43 pmh.
But 400 feet. It's still pretty ridiculous. Just seeing it in action on YouTube is enough to get my knees shaking. I guess I must be a coward. A sane coward. [Reddit]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/watch-these-lunatics-ride-the-highest-swings-in-the-wor-509832981
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Slot-loading Blu-ray drive? Check. HDMI in and out? Absolutely, considering the Xbox One is meant to play a central role in the living room. There's an octa-core processor based on AMD's Jaguar design and 8GB of RAM to go up against the Sony PlayStation 4, plus USB 3.0 ports, 500GB of hard drive storage, WiFi Direct for communicating with the new controller and other devices, and a humungous amount of silicon to drive it all: no fewer than five billion transistors, which compares to 1.4 billion in your average Intel or AMD chip (although Microsoft may be included other processors and DSPs in that count). And just in case you're wondering, the switch to an x86 PC-style architecture will indeed preclude backwards compatibility with 360 games.
As for the box itself, well, it looks rather a like a little HTPC with black and silver case and a big Xbox logo -- a visage with actually tallies with the fact that's running a PC-like x86 architecture inside. There's a full list of specs after the break, which we're continuing to build out as more details pour out of Microsoft's Xbox One ongoing launch event.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
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BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of oil fell Wednesday as investors waited for a report on U.S. crude stocks and the Federal Reserve's latest views on the U.S. economy.
Benchmark crude for July delivery was down 46 cents to $95.72 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The June contract fell 55 cents to settle at $96.16 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said traders were keeping tabs on the Federal Reserve, whose chairman was to appear before Congress later Wednesday. Traders will be scrutinizing Bernanke's remarks for any hints of a change in monetary policy by the U.S. central bank.
Spooner also said that an increase in crude inventories of roughly 530,000 barrels reported by The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday put downward pressure on prices. Analysts were expecting a decline of 1.2 million barrels in crude, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill.
"Although we are into the driving season, it is still the case that inventory levels are high and production capacity is high, so I think there is a bit of risk to the downside," Spooner said.
A report by the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, which is the market benchmark, will be out later Wednesday.
Brent crude, a benchmark for many international oil varieties, fell 20 cents to $103.71 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on Nymex:
? Wholesale gasoline fell 1.9 cents to $2.819 a gallon.
? Heating oil lost 1.2 cents to $2.907 a gallon.
? Natural gas added 3.4 cents to $4.226 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-below-96-fed-chief-speaks-060419364.html
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We're finding out about the new Xbox in just a few hours. But that doesn't mean we have no idea what's coming. Here's a rundown of everything we know, or think we know, about the next Xbox.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5mgXwzLO1jQ/the-next-xbox-everything-we-think-we-know
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have donated $70 million to establish an entrepreneurial undergraduate program at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles school said on Wednesday.
The gift will create a new degree pulling faculty members from the university's business, fine arts, music and engineering departments.
The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will begin in the fall of 2014 and enroll a first class of 25 students, USC said.
Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Iovine created the popular headphones Beats by Dr. Dre in 2006, successfully transitioning Dr. Dre's popularity as a rapper and hip-hop producer into the consumer electronics market.
"The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media," USC President C. L. Max Nikias said in a statement.
"Our goal is to ensure that the academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world," Nikias added.
USC said the program will bring in "icons and innovators" as visiting faculty members and speakers.
The program, which will be headed by fine arts dean Eric Muhl, will also require students to complete a year long group project.
Dr. Dre, 48, rose to fame in the 1980s as an hip-hop producer and member of gangster rap group N.W.A. He is also credited with helping develop the careers of rappers Snoop Dogg and Eminem in the 1990s.
Iovine, 60, is the chairman of Universal Music Group's unit Interscope Geffen A&M Records. His Interscope label embraced hip-hop music and edgier acts, including Dr. Dre and rocker Marilyn Manson, in the 1990s.
USC has also received large gifts from "Star Wars" director and alumnus George Lucas, who donated $75 million to the university's film school in 2009.
Universal Music Group is a subsidiary of Vivendi.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Sofina Mirza-Reid)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/musics-dr-dre-iovine-70-million-usc-academic-191610497.html
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On Monday, I was invited to the exclusive advance Chicago screening of Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s.?If you know anything about fashion then you already know that Bergdorf?s is considered the ?Ultimate Shopping Destination?, when it comes to luxury department stores.?Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s,?explored the history of Bergdorf Goodman and why it is considered the place to shop by any and all celebrities, socialites and.
