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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Google teases Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie
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Physician, hack thyself
My friend Adam, an obstetrician, was getting married. It was the early 1990s. Beside his bride he beamed in the receiving line.
?Congratulations, Adam! You look amazing!? I said, adding awkwardly: ?Jeez, how?d you lose so much weight??
?The old-fashioned way,? the good doctor said. ?Laxatives and speed.?
Laxatives and speed. That was two decades ago. Over the years, while trudging the righteous road of kale and crunches, I?ve often recalled Adam?s can-do mantra. Laxatives and speed. The old-fashioned way. The hack that doctors know. Metamucil and Adderall. The hack that works.
So maybe I was unconsciously vulnerable two weeks ago, while I was logging new habits on Lift, a retro good-girl app that encourages me to drink more water and call my mom. My heart unexpectedly revved when I noticed a new habit trending among users of the app. It wasn?t ?do more cardio??oh no. It had the ring of a big, fat health hack.
There I saw it: Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast.
Curiosity hit, then thrill?and in seven days that adrenaline took me from those three weird words, ?Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast,? to the architect of the phrase, Dave Asprey, a nutty, charmingly solipsistic rich person, hacker of his own biology and brewer of the hot buttered joe that gives the "Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast" its name. Some consider the coffee?for now?the world?s ultimate wellspring of lean muscle and manly, laserlike focus.
It sounded too good to be true. And too good to be not true?both. Once I suspended my dutiful, ladylike commitment to incremental self-betterment?in a split second?I threw in with a biohacker of the first rank.
So yes, I?ve been drinking the steaming blonde elixir, which looks like the amber-white lava flow at Yellowstone, if you know what that looks like, each morning since and the results have blown my mind?
Oh, but I?ll get to that.
I found Asprey, of course, where the mentally healthy California rich belong, and neurotic East Coast cardio chumps like myself do not: cavorting with dolphins and children in somewhere called Roat?n. (Where?s Roat?n, Wikipedia? ?Between the islands of ?tila and Guanaja, it?s the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands,? naturally.)
Forunately, Asprey, holder of a dozen superhero titles and currently VP of cloud security at Trend Micro, could get some satellite action for his iPad on the boat. He probably could use his ears as a wireless router, if pressed. He agreed to ignore the dolphins for awhile and answer my questions about biohacking and coffee.
Yeah, he is a biohacker, one of those dudes like Tim Ferriss and Josh Whiton, who think way too much about women?s orgasms, the weight of their own feces and how to game the Red Cross so they can do more bloodletting. Once again, I?m not kidding. These are the guys, many from the tech world, who nap bionically, intermittently fast, binge on bacon and ketose, swing paloelithically from trees and aim with gadgets and venture capital to drive their IQs and erections into the stratosphere. Some of them even embrace transhumanism?the sort of neo-Nietzschean notion that mortality can and should be transcended with technology.
They?re insufferable, in other words.
Which is not to imply that I didn?t knock back Aspey?s buttered Kool-Aid?and that I don?t recommend the coffee and the concept to anyone who?ll listen.
So how did Asprey find his way to buttered coffee, and a life of biohacking in the Honduran Bay and beyond?
?Enlightened self interest,? Asprey told me by email. ?I weighed 300 pounds and had cognitive dysfunction in my mid twenties, despite being a very successful entrepreneur and exercising six days a week.?
Fact check: Asprey was a computer-science major who got his start online as Cyboman, e-tailing t-shirts emblazoned with caffeine molecules and spent the turn of the century doing strategic planning and product development at infrastructure-as-a-service companies, from the obsolete Exodus to the marquee Citrix. Asprey, who worked on WAN optimization and other wack protocols at a critical time, is considered a pioneer in cloud computing.
But back to biohacking. ?It helped enormously that I was wealthy enough to do what I wanted at a young age, and my health was poor enough to motivate me,? Asprey explained. ?I was doubly motivated by a 3D SPECT scan of my brain showing poor blood flow and likely cognitive dysfunction, and other tests showing I was at extreme risk for stroke and heart disease.?
Become rich and smart and sick! And let my condition incentivize an upgrade! Why didn?t I think of that?
?I decided to use the same techniques we use to manage very large, very complex systems like the Internet in order to upgrade myself.? (Biohacking in a nutshell.)
What Asprey came up with?after much grueling testing on his own body, and discussions with every doctor and research scientist he could get his alpha-male hands on?is a diet based around heaps of extremely pure meat and fat, squeaky-clean organic fruit and vegetables and zero milk, cheese, soy or grains. Beef plasma, ghee, sardines and pastured pork are your friends. Tangerines and soy are to be avoided on pain of obesity, ADD and brain fog. The diet is free in a downloadable infographic here.
The Bulletproof diet, Asprey told me, is what first turned him Nietzschean; it?s at the heart of his superpowers. He lost 100 pounds and found he could focus better. But then Asprey hacked his nervous system, too. This part took chutzpah. Like many meditators and cognitive-therapy patients, Asprey realized he was ill-served by reflexive brain patterns like jealousy and greed that may have more properly served the primitive brain in a earlier and more hostile environment, Asprey now says he has trained his brain to ?turn off? the "useless survival reflexes? that were inhibiting him.
Finally, he says, he hacked his brain with a form of ?neurofeedback? that showed him how his brain worked and automatically kicked off an ?optimization? and ?upgrade? of his mental operating system.
?One specific form of neurofeedback I did allowed me to do in seven very intense, very expensive days what it normally takes you forty years of daily Zen meditation to achieve. One hour of this kind of biohacking equals two-hundred hours of doing it the old way. The process took one week instead of two thousand weeks.?
It took a few days for this to sink in: Dave Asprey was talking about enlightenment. Insta-enlightenment. He?s also a guy who stays in top shape exercising about 45 minutes a month. You read that right. 45 minutes. Per month.
Now, I like this guy?s spirit, and he?s evangelically persuasive, but because I generally favor health systems like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Alisa Vitti?s WomanCode that emphasize yin-yang ?harmony? over Max-YANG ?performance,? I thought I?d ask Asprey if his Bulletproof health strategies plays well with women.
