LONDON (AP) ? Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind of a British heist known as the "Great Train Robbery," has died aged 81.
Son Nick Reynolds said his father died Thursday after a brief illness.
Reynolds was part of a gang that stole 2.6 million pounds from a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 ? worth more than 40 million pounds ($60 million) today, and then Britain's biggest robbery.
Reynolds evaded capture for five years but was arrested in 1968, and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was released a decade later and produced occasional journalism and well-regarded memoirs.
Most of the other gang members also were soon rounded up.
One, Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison in 1965, and spent decades as a fugitive in Brazil before returning to Britain in 2001.
Caterpillar's signature yellow and black CAT branding was definitely spinning heads and getting passerby's attention as it showed off its rugged B15. As far as tough goes the handset's corners are wrapped in rubber with the connections in between covered with anodized aluminum. The B15 is IP67 certified, which means both protected from dust and waterproof up to 3.3 feet for 30 minutes and can be dropped from about six feet and live to tell the tale -- you, however, may not. Other notables include a 4-inch WVGA display, dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 and a 5-megapixel camera that'll shoot 720p video and can do continuous pic shooting.
Sadly, we forgot our rubber mallet at home so we couldn't try to beat it to pieces but we did appreciate the housing on the CAT phone it's surprisingly nice to hold and well put together. Sure, there's a wee bit of overkill with the tough machine branding, but we're sure this phone will garner a bit of a following. Our favorite bit? The Caterpillar phone features something called wet finger tracking, so even if you happen to fall into a deep puddle while using your B15, you can finish whatever you were up to before tumbling. The B15 ships in March for a cool $436, though, there's no word on what carrier's planning to scoop this up -- see what we did there? There's a gallery of the B15 in all its tough guy splendor after the break.
Thousands of inventors, engineers and entrepreneurs gathered in a suburban Washington convention center on Monday for the annual three-day meeting of Arpa-E, the Advanced Research Projects Agency ? Energy. It wasn?t quite the Oscars. At the registration desk, attendees received a goody bag that included a report on clean energy from the Pew Charitable Trusts and a refrigerator magnet that showed the periodic table of the elements.
But the breakout sessions held true to Arpa-E?s tradition: there were lots of swing-for-the-fence ideas. These included finding a high-efficiency, low-cost way to turn surplus natural gas into liquid fuel for cars and trucks, and identifying something to burn other than hydrocarbons so that carbon dioxide is not one of the byproducts.
One researcher proposed burning aluminum instead. One challenge is that the ashes, or oxidized metal, would be hard to recycle back into aluminum without big releases of carbon dioxide.
Arpa-E is the Energy Department?s effort to imitate the better-known Pentagon arm known as the Defense Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Darpa laid the groundwork for the Internet and still finances high-potential ideas in their early speculative stages in the expectation that a few will be major breakthroughs; Arpa-E tries to do the same in energy.
So far the agency has invested $770 million in 285 projects, ?and we?re proud of every single one of them,?? said Cheryl Martin, the agency?s deputy director, in opening remarks to several thousand attendees. Although most will never be commercialized, the strikeouts are not as important as the home runs.
One particularly ambitious idea presented on Monday was to re-engineer plants so that their leaves reflect rather than absorb more light. In an age of global climate change, with shifting rainfall patterns, changing reflectivity holds appeal. The technology would save water, which means saving energy because the water that the plants need often must be pumped. It could prove a way to help crops grow with less rainfall.
Some of those crops can be used to produce energy as well. And increasing the amount of light that bounces back into space would help to limit global warming.
The notion is that crops will absorb light in the visible spectrum yet reflect some of the infrared and ultraviolet light, which heats the leaves. ?Plants have a maximum efficiency of about 6 percent,?? said Robert Conrado, an agency scientist. And plants regulate their temperature much the way people do, by giving off water, which cools as it evaporates. ?All energy that is not able to be captured is dissipated as heat,?? he said. ?And that?s a lot of water.??
In a hot climate, a cornfield can give off the equivalent of eight inches of rainfall in a month, he said, and agricultural irrigation accounts for 81 percent of water use in this country. The proportion is even higher in poorer places, which have fewer dishwashers and washing machines.
And some of that energy would radiate back into space, reducing global warming, Dr. Conrado said.Whether butterfly wings or fruits, he said, ?nature has already evolved mechanisms for tailored light reflection.?
Feb. 28, 2013 ? Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have obtained what is likely the first direct observation of a forming planet still embedded in a thick disc of gas and dust. If confirmed, this discovery will greatly improve our understanding of how planets form and allow astronomers to test the current theories against an observable target.
An international team led by Sascha Quanz (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) has studied the disc of gas and dust that surrounds the young star HD 100546, a relatively nearby neighbour located 335 light-years from Earth. They were surprised to find what seems to be a planet in the process of being formed, still embedded in the disc of material around the young star. The candidate planet would be a gas giant similar to Jupiter.
"So far, planet formation has mostly been a topic tackled by computer simulations," says Sascha Quanz. "If our discovery is indeed a forming planet, then for the first time scientists will be able to study the planet formation process and the interaction of a forming planet and its natal environment empirically at a very early stage."
HD 100546 is a well-studied object, and it has already been suggested that a giant planet orbits about six times further from the star than Earth is from the Sun. The newly found planet candidate is located in the outer regions of the system, about ten times further out [1].
