inst inkiness: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

AP PHOTOS: Easter celebrations around the world

Pope Francis leads the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating his first Easter Sunday Mass as pontiff in St. Peter's Square, which is packed by joyous pilgrims, tourists and Romans. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis arrives to lead a open-air easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating his first Easter Sunday Mass as pontiff in St. Peter's Square, which is packed by joyous pilgrims, tourists and Romans. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis, holding the pastoral staff, prays in front of the icon of Jesus as he celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating his first Easter Sunday Mass as pontiff in St. Peter's Square, which is packed by joyous pilgrims, tourists and Romans. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the the Vatican Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

On Easter Sunday, the most holy day of the Christian calendar, believers attended religious services - whether among the packed crowds before a new pope in St. Peter's Square, at sunrise services in India and Pakistan, or at churches flanked by blast walls and security cordons in Iraq.

Here are some scenes from Easter Sunday around the world.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-31-Easter-Photo%20Gallery/id-42ef8f65a8f14d739664bf4b5b11c458

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Amazon Instant Video Suffered Long, Unexplained Outage Last Night

At the end of last year, Netflix suffered a prolonged outage because Amazon’s cloud services, which Netflix uses to host most of its infrastructure, went down. At the time, Amazon’s own video services continued to function without any issues. Last night, it was Amazon’s turn own to suffer from a multi-hour outage. According to a number of tips we received, as well as a number of reports on Twitter and other social networks, Amazon’s Instant Video service and Prime Instant Video went down sometime in the late afternoon yesterday and remained offline for a large part of the evening. So far, Amazon hasn’t publicly acknowledge last night’s outage and its @amazonvideo account has remained silent since the first reports came in. Amazon Web Services, which powers Amazon’s Video Services, continued to work without issues last night. One of our readers provided us with a boilerplate email he received from Amazon last night after he complained about the outage: Hello, We’re sorry for the trouble you had while trying to connect to Amazon Instant Video. If you try again, you should be able to connect without encountering further problems. We look forward to seeing you again soon. We have contacted Amazon for more details about this outage and will update this post once we hear back from them. Hey @AmazonVideo maybe mention VOD is down right now. It's nice when the marketing tweets come with useful info between them.— Ry4an Brase (@Ry4an) March 30, 2013 Seriously, I get emails from @amazon every day, you'd think they could use one of those to let us know why @AmazonVideo is down.— Aaron Gardner (@Aaron_RS) March 30, 2013 @amazonvideo #fail. A little notice of when you're going to do maintenance would be nice. I expect a credit, or will cancel Amazon Prime.— (@djdeedle) March 30, 2013

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vz80E6istSo/

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Zumba teacher could get jail in prostitution case

Alexis Wright appears with her attorney, Sarah Churchill, Friday, March 29, 2013 in Cumberland County Court, in Portland, Maine. Wright, a dance instructor accused of using her Zumba fitness studio as a front for prostitution pleaded guilty Friday to 20 counts in a scandal that captivated a quiet seaside town. (AP Photo/Portland Press Herald, John Ewing, Pool)

FILE - In this March 13, 2013 file photo, Alexis Wright, 30, leaves the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland, Maine, after a hearing in the case of the Zumba fitness instructor charged with prostitution and tax and welfare violations. The defense and prosecutors resumed a settlement conference Friday, March 29, 2013, after the first round of discussions failed to produce a plea agreement. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ? The dance instructor who used her Zumba fitness studio as a front for prostitution faces jail time after pleading guilty in a case that captivated a quiet seaside town known for its beaches and picturesque homes.

The plea agreement, which calls for a 10-month sentence, spares Alexis Wright from the prospect of a high-profile trial featuring sex videos, exhibitionism and pornography. She's scheduled to be sentenced on May 31.

Wright quietly answered "guilty" 20 times on Friday when the judge read the counts, which include engaging in prostitution, promotion of prostitution, conspiracy, tax evasion and theft by deception.

"We're very satisfied with it. It's an appropriate outcome, given the gravity of her actions," Assistant Attorney General Darcy Mitchell said after the brief court hearing.

The 30-year-old Wright was accused of conspiring with insurance agent Mark Strong Sr. to run a prostitution business in which she kept detailed records indicating she made $150,000 over an 18-month period. She was also accused of using a hidden camera to record sex acts without her clients' knowledge.

She was originally charged with 106 counts. All the counts in the agreement were misdemeanors, including three counts relating to welfare and tax fraud that were reduced from felonies.

Strong, 57, of Thomaston, was convicted this month of 13 counts related to promotion of prostitution and was sentenced to 20 days in jail. He was originally charged with 59 counts.

The scandal became a sensation following reports that Wright had at least 150 clients, leading to a guessing game of who might be named publicly in the coastal town of Kennebunk. Attorneys who have seen the client list say it included some prominent names. Those who have been charged so far include a former mayor, a high school hockey coach, a minister, a lawyer and a firefighter.

Working together, Strong and Wright represented an unusual pairing.

Wright had attended college classes and ran dance classes for the local parks and recreation program before opening her studio in Kennebunk. But she was also engaging in paid-sex acts in the studio, in her apartment and in her office, law enforcement officials said.

Overseeing the operation and watching the sex acts live on his office computer 100 miles up the coast was Strong, a married father of two who ran a successful insurance agency in Thomaston.

It came as no surprise that Wright would seek a plea agreement because evidence presented in Strong's trial was so overwhelming. A video played for jurors showed Wright engaging in sex acts with a man who then inquired about her rate before leaving $250 cash on her massage table.

After the man left, the video showed Wright pocketing the money.