?You?d be surprised??he said, though I wasn?t at all surprised, and I braced for salespeak??Forty percent of visitors to bulletproofexec.com are women. It?s because both men and women want to be in control of their bodies and minds. Biohacking is about using technologies ? old and new -- to take control of your biochemistry and your nervous system. Men and women want the same things ? to feel unlimited energy, to feel in charge of their emotional states, and to be able to focus when and how they choose. They also want to look good naked.?
Which brings me to the coffee. Asprey recommends the coffee for ?mental clarity,? but says a side-benefit is weight loss. I was in it for both?but mostly I did it just to show I could do it: Be game, be alpha, give Bulletproofness a shot. I?ve spent decades in the Gretchen Rubin ?Happiness Project? trenches of becoming happier by doing nifty little things like deep breathing, kissing more and laughing with your friends. I?m pretty happy these days. But nothing in the Rubin approach brings the supercharge or the bulletproof or the Tony Robbins/Tim Ferriss laxatives speed muscle mass zero fat executive kickboxer sharpshooter billionaire. In my heart of hearts, I sometimes crave that drama. That hacker?s exhilaration.
I ordered Asprey?s special coffee: expensive and processed or grown or roasted with some cockamamie idea that it is supposed to eliminate the hideous brain-damanging ?toxins? that pollute ordinary cups of Starbucks. I swear I tried hard to understand what was so great about the coffee, cold-washed and toasted and charcoal-filtered with rack-and-pinion steering, or...something. Low in something that?s bad for you or high in something that?s good for you, I know that.
And then by gosh I brewed it, and melted two tablespoons of good unsalted butter in it, and put the whole thing in a blender. I microwaved it for extra heat (hopefully the microwave did not add back extra toxins) and out came a very, very, very delicious cup of insanely creamy coffee.
Yes, it was delicious. Unsalted butter blended into coffee does not taste like butter: it just tastes good. I made cups for my friends, for my boyfriend, for the babysitter, for my neighbors. Having drunk the buttered coffee, some of us have found, unscientifically, ?clarity,? some jitters, some food cravings, some suppressed appetite, some dizziness, some nothing at all.
One thing we?ve all found though: a love for the taste of Bulletproof Coffee. And, I have to admit, in the two weeks I?ve been drinking it, I?ve lost about four pounds. Who knows?
I have to admit something, though: one day the stuff made me super-dizzy, nauseated and faint. That was the day I made it with Asprey?s special MCT oil, which he thinks makes the drink a real stand-out. I couldn?t tolerate the MCT oil at the recommended dose, and I found out on Asprey?s website forums that others can?t either. I started to hunt down the reason for that and was led to the idea of organophosphate poisoning, which, by the way, accounts for about of a third of suicides worldwide, especially in rural areas. Maybe I couldn?t process the MCT oil because my liver was deficient and I?d need to?do something to restore it. Maybe I was having a ?candida die-off? because, inspired by Asprey?s meat-fat diet, I wasn?t eating as much sugar and starch.That?s when it hit me: I could try to hack my biology, and think I had found a shortcut, but then like any hacker I could spend the rest of my life debugging the code that was supposed to make everything so instant and quick and easy. I could spend thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars hacking my own biology, as Dave Asprey did, but I?d rather just spend the two thousands hours meditating, finding enlightenment (or not) the real old-fashioned way.
Do you ever feel guilty about hacking? I asked Asprey. Like you should be more methodical and conscientious, like a scientist instead of a hacker?
It?s fair to say Asprey scoffed.
?LOL, God no I don?t feel guilty about any kind of hacking, including biohacking. Hacking is about figuring out how things work so you can control them. It?s about discovering unwritten rules so you can break them, even if you don?t. It is the cutting edge of science, where innovation happens long before double blind studies will ever get funded.?
It helps that Asprey long ago hacked his emotions.
?Guilt is an emotion that you can quantify, with specific feelings in your physical body. It?s not something I waste much energy on because I trained my nervous system not to do that to me. I would be doing myself a disservice, and taking away from my family and my community, if I intentionally wasted time based on outdated puritanical guilt. I save energy by recycling ? why wouldn?t I do it with biohacking too??
So what?s the biohacked existence like? You don?t feel guilty about hacking because you?ve hacked your conscience. Got it. And the time you save not feeling guilty you can spend debugging your hack?looking up stuff about your cortisol levels and aiming for different kinds of orgasms as a way to ?win? at the biological part of life. For some, maybe that is meditative. And in itself maybe it?s an electrifying way to be alive.
But I don?t think it is for me. Not because I?m so principled, but because I don?t like the part of me that likes to find quick responses to the eternal verities?love and grief and guilt and fear and rapture and aging. That hacker in me has led me to take apart many laptops, and lose no end of data. The desire not to feel guilt, or anxiety, also led me for years to wine, Ambien and Xanax?my most successful hack, maybe, if not highly original. It worked wonders. Until it didn?t.
So now I opt for a measured and sober way, for which I credit some very happy years. But, wow, I still admire guys like Asprey, who style a fanciful ?edge? and then contrive to live on it. And I still drink coffee with butter in it. Because it?s delicious, and easy to make, and it makes this failed lifehacker feel like I?m getting away with something.
Join the author Virginia Heffernan, Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast creator Dave Asprey and Woman Code author Alisa Vitti for a live chat about biohacking at 12:30PM EST on Monday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biohacking-dave-asprey-coffee-140004741.html
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Dijit unveils NextGuide Web with Facebook-sourced TV recommendations
Dijit Media just launched a closed beta of its browser-based service, NextGuide Web, which expands on the features of the NextGuide iPad app. NextGuide's interface will be familiar to Pinterest fans, with a scrolling feed through which you can browse your buddies' favorites and bookmark shows for later viewing. If you have a North American cable or satellite provider, you can sign up to receive e-mail reminders for live TV showings while Comcast and DirectTV subscribers can also use NextGuide to schedule DVR recordings.
If live TV isn't your thing, NextGuide provides a universal search of Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and iTunes for your online viewing pleasure. The social aspect of the service -- along with its Facebook integration -- is arguably the most interesting as it makes it easier to discover programs based on recommendations pulled from your friends' activity. NextGuide's web service is currently invitation-only, but users of the iPad app and Dijit Remote will be able to log on immediately. Since Dijit acquired Miso back in February, users of Miso's TV app will also be granted access sometime within the next month.