The planet candidate around HD 100546 was detected as a faint blob located in the circumstellar disc revealed thanks to the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO's VLT, combined with pioneering data analysis techniques. The observations were made using a special coronagraph in NACO, which operates at near-infrared wavelengths and suppresses the brilliant light coming from the star at the location of the protoplanet candidate [2].
According to current theory, giant planets grow by capturing some of the gas and dust that remains after the formation of a star [3]. The astronomers have spotted several features in the new image of the disc around HD100546 that support this protoplanet hypothesis. Structures in the dusty circumstellar disc, which could be caused by interactions between the planet and the disc, were revealed close to the detected protoplanet. Also, there are indications that the surroundings of the protoplanet are potentially heated up by the formation process.
Adam Amara, another member of the team, is enthusiastic about the finding. "Exoplanet research is one of the most exciting new frontiers in astronomy, and direct imaging of planets is still a new field, greatly benefiting from recent improvements in instruments and data analysis methods. In this research we used data analysis techniques developed for cosmological research, showing that cross-fertilisation of ideas between fields can lead to extraordinary progress."
Although the protoplanet is the most likely explanation for the observations, the results of this study require follow-up observations to confirm the existence of the planet and discard other plausible scenarios. Among other explanations, it is possible, although unlikely, that the detected signal could have come from a background source. It is also possible that the newly detected object might not be a protoplanet, but a fully formed planet which was ejected from its original orbit closer to the star. When the new object around HD 100546 is confirmed to be a forming planet embedded in its parent disc of gas and dust, it will become an unique laboratory in which to study the formation process of a new planetary system.
[1] The protoplanet candidate orbits about 70 times further from its star than Earth does from the Sun. This distance is comparable to the size of the orbits of outer Solar System dwarf planets such as Eris and Makemake. This location is controversial, as it does not fit well with current theories of planet formation. It is unclear at present whether the newfound planet candidate has been in its current position for the whole time since it formed or whether it could have migrated from the inner regions.
[2] The team made use of a special feature called an apodised phase plate that increases the contrast of the image close to the star.
[3] To study planet formation, astronomers cannot look at the Solar System, as all the planets in our neighborhood were formed more than four billion years ago. But for many years, theories about planet formation were strongly influenced by what astronomers could see in our local surroundings, as no other planets were known. Since 1995, when the first exoplanet around a sunlike star was discovered, several hundred planetary systems have been found, opening up new opportunities for scientists studying planetary formation. Up to now however, none have been "caught in the act" in the process of being formed, whilst still embedded in the disc of material around their young parent star.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Southern Observatory - ESO.
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Journal Reference:
Sascha P. Quanz, Adam Amara, Michael R. Meyer, Matthew A. Kenworthy, Markus Kasper, and julien H. Girard. A YOUNG PROTOPLANET CANDIDATE EMBEDDED IN THE CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK OF HD100546. ApJ Letters, 2013 (in press)
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The YotaPhone is an example of one of the things we like the most about Android -- crazy hardware implemented in new and interesting ways. Dual-screen smartphones are nothing new -- recall the ill-fated Kyocera Echo of old. But Yota Devices' YotaPhone is the first we can recall that packs both a traditional LCD front and e-ink back, and today we went hands-on with the phone at Mobile World Congress. Both sides are coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 2, though the back has more of a matte texture to it. This gives the YotaPhone a unique appearance, which is accentuated by its slightly curved back.
Powering the YotaPhone is a dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU at 1.5GHz. Around the back is a 12MP camera, and the power button cleverly doubles as a SIM tray. On the software side, it's near-vanilla Jelly Bean running the show -- Yota's left the Android UI mostly intact. Both screens are 4.3 inches diagonally, and the LCD clocks in at 1280x720 pixels. As you'd expect from the vanilla Android UI running on an S4 chip, the UI is smooth and lag-free.
The phone's also lacking traditional Android buttons -- instead, button commands are activated based on gesture controls on a panel under the LCD. Swipe halfway from right to left to go back, all the way to go home, and long press the middle for the task-switcher. Similarly, you can copy images from the front screen to the rear by swiping from top to bottom with two fingers.
Certain apps, such as Calendar and Weather, can also run natively on the rear display, and there's an in-app button for transferring things to the rear screen. This means you're able to view content without burning through quite so much juice -- and it could also be useful for viewing certain types of information in bright sunlight.
The YotaPhone probably won't be a mass-market seller in the West, but it is an incredibly cool device nonetheless, playing to the strengths of both LCD and e-ink. We've got hands-on photos and a quick video demo after the break.
Hey, George Hill, we've got just one word for you: RICE.
That stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.
After what Stephen Curry did to you earlier tonight during the Pacers/Warriors game (just before the fight broke out!), your ankles are gonna need it in the morning.
