Mosquito behavior may be immune response, not parasite manipulation

May 22, 2013 ? Malaria-carrying mosquitoes appear to be manipulated by the parasites they carry, but this manipulation may simply be part of the mosquitoes' immune response, according to Penn State entomologists.

"Normally, after a female mosquito ingests a blood meal, she matures her eggs and does not take another one until the meal is digested," said Lauren J. Cator, postdoctoral fellow in entomology and a member of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Penn State. "If infected, however, mosquitoes will wait to eat until the parasites developing within the gut mature and migrate to the salivary glands."

It was thought that fasting until malaria could be transmitted was beneficial to the malaria parasite because if the female mosquito was not feeding, she was not being swatted. The return of hunger seemed to correlate with the migration of parasites to the salivary glands. The hungrier the mosquitoes are, the more they feed and the more chances to find new hosts.

Cator and colleagues who included Justin George, postdoctoral fellow; Simon Blanford, research associate; Courtney C. Murdock, postdoctoral fellow; Thomas C. Baker, professor of entomology; Andrew F. Read, professor of biology and entomology and alumni professor in biological sciences; and Matthew B. Thomas, professor of entomology, used a mouse model and showed that indeed female mosquitoes behaved in this way.

It was unclear if the malaria parasite caused the mosquitoes' response or if something else was in play. The researchers also looked at how the infected mosquitoes searched for meals and how they responded to the smell of humans. Although the mosquitoes used were biting mice, they also look to humans for a meal.

George ran the experiments testing the mosquito's sense of smell during various stages of parasite maturity and found that the mosquitoes responded to human smell much more readily once the parasites were ready to transfer to their hosts. The same was found of the meal-seeking behavior of the mosquitoes.

The researchers dissected the insects to determine the exact stage of the parasite in each mosquito they tested and what they found surprised them. They published their results in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B today (May 22).

"There were mosquitoes that took an infected blood meal, but didn't get infected or fought off the infection," said Cator. "These mosquitoes behaved in the same way as the infected mosquitoes."

The researchers then injected mosquitoes with killed E. coli to see the response. While the degree of fasting and food seeking was smaller, the noninfected, E. coli-challenged mosquitoes behaved in the same way. They fasted for about the same time and then went searching for a meal. Their responses to human smell and meal searching behavior also mirrored that of malaria-infected mosquitoes.

"Recently, a group from the Netherlands published in PLOS and while they were only looking at the mature parasites in the salivary glands, they found the same response to human odor," said Cator. "This supports that the response is a generalized response to a challenge rather than a manipulation by the malaria parasite and that our findings are probably relevant for human malaria transmission."

The National Institutes of Health supported this work.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/CrPpJiyguDk/130522142020.htm

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Committee nears final vote on immigration bill

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, confers with the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, May 20, 2013, as the committee assembles to work on a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions. The panel is aiming to pass the legislation out of committee this week, setting up a high-stakes debate on the Senate floor. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, confers with the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, May 20, 2013, as the committee assembles to work on a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions. The panel is aiming to pass the legislation out of committee this week, setting up a high-stakes debate on the Senate floor. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Judiciary Committee members Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. confer on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, May 20, 2013, as the committee assembled to work on a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions. The panel is aiming to pass the legislation out of committee this week, setting up a high-stakes debate on the Senate floor. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Far-reaching immigration legislation neared a final committee vote on Tuesday as the White House and Democratic supporters sought to delay a showdown over the rights of gay spouses until a debate in the full Senate.

"There have been 300 amendments. Why shouldn't we have one more?" replied Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was responding to concerns that a vote on the issue inside the panel could unravel months of work on the bill, which gives a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The measure also creates a new program for low-skilled foreign labor and would permit highly skilled workers into the country at far higher levels than is currently the case. At the same time, it requires the government take new steps to guard against future illegal immigration.

As the day wore on, opponents of the bill made a final bid to strip the measure of its signature feature ? a path to citizenship that could take 13 years and payment of fines totaling $2,000 to travel. Sen. Ted Cruz' proposal failed on a vote of 13-5.

The rejection was one of numerous ways in which the bipartisan coalition behind the White House-backed measure demonstrated its command of the proceedings.

Without so much as a roll call vote, the panel adopted a compromise setting the terms of the expansion of H-1B high tech visas, a deal that brought Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah over to the ranks of supporters.

Under the deal, the number of highly skilled workers admitted to the country would rise from 65,000 annually to 110,000, with the possibility of a further rise to 180,000 depending in part on unemployment levels.

Firms where foreign labor accounts for at least 15 percent of the skilled work force would be subjected to tighter conditions than companies less dependent on H-IB visa holders.

The compromise was negotiated by Hatch, whose state is home to a growing high tech industry, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. It is designed to balance the interests of industry, which relies increasingly on skilled foreign labor, and organized labor, which represents American workers.

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka attacked the deal sharply, saying Hatch's amendments "are unambiguous attacks on American workers," and change the bill so high tech companies can bring in foreign workers "without first making the jobs available to American workers.

At the same time, he reaffirmed organized labor's continuing support for the overall measure, a statement that allowed Schumer to add to the bill's majority in committee without driving organized labor into the camp of its opponents.

Robert Hoffman, senior vice president for government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council, welcomed the deal. "We think it strikes a very good balance between worker protections already in the bill and changes that essentially would make the H-1B visa workable," he said.

"We obviously want to keep moving the bill forward and building support for the legislation, and this agreement allows us to do so."

At the White House, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met privately in the Oval Office with a small group of the bill's supporters, part of the administration's campaign to build support.

Justino Mora, 23, who participated, later said he had told the group he came to the United States at age 11, brought by his mother from Mexico to escape poverty and an abusive father. Now a student at UCLA, he has achieved legal status as a result of administration policy that permits individuals brought to the United States as children to legalize.

His mother remains in the county illegally, he said, adding that he told Obama and Biden of the fear and uncertainty of not knowing if she will be deported or detained from one day to the next. "They both were very moved by that aspect. They're both parents," Mora said in an interview.

The controversy over the rights of gay spouses, with the ability to fracture a bipartisan coalition behind the legislation, has hovered in the background of the debate from the beginning.

As drafted by the Gang of Eight, four Republicans and four Democrats who negotiated the basic provisions of the legislation, gay spouses do not have the same right to a green card as heterosexual spouses.