Source: Dijit Media
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Search for tornado survivors continues
[Updated at 2:30 p.m. CT]
MOORE, Okla. ?As a hailstorm bore down on the devastated region Tuesday afternoon, first responders continued to sift through debris to try to find survivors and figure out how many people died in the massive tornado that ripped through southern Oklahoma City and other towns a day earlier.
Twenty four people have been confirmed dead--including 9 children--and 237 were injured by the massive twister, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said. At news conference Tuesday, Fallin said officials are trying to find out if other victims might have been taken to local funeral homes and are not yet been counted in the death toll.
"We're going through that debris and we're going to keep looking until everybody's found," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said at the news conference.
Fallin said authorities "don't even know if there are missing people" but will turn over every piece of debris to find survivors possibly trapped in the rubble. First responders will check each damaged piece of property three times to ensure no one who needs help is overlooked, Fallin said.
"This was the storm of storms," Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said.
[Photos from the scene.]
Earlier, authorities said they expected more vicitms to be uncovered.
"Not to be pessimistic... but we think the death toll will continue to climb as we find more bodies," Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb said on CNN.
Mother Nature was showing no mercy to Moore on Tuesday. Drenching rains and lightning had moved into the area by 9 a.m, and marble-sized hail fell in the afternoon.
Officials said water, electricity and cell phone service was down in some areas. They urged people to stay away from the area. Residents can call 1-800-621-FEMA to find shelter.
President Barack Obama said the federal government would help with the disaster response.
"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground there for them, beside them, as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, the parents to console, the first responders to comfort and of course frightened children who will need our continued love and attention," Obama said Tuesday morning at the White House.
Seven of the dead children were found at Plaza Towers Elementary School Monday night, which took a direct hit when a titanic tornado chewed a deadly and destructive 20-mile path through Newcastle, Moore and parts of southern Oklahoma City for 40 minutes. Officials said that unlike 100 other schools in the area, Plaza Towers was not equipped with a tornado safe room.
Schools Superintendent Susan Pierce choked up at a news conference when talking about the twister, which destroyed at least two schools. She said every Moore school implemented its tornado shelter plan before the storm hit Monday. "We're in the process of learning as much as we can about what happened," she said, adding that graduation for Moore's high school seniors will still take place this Saturday in Oklahoma City.
Classes were still in session at Plaza Towers when the twister, estimated to be packing winds of 190 mph or greater, crushed nearly every corner of the property. Teachers? cars were thrown into the building, and the playground no longer exists.
?All you could hear were screams,? Local resident Stuart Earnest Jr. said of the scene at the Plaza Towers school after the storm. ?The people screaming for help. And the people trying to help were also screaming.?
?I can only hope those little kids killed didn't suffer,? said Earnest, one of many who rushed to the school to help survivors.
[In tornado's wake, worried parents seek out kids]
With several students still unaccounted for, rescuers worked overnight digging through the rubble. Police say they are still digging through the structure.
?I just hope they find her,? Shannon Galarneau said of her 10-year-old niece, a Plaza Towers student who was missing as of early Tuesday morning. ?You just feel helpless.?
The girl's younger sister, also a student at the school, survived by suffered cuts to her head and bruises on her back. The 8-year-old was still wearing her hospital bracelet while asleep on her grandmother's shoulder in the front seat of a pickup truck just after midnight.
?She said it was probably the scariest day of her life,? Galarneau said.
Monday's tornado was estimated to be more than a mile wide at times. Its path was nearly identical to the one taken by a record-breaking May 1999 tornado that devastated the area.
Galarneau and her husband could see the twister a mile and a half from their front porch and scrambled to hide.
?It barreled down fast,? said Galarneau, who found refuge in a utility closet.
[How to Help: Oklahoma storms]
Obama declared several Oklahoma counties disaster areas and pledged to support the area's rescue and recovery. The funnel?s fury crumbled homes for several blocks around the school and in other parts of Moore. Missing street signs and other landmarks made some neighborhoods unrecognizable even to locals.
?It is a barren wasteland,? Galarneau said. ?Everything is leveled.?
Allen and JoAnn Anderson huddled under quilts and pillows in their bathtub with their Yorkie, Magand, and cat, Meow, when the tornado came down their street.
?It was like standing in the middle of a train track and having the train go right over you,? said Allen, 63.
They emerged from the tub 15 minutes later to find their brick house gone and cars badly damaged.
?There?s no house. It?s just a pile of rubble,? Allen said.
The couple checked into a motel with their pets late Monday. Chunks of attic insulation were still stuck in JoAnn?s sandy-blond hair, and her legs were partially caked in dried mud.
?It could be worse,? JoAnn said. ?We're alive.?
The tornado developed very quickly and caught many people like, Kelly Damphousse, off guard. He and his family were unloading a 26-foot U-Haul truck at a storage facility when they spotted the ferocious funnel.
--Yahoo News' Liz Goodwin is reporting from New York.
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Apple iTunes 11.0.3
Apple's iTunes has long been an unparalleled source and player of music and video. The application had remained largely the same for over two years until the arrival of iTunes 11 (free), which marked a major rebuilding in features, interface, and underlying code. Not only does the iTunes 11 player have a clean new look and improved features, but so does the embedded iTunes Store. A big thrust of iTunes 11 is the inclusion of more iCloud features, jibing with Apple's iOS-and-Mac cloud syncing service. The latest minor update brings improvements to the recently redesigned and more powerful mini-player and a couple of other tweaks.
Here's what Apple has to say about what's new in the iTunes 11.0.3 update:
- New MiniPlayer.?MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.
- Improved Songs View.?You can now enjoy your album artwork while?in Songs view.
- Multi-Disc Albums.?Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.
Hardly as earth-shattering as some recent updates, but desirable stuff nevertheless. Let's take a look at these along with all the other music and video goodness Apple's player and store has to offer.
iTunes still has all those extras we've gotten used to over the years, including iTunes U, podcast playing, Genius, Home Sharing, the equalizer, the visualizer, a book store, and movie and TV show rentals as well as purchases. Another recent minor update adds something classical and jazz fans have been waiting for forever: a Composers View. One thing iTunes no longer shows any sign of is Apple's ill-fated music social network, Ping.