There was plenty of electronic evidence because the two kept in touch via text and email and because Wright videotaped the clients and Strong watched live via Skype. Videos showed them speaking openly of ledgers, payments and scheduling.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will seek restitution of $57,250 from Wright after she's released from jail.

Defense lawyer Sarah Churchill said Wright is married and employable, and she expects Wright will be able to enter into a payment plan. Churchill left the courtroom without talking to reporters.

Residents of Kennebunk were frustrated by the media coverage of the scandal.

Names of purported clients trickled out as they were charged, leading to speculation about who else might be on the list. But residents soon grew weary of the media's attention, especially after it became clear that only a few of clients were locals.

So far, 66 people have been charged as clients, York County Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan said. The state will continue to pursue charges against additional people identified on Wright's ledger if the evidence is strong enough to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt, she said.

Things have largely returned to normal in Kennebunk. On Friday night, a free dance was being held at Wright's old Pura Vida Studio, where Zumba continues under new management and a new name, Danceworks.

Jeremiah Ouellette, manager of New Morning Natural Foods Market, across the street from the fitness studio, said residents have put the prostitution episode behind them.

"I think people have really lost interest," Ouellette said Friday evening. "People really don't care anymore."

___

Follow David Sharp at http://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-30-Zumba-Prostitution/id-5ae429c0213144a7a3c1d4200fc10f59

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Imagine All the People Turning Blue And Green

Science writer Dennis Meredith talks about his new science fiction book The Rainbow Virus, in which a bioterror plot turns people all the colors of the rainbow.

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Science writer Dennis Meredith talks about his new science fiction book The Rainbow Virus, in which a bioterror plot turns people all the colors of the rainbow and more.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8074f573ae8017fefdf86f9685de7f62

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Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor: The ...

Living with Nature School on Blog?

Lesson on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday?

This article serves as lecture outline in environmental science. It is also recommended as reference for researches in ecology and related fields. ?

?Dead Tree Standing, Mt Pulag, Benguet

?As politics starts with good citizens, so ecology starts with us who in

mind and spirit respond to the call of unity and harmony with nature.? -?AV Rotor

Recently I was a speaker on ecology before students at St. Paul College QC. It was in observance to Guidance Week with emphasis to values education.?? It was also a demonstration of integrating art in science teaching, an alternative methodology that makes a subject not only better understood but experienced. Hence it is also called experiential learning. When I received the invitation, I said why?can't ?I try the approach I used at St. Paul?? Prof. Arlene and I had a lengthy talk regarding the outline of my discussion which I am going to present - and if you would allow me ? I will use it in conducting a similar exercise with you which would take some ten minutes.? First, ?governance in the hands of the few,? mean autocratic and monopolistic rule, which has led to abuses of power in manipulating the affairs of the state. v? Throughout history such abuses have been committed not only in closed societies, but in open societies as well. v? Dictatorship ? call it benevolent dictatorship which was claimed as the trademark of Lee Kwan Yu, Park Chung He, Chang Kai Sek, et al (including Ferdinand Marcos) ? is without the shade of radical dictators like Pol Pot and Stalin.

v? We often hear people asking, ?What about World Bank and IMF, GATT which led to World Trade Organization?? Do they also bear the brand of dictatorship?? Second, there is ?low priority of government on effective resource management? is true.? Let us look at it this way as gleamed from Prof. Arlene?s paper.? v? Environmental management today focuses on ecology and conservation. There is much debate until now whether it is better to adopt total log ban or selective logging.? It is a sort of battle between fundamental and practical ecology.? Remember the Alaska oil pipeline conflict?

v? The thrust of environmental management in colonial times was exploitation. Our best timber was exploited during the Spanish and American colonization, and Japanese occupation. The Japanese mined Taiwan?s ancient forest. The Dutch thinned the Indonesian forest. Other colonies suffered the same.?

v? The strength of our economy when we were second to Japan in Asia was based on a vibrant exportation of raw materials such as lumber, copra, sugar, ores, etc.? v? Cash crops economy as dollar earner bears the design of our sound economy in the past, but the player is the agri-businessman and not the small farmer. Third, environmental degradation is a syndrome of modern society. v? It dates way back to pre-history, but the problem is exacerbated by the growth of population and affluence. v? Aborigines too, were also destructive to the environment.? Slash-and-burn is the most destructive method of farming. Today Easter Island is a no man?s land. Much of Peru?s original vegetative cover started to decline with the Incas, so with the forest around Lake Teotihuacan in Mexico. v? The first recorded animal that became extinct in the hands of man is the mammoth.? Fourth, forest denudation follows the concept of the Domino theory, a kind of chain reaction. It is loss in diversity on three levels, namely v? Genetic diversity.? Varieties and cultivars of plants, breeds of animals, strains of microorganisms are forever lost. v? Species diversity. The species itself can be eliminated on the surface of the earth.? Examples are the saber-tooth tiger and the dodo fowl.? Thousands of species all over the world are endangered as their natural populations continue to dwindle mainly because of human exploitation. v? Ecosystems diversity.? The loss of natural habitat is the worst kind of environmental destruction.? Deforestation will not only eliminate the resident organisms, the forest itself is lost.? It will never be one again, contrary to the belief of many. Fifth, authoritarian rule in the Philippines from 1972 to 1982 spawned politicians and cronies whose concern for the environment cloaked a distinct privilege of exploiting our natural resources. v? This opened a floodgate in post-martial era leading to drastic decline of forest resources, as shown by deforestation records. v? Forest reserve was stable for years at over 15 million hectares until 1972.? It fell in 1982 by 14 percent and continued on to decline after. v? The plunge was in 1990 when our forest reserve was cut to almost half that of the end of martial law. v? By 1997, our forest reserve represents only 18 percent of our total useful land (land-use area) which is 30 million hectares. It continued to decline after.? v? What is appalling is that our land area devoted to different uses (other land-use area) such as subdivisions, industrial zones, golf courses, resorts, and the like, grew to 75 percent in 1997 as compared to 12 percent only in 1960. Our farmlands today have?shrunk?tremendously, the main reason we resort to importation of rice and corn, fruits and vegetables, and other commodities.? v? Without forest we will experience desertification.? Much of Southern Cebu, Northern Luzon, the two Mindoro provinces, Eastern Samar, Masbate and other provinces have virtually lost their original forests. Six, people?s participation in environmental conservation through community organizations and NGOs is a potent force barely tapped. Let us consider the following: v? Growth of Civil Society. Citizens from different parts of the world regardless of affiliation, ideology, race and belief picketed the hall where the World Trade Organization was to be signed. They nearly succeeded. v? Greenpeace, a radical organization blocked the trade route of wildlife items, demanded governments and corporations to comply with environmental laws. v? Time launched the search for Heroes for the Earth.? They are the likes of Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), Schumacher (Small is Beautiful), Cousteau (Oceanography pioneer), Macliing (Chico River project rebel)

