At least eight people were killed and 40 more injured in a suicide bombing on a busy road in the Pakistani city of Peshawar Monday morning. The attack capped off a weekend of election-related violence as the country prepares to go to the polls May 11.
The bomber missed his ostensible target, a local commissioner, instead crashing his motorcycle into a passenger bus, Pakistan?s News International reports. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Pakistani Taliban have carried out a range of similar attacks against secular political parties over the past several weeks.
Indeed, the explosion came just a day after two Taliban attacks targeting political candidates in northwestern Pakistan killed at least eight and injured dozens more. The Taliban and other groups have been responsible for at least 77 deaths in 44 election-related attacks since the beginning of April, Human Rights Watch told The New York Times.
RECOMMENDED: Pakistan elections: Who's running?
"We are not in favor of democracy. Democracy is for Jews and Christians," Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud said in a recent propaganda video, according to CNN. He implored Pakistanis not to participate in the upcoming elections.
"We want the implementation of Sharia [law], and for that jihad is necessary,? he said.
The May elections will be the first in the country?s checkered political history when one democratically elected government will make way for another, and the uptick in militant violence leading to the historic vote has rattled both domestic and international observers.
But they remain divided on whether or not the spate of attacks will have a significant affect on the election?s outcome at the national level, particularly since neither of the two parties leading in polling over the past three months are among those targeted by the attacks.
As one analyst writing in the Pakistani daily Dawn argues, the violence, though significant, is too sporadic and narrowly targeted to create the kind of chaos necessarily to significantly sway the election?s results.
As for violence making elections impossible, the quantum would have to jump multifold and that too in key urban towns to spread the kind of fear that would result in elections being postponed. The ?threshold rule? applies here: the state has virtually no capacity to prevent targeted violence up to a certain threshold; beyond this, the militants have little chance of carrying out a coordinated campaign of major attacks in city centres in a short time. There is little reason to believe this will be upended over the coming fortnight.
Two of the frontrunners in the national campaign are the center-right Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the centrist party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Taliban attacks, on the other hand, have largely targeted left-leaning parties, including the ruling Pakistan People?s Party (PPP), the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), and the Awami National Party (ANP).
Local candidates for these parties complain that the violence has forced them to dramatically scale back their campaigning activities, leaving the field open for Islamist candidates to win over voters.
"If you tie my hands, and you want me to fight, I can?t,? Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a local candidate for the ANP in the city of Peshawar, told Dawn.
Overall, however, there is halting optimism in many quarters for Pakistan?s fragile democratic institutions. As the Monitor reported in March, the Pakistani National Assembly recently completed a five-year term for the first time in the country?s history, a signal that the country is finding new and non-militaristic ways to respond to its political grievances.
?These five years we saw many instances of corruption, confrontations with the judiciary, and absence of law and order,? says Rasul Bakhsh Raees, a professor of political science in Lahore, pointing to Karachi and Balochistan. ?But the military decided not to intervene, which shows even their attitude is changing.? ?
?Every phase of democracy in Pakistan has been a battle, but the trend shows it?s [heading] toward improving the overall institutional balance,? [he says].
Violence also cast a shadow over Pakistan?s last election, in 2008. On Dec. 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and the head of the PPP ? then the leading opposition party ? was assassinated after a campaign rally. Two months later, however, her party and the PLM-N emerged victorious from the campaign and formed a coalition government. That August, former military leader Pervez Musharraf stepped down as president and went into exile, formally ending his nine-year military rule.
The best time to upgrade to a new version of Windows is during the launch window?due to Microsoft's abysmal adoption rates for new operating systems, they offer a slew of great deals on upgrade copies. Those deals are over now. But the versions for cheap were upgrade copies: if you were building a machine and installing Windows 8 on bare metal, they wouldn't work. Today, we're seeing the first significant sale on Windows 8 OEM?a full blown copy that doesn't require a previous licence. Over at Newegg, the code EMCYTZT3373 takes Windows 8 OEM down to $80. Check it out. [Newegg]
Bill Gates triggered a media uproar with a 'disrespectful' one-handed shake upon meeting the new South Korean president. What should Bill Gates have done?
By David Clark Scott,?Staff writer / April 23, 2013
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, shakes hands with Microsoft founder Bill Gates before their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 22, 2013. Gates has his left hand in his pocket.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
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Global etiquette can be tricky. Just ask Bill Gates.
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The Microsoft chairman (who is also co-chair of one of the world's biggest charitable organizations)? is no stranger to international travel or meeting heads of state. But, on Monday, when he shook hands with South Korea's first female president, Park Geun-hye, Gates made a serious faux pas, which resulted in a cultural kerfuffle.
Gates shook her hand with just one hand. In South Korea, and much of Asia, that's only done in casual settings, with good friends. To top it off, Gates had his left hand in his pocket, signaling his superiority.
"How rude!" was the response in South Korea media. Almost every news organizations carried the photo on the front page.
The proper way to show respect would have been for Gates to clasp the South Korean leader's hand with both of his hands.
Was Gates sending a blunt signal of political disapproval to the new government leader? Was Gates ignorant of Asian etiquette??