Installing
You can get iTunes for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 in addition to Macintosh OS X version 10.6.8 or later. I tested the new iTunes on both Windows and Mac OS X. It's an 83MB download for Windows?slightly larger than version 10, which was already on the portly side. By comparison, Windows Media Player weighs in at just 12MB, and WinAmp is 11MB. (The Mac installer for iTunes is even larger, at 198MB.) The installer makes iTunes your default player for music files, but you can uncheck the box for this if you prefer an alternative like Windows Media Player or WinAmp. I had to close Outlook for some reason for the installation to proceed.
On first run of the updated app, after agreeing to the updated license agreement, I was offered tutorial videos explaining new features. A privacy option asked me to share details with Apple so it could display album covers and even artist photos from concerts and studio sessions. This choice also enables iTunes' new store recommendations, since poor old Apple really needs you to buy more and more content.
Interface
The interface seems even more trimmed down and muted than before, if that's possible?and it looks great. Even the standard app menu is gone in the Windows version (not Mac though), replacing it with a square icon in the extreme top left. (You can re-enable it if you like from the newfangled menu, however.) The AirPlay button is still there, so you can throw whatever you're playing to a home entertainment system attached to an Apple TV or one that supports AirPlay natively. You also get basic play/pause, fast-forward, and reverse controls, as well as a volume slider, and a search box along the top of the program window.
The left-hand sidebar is gone, but you won't miss it at all. Switching among Music, Movies, TV Shows is faster than before using the button at top left. It drops down choices for these media types. To get the new Classical choice in the Music view, you'll have to go into the Preferences dialog's Views section, and tick the first option, Composers. Switching between your library and the iTunes Store is no done using a button on the right. Next to the dropdown is a cloud icon for iCloud that's merely an indicator of whether iCloud is connected or actively downloading.
Clicking on an album drops down a panel the full width of the program window showing tracks, timings, album art, and play options (shuffle, repeat, and so on). You can also add album tracks to any play list or to Up Next (see next section) from here. In a slick design touch, the color of this panel is based on the album cover, so each will usually have a different shade. A button in this tinted area also lets you see related music available on the iTunes Store.
Up Next
A key new feature in iTunes 11 is Up Next. Accessible from a bullet-list icon next to the top-center song information area, it shows you a list of songs are on deck to be played. You can move or remove upcoming songs with the cursor. A clock icon takes you in the other direction chronologically, showing the list of songs you've already listened to. A new context menu next to song entries includes choices for Add to Up Next, as well as simply Play Next, and adding to playlists. Unfortunately, the Play Next and history lists didn't work for Internet radio stations such as SomaFm in my testing.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/U9po12iTxl4/0,2817,2368917,00.asp
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Austin Debt Relief Attorney to Help the Client in Need - Scoopasia ...
Press Releases
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Category: Legal/Law
Source: http://news.scoopasia.com/index.php/news/austin_debt_relief_attorney_to_help_the_client_in_need/
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Monday, May 20, 2013
Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner
Monday, May 20, 2013
What lures a lady frog to her lover? Good looks, the sound of his voice, the size of his pad or none of the above? After weighing up their options, female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) bag the closest crooner they can, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers of Zoology. This seemingly short-sighted strategy turns out to be the optimal mate choice strategy for these colourful frogs.
Males of the species congregate in the Costa Rican rain forest 'lek-style' to display and call together, giving females the chance to weigh up multiple males at once. But despite their best efforts, build and territory size, females tend to mate with the closest calling male, Ivonne Meuche from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany, and colleagues report.
The find was confirmed by playback experiments where females, played recordings of various male calls, failed to discriminate between different call rates or frequencies, preferring instead, the nearest speaker.
Female mate choice is a tricky business. Some species chose the first mate that is 'good enough' whilst others seek out and compare many mates before returning to choose the fittest. But the simplest, least costly option is to mate with the first or nearest male encountered, regardless of quality. The strategy doesn't seem an evolutionary winner as it means that nearby, unfit frogs sometimes get to pass on their genes at the expense of more distant, genetically-superior specimens. But it does make sense in certain situations.
Non-choosy behaviour like this has been noted in fishes, and some frog species with a lek-like mating system. It's thought the strategy works for them because it reduces 'costs' in terms of search time and competition for mates. Female strawberry poison frogs may also benefit little from 'shopping around' because strong inter-male competition means the available mates are all much of a muchness.
The team also noted that females unable to find a mate within a certain time period ended up laying unfertilised eggs that never hatch. So in species, like the strawberry poison dart frog, where the choosing sex outnumbers the chosen sex, it makes sense to 'grab the nearest guy' rather than run the risk of not mating at all.
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Only distance matters - non-choosy females in a poison frog population
Ivonne Meuche, Oscar Brusa, Karl E. Linsenmair, Alexander Keller and Heike Pr?hl
Frontiers in Zoology 2013 10:29, doi:10.1186/1742-9994-10-29
BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com
Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128306/Lovelorn_frogs_bag_closest_crooner
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Obama tries to bounce back after tough week
By Steve Holland
ATLANTA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama complained on Sunday that partisan battles in Washington are holding back stronger U.S. economic growth as he tried to recover from one of the most difficult weeks of his presidency.
On a trip to Atlanta, Obama did not specifically mention the three controversies that engulfed his administration last week and raised questions as to how much of his second-term agenda he will be able to achieve.
His message was clear when he told Democratic donors that an American economic revival is being held back by a "tendency in Washington to put politics ahead of policy, to put the next election ahead of the next generation, and that mindset is what we need to change."
Obama's appearance in Atlanta came as he seeks to regain his footing from one of his worst weeks since taking office in early 2009.
His Internal Revenue Service was found to have targeted his political tea party opponents for special attention, new questions were raised about security lapses at a U.S. compound in Libya last year where four Americans were killed, and it was revealed that his Justice Department had obtained phone records from Associated Press reporters in a leak probe.
For now, voters seem not to be taking Obama to task. A CNN/ORC International poll released on Sunday showed 53 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is doing his job, with 45 percent saying they disapprove.
Obama found solace in speaking to donors at an event that raised money for Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, and at a commencement address to hundreds of African-American graduates at all-male Morehouse College.