Like to use your iPhone on the toilet? Myshkin Ingawale has an app for that. Ignawale is the co-founder of Biosense, a med tech company based in Mumbai that specializes in cheap and functional medical technologies. Last year?s product was a portable and needleless anemia screener called ToucHb. This year at TED in Los Angeles today he unveiled the charmingly named UChek, a urinalysis app for the masses. In the old days, urinalysis was a bit tougher. A sample of urine is taken in cup and a chemical strip is dipped into said urine sample. The strip is then compared to a color-coded map, which can be used to determine levels of glucose, bilirubin, protein, and other abnormalities in your urine. High levels of glucose, for example, could indicate diabetes. Although chemical strips can be deciphered by sight, there are many urine scanning machines that produce more accurate results. The problem is that they can cost up to $10,000, with limited compatibility with different types of chemical strips. Ignawale?s UChek is an app that seeks to simplify the process in an affordable way. Once the chemical strip is dipped in urine, a picture is taken of the strip with a smartphone. The app then quickly analyzes the strip and produces accurate and easy-to-understand results. While the app is currently going through testing phases in a Mumbai hospital, it is awaiting approval in Apple?s App Store. The app itself will cost $99, while an extra $20 will nab you a packet of chemical strips, a color-coded map for testing. An Android app is expected, although Ignawale says it will take a little bit longer before it?s released. “We all have two things, cell phones and urine,” Ignawale told his TED audience. “We figured we had to be able to do something with this.” He certainly isn?t the first person to have noticed. An iPhone app called Piddle was developed by Danish programmers last year in May for Health Hack Day in Stockholm, where it took first prize. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a boom in mobile urinalysis apps, as strange as that sounds?
'Network' analysis of the brain may explain features of autismPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Meghan Weber Meghan.Weber@childrens.harvard.edu 617-919-3110 Boston Children's Hospital
EEGs show structural differences in brain connections
A look at how the brain processes information finds a distinct pattern in children with autism spectrum disorders. Using EEGs to track the brain's electrical cross-talk, researchers from Boston Children's Hospital have found a structural difference in brain connections. Compared with neurotypical children, those with autism have multiple redundant connections between neighboring brain areas at the expense of long-distance links.
The study, using a "network analysis" like that used to study airlines or electrical grids, may help in understanding some classic behaviors in autism. It was published February 27 in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, accompanied by a commentary.
"We examined brain networks as a whole in terms of their capacity to transfer and process information," says Jurriaan Peters, MD, of the Department of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, who is co-first author of the paper with Maxime Taquet, a PhD student in Boston Children's Computational Radiology Laboratory. "What we found may well change the way we look at the brains of autistic children."
Peters, Taquet and senior authors Simon Warfield, PhD, of the Computational Radiology Laboratory and Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, of Neurology, analyzed EEG recordings from two groups of autistic children: 16 children with classic autism, and 14 children whose autism is part of a genetic syndrome known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). They compared these readings with EEGs from two control groups46 healthy neurotypical children and 29 children with TSC but not autism.
In both groups with autism, there were more short-range connections within different brain region, but fewer connections linking far-flung areas.
A brain network that favors short-range over long-range connections seems to be consistent with autism's classic cognitive profilea child who excels at specific, focused tasks like memorizing streets, but who cannot integrate information across different brain areas into higher-order concepts.
"For example, a child with autism may not understand why a face looks really angry, because his visual brain centers and emotional brain centers have less cross-talk," Peters says. "The brain cannot integrate these areas. It's doing a lot with the information locally, but it's not sending it out to the rest of the brain."
Network analysisa hot emerging branch of cognitive neuroscienceshowed a quality called "resilience" in the children with autismthe ability to find multiple ways to get from point A to point B through redundant pathways.
"Much like you can still travel from Boston to Brussels even if London Heathrow is shut down, by going through New York's JFK airport for example, information can continue to be transferred between two regions of the brain of children with autism," says Taquet. "In such a network, no hub plays a specific role, and traffic may flow along many redundant routes."
This quality of redundancy is consistent with cellular and molecular evidence for decreased "pruning" of brain connections in autism. While it may be good for an airline, it may indicate a brain that responds in the same way to many different kinds of situations and is less able to focus on the stimuli that are most important.
"It's a simpler, less specialized network that's more rigid, less able to respond to stimulation from the environment," says Peters.
The study showed that both groups of children with tuberous sclerosis complex had reduced connectivity overall, but only those who also had autism had the pattern of increased short-range versus long-range connections (See image).
Under a recently announced NIH Autism Center of Excellence Grant, Peters and his colleagues will repeat the analysis as part of a multicenter study, taking EEG recordings prospectively under uniform conditions.
The current study builds on recent work by Peters, Sahin and colleagues, which imaged nerve fibers in autistic patients and showed structural abnormalities in brain connectivity. Other recent work at Boston Children's, led by Frank Duffy, PhD, of Neurology, looked at "coherence," or the degree of synchrony between any two given EEG signals, and found altered connectivity between brain regions in children with autism.
Yet another recent study, led by Boston Children's informatics researcher William Bosl, PhD, and Charles A. Nelson, PhD, research director of the Developmental Medicine Center, looked at the degree of randomness in EEG signals, an indirect indicator of connectivity, and found patterns that distinguished infants at increased risk for autism from controls.
###
The current study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant #s R01 RR021885, R01 LM010033, R03 EB008680, UL1 RR025758 to Warfield; P20 RFA-NS-12-006, 1U01NS082320-01 to Sahin and Peters); the National Institute of Mental Health (grant #K23MH094517 to coauthor Shafali Jeste); the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (grant #DC 10290 to Charles Nelson, PhD) and the Department of Defense (grant #W81XWH-11-1-0365 to Nelson).
Boston Children's Hospital is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's today is a 395-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Boston Children's also is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about research and clinical innovation at Boston Children's, visit: http://vectorblog.org/.
[ | 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.