There was enough media buzz that the South Korean president's office felt it needed to issue an official statement on the matter: "Bill Gates took a similar pose for a picture when he met former President Lee Myung-bak five years ago. Just think of it as an American style of greeting," according to Dong.com, the website of Dong-a Ilbo, a leading newspaper in Korea with daily circulation of more than 1.2 million.?
[Editor's note: Since publication, the president's office contacted The Christian Science Monitor to say that it had issued no official statement about the Bill Gates handshake.]
The first part of that statement is true. In fact, the Atlantic Wire compiled a series of Bill Gates One-Hand Shaking, One-Hand-in-Pocket photos from previous meetings with other world dignitaries, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, China's President Xi Jinping, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Apparently Gates is consistently casual about his handshakes ? with whomever he meets.
While the one-handed Western handshake has become more common in Asia, business etiquette also suggests that one never looks directly in the eyes of the person you're meeting. An exception to that rule is the Philippines. And in many places, a bow is also part of the greeting.
In Cambodia, for example, if you meet a prominent businessman, the proper way to show respect is to place your palms together at chest height and bow at your waist.
There's also a culturally correct way to exchange business cards in Asia, too. Each card should be in English on one side, and the recipient's native language on the other. You present your card with both hands, native language side up and readable to the recipient. When you receive a card, it's also a two-handed affair. Look at it, thank the person, and put in gently in a coat pocket.
For more tips on global etiquette, check out The Christian Science Monitor's quiz on the globally savvy traveler.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? For one night only, the Rolling Stones were an up-and-coming band again.
The legendary group rocked a small club in Los Angeles on Saturday night for a miniscule crowd compared to the thousands set to see them launch their "50 and Counting" anniversary tour a week later on May 3 at the Staples Center.
The band kicked off Saturday's hush-hush 90-minute concert at the Echoplex in the hip Echo Park neighborhood with "You Got Me Rocking" before catapulting into a mix of new and old material, as well as their blusey covers of classics from Otis Redding ("That's How Strong My Love Is"), Chuck Berry ("Little Queenie") and The Temptations ("Just My Imagination").
"Welcome to Echo Park, a neighborhood that's always coming up ? and I'm glad you're here to welcome an up-and-coming band," lead singer Mick Jagger joked after the second song of the evening, "Respectable."
Despite clocking in several decades as band, Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood showed no signs of slowing down Saturday.
Jagger, who promptly ditched a black-and-white track jacket emblazoned with the band's logo after the first few songs, worked the crowd into a sing-a-long frenzy with "Miss You," complete with a harmonica solo from the strutting frontman.
Tickets to the Echoplex concert were sold earlier in the day for $20 each ? a fraction of what tickets to the tour cost.
Hundreds of fans lined up outside the El Rey Theatre across town earlier Saturday for a chance to attend the spontaneous show. Buyers were limited to one ticket, and they were required to pay with cash, show a government-issued ID, wear a wristband with their name on it and be photographed. Their names were verified at the venue, which has a capacity of about 700.
Cameras and smartphones weren't allowed inside the Echoplex, which usually plays host to hipster bands and mash-up dance parties. The lack of personal recording devices made the Stones' performance feel even more exclusive and old school, freeing concertgoers' hands of the gizmos that have become commonplace at concerts nowadays, and further bonding the crowd, many of whom built up camaraderie during the confusing ticket lottery earlier in the day.
Toward the end of Saturday's show, the band was joined by former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor for their version of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," as well as "Midnight Rambler."
The band, which was backed by Darryll Jones on bass, Chuck Leavell on keys, Bobby Keys on sax and Bernard Fowler and Lisa Fischer as back-up singers, encored with the hits "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
"(This is) the first show of the tour, probably the best one," Jagger said at the end of the 90-minute set.
Bruce Willis, Gwen Stefani and Skrillex were among the famous faces in the sold-out crowd.
Rumors of the surprise show spread across social networks last week after the band teased the appearance on their Twitter accounts. The dance-pop band New Build, which was originally scheduled to play the Echoplex on Saturday, was first to leak details about the performance.
"Our gig got shifted b/c the Rolling Stones are playing Echoplex," the band posted Friday on Twitter. They joked that they were looking forward to "having it out" with the Stones.
The Rolling Stones performed a few dates together in London, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Newark, N.J., last winter, but didn't announce a tour until earlier this month. They will play 17 dates in the United States but said they may add more down the line. The lowest price for tickets to the show at the Staples Center, which has a capacity of about 20,000, is $250.
___
Online:
http://www.rollingstones.com
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang
>>>the news because they did something -- anything really. the
duke and duchess
of cambridge along with
prince harry
toured the new
harry potter
exhibit at the
warner brotherstheme park
near london, getting their own wands and a few lessons in how to use them. other reportable things they did was take a walk and then they had lunch. just wanted to pass that along. it was a busy day for them.
>>they were breathing too.
>>i read somewhere, she is wearing a
polka dot
dress there and wherever she bought it from they sold out immediately.
>>it's amazing how that happens.
>>not stuff i normally read.
>>sure he doesn't. right?
>>you digest it. you process. now you told america.
>>i didn't know the name of the store. you have to google it.
PARIS (Reuters) - France's Francois Hollande said he was undeterred by a first year in power marked by economic slowdown and a record slump in his personal popularity, arguing his 5-year presidency would achieve results over time.