Leahy has introduced a proposal to reverse that, a provision that gay rights organizations seek and that ordinarily the White House and all the committee's Democrats would back. In this case, though, its approval would almost certainly lead Republicans to abandon the bill, and it would face a quick demise on the Senate floor.

"It would kill the bill," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was a member of the Gang of Eight but does not have a seat on the Judiciary Committee. "You'd lose the evangelicals, you'd lose the Catholic Church, and the issue is wending its way through the courts. ... And so for the amendment to be included is destructive to this carefully crafted compromise."

Two people familiar with the deliberations said the White House had suggested to Leahy that it would be best to put the controversy aside until the bill goes before the full Senate, and congressional officials said similar pleas had come from Democratic senators. All said they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record and insisted on anonymity.

Leahy's comment to reporters was unlikely his final word on the issue, and hardly the first time he has demonstrated his independence on this and other bills. Most recently, he was the sole opponent of an amendment that passed 17-1 on Monday to make a third drunk driving conviction a deportable offense for immigrants in some instances.

Still, a vote on the proposal could create political difficulty for Democrats on the committee who support gay rights and are also members of the Gang of Eight, including Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. Durbin has told outside groups he will back the change if it is offered. Schumer hasn't said which way he would vote.

All eight authors of the bill have pledged to maintain the essential outlines of the legislation. A vote to add the gay rights provision could lead to approval on a party-line vote in committee.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-21-US-Immigration/id-111554279d9a47eba74ab79ef8485771

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CA-NEWS Summary

Harper under cloud after chief of staff resigns

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was under intense pressure on Monday to reassure voters that his administration is above reproach amid questions surrounding a secret check paid to Senator Mike Duffy. "There's been nothing under this prime minister's watch that's tied him so closely to such a massive ethical scandal. We need to see him show leadership," opposition New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Charlie Angus told a news conference.

Dagestan bombs kill four, two dead in shootout near Moscow

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others on Monday in one of the bloodiest attacks this year in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency. Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the center of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighboring Chechnya.

Hezbollah in big Syria battle, Obama 'concerned'

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas have fought their biggest battle yet for Syria's beleaguered president, prompting international alarm that the civil war may spread and an urgent call for restraint from the United States. About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, Syrian activists said, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad during the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border.

Nigeria says has Islamists on defensive

MAIDUGURI (Reuters) - Nigeria claimed an early success for its military offensive against Islamist insurgents in the northeast on Monday, saying the militants' activities had been stifled by nearly a week of attacks on their bases. Military officers in the combat zone, deep in a semi-desert frontier region, said operations continued and that troops faced considerable opposition from well-armed Boko Haram fighters.

Mexican opposition dispute goes public, threatening reforms

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Divisions within Mexico's main conservative opposition party have erupted into a bitter public dispute that threatens to undermine the reform agenda of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Short of a majority in Congress, Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is likely to need support from the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, to see through plans to overhaul state oil giant Pemex and broaden the tax base.

Council of Europe tells Putin of concern over Russian NGO law

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - The head of the Council of Europe told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday he was concerned a law requiring non-governmental organizations which received funding from abroad to register as foreign agents could have a "chilling effect". Prosecutors have conducted a wave of inspections at the offices of all kinds of NGOs in Russia this year citing the law which critics say is part of a campaign to smother dissent against Putin during his third term as president.

Bomb attacks kill more than 70 Shi'ites across Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a series of car bombings and suicide attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, extending the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011. The attacks increased the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to more than 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict.

Gay marriage law strains UK Cameron's leadership, government

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron's flagship gay marriage policy deepened a rift in his own party on Monday after many of his own lawmakers defied him in a sign of growing strains on his leadership and his coalition government. Almost 40 percent of Cameron's 303 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted for an ultimately unsuccessful amendment that would have allowed registrars to refuse to perform gay marriage ceremonies if they objected.

Qatar: Arab Spring makes Israeli-Palestinian peace more pressing

DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's emir, who has thrown his state's riches behind Arab uprisings, said on Monday that the emergence of 'people power' had put Arabs in direct confrontation with Israel and made a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more pressing. "We heard in the past that reform (in the Arab world) must wait until a peaceful settlement with Israel is achieved, but everybody should realize that such belief is now unfounded after the Arab Spring revolts," Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a conference in the Qatari capital.

China offers India a 'handshake across the Himalayas'

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and China will study new ways to ease tensions on their ill-defined border after an army standoff in the Himalayas, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday on his first official foreign trip. The number two in the Chinese leadership offered New Delhi a "handshake across the Himalayas" and said the world's most populous nations could become a new engine for the global economy if they could avoid friction on the militarized border.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-025303104.html

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Asthma symptoms impair sleep quality and school performance in children

May 21, 2013 ? The negative effects of poorly controlled asthma symptoms on sleep quality and academic performance in urban schoolchildren has been confirmed in a new study.

"While it has been recognized that missed sleep and school absences are important indicators of asthma morbidity in children, our study is the first to explore the associations between asthma, sleep quality, and academic performance in real time, prospectively, using both objective and subjective measures," said principal investigator Daphne Koinis-Mitchell, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior (Research) and Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Research) at Brown University's Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. "In our sample of urban schoolchildren (aged 7 to 9), we found that compromised lung function corresponded with both poor sleep efficiency and impaired academic performance."

The results of the study will be presented at the American Thoracic Society's 2013 International Conference.

The study included data on 170 parent-child dyads from urban and African-American, Latino, and non-Latino white backgrounds who reside in Greater Providence, RI. These data are part of a larger 5-year study of asthma and allergic rhinitis symptoms, sleep quality and academic performance (which will include 450 urban children with persistent asthma and healthy controls) funded by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Project NAPS (Nocturnal Asthma and Performance in School) is administered through Rhode Island Hospital at The Bradley Hasbro Research Center.

Asthma symptoms were assessed over three 30-day monitoring periods across the school year by spirometry, which measures the amount and speed of exhaled air, and with diaries maintained by children and their caregivers. Sleep quality was assessed with actigraphy, which measures motor activity that can be used to estimate sleep parameters. Asthma control was assessed with the Asthma Control Test (ACT), a brief questionnaire used to measure asthma control in children. Academic functioning was assessed by teacher report during the same monitoring periods.

