Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/296299234?client_source=feed&format=rss
vanessa bryant Prince Harry naked Prince Harry Vegas Melky Cabrera Mayim Bialik Rich Kids of Instagram felix hernandez
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Google changes Android dashboard numbers to count active users, not just pings
The Android device dashboard has been providing a picture of OS version distribution since before Froyo pushed aside Eclair, but now it's seeing some changes. A post on the Android Developers Google+ page indicates that starting this month, numbers are based on devices whose users actively checked Google Play during the reporting period. Previously, it counted all devices that pinged Google servers. The latest stats, updated today, show a jump in the amount of actives (previously devices, now users) on Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 or higher), up to 25 percent from 16.5 percent last month when it counted the old way. The number of devices recorded running Froyo and Gingerbread have taken the biggest hit, down 3.6 and 4 percentage points, respectively.
There are a few ways to react to this, particularly remembering that these numbers are meant to help developers figure out how many users are available to target on the various versions of Android and types of hardware. It may give a clearer picture of what the active users that developers may have some hope of reaching without being muddied by little-used zombie devices. On the other hand, it could be seen as a way to juke stats which have been used against it by its competitors like Apple. Whichever side of the line one finds themselves on, more data is available by clicking on the source link below.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: Android Developers (Google+), Android Dashboard
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/02/google-changes-android-dashboard-numbers-to-count-active-users/
lance armstrong Earl Weaver Inauguration Schedule barack obama dear abby WRAL John Harbaugh
Price of cooking gas soars in Egypt | Morocco World News
CAIRO, April 1, 2013 (AFP)
Cash-strapped Egypt on Monday hiked the price?of subsidised cooking gas by 60 percent, triggering market chaos, officials?and media reported, ahead of a visit by the IMF for talks on a $4.8-billion?loan.
Ahram Online quoted an official from the domestic trade and supply ministry?as saying the price of subsidised standard gas cylinders had been set at eight?dollars ($1.15), from five pounds ($0.73) previously.
?Raising butane prices is one of the government?s steps to rein in its?subsidy bill, in an attempt to meet the International Monetary Fund?s?pre-conditions to secure a long-awaited $4.8-billion loan,? the news website?said.
?Authorities believe the loan will help restore investor confidence in Egypt?where unrest that accompanied the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak?caused a significant drop in revenue from the once-lucrative tourism industry.
Foreign reserves have plunged from $36 billion to $13 billion in two years,?and the budget deficit is increasing.
The IMF delegation is expected in Cairo in the coming days to resume talks?on the loan.
The gas price hike sparked a work stoppage at warehouses across Egypt where?the cylinders are kept, the state-run MENA news agency reported quoting Hossam?Arafat, an official at the general federation of chambers of commerce.
The decision to raise the price was taken ?suddenly? by the authorities?without any prior notification given to managers of the warehouses and as a?result triggered ?confusion? on the market, Arafat said.
Ahram Online, the website of the pro-government Ahram newspaper, said 12?million Egyptian homes use gas cylinders for cooking and other domestic chores.
?Only 4.5 million households in Egypt ? the Arab world?s most populous?nation with more than 80 million people ? receive gas through pipes.
The measure is the latest by the authorities to help shore up the economy.
Authorities have decided to partly close Cairo?s international airport,?shutting down two runways for four hours overnight from June ?in order to save?energy?, civil aviation minister Wael al-Maadawi said on Monday.
Maadawi said airport revenues were not enough to cover the cost of keeping?the runways open.
Only one runway, at Terminal 3 ? which serves as a regional hub ? will?remain open 24 hours a day.
With the economic crisis biting Egypt has also witnessed increasingly?frequent power cuts aimed at saving energy.
The oil ministry last week admitted it does not have money to buy enough?fuel for all of its power stations.
President Mohamed Morsi?s administration has been plagued by unrest and?deadly clashes between protesters and police, blocking efforts to build?broad-based support for a needed programme of economic reform.
Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/04/84906/price-of-cooking-gas-soars-in-egypt/
paul mccartney Sandy Hook Victims new york times columbine breaking news Google News Newton
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Athletes, stars join Obama for Easter Egg Roll
Children participate in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 1, 2013. The Easter Bunny, dozens of professional athletes and thousands of children will be hippity-hopping across the White House's South Lawn as President Barack Obama and his family lead the annual Easter Egg Roll. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Children participate in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 1, 2013. The Easter Bunny, dozens of professional athletes and thousands of children will be hippity-hopping across the White House's South Lawn as President Barack Obama and his family lead the annual Easter Egg Roll. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk from the White House with their daughters Sasha Obama, second from left, and Malia Obama, right, on their way through Lafayette Park to St. John's Episcopal Church for Easter services, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Easter Bunny, dozens of professional athletes and thousands of children were hippity-hopping across the White House's South Lawn Monday as President Barack Obama and his family were leading the annual Easter Egg Roll.
The theme of this year's event is "Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!" ? fitting with first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to lower childhood obesity rates by encouraging physical activity. The president's basketball court was open for play, along with an obstacle course and yoga garden.
A dance party was set up at the "Hop To It Stage," and professional athletes and coaches were helping teach their sports in the "Eggtivity Zone." Among the stars scheduled to attend were Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, gymnast John Orozco and Washington Wizards point guard John Wall.
Two of the younger celebrities in Monday's lineup are Oscar-nominated actress Quvenzhane Wallis, star of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," and Robbie Novak, who plays "Kid President" in a series of popular YouTube videos. A track suit-clad Elmo and other "Sesame Street" Muppets performed and encouraged exercise.
The White House had warned more than 35,000 expected attendees that the 135-year tradition could have been cancelled because of budget battles with Congress this year. White House tours have been called off because of government-wide spending cuts, but the egg roll was not.
The National Park Service, which organizes the event, says it's largely funded by sales of commemorative wooden eggs, plus some private donations. The park service would not say how much the event costs.
The White House said 14,500 eggs were dyed for the egg roll and hunt, with another 4,500 hard-boiled eggs available for children to decorate. There are also special eggs that make a sound like a chirping bird so visually impaired children can participate in the hunt.
Associated Pressmichigan state andrew luck pro day josh johnson kim kardashian flour matt forte jeremy shockey new orleans saints
Sarah Barness: Re:REBAR
Art is not limited to a canvas and a paintbrush, but what about the age old question, "Where do you draw the line?"
Is a monochromatic canvas art? Was Marina Abramovic's decision to sit in MoMA for 736 hours, 30 minutes in a silent, static pose art? Is public self-mutilation art? These questions test the sands of time, so in the meantime we can do nothing but agree on the subjectivity of art -- the viewer has the right to judge a piece as gallery worthy for her own taste. Out of frustration of being disempowered to make this judgment for all those around her, the viewer might create her own art commenting on the art she doesn't consider art! While some push the envelope to its questionable limitations, those working with the Rebar Project manage to expand the meaning of expression, while still making their projects relatable to the average San Franciscan.
The Rebar Project, based in San Francisco, is an art collective that attracts visionaries of all types -- performers, musicians, painters, builders, etc. They do everything from conceptual public art to installations to print design, but their main imperative is to re-vision the ordinary to create the extraordinary. Their motto "Re" says it all: "Re:mix. Re:make. Re:configure. Re:consider," and I think their 2005 project entitled Park(ing) demonstrates this motto best. Park(ing) is an effort to make spaces that are otherwise private, public. In San Francisco there is a vast amount of space allotted to a private person (i.e. a parking space), while the space meant for actual public activity is next to nil, comparatively. The Rebar project decided to level the playing field by reclaiming some of those private spots and turning them into public spaces. For a few sunny hours, artists "lease" a parking spot, and install a park in its place -- with nature, seating, shade and all -- at least until the meter runs out.
?