Seven, there are social scientists who believe that ecology struggle is part of a larger ideological struggle. v? Andre Gorz (pen name Michel Bosquet) sees ecology struggle not as an end in itself but as an essential part of the larger struggle against capitalism and technofascism.? He champions a ?shifting of power from government the state and political parties to the local community and the web of social relations that individuals establish amongst themselves.? v? Rudolf Bahro, a German philosopher, wrote ?Historical Compromise? in which he blamed monopoly capitalism?s constant search for new profits as the major cause of the environment crisis threatening humanity. Without being ideological however, there are pieces of thoughts we can gather in creating a world order of ecology. Let us consider this excerpt.? To wit:

?The privileged today are not those can consume most but those who can escape the negative by-products of industrialization ? people who can commute outside rush hours, be born or die at home, cure themselves when they are ill, breathe fresh air and build their own dwellings.? (Ivan Illich a social thinker, and author of ?Vernacular Conviviality?1980.

This is related with the lessons on non-cash technology advocated by the Asian-Pacific Food and Fertilizer Technology Center in Taipei. I had the privilege to study in the center under Dr. H.T.? Chang, the proponent of this concept which is in line with those of Ernest Schumacher who wrote a book, ?Small is Beautiful? which offers a people-based beyond the corporate formula of development, and Dr. James Yen, adviser to PRRM (Philippine Rural Reform Movement), the precursor of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) which was headed by Senator Juan Flavier, then its director general for many years before becoming Health Secretary and Senator.? ?The progressive farmer is one who prepares his land more thoroughly, manages his nursery better, keeps his field more cleanly and has better water control ? mainly through his effort and those of his family or community.? Non-cash extends further than mere savings of direct expenses. It keeps him away from debt and compromised market deals.? It means more harvest, free from residues of chemical fertilizer and spray. Ultimately non-cash technology means better home, education for his children, and a healthy environment.? I remember the principal character of the ?Mountain Man? who discovered the Redwoods of California and fought for their preservation.? President Lincoln took no time in signing the declaration of the area as a national park. This same man was dying, and it was his wish to die on the mountain alone. As he waited for death he saw the living giants that he thought he was already in another world. It was a turning point in his life, a new beginning. I am sure there are amongst us persons of his own kind.? And if none can meet his measure, then we the members of the academe must create one ? a thousand ? from among the youth under our care. May I invite you to reflect on this piece I wrote. on sweet breeze and earth I planted in youth and old; and if this were my last, that they carry on the torch, to where new life begins - with you dear Mother Earth. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- AV Rotor 2000

Updated 2013 ?A Reaction Paper to the Political Ecology of Deforestation. Paper presented by Prof. Arlene A. Ancheta in a Social Sciences Research Colloquium, University of Santo Tomas, Nov. 23, 2000

Source: http://avrotor.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-politics-of-ecology-and-beyond.html

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Kind Hearted Woman, Raped at 3, Helps Others Heal

When Robin Poor Bear was in her 20s, she asked for a Native American name. The Road Man, or spiritual leader, came up with Kind Hearted Woman.

There was good reason: After a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse, her heart was still bursting with empathy for others.

The daughter of an alcoholic mother, Poor Bear was molested by her foster father at age 3. But today, at 35, she gives a voice to others who have suffered sexual abuse.

"I remember it -- not the rape itself, but the emergency room and the nurses trying to hold me down to examine me," Poor Bear, now living in Minnesota, told ABC News. "I remember the door and being so terrified it would fly open and someone would get me."

Poor Bear suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of her foster father and two uncles until she was 13. Then, as a young wife, she was beaten by her husband.

That pain is revisited after the couple divorces and her ex-husband is convicted of molesting their 12-year-old daughter, as well as a teenage foster daughter.

The psychological anguish caused Poor Bear, an Oglala Sioux and member of North Dakota's Spirit Lake tribe in North Dakota, to turn to alcohol. And when Poor Bear eventually spoke up about the abuse, her daughter and son, now 17 and 14, were taken away from her.

On Monday, April 1, and Tuesday, April 2 at 9 ET, PBS's "Frontline" will air a powerful documentary, "Kind Hearted Woman," about Poor Bear's struggle to stay sober, further her education and heal herself from the deep wounds of sexual abuse.

David Sutherland, whose films "The Farmer's Wife" (1998) and "Country Boys" (2005) also offer a cinema verite look at poor, rural life, spent three years with Poor Bear and her children.

The centerpiece of the film is Poor Bear's battle to gain custody of her children while improving her own life.

