Sunday, June 30, 2013

Missing American schooner 'probably had a catastrophic event'; 7 remain missing

"Nina," a historic schooner built in 1928, was last seen in the South Pacific off the north coast of New Zealand three weeks ago.

By Henry Austin and Miriam Firestone

The "biggest ever" search of the seas surrounding New Zealand turned up no sign of an American schooner that has been missing for more than three weeks, officials said Friday. ?

Search and Rescue officer Neville Blakemore said the 70-foot vessel ?probably had a catastrophic event? while traveling from New Zealand to Newcastle, Australia.

?The areas that have been searched have been absolutely massive and the area searched is the biggest area the Rescue Coordination Center of New Zealand has ever undertaken,? Blakemore said. ?The comprehensive search by the Orion [aircraft] the last couple of days has indicated that if the yacht was still afloat they would have seen it in the search area. So we are assuming that it's not in the search area and thus probably had a catastrophic event.?

AP Photo/St. Andrews Historic Seaport and Commercial Marina

David Dyche, skipper of the 70-foot vessel Nina.

Blakemore added that he was refusing to give up hope of finding survivors but said the search was now focusing on debris from wreckage.?

The New Zealand Herald identified four of the people on the vessel as David Dyche, 58; his wife, Rosemary, 60; their son David, 17; and Evi Nemreth, 73, of Boulder, Colo., a maritime technology expert and retired University of Colorado professor. A 35-year-old British man, a 28-year-old American man and an 18-year-old American woman were also on board.

A storm was reported near the vessel's last known location on June 4, the day the Nina vanished. It featured winds gusting up to 70 mph and 26-foot waves.

New Zealand-based meteorologist Bob McDavitt told the Associated Press?that one of the crew was concerned about the conditions when she called on a satellite phone on June 4. ? ?

"The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it," McDavitt quoted Nemreth as asking him. ?

He added: "She was quite controlled in her voice, it sounded like everything was under control."

Stephen Western / AFP - Getty Images, file

The Nina is seen at sea in January 2012.

Friends in Panama City, Fla., where the Nina often moored, ?told NBC station?WJHG that David Dyche was an ?accomplished captain? and said they were refusing to give up hope.

"You always worry anytime you've got a vessel in a bad weather situation,?Massalina Bayou marina director Bill Lloyd told WJHG on Thursday. ?But you don't handle a boat the size of Nina unless you're an accomplished captain.?

Blakemore, the rescue official, refused to rule out the possibility of survivors. However, he said that the ?logical conclusion? is that the boat sank rapidly, preventing the seven strong crew from sending out an SOS.

Unlike many locator beacons, he said that the one aboard Nina was not activated by water pressure and wouldn?t start automatically if the boat sank. However, he maintained that it would be unlikely that a craft the size of the Nina would sink. ??

?If the vessel got knocked over by a rogue wave it would have happened very, very quickly and they may not have had time to, to launch any life-saving equipment,? Blakemore added.

On her Facebook page, Rosemary Dyche said her family had planned a world tour.

?I am now on an adventure of a lifetime going around the world with my Wonderful husband who is my best friend and our youngest son," she wrote . "But I do Miss my 2 older sons Justin and Kevin and my grand kids Katelynn and Sean my mom. And all my friends. But we have to do it now while we can.??

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

NASA telescope to probe long-standing solar mystery

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A small NASA telescope was launched into orbit on Thursday on a mission to determine how the sun heats its atmosphere to millions of degrees, sending off rivers of particles that define the boundaries of the solar system.

The study is far from academic. Solar activity directly impacts Earth's climate and the space environment beyond the planet's atmosphere. Solar storms can knock out power grids, disrupt radio signals and interfere with communications, navigation and other satellites in orbit.

"We live in a very complex society and the sun has a role to play in it," said physicist Alan Title, with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, which designed and built the telescope.

Scientists have been trying to unravel the mechanisms that drive the sun for decades but one fundamental mystery endures: How it manages to release energy from its relatively cool, 10,000 degree Fahrenheit (5,500 degree Celsius) surface into an atmosphere that can reach up to 5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 million Celsius).

At its core, the sun is essentially a giant fusion engine that melds hydrogen atoms into helium. As expected, temperatures cool as energy travels outward through the layers. But then in the lower atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, temperatures heat up again.

Pictures and data relayed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, telescope may finally provide some answers about how that happens.

The 4-foot (1.2-meter) long, 450-pound (204-kg) observatory will be watching the sun from a vantage point about 400 miles above Earth. It is designed to capture detailed images of light moving from the sun's surface, known as the photosphere, into the chromosphere. Temperatures peak in the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.

All that energy fuels a continuous release of charged particles from the sun into what is known as the solar wind, a pressure bubble that fills and defines the boundaries of the solar system.