In comments to correspondents from Reuters and Agence France Presse a week before the anniversary of his May 2012 election win over Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande shrugged off polls showing his popularity rating around 25 percent, after the sharpest fall for any president in over half a century.
"I'm aware how serious the situation is. It's a president's duty to stay the course and to look beyond today's squalls. It's called perseverance," Hollande said.
"People can criticize my decisions, think I am on the wrong track or have not taken the right route, but if there is one thing I am sure of it's that I have taken major decisions for France - many more in 10 months than were taken in 10 years."
Hollande, France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand, is squeezed between a business sector clamoring for lower taxes and labor costs, euro zone partners pressing for budget cuts and households hostile to austerity measures.
He said he would persevere with measures to restore growth like corporate tax credits aimed at easing headcount costs and a labor reform set to become law in May.
"It's the president who is held to account, and that's quite legitimate. It's up to me to weigh up what I need to do for the country today. To remain in control by being sure of my ideas."
RALLY THE NATION
After his campaign pledges to revive the flagging industrial sector, end a relentless rise in unemployment and meet deficit-cutting targets, Hollande has had to row back on almost all his economic targets, as factory layoffs continue apace.
While he stands by a goal to turn around unemployment by year-end, few believe he can achieve that. Jobless claims rose for the 23rd straight month in March to an all-time high.
Treading a delicate line as he attempts step-by-step reforms that were not part of his election campaign, Hollande said the country should have faith in him.
"The only thing that counts is the results. I have made promises and I will be judged on them," he said. "My hope is to rally the nation and restore confidence. That will take time, but it's my sole objective."
His economic woes aside, Hollande is also suffering from a perception that since he took power France is losing its voice on European policy. His prime minister said this month that France was losing its leadership role.
Foreign investors are watching closely since the government admitted it would need an extra year to reach a European Union budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of output.
Inside France, where a scandal over an ex-budget minister's secret Swiss bank account has not helped, polls show a slim majority of people would prefer Sarkozy to be president today.
"I realized a long time ago that I would not go far if I let the commentary get to me," Hollande said. "According to what was said about me as a candidate, I had no chance of becoming president."
(Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday announced its second civil fraud lawsuit against Novartis AG in four days, accusing a unit of the Swiss drugmaker of paying multimillion-dollar kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing its drugs.
Authorities said the Basel-based company for a decade lavished healthy speaking fees and "opulent" meals, including a nearly $10,000 dinner for three at the Japanese restaurant, Nobu, to induce doctors to prescribe its drugs.
They said this led to the Medicare and Medicaid programs paying millions of dollars in reimbursements based on kickback-tainted claims for medication such as hypertension drugs Lotrel and Valturna and the diabetes drug Starlix.
The charges are detailed in a whistleblower lawsuit first filed against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp by a former sales representative in January 2011 and which the U.S. government has now joined.
Twenty-seven U.S. states, the District of Columbia and the cities of New York and Chicago are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which seeks triple damages under the federal False Claims Act.
"Novartis corrupted the prescription drug dispensing process," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said in a statement. "For its investment, Novartis reaped dramatically increased profits on these drugs, and Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs were left holding the bag."
On Tuesday, the government accused Novartis of inducing pharmacies to switch thousands of kidney transplant patients to its immunosuppressant drug Myfortic in exchange for kickbacks disguised as rebates and discounts.
Novartis spokeswoman Julie Masow said the company disputes the claims in both lawsuits and will defend itself. She also said physician speaker programs are "an accepted and customary practice" in the industry.
People who file whistleblower lawsuits, sometimes known as "qui tam" lawsuits, on behalf of the government under the False Claims Act share in recovered damages.
The United States does not participate in all such lawsuits, but often joins cases it believes have greater merit.
The original lawsuit against East Hanover, New Jersey-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals was filed by Oswald Bilotta, who now lives in North Carolina. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"We believe that Novartis' alleged payment of kickbacks is yet another example of abuse in the pharmaceutical industry that contributes to skyrocketing medical costs," James Miller, a partner at Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller, and Shah in Chester, Connecticut representing Bilotta, said in a statement.
A $9,750 DINNER
According to the complaint, from January 2002 to November 2011, Novartis often paid doctors to speak about its drugs and programs that were supposed to have educational purposes, but which in reality were often social occasions or not held at all.
Authorities said that for Lotrel, Valturna and Starlix alone, the company spent nearly $65 million and conducted more than 38,000 speaker programs over the decade.
The complaint describes a variety of alleged improper programs, including seven at Hooters restaurants that Novartis sales representatives attended, and pricey meals to which Novartis allegedly treated doctors.
Among these meals were dinners at high-end Chicago restaurants such as Japonais and L20, a $2,016 dinner for three at Smith & Wollensky in Washington, D.C. and the $9,750 dinner for three at Nobu in Dallas in December 2005.
Satow, the Novartis spokeswoman, said speaker programs are "promotional programs" designed to inform physicians how to use the company's medicines.
Novartis "invests significant time and resources to help ensure these programs are conducted in an ethical and responsible manner," she said. "We are dedicated to doing it right.
Bilotta filed his lawsuit four months after Novartis in September 2010 agreed to pay $422.5 million to resolve criminal and civil liability over its marketing of several drugs, including the epilepsy drug Trileptal.
