'Population census' of galaxies buried in dust

May 31, 2013 ? Conventional research on distant galaxies have been carried out mainly with visible light and near infrared light. However, it is possible that many galaxies in the universe have been overlooked as much of that radiation is largely absorbed by cosmic dust. That is why millimeter and submillimeter wave observations are important. Stellar light absorbed by dust is reradiated from the dust as millimeter/submillimeter waves. Therefore galaxies, even those which it has not been possible to observe with optical telescopes, can be detected using these wavebands. Furthermore, millimeter/submillimeter waves are suitable for observation of distant galaxies. This is because the more distant the galaxy is, the more luminous part of light we can see due to the shift of wavelength of light by the expansion of the universe. This effect is called "negative K correction" and it compensates the source dimming in the distant universe.

In past observations, gigantic galaxies deeply covered in dust, where several hundreds to thousands of stars are actively forming per year, have been detected with millimeter/submillimeter waves. To capture the overall picture of galaxies in the universe, it is important to observe "general galaxies" which have moderate star-formation activities. However, it has not been possible to detect faint galaxies due to the low sensitivity of existing observation instruments.

Observations with ALMA

The research team observed a field named "Subaru/XMM-Newtown Deep Survey Field," located in the direction of the constellation Cetus, with the ALMA telescope. As a result, they succeeded in finding 15 extremely dark galaxies that were unidentified until now. "It is thanks to the high performance of ALMA, which is proudly said to be the best in the world, that observations like this have been made possible," said Hatsukade.

With the ALMA observations the team successfully measured the number density of galaxies approximately 10 times darker than the millimeter wave research results up to now. The new results agree well with the prediction by the theories of galaxy formation. That means, the galaxies detected in this research are the faint but dust-rich galaxies and they are most likely to be similar in type to normal galaxies not detected before.. In regards to this, Professor Ohta commented, "This is a big step towards getting the big picture of galaxy evolution as the objects connecting especially bright galaxies in millimeter/submillimeter waves and normal galaxies were detected with ALMA."

Furthermore, the team concluded that approximately 80% of the sources of the cosmic background radiation within the millimeter/submillimeter wavebands are more "normal galaxies" like those detected by ALMA this time.. Past observations showed the total power of signals emitted from the universe with the millimeter/submillimeter wavebands. However, spatial resolution was not sufficient to identify the sources of all the signals; only 10 -- 20% of them were identified.

Future prospects

To gain an overall picture of galaxies in the universe requires a much higher sensitivity for observation. For this research, only a part of the ALMA telescope, 23~25 antennas, were used. As the number of antennas in the ALMA telescope increases, its observation ability will also improve. Hatsukade expressed his hopes, saying "I want to clarify the overall picture of galaxy evolution. So, using ALMA, I would like to make observations of much fainter galaxies, and also study star formation activities and the amount of dust in those galaxies in detail." Professor Ohta also mentioned, "We are also planning to make thorough observations with visible light and infrared radiation, using the Subaru Telescope. This is in order to explore the nature of galaxies become darker due to light-absorbing dust. But for observations of extremely dark galaxies, we might need the Thirty Meter Telescope with much larger light-gathering power."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/lrO631o3Axw/130531105234.htm

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Pundit Press: Dem Party Communications Director: Press 'Forfeits ...

The irony is thick on this one.

Eric Holder, who committed perjury when giving testimony to Congress about the AP-tapping scandal, has agreed to talk to the press. He only has one condition: it must be off-the-record, and no one outside of the room must ever know what happened.

In response, the New York Times has decided to boycott the presser, with Executive Editor Jill Abramson stating, "It isn?t appropriate for us to attend an off the record meeting with the attorney general."

Well, the Democrat party is none-too-pleased with the NY Times' stand. In fact, Democratic Party Communications Director Brad Woodhouse decided to not only lash out at the Times, but also at press rights as a whole.

Writing on Twitter, he declared that if the press does not want to attend the secret meeting that no one must ever know about, then they "forfeit [their] right gripe" about illegal activity that Eric Holder conducts:

Naturally, this incredibly asinine statement was met with derision:


However, Woodhouse's statement should not simply be written off as a stupid statement. Rather, it typifies the Obama White House's attitude that either you put up with what we do, you shut up, or else.

Source: http://www.punditpress.com/2013/05/dem-party-communications-director-press.html

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When Assad shells rebels, Israel goes on alert and learns

By Dan Williams

PALMACHIM AIR BASE, Israel (Reuters) - Israel tracks every heavy missile fired in the Syrian civil war, keen to study Damascus's combat doctrines and deployments and ready to fend off a feared first attack on its turf, a senior Israeli military officer said on Thursday.

Colonel Zvika Haimovich of the air defense corps said southward launches against Syrian insurgents by President Bashar al-Assad's forces gave Israel mere seconds in which to determine it was not the true target - a distinction that could prove crucial for warding off an unprecedented regional conflagration.

"Syria's batteries are in a high state of operability, ready to fire at short notice. All it would take is a few degrees' change in the flight path to endanger us," he told Reuters in an interview at his base in Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv.

Syrian opposition activists say Assad's army has fired dozens of devastating Scud-type missiles at rebel-held areas in the last six months, out of a ballistic arsenal believed to number in the hundreds.

Long-range radars feed real-time data on the barrages to Haimovich's command bunker, where officers brace to activate Arrow II, a U.S.-backed Israeli missile shield that has yet to be tested in battle.

The more threatening launches set off sirens across Palmachim, whose warplanes also await orders to scramble.

Before the more than two-year-old civil war, Israel enjoyed a stable standoff with Syria for decades. Israeli strategists saw little menace in Syria's ageing Soviet-supplied military - even from its reputed chemical warheads.

Such complacency is long past. Haimovich said that although Israel was staying out of the Syrian fighting, he and the rest of the top brass were conducting regular battle assessments, including on Assad's missiles launches.

"We are looking at all aspects, from the performance of the weaponry to the way the Syrians are using it. They have used everything that I am aware exists in their missile and rocket arsenal. They are improving all the time, and so are we, but we need to study this, and to be prepared."

He would not detail how Israel determines a missile fired in its direction will not cross the border, saying only that the process took "more than a few seconds, but not much more".

Another Israeli expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it combined split-second analysis of the strength of the launch with up-to-date intelligence on Assad's intentions.

SCUDS HALF GONE?

Asked about a report on Israel's Channel 10 television that Assad had used up around half of his Scud stockpile against the rebels, Haimovich said: "That sounds credible." But he cautioned that Damascus may have been replenished by its foreign allies.

Haimovich also oversees the Iron Dome short-range rocket interceptor, as well as Israeli coordination with U.S. air defense systems. He described Syria as part of a nebulous northern front with Lebanon, whose Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah militants have been fighting for and armed by Assad.

