Sunday, March 31, 2013

Kenya mostly calm after vote ruling; minor clashes in west

By Edmund Blair and Hezron Ochiel

NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police clashed on Sunday with a few dozen protesters angry at a court's confirmation of Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect, but the unrest was minor compared with the nationwide bloodshed after the last disputed election.

There was little sign of violence beyond Kisumu, a city in the west of Kenya where there is strong backing for Prime Minister Raila Odinga, loser in the presidential election. Kisumu and other regions were devastated by deadly riots after the vote in 2007.

Even in Kisumu, where two people were killed by gunfire and shops were looted on Saturday after the Supreme Court declared Kenyatta had won in a fair race, most areas had cooled down on Sunday and the latest trouble was limited to the outskirts.

Many Kenyans had said they were determined to avoid a repeat of the violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people and hammered east Africa's biggest economy.

Kenyans said the calmer atmosphere this time was in part because of far greater trust in the reformed judiciary that ruled on the disputed March 4 vote, and also because Odinga was swift to fully accept the verdict despite his disappointment.

"Our leader has conceded defeat, who are we to take to the streets?" said Elijah Onyango, 27, delivery man in Kisumu.

"Life has to continue with or without Raila. We are just poor citizens who must struggle to put food on the table."

In Nairobi, police were called in to defuse a bomb left in a minibus in a residential suburb, a Reuters witness and police officer said. It did was unclear if there was any link to the vote. A blast hit another area of the city a day after the election.

The peaceful voting and an orderly legal challenge has helped restore Kenya's image as one of Africa's most stable democracies. Western states were anxious that cool heads prevail in their ally in the regional fight against militant Islam.

As in past ballots, tribal loyalties tended to trump political ideology at the ballot box. Odinga, a Luo, and Kenyatta, from the largest Kikuyu tribe, relied heavily on their ethnic supporters. But tensions between rival groups have not so far boiled over in the way they did after the 2007 vote.

THE HAGUE DETERRENT

Kenyatta's indictment in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, based on charges he helped organize violent gangs after the last election, may have swollen the turnout for him and running mate William Ruto, also charged.

"It certainly helped Kenyatta and Ruto," said one European diplomat in Nairobi, but added: "The presence of the court is major deterrent to any politician who otherwise may have been tempted to hire some youths to get into a big fight."

That was echoed by Boniface Odhiambo, a 33-year-old who sells mattresses in Kisumu. "Politicians have realized that inciting people to violence will land them in The Hague and nobody wants to go there," he said.

Kenyatta and Ruto have both denied the charges and promised to clear their names.

Western states have said the charges will complicate relations because of their policy of having only "essential contacts" with indictees.

But diplomats said there could be latitude in how to define that if Kenyatta and his deputy continue to cooperate with the court. Western nations, including the United States, congratulated him on his victory.

The White House welcomed Kenya's "commitment to uphold its international obligations, including those with respect to international justice", a reference to comments along those lines made by Kenyatta in his victory speech on March 9.

JUSTICE

The unrest in Kisumu appeared to reflect spontaneous anger among Odinga supporters, worried they might be marginalized by a Kenyatta government.

Traditionally, Kenyans expect elected rulers to put their own ethnic group first. The country came third in the 2012 Transparency International bribery index which ranks countries in the region in order of the prevalence of corruption.

"They have stolen our votes and are now killing us," shouted one protester in Sunday's clashes. "We want justice for our leader. The courts were corrupted to rule in their favor."

Police fired tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing youths in a Kisumu suburb. But other areas of the city had largely calmed down.

Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president and whose family controls a vast business empire, promised in a televised address after the ruling to work for all Kenyans, including those who challenged the validity of his election.

"I want to assure Kenyans that our government will be as inclusive as possible and will reflect the face of our great country," he told the nation.

Many Kenyans in places that were flashpoints five years ago, such as Kibera slum in Nairobi, or other Odinga strongholds such as Mombasa, said they wanted to move on.

"People were tired. Life has already gone back to normal since the election," said Brian Kiogora, 32, a restaurant owner in Mombasa. "Emotions were much lower, so violence was most unlikely, even with the outcome of the petition."

(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa and Thomas Mukoya and Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-mostly-calm-vote-ruling-minor-clashes-west-102824031.html

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Finals Preview? Heat visit Spurs on Sunday

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade looks up at a scoreboard after he was called for a foul on Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade looks up at a scoreboard after he was called for a foul on Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) goes to the basket in front of New Orleans Hornets forward Al-Farouq Aminu (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Friday, March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan reacts after he was fouled while shooting against the Denver Nuggets during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in San Antonio. San Antonio won 100-99. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich signals to his team during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in San Antonio. The Spurs won 100-99. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By the time the Miami Heat get on their plane to come home late Sunday night, they could have a stranglehold on the race to finish with the NBA's best record.

All they have to do is win at San Antonio. That, of course, is no easy task.

The Heat (57-15) take a two-game lead in the NBA standings over the Spurs (55-17) into their matchup on Sunday. A win would essentially provide Miami a four-game cushion with nine remaining, given that the Heat also would control any potential head-to-head tiebreaker with San Antonio.

If the Heat lose, the race for home-court advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs could turn into a frantic, down-to-the-wire deal.

"It's always good to play the best, to play against the best," LeBron James said. "It'll be an opportunity for us. We just want to get better, man. The game Sunday doesn't define our season or how we go from there. We just want to continue to move forward and get better throughout the rest of the season."