The case is U.S. ex rel. Bilotta v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-00071.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)
DETROIT (AP) ? Honda is recalling nearly 46,000 Fit Sport small cars in the U.S. and Canada to fix a problem with the electronic stability control system.
The recall affects cars from the 2012 and 2013 model years. Honda says the stability control system can let the car tilt too far before it applies the brakes to prevent a crash.
The defect was discovered in government testing of models with a particular type of tires. Honda says it doesn't know of any crashes or injuries from the problem.
Honda dealers will update the system's software free of charge. Owners will be notified starting in mid-May.
Julianne Moore plays a teacher who starts a relationship with an ex-student-turned-playwright (Michael Angarano) in The English Teacher. I got a chance to see the movie at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I'm giving you the lowdown on whether you should give this one a shot once it hits theaters on May 17. Check it out.
Don Banks of SI.com thinks the Bills? choice of QB E.J. Manuel means the read option will be part of their offense.
Said Dolphins coach Joe Philbin of first-round pick Dion Jordan, ?We?ve got to get our hands on him a little bit (and) work with him a little bit to find out what is his ideal weight and those type of things. I?m not going to sit here and say that we want him to be 265 pounds. We?ll see. Maybe his body isn?t going to function and do some of the things he can at that (weight). He may be able to.?
Patriots DT Vince Wilfork raised $235,000 at his draft party, 10 percent of which will go to marathon bombing victims with the rest to go to fight diabetes.
Two defensive players in the first round suggests coach Rex Ryan?s influence isn?t totally gone with the Jets.
The Ravens website calls trading up in the second round a possibility.
The Bengals didn?t reach for a tackle in the first round with Andre Smith still unsigned.
The Steelers were worried that the Saints would pick LB Jarvis Jones before they had a chance.
WR DeAndre Hopkins is the fourth straight player to come out of college early to be drafted by the Texans in the first round.
Colts DE Bjoern Werner is the first NFL first rounder to call his selection ?unglaublich,? which translates from German as ?beyond belief.?
The Jaguars look to be sitting pretty at the top of the second round.
G Chance Warmack thinks he convinced the Titans to pick him during a private workout.
What?s on the wish list for the Broncos on Friday?
T Eric Fisher said being drafted first overall by the Chiefs was like winning the lottery.
Said Raiders CB D.J. Hayden of whether he thought his career was over when his inferior vena cava was severed last season, ?I did. I definitely did. [It lasted] about a week, and I was just wondering if I would walk straight again. That?s what was on my mind; it was walking straight. I wasn?t worried about life after football. I wasn?t worried about life after college. I was just worried about walking.?
A negative review of the Chargers? decision to draft T D.J. Fluker.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the two players the team considered trading up to get both were off the board in the top 10.
Giants OL Justin Pugh started all 34 games he played at Syracuse.
Even new Eagles T Lane Johnson thought the Dolphins were trading up to take him on Thursday night.
A look at defensive back options for the Redskins in the coming rounds.
Bears G.M. Phil Emery called Kyle Long the most athletic guard to come out in the last 12 years.
John Niyo of the Detroit News believes drafting DE Ziggy Ansah was a risk worth taking for the Lions.
The Packers highlighted the versatility of DE Datone Jones after drafting him on Thursday.
A bold offseason continued with the Vikings grabbing three players in the first round.
Falcons G.M. Thomas Dimitroff proved again that he isn?t afraid to make big moves to secure players he wants.
The Panthers didn?t waste much time before handing in the card picking DT Star Lotulelei in the first round.
Need might not be the driver when the Saints make their next pick in the third round.
The Buccaneers didn?t do any drafting, but they had quite a draft party.
G Jonathan Cooper said he was shocked the Cardinals picked him because he doesn?t read the mock drafts that projected him as a top 10 pick.
Trading up for WR Tavon Austin says that the Rams aren?t rebuilding anymore.
The 49ers ?absolutely? have a player in mind with the 34th pick.
The Seahawks are ready to jump into the draft after a quiet first night.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Weight loss is a topic of concern for nearly 36% of Americans who are considered obese. There are many barriers that can interfere with weight loss. For those attending face-to-face weight loss programs, barriers can include travel, conflict with work and home, need for childcare, and loss of anonymity.
In a new study released in the May/June 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, investigators from The University of Kansas Medical Center continue to explore alternative weight management delivery methods to eliminate some of these barriers. The solution they are investigating -- virtual reality for weight loss and weight maintenance.
Looking at the results from twenty overweight and obese individuals after 3 months of a weight loss program at a weekly clinic delivered via face-to-face or virtual reality and then 6 months of weight maintenance delivered via virtual reality, the investigators found virtual reality compares favorably with face-to-face for weight loss and may facilitate greater weight maintenance. Debra Sullivan, lead investigator, adds, "Although we found weight loss was significantly greater for face-to-face compared to virtual reality, weight maintenance was significantly better for virtual reality."
The virtual reality weight maintenance program was conducted using Second Life, a Web-based virtual reality environment available to the public. Participants in Second Life create virtual representations of themselves, called ''avatars,'' which can interact with other avatars and navigate through the virtual world of Second Life. Voice communication is accomplished via headset, which allows for person-to-person and group interaction. Education and training takes place on an ''island,'' which is purchased from Second Life and provides restricted group access to the nutrition education/training area.