'Network' analysis of the brain may explain features of autismPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Meghan Weber Meghan.Weber@childrens.harvard.edu 617-919-3110 Boston Children's Hospital
EEGs show structural differences in brain connections
A look at how the brain processes information finds a distinct pattern in children with autism spectrum disorders. Using EEGs to track the brain's electrical cross-talk, researchers from Boston Children's Hospital have found a structural difference in brain connections. Compared with neurotypical children, those with autism have multiple redundant connections between neighboring brain areas at the expense of long-distance links.
The study, using a "network analysis" like that used to study airlines or electrical grids, may help in understanding some classic behaviors in autism. It was published February 27 in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine, accompanied by a commentary.
"We examined brain networks as a whole in terms of their capacity to transfer and process information," says Jurriaan Peters, MD, of the Department of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, who is co-first author of the paper with Maxime Taquet, a PhD student in Boston Children's Computational Radiology Laboratory. "What we found may well change the way we look at the brains of autistic children."
Peters, Taquet and senior authors Simon Warfield, PhD, of the Computational Radiology Laboratory and Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, of Neurology, analyzed EEG recordings from two groups of autistic children: 16 children with classic autism, and 14 children whose autism is part of a genetic syndrome known as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). They compared these readings with EEGs from two control groups46 healthy neurotypical children and 29 children with TSC but not autism.
In both groups with autism, there were more short-range connections within different brain region, but fewer connections linking far-flung areas.
A brain network that favors short-range over long-range connections seems to be consistent with autism's classic cognitive profilea child who excels at specific, focused tasks like memorizing streets, but who cannot integrate information across different brain areas into higher-order concepts.
"For example, a child with autism may not understand why a face looks really angry, because his visual brain centers and emotional brain centers have less cross-talk," Peters says. "The brain cannot integrate these areas. It's doing a lot with the information locally, but it's not sending it out to the rest of the brain."
Network analysisa hot emerging branch of cognitive neuroscienceshowed a quality called "resilience" in the children with autismthe ability to find multiple ways to get from point A to point B through redundant pathways.
"Much like you can still travel from Boston to Brussels even if London Heathrow is shut down, by going through New York's JFK airport for example, information can continue to be transferred between two regions of the brain of children with autism," says Taquet. "In such a network, no hub plays a specific role, and traffic may flow along many redundant routes."
This quality of redundancy is consistent with cellular and molecular evidence for decreased "pruning" of brain connections in autism. While it may be good for an airline, it may indicate a brain that responds in the same way to many different kinds of situations and is less able to focus on the stimuli that are most important.
"It's a simpler, less specialized network that's more rigid, less able to respond to stimulation from the environment," says Peters.
The study showed that both groups of children with tuberous sclerosis complex had reduced connectivity overall, but only those who also had autism had the pattern of increased short-range versus long-range connections (See image).
Under a recently announced NIH Autism Center of Excellence Grant, Peters and his colleagues will repeat the analysis as part of a multicenter study, taking EEG recordings prospectively under uniform conditions.
The current study builds on recent work by Peters, Sahin and colleagues, which imaged nerve fibers in autistic patients and showed structural abnormalities in brain connectivity. Other recent work at Boston Children's, led by Frank Duffy, PhD, of Neurology, looked at "coherence," or the degree of synchrony between any two given EEG signals, and found altered connectivity between brain regions in children with autism.
Yet another recent study, led by Boston Children's informatics researcher William Bosl, PhD, and Charles A. Nelson, PhD, research director of the Developmental Medicine Center, looked at the degree of randomness in EEG signals, an indirect indicator of connectivity, and found patterns that distinguished infants at increased risk for autism from controls.
###
The current study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant #s R01 RR021885, R01 LM010033, R03 EB008680, UL1 RR025758 to Warfield; P20 RFA-NS-12-006, 1U01NS082320-01 to Sahin and Peters); the National Institute of Mental Health (grant #K23MH094517 to coauthor Shafali Jeste); the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (grant #DC 10290 to Charles Nelson, PhD) and the Department of Defense (grant #W81XWH-11-1-0365 to Nelson).
Boston Children's Hospital is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's today is a 395-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Boston Children's also is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about research and clinical innovation at Boston Children's, visit: http://vectorblog.org/.
[ | 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.
The demand for coloured contact lenses UK is rising by the day. The fashion contact lenses that are available today are designed to perfection to ensure the person wearing it looks their best. These lenses are available in a variety of colours ranging from greys to reds, blues and more for people to choose from. While most adults prefer colours such as grey or blue, the adolescents and the youth prefer bold colours such as red and green to make a style statement. Irrespective of the coloured lenses you choose, there are a few tips you need to keep in mind to minimise discomfort and infection.
Most people go swimming while wearing coloured contact lenses UK. This is one of the leading causes of infection. Even swimming pools that are cleaned on a regular basis are breeding grounds for many germs. The chances of contracting bacterial infections are high if you wear fashion contact lenses in the pool. It is recommended that you do not expose the lenses to tap water, in addition to water in the pools, rivers, oceans, showers and even bath tubs. Overlooking this tip can lead to serious problems such as corneal ulcer or acanthamoeba keratitis which can lead to temporary or permanent loss of vision. The germs from the water get stuck to the lenses and reach the cornea, thus leading to inflammation or infection. It is imperative to remove the contact lenses before getting into water. However, if you have no choice but to wear the lenses while swimming, ensure you wear a pair of goggles to prevent the water from reaching your eyes.