Miami has won 28 of its last 29 games overall, getting back on the winning track at New Orleans on Friday, two days after Chicago snapped a 27-game Heat winning streak. But San Antonio has won 28 of its last 30 games at home, and facing the Spurs on the road is traditionally a painful expedition for many members of the Heat ? as it tends to be for everyone else in the NBA.

Dwyane Wade is 1-4 at San Antonio, sitting out three other Heat losses there during his career. Chris Bosh is 1-7. James is 3-7. Shane Battier ? a longtime player in the Western Conference ? has enjoyed eight wins from the visitors' side when facing the Spurs, and also been on the losing end 16 times there.

"It's obviously a very, very, very good team," Wade said. "Very tough place to play, so I think our mentality and how we approach the game is going to be important. You just try to go out there and compete, as we do every night, try to get a great road win. It's not going to be easy but that's kind of what we enjoy."

The only other meeting between the clubs this season was Nov. 29 in Miami, a strange game in that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich ? citing a desire to rest his best players at the end of a long road trip ? sent Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green home before the game.

With guys like Patty Mills, Nando De Colo and Matt Bonner filling out the starting lineup ? they've combined to make four other starts this season ? the Spurs almost beat the Heat anyway, leading by five with 2:13 left before getting outscored 12-2 in a wild Miami finish that gave the Heat a 105-100 win.

Ginobili played just under three minutes in Friday night's win over the Los Angeles Clippers because of a hamstring issue, and Popovich indicated he probably won't be ready to face the Heat.

"I don't think he can play," Popovich said.

The Spurs have won six of their last seven games. Of those six wins, only one came by double figures, an 11-point victory over Golden State. The average margin of the other five wins in that span, over Dallas, Cleveland, Utah, Denver and Clippers was 3.4 points, and the only loss was a one-pointer at Houston.

"It's great challenges, good preparation for us for the playoffs," Parker said. "Denver is a great team, Clippers a great team and now we've got Miami. They're the best in the league. They went on the unbelievable run and it's going to be another great game."

This game could have been one of the most-watched among regular-season games in years if Miami had not lost in Chicago on Wednesday. Had the Heat won there and won in New Orleans, as they did on Friday, they would have been going for their 30th straight win on this trip to San Antonio in what will be touted either way as a potential NBA Finals preview.

"I just want you to know the Heat are going to be just fine," said President Barack Obama, a noted Bulls fan during a stop in Miami on Friday. "They're going to be OK. They are playing basketball the right way."

The Heat streak is gone, but standings-wise, it's still a big deal.

"Very good team, obviously the defending champs," Duncan said. "I think they won 62 in a row or something like that. It'll be a great game. I know our crowd will be excited and we'll be excited to continue our homestand."

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has said everyone on his roster should be considered day-to-day for the remainder of the regular season. This is when teams like to ensure that players get some rest wherever they can.

And the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference is already clinched, meaning all that's really left on the Heat to-do list before the opening round of the playoffs is finish atop the NBA's regular-season standings.

"The mindset will be, first and foremost, playing our game and making sure that we establish our identity," Spoelstra said. "That's the whole thing with us. When we do that and play the way we're capable, results take care of themselves.

"We don't want to get caught up in too much of the results. We have a big goal in mind. That's the No. 1 goal and that's the only goal we've talked about."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-30-BKN-Heat-Spurs-Clash/id-4e44a4d3cd8e439aa2b7e44cea23d222

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

The Feed: Food Fighter | The Rivard Report

tom trevino headshotIf you were to stop by?MBS Fitness at any given point in time, you?d most likely see one of two things on the tv screens in the cardio room: ESPN or the Food Network. That may seem a little strange for a gym, but that same mix spills over to the gym floor, where if trainers aren?t discussing lifting protocols, we?re talking about that great new restaurant that just opened, the versatility and virtues of Fage yogurt, or how to cook the best. Chicken breast. Ever.

Food and fitness are inextricably linked, that?s for sure. But what I never realized is how many die hard exercisers are also die hard foodies. There seems to be a transition now in place where real people are back to eating real food. What was once the land of supplements and protein powders and energy bars, is now this great community of shared food experiences that includes everything from pork belly to braised brussel sprouts. Years ago, I never would have guessed the merger would happen, but I?m certainly glad it did.

And while this new awareness continues to unfold all around us, there?s still some very basic truths we fail to recognize: Like that caloric deficit creates weight loss, and caloric surplus creates weight gain. There really is no magic bullet. Eating well almost always means incorporating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Contestants in HEB's Slim Down Showdown visit the Culinary Institute of America for healthy cooking advise. Photo by Tom Trevino.

Contestants in HEB?s Slim Down Showdown visit the Culinary Institute of America for healthy cooking advise. Photo by Tom Trevino.

So there are questions. Lots and lots of questions relating to food and health, with almost all of them geared toward fat loss. To help get through some of the muck, I touched base with Amanda Avey, a certified personal trainer and registered dietitian who not only talks the talk, but more importantly walks the walk, having dropped 70 pounds herself nearly two decades ago. I hit her with some of the common questions and scenarios that still roll around from time to time. Here?s what she had to say?

I?m fat and want to lose weight, what should I do?

Amanda Avey lost more than 70 lbs. over a decade ago. She's kept if off by eating real food and keeping active.

Amanda Avey lost more than 70 lbs. over a decade ago. She?s kept if off by eating real food and keeping active.

For starters, I recommend you write down a purpose statement, so that you have a very clear reason (or reasons) as to why you want to lose weight. From there we can work together to help you set small, incremental goals, one step, and one change at a time.

But I just want to lose this (points to belly), can you show me what exercises to do to lose that?