"Every time we look at the sun in more detail, it opens up a new window for us," said Jeffrey Newmark, IRIS program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The telescope was launched aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp Pegasus rocket at 10:27 p.m. EDT Thursday (0227 GMT Friday). Pegasus is an air-launched system that is carried aloft by a modified L-1011 aircraft that took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California about 57 minutes before launch.

The rocket was released from beneath the belly of the plane at an altitude of about 39,000 feet before it ignited to carry the telescope into orbit.

IRIS, which cost about $145 million including the launch service, is designed to last for two years.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-telescope-probe-long-standing-solar-mystery-030014645.html

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HBT: Rays' Longoria exits with foot injury

Rays third baseman Evan Longoria was taken out before the start of the top of the third inning of tonight?s game against the Tigers. The Tampa Bay Times reports Longoria re-aggravated the plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He will be reevaluated tomorrow. Kelly Johnson replaced him at the hot corner.

Longoria missed more than three months last year due to a strained left hamstring, so another injury is the last thing the Rays want to hear right now, especially with the season he is having. The 27-year-old has a .920 OPS and racked up 3.6 WAR already, the sixth-most in the American League, per Baseball Reference.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/28/evan-longoria-exits-early-with-foot-injury/related/

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Take our Apps Survey for a chance to win a $100 Best Buy Gift Card!

Talk Mobile 2013

We're fans of numbers and quantifiable data here at Mobile Nations, and so following after the second week of Talk Mobile 2013, we're turning to our good friend the survey to help compile some data. Week two was focused on apps, apps, apps and developers, developers, developers. If you missed any of the content, be sure to click over to our Talk Mobile hub and check it out.

The mobile apps survey will only take a minute or two to complete, and as an extra incentive (not that you guys and gals need it, but we like to give things away), by completing the survey you'll be entered for a chance to win a $100 Best Buy Gift Card. Hit the link below to take the survey!

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/TUomNJ-QTks/story01.htm

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Hospitals seek high-tech help for hand hygiene

In this Thursday, June 20, 2013 photo, Theresa Gratton, infection prevention coordinator at St. Mary's Health Center, wears a device to help remind health care workers to keep their hands clean at the hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo. In the past, hospitals have mostly relied on education, threats of discipline and reports from observers to try and make sure staff keep their hands clean but St. Mary's began testing the device about a year ago and officials say they've been stunned by how well the system works.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

In this Thursday, June 20, 2013 photo, Theresa Gratton, infection prevention coordinator at St. Mary's Health Center, wears a device to help remind health care workers to keep their hands clean at the hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo. In the past, hospitals have mostly relied on education, threats of discipline and reports from observers to try and make sure staff keep their hands clean but St. Mary's began testing the device about a year ago and officials say they've been stunned by how well the system works.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

(AP) ? Hospitals have fretted for years over how to make sure doctors, nurses and staff keep their hands clean, but with only limited success. Now, some are turning to technology ? beepers, buzzers, lights and tracking systems that remind workers to sanitize, and chart those who don't.

Health experts say poor hand cleanliness is a factor in hospital-borne infections that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that one of every 20 patients in U.S. hospitals gets a hospital-acquired infection each year.

"We've known for over 150 years that good hand hygiene prevents patients from getting infections," said Dr. John Jernigan, an epidemiologist for the CDC. "However, it's been a very chronic and difficult problem to get adherence levels up as high as we'd like them to be."

Hospitals have tried varying ways to promote better hygiene. Signs are posted in restrooms. Some even employ monitors who keep tabs and single out offenders.

Still, experts believe hospital workers wash up, at best, about 50 percent of the time. One St. Louis-area hospital believes it can approach 100 percent adherence.

Since last year, SSM St. Mary's Health Center in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights, Mo., has been the test site for a system developed by Biovigil Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich. A flashing light on a badge turns green when hands are clean, red if they're not. It also tracks each hand-cleaning opportunity ? the successes and the failures.

The failures have been few at the two units of St. Mary's where the system is being tested, the hospital said. One unit had 97 percent hand hygiene success, said Dr. Morey Gardner, the hospital's director of infection disease and prevention. The other had 99 percent success.

"The holy grail of infection prevention is in our grasp," Gardner said.

The Biovigil system is among many being tried at hospitals. A method developed by Arrowsight, based in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., uses video monitoring. It is being used in intensive care units at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.

Akron, Ohio-based GOJO Industries, maker of Purell hand sanitizer, has developed an electronic compliance monitoring system using wireless technology to track when soap and hand sanitizer dispensers are used. The SmartLink system gives the hospital data on high- and low-compliance areas. The company said it has installed the system at several hospitals around the country, but didn't say how many.