Improper handling of the coloured contact lenses UK is another leading cause for eye infections. Most people ignore the need to wash their hands thoroughly before touching the lens. Irrespective of whether you use fashion contact lenses or disposable transparent lenses, you have to wash your hands with soap and water before removing it from the case. Once the hand is washed, use a clean towel to dry it and then open the case. While removing the lenses, ensure you slide it onto the palm of your hand before balancing it on the tip of your index finger to insert it. If you use reusable lenses, make sure you wash the lens with a lens cleansing solution before you insert it into the eyes.
Proper care for the coloured contact lenses UK is imperative to minimise infection. Each time you remove the fashion contact lenses after use, clean them using a good lens cleaning solutions before putting them back into the case. Most people do the mistake of topping up with solution in the case while replacing it. This can be one of the causes for infection. It is important to remove the solution present in the case and refill it with fresh disinfection solution before replacing the lens. This eliminates the possibility of germs breeding inside the case, thus curtailing infection to the cornea.
Are you keen on shopping for coloured contact lenses UK on the internet? Please visit our website for an extensive collection of fashion contact lenses in varied colours.
This week I have been updating some training materials that I use for corporate clients to help educate employees about their 401(k). During 2006, there was a tiny tax code update as a part of the Pension Protection Act that many people are unaware of, and I think it is helpful to get younger people excited about saving for retirement. Starting early is a critical factor when it comes to saving for retirement, and I am passionate about helping younger people make great financial decisions. Please share with any children, grandchildren, friends etc who might benefit. Here is a quick summary: ?You must be at least 18, not enrolled as a full-time student at any time during the year, and not claimed as a dependent on another person?s tax return ?Eligible Plans ? IRA?s, Roth IRA?s, 401(k)?s, 403(b)?s, and 457 plans. ?Adjusted Gross Income Limitations ? must fall below income limits for 2012 of $28,750, head of household filers of $43,125 and joint filers of $57,500.
The credit can be as much as $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for joint filers, and is in addition to any deduction that may be available. The IRS Form 8880 can be found here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8880.pdf. As always, consult a tax professional to see how this may applies as every one?s situation is unique and different.
? 2012 Pawleys Investment Advisors, LLC. All rights reserved.
When tackling products designed for use in the kitchen, designers tend to make every effort to perfectly balance form with function. And Karim Rashid's done exactly that with his new Hook cookware collection featuring built-in hooks for hanging/displaying your pots and pans on the wall. More »
There has been a lot written about content marketing recently, but it?s more than just a clever buzzword.??Creating an integrated content PR strategy that is relevant, engaging and social can make a huge difference when it comes to marketing your brand. Here are some tips for building a successful content PR strategy.
Defining Content PR
Content PR is the development and distribution of interesting content across multiple channels as a means of increasing awareness, establishing influence, providing useful information and shaping your company?s story.
The objective of a content PR strategy is to draw interest in, rather than push messages out and hope someone reads them.? It?s about creating content which speaks to the audience?s interests.? It requires PR pros to know what is being said and where it is being said, and then developing content that engages across multiple channels.? (For tips on how to create a ?likable? content strategy across marketing channels, check out Jason Brewer?s recent blog post.) ???
The New Integrated PR Landscape:? Pull vs. Push
The fact is PR has moved way beyond press releases and media events.? It is no longer just pushing out news for our clients; it?s about telling your story and helping to shape conversations.
As newsrooms have shrunk, PR has become more relevant, rather than less. Understaffed media outlets mean more opportunity for non-journalists to provide meaningful and impactful content.? Staying tapped into what your target audiences are interested in can make ordinary business-folks an invaluable resource for byline articles, guest columnists and blogs.? They key is asking ?What would my audience want to read?? rather than ?What would the company want me to say??
Below are several ways companies can leverage the current PR landscape to create successful content PR campaigns:
1)????? Publish Your Own Content: Traditional ?media relations? is no longer the only game in town. Today, we have an arsenal of self-publishing platforms at their disposal, including blogs, video, and social sharing tools.? Want to communicate a big company announcement?? Don?t blast about a press release and wait for the New York Times to call. Work to create a 2-minute video on what that means to your business and post it on your company?s YouTube page. Have the CEO share it with their client base and host it on the company webpage. Tweet, Share, Email, Repeat.
2)????? Repurpose and Share:?? With every piece of content you create, ask yourself: how can we maximize its visibility among target audiences? Can the video update be repurposed as an email alert, blog entry or bylined article? Have we shared it with our social media followers by posting it to the company Facebook page and Twitter feed? Has it been posted to specific groups of interest on LinkedIn? Not every piece of content needs to be blasted across every channel, but there are far more targeted opportunities to share good content than ever before. ?Knowing where the message will resonate will give businesses a significant advantage.
3)????? Integrate, Don?t Isolate: As the lines blur between ?traditional? and ?social? media, it is more important than ever to incorporate PR content into the overall marketing mix.?? A PR cannot live in a silo ? it should be weaved into the overall marketing strategy to help tell a broader story. The opportunity with content PR is to really leverage ?earned? and social media to fuel other parts of the marketing engine.
4)????? Stay focused: A successful content PR campaign takes time, buy-in, and of course, resources.? To maximize your campaign, choose a select number of channels and focus on a limited number of keywords and/or topics. There are several factors to consider when adding social media or other marketing accounts, so take your time.? Add new outlets thoughtfully and carefully, based on where your audience looks for information.
5)????? Make it Relevant: No one wants to read an infomercial about your company or a laundry list of resume accomplishments. The content should be relevant, educational and engaging. The goal is to listen to what your audience is interested, and offer them useful solutions or information.