What i would recommend first is dietary changes. You can follow that up with supplemental exercise, such as sprinting, or other interval based training. If you want an envious midsection, you should know that abs are not made in the gym, they?re made in the kitchen. Dietary changes are a priority, with fitness coming second? No crunches necessary.

Shouldn?t I just stop eating bread and bananas because those are carbs and carbs are bad and carbs make you fat?

Absolutely! Just kidding? In my experience, things like bread can be a culprit to weight gain, as they can take away from eating higher quality foods. So carbs can play a role, but they are certainly not the final answer. Each person responds a little differently to different elements, so a diet tailored to your own overall health is what works best.

My friend is really skinny and is a vegetarian and does yoga all the time, so shouldn?t I just do that?

You can try it, but there?s no guarantee it will work for you? Your friend found what works best for her, but there?s really no one answer for every person. You have to find what works for you, and what your body responds to best.

My other friend takes raspberry ketones and lost weight, can?t I just do that?

The simple answer is no. Raspberry ketones are not a solution when a lifestyle change is necessary.

Can?t I just take fat burners or some of those pills I see advertised at supplement shops?

Nope. You?re still not addressing the problem of lifestyle. Ultimately, that?s what causes issues. Without addressing those behaviors, your not doing yourself any favors? No pill or supplement can compete with better lifestyle choices.

I have another friend is skinny and runs a lot, so maybe I should sign up for a marathon?

I would encourage you to start with a smaller goal and see how you respond to that activity. Running is not the answer. There?s more to it than that, and your friend probably has a lot more going on besides just running. Chances are they have a healthier lifestyle in general, which includes everything from dietary and sleep habits, to workout patterns and stress management, not to mention genetics.

Amanda Avey. Strong arms.

Amanda Avey. Strong arms, strong diet.

So then, what should I eat if I want to lose weight?

Eat real food! I encourage people to focus on a diet comprised of whole foods, centered around plants (fruits and veggies), and filling 20 to 30 percent of their plate with proteins, and the remainder with plant based carbohydrates. Avoid all processed foods, and limit added sugar to less than 25 grams a day. Do that, and you should see some pretty good changes take place? But that?s just a start. You should also monitor your energy and cravings throughout the day and tailor your program to your needs? That?s why no single diet works for everyone. People have to accept that health and wellness comes from a little detective work and experimentation. You have to do that in order to find out what works best for you, and to be successful.

?

tom trevino cartoonTom Trevino is a writer, artist and?wellness coach?based out of San Antonio. His column, ?The Feed,??addresses health and fitness issues and dispense practical advice for San Antonians attempting to wade through the often-confusing diet and fitness world.?He holds a B.A. from the University of Texas, with training and certification from the?Cooper Institute. He has a fondness for dogs, the New York Times, and anything on two wheels. When he?s not writing, training, or cooking, you can find him wandering the aisles of Central Market.

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The Feed: Bring the Pain

The Feed: 36 Hours in Hungry

The Feed: Winners, Losers and Healthy Eats

The Feed: B-Cycle Expansion, Chocolate Murder and Running with Sculley

HEB Slim Down Showdown: Let the Weight Games Begin

Source: http://therivardreport.com/the-feed-food-fighter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-feed-food-fighter

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Keep police business off Facebook, NYPD tells cops - Technology ...

The New York Police Department has begun policing how its officers use Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

An internal order made public on Thursday advises members of the nation's largest police department to be careful with what they reveal online ? even urging them not to disclose that they're on the force.

Officers "are to exercise good judgment and demonstrate professionalism expected of them while performing their official duties," the memo says. It also warns that "personal social media sites may be used against them to undermine the credibility of the department, interfere with official police business, compromise ongoing investigations and affect their employment status."

The guidelines bar officers from posting photos of themselves in uniform ? with the exception of those taken at promotion or awards ceremonies ? unless they have permission from the department. Officers could face discipline if they don't comply.

Police officials said the policy has been in the works for about two years, and arose out of concern that police officers' online postings could embarrass the NYPD or be misinterpreted as official police policy. The department punished more than a dozen officers after they made degrading remarks about revelers at the West Indian Day Parade in 2011.

"We believe these guidelines are reasonable and make sense," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which represents 23,000 police officers, declined comment. In the past, the union has cautioned its members about what they post and who they interact with on the Internet.

The NYPD edict prohibits the posting on personal websites of crime scene photos or witness statements. It also bars officers from using social media to contact witnesses, crime victims or lawyers involved in pending cases, or to contact minors who aren't part of their families.

"Such communications may be deemed inappropriate or unethical and may jeopardize an ongoing investigation," it says.

The adoption of guidelines was first reported in the Daily News.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/keep-police-business-facebook-nypd-tells-cops-1C9143650

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Friday, March 29, 2013

New Phone by Facebook to Showcase Its Network - NYTimes.com

8:45 p.m. | Updated

Facebook users post more photos, write more status updates and hit the like button more often from mobile devices than they do from computers. So it was almost inevitable that Facebook would introduce a smartphone that put its social network front and center.

On Thursday, Facebook plans to unveil the first smartphone created to showcase its social network. The phone, made by HTC, uses a version of Google?s Android software, according to two people briefed on the announcement, which will be made at a news conference at the company?s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

The software is designed so that some of the core features of the phone, like the camera, will be built around Facebook?s services, according to one of the people, who is a Facebook employee. Both people briefed on Facebook?s plans spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the product before the formal announcement.