Compared with children with well-controlled asthma, those with poorly controlled asthma had lower quality school work and were more careless with their school work, according to teacher reports. Higher self-reported and objectively measured asthma symptom levels were associated with lower quality school work. Poorer sleep quality was also associated with careless school work. Increased sleep onset latency (the amount of time children take to fall asleep) was associated with more difficulty in remaining awake in class.

"Our findings demonstrate the detrimental effects that poorly controlled asthma may have on two crucial behaviors that can enhance overall health and development for elementary school children; sleep and school performance," said Dr. Koinis-Mitchell. "Urban and ethnic minority children are at an increased risk for high levels of asthma morbidity and frequent health care utilization due to asthma. Given the high level of asthma burden in these groups, and the effects that urban poverty can have on the home environments and the neighborhoods of urban families, it is important to identify modifiable targets for intervention."

"Family-level interventions aimed at asthma control and improving sleep quality may help to improve academic performance in this vulnerable population," Dr. Konis-Mitchell continued. "In addition, school-level interventions can involve identifying children with asthma who miss school often, appear sleepy and inattentive during class, or who have difficulty with school work. Working collaboratively with the school system as well as the child and family may ultimately enhance the child's asthma control."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/u4XDS42gsww/130521105212.htm

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Study led by GW professor provides better understanding of water's freezing behavior at nanoscale

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Joanne Welsh
jwelsh@gwu.edu
202-994-2050
George Washington University

The results of a new study led by George Washington University Professor Tianshu Li provide direct computational evidence that nucleation of ice in small droplets is strongly size-dependent, an important conclusion in understanding water's behavior at the nanoscale. The formation of ice at the nanoscale is a challenging, basic scientific research question whose answer also has important implications for climate research and other fields.

The crystallization of ice from supercooled water is generally initiated by a process called nucleation. Because of the speed and size of nucleationit occurs within nanoseconds and nanometersprobing it by experiment or simulation is a major challenge.

By using an advanced simulation method, Dr. Li and his collaborators, Davide Donadio of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and Giulia Galli, a professor of chemistry and physics at the University of California, Davis, were able to demonstrate that nucleation of ice is substantially suppressed in nano-sized water droplets. Their paper, "Ice nucleation at the nanoscale probes no man's land of water," was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

"A current challenge for scientists is to unveil water's behaviors below -35 degrees Celsius and above -123 degrees Celsius, a temperature range that chemists call 'no man's land,' " said Dr. Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science. "Fast ice crystallization can hardly be avoided at such low temperatures, so maintaining water in a liquid state is a major experimental challenge."

Since the frequency of ice nucleation scales with the volume of water, one of the strategies for overcoming this kinetic barrier is to reduce the volume of water. However, this raises the question of whether water at the nanoscale can still be regarded as equivalent to bulk water, and if not, where that boundary would be.

The team's results answer this question. By showing that the ice nucleation rate at the nanoscale can be several orders of magnitude smaller than that of bulk water, they demonstrate that water at such a small scale can no longer be considered bulk water.

"We also predict where this boundary would reside at various temperatures," Dr. Li said. The boundary refers to the size of the droplet where the difference vanishes. The team's findings will help with the interpretation of molecular beam experiments and set the guidelines for experiments that probe the 'no man's land' of water.

The results are also of importance in atmospheric science, as they may improve the climate model of the formation of ice clouds in upper troposphere, which effectively scatter incoming solar radiation and prevent earth from becoming overheated by the sun. The results have important implications in climate control research, too. One of the current debates is whether the formation of ice occurs near the surface or within the micrometer-sized droplets suspended in clouds. If it is the former, effective engineering approaches may be able to be taken to tune the surface tension of water so that the ice crystallization rate can be controlled.

"Our results, indeed, support the hypothesis of surface crystallization of ice in microscopic water droplets," Dr. Li said. "Obtaining the direct evidence is our next step."

###

GW School of Engineering and Applied Science

GW's School of Engineering and Applied Science prepares engineers and applied scientists to address society's technological challenges by offering outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional educational programs, and by providing innovative, fundamental and applied research activities. The school has five academic departments, 11 research centers, 90 faculty and more than 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Core areas of academic excellence include biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, high performance computing, nanotechnologies, robotics and transportation safety engineering.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 21-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Joanne Welsh
jwelsh@gwu.edu
202-994-2050
George Washington University

The results of a new study led by George Washington University Professor Tianshu Li provide direct computational evidence that nucleation of ice in small droplets is strongly size-dependent, an important conclusion in understanding water's behavior at the nanoscale. The formation of ice at the nanoscale is a challenging, basic scientific research question whose answer also has important implications for climate research and other fields.

The crystallization of ice from supercooled water is generally initiated by a process called nucleation. Because of the speed and size of nucleationit occurs within nanoseconds and nanometersprobing it by experiment or simulation is a major challenge.

By using an advanced simulation method, Dr. Li and his collaborators, Davide Donadio of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and Giulia Galli, a professor of chemistry and physics at the University of California, Davis, were able to demonstrate that nucleation of ice is substantially suppressed in nano-sized water droplets. Their paper, "Ice nucleation at the nanoscale probes no man's land of water," was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

"A current challenge for scientists is to unveil water's behaviors below -35 degrees Celsius and above -123 degrees Celsius, a temperature range that chemists call 'no man's land,' " said Dr. Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science. "Fast ice crystallization can hardly be avoided at such low temperatures, so maintaining water in a liquid state is a major experimental challenge."

Since the frequency of ice nucleation scales with the volume of water, one of the strategies for overcoming this kinetic barrier is to reduce the volume of water. However, this raises the question of whether water at the nanoscale can still be regarded as equivalent to bulk water, and if not, where that boundary would be.

The team's results answer this question. By showing that the ice nucleation rate at the nanoscale can be several orders of magnitude smaller than that of bulk water, they demonstrate that water at such a small scale can no longer be considered bulk water.

"We also predict where this boundary would reside at various temperatures," Dr. Li said. The boundary refers to the size of the droplet where the difference vanishes. The team's findings will help with the interpretation of molecular beam experiments and set the guidelines for experiments that probe the 'no man's land' of water.

The results are also of importance in atmospheric science, as they may improve the climate model of the formation of ice clouds in upper troposphere, which effectively scatter incoming solar radiation and prevent earth from becoming overheated by the sun. The results have important implications in climate control research, too. One of the current debates is whether the formation of ice occurs near the surface or within the micrometer-sized droplets suspended in clouds. If it is the former, effective engineering approaches may be able to be taken to tune the surface tension of water so that the ice crystallization rate can be controlled.