At least three times this year, Israel has bombed Syria to destroy what intelligence sources described as advanced weaponry in transit to Hezbollah, which fired 4,000 missiles at the Jewish state in their 2006 border war. Syria and Hezbollah have hinted at reprisals, a scenario the Israelis assume could spiral to include missile salvoes from Iran and Palestinians in Gaza.

Under such circumstances, Haimovich said, "the Israeli homefront will be hit, but we won't be paralyzed - and I believe we will ensure that by keeping the fight short".

He declined to confirm what Arrow designers have described as its 90 percent shoot-down rate. But he said Israel had beefed up its deployment to more than four nationwide batteries, to allow for repeated interception of any incoming missiles.

"My intention is to ensure that we have at least two opportunities to intercept. We have not yet been called into action on the northern front, but I believe that we will be."

Pointing out a launching ground in Palmachim's sand dunes where towering concrete barricades were being erected to protect future Arrow units, he said: "Our job is to withstand any crisis and deliver the necessary defense."

Israel has fielded five batteries of Iron Dome, which has scored around an 80 percent success rate in intercepting Gaza rockets, the kind of weapons that also feature in Hezbollah's arsenal. Haimovich said a sixth unit would be deployed soon.

A more powerful version of Iron Dome, known as David's Sling or Magic Wand, performed well in its first field trial in November and prompted some Israeli officers to predict it could be ready for use this year. That would bolster the multi-tier missile defense program.

Haimovich said he knew of no such plan but that Iron Dome, Arrow and their U.S. counterparts already provided Israel with an adequate "protective umbrella".

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller/Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assad-shells-rebels-israel-goes-alert-learns-101341429.html

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Getting 60 votes for amnesty is ?pretty easy,? says Reid (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/309089337?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Improving 'crop per drop' could boost global food security and water sustainability

May 29, 2013 ? Improvements in crop water productivity -- the amount of food produced per unit of water consumed -- have the potential to improve both food security and water sustainability in many parts of the world, according to a study published online in Environmental Research Letters May 29 by scientists with the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment (IonE) and the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Led by IonE postdoctoral research scholar Kate A. Brauman, the research team analyzed crop production, water use and crop water productivity by climatic zone for 16 staple food crops: wheat, maize, rice, barley, rye, millet, sorghum, soybean, sunflower, potato, cassava, sugarcane, sugar beet, oil palm, rapeseed (canola) and groundnut (peanut). Together these crops constitute 56 percent of global crop production by tonnage, 65 percent of crop water consumption, and 68 percent of all cropland by area. The study is the first of its kind to look at water productivity for this many crops at a global scale.

The wide range of variation in crop water productivity in places that have similar climates means that there are lots of opportunities for improving the trade-off between food and water. And the implications of doing so are substantial: The researchers calculated that in drier regions, bringing up the very lowest performers to just the 20th percentile could increase annual production on rain-fed cropland enough to provide food for an estimated 110 million people without increasing water use or using additional cropland. On irrigated cropland, water consumption could be reduced enough to meet the annual domestic water demands of nearly 1.4 billion people while maintaining current production.

"Since crop production consumes more freshwater than any other human activity on the planet, the study has significant implications for addressing the twin challenges of water stress and food insecurity," says Brauman.

For example, if low crop water productivity in precipitation-limited regions were raised to the 20th percentile of water productivity, specific to particular crops and climates, total rain-fed food production in Africa could be increased by more than 10 percent without exploiting additional cropland. Similar improvements in crop water productivity on irrigated cropland could reduce total water consumption some 8-15 percent in precipitation-limited regions of Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

Because the study is global in scope, it is able to identify potential locations for interventions, crops to pay attention to, and opportunities for the biggest improvements in crop water management. Specific solutions for improving crop per drop will vary by location and climatic zone over time, however.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/cCWpXmRRFrg/130529144325.htm

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Soda and illegal drugs cause similar damage to teeth: Acids erode enamel

May 28, 2013 ? Addicted to soda? You may be shocked to learn that drinking large quantities of your favorite carbonated soda could be as damaging to your teeth as methamphetamine and crack cocaine use. The consumption of illegal drugs and abusive intake of soda can cause similar damage to your mouth through the process of tooth erosion, according to a case study published in the March/April 2013 issue of General Dentistry.

Tooth erosion occurs when acid wears away tooth enamel, which is the glossy, protective outside layer of the tooth. Without the protection of enamel, teeth are more susceptible to developing cavities, as well as becoming sensitive, cracked, and discolored.

The General Dentistry case study compared the damage in three individuals' mouths -- an admitted user of methamphetamine, a previous longtime user of cocaine, and an excessive diet soda drinker. Each participant admitted to having poor oral hygiene and not visiting a dentist on a regular basis. Researchers found the same type and severity of damage from tooth erosion in each participant's mouth.

"Each person experienced severe tooth erosion caused by the high acid levels present in their 'drug' of choice -- meth, crack, or soda," says Mohamed A. Bassiouny, DMD, MSc, PhD, lead author of the study.

"The citric acid present in both regular and diet soda is known to have a high potential for causing tooth erosion," says Dr. Bassiouny.

Similar to citric acid, the ingredients used in preparing methamphetamine can include extremely corrosive materials, such as battery acid, lantern fuel, and drain cleaner. Crack cocaine is highly acidic in nature, as well.

The individual who abused soda consumed 2 liters of diet soda daily for three to five years. Says Dr. Bassiouny, "The striking similarities found in this study should be a wake-up call to consumers who think that soda -- even diet soda -- is not harmful to their oral health."

AGD Spokesperson Eugene Antenucci, DDS, FAGD, recommends that his patients minimize their intake of soda and drink more water. Additionally, he advises them to either chew sugar-free gum or rinse the mouth with water following consumption of soda. "Both tactics increase saliva flow, which naturally helps to return the acidity levels in the mouth to normal," he says.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/DxRJJUd-j3U/130528122505.htm

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SaneBox

SaneBox, an email management assistant, struck me as unusual when I learned that it doesn't offer a free "lite" version of its product; there's only a 14-day free trial for the curious. But then I tried it, and I realized within the first day why many (many) people would be willing to pay for this service (from $6 per month). SaneBox is the first email management program that has actually worked for me.

SaneBox safeguarded my inbox from messages that I don't need to read, but I do need to scan. Put short and sweet, SaneBox gates your email. The app admits entry to emails only from people with whom you've swapped messages before, while pushing into a different folder mail from everyone else.

In my history of testing and tinkering with email productivity assistants, few have felt like solutions I would actually use, even though I liked what they did and thought they did it well. The Mailbox app for iOS, for instance, helps people triage email while on the go, but I found it required too much of my time to use in practice. Smartr Inbox for Gmail added value to my inbox by delivering information about people that I didn't have at my fingertips before, but it wasn't necessarily a tool I felt I needed day in and day out. SaneBox simply makes email simpler, not more complicated, and it's hard to now imagine living without it for business email.