Derick Mains, a Facebook spokesman, declined to share details of the event. But he said it would be a ?significant mobile-focused announcement.? The invitation sent to members of the news media says, ?Come see our new home on Android.?

For Facebook and any other online business that is supported by ads, mobile is a tough puzzle to crack. It is difficult to get people to look at advertisements on smaller screens, where display space is limited, without becoming too intrusive.

Facebook?s business strategy is to persuade people to congregate around its social network as much as possible and eventually show them more ads. That is why, over the last year, Facebook has been revamping its organization to be ?mobile first.? Every team at Facebook is involved somehow in its mobile products. And the company has recruited engineers who specialize in mobile phone development, including former Apple employees who worked on the development of the iPhone.

The Facebook employee familiar with the announcement said that when the Facebook phone is turned on, it will immediately display a Facebook user?s home screen. A phone with a strong Facebook focus would prompt customers to use Facebook more than competing apps and services. But the success of such a device would depend on how much support the handset received from wireless carriers, said Chetan Sharma, an independent telecommunications analyst who consults for carriers. The carriers can choose which devices are sold in their stores, as well as how prominently to promote them.

?Unless the phone is in front of the consumers in stores, it?s hard to see how it will gain traction,? Mr. Sharma said.

He said it was difficult to imagine that big carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless would place a serious bet on a Facebook phone from HTC, because that manufacturer?s other phones have not been selling very well. HTC once made a phone called the Cha Cha that had a button for posting photos directly to Facebook, but it sold poorly.

The idea of a Facebook-powered Android phone is not new. In 2008, Inq, a phone maker based in London, released a phone called the Inq1 that integrated Facebook services into crucial areas of the device. In 2011, it said it would release an Android phone called the Inq Cloud Touch, which had some of Facebook?s services integrated into the home screen.

But early last year, Inq pulled the plug on theCloud Touch, saying it would instead focus on other products. Frank Meehan, the former chief executive of Inq, said in an e-mail interview that the Inq had felt too threatened by Samsung Electronics, now the biggest maker of phones in the world, so it abandoned its plans.

?Samsung was already on a path to crush everyone, and we decided to get out of hardware and turned the company into software only,? Mr. Meehan said.

Mr. Meehan said that if HTC released an Android phone with a focus on Facebook, it would still face the problem that Samsung is the dominant player on Android, Sony is gaining traction in mobile and Huawei, a Chinese handset maker, is dominant in Asia. He said it would be better for Facebook to create a special layer that consumers could install on Android devices so the social network would embed more deeply into Android apps and Google services.

?I would see this as a more radical way of providing the social layer functionality on mobile that would really bring the power of Facebook to Android,? he said.

The Facebook employee familiar with plans for the new phone said the stand-alone mobile apps it released over the last two and a half years were essentially experiments to see what worked on mobile devices before rolling them into a Facebook-focused Android phone. This year the company introduced Poke, a private messaging service, as a stand-alone app. Last year, it released a camera app that specialized in tagging and uploading photos to Facebook. In 2011, it introduced Messenger, an app for free text messaging, which was later expanded to include free voice calls.

Facebook has been exploring making its own smartphone for the last two years. But the project, which was at one time code-named ?Buffy,? had stalled because the company could not decide whether to make its own hardware or team up with a phone maker.

Facebook?s approach to modifying Google?s Android software is similar to Amazon?s, said a former employee of Facebook who had been briefed on the product. For its Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon removed Google?s apps and promoted its own services, like the Kindle e-book store, Amazon?s video service and Amazon?s own app store. The tablet is essentially an Amazon-powered shopping console.

A smartphone that gives priority to Facebook services is good for Facebook, but it is unclear whether that is something consumers want. Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst at Ovum, said the concept was ?a solution to a problem that doesn?t exist.?

?There are lots of people who love Facebook, but I doubt if any of them feel like they need a more Facebook-centric experience on their phones,? he said. ?There isn?t anything obviously missing.?

He agreed that it was unlikely that wireless companies would put much support behind such a device, because they are already worried about the way Google and Facebook are supplanting carriers in people?s minds as providers of content and communication services.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/facebook-to-introduce-its-own-flavor-of-android-for-smartphones/

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Reuters: Wal-Mart looking into crowd-sourcing online delivery

Reuters WalMart looking into crowdsourcing online delivery

Walmart is considering the slightly insane sounding idea of using its in-store customers to deliver online orders to help it compete with bricks and mortar-less competitors like Amazon, according to Reuters. The big box outfit currently ships internet purchases out from just 25 of its stores, using the likes of FedEx to handle delivery, but plans to drastically increase that number going forward. In theory, customers could sign up for the chore and drop packages off to customers who are on their route home in exchange for a discount on their shopping bill. CEO Joel Anderson he could "see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," adding that "this is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two." Naturally, there's a gauntlet of insurance, theft, fraud and legal issues to be overcome -- along with the slightly skeevy idea of having a random stranger arrive with your packages.

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Source: Reuters

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/reuters-wal-mart-looking-into-crowd-sourcing-online-delivery/

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George Christy Talks About The Professional Dancers Society, Mitzi ...

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?Giant footsteps ? we?ve taken giant footsteps!?? With evangelical fervor, Ben Vereen was praising the progress of the arts.? The award-winning actor, singer, dancer, an international breakout star during the ?70s with his starring role in Pippin, was honored with the 26th annual Gypsy Award during the Professional Dancers Society luncheon at The Beverly Hilton?s Grand Ballroom. ? For more than four decades, Ben?s showcased his astonishing versatility, and today he and his band are touring his one-man show, Steppin? Out.