"Our results, indeed, support the hypothesis of surface crystallization of ice in microscopic water droplets," Dr. Li said. "Obtaining the direct evidence is our next step."

###

GW School of Engineering and Applied Science

GW's School of Engineering and Applied Science prepares engineers and applied scientists to address society's technological challenges by offering outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional educational programs, and by providing innovative, fundamental and applied research activities. The school has five academic departments, 11 research centers, 90 faculty and more than 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Core areas of academic excellence include biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, high performance computing, nanotechnologies, robotics and transportation safety engineering.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/gwu-slb052113.php

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TC Cribs: Inside Fab's NYC Headquarters, Where High Fashion And Hot Design Become Fun

Welcome to a brand new episode of Cribs, the TechCrunch TV series that goes straight into the heart of the action at the tech industry's hottest companies to show what it's really like for the people who work there. For this edition we headed out on the road to the New York City headquarters of Fab, the super-popular e-commerce site that has quickly grown over the past couple years to be one of the web's key shopping destinations (and one of the industry's hottest companies from a valuation perspective.)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UElol3AELMU/

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The Next Xbox: Everything We Think We Know

We're finding out about the new Xbox in just a few hours. But that doesn't mean we have no idea what's coming. Here's a rundown of everything we know, or think we know, about the next Xbox.

The Specs

We are pretty sure we know what the guts of the new Xbox look like. It'll have a 64-bit, 8-core, 1.6GHz processor made by AMD with x86 architecture and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. (x86 means, broadly, that it's a lot like the chips in your home computer, which is a change for Xbox, which had until now run on PowerPC.) The GPU is an 800mhz DirectX 11.x, and will be accompanied by custom hardware to accelerate certain Xbox-specific tasks. It's also got an ethernet port, an optical disc drive (reported Blu-ray), a default 500GB SATA 2 HDD, USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI out and in ports.

For reference, the current Xbox 360 has a 500MHz GPU, a 3-core 3.6GHz processor, and 512MB of RAM. The upcoming PlayStation 4 also has an 8-core 64-bit processor and 8GB of RAM.

Price

This one's tricky. There is zero official information out there. But we do have some clues. Microsoft supernerd Paul Thurott spitballed a "$500, $300 with subscription" number that hints at the real issue with the new Xbox: subsidized pricing.

Microsoft already offers a subsidized Xbox 360 + Kinect package for $100 up front, if you sign up for two years of Xbox Live Gold at $15 per month. That comes out to $360 for just the two years, which is more than you'd pay if you're bargain hunting for cheap subscription renewals.

A two-year subscription for a next gen Xbox probably wouldn't stick in the craw as much as being locked into two years with the current system (though there's no reason to think the current subscriptions won't work on a new Xbox). But the relative surety of the subsidized pricing implies two things. One, this is probably coming in higher than the $400/$300 levels of the 360. And two, Microsoft understands that a gaming console, no matter how many features you pack in, is a tough thing to swallow as that big of an up-front cost.

Availability

This seems like a no-brainer, but a Microsoft exec strongly indicated recently that the next Xbox would be in stores in time for your holiday shopping spree. Which is good! Not many people are looking to buy a gaming console as a President's Day gift.

Name

There's a popular rumor floating that the next Xbox is going to be called Xbox Infinity, but it's not based on much more than a clever mock-up made by a Redditor. While Xbox has trademarked Xbox 8 (which is an infinity sign turned upright), there's no real indication that that will be the name, any more than Xbox 720 or just plain old Xbox.

The Controller

Largely the same! Most of what we know about the new Xbox controller comes from our friends at Kotaku, who tell us the controller is mostly the same, if a little smaller.

According to Kotaku's sources:

The controller, according to Kotaku sources, actually seems quite similar to the current Xbox 360 one. Same two analog sticks in the same upper-left/lower-right position, same positioning of the d-pad and face buttons and forward and back buttons. Triggers. Bumpers. Top-center power button. It all seems to be the same, though we can't tell if any of these buttons have been improved-if, say, the d-pad responds more crisply, if the triggers pull more deeply, and so on.

More broadly, this means that you won't see new points of interface on the new controller, like the Wii U's 5-inch LCD or the PlayStation 4's touchpad.

Kinect 2: Mandatory

OK, so the part about the controller being mostly unchanged is only partially true. Why? The Kinect will be standard with every next gen Xbox sold, making it even more of a de facto controller extension than the current iteration.

The Kinect 2 will be upgraded significantly, to not just detect broad arm movements and laborious, seizure-like movements generously described as "dancing", but finer hand gestures sent from multiple users. It's also said to implement more natural language controls (think Siri), as well as features like wake-on-speech.

Which sounds great. But in reality, it's probably more realistic to expect the new Kinect to perform the tasks the original was meant to at a now-acceptable level, and for these new features to be at about the same level as the curent Kinect (that is, passable, at times). So look for refined gesture recognition and improved speech control accuracy, chiefly.

Other less certain rumored features include eye-tracking, which can be amazing in the right environment, and features like pausing videos or games when you turn your head (which might be the most pointless feature being adopted by multiple companies right now).

"Always On"?

This has been a major sticking point. Rumors have persisted that the new Xbox will require a persistent internet connection, presumably at broadband level, in order to play games. And the people have not been amused.

The move, which we've seen with individual games like Diablo 3 and SimCity, would presumably be to enforce stricter security and anti-piracy features. It would also prevent a smaller-every-day but still significant group of people from playing and enjoying Xbox games. But we've also heard that it could only pertain to entertainment features, which would make slightly more sense, since that would require constantly pulling down information about content.

Microsoft has kowtowed to public sentiment on other future-facing issues after backlash from the slow or unreliably networked, like its original musings about ditching the optical drive this generation in favor of downloaded games. So it could go either way.

Update: An internal Microsoft memo obtained by Ars Technica indicates that you'll be able to play Xbox games offline after all. Phew! Hopefully.

Xbox TV

One of the underplayed details is that the new console will reportedly have an HDMI in port. What does that mean? The Xbox is in all likelihood going to be used to control literally everything your TV does.

How would that work? The HDMI-out from your cable box would route through your Xbox, which would then apply its own interface on top of it. Theoretically, that would let Microsoft integrate all sorts of features into that. It's likely where the reports of the Kinect controlling your cable box came from.