HyGreen Inc.'s Hand Hygiene Reminder System was developed by two University of Florida doctors. The Gainesville, Fla., company now features two systems used in seven hospitals, including Veterans Administration hospitals in Chicago, Wilmington, Del., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

One is similar to Biovigil's green badge method. In HyGreen's, a wall-mounted hand wash sensor detects alcohol on the hands. The badge includes an active reminding system. Unclean hands create a warning buzz. If the buzz sounds three times, the worker is noted for noncompliance.

HyGreen spokeswoman Elena Fraser said that because some hospitals are moving away from alcohol-based sanitizers, HyGreen offers a second system. A touch of the sanitizer dispenser clears the worker to interact with a patient. If the worker shows up at the patient bed without hand-cleaning, the series of warning buzzes begins.

Fraser said hospital infections have dropped 66 percent at units of Miami Children's Hospital where the badge system has been implemented.

Nurses using the Biovigil system at St. Mary's near St. Louis wear a badge with changeable colored lights. A doorway sensor identifies when the nurse enters a patient's room, and the badge color changes to yellow.

The nurse washes his or her hands and places them close to the badge. A sensor in the badge detects chemical vapors from the alcohol-based solution. If hands are clean, the badge illuminates a bright green hand symbol.

If the nurse fails to sanitize, the badge stays yellow and chirps every 10 seconds for 40 seconds, then flashes red. Once the flashing red starts, the nurse has another 30 seconds to wash up, otherwise the badge turns solid red, denoting non-compliance. Either way, each instance is tracked by a computer. The hospital can track each individual's compliance.

Registered Nurse Theresa Gratton has helped lead the effort toward hand cleanliness at St. Mary's. She heard about the Biovigil system in early 2012 and convinced the hospital to give it a try.

Gratton said patients are aware of the risk of infection and frequently inquire about whether caregivers have washed their hands. She said the badge relieves their anxiety.

Bill Rogers, a 65-year-old retiree recuperating at St. Mary's from back surgery and a heart scare, agreed.

"The first thing I noticed up here was the badges," Rogers said. "It is comforting for me to know their hands are clean as soon as the badge beeps and it goes from yellow to green."

St. Mary's is expanding the Biovigil system later this year to other units of the hospital and to employees other than nurses, though details are still being worked out, Gardner said. Eventually, the system may be expanded to SSM's seven other St. Louis-area hospitals, he said.

Biovigil's chief client officer, Brent Nibarger, said customers won't buy the system but will pay a subscription fee of about $12 a month per badge.

The CDC's Jernigan said the high-tech systems can only help.

"For a health care worker, keeping their hands clean is the single most important thing they can do to protect their patients," Jernigan said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-28-Hospitals-Hand%20Hygiene/id-84bb8340037a44d3837c8750112891eb

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Android 4.3 leaks for 'Google Play edition' Galaxy S4

Android 4.3

The next version of Jelly Bean has leaked for the 'Google Play edition' GS4 — and there's a port for the European GS4 model already

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean isn't even official yet, but already a leaked build has appeared for the Samsung Galaxy S4 "Google Play edition." The pre-release build was uploaded by Samsung fansite SamMobile in its original form, and in the form of a custom ROM for the European Galaxy S4 — GT-i9505.

The initial batch of screnshots from the ROM (build number JWR66N) doesn't show any major differences from version 4.2.2, however we'll have to reserve judgment until we've played with the software for ourselves. For the moment, however, 4.3 looks to be a relatiely minor bump up from 4.2.

We'll bring you more coverage of this story as it unfolds.

Source: SamMobile (1, 2)

    


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Emmys: 'Boardwalk Empire' Gets Those Gorgeous Costumes Bloody

(Please note strong language in paragraph seven)

By Tim Molloy

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Two of the stars of "Boardwalk Empire," Jack Huston and Michael K. Williams, sat recently on one of the show's exquisite nightclub sets, talking about how few scenes they have together.

Which may be for the best.

Huston plays Richard Harrow, a hired gun whose disturbing half-mask hides not just his war injuries but also his innate decency. Williams plays Chalky White, the head of Atlantic City's African-American rackets, who commits crimes for the betterment of his family.

They can't be on screen together very often, Williams explained to TheWrap, because too many people would die. "When you see Chalky or Harrow, you know that something's going to go down," said Williams. "You don't want to be in a scene with them. You know they're going to start making multiples of your wardrobe."

Making multiples? Williams, an expert in rendering his co-stars unemployed given his role on "The Wire" as stickup man Omar Little, explained why actors don't want to hear that phrase. "When you get multiples, you're gonna die," he said. "When they shoot over and over, they get blood on the clothes, and they have to do it again ... When you see multiples of your wardrobe, it's usually when Harrow or Chalky's in the room."