My work relies on unsolicited messages from people I don't know, but I rarely if ever need to see those messages right when they arrive. SaneBox puts all those messages into one folder (or more than one if you start adding on more features from SaneBox's settings). On the other hand, messages from contacts with whom I have a history tend to be of higher importance. I need to read those messages relatively quickly.

Let me fully admit that I'm generally not a fan of filtering messages into another folder because it just creates the need to adopt yet another new habit?the act of checking that new folder?but with SaneBox, the system just works. I know there are emails worth scanning in that new folder, so I will check it when I can. Whether it will work for you largely depends on your current email needs and your personal preferences for how you weed your inbox. But it works very well, in my estimation, and is highly customizable if you purchase the right subscription plan.?

SaneBox's Simple Setup
To use SaneBox, all you have to do is enter your email and email password into the Web interface on the signup page. SaneBox works for Web mail (such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com, etc.) as well as accounts hosted on IMAP and Exchange servers. There's nothing to download or install. The free trial doesn't require a credit card.

A short time after signing up, you'll receive an email explaining what changes SaneBox has made to your email, which amounts to creating a new folder called @SaneLater where it will automatically sort any incoming messages from email addresses to whom you have never written or replied before. All your other mail continues to flow into your inbox like normal.

I set up a SaneBox account with my corporate email, which is hosted through Gmail, but which I typically access using Microsoft Outlook running on my desktop PC. I was up and running with SaneBox in a couple of minutes. The new folder appeared on my local Outlook program, as well as in my Gmail webmail.

The email from SaneBox (and info on the website) explains that you can re-train SaneBox to sort mail differently by simply dragging messages from the @SaneLater folder into the inbox, or vice versa, depending on where you'd like messages from that address to go in the future.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8VLafDx8ywM/0,2817,2419656,00.asp

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NKorea sanctions squeeze cash for aid groups

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside.

At the same time, some restrictions are meant to sting the country's elite by crippling the import of luxury goods, such as yachts, fancy cars and jewelry. But they do not appear to be stopping the well-heeled from living large in the capital Pyongyang.

Much of the aid group difficulties are linked to the state-run Bank of China's decision earlier this month to follow Washington's lead and sever ties with the North's Foreign Trade Bank, the main money transfer route for most foreign organizations, U.N. agencies and embassies in Pyongyang. With that line cut, aid workers in North Korea say they are left with few other options to receive foreign currency for expenses including rent, bills and salaries for local staff.

The sanctions are not supposed to affect humanitarian aid, but six Pyongyang-based aid organizations headquartered in Europe issued a communique earlier this month spelling out their frustrations and calling the difficulties in transferring money to North Korea a "big problem." They warned that they may be forced to suspend their operations if they cannot find ways to access cash. A handful of American non-governmental organizations also work in North Korea, but they cycle in and out and do not maintain a permanent presence.

Gerhard Uhrmacher, program manager for German humanitarian aid organization Welthungerhilfe, said when recent bank transfers failed, he managed to keep projects running by routing 500,000 euros ($643,000) to Chinese or North Korean accounts in China to pay for building supplies and other goods.

He said Welthungerhilfe, which signed the communique and works on agriculture and rural development projects in North Korea, has some reserves in Pyongyang but must also resort to carrying cash into the country by hand.

"It doesn't give a good impression. We're trying to be transparent, to be open to all sides and now we're more or less forced to do something that doesn't really look very proper because people who carry a lot of cash are somehow suspect," said Uhrmacher who is based in Germany and has worked in North Korea for the past 10 years.

"Whatever you're doing, everybody looks at you very closely," he said. "That's why we don't like it because bank accounts are proper. Everybody can have a look at it and everybody can control it. Now we are forced to do something else."

Some analysts said aid groups were simply "collateral damage" and that they will find a way to work around the sanctions as they have been forced to do in other countries. Others said the poorest North Koreas would be hurt if some humanitarian groups have to pull out of the country. The aid groups work on a range of issues from food security to improving health and assisting with disabilities.

Aid groups "may not provide as much support as governments, but they have the ability to reach the deep corners of the impoverished North where people are in most need," said Woo Seongji, a professor of international relations at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. "Their help is both symbolic and substantial. It reaches kids, hospitals and food shelters that outside governments may not be able to support consistently because of political considerations."

The latest sanctions have added challenges to the already difficult system of getting money into North Korea since ally China has restrictions on how much foreign currency can be legally taken beyond its borders.

Sanctions and trade embargoes have long been used by the international community to put an economic squeeze on troublesome regimes from Iraq and Myanmar to Cuba. But they are a blunt tool that can unintentionally add to the suffering of people living under oppressive rule by hindering development and the delivery of aid.

In North Korea's case, the sanctions are meant to stop financing and the smuggling of cash that could help its nuclear and missile programs. They also aim to send a message to the country's elite by crushing the import of luxury goods.

Yet last week at the newly opened six-story Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, well-dressed North Koreans chatted on mobile phones and browsed in a high-end boutique that sold everything from fine Italian suits and Dior makeup to glass showcases glittering with diamonds and gold.

The opulent center boasted 17 different themed dining rooms and cavernous banquet halls, some with their own bathrooms and round tables big enough to seat 30 people. Upstairs, young couples played pool, lounged in the sauna and munched on sushi while sipping cans of Coke and beer. Others splashed in a heated indoor swimming pool replete with waterfalls or worked out at a fitness center filled with state-of-the-art equipment. Downstairs at a popular restaurant, a chef delighted guests by cooking on a grill in front of them ? at a cost of $50 a plate, not including drinks.

Meanwhile, at the airport, a Toshiba 42-inch flatscreen TV slowly made loops on the baggage carousel. All proof that high-end merchandise is still making its way to the upper class in an impoverished country where two-thirds of its 24 million people don't have enough to eat.

Uhrmacher said that despite repeated European Union vows that sanctions will not affect humanitarian aid, the pinch is being felt by all the organizations working in North Korea. The EU has not sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank, but he said due to U.S. political pressure and fears of becoming entangled in controversy, European banks do not want to be associated with it. Bank of China had typically been used as a channel to route money to the aid groups' North Korean accounts.

Most foreign embassies, NGOs and businesses have accounts at FTB or the Daedong Credit Bank. Daedong was named in an earlier round of U.S. sanctions, leading many embassies and NGOs to open accounts at the FTB.

"We are concerned regarding possible unintended effects of certain sanctions, in particular with regard to humanitarian assistance, and stress the need to overcome these unintended effects," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton.