In today?s fragmented media landscape, it is more challenging than ever to differentiate your brand.? Having a good content strategy can help by plugging businesses directly into the conversation and providing information people want.??? Used effectively, it can help increase long term visibility and deliver real business results.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Internet users who illegally share music, movies or TV shows online may soon get warning notices from their service providers that they are violating copyright law. Ignore the notices, and violators could face an Internet slow-down for 48 hours. Those who claim they're innocent can protest ? for a fee.
For the first time since a spate of aggressive and unpopular lawsuits almost a decade ago, the music and movie industries are going after Internet users they accuse of swapping copyrighted files online. But unlike the lawsuits from the mid-2000s ? which swept up everyone from young kids to the elderly with sometimes ruinous financial penalties and court costs ? the latest effort is aimed at educating casual Internet pirates and convincing them to stop. There are multiple chances to make amends and no immediate legal consequences under the program if they don't.
"There's a bunch of questions that need to be answered because there are ways that this could end up causing problems for Internet users," such as the bureaucratic headache of being falsely accused, said David Sohn, general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based civil liberties group. But he added: "There's also the potential for this to have an impact in reducing piracy in ways that don't carry a lot of collateral damage."
The Copyright Alert System was put into effect this week by the nation's five biggest Internet service providers ? Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Cablevision ? and the two major associations representing industry ? the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.
Under the new program, the industry will monitor "peer-to-peer" software services for evidence of copyrighted files being shared. Each complaint will prompt a customer's Internet provider to notify the customer that their Internet address has been detected sharing files illegally. Depending on the service provider, the first couple of alerts will likely be an email warning. Subsequent alerts might require a person to acknowledge receipt or review educational materials. If a final warning is ignored, a person could be subject to speed-throttling for 48 hours or another similar "mitigation measure."
After five or six "strikes," however, the person won't face any repercussions under the program and is likely to be ignored. It's unclear whether such repeat offenders would be more likely at that point to face an expensive lawsuit. While proponents say it's not the intention of the program, it's possible the alert system will be used to initiate lawsuits.
The number of Internet users subject to the new system is a sizable chunk of the U.S. population. Verizon and AT&T alone supply more than 23 million customers.
For the recording industry, which blames online piracy for contributing to a dramatic drop in profits and sales during the past decade, the new alert system is a better alternative than lawsuits. In December 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America announced it had discontinued that practice ? which had been deeply unpopular with the American public ? and would begin working with the Internet providers on the alert system instead.
"We think there is a positive impact of (alert) programs like this, and that they can put money in the pocket of artists and labels," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the trade group.
The Motion Picture Association of America estimates some 29 million people have downloaded or watched unauthorized movies or TV shows online, mostly using technology such as BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer protocol. Like its counterparts in the music industry, the MPAA says it believes people will stop when they understand it's illegal and are redirected to legal ways of paying for downloads.
The alert system "will help ensure an Internet that works for everyone by alerting families of illegal activity that has occurred over peer-to-peer networks using their Internet accounts and educate them on how they can prevent such activity from happening again," Michael O'Leary, an executive for the MPAA, said in a statement Tuesday.
A primary question is whether the system will generate a significant number of "false positives," or cases in which people are accused of sharing illegal content but aren't. One scenario is if a person doesn't encrypt their wireless connection, leaving it open to a neighbor or malicious hacker that swaps illegal files. Another example might be if a person uploads a "mashup" of songs or brief scenes from a movie ? content that wouldn't necessarily violate the law but could get flagged by the system.
The Center for Copyright Information, which created the alert system, is responsible for producing the methods that companies will be allowed to use to catch pirates, but it said Tuesday it won't release those details publicly. It said the system will rely on humans to review the entire content of every file to make sure it qualifies as material protected under copyright laws.
"This is an imperfect science," said Yoshi Kohno, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. "The likelihood of a false positive depends on the diligence of the party doing the investigation."
Bartees Cox, a spokesman for the consumer watchdog group Public Knowledge, says it will watching to ensure the program doesn't evolve into imposing harsher punishments by Internet providers, such as terminating a person's Internet access altogether if they are accused of being a prolific violator.
If a person believes they've been wrongly accused, they will have multiple chances to delete the material and move on without any repercussion. If the problem is chronic, they can pay $35 to appeal ? a charge intended to deter frivolous appeals but also one that can be waived. The center says it won't require proof that a person is financially strapped.
The center's director, Jill Lesser, said the goal is to educate the average Internet user, rather than punish them, and no one will see their Internet access cut off.
"This is the first time the focus has been on education and awareness and redirection to legal and authorized services and not on punitive measures or a carrot-and-stick approach," she said.
Sohn said the effort will be a significant test whether voluntary measures can reduce copyright infringement.
"The long-term challenge here is getting users to change their attitudes and behaviors and views toward copyright infringement, because the technology that enables infringement ? computers, digital technology and the Internet ? that stuff isn't going away," he said.
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Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty
Your iPhone is on your desk right in front of your Mac and all you want to do is drag one picture from one to the other. It doesn't take a herculean effort, but it can take just enough to make you seethe. InstaShare can help by adding a little AirDrop-like action to your whole suite of iDevices. More »
Washing machines take the dirt and germs out of our clothes, but a lot of that grime just ends up trapped in the machine itself. It's pretty easy to clean your top-loader though with a few basic supplies.