Viewers also got a chance see Bergdorf?s process when it comes to creating those infamous holiday window displays. I had no clue all the work that goes into making those beautiful, yet immaculate displays millions of people flock to each and every season. And if that wasn?t enough fabulousness, the documentary also followed Linda Fargo, Bergdorf?s Fashion Director. Linda considered by many as one of the most ?powerful? women in fashion,?ultimately?holds the lock and key to which designers get to sell their collections at Bergdorf?s. This movie is truly a must see for those of us who love a good fashion movie.?
?Check out the movie trailer below?
P.S. This hands down was one of the best advanced screenings I had ever been invited too, I?m talking open bar, Garrett popcorn and a candy bar from Candyality! It doesn?t get any better than that!
If you go see the movie, make sure to stop back and let me know what you think!
Source: http://www.swa-rai.com/2013/05/movie-review-scatter-my-ashes-at-bergdorfs.html
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A day after Groupon released (and then pulled) an iPad app with a new mobile payments dashboard for businesses, today the company is taking the wraps off a bigger piece of news around its larger plans to expand its commerce services for local merchants. Building on its Breadcrumb payments and commerce service for restaurants, which Groupon acquired last year, the company today is rebranding its wider payments service — and the final version of that free iPad app — under the same name. The new iPad app for merchants of all stripes is called “Breadcrumb POS,” while the old Breadcrumb app for restaurants will now be called “Breacrumb Pro.” Sound confusing? Streamlining names is usually meant to simplify things, and Groupon says that in fact this is what is happening here: “As it turned out, when we spoke to merchants at salons and other retailers, they were fine with the name Breadcrumb,” says Mihir Shah, VP Merchant OS. “It was about how good are the rates, and the quality of the actual POS product and software.” Indeed, it makes sense to take this approach, considering that the marketing play of targeting those who have never been able to process credit cards before is now a little me-too. “We?re not just targeting simple paymet solutions that didn’t take credit cards before,” says Shah. “We?re just offering a better service to them.” Both the app, and Groupon’s wider payment services, are U.S.-only for now. As we noted yesterday, this is part of the company’s bigger ambition to take its business beyond daily deals and into other revenue streams. But, because it is coming into the market of mobile payments and local commerce relatively late — Square, PayPal’s here and others have already been here, scooping up business for some time –?Groupon is being aggressive on both the rates it charges, and also in making the service as easy to integrate as possible into a business. To attract new payments business from among the 100,000 merchants in the U.S. that already sell daily deals and other products through Groupon’s platform, as well as those merchants who do not, Groupon is also adding some sweeteners into the deal. Those who sign up get the first $5,000 of payments processed through the service without being subject to any fees. After that, Groupon offers a guarantee that its fees are lower than any one else’s: ShahSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/1DcMk4D7-9Y/
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By Alistair Barr
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As Amazon.com Inc seeks to transform itself into a leading provider of technology to the world's largest corporations, it's discovering that it needs help.
The online retailer, which since 2006 has moved aggressively into the business of renting remote computing, storage and other IT services, is roping in thousands of consulting and technology partners, from Cap Gemini SA to BMC Software Inc, in a major push to woo big-spending corporate customers to its cloud computing division.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), as the business is known, has been a hit with startups which need robust and inexpensive Web services that they can purchase as the need arises.
But big corporations and government agencies, often referred to as enterprise customers, represent a far larger opportunity: they spend more than $300 billion a year on data centers, Bernstein Research estimates.
That market opportunity has helped Amazon's stock price more than triple in the past five years as investors bet that the retailer's cloud computing services will become an integral part of the way companies do business over the Internet.
Enterprises, however, are far more demanding than start-ups, requiring better service guarantees, closer tracking of expenses, special features for regulatory compliance and much more. Thus a network of middlemen who develop solutions that work on AWS servers has become central to Amazon's strategy as it takes on established enterprise technology giants such as Oracle Corp and International Business Machines Corp and competes with newer cloud rivals Microsoft Corp and Google Inc.
"Businesses want a full dish to eat, while Amazon serves up ingredients and asks users to get cooking," said Matt McIlwain, a partner at Madrona Venture Group. "Enterprises are willing to pay to get the completed dish. Amazon recognizes this. That's why they have created a network of partners."
Madrona, headed by long-time Amazon board member Tom Alberg, has invested in a number of start-ups that help enterprises to use AWS and other cloud services, including 2nd Watch, Apptio and Skytap.