To further explain how Second Life can be used in this capacity, Dr. Sullivan explains, "Individuals who want to participate in real-life scenarios without real-life repercussions can use virtual reality. For example, participants can practice meal planning, grocery shopping, and dietary control when eating at restaurants and holiday parties to a much greater extent with Second Life compared with the time-limited clinic meeting. Virtual reality may even be able to serve as a more feasible option to monitor individuals after completing a weight loss program."
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Journal Reference:
Debra K. Sullivan et al. Improving Weight Maintenance Using Virtual Reality (Second Life). Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, May/June 2013
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
In December, I made some forecasts for 2013 ? many of them looking at the future of collaboration solutions and the implications for enterprises. After a recent fireside chat I took part in at Avaya Evolutions in New York City, it seems to me that the future of video and mobile collaboration has arrived.
Videoconferencing has truly become a part of our daily lives. Technologies such as Apple?s FaceTime or Google Hangouts are easy to set up and use, and are affordable at the consumer level ? so much so that video calling is now part of the daily norm for a rapidly growing number of people. It?s this kind of simplicity that explains how and why video has found its way not only into everyday life but also areas like business and education.
Cost and cumbersome requirements are no longer barriers. Today, it seems as if every company I talk to already has, or is starting to, use videoconferencing ? making the question not if, but what, video solution a company will implement. When making that choice, simplicity is and will continue to be the key for those companies.
Organizations are looking to implement solutions that are two things: Intuitive and obvious. Which is why, looking back to the fireside chat, I appreciate systems like the one from Avaya that can be launched with a single click from any device with a Web browser, or by simply dragging and dropping participants into a conference. Ease of use is paramount. Location has become irrelevant. Now we can include people on a discussion via their smartphones with minimal difficulty. That is the difference.
Of course there are still challenges, but ultimately the technology is finally here, and bridging numerous gaps in the collaboration needs for enterprises.
What?s still missing?
All too often, technology does not cater to the everyday user. Owner?s manuals are too complex; my guess is that most people simply do not use them. The result is that people hardly know how to use their own technology.
I bought a garage door recently. The manuals were difficult to follow, so I finally went online and found a nice video that taught me how to program it. Things like this show how video instruction can be extremely helpful and a great supplement to traditional methods.
Technology for the masses, and the classes
People need better education, and technology should help with that. This is an absolute passion of mine, and one that I have paid close attention to for many years. I always believed computers were going to be able to do great things for learning ? and they have, but there?s more to come and still farther to go.
Today, schools with BYOD programs or solutions for providing devices to students are encouraging collaboration with students, teachers, and even professionals ? right in the classroom. It?s a real-time, dynamic educational environment, enabled by technology. This instant exchange and feedback model is much more invigorating and conducive to true education and understanding of the world. What a change from the traditional, deskbound, blanket curriculum that forces every student into the same mold.
I have always also wondered: What if a computer could be a teacher? The ability to have one-on-one interaction with dynamically aware computers could completely revolutionize the way we learn. We may not be there yet. Computers still can?t actively engage and recognize emotions and facial expressions, which would be key. However, collaborative and video technologies in the classroom are allowing students to receive individualized attention and learn at their own pace while being actually engaged.
In the modern mobile world, dreams can quickly become realities, due to our ability to instantly connect with other people and their ideas. That spontaneity is due to the availability and growth of collaboration technologies in everyday life, in the classroom and in the workplace. That is where the future of video and mobile collaboration has arrived.
Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer Inc. with Steve Jobs in 1976. After leaving Apple in 1985, Wozniak was involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on learning and encouraging creativity for students. Making significant investments of both his time and resources in education, he ?adopted? the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment. He founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children?s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Wozniak currently serves as chief scientist for Fusion-io.
NEW YORK (AP) ? A research firm says that more smartphones than 'dumb' phones are being made this year, a milestone in a shift that's putting computing power and Internet access in millions of hands worldwide.
IDC says manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones worldwide in the first three months of this year, compared with 189 million regular cellphones.
In the U.S., smartphones overtook regular cellphones in 2011. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas says the shift to a global majority of smartphones is now being driven by consumers in developing countries such as China, India and Indonesia.
Another firm, ABI Research, found that smartphones made up 49 percent of shipments in the first quarter. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest phone maker, doesn't provide a breakdown of its phone shipments, and analysts vary in their estimates.
It?s the 4th Thursday?Time to look at upcoming conferences!
?
1.? Southeastern Christian Writers Conference:? April 26-2, 2013, Cleveland, TN
2.? Colorado Christian Writers Conference: May 15-18, 2013, Estes Park, CO
3.? Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference: May 19-23, 2013, Ridgecrest, NC?I can?t wait to see you there!
4.? Write-to-Publish: June 5-8, 2013, Wheaton College, IL
5.? North Texas Christian Writers ?Effective Storytelling? Mentoring Workshop: June 15-16, 2013, Fort Worth, TX
6.? St. Davids Christian Writers? Conference: June 18-22, 2013, Grove City, PA
7.? Kentucky Christian Writers Conference: June 21-22, 2013, Elizabethtown, KY
Gideon Interns 2011
8.? Writing for Life Workshop with James Scott Bell: June 28-30, 2013, Newark, CA
9.? Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival: July 12-16, 2013, Orlando, FL?I can?t wait to see you there!
10. Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference: July 31-August 3, 2013, Langhorne, PA
11. Writers? Publishing Workshop: August 5-9, 2013, Hamilton, MA
12. Catch the Wave Writers Conference: August 22-24, 2013, Atlanta area, GA
13. Christian Communicators Conference: August 28-September 1, 2013, The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, Asheville, NC--I can?t wait to see you there! We currently have 1 space left!
14. New England Christian Writer?s Retreat: October 18-20, 2013, Plainfield, NH
When a team of University of Illinois engineers set out to grow nanowires of a compound semiconductor on top of a sheet of graphene, they did not expect to discover a new paradigm of epitaxy.
The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics applications. Led by professor Xiuling Li, in collaboration with professors Eric Pop and Joseph Lyding, all professors of electrical and computer engineering, the team published its findings in the journalNano Letters.
Nanowires, tiny strings of semiconductor material, have great potential for applications in transistors, solar cells, lasers, sensors and more.
"Nanowires are really the major building blocks of future nano-devices," said postdoctoral researcher Parsian Mohseni, first author of the study. "Nanowires are components that can be used, based on what material you grow them out of, for any functional electronics application."
Li's group uses a method called van der Waals epitaxy to grow nanowires from the bottom up on a flat substrate of semiconductor materials, such as silicon. The nanowires are made of a class of materials called III-V (three-five), compound semiconductors that hold particular promise for applications involving light, such as solar cells or lasers.
The group previously reported growing III-V nanowires on silicon. While silicon is the most widely used material in devices, it has a number of shortcomings. Now, the group has grown nanowires of the material indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) on a sheet of graphene, a 1-atom-thick sheet of carbon with exceptional physical and conductive properties.
Thanks to its thinness, graphene is flexible, while silicon is rigid and brittle. It also conducts like a metal, allowing for direct electrical contact to the nanowires. Furthermore, it is inexpensive, flaked off from a block of graphite or grown from carbon gases.
"One of the reasons we want to grow on graphene is to stay away from thick and expensive substrates," Mohseni said. "About 80 percent of the manufacturing cost of a conventional solar cell comes from the substrate itself. We've done away with that by just using graphene. Not only are there inherent cost benefits, we're also introducing functionality that a typical substrate doesn't have."
The researchers pump gases containing gallium, indium and arsenic into a chamber with a graphene sheet. The nanowires self-assemble, growing by themselves into a dense carpet of vertical wires across the surface of the graphene. Other groups have grown nanowires on graphene with compound semiconductors that only have two elements, but by using three elements, the Illinois group made a unique finding: The InGaAs wires grown on graphene spontaneously segregate into an indium arsenide (InAs) core with an InGaAs shell around the outside of the wire.
"This is unexpected," Li said. "A lot of devices require a core-shell architecture. Normally you grow the core in one growth condition and change conditions to grow the shell on the outside. This is spontaneous, done in one step. The other good thing is that since it's a spontaneous segregation, it produces a perfect interface."
So what causes this spontaneous core-shell structure? By coincidence, the distance between atoms in a crystal of InAs is nearly the same as the distance between whole numbers of carbon atoms in a sheet of graphene. So, when the gases are piped into the chamber and the material begins to crystallize, InAs settles into place on the graphene, a near-perfect fit, while the gallium compound settles on the outside of the wires. This was unexpected, because normally, with van der Waals epitaxy, the respective crystal structures of the material and the substrate are not supposed to matter.
"We didn't expect it, but once we saw it, it made sense," Mohseni said.
In addition, by tuning the ratio of gallium to indium in the semiconductor cocktail, the researchers can tune the optical and conductive properties of the nanowires.
Next, Li's group plans to make solar cells and other optoelectronic devices with their graphene-grown nanowires. Thanks to both the wires' ternary composition and graphene's flexibility and conductivity, Li hopes to integrate the wires in a broad spectrum of applications.
"We basically discovered a new phenomenon that confirms that registry does count in van der Waals epitaxy," Li said.
###
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.uiuc.edu
Thanks to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for this article.
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Spanish group patents an automatic suture system for colon cancer operationsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SINC info@agenciasinc.es 34-914-251-820 FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
The Spanish research centre Innotex has developed a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery. The novelty of the system, called Insewing, is that it allows the use of absorbable suture material instead of metallic staples which are currently used and could cause intestinal stiffness and obstruction.
Two American companies have shown interest in a development of the Innotex group, based in the Innovation and Technology Centre at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (CIT UPC). "This is a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery and it is done with conventional absorbable suture material," as explained to SINC by Jos Antonio Tornero, promoter of research at Innotex and project co-ordinator.
According to Tornero, Innotex has requested the Spanish patent for its system, named Insewing, and is in the process of extending it to other countries. They hope to obtain funding for this by reaching an agreement with the American companies in the medical equipment sector, whose identity is still confidential.