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Sutherland, 67, followed the family from Poor Bear's first day out of alcohol rehab, through school and jobs, juggling being a mother and trying to become a social worker. Frustrated at every turn, Poor Bear fights a corrupt tribal legal system and a culture of domestic violence that pervades many Native American communities.

Native American women have the second-highest rate of rape of all races and ethnicities, at 27 percent, second only to mixed-race women, according to the Centers for Disease Control's 2011 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Nearly half of all of these women have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking in their lifetime.

"There are two or three thousand enrolled members living on the reservation and just a small handful of law enforcement to get calls," Poor Bear said about the time she spent a Spirit Lake Reservation. "Some reports are not taken seriously and some are not followed through the proper protocols."

Last year, unrelated to the documentary, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs took over social services at Spirit Lake because of concerns that tribal mismanagement had contributed to abuse of children.

But Poor Bear said that the causes of domestic violence and abuse go deeper than scarce funding and little oversight on Native American reservations. She blames the "rape" of the indigenous culture when it was "Christianized."

"Who taught us how to be parents and how to be loving and caring and kind to each other when they took away all the traditions and we couldn't speak our language without being beaten?" Poor Bear asked.

A former singer, Poor Bear said that she comes from a legacy of heartbreak, but also of generosity.

Her mother, an alcoholic, froze to death in her 30s banging on the door of Poor Bear's foster family, who refused to let her in, Poor Bear tells an audience of abused women in the film.

Her grandfather died saving children in a log cabin fire, she tells ABCNews.com. "The doorway collapsed and when they found him, he was still protecting and holding a baby," she said.

Sutherland did not intend to make a film about Native Americans and was hesitant to reinforce negative stereotypes about life on the reservation. He had singled out several other battered women in his search for an authentic character-driven story about abuse, but Poor Bear's rose to the top.

"She had an associate's degree and was smart," he said. "I liked her sense of humor and she was always upbeat, even in the saddest moments, with the kids."

Sutherland never expected the turn the dramatic narrative would take. When Poor Bear's daughter Darian reveals she was molested by her father at the age of 12, she is required to testify in federal court.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/kind-hearted-woman-journey-heal-years-sexual-abuse/story?id=18834439

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Cohen's favorite Housewife? NeNe -- for now

By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

Bravo bigwig Andy Cohen launched the network's ever-growing, always-popular franchise, "The Real Housewives," in 2006. What started with a few privileged, entertaining and often-argumentative women from the O.C., eventually expanded to include the dozens of frequent feuders from coast to coast.

On Friday morning, Cohen visited TODAY and fielded a couple of questions about the leading ladies on the shows -- questions that he wasn't exactly eager to answer.

For instance, which Housewife is his personal favorite?

"That is horrible! That is a terrible question," he said with a smile as he mulled it over. "I would get in terrible trouble. ... I love when any of them really succeed."

And that means he's really loving one woman right now.

"You know, NeNe Leakes is going through a major period of success -- from, of course, 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta,'" he shared. "She's got a starring role in 'The New Normal' on NBC. I'm especially proud of her right now."

There's even more for Cohen to be proud of where Leakes is concerned.

After several years of fussing and fighting, Leakes and her former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" co-star Kim Zolciak have finally buried the hatchet and gone back to being BFFs, a fact Leakes recently celebrated on Twitter.

As for Cohen, if he was a little reluctant to name his favorite Housewife, that's nothing compared to his reaction when asked to name his least favorite.

"Oh, yes! Let me tell everybody about it," he joked. "Yes! Let me rank my top five least favorite Housewives for you right now. No! Love them all for different reasons."

See more from Cohen on part two of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" reunion special Monday night, or see him on his own show, "Watch What Happens Live," which airs Sunday through Thursday nights -- both on Bravo.

Who's your favorite or least favorite Housewife? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Related content:

More in the Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/29/17517004-andy-cohens-favorite-real-housewives-star-nene-leakes-at-least-for-now?lite

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

HIV, hepatitis tests urged for 7,000 Oklahoma dental patients

By Steve Olafson

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Tulsa, Oklahoma, health center on Saturday began drawing blood samples from patients who may have been exposed to viruses at an oral surgery dental clinic that is under investigation.

As many as 7,000 of Dr. W. Scott Harrington's patients are being notified by letter that health officials recommend they be tested for hepatitis and HIV.

The investigation began when one of Harrington's patients tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C. But a subsequent blood test showed the patient tested positive only for Hepatitis C, said Tulsa health department officials in a press release on Saturday.

Even so, a complaint filed by the Oklahoma Dental Board cites Harrington for an array of safety and health violations that created contamination risks for his patients. He is scheduled to appear before a dental board hearing on April 19 and has voluntarily closed his practice and surrendered his license.

Harrington's patients are being offered free blood screening on a walk-in basis at the North Regional Health and Wellness Center in Tulsa.

A hot line has also been established to answer questions and more than 400 people have called it so far, officials said.

(Editing by Nick Carey and Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hiv-hepatitis-tests-urged-7-000-oklahoma-dental-152402853.html

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Risk and reward at the dawn of civilian drone age

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The dawn of the age of aerial civilian drones is rich with possibilities for people far from the war zones where they made their devastating mark as a weapon of choice against terrorists.

The unmanned, generally small aircraft can steer water and pesticides to crops with precision, saving farmers money while reducing environmental risk. They can inspect distant bridges, pipelines and power lines, and find hurricane victims stranded on rooftops.

Drones ? some as tiny as a hummingbird ? promise everyday benefits as broad as the sky is wide. But the drone industry and those eager to tap its potential are running headlong into fears the peeping-eye, go-anywhere technology will be misused.

Since January, drone-related legislation has been introduced in more than 30 states, largely in response to privacy concerns. Many of the bills would prevent police from using drones for broad public surveillance or to watch individuals without sufficient grounds to believe they were involved in crimes.