Regina Yunghans at Apartment Therapy wrote a great walkthrough to help you clean and disinfect your machine. Adding vinegar and baking soda to an empty wash cycle will do a fine job of disinfecting the wash tub, but cleaning the fabric softener well or those gross crevices under the lid will require some old fashioned elbow grease and a toothbrush. You don't need to do this after every load, but giving your machine some care every few months will help keep dirt from accumulating inside and transferring to your (supposedly) clean clothes. Be sure to check the source link for the step-by-step guide.
How To Clean a Washing Machine | Apartment Therapy
NEW YORK (AP) ? Federal prosecutors planned to use a graphically detailed trail of emails, computer files and instant messages to show that a New York City police officer had dangerous schemes to abduct women, cook them and devour them.
Opening statements were expected early Monday afternoon in the case against 28-year-old Gilberto Valle.
"I'm planning on getting me some girl meat," Valle allegedly wrote in one chat room. "It's this November, for Thanksgiving. ... She's not a volunteer. She has to be abducted."
A criminal complaint claimed that Valle had created a computer file cataloging at least 100 women with their names, addresses and photos. And it accused him of illegally culling some of the information from a restricted law enforcement database.
He is charged with conspiring to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database. A conviction on the kidnapping count carries a possible life sentence.
A prosecutor told a judge on Monday the government had decided not to have an FBI agent testify about disputed cellphone data it claimed showed Valle stalked his victims.
Prosecutors have enough "overwhelming other evidence" to prove their case, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson.
The baby-faced tabloid sensation known as the "Cannibal Cop" is expected to take the stand as his defense tries to make the case that it was all fantasy, that his online chats were so offensive, so over-the-top that they couldn't possibly be taken seriously.
In pretrial proceedings, defense attorney Julia Gatto even showed prospective jurors a kinky staged photo of a woman trussed up in a roasting pan, aiming to drive home the argument that Valle's only appetite was for fantasies.
"The government's case is nothing more than a hard drive full of disturbing, sexually deviant talk between my client and other men who share his, albeit weird, proclivities," the attorney said.
The defense has been bolstered by pretrial rulings that will allow Valle's lawyers to call expert witnesses expected to give jurors a tutorial on online sexual deviance and fetishes often called "vore," short for carnivore.
A clinical sexologist will testify about sexually explicit websites that "resemble improvisational theater," court papers say. "The style is to maintain the repartee, regardless of how implausible, ridiculous or even impossible the conversations gets."
A forensic psychiatrist and criminologist who examined Valle and contends most men "who have sexually sadistic fantasies ... engage in no harmful actions toward others," the papers say.
The witness found that Valle has no serious mental illness or personality disorders related to violence. Instead, he says, the defendant has recurring fantasies of sexual sadism - a condition known as paraphilia.
At trial's end, Valle's fate will rest with a jury of six men and six women, most of whom are college-educated and have lived in Manhattan or New York's suburbs most of their lives.
A New Jersey man charged with scheming with Valle to kidnap, rape and murder a Manhattan woman is awaiting trial. He also says he intended no harm.
Patently Apple writes, On Wednesday we reported that Google's Glass Project was ramping up and we presented a nice collage of Google Glass and a video. While updates are now coming in from various sources, there are two keys. One is ...
Continue reading Google Glass V1 will be an iPhone Accessory & Google Glass V2 will double your Fun at Patently Apple
Nokia's 808 PureView. It's a Symbian phone... but it's got a magical camera. It's a Symbian phone... but... that lens! You can imagine the wrangling when people were deciding if they wanted to buy one of these last summer. On one hand, it was running a Zombie operating system with weak internals. On the other, it had a camera sensor that took truly beautiful images. So, for the merry few of you who purchased this handset, what was it like to use on a daily basis? Normally, we'd ask you to chime in with suggestion on how you'd change it, but let's be honest. If Nokia slapped this 41-megapixel sensor on a Lumia 920, we'd have difficulty looking at anything else.
A Rogers Park man came to the rescue of a 3-year-old Golden Retriever mix who was trapped on the ice of Lake Michigan late Friday afternoon.
According to Fox Chicago, Dave Kehnast, 37, saw the dog hoping from one piece of ice to another, seemingly trapped, from his apartment building's fire escape near Touhy Beach on the city's Far North Side.
Kehnast sprang into action by grabbing his kayak, putting on a wetsuit and heading to the dog's rescue. Emergency officials had also been alerted to the pup in peril.
"I don't know if he realized what kind of danger he was actually in," Kehnast told ABC Chicago.
He proceeded to try and coax the dog back to dry land, at which point the scared dog took off. He ended up at Animal Care & Control where the dog's owner, Nerijus Stepenovicius, will be reunited with the pup, whose name is Pifas, Saturday. According to WGN, the dog had gotten loose when his owner's landlord had been doing some maintenance work on Stepenovicius' apartment.
According to ABC, Pifas had gone missing on Feb. 13. Stepenovicius told CBS Chicago he was grateful for Kehnast's efforts and added that he owes the Good Samaritan a dinner.
It was Oct.?20 when Londoners were left gobsmacked by a Free Press story raising questions for the first time about how Mayor Joe Fontana?s son?s 2005 wedding reception was paid for.
We all know where that led.
And now, exactly four months later, on Feb. 20, The Free Press published online that the charity Fontana chairs may soon be stripped of its charitable status by the federal government.
One can?t help but marvel at the calendar coincidence, the perfectly aligned dates, and the stark reality for London.