This looked-forward-to event hosted by the Professional Dancers Society sells out, recently honoring Julie Andrews.? For $170, there?s the three-course luncheon and a whale?s worth of entertainment, including a treasure trove of film clips starring fabulous dancers of yesterday and today. ? Did you know Carl Reiner, now 91, was a shake-your-booty dancer once upon a time?

Lee Hale?s the genius behind the thrilling video/film clip segments, featuring Busby Berkeley and Hermes Pan classics, along with fabled hoofers through the decades. ? His autobiography, The Lee Hale Story, traces a childhood from Tacoma, Washington to his brilliant career in Hollywood.? Producing, writing and directing with the best of the best. ? Gene Kelly, Dean Martin, Mitzi Gaynor, Florence Henderson, Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett. In 1971, Orson Welles declared, ?Lee put me where I am today in the world of music.?

Every spring, Mitzi Gaynor, the PDS president for nine years, pops the cork for the afternoon, regaling everyone with drop-dead comic timing.? The ballroom?s filled with loving warmth, and nonstop applause from the crush of dancers and friends of all ages, attesting to Sandi Johnson?s belief that ?we dancers are fun folk.?? Sandi received the Gypsy Robe this year, a tradition from the 1950s handed down from one dancer to another, each adding their personal memorabilia to Ret Turner?s raggedy-ass costume, a Mad Hatter?s ?hello, there!? hallucination.

After the luncheon of carrot soup, chicken with a mild chili sauce, and baked Alaska, underwritten by heiress Joni Berry, the big-hearted chairman of the PDS board, Michael Rooney (yes, the son of Mickey) was presented with the First Choreographers Award.? ? Comings and goings flourished, with loyalists Florence Henderson and Dick Van Dyke lighting up the stage, the best hotel ballroom stage in our town.

Mitzi had returned from Chicago, where Leonard Maltin interviewed her for Turner Movie Classics (?fell in love with him?). ? Indefatigable, she travels week after week performing her one woman show. ? ?Show business isn?t simply New York or L.A.,? she reminded.? ?It?s Muncie, Indiana and Spokane, Washington.?? We?ve never forgotten Mitzi?s remark that she was ?born to make people happy!?

Monies from the luncheon give life to dancers in need, as the Actors Fund?s Keith McNutt noted.? More than $150,000 was raised. ? ?We?re there for dancers whose talents contribute so much to our joyful memories,? says Joni,? and we?re there to help with medical expenses, low income housing and emergency concerns through our affiliation with the Actors Fund of America.?

The late PR veteran Dale Olson made the marriage between PDS and the Actors Fund, and he was remembered, as were Billy Barnes and those performers the entertainment community lost over the year.? ? Birthdays were also remembered. ? Among them were? designer Bob Mackie, Lee Hale, and Shane Rosamonda, Mitzi?s co-manager with Rene Reyes.

Debbie Reynolds, always a presence of sheer delight, presented Ben Vereen with his Gypsy Award.? Debbie brought back our recollection from a USC Town and Gown evening when she was honored.? Arriving from El Paso, Texas with her mom, she was Mary Frances Reynolds.? A spark plug of a singer, dancer, actress. ? Happily she and mom managed an appointment/audition with Jack Warner of Warner Bros. ? Driving to the studio in Burbank, they were delayed.? For more than an hour. ? A dog called Debbie bolted headlong into a truck.? A sympathetic crowd quickly clustered, halting traffic.

Mr. Warner was not amused by the Texas latecomers.? However, he was charmed by the mother and talented daughter, complaining that Mary Frances was no name for a movie star. ? In an inspired moment, mogul Warner decided to professionally rename Mary Frances as Debbie Reynolds.? After that dead dog named Debbie. ? So help us, we were there.? In that Town and Gown audience as a Sunday dinner guest of MCA founder Jules Stein and his wife Doris, who were the Emperor and Empress of Hollywood.

Debbie?s now published her memoir, Unthinkable.? We were floored with the naughty tale about Shelley Winters during a Malibu party.? She writes that the Rat Pack?s Sammy Davis Jr. has the ?smallest ass.?

?If Jay Leno were a Jewish (or Italian) mother, he?d know how to handle NBC,? writes the New York Post?s right-on television critic Linda Stasi about the network dumping Jay for Jimmy Fallon.? ?He wouldn?t use his scathing nightly monologues or his worldwide reach to cut them down for trying to cut him out ?

?He?d use something much more deadly.? He?d use that sentence ? the one that has felled millions of mighty men and women ? the deadly bullet of guilt ?

?Repeat after me: ?That?s the thanks I get for giving you the best 21 years of my life and making you so (pick one) rich/happy ? ??

Linda Stasi continued, ?For 21 years, Leno has made NBC gazillions by delivering almost consistently the top-rated show in late night.? For 21 years, he has been the best son any network could want.?

Television?s changing at a dizzying pace with archivists recalling the launch of the The Tonight Show during the ?50s.? Host Steve Allen described it as ?a mild little show in a New York theatre that sleeps 800 people.?? For his premiere night, Steve fried 100 eggs in a gigantic frying pan.

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  • George Christy Talks About Jackie Collins, The Power Trip, Princess Lilly Fallah Lawrence, The Palm And More!?
  • ?Argo,? ?Lincoln? vie for Oscars crown in open race
  • George Christy Talks About the Zero Dark Thirty, Megan Ellison, Melissa McCarthy, Identity Thief, Vanity Fair And More!