Follow Sarah Barness on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sbarness1
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-barness/rerebar_b_2979122.html
food network f/a 18 f 18 crash virginia tenebrae the lake house petrino arkansas roy williams
Monday, April 1, 2013
Rocket Internet-Backed Zalora Denies That It Is Shutting Down Taiwan Operations [Updated]
UPDATE: A spokesman from Zalora Taiwan said: To better serve Taiwan on its business operations model, the company has decided to conduct a review to make changes ? From April, we are shifting part of Taiwan?s operations to our regional headquarters in Singapore. During this migration period, our company will temporarily disable operations of the Taiwanese site. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our customers, and we promise that any returns and refunds will be processed as per the time period stipulated on our site. If you have any further queries, please contact CS@zalora.com.tw, our customer service department will answer your questions within one working day. ZALORA TAIWAN denies any rumours regarding bankruptcy or closure. We will process and complete all payments to our customers and vendors. All our employees will be managed in accordance with and with respect to the labour law in Taiwan. We will not make any further comment on rumours, and reserve the right to take legal action against any parties making false statements about us. One year after launching in Taiwan, Rocket Internet-backed Zalora may be shutting down its operations in the country. Though the Singapore-based fashion e-tailer has yet to issue a confirmation, e27 notes several signs that a closure of its Taiwan branch is already in progress. Zalora Taiwan’s Web site currently says that it will no longer provide telephone services for customer support after today. Furthermore, Taiwanese TV news station TVBS reported last week (link via Google Translate) that more than 100 employees were suddenly laid off as Zalora?canceled orders from suppliers.?Reasons cited by TVBS for Zalora Taiwan’s potential demise include the high cost of marketing in Taiwan’s saturated online retail market, which is already dominated by e-commerce sites Yahoo! Taiwan and PChome. Zalora recently landed several high-profile investments, including $26 million from German retail conglomerate Tengelmann Group, but as Jacky Yap of e27 notes, Rocket Internet has already encountered several setbacks in Southeast Asia, including the closure of Home24. “Rocket Internet will not hesitate to pull the plug when it comes to evaluating a likely failure,” just as it shut down its operations in Turkey last August, Yap writes. Despite Zalora’s rapid growth, the reported closure of its Taiwan operations is a reminder that Rocket Internet’s foothold on the Asian market is still not a sure thing. I’ve reached out to Zalora’s HQ for comment and willSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/oypucFdlqvk/
big east tournament ashley olsen new apple tv sun flare love hewitt new ipad solar flare
Somewhere Over The Brainbow: The Journey To Map the Human Brain
More than 100 years ago, Golgi staining on nerve cells opened the gates to modern neuroscience. Scientists recently developed the Technicolor version of Golgi staining, Brainbow, allowing more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.
AFP/Getty ImagesMore than 100 years ago, Golgi staining on nerve cells opened the gates to modern neuroscience. Scientists recently developed the Technicolor version of Golgi staining, Brainbow, allowing more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.
AFP/Getty ImagesDuring the State of the Union, President Obama said the nation is about to embark on an ambitious project: to examine the human brain and create a road map to the trillions of connections that make it work.
"Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy ? every dollar," the president said. "Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's."
Details of the project have slowly been leaking out: $3 billion, 10 years of research and hundreds of scientists. The National Institutes of Health is calling it the Brain Activity Map.
? People have been studying the brain for centuries and they've been mapping it, but the brain is just so complex that we barely understand it now.
Obama isn't the first to tout the benefits of a huge government science project. But can these projects really deliver? And what is mapping the human brain really going to get us?
Building A Brain Map
Much like the Human Genome Project a decade ago, scientists are hoping brain mapping will lead to new scientific advances and breakthroughs, and that perhaps it will even unlock the secrets of conditions such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.
"With the brain, we're kind of at the same stage as we were in the early 1980s with the genome," says science writer Carl Zimmer.
Zimmer tells Laura Sullivan, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that there's no way to know what mapping the brain can do, but if mapping happens it's going to be both pricey and complicated.
"People have been studying the brain for centuries, and they've been mapping it, but the brain is just so complex that we barely understand it now," he says. "We have maybe 85 billion neurons in our heads, but we can only listen to maybe 1,000 at a time. [So] we're only getting a tiny picture of what the brain is doing."
There are several ways to map the brain, Zimmer says, one well-known example being an MRI. The resolution, however, is not nearly high enough for scientists to see all of the intricate wiring of the brain, where hundreds of thousands or even millions of neurons can fit in an area the size of a poppy seed.
"There are people who are trying to go down to that level," he says.
Some of this is already happening, albeit slowly, in labs around the world, Zimmer says. The problem is the efforts aren't coordinated.
"In the case of the Human Genome Project, the government said, 'We're going to coordinate all of this and we're going to get this genome sequenced,'" he says. "That's what the brain activity map people would like to do; coordinate all of this effort toward a common goal."
The next steps for the brain mapping project, Zimmer says, is simply to get a detailed plan going, and then get neuroscientists onboard. He says that debate should begin unfolding in the next few months.
With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colorfully labelled hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues to create a "Brainbow."
AFP/Getty ImagesWith a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colorfully labelled hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues to create a "Brainbow."