"The Insewing system can be applied in a surgical procedure, known as anastomosis, which is defined as the joining of two ends of tubular tissue. It can be large or small intestine, oesophagus etc., but our device is developed for the large intestine. It will have application in a great number of colon cancer operations in which it is necessary to cut a section of the intestine at the location of the tumour and then join the two sectioned ends," the Project Manager adds.
Options
One of the two options, when performing this operation, is for the surgeon to sew the ends of the sectioned intestine by hand. "Manual suturing is very reliable. It is done with an absorbable suture material that disappears after a few weeks and the intestine is well joined together and fully elastic. However, as Tornero explains, "hand sewing is very difficult".
In addition, it has to be done by an experienced surgeon and it is very time-consuming, more than the time being dedicated to the rest of the intervention steps. It is known that the risk increases proportionate to the time a patient remains anesthetised and therefore the joining is done by manual procedure in very few cases.
In fact, approximately 90% of these sutures are not done by hand, but by using a device that puts two rows of metallic staples to join the sectioned intestine. "Stapling is faster, but causes a section of the intestine to become stiff due to the metallic staples". This results in a narrowing of the intestine and may cause intestinal obstructions in a fairly high percentage.
Automatic suturing with absorbable material
Tornero and his team set out to develop a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine with absorbable material, which is used in surgery, made from a copolymer which is called polyglycolic acid. This suture is the same type used by surgeons to sew by hand and it disappears in a few weeks without trace.
"Our objective is to combine the advantages of hand sewing with the speed of the stapler so that the intestine is elastic and looks untouched and there is no stiff section," Tornero adds.
The idea for Insewing was developed almost 10 years ago by Francesc Soler Giralt, a laboratory technician at UPC, and now retired. According to Tornero, there was interest from some companies, but they were unwilling to provide funding until there was a prototype. The project has been dormant all this time, despite there being an initial patent for proof of concept at UPC.
However, the project was revived in 2010 thanks to the submission to qualify for funding from the European project ECHORD, within the seventh framework programme for small robotic projects.
In this project, Innotex has participated with the Institute for Organisation and Control of Industrial Systems at UPC, led by Ral Suarez, which has developed the electronic and control elements, and with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which has provided advice and review from a medical point of view.
Experimentation with a pig's intestine
Thanks to funding provided by ECHORD, of 300,000 euros, Innotex and its partners have been able to develop the full prototype and carried out the first tests on a dead pig's intestine.
"It's a very human-like tissue in viscosity, consistency and thickness and the tests have been very satisfactory. Manuel Lpez Cano, the surgeon at Vall d'Hebron who supervised the tests, made a very positive assessment," Tornero says.
The sealing requirements are very high. "The suture has to be completely sealed from the inside outwards because any leaks could cause a risk of infection and very serious immediate problems," he adds.
The co-ordinator points out that there is still some way to go before it can come onto the market, "about four or five years". After testing on dead tissue, tests will be carried out in vivo with laboratory pigs and then with humans.
According to Tornero, Innotex employs 60 people and integrates all the textile research excellence at UPC.
The second most common cancer in women and the third in men
Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in women, after breast cancer, and the third in men, after lung and prostate cancer. According to the OMC, it is closely related to age and more prevalent in Europe and the United States. In these areas there are 1.5 million cases a year.
Approximately half of the cases of colon cancer end up requiring an intervention of anastomosis, which is currently carried out by manual sewing or with staples and to which the device developed by Innotex can be applied.
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
Spanish group patents an automatic suture system for colon cancer operationsPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: SINC info@agenciasinc.es 34-914-251-820 FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
The Spanish research centre Innotex has developed a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery. The novelty of the system, called Insewing, is that it allows the use of absorbable suture material instead of metallic staples which are currently used and could cause intestinal stiffness and obstruction.
Two American companies have shown interest in a development of the Innotex group, based in the Innovation and Technology Centre at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (CIT UPC). "This is a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine after being sectioned during cancer colon surgery and it is done with conventional absorbable suture material," as explained to SINC by Jos Antonio Tornero, promoter of research at Innotex and project co-ordinator.
According to Tornero, Innotex has requested the Spanish patent for its system, named Insewing, and is in the process of extending it to other countries. They hope to obtain funding for this by reaching an agreement with the American companies in the medical equipment sector, whose identity is still confidential.
"The Insewing system can be applied in a surgical procedure, known as anastomosis, which is defined as the joining of two ends of tubular tissue. It can be large or small intestine, oesophagus etc., but our device is developed for the large intestine. It will have application in a great number of colon cancer operations in which it is necessary to cut a section of the intestine at the location of the tumour and then join the two sectioned ends," the Project Manager adds.
Options
One of the two options, when performing this operation, is for the surgeon to sew the ends of the sectioned intestine by hand. "Manual suturing is very reliable. It is done with an absorbable suture material that disappears after a few weeks and the intestine is well joined together and fully elastic. However, as Tornero explains, "hand sewing is very difficult".
In addition, it has to be done by an experienced surgeon and it is very time-consuming, more than the time being dedicated to the rest of the intervention steps. It is known that the risk increases proportionate to the time a patient remains anesthetised and therefore the joining is done by manual procedure in very few cases.
In fact, approximately 90% of these sutures are not done by hand, but by using a device that puts two rows of metallic staples to join the sectioned intestine. "Stapling is faster, but causes a section of the intestine to become stiff due to the metallic staples". This results in a narrowing of the intestine and may cause intestinal obstructions in a fairly high percentage.