On the season finale of Boardwalk's third and best season, Harrow single-handedly took out a bordello full of gangsters, even as White joined in a brutal standoff to put down a gangster uprising. Many multiples were made. But the build-up to that bloodshed was long. The show metes out violence as strategically as a speakeasy would its best whiskey. When it arrives, not everyone is left standing.

"In the last episode it was like all-out f---ing war," said Huston, looking fresh-faced without his Harrow mask and glasses. "And I had such an itchy trigger finger. Last season it was Episode 10, and I said to Tim Van Patten, ?Man, I haven't killed someone in a long time. What's going on?'"

In lulls between all the death, "Boardwalk Empire," like Huston, wears a half-mask of gentility, providing lilting accents, elegant parlor rooms, champagne flutes filled with promise and the most ornate costumes this side of "Downton Abbey." Then, just as we're lulled into some sense of tranquility - what a lovely period drama we're watching! -someone gets set on fire. Or sent home in a shipping crate.

The show's subdued moments sometimes feel like an attempt to make the violence all the more jolting. But showrunner Terence Winter has noted that many viewers prefer those moments, which offer political intrigue, family drama and some of the best music on television.

"We have people who can't stand the violence, and they're much more entertained by the family stuff," he told TheWrap last year. "One person's slow is another person's fascinating."

The sheer beauty of "Boardwalk" means few people complain when it takes time to let us admire the sights. In its first two seasons it was nominated for 30 Emmys and won 12 - for cinematography, art direction and special visual effects, among other categories. It also has won directing Emmys for Martin Scorsese and Van Patten, who are among the show's executive producers.

But if there is any justice - and Boardwalk's storylines make the case that there may not be - this could be the year "Boardwalk" finally wins a lead-actor Emmy for Steve Buscemi for his role as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson or Emmy recognition as television's best drama. (In 2011, it won Golden Globes in both categories.)

Like many shows before it, including "The Wire," "Boardwalk" hit its stride in its third season. All of its characters' ambitions and fears came crashing ashore at once, resulting in the show's most magnificently crafted stories - and one perfectly placed set piece after another.

Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol) drowned a poor bastard who looked like her dead son, Jimmy (Michael Pitt). We saw a horrific, beautiful final vision of Nucky's bobbed paramour, Billie Kent (Meg Steedle). And we shared the devastation of Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) as her lover arrived home, broken and bent into a box.

Because "Boardwalk" took the time to earn each moment, the imagery served the show's deft storytelling more than ever before. It was an especially impressive accomplishment given that many critics wondered where the show could possibly go after the death of one of its leads, Pitt, in its second season. That shocking departure came about when Nucky was forced to kill Jimmy, his former prot?g?, when he tried, as people always do, to usurp Nucky's power.

"I think he does have a generous streak to him," Buscemi told TheWrap. "He sort of responds to the way people treat him. What's that saying: ?Don't mistake my kindness for weakness?'"

At its most basic level, the show is about people trying to slake the thirst created by Prohibition. Outlawing alcohol in 1920 fueled criminal empires from Nucky's Atlantic City to Chicago, where Al Capone (Stephen Graham) was just discovering his special talents with a lead pipe.

But the liquor trade also opened up opportunities to countless Americans who might otherwise have been shut out. It meant work for Harrow, whose deformity likely would have kept him out of an office. Gillian, a child showgirl whose rape at 13 brought Jimmy into the world, rose to the relatively prestigious position of madame.

White became a dapper crime boss and essential ally to Nucky, even as other African-Americans of his time had to take what work they could get.

Critics of capitalism may see the liquor business as a metaphor for all American enterprise. As outsiders scratch their way in, they discover a world every bit as dirty as the one they've escaped. Winter, meanwhile, says the show's look at the 1920s is echoed in the current debate over drug legalization. But he doesn't believe the show needs to make a case for legalizing drugs: "I think history made it for us with Prohibition."

The show leaves it to viewers to make moral judgments, as it focuses instead on the often-noble motivations of the criminal class. Gillian, for example, uses her position to teach her girls about art and literature - until mobsters take over their house, and Harrow has no choice but to shoot the place up. He does it to save Jimmy's son, and in the process helps Nucky win back power from Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale).

With Rosetti dead, the show will go in another direction in its fourth season, premiering this fall. The war with Rosetti cost Nucky his power and prestige, but he finally knows who his friends are, including his once-estranged brother Eli (Shea Whigham). The latest attempt to bring him down may mean the end of Nucky's days as a glad-handing politician.

"I think it's made him more introspective and a little less willing to put himself out there so publicly," Buscemi said. "He's been through a lot, and he just wants to recede a little bit. But he hasn't lost his appetite for wanting things and wanting a certain amount of power. That's still there."