The U.S. Treasury Department hit the North Korean bank with sanctions in March, effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system after accusing the country's main foreign exchange institution of funding Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. Washington pressured Beijing to also impose restrictions on the bank a month after new leader Kim Jong Un angered his biggest economic supporter by conducting an underground nuclear test.

The U.N. responded to that move by slapping Pyongyang with its toughest-ever sanctions. Tensions then boiled and North Korea spewed threats for weeks, including plans to launch nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies. The mood has since cooled, with the North sending a high-level envoy to Beijing last week to deliver a message that they were willing to take steps toward rejoining stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

Embassies and U.N. agencies are also affected by the banking transfer issues, but several officials refused to comment due to the sensitivity of the issue. However, the U.N. in Pyongyang said last month that the sanctions were hurting its ability to raise funds, resulting in a shortage of drugs and vaccines. The World Health Organization also said it's harder to import equipment and medicine because everyone has become over cautious at all levels before clearing materials.

The World Food Program said it has not yet been affected by the banking problems. It only needs limited funding within North Korea as financial transactions for its food aid are completed outside the country.

____

Associated Press writers Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

____

Follow Margie Mason on Twitter: twitter.com/MargieMasonAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-sanctions-squeeze-cash-aid-104302806.html

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The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 4PM ET!

Time to dust off the 'ol microphone and get back to podcasting! As many of you have noted, we're coming off of a short hiatus -- thanks to trade shows, conflicting schedules and a certain podcast co-host moving out of his house, all at the same time -- but we're back now, and we're ready to chat it up about what we've seen over the past three weeks. Join us in an hour!

Tue May 28 4:00:00 2013 PM EDT

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/28/engadget-mobile-podcast/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Cat Does Battle with Cardboard Cat: It's On!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/cat-does-battle-with-cardboard-cat-its-on/

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Sri Lanka investigating monk's self-immolation

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) ? Sri Lanka's government is investigating media who covered the death of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the slaughter of cattle.

The Media Ministry website says the monk could have been saved had media personnel informed authorities about his intentions.

Bowatte Indraratana died at Colombo National Hospital over the weekend after setting himself on fire Friday near the famed Temple of Buddha's Tooth Relic in the central town of Kandy. The 30-year-old was the first monk to self-immolate in Sri Lanka.

Buddhism, Sri Lanka's state religion, opposes the killing of any life. Nearly 75 percent of Sri Lankans are Buddhists. Many Buddhists in Sri Lanka do eat meat, but most avoid beef because they consider cows sacred.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sri-lanka-investigating-monks-self-immolation-064022310.html

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Is this considered rude behavior or am I over-reacting? - Love Forum ...

Hi all. First off, I want to let you know I am probably being naive with relationships as I have not had a lot of experience but I wish to know if this is common that men say these things and I am over-reacting or if I am on the right track when I feel he is being very rude, etc.
And of course, I am going to keep this as anonymous as possible.

Thanks in advance for your input.

I have met this guy, around same age as me. We struck up a conversation right away as we share similar interests. I thought, ok, well, I'll give it a shot and so we went on a few dates. Nothing special - movies, dinner, the usual. I didn't sleep with him straight away-but after seeing each other, talking, texting, etc., we finally did. OK, no biggie.

That's the gist of it thus far.

Well, I have noticed lately (we've been going out for about 8 months now - though not 'officially' declared as bf/gf status) that when we talk he is often boastful, speaks of past girlfriends, such as "when so-and-so and I were dating...." or "my last girlfriend, a couple years ago..." (at this point I have lost count of how many alleged 'girlfriends he has had)

or he will say things like, "I don't know what they would do without me at work" or "I run circles around others when I am at work regarding computer knowledge"
Other things he has said to me, which are even more disturbing; One day he asked what I was up to and I told him and remarked that I was hungry and was thinking about going to get some fast food and a shake. (Mind you I am 5'4" and about 118 lbs) and he goes, "that's just your inner fatty trying to claw its way out"
He said it with a straight face. He as not joking around. Then he said to me, "well, I (meaning HIM) have gained weight, I can see my belly hanging over my belt, so does that make me less attractive to you"

Another instance he remarked that with his past relationships that he had some girls afraid to gain any weight because he said that he'd never be seen with someone who is fat or doesn't take care of themselves. And he laughed when he said that some past gf were afraid to even gain any weight.
He is constantly calling his co-workers 'lazy' or 'silly stupid people' and then when a co-worker abruptly quit work after being on maternity leave he said that he was glad she was gone and that people don't understand his stance on maternity leave - so I asked what IS his stance. His reply was that he feels it is the choice of the woman to have the child so either the woman should save up her time off or be able to be let go. It's not like cancer that just happens.

These are just a few comments that I can think of off top of my head that have perturbed me about him and I am now finding myself pulling back more and more - less contact with him because of what he has said.

And yes, for the record, I have called him out and questioned him on the things that he's said.

So am I being over-reactive to this or is just how some guys are?

I want to just cut it off and move on but I don't want to think I am being childish and over reacting either...need clarification, I guess.

Thanks.

**adorkableme

Source: http://www.loveforum.net/threads/81009-Is-this-considered-rude-behavior-or-am-I-over-reacting

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Iraq officials says separate attacks kill 11

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Gunmen and other attackers killed at least 11 people and wounded more than two dozen in separate attacks in Iraq on Sunday, officials said.

The deadliest attack was in Kazimiyah district in northern Baghdad, where militants in a speeding car went on shooting spree that killed three civilians and wounded another, two police officers said.

The violence was the latest to hit the country in what has been a particularly bloody month. Some 300 people have been killed in attacks over the past two weeks.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb went off at a house early in the morning while a joint army-police unit was conducting door-to-door searches. The blast killed three policemen and one soldier, a provincial police officer said. Twenty people, including four civilians, were wounded.

Also in Mosul, police said militants gunned down a policeman in his car in the city center. Authorities also found a body floating in the Tigris river, shot at close range with hands bound behind the back. Mosul, some 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is a former stronghold of Sunni militants.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, the birthplace of the Sunni insurgency led by al-Qaida in Iraq, three soldiers were killed and five wounded in two separate attacks by roadside bombs on their patrols, police and army officers said.

Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to release information.

Insurgent attacks have decreased sharply in Iraq since the height of insurgency, but recent spikes in attacks amid months-old Sunni protests against the Shiite-led government have raised fears that sectarian killings could gain momentum across the country.

Alarmed by a nationwide deterioration in the security situation, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered a reshuffle in senior military ranks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-officials-says-separate-attacks-kill-11-132705266.html

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Shift to the Future: Mobile Revolution

I am amazed how mobile computing has taken the world by storm.? It really is like a revolution.? Traditional ways of computer are being disrupted, some might suggest out of existence.? We increasingly read headlines (here, another) about the death or end of the desktop computer.? Actually it?s more, the death of the MP3 player, digital camera, calculator, voice recorder, handheld GPS, camcorder, to list a few other casualties.? I think this is great ? fewer specific use devices to buy and haul around with you is a good thing.? Costs to own a diverse set of devices disappears into the single purpose device.? However, can the mobile device really meet all of our needs in the most effective way?? Is there still a place for ?traditional? devices such as the desktop?