Stephen Ingley, executive director of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, says resistance to the technology is frustrating. Drones "clearly have so much potential for saving lives, and it's a darn shame we're having to go through this right now," he said.

But privacy advocates say now is the time to debate the proper use of civilian drones and set rules, before they become ubiquitous. Sentiment for curbing domestic drone use has brought the left and right together perhaps more than any other recent issue.

"The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law-abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

With military budgets shrinking, drone makers have been counting on the civilian market to spur the industry's growth. Some companies that make drones or supply support equipment and services say the uncertainty has caused them to put U.S. expansion plans on hold, and they are looking overseas for new markets.

"Our lack of success in educating the public about unmanned aircraft is coming back to bite us," said Robert Fitzgerald, CEO of the BOSH Group of Newport News, Va., which provides support services to drone users.

"The U.S. has been at the lead of this technology a long time," he said. "If our government holds back this technology, there's the freedom to move elsewhere ... and all of a sudden these things will be flying everywhere else and competing with us."

Law enforcement is expected to be one of the bigger initial markets for civilian drones. Last month, the FBI used drones to maintain continuous surveillance of a bunker in Alabama where a 5-year-old boy was being held hostage.

In Virginia, the state General Assembly passed a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on the use of drones by state and local law enforcement. The measure is supported by groups as varied as the American Civil Liberties Union on the left and the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation on the right.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is proposing amendments that would retain the broad ban on spy drones but allow specific exemptions when lives are in danger, such as for search-and rescue operations. The legislature reconvenes on April 3 to consider the matter.

Seattle abandoned its drone program after community protests in February. The city's police department had purchased two drones through a federal grant without consulting the city council.

In Congress, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the House's privacy caucus, has introduced a bill that prohibits the Federal Aviation Administration from issuing drone licenses unless the applicant provides a statement explaining who will operate the drone, where it will be flown, what kind of data will be collected, how the data will be used, whether the information will be sold to third parties and the period for which the information will be retained.

Privacy advocates acknowledge the many benign uses of drones. In Mesa County, Colo., for example, an annual landfill survey using manned aircraft cost about $10,000. The county recently performed the same survey using a drone for about $200.

Drones can help police departments find missing people, reconstruct traffic accidents and act as lookouts for SWAT teams. Real estate agents can have them film videos of properties and surrounding neighborhoods, offering clients a better-than-bird's-eye view though one that neighbors may not wish to have shared.

"Any legislation that restricts the use of this kind of capability to serve the public is putting the public at risk," said Steve Gitlin, vice president of AeroVironment, a leading maker of smaller drones.

Yet the virtues of drones can also make them dangerous, privacy advocates say. The low cost and ease of use may encourage police and others to conduct the kind of continuous or intrusive surveillance that might otherwise be impractical.

Drones can be equipped with high-powered cameras and listening devices, and infrared cameras that can see people in the dark.

"High-rise buildings, security fences or even the walls of a building are not barriers to increasingly common drone technology," Amie Stepanovich, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Council's surveillance project, told the Senate panel.

Civilian drone use is limited to government agencies and public universities that have received a few hundred permits from the FAA. A law passed by Congress last year requires the FAA to open U.S. skies to widespread drone flights by 2015, but the agency is behind schedule and it's doubtful it will meet that deadline. Lawmakers and industry officials have complained for years about the FAA's slow progress.

The FAA estimates that within five years of gaining broader access about 7,500 civilian drones will be in use.

Although the Supreme Court has not dealt directly with drones, it has OK'd aerial surveillance without warrants in drug cases in which officers in a plane or helicopter spotted marijuana plants growing on a suspect's property.

But in a case involving the use of ground-based equipment, the court said police generally need a warrant before using a thermal imaging device to detect hot spots in a home that might indicate that marijuana plants are being grown there.

In some states economic concerns have trumped public unease. In Oklahoma, an anti-drone bill was shelved at the request of Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who was concerned it might hinder growth of the state's drone industry. The North Dakota state Senate killed a drone bill in part because it might impede the state's chances of being selected by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of six national drone test sites, which could generate local jobs.

A bill that would have limited the ability of state and local governments to use drones died in the Washington legislature. The measure was opposed by the Boeing Co., which employs more than 80,000 workers in the state and which has a subsidiary, Insitu, that's a leading military drone manufacturer.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., recently drew attention to the domestic use of drones when he staged a Senate filibuster, demanding to know whether the president has authority to use weaponized drones to kill Americans on American soil. The White House said no, if the person isn't engaged in combat. Industry officials worry that the episode could temporarily set back civilian drone use.

"The opposition has become very loud," said Gitlin of AeroVironment, "but we are confident that over time the benefits of these solutions are going to far outweigh the concerns, and they'll become part of normal life in the future."

___

Associated Press writer Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-29-Everyday%20Drones/id-2898ef918ddb4166839776f7d86a1295

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How To Put SEO To Work For Your Business | Content for Reprint

Author: Mishel Roserberg | Total views: 108 Comments: 0
Word Count: 850 Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 3:53 PM

With the right amount of knowledge, you will be able to efficiently increase web traffic through optimization of your website. Read on for more useful SEO tips.

Strive to design each page of your website in a way that makes it stand out from every other. Pay particular attention to the titles you use. These are extremely important for search engine optimization purposes. Including your keyword or phrase in the titles on your pages is important towards ranking highly on search engines.

If you have a site that is written in a non-english language, use the language meta tag. That's because search engines will rank you higher when people do a search for your content in that language.

Research any outside SEO company before signing over the work to them. Lots of SEO companies will charge too much for sub-standard work. Read online reviews and testimonials from previous companies to make sure that the company you're looking to hire is the real deal. Your wallet will thank you later.