Viewers of the show's Season 4 trailer know where Nucky turns: We see him meeting Valentine Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright), a "doctor of divinity" who controls Harlem. Narcisse has a passion for power that Boardwalk viewers may find familiar. "Only kings," he intones, "understand each other."

"Boardwalk" has never had trouble veering off in unexpected directions. That was apparent to Mol when she learned in the show's second season that her character - a grandmother at 37 - would have sex with her son in a flashback. The scene showed how damaged Gillian was by adulthood's sudden assault on her youth.

"I called Michael, and I was like, ?Oh, my God, how do we do this?' He said, ?I think we have to be really drunk.' And I was like, ?Us as the actors? Or the characters?'"

Of the show's writers, she added, "They can write anything. And you just have to be prepared to go there."

Chances are it won't be somewhere good. But that doesn't stop the actors from hoping for the best for their characters. Williams, for instance, would love for White to see the Civil Rights Movement. "My mom got to see a black president," he said. "So why couldn't Chalky get to see Martin Luther King? ?Chalky, I need you to round up the brothers and sisters, we're doing a peace march.'"

Buscemi's hope for Nucky is smaller scale.

"I'd like to see him have fun again," he said. "It's gotten darker as each season goes. He used to tell jokes, he used to laugh, he used to have friends. His world seems to be getting smaller and smaller as it gets bigger and bigger."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emmys-boardwalk-empire-gets-those-gorgeous-costumes-bloody-001024831.html

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Travel Mug Plugs In, Keeps Drinks Warm - Business Insider

This is the Wagan 12-Volt Travel Mug.

Why we love it: It's a normal-sized travel mug that keeps hot beverages warm (or re-heats an already-cooled beverage) by plugging in to your car's 12-volt socket.?The tiny, efficient heat coil is hidden safely in the base of the mug, and the cup is well-insulated so it can keep your coffee (or whatever) hot for up to two hours after the mug has been unplugged.?

The mug comes in three colors - blue, silver and red - and fits in any standard cupholder. It's absolutely perfect for your morning commute, those long road trips or late-night drives. You can use it to heat up your coffee, milk or tea, and you can even use it for liquid-y foods, like soup or oatmeal.??

?

Where to Buy: Available on Amazon.

Cost: $15.85 for two mugs.

Want to nominate a cool product for?Stuff We Love? Send an email to Megan Willett at?mwillett@businessinsider.com?with "Stuff We Love" in the subject line.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/travel-mug-plugs-in-keeps-drinks-warm-2013-6

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3D Systems Invests In Asteroid Miners Planetary Resources, Opens Up New Seed-Stage Venture Arm

arkydPlanetary Resources' plan to scour the heavens and find asteroids to mine may seem a little out there as far as startup ideas go, but that hasn't stopped some big names from backing the company. Today, that list just got a little bigger -- 3D printing giant 3D Systems announced that it has invested in Planetary Resources, and that it will aid in the development of the startup's ARKYD series space telescopes by fabricating components for them.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dcNHksUwU1Y/

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Christians tweet more happily, less analytically than atheists

June 26, 2013 ? A computer analysis of nearly 2 million text messages (tweets) on the online social network Twitter found that Christians use more positive words, fewer negative words and engage in less analytical thinking than atheists. Christians also were more likely than atheists to tweet about their social relationships, the researchers found.

The findings are reported in the journal Social Psychological & Personality Science.

"Whether religious people experience more or less happiness is an important question in itself," the authors of the new analysis wrote. "But to truly understand how religion and happiness are related we must also understand why the two may be related."

To identify Christian and atheist Twitter users, the researchers studied the tweets of more than 16,000 followers of a few prominent Christian and atheist personalities on Twitter. They analyzed the tweets for their emotional content (the use of more positive or negative words), the frequency of words (such as "friend" and "brother") that are related to social processes, and the frequency of their use of words (such as "because" and "think") that are associated with an analytical thinking style.

Overall, tweets by Christians had more positive and less negative content than tweets by atheists, the researchers report. A less analytical thinking style among Christians and more frequent use of social words were correlated with the use of words indicating positive emotions, the researchers also said.

"If religious people are indeed happier than nonreligious people, differences in social support and thinking style may help to explain why," said University of Illinois graduate student Ryan Ritter, who conducted the research with U. of I. psychology professor Jesse Preston and graduate student Ivan Hernandez.

The findings are also in line with other studies linking greater levels of social connectedness to higher well-being, Ritter said.

"Religious communities are very social. Just being a member of a religious group connects people to others, and it may be this social connection that can make people happier," Preston said. "On the other hand, atheists had a more analytical thinking style in their tweets than Christians, which at extremes can make people less happy."

Previous research has found a positive association between religion and well-being among Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims. But most such studies rely on individuals to report how satisfied they are with their lives or their experience of positive and negative emotions at a given time.