My own experience is that I might use my home desktop computer an hour or two a week at most and that?s mainly for banking, some email and Facebook, maybe a bit of Twitter, and at certain times to research companies, products, and vacation options.? My work laptop I use throughout the week when I?m in my office, mainly for email, calendaring, research, writing / planning, and designing/creating presentations.? I also use my laptop at home some evenings and most weekends to catch up on work, and of course, to write for this blog.? However, my mobile technology is used, statistically, far more.? This is relatively new for me.? Finally the smartphone (I use an iPhone 5) with an LTE data connection is powerful enough to be my go to device for most consumption and communication.?

I almost exclusively take my tablet (I use an iPad 4 with LTE) to meetings to take notes (with Evernote), do calendaring and email, and to look up stuff and share it.? My tablet is also my go to device at conference sessions or other talks / training where I mainly use a Twitter client (Twitter or HootSuite) and a note taking tool (usually Evernote).? I also prefer my tablet for reading web content and ebooks (Kindle) but when heading to a Starbucks to chill with a book and a coffee, I find that my smartphone is now all I need.?

In a Starbucks, I fire up Tunein.com and listen to some obscure online ?radio station? from somewhere in the world, bring up Kindle and lose myself in the book and the music.? While reading, I often share thoughts and quotes using the Twitter app on the device ? as others respond, I might engage with them about the content just shared.? To take a break, I may pop into Facebook, email, Flipboard, Zite, or my calendar.? The book content might trigger something I want to remember so I set a reminder in the device so I don?t forget it.? When I?m commuting home from work, I listen to audio books via the Audible.com app.? If I want to remember something that I heard, I can one touch pause the book, one touch press to get Siri to wake up, then I ask ?her? to remind me about whatever it is I just heard in the book.? Then back to the book.? In case you?re wondering, no, I?m not holding the phone while driving ? it sits conveniently where I can one button/touch access it.? Note, I also use the smartphone as my GPS to accurately find my way around Vancouver from school to school ? it works great.? Five years ago I would?ve been stuck writing down directions and / or using a paper based map.

Only a few years ago, my laptop was the go to device for all of my work, consumption, and communication.? Note, I?ve not used a desktop computer at work for over a dozen years.? However, I can?t see, yet, not having three devices to cover off all my needs as an information worker.? Sure I can edit pictures and videos on my mobile devices, I can blog and write, I can even create presentations using Keynote.? But? it is super inefficient and limiting.? I leverage the multi-windowed nature of my laptop to be working with spreadsheets, documents, presentations, email, calendar, Twitter, web content, pictures, videos, blog writer, etc. at the same time.? My productivity would be severely reduced if I did not have my laptop.? Also, I leverage the large screen that is on my desk at work and home for ?heavy? compare and contrast activities.? More screen real estate is essential to efficient multitasking and multi-tool use.? However, let?s not limit our thinking to the present or near future.? Let?s imagine how mobile devices could replace all need for laptops or desktops.

The three main challenges with mobile devices are computing power, input, and display.? Computing power needs are rapidly being taken care of ? this problem will certainly disappear.? Perhaps with the interface improvements described here, these could take on CAD, animation design, programming, and other heavy duty work, especially when matched to Cloud Computing.? The other two are interesting.? For input, I am finding Siri to be quite capable.? It has a ways to go though ? it can?t recognize words well enough for me to interact effectively through voice.? The other challenge with voice is being able to sequence my thoughts and ideas, and edit them, verbally.? I think verbal interactions are great for asking about stuff, giving direction, and raw recording of notes, documents, and communications.? However, through my fingers, I manipulate and refine these into more appropriate formats and also ensure coherence.? I can imagine mobile interfaces to emerge that are virtual holographic keyboards and provide a virtual tactile ?feel? so my fingers can ?touch? the projected keys.? The next stage might be a mind meld of sorts where I can immerse my mind in the activity and content and manipulate it, edit it, add other content, etc. with my thoughts.? The point is, I shouldn?t have to add physical attachments like keyboards to my handheld mobile devices ? that option makes no sense to me.? The third challenge of display will be overcome with 3D holographic projections that immerge from the device and be sized to whatever I need.? I will be able to manipulate the image with my hands to zoom, turn, dive deep, back out, move content around, etc.? Perhaps the combination of this with a mind meld with the device will be all I need.? You don?t think this is possible?? Read history, go back a thousand years, then plot the technology change over time and consider what people thought to be impossible even 20 years ago that we take for granted today.? We are experiencing a time warp ? change is exponential, perhaps faster.? Impossible is a dangerous word to use in our world today ? it causes us to underestimate the future.

How might you see mobile technology evolving?? How has it changed your life thus far?? Get ready for the future, it?s coming soon to a mobile device near you!

Source: http://www.shift2future.com/2013/05/mobile-revolution.html

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Source: http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/38244200/device/rss/rss.xml

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Anti-Muslim actions rise in UK over slain soldier

LONDON (AP) ? Police, politicians and activists in Britain are warning of rising anti-Muslim sentiment following the slaughter of an off-duty British soldier in a London street, an apparent act of Islamic extremism that has horrified the nation.

Metropolitan Police investigating the killing of Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old soldier who was run over by attackers then butchered by knives, arrested three more men in the murder investigation Saturday. Stun guns were used on two of the three men, aged 24 and 28, police said.

The latest arrests came as an estimated 1,500 members of an extremist right-wing group called the English Defense League marched in the northern English city of Newcastle, chanting Rigby's name. In the southern English city of Portsmouth, police arrested two men for a racially motivated assault as hundreds of demonstrators gathered near one mosque, while several more people were detained for alleged racist offenses elsewhere.

The two men suspected of killing the soldier, Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene. Police have not officially named the suspects because they have not been charged, but British officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the investigation, have confirmed their names to The Associated Press.

Wednesday's murder in southeast London's Woolwich area shocked the nation partly because the horrific scenes were recorded on witnesses' cellphones, and a video picked up by British media showed one of the two suspects, his hands bloodied, making political statements and warning of further violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.

Counter-terrorism police also are questioning a friend of Adebolajo who was arrested Friday night immediately after he gave BBC Television an interview detailing why he thought Adebolajo may have become radicalized.

Metropolitan Police said the friend, identified by the BBC as 31-year-old Abu Nusaybah, was wanted himself on suspicion of "the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." The force declined to elaborate.