Once you have discovered the right key phrases for your website, you should put that key phrase in your title. The first impression of your site is generated by the title, so choose it with care. This way, your site will be clicked because it most fits the search results the user typed in.

Ask yourself the question "how would somebody find my site if they were searching for it?" Then ensure that you have multiple uses of these keywords scattered through your site. Include your keywords in the titles of your pages and throughout your content, but don't overuse them. Stuffing your pages full of keywords will cause the search engines to lower your search ranking.

An important SEO tip is to keep an eye on your search rankings. It is crucial that you track your results to understand how your SEO is doing. One easy way to track your progress is by using the Google Analytics tool.

Retaining the visitors you get from search engines will not only increase your profits, but also your search engine rank. It is proven that spending more time working on a site increases the page rank. This trend has been established through metrics like Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Keywords will help you improve the visibility of your sites. Coordinate your keywords with your article topics. This makes it easier for search engines to index your work. Therefore, it's easier for readers who may be trying to locate your articles. The keyword you want to focus on should appear several times in your article's text, as well as in its title and summary.

There are several options you can use to get inbound links to your website. Article writing, message forums, press releases, directory submissions and blogs can all provide your site with traffic. A great way to improve your SEO is to use good outbound links.

This will help increase your search engine rankings. The meta description appears right under the website link in many search engines, so use this text to grab a potential customer's attention. If you are using a popular CMS, you might be able to edit meta descriptions directly from the control panel.

The most important thing that you can do for your site is to make sure that you always keep the content on the site fresh and unique. People won't want to visit your website if you simply present the same old information indefinitely.

If you want to have successful SEO results, you need a site map. This will make it easier for spiders to crawl on your site. If your site is particularly large, you may need multiple maps. In general, try not to have more than 100 links on each map.

These descriptions will let your web site show up higher in search ratings. The meta description refers to the short description that appears in search results. Use important keywords and encourage your readers to take action and visit your site. Check to see if your content management software makes it easy for you to write a meta description on the same page you create your content on.

Meta tags should be as clear and descriptive as possible. Add a concise description to every meta tag on your site. This will increase click through rates.

Keyword density is vital when you optimize a web page for search engines. Focus on keeping each page's keyword content well under 20 percent.

You should now know that SEO is a very important part of internet marketing. By abiding by the advice in this article, you will be able to optimize your website. As long as your website is of high-quality, you will be more likely to receive a lot of traffic, which will lead to more profits.

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1: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

3: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/how-to-put-seo-to-work-for-your-business.htm

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Scientists propose revolutionary laser system to produce the next LHC

Friday, March 29, 2013

An international team of physicists has proposed a revolutionary laser system, inspired by the telecommunications technology, to produce the next generation of particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) sets out a new laser system composed of massive arrays of thousands of fibre lasers, for both fundamental research at laboratories such as CERN and more applied tasks such as proton therapy and nuclear transmutation.

The results of this study are published today in Nature Photonics.

Lasers can provide, in a very short time measured in femtoseconds, bursts of energy of great power counted in petawatts or a thousand times the power of all the power plants in the world.

Compact accelerators are also of great societal importance for applied tasks in medicine, such as a unique way to democratise proton therapy for cancer treatment, or the environment where it offers the prospect to reduce the lifetime of dangerous nuclear waste by, in some cases, from 100 thousand years to tens of years or even less.

However, there are two major hurdles that prevent the high-intensity laser from becoming a viable and widely used technology in the future. First, a high-intensity laser often only operates at a rate of one laser pulse per second, when for practical applications it would need to operate tens of thousands of times per second. The second is ultra-intense lasers are notorious for being very inefficient, producing output powers that are a fraction of a percent of the input power. As practical applications would require output powers in the range of tens of kilowatts to megawatts, it is economically not feasible to produce this power with such a poor efficiency.

To bridge this technology divide, the ICAN consortium, an EU-funded project initiated and coordinated by the ?cole polytechnique and composed of the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre, Jena and CERN, as well as 12 other prestigious laboratories around the world, aims to harness the efficiency, controllability, and high average power capability of fibre lasers to produce high energy, high repetition rate pulse sources.

The aim is to replace the conventional single monolithic rod amplifier that typically equips lasers with a network of fibre amplifiers and telecommunication components.

G?rard Mourou of ?cole polytechnique who leads the consortium says: "One important application demonstrated today has been the possibility to accelerate particles to high energy over very short distances measured in centimetres rather than kilometres as it is the case today with conventional technology. This feature is of paramount importance when we know that today high energy physics is limited by the prohibitive size of accelerators, of the size of tens of kilometres, and cost billions of euros. Reducing the size and cost by a large amount is of critical importance for the future of high energy physics."

Dr Bill Brocklesby from the ORC adds: "A typical CAN laser for high-energy physics may use thousands of fibres, each carrying a small amount of laser energy. It offers the advantage of relying on well tested telecommunication elements, such as fibre lasers and other components. The fibre laser offers an excellent efficiency due to laser diode pumping. It also provides a much larger surface cooling area and therefore makes possible high repetition rate operation.

"The most stringent difficulty is to phase the lasers within a fraction of a wavelength. This difficulty seemed insurmountable but a major roadblock has in fact been solved: preliminary proof of concept suggests that thousands of fibres can be controlled to provide a laser output powerful enough to accelerate electrons to energies of several GeV at 10 kHz repetition rate - an improvement of at least ten thousand times over today's state of the art lasers."

Such a combined fibre-laser system should provide the necessary power and efficiency that could make economical the production of a large flux of relativistic protons over millimetre lengths as opposed to a few hundred metres.