AWS has more than 4,000 members in its partner network, up from fewer than 1,000 in the first quarter of 2012, according to Terry Wise, its head of global business development.
"If AWS didn't have this partner ecosystem, they would be struggling with enterprises," said Kyle Hilgendorf, who set up Eli Lilly & Co's cloud computing strategy before joining technology research firm Gartner as research director.
"I get calls all the time from enterprises that want to use AWS. They say ?we wish that they did X, Y or Z.' They often go to an AWS partner to fix these problems."
A study by Hilgendorf and his Gartner colleagues this year concluded that AWS meets 71 percent of what enterprises need to fully embrace public cloud computing.
"Partners understand enterprise customers better and can often paper over the cracks," said Mat Ellis, chief executive of Cloudability, which helps big companies such as Adobe Systems track cloud spending.
GUARANTEED PERFORMANCE
One area where AWS falls short is so-called service-level agreements, or SLAs, which guarantee IT services will keep running. If service is interrupted, the provider has to compensate customers - and if it happens too often, they could become former customers.
Consultants that work with AWS say its SLAs are not always adequate for the needs of large enterprises. The one for AWS's popular "EC2" computing service, for example, guarantees downtime will not exceed about 22 minutes a month, according to calculations by Gartner and Cap Gemini.
Yet some enterprises require downtime to average no more than 5 minutes a month, said Joe Coyle, Cap Gemini's chief technology officer in North America.
To fix this, Cap Gemini weaves together AWS servers in different regions around the world to make sure that if one data center area goes down, the rest of the network keeps running.
"We turn around and write a new contract with the client," Coyle said. "The client would not even know they are on AWS if they didn't ask."
Cap Gemini has nine enterprises using AWS in this way, including intercity bus carrier Greyhound Lines.
Other companies, such as start-up 2nd Watch, are also developing their own approaches that guarantee less downtime than AWS itself.
The AWS partners can also help enterprises keep existing systems and have them work with AWS, an increasingly popular strategy known as "AWS plus one."
Andy Jassy, head of AWS, said recently that enterprises can now use AWS and their own data centers at the same time. Software firms including BMC and CA Inc can help companies manage this through "a single pane of glass," he said.
The risk in this approach is that it makes it easier for enterprises to use rival cloud providers. Indeed, many of the larger partners already have long-standing business relationships with Amazon rivals.
RightScale, for example, a long-time AWS partner, helps enterprises run applications on multiple cloud platforms, including those offered by Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard Co and Rackspace Inc.
RightScale helps Samsung SDS America, a unit of Samsung Electronics, use AWS alongside OpenStack, a cloud platform promoted by Rackspace and other AWS competitors.
"Enterprises love the cloud. They just don't want to only use AWS," RightScale CEO Michael Crandell said.
(Editing by Edwin Chan, Jonathan Weber and Richard Chang)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-amazon-gets-help-lure-big-business-cloud-040726939.html
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NEW YORK (AP) ? PBS says the fourth season of "Downton Abbey" will begin in January and run for eight weeks.
The series is the highest-rated drama in public TV's history.
The costume drama about the family and servants in a stately English home stars Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith and Michelle Dockery.
Shirley MacLaine will return for the fourth season, joined by newcomers including opera star Kiri Te Kanawa. They'll have to fill the void left by leading man Dan Stevens' departure: His character, Matthew, died in a car crash in last February's third-season finale.
The new season of "Downton Abbey" will air from Jan. 5 to Feb. 23.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/4th-season-downton-abbey-air-january-151316298.html
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Image: Simons Science News
From Simons Science News (find original story here).
Mathematical Impressions by George Hart: Juggling has advanced enormously in recent decades, since mathematicians began systematically investigating the possible patterns of non-colliding throws.?As a result of this research, many new possibilities have been discovered for jugglers to attempt.?In addition, the connections between juggling and the algebra of braids provide another way to analyze juggling. (Related: More videos from this series)
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The late computer scientist Claude Shannon has a well-deserved reputation as the father of information theory, but he was also an avid unicyclist, juggler and tinkerer. He even built his own robotic juggling machine out of parts from an Erector set, programming it to juggle three metal balls by bouncing them against a drum.
In the early 1980s, Shannon published the first formal mathematical theorem of juggling, correlating the length of time balls are in the air with how long each ball stays in the juggler?s hand. His theorem demonstrated the importance of hand speed to successful juggling.