In his BBC interview, Nusaybah said he knew Adebolajo as a moderate Islam convert. He said he thought Adebolajo's behavior changed after a trip to Kenya last year, and alleged that Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency tried to recruit him upon his return six months ago.

Rigby's killing ? and Adebolajo's apparent link to Islamic extremism ? has stirred anti-Muslim backlashes across Britain. Police said they arrested three people on suspicion of posting racist tweets ahead of the English Defense League march, and further detained 24 others before and during the protest on suspicion of public drunkenness, vandalism and distributing racist literature. One group of marchers carried a sign that read "Taliban Hunting Club."

About 350 counterdemonstrators who called themselves Newcastle Unites shouted abuse at the marchers, including "Nazi scum off our streets!" The region's Northumbria Police said riot police prevented any direct clashes between the opposed groups.

Meanwhile, the far-right British National Party announced it would rally supporters next weekend on the spot where the young soldier was killed.

"Has the horror of Woolwich woken you up too? ... Join the British resistance," British National Party leader Nick Griffin said in a video address Saturday to supporters announcing his plans for a "Stand Up to Muslim Terror" rally at the scene of the crime, where thousands already have left floral bouquets paying tribute to the soldier.

A group that campaigns against extremism, Faith Matters, said it has received reports of around 150 anti-Muslim hate crimes across Britain since the soldier was killed Wednesday, more than 10 times the usual rate. Its director, Fiyaz Mughal, said he was particularly concerned by how geographically widespread the actions, including street fights and the vandalism of mosques, had become.

"Some of them are quite aggressive, very focused, very aggressive attacks ... against institutions or places where Muslims congregate," he said.

Questions abound over what could have led the two men to attack Rigby, a drummer and machine-gunner who had served in Afghanistan and was off-duty when he was walking near his barracks. Nusaybah's interview with the BBC offered one possible narrative. He said Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there.

"Although that change wasn't necessarily one that became overt, aggressive or anything like that, he became ... less talkative. He wasn't his bubbly self," Nusaybah told the BBC.

He said MI5 agents approached Adebolajo after he returned to Britain and initially asked him if he had met specific Muslim militants, then asked Adebolajo if he was willing to act as an informer.

"He was explicit in that he refused to work for them," Nusaybah said.

The BBC said police arrested Nusaybah outside its studio immediately after the interview was recorded.

"This interviewee had important background information that sheds light on this horrific event," the BBC said in a statement. "And when we asked him to appear and interviewed him, we were not aware he was wanted for questioning by the police."

It was not immediately possible to verify the information provided by Nusaybah, who said he had known Adebolajo for about a decade. MI5 does not publicly discuss its efforts to recruit informers.

In Kenya, Anti-Terrorism Police Unit chief Boniface Mwaniki said police were checking their records to confirm whether Adebolajo had been in their custody. Mwaniki rejected any suggestion that Adebolajo had been abused.

Nusaybah said Adebolajo converted to Islam around 2004. His account corroborates those provided by two Muslim hard-liners who said they also knew Adebolajo.

Anjem Choudary, a former leader of a banned British radical group called al-Muhajiroun, said Adebolajo was a Christian who converted to Islam around 2003. Choudary told the AP that Adebolajo participated in several of the group's London demonstrations before Britain outlawed al-Muhajiroun in 2010.

Omar Bakri Muhammad, another former al-Muhajiroun leader and radical Muslim preacher, said Adebolajo is a Nigerian who was born and raised in Britain. He said Adebolajo attended his London lectures in the early 2000s, but added he had not stayed in touch with the suspect since then.

Bakri fled London and resettled in Lebanon in 2005 after suicide attacks on London's public transit system killed 56 people, including four bombers.

"I don't know what Michael did since 2004 or 2005," Bakri told the AP. "Two years ago he stopped attending our open lectures and lessons as well as our activities."

The University of Greenwich confirmed Saturday that Adebolajo was a student there from 2003 to 2005 but dropped out.

Fewer details have emerged about Adebowale besides one reported brush with death as a teenager.

The Guardian newspaper, citing police and court records, reported Saturday that Adebowale was stabbed in 2008, when a man attacked him and two friends in a London apartment. One 18-year-old friend died and the attacker received a life sentence for murder, the newspaper said.

MI5 Director-General Andrew Parker is expected to deliver a preliminary report next week to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee detailing what the agency knew about both suspects and whether the domestic spy agency could have done anything to stop the attack.

The directors of Britain's foreign spy agency, MI6, and Britain's eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, also are expected to give reports on what intelligence they had on the two men.

Police earlier this week detained three others in connection with the murder probe. Two women were released without charge, and a 29-year-old man has been bailed pending further questioning.

___

Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds in London, Tom Odula in Nairobi, Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anti-muslim-actions-rise-uk-over-slain-soldier-214347165.html

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5 Memorial Day Weekend Health Hazards

For many people Memorial Day weekend means finally getting to kick off summer by striking up the barbecue, taking a dip in the ocean or simply basking in the sunshine during a long weekend.

But celebrating the unofficial start of summer also means encountering a few hazards of the season. From sunburns to bug bites or even an ill-cooked hotdog, the summer months have a few perils to contend with. To help you avoid these pitfalls, we've put together a list of five health hazards for the summer months and how to avoid them.

Sunburns

After a long winter hibernation, it can be tempting to soak up as much sun as possible during a day at the beach or a picnic in the park, but experts warn that even a single sunburn can do lasting damage to the skin.

To enjoy the sun safely, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends using water-resistant, broad-spectrum sunscreen, which protects against UVA and UVB rays, which has an SPF of 30 or higher.

Additionally, experts advise seeking shade from 10a.m. to 2p.m., when the sun's rays are the strongest.

Unfortunately water and sand can amplify the sun's rays, so be extra-careful during trips to the beach. And be sure to reapply sun block every two hours or after taking a dip in the ocean.

If you do get a sunburn, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends taking a cool bath, popping a few aspirin or ibuprofen to help lessen the swelling and redness, and drinking lots of water since a sunburn draws fluid from the body.

Insects that Sting and Bite

One consequence of enjoying the great outdoors is being assailed by various stinging and biting insects that only a beekeeper outfit could keep at bay.

While many of these insects are merely a nuisance, for people who are allergic, they pose a clear and even deadly threat to their health. The American College of Allergies, Asthma and Immunology estimates that 2 million Americans are allergic to insect stings. That includes people who are at risk of having a potentially fatal reaction to the venom of certain insects.

More than 500,000 Americans end up in the hospital every year due to insect stings and bites, and they cause at least 50 known deaths a year.

Richard Pollack, a public health entomologist and instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health, says it's imperative for those who are allergic to insect stings to carry around an epi-pen, which can be used to easily inject epinephrine to help ease a severe allergic reaction.

"It does you no good to have it in your medicine cabinet if you're out and about [and get stung]," said Pollack.