"What's great about Twitter is that people are reporting their experiences -- good or bad -- as they occur," Preston said. "As researchers, we do not need to ask them how they feel because they are already telling us."

Christians appear to be happier than atheists on Twitter, but the authors caution that the results are correlational and "this does not mean atheists are unhappy overall or doomed to be miserable," Preston said. "If religion improves happiness indirectly through other factors, those benefits could also be found outside religious groups."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/nXsfhg3-oLk/130626143106.htm

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

UW awarded $10 million to design paper-based diagnostic medical device

UW awarded $10 million to design paper-based diagnostic medical device [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

The University of Washington has received nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to continue a project aimed at building a small, paper-based device that could test for infectious diseases on-demand in areas where diagnostic capabilities are limited.

The $9.6 million cooperative agreement awarded to the UW and its partners General Electric Co. Global Research, Seattle-based Epoch Biosciences Inc., global health nonprofit Path, and Seattle Children's will fund researchers to build a prototype of the device, which could be as small as a deck of playing cards and would work much like an over-the-counter pregnancy test.

"This test will be inexpensive, simple to use and robust enough that people could use it in their homes, in the developing world and in a doctor's office," said lead researcher Paul Yager, professor and chair of the UW bioengineering department.

A patient would take a nasal swab, then activate the disposable device. The device would look for the DNA or RNA of a specific set of pathogens in the body fluid sample. If a target pathogen is present, within an hour a pattern of dots would appear on the test paper. Patients could take a smartphone photo and transmit those results to their physician anywhere in the world for a diagnosis.

"There are a lot of cell phones now in the developing world, so you could test and receive a diagnosis in places where there aren't any medical testing facilities," Yager said.

This second phase of funding will last 18 months as researchers develop a usable prototype. The UW received an initial $4 million in 2011 to get the project off the ground, then earned the second phase this spring.

Yager and his team at the UW have hired seven new staff across multiple fields, including biochemistry, microbiology and mechanical engineering. GE Global Research and Epoch Biosciences also added to their staff under the new grant. The project is funded by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency the same agency that helped launch the Internet.

Researchers will first build a paper-based pathogen identification test that targets methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria that resist antibiotics and spread by contact. Next, they plan to develop tests for the influenza virus, and perhaps sexually transmitted infections and other infectious diseases.

###

For more information, contact Yager through assistant Chelsea Musick at cmusick@uw.edu or 206-543-8063.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or the position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.


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UW awarded $10 million to design paper-based diagnostic medical device [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 25-Jun-2013
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Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

The University of Washington has received nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to continue a project aimed at building a small, paper-based device that could test for infectious diseases on-demand in areas where diagnostic capabilities are limited.

The $9.6 million cooperative agreement awarded to the UW and its partners General Electric Co. Global Research, Seattle-based Epoch Biosciences Inc., global health nonprofit Path, and Seattle Children's will fund researchers to build a prototype of the device, which could be as small as a deck of playing cards and would work much like an over-the-counter pregnancy test.

"This test will be inexpensive, simple to use and robust enough that people could use it in their homes, in the developing world and in a doctor's office," said lead researcher Paul Yager, professor and chair of the UW bioengineering department.

A patient would take a nasal swab, then activate the disposable device. The device would look for the DNA or RNA of a specific set of pathogens in the body fluid sample. If a target pathogen is present, within an hour a pattern of dots would appear on the test paper. Patients could take a smartphone photo and transmit those results to their physician anywhere in the world for a diagnosis.

"There are a lot of cell phones now in the developing world, so you could test and receive a diagnosis in places where there aren't any medical testing facilities," Yager said.

This second phase of funding will last 18 months as researchers develop a usable prototype. The UW received an initial $4 million in 2011 to get the project off the ground, then earned the second phase this spring.

Yager and his team at the UW have hired seven new staff across multiple fields, including biochemistry, microbiology and mechanical engineering. GE Global Research and Epoch Biosciences also added to their staff under the new grant. The project is funded by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency the same agency that helped launch the Internet.

Researchers will first build a paper-based pathogen identification test that targets methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria that resist antibiotics and spread by contact. Next, they plan to develop tests for the influenza virus, and perhaps sexually transmitted infections and other infectious diseases.

###

For more information, contact Yager through assistant Chelsea Musick at cmusick@uw.edu or 206-543-8063.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or the position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.


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

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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/uow-ua062513.php

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Outlook.com drops linked email accounts in favor of aliases

Outlook.com email attachments

Hotmail and Outlook.com have long supported linked email accounts for organizing messages. However, Microsoft now sees connected accounts as tempting targets for hackers -- so tempting, in fact, that the company is severing those links as a safety measure. Within the next two months, Outlook.com will move to using its alias system as the only way to handle multiple accounts. Users will have options to forward email and send messages from other addresses, but they won't get to control multiple accounts through one sign-in. Microsoft will start unlinking accounts in late July, so those who'd like a more orderly transition to the safer (if less convenient) approach will want to act quickly.