Source: http://bhcourier.com/george-christy-talks-professional-dancers-society-mitzi-gaynor-joni-berry-debbie-reynolds-more/2013/03/28

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

NOvA neutrino detector captures cosmic rays in 3D, aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe

NOvA

All apologies accepted if you mistook that image above as cover art for Daft Punk's new album -- it's not (although the duo should consider it.). That Tron-ish, equalizer-like graphic is actually a 3D representation of particle activity left behind by cosmic rays interacting within NOvA, the Department of Energy's under construction neutrino detector. It's the first such visual record made possible by the University of Minnesota-operated facility that, when completed, will extend for more than 200 feet underground in an area near the Canadian border and endure regular bombardment by a controlled stream of neutrinos. Beyond its obvious visual appeal, data like this should give physicists at the DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory insight into the nature of neutrinos (some of which are said to have been issued from the Big Bang) and, by extension, the origins of our ever-expanding universe. For now, though, the project's still in the baby steps phase -- only 12 feet of the detector (the currently operational portion) has been successfully built out -- so the reality-shattering, scientific epiphanies will have to wait. Until then, it's all still life as we safely know it.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/nova-neutrino-detector-captures-cosmic-rays-in-3d/

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Prebiotics: Do supplements in baby formula help prevent allergies?

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Prebiotic supplements in infant formula may help to prevent eczema, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. However, the review highlights a lack of high quality evidence for the effects of prebiotics in preventing allergies.

It is thought that bacteria lining the gut may play an important role in a child developing sensitivities to certain foods and allergens, regulating immune responses and determining how they will react to the same substances in later life. Prebiotics are indigestible components of breast milk, fruit and vegetables that stimulate the growth and activity of healthy bacteria in the gut. They are distinct from probiotics, which are cultures of live bacteria such as those added to yoghurts and infant formula. Prebiotics can also be added to infant formula. However, it is unclear exactly what effect these supplements have on the development of allergies.

The researchers drew together data from four studies involving a total of 1,428 children. Children were given formula containing prebiotic supplements or, as a control, standard formula. Studies followed children to between four months and two years of age and reported the number who developed allergies. Eczema was significantly reduced in children who were fed formula containing prebiotics. Only two studies investigated asthma. The number of children who developed asthma was similar whether they were given formula with added prebiotics or without. In one study looking at urticaria (hives), giving children formula containing prebiotics did not prevent any cases of the allergy.

Only one study assessed the effect of giving formula containing prebiotics to high-risk children, who had close family members with allergies. In this study, prebiotics reduced both eczema and asthma, but there were no significant reductions in allergies overall in high-risk children. "Given these findings, it remains unclear whether the use of prebiotics should be restricted to infants at high risk of allergy or may have an effect in low risk populations," said lead researcher, John Sinn of the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia.

"Overall, we found some evidence that infant formula containing prebiotic supplements can help prevent eczema in children up to two years of age," said Sinn. "However, the quality of existing evidence is generally low or very low. More high quality research is needed before we can recommend routine use of prebiotics for prevention of allergy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wiley.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. JK Sinn, DA Osborn. Prebiotics in infants for prevention of allergy and food hypersensitivity. The Cochrane Library, 2013 (in press) DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006474

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/szTO79OWy3I/130328075716.htm

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Cyprus banks re-open; limits on transactions

People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

People wait outside a Coop Bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

People wait outside a Coop bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Bank branches across the country were being replenished with cash, and are scheduled to open for six hours at noon (10:00 GMT). Systems were frozen pending the official noon opening. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

People wait outside a Coop bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Bank branches across the country were being replenished with cash, and are scheduled to open for six hours at noon (10:00 GMT). Systems were frozen pending the official noon opening. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)

(AP) ? Banks in Cyprus reopened to customers for the first time in nearly two weeks Thursday, albeit with strict restrictions on transactions, after being closed to prevent people withdrawing all their savings during the country's acute financial crisis.

Large lines had formed outside the banks ahead of the opening of banks for six hours from noon. Systems were frozen ahead of the start of business, and guards from a private security firm reinforced police outside some ATMs and banks in the capital, Nicosia.

Branches of the country's troubled second-largest lender, Laiki, didn't open on time due to a delay in the bank's computer system. Laiki spokesman Costas Archimandrites said there had been an initial issue with the bank's system but that 80 percent of branches had opened after about half an hour.

At one branch in central Nicosia which was still shut nearly an hour later, an employee emerged from the bank and pleaded for patience with the line of about 50 people. Most waited calmly, although some began to complain about being made to wait.

Banks in Cyprus have been shut since March 16 to prevent people draining their accounts as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to raise enough funds for Cyprus to qualify for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in bailout loans for its stricken banking sector. An initial plan that would have seized up to 10 percent of people's bank deposits was soundly rejected in Parliament, leaving politicians struggling to come up with an alternative.

The deal was finally reached in Brussels early Monday, and imposes severe losses on deposits of over 100,000 euros in the country's two largest banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus. Laiki will be broken up, with its good assets being absorbed by Bank of Cyprus. The exact amounts of the losses have not yet been officially announced.

Although the banks have opened, customers are severely limited in what transactions they can carry out. Capital controls, imposed to prevent worried savers and businesses rushing to withdraw all their money, include limiting cash withdrawals to 300 euros ($383) per day per person and limiting payments abroad to 5,000 euros.

No checks can be cashed, although they can be paid in, and people leaving the country can only take up to 1,000 euros, or the equivalent in foreign currency, with them in cash.

The restrictions will be reviewed daily and are initially in place until next Wednesday, the decision published by the Finance Ministry states.