AFP/Getty ImagesZimmer warns, however, that at first the project is likely to be underwhelming to the public, and Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases won't suddenly be cured. In all likelihood, scientists will study the brains of fruit flies and other creatures before moving on to the human brain.
"You have to walk before you can run," he says. "In order to develop the tools to map a human brain, you've got to start with much smaller brains made of the same basic kind of neurons. So look for big headlines about fruit flies the next couple of years."
The Human Genome Case Study
Completed a decade ago, the $3 billion human genome project, which mapped our DNA, was another massive science project undertaken by the government. In 2000, then-President Clinton said it would "revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most if not all human diseases."
That's a bit of a stretch even 10 years later, but for one man in particular it turned out not to be a stretch at all. When Clinton was giving that speech in 2000, oncologist Lukas Wartman had just entered medical school. During that time, he began having severe bone pain and high fevers.
"Finally, [I] dragged myself into the doctor," Wartman tells NPR's Sullivan. "So the next day, I had a bone marrow biopsy which showed the unthinkable, that I actually had leukemia."
Right away, Wartman began chemotherapy treatment. He responded well and went into remission. He finished medical school, but then the cancer came back.
"By this time, I was an oncologist myself, and kind of knew what was going on," he says.
Wartman took on intensive rounds of chemo and a stem cell replacement surgery. He was grateful when it worked and was ready to build a life. He focused on his research in the cancer lab and was thinking about the future.
Then one night, the fevers came back, as well as the exhaustion and he knew. He just couldn't face it.
"So this time, I did ignore it for a little while, and went to Spain, and went to my friend's wedding," he says. "The last thing I wanted to think about was the possibility of this coming back again, because I knew now that the odds of me surviving yet another relapse of this leukemia were just really poor."
Wartman joined a clinical trail, but it failed. There was nothing left, and it appeared to be a death sentence.
Then Wartman and his fellow researchers at the lab started thinking. The human genome project had figured out how to map healthy genes, so they decided they could use the same technology to map Wartman's healthy genes and compare them to Wartman's cancer genes.
When they compared them, they found a protein that the cancer relied on to survive. Wartman then scoured the database of every known drug on the market and found a drug made for something else entirely, that just so happens to kill the very protein his cancer needed to live.
Wartman started taking the drug on a Friday, and his blood counts were low. By Monday, his blood counts had perked up.
"The only word, and I don't necessarily mean this in a religious context, but this was almost like a miraculous response to this drug," he says.
Wartman and his colleagues had killed his cancer, and today he's completely healthy. Now, everyone else in the country with the form of leukemia that he had, and who is not responding to chemo, use the same drug.
"I probably wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for the human genome project," Wartman says. "Because I definitely benefited from the finances and the effort that the government put into a focused research question and it had very tangible benefits in my case."
Why Not Map The Brain?
Like the Human Genome Project, getting the science community onboard with a brain mapping project could be tough. Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California-Berkeley, has already started campaigning against it.
"The idea that science should be organized and funded in massive, centrally run projects that are organized by committees and bureaucrats in Washington rather than by individual scientists ... it just doesn't work," Eisen says.
Eisen says he agrees that government funding was necessary in collaborative science projects such as the moon landing or Human Genome Project. But, he says, this isn't one of those problems.
"If you listen to neuroscientists talk about this today, they don't even know what it means to understand the brain," he says. "This is not a moon shot."
Eisen says that in this instance, where creativity and innovation are needed, one of the worst things that the scientific community can do is put 500 biologists in a room to pursue a singular, consensus plan to get there.
Zimmer says there's another problem: How do you know when you're done mapping a brain?
"The problem is that while the genome was finite, the brain is really infinite," he says, "because not only does it have 86 billion neurons ... [and] 100 tillion connections, but those connections are changing all the time.
"It's very dynamic, and that's really what matters to us. ... So when do you know when you've finished mapping the brain?" he says. "You might never finish it."
But for Lukas Wartman, whose life was saved by gene mapping, it's far simpler. He says we have to take the leap, spend the money, cross our fingers and hope.
"I do understand that there's some resistance to it," Wartman says, "but at the same time, while it's not a sure bet, it's a bet that if it does pay off could really reap tremendous benefits for humanity.
"So I think as a society it would be great if we were willing to commit to supporting projects like that."
The details of the brain mapping project are expected to be released in the coming weeks in the president's budget proposal.
justin timberlake gerard butler lakers danielle fishel daylight savings Daylight Savings Time 2013 DeAndre Jordan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)