Don't sleep on this as a major feature of the new Xbox. It could include capabilities ranging from deep content recognition to DVR to (hypothetically) picture-in-picture TV shows in games. This is especially interesting given the reported capability to "hot switch" between two games, effectively running both at once. The WSJ recently reported that Microsoft had definitely at least explored these options?though how many show up tomorrow is anyone's guess outside of Redmond.

And don't forget, Microsoft is also reported to have a cheaper, set-top-box-only version of these features coming later this year, too.

Original Content?

Back in September, Microsoft hired a CBS executive to head up production of "original video content" for the Xbox. We still don't really know what that means. (The UK Xbox is already getting into the business of distributing movies, for instance.) It could be that, like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu, Xbox Live Gold and the Microsoft Video Store is going to get its own original series. Which would be sort of insane. But don't rule it out.

Windows Integration

This is based on speculation, but hear us out anyway. The new Xbox will probably integrate tightly into Windows 8, and the broader Windows Universe that Microsoft is building. It will do this as a gaming system, but also as a set top box.

The first thing to note is that this is actually possible this generation. The new Xbox has moved to an AMD x86 chip, meaning it's using the same type of chip that Windows PCs have. Rumors have the new Xbox running Windows 8, but even if it's not quite running the same operating system, the change of platforms should make developing games, especially for indie developers, a lot easier.

Consider: Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is hugely successful. It's a wonderful place to find and enjoy indie content. And that's exactly the sort of thing that Microsoft would love to get into its Windows Store, which is doing fine, more or less, but still hasn't reached the level Microsoft would like.

Further, tighter integration of apps like Xbox Music, Internet Explorer, and other Windows 8 features, would make sense for the central location of Windows 8 in your home. Of course, that doesn't mean you'd just fire up the Xbox and see the Windows 8 start screen. The Dashboard has been revamped a few times, but it's already in tune with the Windows 8 aesthetic (and, really, was the incubator for it), so figure that'll go along mostly untouched.

Goodbye, Used Games?

The biggest bummer to come out of the rumor mill is that the new Xbox might ditch the ability to play, and therefore buy and sell and trade, used games. It's unclear whether that will happen, but we do know that games will have to be installed to be played, though that will take place in the background over the course of play, instead of up front before you can even get into the game.

Xbox Tablet?

Microsoft is also rumored to have a 7-inch Xbox tablet coming this year, running on an ARM processor (possible Intel SoC in the future). Originally reported by the Verge, the tablet is supposed to be running a "custom Windows kernel" instead of Windows RT, which would make sense if it's to retain ties to older XBLA titles.

For a more hardcore gamer perspective on the new Xbox, check out Kotaku's rundown on what to expect.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5995375/the-next-xbox-everything-we-think-we-know

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Tumblr Community Responds to Yahoo Bid - NYTimes.com

Stop me if you?ve heard this one before. A social media Web site sells to a large company that then plans to make money by placing ads against users? content. The people on the social Web site revolt.

Just as users rioted online after Instagram sold to Facebook last year, Tumblr users were not happy when they awoke to the news that their beloved Tumblr blogs would now belong to Yahoo.

Let?s just say they weren?t exactly posting animated GIFs of dancing cats to celebrate.

?So this is what it feels like to have one of your parents sell you,? wrote one distraught user. ?Yahoo, go home, you?re drunk,? wrote another.

Some compared Yahoo to Nickelback, the most derided rock band of all time. Many users posted animated GIFs of Lauren Conrad, the reality television star, and SpongeBob sobbing. ?Somebody create an evil Marissa Mayer GIF,? one user demanded, referring to Yahoo?s chief executive.

Others got aggressive:??Dear Yahoo, We bite. Sincerely Every Tumblr user. Ever.?

?Yahoo,?please don?t make tumblr normal,? wrote another Tumblr faithful.??We like it like this.?

There were those who took to Tumblr to pen letters about their fear surrounding the deal.

Dear Yahoo

Welcome to the most emotionally driven group of people on the internet. I will offer some advice- don?t screw with it. We?re like potheads- we hate change. And you?re not making any moneys off of a site with 250 users. Thank you.

~A user ready to walk off at a moments notice.

One person set up a guide for other Tumblr users to adhere to, explaining when they should abandon ship if the site becomes too Yahooified.? ?If Tumblr requires an account somehow linked to Yahoo,? wrote Hank?s Tumblr, people should leave Tumblr. ?If more than 10% of the dashboard is taken up by advertising.?

In typical Tumblr form, comedic?animated?GIFs were used to show people?s displeasure. Like this one of a man with a wide Cheshire-smile on his face walking into a room with boxes of pizza in his hand, only to discover that the floor is on fire.

Although it is unclear how the service would, one fear that was circulating?? that Yahoo could add an ?e? to Tumblr?s name, making it Tumbler ? likely?won?t come to pass.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/tumblr-community-responds-to-yahoo-bid/

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Ray Rice: Robbed of Guns and Cash

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/ray-rice-robbed-of-guns-and-cash/

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Russia's Putin out to silence independent voices: pollster

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's leading polling group said on Tuesday it would fight to keep operating despite pressure to register as a "foreign agent" under what it calls a campaign by President Vladimir Putin to silence independent voices.

Levada Center, Russia's only independent pollster, fears closure if it does not comply with a law obliging non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are involved in political work and funded from abroad to assume a label many Russians see as pejorative.

But Levada director Lev Gudkov said the group would try to hold out, despite warning by state prosecutors that they could take it to court if it fails to register as a foreign agent.

"We will continue our activity, although we are in a very difficult position," Gudkov said by telephone after a meeting at Levada's Moscow office to discuss how to deal with the threat.

"This Sword of Damocles will always hang over us," he said.

Gudkov said the agency would stop accepting foreign grants for now but would "never" register as a foreign agent, a term Kremlin critics say was chosen to evoke Cold War espionage and to suggest to Russians that the groups are enemies of the state.

"It is out of the question," Gudkov said.

Putin, who has often accused the West of political meddling during 13 years in power, signed the "foreign agent" law last year after protests he accused the United States of encouraging.

Many NGOs have refused to register despite inspections by the authorities which have prompted criticism from the European Union and the United States, which said it feared a "witch hunt".

"I do not see this as repression against our organization. I see it as a general campaign that the Kremlin - or Putin, if you like - has launched against civil society," Gudkov said.