Automatic suturing with absorbable material
Tornero and his team set out to develop a device that enables automatic suturing of the large intestine with absorbable material, which is used in surgery, made from a copolymer which is called polyglycolic acid. This suture is the same type used by surgeons to sew by hand and it disappears in a few weeks without trace.
"Our objective is to combine the advantages of hand sewing with the speed of the stapler so that the intestine is elastic and looks untouched and there is no stiff section," Tornero adds.
The idea for Insewing was developed almost 10 years ago by Francesc Soler Giralt, a laboratory technician at UPC, and now retired. According to Tornero, there was interest from some companies, but they were unwilling to provide funding until there was a prototype. The project has been dormant all this time, despite there being an initial patent for proof of concept at UPC.
However, the project was revived in 2010 thanks to the submission to qualify for funding from the European project ECHORD, within the seventh framework programme for small robotic projects.
In this project, Innotex has participated with the Institute for Organisation and Control of Industrial Systems at UPC, led by Ral Suarez, which has developed the electronic and control elements, and with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, which has provided advice and review from a medical point of view.
Experimentation with a pig's intestine
Thanks to funding provided by ECHORD, of 300,000 euros, Innotex and its partners have been able to develop the full prototype and carried out the first tests on a dead pig's intestine.
"It's a very human-like tissue in viscosity, consistency and thickness and the tests have been very satisfactory. Manuel Lpez Cano, the surgeon at Vall d'Hebron who supervised the tests, made a very positive assessment," Tornero says.
The sealing requirements are very high. "The suture has to be completely sealed from the inside outwards because any leaks could cause a risk of infection and very serious immediate problems," he adds.
The co-ordinator points out that there is still some way to go before it can come onto the market, "about four or five years". After testing on dead tissue, tests will be carried out in vivo with laboratory pigs and then with humans.
According to Tornero, Innotex employs 60 people and integrates all the textile research excellence at UPC.
The second most common cancer in women and the third in men
Colon cancer is the second most common cancer in women, after breast cancer, and the third in men, after lung and prostate cancer. According to the OMC, it is closely related to age and more prevalent in Europe and the United States. In these areas there are 1.5 million cases a year.
Approximately half of the cases of colon cancer end up requiring an intervention of anastomosis, which is currently carried out by manual sewing or with staples and to which the device developed by Innotex can be applied.
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks with reporters following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on the Boston Marathon bombing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks with reporters following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on the Boston Marathon bombing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., answers questions from reporters following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on the Boston Marathon bombing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, leaves following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on the Boston Marathon bombing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Lawmakers are again asking whether a failure to share intelligence contributed to a deadly attack on U.S. soil, after senior officials briefed them Tuesday on the investigation into last week's bombings at the Boston Marathon.
None of the lawmakers are saying ? yet? that better sharing could have stopped the bombings, as Congress did after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that prompted an overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system.
But they are asking hard questions about which federal agency was tracking alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev when he traveled to Russia last year, what they knew when, and what they did about it.
"There still seem to be serious problems with sharing information, including critical investigative information ... not only among agencies but also within the same agency in one case," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said after the Senate Intelligence Committee members were briefed by FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce.
"I don't see anybody yet that dropped the ball," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the committee's vice chairman. But he added that he was asking all the federal agencies involved for more information to make sure enough information was shared.
"If it wasn't, we've got to fix this," he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on immigration legislation, that her agency knew of the suspect's trip to Russia even though his name was misspelled on a travel document. A key lawmaker had said the misspelling caused the FBI to miss the trip.
Napolitano's disclosure came as news to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who told the secretary that it contradicted what he'd been told by the FBI.
"They told me that they had no knowledge of him leaving or coming back, so I would like to talk to you more about this case," Graham told Napolitano. She said that even though Tsarnaev's name was misspelled, redundancies in the system allowed his departure to be captured by U.S. authorities in January 2012.
But she said that by the time he came back six months later, an FBI alert on him had expired and so his re-entry was not noted.
Investigators have concluded based on preliminary evidence that the Russia trip may have helped radicalize Tsarnaev, the older of the two bomber suspects, who died in a firefight with police.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was investigated by the FBI at Russia's request and his name was included in a federal government travel-screening database after that, law enforcement officials have told The Associated Press. One official told the AP that by the time of the flight Tsarnaev would have faced no additional scrutiny because the FBI had by that time found no information connecting him to terrorism.
Investigators are still searching for that kind of information, according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "What did he do when he went to Dagestan? Did he sit in his family's house for six months or was he ... talking with people? What happened to him when he came back? Was he radicalized? If so, how?" she said, describing a litany of questions FBI investigators were still trying to answer.
She too conceded something likely would need to be changed about how the information was shared between the agencies.
"After every one of these incidents problems are found and then studied and corrected," she said.
There are "lessons to be learned ... not necessarily failures," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. "But certainly gaps I think can be closed."
___
Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.
___
Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier
It?s the 4th Thursday?Time to look at upcoming conferences!
13. Christian Communicators Conference: August 28-September 1, 2013, The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, Asheville, NC--I can?t wait to see you there! We currently have 1 space left!![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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