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Source: Outlook Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/outlook-com-drops-linked-email-accounts-in-favor-of-aliases/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Obama considers Syria moves, Assad turns guns on north

By Erika Solomon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is deciding whether to take new action to help Syria's rebels, the White House said on Thursday, while President Bashar al-Assad's surging forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies turned their guns on the north.

Assad's forces fought near the northern city of Aleppo on Thursday and bombarded the central city of Homs, having seized the initiative by winning the open backing of Hezbollah last month and capturing the strategic town of Qusair last week.

The arrival of thousands of seasoned, Iran-backed Hezbollah Shi'ite fighters to help Assad combat the mainly Sunni rebellion has shifted momentum in the two-year-old war, which the United Nations said on Thursday has killed at least 93,000 people.

U.S. and European officials anxious about the rapid change are meeting the commander of the main rebel fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, on Friday in Turkey. FSA chief Salim Idriss is expected to plead urgently for more help.

Obama has come under mounting pressure in recent weeks from allies abroad and politicians at home to take more action to help the rebels as the balance of power tilts towards Assad.

He has so far been more cautious than Britain and France, who have already forced the European Union this month to lift an embargo that had blocked weapons for the rebels.

"The president is reviewing and considering what other options are available to him and to the United States as well as our allies and partners for further and additional steps in Syria, and that process continues," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"As terrible as the situation is in Syria, he has to make decisions when it comes to policy towards Syria that are in the best interests of the United States."

Western governments that months ago predicted Assad would soon fall now believe that support from Tehran and Hezbollah are giving Assad the upper hand. However, they also worry that sending arms to rebel fighters could empower Sunni Islamist insurgents who have pledged their loyalty to al Qaeda.

While Britain and France have yet to announce their own decisions to start arming the rebels, their diplomats have been making the case that the best way to counter both threats is to beef up support for Idriss's mainstream rebel force.

Strengthening the FSA with money, weapons and ammunition, they argue, would both help combat Assad and also provide a counterweight among the rebels to al Qaeda-linked groups.

France in particular has developed good relations with Idriss while providing funds and non-lethal support, and seems eager to send him military aid.

BILL CLINTON SPEAKS OUT

Among those whose comments put pressure on Obama to act was one of his predecessors, Bill Clinton.

"The only question is: now that the Russians, the Iranians and Hezbollah are in there head over heels ... should we try to do something to try to slow their gains and rebalance the power so that these rebel groups have a decent chance to prevail," the ex-president was quoted by newspaper Politico as saying.

Assad's government says its next move will be to re-capture Aleppo in the north, Syria's biggest city and commercial hub, which has been divided since last year when advancing rebels seized most of the countryside around it.

Syrian state media have been touting plans for "Northern Storm", a looming campaign to recapture the rebel-held north.

The United Nations, which raised its death toll for the war so far to 93,000 on Thursday, said it was concerned about the fate of residents if a new offensive is launched.

"All of the reports I'm receiving are of augmentation of resources and forces (for an Aleppo offensive) on the part of the government," U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay told Reuters Television.

Assad's army appears to be massing some troops in its footholds in Aleppo province, particularly in Shi'ite areas such as the enclaves of Nubel and Zahra, although some opposition activists say the government may be exaggerating the extent of its offensive to intimidate rebel supporters.

Activists reported fighting in the area around Aleppo on Thursday, especially near an airport that rebels have been trying to capture. The government has also launched an offensive in Homs, the closest big city to its last victory in Qusair and one of the last major rebel strongholds in the country's centre.

"There was a fourth day of escalations today on the besieged neighborhoods of Homs's old city. Early in the morning there were two air strikes ... followed by artillery and mortar shelling," said Jad, an activist from Homs speaking via Skype.

"More than 25 rockets fell in one area and then the area was combed with tanks.... The shelling is still going on now."

Ahmed al-Ahmed, an activist in Aleppo, said the government's reinforcements in the north were just a distraction from Homs.

"They've turned the world's attention to watching northern Aleppo and fearing an attack and massacres as happened to our people in Qusair, to get us to forget Homs which is the decisive battle."

Hezbollah's participation has deepened the sectarian character of the war, with Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, backed by Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah while Sunni-ruled Arab states and Turkey back the rebels.

The 7th century rift between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam has fueled violence across the Middle East in recent decades, including the sectarian bloodletting unleashed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion and the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990.

Leading Sunni Muslim clerics met in Cairo on Thursday and issued a call to jihad on Thursday, condemning the conflict as a "war on Islam".