Mathematicians have been fascinated by juggling ever since. ?I think it?s a matter of making sense of the order that?s in the juggling patterns,? said Jonathan Stadler, a math professor at Capital University in Ohio who started juggling as a teenager. ?It has to do with understanding how things fit together.?
Breaking Down Shannon?s Equation
(F + D) H = (V + D) N
F = how long a ball stays in the air
D = how long a ball is held in a hand
H = number of hands
V = how long a hand is empty
N = number of balls being juggled
In essence, juggling comes down to simple projectile motion, with each ball following a neat parabolic arc as it is tossed ? except that there are multiple balls following interweaving paths in periodically repeating patterns. For a single juggler, there are three basic patterns: the cascade, in which an odd number of balls are tossed from one hand to the other; the fountain, in which an even number of balls are juggled in two separate columns; and the shower, in which all the balls are tossed in a circle. A more experienced juggler might throw more than one object from a single hand at the same time, a practice known as multiplexing.
There are many possible combinations of throws, so how do jugglers decide which ones will produce a valid pattern? They do so by means of a mathematical notation system called site swaps that links each ball thrown to how long it stays in the air, describing this in terms of ?beats.?
For example, a one-beat throw means the juggler simply passes the ball from one hand to the other. If the ball is tossed into the air, the height it reaches determines how long it takes for the ball to return to the juggler?s hand ? two beats, three beats, or more. The more beats, the higher the ball must be thrown to maintain the pattern. Thanks to the availability of online animation tools, a juggler can see what a given pattern will look like before attempting the trick in the physical world.
Ultimately, juggling holds an aesthetic as well as intellectual appeal for the mathematician. ?The way that I feel when I look at a nice equation is the same way I feel when I look at a nice juggling pattern,? said Burkard Polster of Australia?s Monash University, who literally wrote the book on the mathematics of juggling in 2002. ?There?s nothing superfluous there.?
Simons Science News?is an editorially independent division of?SimonsFoundation.org. Its mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b519a0492d3dbe10cec5408240f59819
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10 hours ago
Millions will always associate Gillian Anderson with her nine seasons (and two films) as skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully on the sci-fi thriller series "The X Files." But the actress recently appeared as a guest star on NBC's "Hannibal," and Anderson joined Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on Monday to talk about the "creepy" factor attached to the role.
"I'm playing Hannibal's psychiatrist!" she laughed. "How cool is that?"
Anderson is often found in serious, dark roles -- no doubt a legacy of her "X-Files" days -- but says she'd be open to doing a silly little romantic comedy.
"It'd actually be nice, compared to everything else," she said. "People don't have a tendency to offer me those kinds of things. But I'd be more than happy to."
"Hannibal" airs on NBC Thursdays at 10 p.m.
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Caught playing politics with tragedy, what's next for the Obama administration and GOP investigators?
AP
"These changes don't resolve all of my issues or those of my building's leadership." With that sentence, one in a series of emails and draft "talking points" leaked to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, the Obama administration was caught playing politics with Benghazi.
Summaries of White House and State Department emails -- some of which were first published by Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard?-- also contradict the White House version of events that led to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice misleading the public about the cause of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. installation in Libya.
Where does this all lead?
Politics: It would be na?ve to expect any White House to ignore the political implications of a foreign policy crisis occurring two months before a presidential election. But there is a reason why no White House admits to finessing a tragedy: It's unseemly. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland injected politics into the U.S. response to Benghazi when she raised objections to draft "talking points" being prepared for Rice's television appearances.
One paragraph, drafted by the CIA, referenced the agency's warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months prior to the attack, as well as extremists linked to the al-Qaida affiliate Ansar al-Sharia. In an email to officials at the White House and intelligence agencies, Nuland said the information "could be abused by members (of Congress) to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned ..."
The paragraph was deleted. The truth was scrubbed.
Nuland still had concerns. "These changes don't resolve all of my issues or those of my buildings (sic) leadership," she wrote.
Did she have good reason to believe that the GOP would demonize her boss, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (the building leader)? Yes.
Could she trust the GOP to be fair-minded and understanding? No.
Could Benghazi be a campaign issue if not carefully managed? Yes.
But she and her cohorts in the administration were wrong to let political considerations cloud the public record. For far too long, the White House shied away from calling Benghazi a terrorist attack and stood behind Rice's initial statement that it was inspired by protests over a crude anti-Islamic video.