To the donors, Obama said Washington needs to get beyond "the kind of short-term tactical partisan thinking that has come to so dominate" the U.S. capital and start trying to get some policy items completed.
He said he remained optimistic that an immigration overhaul is possible despite the tumult.
"It doesn't mean there's not going to be some rough and tumble," he said. "If you get into this business, folks are going to take their shots as you, and I've got the gray hair to prove it. But that kind of stuff doesn't bother me," he said.
At Morehouse College, thunder rumbled overhead, lightning flashed in the distance and rain fell in buckets as Obama got personal about race.
He urged the students to think about how they can serve the wider community as they move on in life and not just focus on material goods.
"Yes, go get that law degree. But ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless," he said.
Obama often speaks of how he wishes he could have had a father figure in his life growing up. His Kenyan-born father and Kansas-born mother divorced when Obama was a child, and he was raised by his mother and grandparents.
On Sunday, he was more personal than usual, saying his wife, Michelle, "has a long list of my imperfections."
"My whole life, I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn't for my mother and me. I've tried to be a better husband, a better father, and a better man," he said.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Obama said he ultimately hopes to be remembered not for his record as president but as a family man.
"I know that when I'm on my deathbed someday, I won't be thinking about any particular legislation I passed, or policy I promoted; I won't be thinking about the speech I gave, or the Nobel Prize I received. I'll be thinking about a walk I took with my daughters, a lazy afternoon with my wife, whether I did right by all of them," he said.
Obama urged the graduates not to make excuses for hard times that may come their way. He said he made his own share of mistakes growing up.
"And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down," he said.
He said he has tried to use his abilities to help people less fortunate than himself.
"There but for the grace of God, I might be in their shoes," Obama said. "I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family ? and that motivates me."
Nowadays, he said, people need to look beyond racism and discrimination in order to work together for a country that can compete around the world.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-tries-bounce-back-tough-week-192534427.html
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Cairo airport baggage handlers end strike
CAIRO (AP) ? Cairo airport officials say baggage handlers have resumed work after a strike that left passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage.
Baggage handlers went on strike Saturday afternoon to demand stronger safety measures after a colleague died when a conveyer belt used to unload luggage fell on his head.
His EgyptAir co-workers say it took more than an hour for the ambulance to arrive at the scene from the airport's onsite hospital. Hospital officials deny this, and say the ambulance arrived within 10 minutes.
EgyptAir official Alaa el-Shahawy, who is responsible for ground logistics at Cairo airport, submitted his resignation Sunday. Airport officials say he will remain in the job until an investigation is complete.
Officials spoke anonymously in line with regulations.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cairo-airport-baggage-handlers-end-strike-160547791.html
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The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Two Colors, Three Dimensions
Mixing surreal anaglyphic animation and a haunting soundtrack, this stunning short by Stephen Chan is cool enough to watch even without the glasses. Of course if you want the full effect but don't have access to pair, just blink your eyes alternately real fast. That might work.
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Emma Watson's 'Bling Ring' Inspiration: The Kardashians
Emma Watson has been internationally famous since she was nine years old. She has no idea what it's like to desperately crave fame and status, like her character in The Bling Ring. Fortunately, the former Harry Potter star had some excellent role models: the Kardashians!
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Saturday, May 18, 2013
Pacers' Hill cleared to play Game 6 vs. Knicks
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Indiana Pacers guard George Hill has been cleared to play Saturday night against the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Hill missed Game 5 on Thursday night in New York because of a concussion.
The Pacers released a statement about 1? hours before the scheduled tipoff saying Hill passed the NBA's return protocol as part of the league's concussion policy.
The Pacers said Hill remained symptom-free after each step, including workouts and the shootaround Saturday. He was injured in the first quarter of Game 4.
The Pacers lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pacers-hill-cleared-play-game-6-vs-knicks-225259036.html
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Men Struggle With Wives' Breast Cancer, Too
Seventy two hours after Elissa Bantug's mastectomy, she felt broken. She was only 25 years old, but she had lost both breasts and her strawberry blond hair to cancer. Drainage tubes still hung from her chest to remove excess fluid from the operation.
In that moment, she just wanted to have sex with her boyfriend.
"I just needed something to make me not feel so broken," said Bantug, who is now 31. "Anything to make me feel beautiful."
But instead of responding to her advances, Bantug said, her boyfriend pushed her off of him and told her it was crazy for her to have sex when she was so sick -- and so obviously in pain.
"It was awful," said Bantug. "It ended in a screaming match with doors being slammed."
Bantug said it was just one of the instances in which she and her boyfriend -- to whom she is now married -- didn't communicate well during her cancer experience. He had a hard time figuring out when he was supposed to let Bantug make decisions and when he was supposed to help her decide what to do. He didn't tell her how afraid he was.
When they did have sex, Bantug's boyfriend didn't know where to put his hands or whether putting them certain places would draw attention to Bantug's scars and upset her. He thought he should sleep in the guest room because he thought she needed the space to heal, but that made her worry that he was pulling away.
Now, Bantug knows better than to stay silent about these things, and it's her job to make sure cancer patients at Johns Hopkins Medical Center do, too. She runs the hospital's Breast Cancer Survivorship Program, where it's her job to answer the questions cancer patients and their spouses feel silly asking their oncologists.
Annette Bunch/Getty Images
Angelina Jolie Takes Action Against Cancer Risk Watch Video Double Mastectomy Just the Beginning for Jolie Watch Video Jolie to Remove Ovaries After Double Mastectomy Watch VideoCouples want to know about what to eat and how to tell their children about the diagnosis, but they also want to know about nipple sensitivity, body image and whether cancer patients will be able to have an orgasm again, she said.
Even though breast cancer is primarily about the woman fighting it, psychologist Jennifer Wolkin said conversations about relationships inevitably come up in her sessions with patients.
In addition to finding themselves thrust into the unfamiliar role of emotional supporter, men feel they need to deny their own feelings to be stoic, said Wolkin.
"They give off an air of self-assuredness to protect women, but, ironically, it comes off as rejection," said Wolkin, who works at the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women's Health at NYU Langone.
She said men often lack support centers and have to journey through cancer alone. If they show their feelings, they worry it somehow makes them weak. Sometimes, a man's libido can even drop -- not so much because he's no longer attracted to his wife, but because of the uncertainty and unknown associated with the situation and her body.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Men and women just need to communicate and ask for help when they need it.