In addition to life-threatening reactions from bee or wasp stings, warmer weather also means ticks will be actively looking for a host to feed off. Ticks can carry multiple diseases, including Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In extremely rare cases their saliva can even lead to temporarily paralysis.

"If you're going to enjoy the outdoors, even just a backyard barbecue, you run some risk of acquiring a tick," said Pollack. "At the end of the day, do a tick check on yourself, children and even your pets."

In cases of paralysis caused by tick saliva, once the tick is removed the paralysis will quickly dissipate.

To keep insects at bay during the spring and summer months, Pollack recommends using an insect repellent when outdoors and putting screens over your windows to keep out pests such as mosquitoes.

Food Poisoning

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/long-weekend-health-hazards/story?id=19241794

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How to get an early look at the new Google Maps with a bit of cookie know-how

We had the opportunity to grab an early look at the new and refreshed Google Maps, but not everyone is as fortunate; you either had to be an I/O attendee or hope you received an invitation after requesting one. However, a tipster has sent Android Police a set of instructions that'll let you get in on the new Maps without those pre-requisites. All you need is the ability to manually set cookies via a Chrome extension like this one or an alternate browser. Then visit the Google Maps page, replace the cookie labeled NID with a special code (we've included it after the break), and voilà, the brand new Google Maps will appear before your eyes. Now you too will be able to enjoy more visually enticing navigation -- just don't expect it to feel like a skydive.

Filed under: Google

Comments

Source: Android Police

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/24/how-to-get-new-google-maps-early/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Quebecer Pilote wins at Cannes - Montreal Gazette

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Actors Gabriel Arcand, and Sophie Desmarais in the movie Le D?mant?lement.

Photograph by: Seville Pictures

Note: This was originally reported on the Show Biz Chez Nous blog at montrealgazette.com/showbiz

MONTREAL - Well we'll found out Sunday if Montreal filmmaker Chlo? Robichaud's Sarah pr?f?re la course ends up winning the Camera d'or as best first film at the Cannes Film Festival. But the other Quebec film at Cannes has already snared a prize.

S?bastien Pilote's Le D?mant?lement has won the Soci?t? des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD) prize in La Semaine de la Critique. The award is chosen from the films in this section of the Cannes fest and is chosen by a jury made-up-of filmmaker members of the SACD board of directors.

Le D?mant?lement has already done well on the sales market at Cannes. It has been sold to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France, Cineworx for Switzerland, Hollywood Distribution for Greece, and Teleview for Middle East.

The second feature from Pilote - who made quite the impression with his debut, Le Vendeur - tells the story of Gaby (Gabriel Arcand), a sheep farmer who decides to sell his farm when one of his daughters runs into financial difficulty. It also stars Sophie Desmarais. Like Le Vendeur, the film is written and directed by Pilote. It's set to be released here in the fall.

? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Quebec+director+S%C3%A9bastien+Pilote+wins+Cannes/8428367/story.html

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The Gin and Tonic

A gin and tonic

Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

The restaurant?s main dining room was, like my lunch partner?s expense account, majestically commodious, and the light softly filling its temperate air seemed as buttery as the kitchen?s Dover sole. Earlier this month in midtown Manhattan, my film agent and I conducted a most productive business lunch at Oceana, where the severely assuaging atmosphere enhanced a discussion of the second draft of my first screenplay, a feature-film tribute to the gin and tonic. We glowed with the knowledge that we were full of fortune. And liquor.

The restaurant had 38 bottles of juniper juice on the wall and four house-made tonic waters on offer?sweet, citrus, bitter, and spicy?and the patrons were in the right place at the right time: There has been a spontaneous mass decision to take the basic G&T to new heights of style and depths of flavor . The phenomenon is really quite striking: From the banks of the Ohio River to the beer halls of the Texas plains, bars are making tonic water from scratch and taking care to fuse its particular flavors with those of a very well-chosen gin. Washingtonians enduring the swamp conditions to which they have been consigned can now counter the sweat on the brows with the condensation on a glass of G&T poured from a tap. In Baghdad by the Bay, G&Ts flow like the Tigris and Euphrates, a glance at SF Weekly?s notes on Brasserie S&P would seem to indicate: ?Patrons can customize the perfect gin & tonic for themselves by selecting one of 31 different gins (most accompanied by tasting notes), choice of tonic water, including two house made varieties, and finally one of the elegant garnishes.? New York of course is delirious, and as of this week's dining section, our friends at the Times are on it. Point is, this summer, from the clambakes of Martha?s Vineyard to the cookouts of La Jolla, partygoers will come to refresh their appreciation of its classic crispness.

And while you guys are out having fun, I hope to be posted up at Oceana and working through its 132 gin and tonics. Getting G&T: The Movie into development and preproduction will require the careful plying of dozens of investors, because our goal is to produce the film independently, and my ambitions for the project are titanically deranged. After dessert, the agent and I glided from the dining room to the white-marble bar to review the script page by page, and she supposed that following through on all of my ideas would yield a seven-hour film costing $600 million to produce, not including marketing costs, or tips. ?But we must do justice to the summer blockbuster of mixed drinks!? I cried, and we gently lay our foreheads on the bartop to cool the fever of the ongoing brainstorm.

At the center of the film is an account of the drink?s origins in the 1800s, among the officers of the British East India Company, who caught buzzes in the course of fighting mosquito-borne illness. ?The British dominance of its empire in India was due in part to juniper in its form as gin,? a Cambridge botanist writes. ?Gin and tonic was a staple, containing quinine from the South American shrub Cinchona, which warded off malaria. It therefore took administrators ten years to die instead of five.?

My postcolonial take on the birth of the drink builds to a Bollywood-style musical number scored to Oasis? ?Supersonic? as arranged for sitar. Then, with the segue of the Jicks? ?Pink India,? that set piece morphs kaleidoscopically into another, an homage to the G&T?s special place in American culture. The second number is in the style of a co-ed Busby Berkeley fantasia, but with the boys costumed in Nantucket Reds and the girls in high-heeled boat shoes and all of them dancing the shag to an original song by Vampire Weekend (feat. the Yale Whippenpoofs). The G&T, like the madras and seersucker fabrics upon which it is so often spilled, is a subcontinental invention appropriated for the warm-weather pleasure of Americans WASPs of all races and creeds. As the authors of the definitive guide to preppy drinking put it, ?When mixed well, and sipped on the back of a Sag Harbor beach house at 7:32 pm on a Friday, there?s really nothing better.?