In Nicosia, one 70 year-old pensioner who only gave his name as Ioannis arrived at the bank some two hours ahead of the scheduled opening time.

"I had to come this early, I came from my village 20 kilometers away, what do they want me to do, keep coming and going?" he said.

____

Elena Becatoros in Nicosia contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-28-Cyprus-Financial%20Crisis/id-e2ea79d07ee84173b015c1cee0da8821

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Griner has 3 dunks, Baylor women rout Florida St.

AAA??Mar. 26, 2013?11:27 PM ET
Griner has 3 dunks, Baylor women rout Florida St.
By STEPHEN HAWKINSBy STEPHEN HAWKINS, AP Basketball Writer?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

Florida State's Chasity Clayton (00) and Chelsea Davis (34) watch as Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) dunks in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Florida State's Chasity Clayton (00) and Chelsea Davis (34) watch as Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) dunks in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) celebrates after dunking against Florida State in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Baylor guard Odyssey Sims (0) celebrates after sinking a 3-pointer in the first half of a second-round game against Florida State in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) blocks a shot attempt by Florida State's Leonor Rodriguez (10) in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Florida State forward Natasha Howard (33) has her shot blocked by Baylor's Brittney Griner, right rear, as Alexis Prince, bottom, watches in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

(AP) ? Brittney Griner had 33 points and 22 rebounds to go along with three impressive slam dunks in her final home game for Baylor, and the defending national champion Lady Bears beat Florida State 84-47 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Tuesday night.

The Lady Bears (34-1) are in the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth year in a row. They play Louisville (26-8) on Sunday in Oklahoma City.

With former President George W. Bush part of the crowd packed into the Ferrell Center for the final home game of her impressive career, Griner delivered in a big way.

The 6-foot-8 Griner had her second dunk in this NCAA tournament, with a one-handed slam late in the first half. She added two more in a 79-second span in the second half soon before coming out of the game.

Leonor Rodriguez had 11 points to lead Florida State (23-10).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-26-BKW-NCAA-Florida-St-Baylor/id-ada29464adc640de9e36df7d873269e2

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Mobile ads to push Twitter ad revenue near $1 billion in 2014: report

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mobile-ads-push-twitter-ad-revenue-near-1-162046260--sector.html

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Asia stocks weighed down by Europe debt woes

(AP) ? Renewed jitters about the debt crisis in Europe sent Asian stock markets lower Thursday.

Banks in Cyprus are due to open later Thursday ? for limited banking only ? after being shut for nearly two weeks as an emergency loan was being pieced together to prevent the nation's financial sector from collapsing.

The agreement reached late Monday with international lenders gives Cyprus a 10 billion euro ($12.9 billion) bailout but slaps penalties on depositors holding more than 100,000 euros in the country's two largest banks. Investors are waiting in the wings to see if the agreement holds.

Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne said the deal has sparked fears it may be repeated in other European nations that are in similar circumstances. In an email commentary, he said investors saw the deal "as a monster in the shadows for banks in Portugal, Spain and Italy" since it requires depositors ? not the public or its tax contributions ? to take the pain.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.6 percent to 12,298.61. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent to 22,207.87. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2 percent at 1,990.61. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3 percent to 4,978.50.

Meanwhile, in Italy, a leading political party failed in its attempt to form a new government. The stalemate has raised concerns that the country will be unable to manage its deep debts. Italy is the third-largest economy of the 17 countries that use the euro.

Wall Street stocks closed mostly lower Wednesday on Europe worries. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.2 percent to close at 14,526.16. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to close at 1,562.85. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.1 percent to 3,256.52.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 17 cents to $96.75 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 24 cents to close at a five-week high of $96.68 per barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2788 from $1.2774 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 94.05 yen from 94.38 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-27-World-Markets/id-fed62bb026504a47acbbffb71cfd1794

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Chinese state-run newspaper accuses Apple of lacking openness

Governmentrun Chinese newspaper accuses Apple of being 'empty', 'selfpraising' and not open with journalists

The People's Daily newspaper has slammed Apple's behavior in China, accusing the company of being "empty and self-praising" in the way it has shrugged off customer complaints and refused journalists' requests for interviews. The paper's comments, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, refer to a saga that has been brewing for a while, in which Chinese customers have claimed they're not receiving the same quality of after-sales care as those in the US. These allegations were given prominence in a recent show on national TV, prompting Apple to rebut them in a press release. It was this press release, claiming that Apple's warranties are "more or less the same... all over the world", that evidently provoked the ire of the People's Daily. And since the paper is a mouthpiece for the Communist Party that runs China, its outburst could signify a worsening in relations at the highest levels of government -- potentially making it harder for Apple to conduct its growing business in that country. Whatever Apple does next, we'd suggest it doesn't point out the obvious ironies in this situation, as that might only make things worse.

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Q1GFRFudQ14/

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The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season Finale Recap: Fight For Romance

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-recap-fight-for-romance/

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Writing and Farming Are One | Okanagan Okanogan

Some thoughts on ?writing? today, including my other love, ?farming?, and another one, ?art.? A smorgasbord, really! First a note: There are few writers left in the world (but many keyboarders), I know, but, still, with a little generosity for old paper-based technologies, writers write on paper (or keyboard onto screens) and farmers put up fences in fields and plow fields in long lines like epic verses ? ah, you see? Writing. Here are one farmer?s animals in the Lagarflj?t, Iceland, sitting within the boundaries of his pages? ahem ? fields?

klaustur04

Horse and Sheep in the Spring Sun

The horse appears to be pushing at the boundaries of his rhyme scheme.