"Mastectomy is horrific, but I think it has potential to offer this place where a man and woman could really significantly grow in their relationship," Wolkin said.
It's important for both partners to be as informed as possible about what's going to happen during breast cancer treatment and recovery, said Lynn Erdman, the vice president of community health for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Erdman, a nurse who specializes in oncology, said men have their own set of concerns and emotional issues when it comes to having a spouse with breast cancer, but they often don't feel comfortable talking about them because they think it makes them selfish. She said many hospitals now offer support groups for men as a safe place for them to ask questions that would otherwise seem taboo.
"What we hear a lot of times is, 'What's the breast going to feel like after the implant is in and the tissue in it has been removed?'" Erdman said. "'If I hug her, is it going to hurt her?' 'Will it change our sex life?'"
"I've seen it often bring couples much closer together," she said."It's part of going through the cancer battle together."
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/men-struggle-wives-breast-cancer/story?id=19204485
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Mom chases child abductor and crashes his car; girl safe
May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mom-nm-chases-down-child-abductor-girl-safe-145205271.html
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Friday, May 17, 2013
Nokia Lumia 928 (Verizon Wireless)
If at first you don't succeed? Well, that might be a little misleading. Nokia's Lumia 920?for AT&T has been modestly successful as far as Windows phones are concerned. But Nokia is trying again with the $99.99 Lumia 928 for Verizon Wireless. It's almost the exact same phone?as the 920, except it's been fitted with a new, lighter design, and improved low-light camera performance. The Lumia 920 was arguably the best Windows phone on the market, so there's no doubt the Lumia 928 now holds the title. It's a well-priced alternative to Android and Apple, but it's still not the best phone on Verizon.
Design and Call Quality
If the Lumia 920 is flat-out humongous, then the Lumia 928 is just really big. Whereas the 920 weighs in at a whopping 6.53 ounces, the 928 is somewhat more reasonable at 5.71 ounces. That's still a lot heavier than the 4.6-ounce Samsung Galaxy S 4?which is not only lighter, but has a much bigger screen than the Lumia 928. And it's nearly two full ounces heavier than Apple's 4-ounce iPhone 5, though that phone has a smaller screen. But there's no way around it?the Lumia 928 is a big phone. At 5.24 by 2.71 by 0.44 inches (HWD), you can still hold and operate it with just one hand, but there's a lot of excess bezel around the display at every angle.
Nokia has traded the matte polycarbonate of the Lumia 920 for a high-gloss finish. I miss the matte, which has a much more sumptuous, luxe feel. But I especially miss all of the fun colors, like red, blue, and yellow. The Lumia 928 is only available in black or white.
The rolled edges of the 920 have been replaced with much sharper angles?you can even stand the 928 up vertically if you choose to do so. The headphone jack is at the top left of the phone, while the micro USB jack is next to it in the center. On the right side you'll find Volume, Power, and Camera buttons. I would've preferred the buttons be broken up differently, as I kept pressing the Volume button when I meant to press Power. There's no memory card slot, and the 2,000mAh battery is sealed in. I got 9 hours and 32 minutes of talk time, which is very close to what we saw on the Lumia 920, which has the same battery. Also like the 920, the 928 has features wireless charging, but you need to purchase a separate (wired) charging pad in order to use it.
The Lumia 920's 4.5-inch IPS LCD has been replaced by a 4.5-inch OLED panel. It has the same 1,280-by-768-pixel resolution, and the same 334-pixels-per-inch screen density. The main difference is that OLED looks even richer, though I don't dig the PenTile pixel layout, which can cause text and images to appear fuzzy if you look closely. But the phone is much more readable outside than many of its competitors.
The Lumia 928 supports a ton of frequency bands, so you can connect to global HSPA+ and LTE networks if Verizon has roaming agreements with those carriers. The phone also has 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and faster 5GHz bands, along with Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and NFC. Reception was decent and 4G LTE data speeds in Manhattan were on par with what we've been seeing lately.
This is a great phone if you like to talk. Incoming calls get very loud and sound clear, with a real richness and warmth. The same goes for calls made with the phone, which were easy to hear even when made from an area with lots of construction noise in the background. The speakerphone is borderline loud enough to hear outside, and calls sounded great over a Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset. I had no trouble triggering Microsoft's voice command software, which works fine for making calls, but is no match for Apple's Siri.
Windows Phone 8 and Apps
The Lumia 928 uses the same 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 processor as the 920, not to mention the Lumia 822, the HTC 8X, and the Samsung Ativ Odyssey. In short, there isn't much variation among any of the Windows phones. That's mostly thanks to Microsoft, which runs a much tighter ship with Windows Phone than Google does with its open-source Android. That's good for quality assurance, but bad for innovation. Either way, benchmark scores on this phone were on par with other WP8 devices.
Windows Phone 8 is a quick, minimalist operating system built around a series of live tiles on your home screen. The tiles continuously pull information from social networks, the Internet, messages, and local content stored on your phone, which is both useful and fun. Of particular note is the People Hub,?which pulls together your contacts from different sources?like email, Facebook, and Twitter?and presents you with all of your social-networking updates in one place.?It's more flexible than Apple's iOS, but less than Google's Android. For a closer look at WP8, you can read our?full review.
The biggest difference among Windows phones lies in the included apps, which is where Nokia once had a leg up on the competition. When the Lumia 920 came out, most of Nokia's proprietary apps were exclusive to Nokia Phones. Now Nokia is serving up those apps for all WP8 phones in the Windows Phone store, though they come preloaded on the 928. Nokia is doing this in order to acquire more user-generated data for a better overall experience, though it claims the apps themselves work best on Lumia devices.
(Next page: Camera and Conclusions)
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/3M87NdYfsFI/0,2817,2418988,00.asp
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Stocks rise on hopeful signs for the US economy
NEW YORK (AP) ? Encouraging news about the U.S. economy extended the stock market's rally Friday.
A gauge of future economic activity rose more than analysts had expected, as did a measure of consumer confidence, adding to evidence that the economy is steadily recovering.