Credibility: The White House has long maintained that the talking points were drafted almost exclusively by the CIA, a claim that gave cover to both President Obama and his potential successor, Clinton. "Those talking points originated from the intelligence community," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in November, adding that the only editing by the White House or the State Department was to change the word "consulate" to "diplomatic facility."? Nuland's emails prove him wrong. ?As I wrote yesterday ("Why Benghazi is a Blow to Obama and Clinton"), Obama has earned the trust of most Americans but credibility is a fragile thing.
Throw Hillary under the bus? In a statement to ABC, Carney notably insulates the West Wing and not the State Department by saying "the only edits made by anyone here at the White House were stylistic and nonsubstantive." And, with no apparent regard to hypocrisy, Carney criticized the GOP for attempting to "politicize the talking points."
Drip, drip, drip: There is almost certainly more to come. While Karl and Hayes did not disclose their sources, a hallmark of congressional investigations is to leak selected evidence to embarrass the sitting administration. It's a safe bet that these emails, produced voluntarily for Congress by the State Department, were summarized and leaked by Republicans. The Obama White House might want to borrow a page from the scandal-ridden Clinton playbook: Release all Benghazi documents at a time and manner of their choosing, before the GOP does so.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/benghazi-truth-obama-clinton-2013-5
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Facebook for iPhone and iPad has updated with a new photo viewer button that lets you save, share, or set the photo as your profile pictures. Editing a place you're checking into on the iPhone has also been improved, and Events should load faster, now. But that's not the most interesting thing about this update...
The most interesting thing about this update, to me, is actually the fact that Facebook has once again let the beta version of one of their icons slip out to the general public. Just like with Facebook Messenger back in March they likely forgot to swap in the release icon before uploading the final build to the App Store.
While some people complained about the beta icon being ugly (on Twitter, ironically) immediately after it was released, I'll admit? I kind of like it! I'm not a fan of the border, but I think the blueprint looks is neat. Call me crazy.
What do you think? Do you wish the beta version was the official icon for the iPhone and iPad app?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/aTN7l98seOQ/story01.htm
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BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? A dozen years after a customer revolt forced Monsanto to ditch its genetically engineered potato, an Idaho company aims to resurrect high-tech spuds.
This month, tuber processing giant J.R. Simplot Co. asked the U.S. government to approve five varieties of biotech potatoes. They're engineered not to develop ugly black bruises ? McDonald's, which gets many of its fries from Simplot, rejects those. They're also designed to have less of a natural but potentially cancer-causing neurotoxin, acrylamide.
Much has changed in 12 years, according to the Boise-based company.
Unlike transgenic varieties Monsanto commercialized in the 1990s using genes from synthetic bacteria to kill insect pests, Simplot's new "Innate"-brand potatoes use only potato genes.
Haven Baker, Simplot's Yale- and Harvard University-trained vice-president of plant sciences, said his scientists journeyed inside the vegetable's genome to "silence" unwanted attributes, while making sure it remained 100 percent potato.
"You'll never get as much beneficial effect from traditional plant breeding," he said. "And it'll take twice as long."
Those in the industry remember Monsanto's ill-fated foray and say Simplot's major challenge in avoiding a similar fate is ensuring its product is acceptable among growers, processors and, ultimately, people eating it.
"Unless your customers are prepared to embrace this product, it's not going to be successful," said Frank Muir, president of the Idaho Potato Commission that represents Idaho's $3 billion industry. His group, whose website currently boasts Idaho potatoes aren't genetically engineered, hasn't weighed in on Simplot's endeavor.
But Muir does think the company is making the right moves: Reaching out to the industry, as well as consumers who may eventually buy Innate potatoes as big, un-bruised bakers or golden fries. "They're taking all the appropriate steps."
As the USDA and Food and Drug Administration embark on vetting Simplot's potatoes, the agencies are nearing completion of a similar review of a genetically engineered apple created by a Canadian company, Okanogan Specialty Fruits, to resist browning when cut.
The apple industry has opposed Okanogan's "Arctic" apple, on grounds it could create marketing headaches for growers of unmodified apples. Christian Schlect, the Northwest Horticultural Council president, said he hopes the potatoes go to market first.
"We'd just assume the potato people take the initial foray on marketing this technology, and we'll follow their experience," he said.
In fact, the two products, should they win the government's blessing, could hit customers about the same time, 2015 or 2016.
Baker said with Simplot's new potatoes, growers would earn more money with less wastage from bruising, something that can affect up to 5 percent of their harvest. Additionally, the spuds are designed to produce acrylamide levels so low they skirt California's strict, voter-mandated cancer labels on french fries and potato chips, he said.