"A totally new period has begun in Russia: The suppression of all independent organizations by the Kremlin," he said.

TRACKING PUTIN'S UPS AND DOWNS

At the same time, he said Levada was sure to face further trouble because of its role recording changes in public attitudes towards Putin and the institutions he relies upon for support, including the ruling United Russia party.

"In the conditions of falling support for Putin and the whole political system, the discrediting of United Russia, the decrease in Putin's authority, the lack of desire to vote for him in the next election, fatigue with Putin - of course the pressure on us, as an independent center that conveys such data, will grow stronger," Gudkov said.

Levada Center, which split from the state-owned pollster VTsIOM in 2003, has tracked the ups and downs Putin has experienced in opinion polls. In January, it said his approval rating had hit a 12-year low of 62 percent.

In April, it said 51 percent of Russians definitely or probably agreed that United Russia was the "party of swindlers and thieves", a label made popular by opposition leader Alexei Navalny and frequently invoked at protests and on the Internet.

Putin, who returned to the presidency a year ago after four years as prime minister, has called the inspections "routine" and said Russia needs to know where NGOs are getting their money. He has not commented specifically on Levada Center.

Grants that Levada received in the past three years from foreign groups including the Open Society Foundations and the U.S.-based Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation accounted for about 3 percent of its budget, Gudkov said.

But regardless of whether the state takes Levada to court, he said the pollster could lose clients whose payments for services such as market research are its life blood because of the potential stigma of being labeled a "foreign agent".

"They face a choice - to continue to work with us or not. And for us that is the most serious problem because we do not have other sources of financing," he said.

Gudkov said that while everyday poll respondents are unfazed, groups of bureaucrats and university employees that Levada has used for research on issues such as science and education "already afraid and are refusing to work with us".

That, he suspects, is exactly what Putin wants.

"What is happening is the unstated suppression of independent research organizations and civil society," he said. "The Kremlin does not want to directly outlaw or close such organizations, so as not to make them martyrs, but to suffocate them with purely economic and organizational methods."

(Editing by Timothy Heritage and Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russias-putin-silence-independent-voices-pollster-200129249.html

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Xbox One runs three operating systems, including cut-down Windows for apps

The latest update out of the currently unfolding announcement in Redmond: the next-generation Xbox will run three operating systems simultaneously. Complementing Windows 8 and RT on PCs and tablets, there'll be a third distinct version of Microsoft's operating system that has been pared down specifically for the new console. This will be the main system OS used to run apps such as Skype and other non-game titles downloaded from the Xbox storefront. At the same time, virtualization technology similar to Microsoft's Hyper-V will be used to allocate the bulk of system resources to a second, dedicated "Xbox OS" when the user loads up a game. This game OS will remain a fixed entity throughout the life of the console, so that game developers can be confident their games will run regardless of how much the Windows side of the machine gets updated. Finally, a third OS will work as a middle-man between the two, allowing the two sides of the console to talk to each other. Read on for more.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Microsoft

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-runs-three-operating-systems/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Huge tornado hits Oklahoma City area

Tornado damage seen in Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. (KFOR-TV)

A devastating, mile-wide tornado touched down near Oklahoma City on Monday, leveling homes, businesses and schools in the suburb of Moore. There were no immediate reports of fatalities or injuries.

The funnel cloud could be seen for miles, creating a debris field several miles wide. Weather officials estimated the strength of the tornado to be an F4 or F5.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives canceled its afternoon sessions so lawmakers and staffers could take shelter, the Associated Press said.

The tornado comes a day after powerful storms ripped through the center of the country, spawning at least a dozen tornadoes, killing two people and causing extensive damage from Georgia to Minnesota.

According to the Oklahoma state medical examiner, the two victims in Sunday's storms?Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76?were from hard-hit Shawnee. At least 39 other people were injured on Sunday, Oklahoma emergency management director Albert Ashwood said.

Watch live coverage of Monday's tornado via Oklahoma City's News 9:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tornado-oklahoma-city-moore-205548879.html

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Follow These Rules For Effective Internet Marketing | Affiliate ...

What you make when you first get into web marketing is loosely described as a partnership. The company above you might not be there to help, but you can learn from their mistakes and successes. You have to put in a lot of hard work, though sometimes that will not be enough. The advice provided in this piece may be the guidance that has thus far been lacking.

Let your customers know up front that you participate in internet marketing. This will make your readers feel much more well-disposed toward your efforts. Transparency is always appreciated, particularly in the field of web marketing. If your visitors see that you are using online marketing in a positive way, they will mostly respond in a positive way as well.

Let your visitors know who your affiliates are so that your readers can feel more positive about your intentions. Being honest will give you an advantage, even with affiliate marketing. Explaining to your readers why you are subscribing to affiliate marketing programs will help them see how the products are related to the content of your website.

TIP! Sending emails is a great way to communicate about tasks that need attention, but it can also waste time. To save time and to increase productivity, you should pull the points out of these emails and paste them into your Notepad or Word document.

Always look for the affiliate services that give you the products and services that you need. Diversifying your affiliate network will prevent you from putting all your eggs in one basket. Rather than signing up with the first affiliate program that comes along, conduct thorough research to determine which affiliate offers products that you can stand behind.

If some of your affiliates are not making enough money, drop them as soon as possible, and only keep the ones that generate the most profit. Check thoroughly on the performance of all of your affiliates on a regular basis. Taking out the least effective affiliate partners makes room for better ones.

Consider carefully the products you place in your links while setting them up. You might need to be careful and educate yourself on how your links should be put into your page. Then you can find the way that works for you.

TIP! Affiliate programs are not carbon copies of each other. They each have different degrees of flexibility and products.

A lot of people receive their tasks through email, which can waste time if handled poorly. Instead of working directly in your email, copy these tasks to Word. With this solution, you don?t have to keep going into your email to check things.

Many companies will find growth possibilities in the use of texting and texting services. Texting can be a very good way to keep customers up to date with products and services, and there are many businesses that use these services everyday.

In order to succeed with affiliate marketing, you should consider taking advantage of paid advertising, such as Google Ads. If you purchase ads related to your keywords, you can increase the amount of potential buyers.

TIP! Employing affiliate marketing strategies can enable you to generate more online sales. Affiliate marketing programs tend to be more effective than most traditional advertising strategies such as contextual network advertising and ad banners.