Stocks are on track to close higher for a fourth straight week. Indexes are at record levels after surging this year on optimism about the economy and record corporate earnings. The market is also being supported by ongoing stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which is keeping long-term borrowing costs at historically low levels.
"This slow but relatively steady growth, that keeps inflation in check and keeps interest rates low, is actually a pretty healthy environment for the stock market," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co. "Right now we are very optimistic."
General Motors rose $1.29, or 4 percent, to $33.68. The automaker's stock is trading above the $33 price of its November, 2010 initial public offering for the first time in two years.
Northrop Grumman gained $2.71, or 3.4 percent, to $81.77 after the defense contractor said its board approved the repurchase of another $4 billion in stock, and that it plans to buy back a quarter of its outstanding shares by the end of 2015.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 119 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,352 as of 3:38 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The index is up 1.6 percent this week and 17 percent for the year.
The Standard & Poor' 500 index climbed 16 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,667. The gauge is up 2 percent this week and has gained 16.9 percent this year.
After some lackluster reports on the economy Thursday, including slowing manufacturing and an increase in applications for unemployment benefits, Friday's reports were a tonic for investors.
The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent last month after a revised decline of 0.2 percent in March. The index is intended to predict how the economy will be doing in three to six months.
The University of Michigan's preliminary survey of consumer confidence climbed to 83.7. Economists had predicted that the gauge would climb to 76.8.
The strength of the rally in stocks has taken many by surprise, leaving investors waiting for a drop in prices to get into the market, said Jim Anderson, an investment specialist at JPMorgan. The S&P 500 index hasn't fallen for two consecutive days for a month.
"Everyone is waiting for a pullback," Anderson said. "Every client asks me, 'When are we getting a pullback?' With so many people waiting for it, and pouncing on it when it arrives, it's over so quickly."
As well as giving stocks a lift, the positive economic reports also pushed government bond yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.95 percent from 1.88 percent Thursday as investors favored riskier assets.
The yield, which moves inversely to its prices, has jumped since May 3 after the government reported that hiring picked up sharply in April. The note started trading that day at 1.63 percent, its low for the year.
The move to riskier assets also gave small stocks a lift. The Russell 2000, an index of smaller companies, rose 1 percent to 995. The index has surged this month and is performing better than both the Dow and the S&P 500 for the year. It's up 17.2 percent so far in 2013.
Small stocks are doing well partly because they are more focused on the U.S., which is recovering, and don't rely as much on sales from recession-plagued Europe, as larger companies do.
Gold fell for a seventh straight day, dropping $22.20, or 1.6 percent, to $1,364 an ounce. The precious metal is down almost 20 percent this year and has fallen out of favor as an alternative investment as the stock market has surged this year.
The demand for gold as an alternative asset is also being undermined by a recent surge in the U.S. dollar. The U.S. currency advanced against both the euro and the yen Friday. The ICE dollar index, which measures the strength of the U.S. currency against a group of six currencies, is at its highest in two years.
The price of oil rose 86 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $96.02 a barrel.
The Nasdaq composite climbed 30 points, or 0.9 percent, to 3,495. The technology-heavy stock index got a small boost from Facebook, which climbed 19 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $26.31 on the one-year anniversary of its initial public offering.
Facebook slumped in the first four months after its market debut on concern that it wasn't doing enough to develop mobile advertising. Despite recovering since then, it's still trading below its IPO price of $38.
Among other stocks making big moves;
? J.C. Penney fell 75 cents, or 4 percent, to $18.03 after the retailer reported a loss that was worse than analysts' already dismal estimates. The retailer is reeling from the fallout from a failed turnaround plan orchestrated by its former CEO Ron Johnson, who was ousted last month after less than a year and a half on the job.
? Autodesk fell $2.88, or 7.2 percent, to $36.91, after the design software company posted disappointing first-quarter results and lowered its forecasts for the year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-rise-hopeful-signs-us-economy-142804549.html
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IFC Films picks up U.S. rights to star-studded Indie rom-com 'A Case of You'
May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ifc-films-picks-u-rights-star-studded-indie-014423343.html
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
Google wants Microsoft to remove the YouTube app in Windows Phone 8 because it doesn't show any ads.
Google wants Microsoft to remove the YouTube app in Windows Phone 8 because it doesn't show any ads. Understandable! But Microsoft says it would be happy to include advertising in the YouTube app... if Google gave Microsoft the proper APIs. Round and around we go. [Verge]
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The Story of the Bike Maker Who Can Hardly Ride His Own Bikes
Shortly after Ezra Caldwell began building bikes, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer, making it nearly impossible for him to ride his own creations. But in spite of that cruel irony, his craft became a part of his survival.
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Five reasons why hiring a good PR firm is good for business | Digital ...
VentureBeat features a great article about the value a good agency can bring to a start-up, young company, small business, medium sized business and why the large ones believe hiring aPR firm is a no-brainer. Other VentureBeat articles on PR agencies have emphasized the importance of insisting ?having one of the senior-level executives working directly with you and that all communication does not go through the recently-hired college grad. It also wouldn?t hurt to know that this executive came from the ranks of journalism (I?m biased! Sorry!).
For an additional test, during the pitch and courtship period, send them an email during non-office hours and see how quickly they respond. Too many times I?ve dealt with PR professionals who didn?t respond to emails for hours, sometimes days, which baffles me. If I had been a journalist on a deadline, an hour?s delay would?ve meant me finding another contact and writing the story without your company.?
Read the full story here
Source: http://www.dmgpr.com/2013/five-reasons-why-hiring-a-good-pr-firm-is-good-for-business/
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Mexico prepares for more intense eruptions from Popo volcano
MEXICO CITY? Mexico's giant Popocatepetl volcano may generate lava flows, explosions of "growing intensity" and ash that could reach miles away, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said Monday.
Officials were preparing evacuation routes and shelters for thousands of people who live in the shadow of Popocatepetl, located 40 miles southeast of Mexico City. Officials have created a 7.5-mile restricted zone around the cone of the volcano.
Popo, as the volcano is known, has displayed a "notable increase in activity levels" in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government. The 17,887-foot volcano has been disgorging large towers of steam and ash since mid-April, but officials have become more concerned in recent days as activity has intensified.