McDonald's didn't return a call seeking comment about the tubers. A big Simplot processing rival, ConAgra, says its potatoes are not genetically engineered.
Twelve years on, St. Louis-based Monsanto remains tight lipped about jettisoning its "New Leaf" potatoes ? engineered, among other things, to kill Colorado potato beetles. That was a business decision "not influenced by any negative reaction to genetically-modified organisms," spokeswoman Carly Scaduto said.
But experts say plunging interest ? including from Simplot, which told farmers in Idaho and North Dakota in 2000 to quit planting New Leaf potatoes after restaurants like McDonald's banished them from their fryers ? drove the spuds from the fields. Monsanto's biotech potatoes, planted on 55,000 acres in North America in 1996, disappeared by 2002.
Joe Guenther, a University of Idaho professor of agricultural economics, in 2011 won funding from Simplot to survey potato industry players about re-introducing genetically engineered potatoes into the food chain. His conclusion: It could succeed, provided potatoes were modified with potato genes, not foreign microorganisms that in the 1990s spawned terms like "frankenfood."
"The Monsanto product crossed that species line," Guenther said. "The exciting thing about the Simplot product is, it stays within the potato species."
Another thing Guenther's 2011 report said would help was backing from an environmental group, something that remains a scarce commodity. Groups worried about corporations commandeering potato genes a decade ago remain no less alarmed.
Bill Freese, science policy analyst with Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety, said Simplot's potatoes join a litany of other genetically engineered crops that don't face rigorous-enough USDA or FDA testing.
While Simplot's Baker said 20 field trials demonstrate Innate potatoes exhibit characteristics virtually identical to their unmodified cousins, Freese painted a darker picture: Genetic engineering is a noisy, unpredictable process, where the best-intentioned genome tinkering could be accompanied by unforeseen effects on human health and the environment.
Freese said the absence of long-term animal feeding trials and labeling requirements is also cause for worry, since potatoes are staple crops people eat directly. Freese predicted Innate potatoes will fail, just like Monsanto's did.
"The question is why do they continue to so miscalculate public perception?" he said. "The biotech approach is to change the food on a genetic level in quite frankly risky ways with inadequate regulation to adapt a crop to an industrial food system that's really unhealthy in so many ways."
Simplot's Baker pointed to, among other sources, the FDA, which says genetically-engineered foods it reviews meets the same safety requirements as those from traditionally-bred plants. "The nutrients and allergens are no different from conventional potatoes," he said.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Potato Commission, representing 45,000 U.S. growers, learned of Simplot's plans several months ago. Chief Executive Officer John Keeling said it supports scientific advancements to improve potatoes, but has advised Simplot to avoid past mistakes.
For instance, some Monsanto tubers found their way into Japan, where they weren't approved. After that, Japan-bound U.S. potatoes had to be tested, he said.
"If some parts of the marketplace are saying they don't want Innate technology and others want it, you've got to be able to address both of those issues." Keeling said. "Simplot seems to have taken to heart the thoughts that we had."
Simplot is seeking approval in Japan, as well as Canada, Mexico and South Korea.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/idaho-spud-giant-bets-biotech-potatoes-074033796.html
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By Ben Child, The Guardian
Monday, May 13, 2013 7:57 EDT
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Comedian and stoner Tommy Chong says ?I kicked cancer?s ass!? with a variety of treatments including diet and supplements
Tommy Chong, the veteran star of the dope-fuelled Cheech and Chong films, says he has beaten prostate cancer with a combination of cannabis use and a special diet.
Chong, 74, was diagnosed with cancer in June last year following a three-year period in which he said he had been drug free. He now says he is 99% free of the disease after a Canadian doctor helped him change his diet to include a variety of special supplements, as well as hemp oil. He then sat for a number of sessions with a practitioner named Adam Dreamhealer, described as a ?world-renowned healer?.
?That?s right, I kicked cancer?s ass!? Chong wrote on the website CelebStoner.com. ?So the magic plant does cure cancer with the right diet and supplements. I?m due for another blood test, MRI, etc, but I feel the best I?ve felt in years. And now for a celebration joint of the finest Kush ??
Together with collaborator Cheech Marin, Chong starred in eight films between 1971 and 1985, including the pair?s classic debut Up in Smoke. During that period the duo also released eight albums, three of which hit the US top 10. The duo split in the mid-80s, but began touring together again in 2008.
? Guardian News and Media 2013
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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/13/tommy-chong-claims-cannabis-helped-cure-his-prostate-cancer/
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