These conjoined musical sequences have been the center of the film since I began the imagining of it. The mood I?m aiming for should reflect the composition of a well-made G&T, with one measure of intoxicating sharpness balancing every two measures of sparkling pop. In an attempt to squeeze into the script a lime-like dramatic tartness, I wrote a small part for James Spader as a boarding-school chemistry teacher who collaborates with a former student to make bathtub gin. And then I started compulsively adding ideas and context and now, well, the beginning of the thing is all INT. BEDROOM, VICEREGAL PALACE (PERU)?NIGHT:

In her bedchamber, Ana de Osario?also known as the Countess of Cinchon and more to the point the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, which is to say the big enchilada in all of Spanish South America in the 1630s?tosses sweat-glazed in tangled sheets. Her writhing is nearly erotic [I like Pen?lope Cruz for the part] until an Exorcist-quality spasm of Python-quantity projectile vomiting breaks the reverie. Malarial fever has seized the vicereine.

In the gloom of the room, servants tread lightly amid heavy furniture, and the viceroy paces fretfully. From the ill woman?s POV these motions darkly melt into vague hallucinations evocative of the oblong blobs of slide views of Plasmodium.

A Jesuit priest enters. Our first thought is that he will deliver last rites?but then he mutters some untranslated sentences to the husband. These are greeted with the brightened eyes of cautious optimism?and then the lady?s hallucinations deepen, resolving into a vision of natives in the Andean night, stripping a bush of its bark. An Incan healer treats the bark, and the bark heals the countess, who in 1639 returns to Europe bearing the Countess?s Powder, the febrifuge known to you and me as quinine ?

And in that fashion we bounce through world history, just for a quarter of a millennium or so, skipping across three or four colonial empires. We chase La Condamine on his quinquina quest to Quito. We linger amazed at the inhumanity of the Dutch, who cultivated the fever tree on Java?and who cultivated a virtual monopoly from Amsterdam, fixing prices without remorse while malaria patients died. Holland bought its seeds from an English alpaca farmer named Charles Ledger, whose expeditions through the Andes involved the smuggler?s blues and the slow torture and sudden death of his local guide, Manuel Incra Mamani.

I confessed to the agent that I was fixated on the story of Ledger and Mamani, with its ambiguous dynamics of loyalty and exploitation, and I confessed, further, that I was having trouble thinking of actors ideally cast in the parts. She said, ?Benedict Cumberbatch and Gael Garc?a Bernal. Boom.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=619b8ee9d155c34899bf168f263b2579

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Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Xbox One Raises the Burden of Privacy Safeguards: 5 Questions for Microsoft

Some things you take for granted, like the fact that in Star Trek, there?s a computer that?s always listening, always observing, always standing More??

Time.com - Wed, May 22, 2013

Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/techblog

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If Tumblr Were a Person, They'd Be This Annoying

Cloying, GIF-happy, nostalgic, attention span devoid?this woman-as-website impression could only be better if she, well, did some really horrible things! But it's otherwise perfect.

Really, Yahoo could have spent a lot less and just hired Dara Katz.

Source: http://valleywag.gawker.com/your-new-favorite-video-if-tumblr-were-a-person-509741054

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Dating Superman

In the future, will we be able to examine our brain activity to empirically determine whether an emotion is love or lust?

Photo by David McNew/Reuters

When you're single and going on lots of dates, you start to wish you had some sort of dating superpower. Perhaps a Spidey sense to help you differentiate Ms. Right from Ms. Wrong. Or a charm spell to win over that dreamy person who's out of your league. Or?for efficiency's sake?the capacity to be on three dates at the same time.

If we extrapolate from current trends, we might imagine that superpowered dating in the future will involve further advances in communication. All the cutting-edge dating tech these days is focused on using the Internet to throw people in touch with one another. There are online services like OkCupid, which scour thousands of sortable profiles. There are apps like Blendr, which alert you to the presence of available singles in your geographic vicinity. And there's Bang With Friends, which turns your Facebook account into an underground sex club.

For the sake of this story, and because my editor suggested it, I tried out Bang With Friends. The app showed me profile photos of all my female Facebook contacts?including my sister, my mother, and many moms holding up their toddlers for the camera. Then it asked me to click on each of the photos I was "Down to Bang." This made me wonder if perhaps at this point we've maxed out on the Internet as a dating aid.

The real breakthrough in future dating might not be about sifting through and encountering more prospects than we ever could meet IRL. It might be about more quickly and accurately determining which people are particularly good matches for us. That could be a job better suited to biotech.

Will McIntosh is the author of the sci-fi novel Love Minus Eighty, set 100 years into the future, in which attractive dead people are cryogenically preserved, partially reanimated, and allowed to date from beyond the grave. McIntosh has spent a lot of time contemplating the future of hooking up. "I think one exciting possibility is more use of brain imaging," he says. "Using an fMRI, we might see exactly what love looks like in a brain."

McIntosh envisions us examining our own brain activity to empirically determine whether an emotion is love or lust. Or?using some discreet, futuristic device?we might look into our date's brain to see if its patterns suggest feelings of affection, boredom, or contempt. "People also lie so much, particularly in the early stages of meeting someone," says McIntosh. "With brain imaging we might be close to having a foolproof lie detector. I could see that coming in handy for speed dating."

Patricia Brennan, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, seems to think we could just ditch speed dating altogether and replace it with speed sniffing. "We pick up a lot of cues from pheromones," she says. She notes studies that show body odors can be excellent predictors of romantic compatibility.

"We can smell a good mate," says Brennan, an expert on duck genitalia. She explains that the key lies in the composition of our immune system, specifically the cell-surface molecules known as the major histocompatibility complex. "We want someone whose MHC is very different from our own. That signals a different immune system, which will translate into having kids who have more genetic diversity and can fight off more diseases and parasites."

Right now, this sniff test all happens subconsciously?and only after we're close enough to a person to inhale his or her musk. But it's possible to imagine a time when we could easily scan a roomful of people using a sensor that could identify which ones have an MHC complementary to our own. Those people are the ones we should have kids with. And they're the ones that we might expect will be most attracted to us once they get a whiff of our pheromones. So, theoretically, all we'd need to do is make a beeline for the most genetically compatible person, get within nostril range, and let nature do its work.

Or why not just integrate MHC into online dating? Along with your height, education, and age, you could post your own MHC readings. The dating site algorithms could incorporate them into their searches for your perfect match.

I confess, I'd be tempted to peek at brain imaging if it meant I could know precisely how I feel toward someone, or how she feels toward me, without confusion and self-doubt clouding things up. I'd likewise pay very close attention to MHC if it meant a guarantee that I'd have healthy, hearty kids. Still, while technology and romance can without doubt be exciting partners (remember, this is the combo that brought the world sexting!) I wonder if new kinds of tech that take the guesswork out of love could also ruin a lot of the fun.

Read more from Slate?s Superman package: Everyday technologies that already give us superpowers. Is human enhancement cheating? Would you use superpowers for good or evil? Manimal rights: human-animal hybrids and chimeras. And how we may superpower the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=edac93e0a0e68e3afee18120d9918f3e

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