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles in Geneva; John Irish in Paris; Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Omar Fahmy and Asma Alsharif in Egypt; Roberta Rampton, Mark Felsenthal, Jeff Mason and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-considers-syria-moves-assad-turns-guns-north-192250242.html

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Silicon Valley at front line of global cyber war

(AP) ? Chinese President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Barack Obama will talk cyber-security this week in California, but experts say the state's Silicon Valley and its signature high-tech firms should provide the front lines in the increasingly aggressive fight against overseas hackers.

With China seeking to grow its economy and expand its technology base, companies like Facebook, Apple, Google and Twitter are inviting targets. In fact, all have been attacked and all point the finger at China, which has denied any role.

The U.S. government has stepped up efforts to thwart cyber-attacks, but those efforts are mainly focused at protecting its own secrets, especially regarding military operations and technologies.

Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official whose Red Branch Consulting provides national security advice, said the responsibility for preventing attacks in the private sector lies with the U.S. innovators who created the technology that's being hacked in the first place.

"To some degree, they were getting a pass," he said. "If a car manufacturer made a car that was routinely able to be stolen, they'd be sued. If software is made with gaps that are a liability, they bear some responsibility, and in recent years there's been a sea change in high tech firms accepting that responsibility."

Big firms like Google employ thousands of security experts who can spot a potential attack on just a few individuals and quickly disseminate protection for everyone using their products. Google routinely detects unsafe websites that spread malicious software or trick people into revealing personal information, posting warnings in front of users and contacting webmasters who may have been hacked.

But Chinese hackers have managed to hit even Google, and in a book released this spring, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt said China is the world's "most sophisticated and prolific hacker."

Cybersecurity is high on the agenda for the meeting between Obama and Xi on Friday and Saturday in Southern California's Rancho Mirage. A recent government report found nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies were compromised by cyber intrusions from China. Earlier this year, cybersecurity firm Mandiant linked a secret Chinese military unit to years of cyber-attacks against U.S. companies.

Mandiant's chief security officer, Richard Bejtlich, said his firm tracks more than 20 potentially threating groups of hackers in China, some with links to the government and military.

China's government denies any involvement, with Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng telling reporters Sunday that the U.S. claims "underestimate the intelligence of the Chinese people."

Frustration is growing, however, as the attacks continue. Although none have come out publically, analysts say some U.S. companies even are considering cyber-attacks of their own as retaliation, even though it's illegal. Retaliatory hacking was a hot topic at the 2013 RSA Conference on tech security in March, where attorneys and sitting judges even held a mock trial over an imaginary firm that struck back.

And on May 20, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, headed by former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, recommended that Congress and the Obama administration reconsider the laws banning retaliation.

"If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability of those conducting IP theft," they wrote.

Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer at security firm BeyondTrust in San Diego, warns against private firms going on the offensive.

"There are a lot of people lobbying to 'hack back' but I think that is a disastrous idea," said Maiffrett, who was a hacker of government sites before discovering the first Microsoft computer worm, "CodeRed."

"Most of corporate America is failing to secure themselves, let alone become competent hackers to hack back against someone like a China."

Tim Junio, who studies cyber-attacks at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, doesn't expect much to change because of the Xi-Obama talks.

"China benefits too much by stealing intellectual property from the U.S., so it's really hard to imagine anyone convincing them to slow down," he said.

Indeed, the payoff for successfully stealing critical information can be enormous. For example, if a company spends many millions of dollars developing expensive intellectual property, such as a pharmaceutical firm investing in a new drug, it's very cost-effective for a Chinese firm or government entity to dedicate a small team of hackers to gain access to that company's networks.

A patient approach of sending emails for months, hoping an employee eventually clicks on a link or opens an attachment that they shouldn't, usually works. It's a probabilities game, and the offense has the advantage, especially when targeting a company with thousands of employees. Sooner or later, someone will make a mistake.

Hackers then sell the stolen intellectual property to competing companies, which can try to replicate the product and sell counterfeits at a cut rate. For a developing country like China, this is a great way to stimulate domestic economic growth.

Junio suspects that China's political leaders may not even be aware of the extent of hacking by their own cyber teams, because corrupt government officials may also be using them for personal gain.

James Barnett, former chief of public safety and homeland security for the Federal Communications Commission, said the government's role in fighting Chinese hackers should be to offer high-tech firms tax deductions, credits or liability limits.

"The private sector's role is to continue to innovate, something it can do much better than the government, and something that Silicon Valley does better than just about anywhere in the world," he said.

___

Follow Martha Mendoza on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mendozamartha

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-04-US-China-Cyber%20Attacks/id-3fa9025a25cd4b1f8be3ff9cecb057a5

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