One important societal application of such a source is to transmute the waste products of nuclear reactors, which at present have half-lives of hundreds of thousands of years, into materials with much shorter lives, on the scale of tens of years, thus transforming dramatically the problem of nuclear waste management.

CAN technology could also find important applications in areas of medicine, such as proton therapy, where reliability and robustness of fibre technology could be decisive features.

###

University of Southampton: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Thanks to University of Southampton 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.

This press release has been viewed 63 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127518/Scientists_propose_revolutionary_laser_system_to_produce_the_next_LHC

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Abrakadoodle Art Education Opens First Unit in ... - Franchising.com

Children's art and creativity programs set to get underway in Northwest Arkansas this spring.

March 29, 2013 // Franchising.com // Reston, VA - Abrakadoodle Remarkable Art Education is expanding its reach to children with the addition of its first franchise unit in Arkansas. The mother/daughter duo Cora J. and Joy Davis of Fayetteville will be providing a wide range of art programs to include visual arts classes, camps, workshops, as well as in-school field trips, special events and arty parties at schools, community centers, faith-based locations and other sites that serve children throughout Northwest Arkansas to include Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale.

"We are delighted to welcome Joy and Cora to our award-winning Abrakadoodle franchise system," said Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE, President and Co-Founder of Abrakadoodle, Inc. "They bring impressive educational backgrounds and a true passion for education and creative literacy, which I am confident will help ensure their tremendous success in a community that values art, culture and creativity."

"Creative literacy is very important for children," stated Cora J. Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas. "Abrakadoodle will provide an educationally-rich learning environment enabling children to develop skills and imagination." Married to Paul, mother of three (Kendrick, Vanessa and Joy) and grandmother of two young children (Kennedy and Katelynn), Cora brings to Abrakadoodle 15 years of K-5 teaching experience, as well as a BS in Elementary Education, a Master's in Education, and she is working on her PhD in Public Policy and Education at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. She explained that her daughter Joy approached her about the opportunity to operate a well-respected art education franchise, an idea she met with enthusiasm.

""I always dreamed of owning my own business," Joy Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas remarked. Joy discovered Abrakadoodle when she read a business magazine and saw a fit with Abrakadoodle's creative concept. From a long line of educators, Joy brings a BS in Biology and a Master's in Operations Management. "Through Abrakadoodle, we will stimulate creativity in children, which they will carry with them throughout their lives. I find that very exciting!"

To learn more about art programs or to bring Abrakadoodle classes and activities to your location, please go to www.abrakadoodle.com/AR01/ or contact Joy Davis at jdavis@abrakadoodle.com or 479-856-6651.

Abrakadoodle was the first American franchise company to bring a comprehensive, standards-based art education program to children in the U.S. More than just a drawing program, Abrakadoodle embraces art in its broadest scope - from public art to all types of painting, sculpture, animation, paper and fabric art, digital photography and more. Abrakadoodle students develop a fine arts vocabulary as they learn about the styles and techniques of such artists as Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Ansel Adams, as well as contemporary artists through its Artist of Distinction program. Abrakadoodle students use an abundance of creative materials (bamboo brushes, sculpting materials, fabric, watercolor, acrylics, and more) to explore the visual arts. Students often take home framed, labeled original creations that extend the learning at home, as well as boost self-confidence.

Abrakadoodle classes employ a "process art" methodology. These classes not only inspire a child's imagination, but they also build motor, language and cognitive skills. Abrakadoodle students develop an appreciation for art and a sense of craftsmanship. Research suggests that getting an early start in the arts can make a real difference in the lives of children, not only in terms of increased academic achievement but also greater problem solving, leadership capabilities, and confidence.

About Abrakadoodle

Abrakadoodle was co-founded in 2002 by award-winning educator/franchise developer Mary Rogers, CFE, MA.Ed, and children's services franchising expert Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE. Abrakadoodle is the most comprehensive creativity and art education company of its kind, offering extensive visual arts classes, camps and parties for children ages 20 months to 12 years old. Abrakadoodle has received seven First Place Awards from Nickelodeon's Parent Picks Awards for "Best Art Program to inspire your child's inner Picasso." Recently Abrakadoodle also received seven additional nominations for "Best Kids Party Entertainer" and "Best Kids Party Place."

SOURCE?Abrakadoodle

Contact:

Joy Davis
Director
479-856-6651
jdavis@abrakadoodle.com

Karin Machusic
Director of Public Relations
(Mobile) 925-708-2179
Karin@abrakadoodle.com

###

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130329_abrakadoodle_art_education_opens_first_unit_in_ark.html

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Obama: 'Shame on us' (CNN)

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Andrei Arlovski?s camp says timing error in New Jersey caused him to take ?huge blow? late

Just days after Nick Diaz's camp criticized the athletic commission in Quebec for their handling of his UFC 158 weigh-in with UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, another athletic commission is under fire. Jackson's MMA, the gym who backs Andrei Arlovski, said a timing error by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board resulted in Arlovski's broken jaw.

Arlovski lost to Anthony Johnson in a World Series of Fighting bout on Saturday. Jackson's MMA posted on their Facebook about the timekeeping problem:

The NJ athletic commission was worried about the World Series of Fighting getting a new canvas and new corner pads for the cage they almost canceled the fight Saturday night. Unfortunately they forgot to get a time keeper that was trained properly. 1st round 5min 8 sec in the Andrei fight. A devastating blow was landed after the 5min mark. It's amazing how so much time is spent with over regulating but the simple things can cost dearly.

WSOF had to bring in a new canvas and pads when the ones they originally had were unsuitable. But the timing error is much worse. Check out this video via MMA Fighting, and listen to the wood clacking at the 10-second mark. The clock disappears from the screen at seven seconds. Even a generous countdown shows the fight went past the five-minute mark.