When a targeted visitor is browsing your sports-related website, he or she is deliberately seeking sports-related products. Unless you link to another sports-related affiliate, the link will not be very effective or beneficial. Keep your affiliate links relevant to the content that is on your site.

Give careful consideration before linking to products on your site. You should take time to investigate how to arrange affiliate links in the most effective manner. An efficient and appealing design may lead to higher profits.

In order to maximize the impact of an affiliate program, select a firm with a history of significant sales conversions. Try and get one out of every 100 customers to buy something.

TIP! One thing to remember when entering the world of affiliate marketing is to use deadlines for purchasing products religiously. When customers see that the product is only available for a limited time, they may feel a need to buy now before the deal goes away.

Not every internet marketing website is the same. Some can be difficult or frustrating to navigate. A proactive webmaster would never allow poor affiliate sites to harm their profits. You will create a business building trust with helpful information.

Always be upfront about the fact that you are in the affiliate marketing business. Disclose your affiliations, and describe in general terms what your site is about. If a customer gets the feeling that you are being dishonest describing your connection to the original retailer, they have the ability to purchase the product directly from the merchant.

It is not common to see lifetime commissions in the field of affiliate marketing. The potential rewards are still so great that they should be sought out, though. Vendors pay the webmaster a commission for purchases made by the customers steered to them by the webmaster. The commission is usually paid only if the consumer purchases within a specific time period. This generation of perpetual income is what makes these commissions so valuable.

TIP! Don?t put all your eggs in one basket. You should not depend upon a limited number of affiliate partners for the viability of your affiliate marketing enterprise.

You need to understand internet marketing before you can be successful with it. You want to create a good rank with search engines with your website or blog. Do this, and you will get more traffic, better affiliates, and higher profits.

Real time statistics are very important. It is a real asset to be able to view numbers for who is visiting your site and what they have purchased.

Acquiring many backlinks is a necessary part of optimizing your affiliate marketing website, but never deceive people by leading them to content they?re not expecting. Readers expect to find relevant content on your website when they click on backlinks, so make sure your links are titled appropriately. Even when you have a good strategy otherwise, the mismatch between your original link and the destination content will cause your readers to lose trust in you.

TIP! Positive language should always be used when making affiliate marketing content. Avoid using negative turns of phrases.

Understanding your audience?s demographic is key in building affiliate marketing success. Tailor your product range with your visitors? needs in mind. Research what draws them to your site. Are they looking for something in particular?

Don?t try to hide your affiliates from your audience. Being honest like this helps readers feel that they can trust you.

Proving that you are a legitimate affiliate marketer takes some strategic finesse. Your links should be subtle. Do not let your visitors see you as another affiliate agent. Introduce yourself and use your personality to sell.

TIP! Tell your readers up front that you profit when they use your referral link to buy something. Don?t hide the fact that a link is an affiliate; readers know what they are and if you try to hide it, they won?t trust you.

A trick with using banner ads is to have a trivia question that the user must go to your site to learn the answer to. If you think about your own responses to riddles or questions you know that it is human nature to want to get the answer. Entice your customers by offering them discounts whenever they answer a question correctly.

Your primary intention is to pinpoint your target audience and provide ways to meet their needs, rather then actively poach clients from other businesses. These tips and advice should provide insight about how great affiliate marketers find success.

Join online affiliate marketing communities to share tips and tricks and learn new strategies. You?ll find many online groups where users can share tips, advice, and even bits of code with other internet marketers.

TIP! A good way to make a steady income with your programs is to utilize paid advertising. The advertisements on your site need to be in sync with your keywords in order to increase sales and traffic.

I will tell you 3 things anyone may perform which will get men and women to fall in love with purchasing merchandise through your organization. Here?s the honest experience of exactly how couple of ex-homeless men helped over 27,530 everyday men and women erase their ?Inner Wussy? as well as generate more than $6.1 million in profits on the internet within the last five several months.

Source: http://revenue-affiliate-marketing.freeoptinoffers.com/2013/05/20/follow-these-rules-for-effective-internet-marketing/

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4 Ways 'Dancing with the Stars' Can Get Its Mojo Back

Are you watching Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Monday and Tuesday, 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET) this season? It's possible: Over 13 million people still are. But it's more likely that you've moved on. Since 2006, ABC's sparkle-tastic dance competition has lost over half of its audience. TV industry types shook their heads at last fall's "failed" all-star installation, which averaged only 17 million viewers per episode. But even fewer people -- about 4 million less -- are tuning in for the likes of Kellie Pickler and Jacoby Jones (Zendaya and Aly Raisman round out the final four competing tonight). What's gone wrong? And how can ABC fix it? Here are four suggestions.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/4-ways-dancing-star-can-improve/1-a-536703?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3A4-ways-dancing-star-can-improve-536703

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Farrah Abraham Sex Tape Bikini: Yanked From eBay Due to Hygiene Concerns!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/farrah-abraham-sex-tape-bikini-yanked-from-ebay-due-to-hygiene-c/

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Astrophysics, it's affects on biological perception of time, and the ...

I much enjoy watching Cosmos by Carl Sagan, Into the Wormhole, and occasionally in my free time doing a bit of independent research concerning various scientific topics. You must understand, however, that my research is very second hand and internet based. I'm just another random college freshman with a few questions on his mind, and with summer about to begin, I have nobody easily within reach to answer my amateur questions.

So here it goes: I was sitting by myself tonight, slightly bored, slightly stoned, when I started to wonder. If the velocity of an object through space affects the passage of time, which our perception of is limited on a biological level by the speed at which our body systems permit, do creatures on faster moving celestial bodies who have similar biological systems experience time in a different way? As I wrangled with this question, I did some thinking and tried to establish an answer as follows:

There is as of yet no way to test the biological perception of time while moving at a velocity necessary to facilitate a noticeable difference in its passage, so there is no sure answer. It has been proposed that the perception for an individual on earth versus one travelling at .99c of shaving would be the same due to the limitations of human reference. Yet when the traveler returns to earth he finds that time has contracted for him, and more has passed for the man who remains on earth. In this way, the concept of time as a measurable real thing blurs with the concept of time as warping beyond human perception. If this proves to be true, that time and its passage is not constant regardless of the limitations of human experience, it is an example of the ways in which we as humans overcome our biological restrictions using ideas and mathematical experimentation.