If you exist physically in a physical world, then farms like this are surely an art form. The pages are written on the land, rather than in books, but they are pages, nonetheless. In the age of ?Creative Writing Departments and, bless us, Literature, it?s not the way we who write ?words? like to think of our art, but it?s honest. After all, many of our languages (including English and Icelandic) were invented by sheepherders and fishermen. When we speak, or write (or keyboard), it is their voices that echo through the fields ? ahem, ?pages ? of our books (or screens) ? in other words, through our farms. Here is one of a farmer?s writing implements ?

klaustur17

Horse-Drawn Hay Rake Put Out to Pasture?

? and ready to drive the earth up into the stars.?So much for the Industrial Revolution. Why, once even typewriters like this were created in foundries and then set loose like horses into the folds, I mean fields, of the world.

I make light of this important idea, I know, but it?s only because I find it so delightful. Think, for example, of what writing echoes in this farmer?s language called English: one wrights metal (and stage plays), one spells words (and magic), one writes poems, one performs rites, one tells stories, and in the end what one has to show for one?s craft (and art) is what one has wrought, wrote, read, invoked, spelled and played. In other words, it?s like this:

klaustur07

?

A Tangled Mess of Manure Spreader and Hay Rake

? somewhat forgotten over the hill (if you were wondering where that expression came from.)

There is, however, another form of art, indeed a language of its own, which has not wandered into such tight fields of electrified wire and driftwood fenceposts and old bits of barbed wire tufted with horse hair, that can help us wrights and spellers and invokers through our gates into the pastures of the high country, and that is the art of painting, and it?s industrial child, photography. In painting, one lays down colour and fills it in (as, indeed one does in music, as well), whereas in photography, one ?takes? a picture ? not in the sense of theft, but in the sense of ?taking a temperature? or of something ?taking place? ? in other words, one is engaged in a moment of presence, one is present, one is there, or, rather, here ?

horsecraterThree Icelandic Horses and Pseudo-Crater at Lake Myvatn, Iceland

From these artists, we wrights and readers can take a blessing: instead of placing ourselves in the roles of givers and receivers of human intentions (stories, poems, plays and even novels, if your taste wanders in that direction), we can take a poem, lay down words, and be present, through our attention, in the world. This is what our ancestors meant when they created our language. This is what they are still saying when we ?use? it, or ?speak? it.

klaustur20My Writing Desk at Skri?uklaustur, Iceland

It?s about the light.

A long time ago I was taught to write poems by the orchard trees I lived among. After twenty seven books about people and their stories, the light has found me again and, once again, is wrighting me, and I am glad.

?

?

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Source: http://okanaganokanogan.com/2013/03/26/writing-and-farming-are-one/

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Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion: Under realistic conditions, hollow cones fail to guide energetic electrons to fuel

Mar. 26, 2013 ? A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme.

In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.

"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."

Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.

These images from their simulations highlight the trajectories of randomly-selected electrons for a thin cone (left) and thick cone (right), each attached to a copper wire. Background colors show the strength of the electric fields pointing away from the cone and wire. For thin cones, the electric fields act to guide energetic electrons forward into the wire while for thick cones -- a more realistic case -- these fields are too distant to be effective. An animation of the simulation is available online at: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~orban/cone_wire_final5mJ_4_5ps.avi.

Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.

The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."

These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.

These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.

"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."

To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.

"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."

With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.

"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."

"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio Supercomputer Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. K. U. Akli, C. Orban, D. Schumacher, M. Storm, M. Fatenejad, D. Lamb, R. R. Freeman. Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition. Physical Review E, 2012; 86 (6) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.065402

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/2LmJkrdgNbo/130326162340.htm

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The art of the nap: Tilda Swinton at MoMA

NEW YORK (AP) ? It's not the kind of performance that will win her another Academy Award, but Tilda Swinton certainly has them buzzing at the Museum of Modern Art.

But keep it down, please. She's trying to sleep.

The "Moonrise Kingdom star has been engaging in a different kind of performance art. She's presenting a one-person piece called "The Maybe," in which she lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The first performance was over the weekend, and the museum won't say if there's a schedule for when exactly it will come back for six other performances.

On Monday, the display drew a line of spectators that wound through a whole second-floor gallery into a museum hallway.

Erwin Aschenbrenner, a bemused German tourist, said it "just what you'd expect to see at MoMA."

The actress "is so pale and not moving in there that she looks like she's dead," said Robbie von Kampen, 20, a philosophy major at Bard College, north of New York City.

But after about seven hours a day of the shuteye pose on a white mattress in the glass box ? with only a carafe of water and a glass to get her through ? Swinton can stretch and walk off into the Manhattan night. But only when spectators leave.

So what's the point?

"This makes me think about myself, looking at her," said Quinn Moreland, 20, also a Bard student, majoring in art history.

"You don't usually get to stare at somebody like this; it makes me self-conscious," she explained.

Added von Kampen, "Yeah, it's socially unacceptable ? it's kinda creepy."

No one, not even museum curators, could say whether the thin, mostly immobile Swinton is actually getting some sleep while people stare at her.

At least Swinton was comfortable. She wore a pair of grubby sneakers, dark sporty slacks and a checkered shirt. Her glasses lay on the mattress.

But no snacks were in sight. And none could be offered in the closed chamber.

Swinton also starred in a glass box in 1995 at London's Serpentine Gallery ? seven days, eight hours a day ? in an exhibition seen by 22,000 people.

The next year, she repeated the spectacle at the Museo Barracco in Rome.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/art-nap-tilda-swinton-moma-222107593.html

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