When you?re measuring your way through the year by extra-political financial scandals hammering your mayor, brother, your city?s got problems.
The question arises naturally: At what point does a mayor, already struggling to maintain the public?s faith in his integrity, completely lose his ability to govern?
When does a four-year term grind to a halt?
While Fontana decries the public?s inclination to tie his political work with his non-mayoral woes ? the criminal charges laid in November; the potentially terminal tax woes plaguing the charity, Trinity Global ? one expert says it can?t be avoided.
?It?s just reality. That?s how public perception works,? said Martin Horak, head of Western University?s local-government program.
?It?s hard to see how most people could, at this point, trust Joe Fontana to effectively lead the management of a $1-billon corporation like the City of London given that he?s now linked, rightly or wrongly, with cases of fiscal mismanagement in other areas of his public life.?
Unlike some U.S. cities, Canada doesn?t have what?s often called a ?strong-mayor? system.
In such systems ? Chicago is one example ? a mayor has extraordinary control, including the ability to veto a budget and appoint leaders to key commissions. So even amid controversy, their power endures.
It?s not so here, Horak says.
?In Canada, where mayors don?t have a lot of executive powers, (their) ability to govern is primarily based on public perception of their legitimacy as effective leaders,? Horak said.
?Here, what happens is it?s very difficult for a mayor then to lead and especially on controversial issues, because the mayor?s motivations are going to be questioned over and over again.?
This, however, is not an imminent threat for Fontana, who has deftly built a bloc of seven stalwarts (making up the so-called Fontana 8) that have helped push through his agenda for the first half of his four-year term.
And it?s unlikely that bloc ? which stayed intact amid the firestorm over Fontana?s criminal charges ? will crumble now, as the questions around Trinity Global mount and the Canada Revenue Agency readies to strip its charitable status March?3.
(Fontana?s son Joe Jr., also known as Ugo, is president. Though Fontana has told other media he?s just a board member, Trinity Global?s website still lists him as chairperson.)
The Fontana 8?s next test looms large, when council sits down Thursday to finalize a city budget, perhaps dipping into reserves to deliver the third of Fontana?s promised tax freezes. They?ll also look hard at finding $60?million for so-called economic prosperity projects, such as building a performing-arts centre.
Are Londoners comfortable with Fontana at the helm of a council making these decisions?
Realistically, it may not matter, as long as the Fontana 8 stick together. At this point, one could argue Fontana needs them more than they need him.
But there?s also a larger picture the Fontana 8 would do well to consider: Yes, they?ve backed his plans and share his perspective on several issues, but there?s also the 2014 election, and those beyond, to keep in mind, Horak says.
?If there is not some fundamental turn that will inspire the public to have stronger confidence in Fontana?s basic integrity in public office, then the people who support him are likely to suffer at the ballot box in a year and a half.?
It?s been only two months since council voted to ask the criminally charged Fontana to temporarily leave office. The five politicians who voted yes (the motion lost 8-5) are still at city hall, too.
If the Trinity Global questions continue, and the public outrage grows louder, could that unfortunate motion or a similar one be tabled again? One councillor didn?t rule it out. ?Perhaps (it could) if we get that pressure again from the public,? Coun. Judy Bryant said.
Fontana is shrugging off the concerns of citizens and council colleagues, seemingly unfazed by this latest round of public criticism.
As he prepared to dole out Queen?s Diamond Jubilee medals in a private ceremony in his office Thursday ? unaware a Free Press photographer was standing at the door ? he said with a laugh: ?The Free Press circulation has doubled since they started writing about me.?
Like to use your iPhone on the toilet? Myshkin Ingawale has an app for that. Ignawale is the co-founder of Biosense, a med tech company based in Mumbai that specializes in cheap and functional medical technologies. Last year?s product was a portable and needleless anemia screener called ToucHb. This year at TED in Los Angeles today he unveiled the charmingly named UChek, a urinalysis app for the masses. In the old days, urinalysis was a bit tougher. A sample of urine is taken in cup and a chemical strip is dipped into said urine sample. The strip is then compared to a color-coded map, which can be used to determine levels of glucose, bilirubin, protein, and other abnormalities in your urine. High levels of glucose, for example, could indicate diabetes. Although chemical strips can be deciphered by sight, there are many urine scanning machines that produce more accurate results. The problem is that they can cost up to $10,000, with limited compatibility with different types of chemical strips. Ignawale?s UChek is an app that seeks to simplify the process in an affordable way. Once the chemical strip is dipped in urine, a picture is taken of the strip with a smartphone. The app then quickly analyzes the strip and produces accurate and easy-to-understand results. While the app is currently going through testing phases in a Mumbai hospital, it is awaiting approval in Apple?s App Store. The app itself will cost $99, while an extra $20 will nab you a packet of chemical strips, a color-coded map for testing. An Android app is expected, although Ignawale says it will take a little bit longer before it?s released. “We all have two things, cell phones and urine,” Ignawale told his TED audience. “We figured we had to be able to do something with this.” He certainly isn?t the first person to have noticed. An iPhone app called Piddle was developed by Danish programmers last year in May for Health Hack Day in Stockholm, where it took first prize. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a boom in mobile urinalysis apps, as strange as that sounds?![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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Washing machines take the dirt and germs out of our clothes, but a lot of that grime just ends up trapped in the machine itself. It's pretty easy to clean your top-loader though with a few basic supplies.
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