Although it may seem like I have answered my own question, I wanted to post this to allow others to critique my answer, help me further understand the ideas and questions I'm trying to address, and start a general discussion in relation to the above material between users on this site.

Source: http://www.thescienceforum.com/general-discussion/35849-astrophysics-its-affects-biological-perception-time-nature-time-itself.html

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Obama exhorts good deeds by Morehouse graduates

FILE - In this Friday, May 17, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Ellicott Dredges in Baltimore. President Barack Obama is delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday, May 19, 2013, the historically black, all-male institution that counts Martin Luther King Jr. among its alumni. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - In this Friday, May 17, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Ellicott Dredges in Baltimore. President Barack Obama is delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday, May 19, 2013, the historically black, all-male institution that counts Martin Luther King Jr. among its alumni. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

ATLANTA (AP) ? President Barack Obama is telling graduates of Morehouse College to take the power of their example ? as black men graduating from college ? and use it to improve people's lives.

He's asking those headed to law school to think about defending the poor, and those destined for medical school to consider treating people in communities without access to health care.

And he asked those with MBAs in their near future to think about how to put people to work or turn around a struggling neighborhood.

The president said graduates should inspire those who look up to them.

About 500 students were receiving undergraduate degrees from the historically black, all-male institution in Atlanta, becoming "Morehouse Men."

After the speech, Obama was to attend a Democratic Senate fundraiser, also in Atlanta.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-19-Obama/id-9c1412fab87f4a9db3ff7299be59a1d1

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Microsoft's next Xbox: The rumor roundup

It's been eight years since Microsoft and Sony announced new consoles, and tastes have changed considerably. Back then, new gaming gear was launched at E3, or using Elijah Wood-fronted MTV specials, but this time around Microsoft is pitching a tent on its Redmond campus for the world's media to huddle under. With less than 24 hours before the next Xbox is revealed, it's high time we sifted through the leaks, rumors and prognostications to see what we know, or at least, what we think we know about a little box called "Durango."

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8yc0fovrPJ0/

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How the IRS Scandal Could Backfire (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/306818863?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Taylor Swift a hit, others miss at Billboard awards

Music

Ashley Majeski TODAY contributor

9 hours ago

Taylor Swift managed to pick up six awards before the Billboard Music Awards even started on Sunday night, so it's no surprise that she came away from the MGM Grand as the show's biggest winner. The pop/country superstar not only took home the most trophies -- eight -- but also the night's biggest honors: Top Artist and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for her mega-hit "Red."

In addition to Swift's winning spree, the night was full of crazy moments -- from Justin Bieber getting booed to Lil Wayne getting a lap dance from fellow performer Nicki Minaj, here's a look at some of biggest surprises and sour notes of one of the music industry's biggest nights.

Best performances

Swift kicked off her much-anticipated performance of her hit single "22" backstage in her dressing room. Dressed in a unicorn T-shirt that made her look more like 9 than 22, Taylor danced her way into a meeting room, whizzed around backstage on an office chair and entered the arena from a side door on a bike.

Pitbull who, like Bieber performed twice during the show, teamed up with a slim and sexy Christina Aguilera to perform their hit single "Feel This Moment." The pair got the crowd going more than any previous performer (Sorry Beliebers!) When surprise guest Morten Harket of A-ha emerged to sing the signature high-note snippet of 1980s band?s hit "Take on Me," the entire crowd seemed to be singing along.

Chris Pizzello / AP

Pitbull performs with a noticeably fit Christina Aguilera on Sunday.

Worst performances

Selena Gomez's robotic Bollywood-inspired dance moves during her performance of "Come & Get It" were more strange than sexy, and the long slices of white material hanging all over the stage made it look like Selena and her pals had gone toilet-papering before the performance.

Chris Pizzello / AP

Selena Gomez, center, performs at the Billboard Music Awards.

Chris Brown also earned a spot on the Worst Performance list for his rendition of ?Fine China.? While the special effects and dance moves were top-notch, Brown?s screeching high notes and all-over-the-place vocals made this performance hard to watch. In the words of ?American Idol? judge Randy Jackson, ?It was a little pitchy, dawg!?

Chris Pizzello / AP

Chris Brown leaps during his performance of "Fine China."

Most notable acceptance speeches

Swift's acceptance speech for the Top Artist award was arguably the best acceptance speech of the night The serial celebrity dater received deafening cheers from the audience when she told her fans that they are the "longest and best relationship" she?s ever had.

Bieber wasn't so lucky when he accepted the Milestone Award. During his speech, he congratulated himself for doing "a pretty good job" for someone who is 19, and made sure to let everyone know that he is a not a gimmick. "I'm an artist and I should be taken seriously and all this other bull should not be spoken of," Bieber said, which earned him a chorus of boos from the audience.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Justin Bieber accepts the award for top male artist.

Most jaw-dropping moment

While Miguel's failed stage dive resulted in one of the evening's most shocking moments, Minaj dropped plenty of jaws when she gave fellow performer Lil' Wayne a lap dance live on stage. Minaj's stripper-esque booty-popping certainly provided viewers with a good show, although the network's censors may not have been too happy with the sexy performance.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Rapper Nicki Minaj dances for fellow rapper Lil Wayne.

Most awkward presenter

Kid Rock, who busted out his best hunting vest and coffee mug to present the Top Rap Song award, got a lot of nervous chuckles from the crowd when he decided to call out the performers who decided not to sing live, which was, unfortunately, nearly all of them.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Kid Rock speaks onstage before presenting to rapper Macklemore.

"Let?s give it up for people lip-syncing onto pre-recorded music!" Rock proclaimed. He then proceeded to choke on his own hair and mispronounce winner Macklemore?s name, making us wonder what was actually in that coffee cup!

Biggest diva

A pants-less Madonna, dressed in fur, fishnets and self-described pretentious sunglasses, arrived in full diva-mode to accept her award for Top Touring Artist. (She also took home the Top Dance Artist and Top Dance Album awards.) Using presenter will.i.am as a coat rack to hold her accessories, Madonna thanked her fans for supporting her for three decades, not-so-subtly reminding us that she?s owned the Billboard charts for more years than most of the other nominees have been alive.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Madonna accepts the award for touring artist of the year from will.i.am.

What was your favorite moment from the Billboard Music Awards? Tell us in the comments below.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-hit-others-miss-billboard-music-awards-6C9993954

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