Webcams have shown large chunks of molten rock spewing from the crater, and ash has rained down on the nearby city of Puebla. On Sunday, the National Center for Disaster Prevention elevated its warning level to Yellow Phase 3, the fifth stage of a seven-stage warning scale.
At the next stage, Red Phase 1, a voluntary evacuation order would be issued for residents of nearby villages. Then, in a familiar ritual, bells would ring in town squares, residents would gather with their identification papers in plastic bags, and police and soldiers would offer to move them to safety.
Popocatepetl, which means "smoking mountain" in the Aztec language Nahuatl, dominates much of the landscape in central Mexico, along with its nearby "twin" volcano, the dormant Iztaccihuatl. Popo was dormant for decades until 1994, when it began to stir.
There have been moderate outbursts from Popo in recent years, forcing the government to evacuate as many as 75,000 people at a time.
The government for the state of Puebla has already sent hundreds of police to three of the most vulnerable villages, where 11,000 people could be affected. Shelters have been set up and stocked with food, water and clothes.
"We're ready for any emergency," said Lidia Carrillo, a spokeswoman for the state.
Volcanologists consider Popocatepetl one of the most potentially destructive volcanoes in the world because of the millions of people who have settled in and around the Mexican capital in recent decades. Although recent activity has mostly caused headaches for residents ? from occasional evacuation orders ? there is a lingering concern that the volcano is due for the kind of major eruption that occurred 1,100 years ago, when mudflows that swept down the mountain wiped out a Native American city near the current city of Puebla.
"In the back of my mind is the fact that these volcanoes are more or less continuously accumulating gas and liquid in a subterranean chamber," University of Buffalo volcanologist Michael F. Sheridan wrote recently about Popo, a volcano he has studied for years. "The longer the material is sitting down there ? the bigger the eruption that could be expected."
Sheridan said in a phone interview that Popo posed a challenge for researchers because the last major eruption occurred so long ago. As a result, there are no data to help scientists understand what the signals preceding a huge eruption should look like.
It is possible that the worst that Mexicans will suffer is the messy inconvenience of ash. Puebla and other towns have been dusted in recent days. In Mexico City on Monday, officials said they were preparing to distribute 500,000 face masks to residents in case the ash blows toward the capital.
On the Internet, emergency updates from government officials mixed with mordant humor, some of it making reference to the many non-volcanic problems Mexico is struggling to solve. The satirical news website eldeforma.com introduced the idea of sacrificing one member of Congress every hour to calm Popocatepetl.
richard.fausset@latimes.com
Sanchez is a news assistant in The Times' Mexico City bureau.
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Mead unveils Wyo. energy policy 2 years in making
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Gov. Matt Mead on Monday unveiled a state energy policy two years in the making that calls for maintaining Wyoming's position as the top energy-exporting state while preserving its wild, scenic and pristine landscapes.
Mead's report outlines four priorities: Economic competitiveness, efficient regulation, natural resource conservation and developing new technologies.
Lack of a national energy policy, Mead said, inspired him to develop the state policy. At least a dozen agencies play a role in federal energy development oversight, the 63-page report pointed out.
"Before we started throwing stones about that, I started thinking we in Wyoming needed to have an energy strategy," Mead said. "We hope they can take a cue from us."
Wyoming's coal, oil, natural gas, wind and uranium industries make it the second-leading state, after Texas, for total energy production. As the least-populated state, Wyoming exports more energy than any other, including Texas.
Specifics of the state policy include requiring baseline groundwater testing before oil or gas drilling occurs, something long sought by environmental groups. Such testing would seek to avoid inconclusive finger-pointing about groundwater contamination that occurs near petroleum development, as has been the story for more than five years with pollution in the Pavillion area.
Mead's policy also calls for Wyoming to promote development of liquid natural gas for export as well as compressed natural gas to power vehicles.
Wyoming will encourage creating a statewide network of pipelines to carry carbon dioxide to boost pressure ? and production ? in aging oil fields. Developing "hybrid" industrial sites is another goal.
"This might mean combining coal, natural gas and wind in a large energy campus to produce liquid fuels, chemicals and power," the report said. "In the long-term, small, modular nuclear plants could be part of this value-added conversion process."
Wyoming will continue to assert influence over managing potentially threatened or endangered species, such as sage grouse, that could get in the way of energy development if they ever came under federal protection.
The report has nearly four dozen priorities in all. Many, such as new rules for flaring ? burning off gas from oil wells ? have been in the works already.
Mead got to work on the policy soon after he took office in 2011. He solicited input from a variety of interests, including the energy industry and conservation groups.
The policy says little about hydraulic fracturing ? the process of blasting pressurized water, fine sand and chemicals down oil and gas wells to split open rock and improve the flow of hydrocarbons ? though it credits Wyoming as the first state to require companies to disclose to state regulators the ingredients in their fracking chemicals.
Environmentalists who sought the groundwater testing requirement want the public, not just the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, to be able to see the ingredient lists. The commission has refused their requests, saying the chemicals are trade secrets shielded from public release.
That prompted the groups to sue last year. A state district judge ruled against them in March. The groups, which include the Powder River Basin Resource Council and Wyoming Outdoor Council, have appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
"Public disclosure needs to be made. Public involvement is crucial and that creates public trust," Richard Garrett, energy and legislative advocate for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said Monday.
Garrett praised the policy's baseline testing requirement as a key change.
A 2011 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report implicated fracking in contributing to the Pavillion pollution. Wyoming and the EPA continue to be at odds over whether fracking indeed played a role.
The EPA has extended a public comment period on the report twice, and recently backed away from promising that independent scientists would peer-review the report.
"Had we had baseline water testing at some point before the activity started there, it would have prevented a lot of the questions later on," Mead said.
Mead said he would send copies of the energy policy to the Interior Department, U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal officials in Wyoming, at least, have taken an interest in it, he said.
"It does look like a great approach by the state," said Beverly Gorny, spokeswoman for the BLM's Wyoming headquarters office in Cheyenne. "We do work very closely with the state of Wyoming."
Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, suggested the Interior Department, which has been developing its own rules for fracking on federal land, could avoid duplication by looking to Wyoming's policy.
"I think that would be a win-win, not only for the state and the feds but also the industry," Hinchey said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mead-unveils-wyo-energy-policy-133025337.html
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