The worst part is that the damage Johnson caused came after the time should have expired. His jaw was broken, and it needed surgery for repair. It also raises questions on if the fight result would have been different if Arlovski wouldn't have been hurt late in the first round.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/andrei-arlovski-camp-says-timing-error-jersey-caused-144726034--mma.html

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AP source: Barbara Walters to retire next year

NEW YORK (AP) ? Barbara Walters plans to retire next year, ending a television career that began more than a half century ago and made her a trailblazer in news and daytime TV.

Someone who works closely with Walters said the plan is for her to retire in May 2014 after a series of special programs saluting her career. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday.

Walters, 83, was hospitalized earlier this year after falling and cutting her head while leaving a party in Washington and remained out of work after developing the chickenpox. Largely retired from ABC News already, her main work is at "The View," the daytime hit she created in 1997.

Her television career began in 1961 when she was hired as a writer for the "Today" show. She graduated quickly to on-air work and became the show's co-host before leaving in 1976 to become co-anchor of ABC's evening news with Harry Reasoner ? the first woman in such a role for a television network.

The pairing ended quickly and Walters settled into a role as ABC News' cajoler-in-chief, competing ferociously to land newsmaking interviews with heads of state and stars of the day. She regularly did interview specials, including an annual show with the most fascinating people of the year, and was co-host of "20/20" for two decades, much of the time with Hugh Downs.

She described "The View" as the "dessert" of her career, a regular gathering of women chatting about the hot topics of the day and interviewing visiting presidents and actors eager to reach a daytime audience. Walters appeared semi-regularly as one of the hosts.

"The View" faces a transition continuing without Walters and also the last remaining original host, Joy Behar, who recently announced she was stepping down.

Walters underwent heart surgery in 2010, turning the experience into a prime-time special, "A Matter of Life and Death," featuring interviews with fellow heart patients Bill Clinton and David Letterman.

ABC news and entertainment representatives would not comment Thursday and Walters' publicist, Cindi Berger, did not immediately return requests for comment.

It wasn't clear when Walters would announce her plans. Late spring is the time TV networks generally reveal their plans for the upcoming year so advertisers can lock in commercial time.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-barbara-walters-retire-next-201952868.html

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Use coupon HOP13 at checkout to save 15% on ALL Android accessories

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/IGSzqii-5gI/story01.htm

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Spacecraft shortens trip to ISS

29 March 2013 Last updated at 02:57 ET

A Soyuz space capsule has docked at the International Space Station (ISS) after a journey of less than six hours.

The three-man crew is the first to take the quicker route, involving just four orbits.

The journey normally takes two days for a Russian spacecraft.

The arrival of Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and Chris Cassidy of the US brings the number of crew at the ISS to six.

The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

After lift-off at 20:43 GMT, the Soyuz capsule then entered orbit and, using intricate ballistics manoeuvres, succeeded in cutting out around 30 orbits and 45 hours from the flight time to the ISS.

Prior to the flight, the shortened route had been successfully tested three times by Russian Progress cargo ships, which are unmanned versions of the Soyuz that transport supplies to the ISS.

The three new arrivals are due to return to Earth in September. The other three members of the ISS crew arrived in December and will leave in May.

Over the next six months the crew will perform 137 investigations on the US operating segment of the station, and 44 on the Russian segment, according to a statement from the US space agency, Nasa.

Nasa said that the investigations will cover human research, biological and physical sciences, technology development, Earth observation, and education.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21972804#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Story Of Gaming Industry Sexism - Business Insider

The gaming industry is abuzz because Brenda Romero, disgusted by an act of sexism at the Gamer's Developers Conference, resigned her position as co-chair of the International Game Developer's Association's Women in Games group.

But this is not the first horrifying story to rock the gaming industry this week.

On Tuesday, Meagan Marie, community manager at San Francisco gaming company Crystal Dynamics took a big, public stand against sexism, too.

Crystal Dynamics makes games like Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain. She's known for organizing "cosplay" events where gamers dress up in costumes.

Video games tend to depict women in revealing clothes, so some of the costumes are sexy. This is a problem because some men think the costumes mean they have the right to be vulgar or aggressive.

Marie said on her blog that at the PAX East gamer's conference held last week in Boston, a journalist with a camera approached a group of costumed women gamers who were playing Tomb Raider. He started asking them sexual questions on camera.

Marie kicked him out of the area, reported him to the conference organizers where he was reportedly removed from the show, and maybe even banned from future events.

And then, because Marie was reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In," she felt emboldened to blog about the incident and speak out against other horrible sexism stories:

"When a drunken CEO of a then-startup pointed to my midsection and said 'I want to have my babies in there,' I laughed. ... The trend continued for years, and I took it silently each and every time. It got so bad that one of my Game Informer coworkers had to sit me down and convince me to file a complaint against a massive publisher, after one of their PR leads repeatedly commented about how much he 'loved my tits' at a party."

After she posted that blog on Tuesday, she started getting hate mail and threats:

"I apologize in advance for the vulgar language. Yesterday a lot of the fears that kept me from speaking out for so long were realized. Although the general response to my words was overwhelmingly positive, I was and still am being called a stupid bitch, a cunt, and 'all that is wrong with womankind. I?ve been insulted, misrepresented, and threatened.

She said it's hard on her but she's fed up:

"I?ve not even detailed the worst encounters (which turned physical) that I?ve come across below. And I?m just one woman," she wrote. "This is a problem in our industry. This is something that needs to be addressed."

We have reached out to Crystal Dynamics for comment.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/story-of-gaming-industry-sexism-2013-3

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The Host Trailer: Is Melanie Still in There?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/the-host-trailer-is-melanie-still-in-there/

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