Thursday, February 28, 2013

A cautious SpaceX aims for glitch-free Dragon launch

SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket sits on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during Monday's pre-launch engine test. The rocket is due to loft a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Friday.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

The commercial SpaceX rocket venture says it's resolved the problems that cropped up during last October's cargo run to the International Space Station, and all systems are go for the delivery mission due for launch on Friday.

"We're a launch company," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said during a pre-launch briefing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. "We love to launch."

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is due to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:10 a.m. ET Friday. Forecasters said there was an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather for an on-time launch, with only a minor concern about the potential for thick cloud cover.


This will mark the third launch of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the space station. It's the second cargo delivery under the terms of a $1.6 billion, 12-flight resupply contract with NASA. And it's the first time that a payload has been carried in the Dragon's unpressurized "trunk."

The trunk is an extra cargo space sitting beneath the Dragon's pressurized main compartment. It's basically been empty for the Dragon's previous two launches, in May and October 2012, but this time there'll be an 822-pound (373-kilogram) package containing a new set of grapple bars to be installed onto the station during a later spacewalk. The package will be put into storage using the station's robotic arm during the three weeks that the Dragon is due to be hooked up to the orbital outpost.

Another 1,493 pounds (677 kilograms) will be riding in the pressurized space, Shotwell said. That cargo will include food, clothing and other crew provisions as well as scientific experiments, two freezers for lab samples and spare parts for the station's air-scrubbing system. Unlike last time, there'll won't be any satellites flying as a secondary payload on the Dragon, Shotwell said.

Anomalies addressed
In October, the previous Dragon mission failed to deploy its secondary payload, an Orbcomm communications satellite, because of an engine problem that occurred during the Falcon 9's ascent. Shotwell said the problem was traced to "a material flaw that went undetected" in the sheathing around one of the nine Merlin engines on the Falcon's first stage. The failure of that material resulted in a breach that caused the engine to lose pressure, signaling the rocket's flight computer to shut down the engine.

Despite the engine shutdown, the rocket was able to reach the required altitude for the space station delivery. It couldn't deliver the Orbcomm OG2 satellite to its proper orbit, however. Days later, the satellite fell out of the sky.

Shotwell said the engine assembly for the rocket to be launched on Friday has gone through extensive testing, using a procedure called non-destructive evaluation, or NDE. She said half-jokingly that engineers skilled in NDE procedures were more valued in the wake of last October's anomaly. "We're hiring you at SpaceX," she said.

She also discussed another anomaly that came to light after the previous Dragon's splashdown: The spacecraft sat in Pacific waters off the coast of California for hours, and it turned out that the water may have shorted out the power supply for the research freezer shipped down from the space station. NASA space station manager Mike Suffredini told reporters that the freezer was "fine, even with the loss of power." Since then, the Dragon for Friday's mission has been retrofitted to make the power supply more watertight, Shotwell said.

Suffredini said he was satisfied with the way that SpaceX followed up on the anomalies. "There's nothing that we would have done that they have chosen not to do," he said.

NASA has had its own share of problems crop up: Last week, the space station's main communication system went out for several hours during a software upgrade, but Suffredini said the outage "was never really a big concern." The software was eventually upgraded successfully, he said.

"Over a million lines of code were upgraded, including the software for the [robotic] arm that's going to capture the Dragon," Suffredini said.

A fast flight
The flight plan calls for the Falcon 9 to send the Dragon capsule on an orbital trajectory that will bring it to the station less than 24 hours after launch. That's a significant faster trip than the previous Dragon flights, due to a favorable orbital geometry, Shotwell said. When the Dragon comes within 10 meters (33 feet), astronauts will use the station's robotic arm to latch onto the spacecraft and pull it in for its berthing at a port on the Harmony module. The hatch would be opened on Sunday. Then the astronauts would unload the supplies and fill the Dragon back up with cargo to be returned to Earth.

The Dragon is due to be unberthed on March 25, and will head down to a Pacific splashdown and recovery.

SpaceX's cargo flights are meant to fill the gap left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011. Another company, Orbital Science Corp., has a separate NASA contract to begin deliveries to the space station later this year. Cargo can also be delivered to the space station on Russian, Japanese and European transports, but only SpaceX currently has the capability to bring cargo back down.

SpaceX and two other companies, Sierra Nevada Corp. and the Boeing Co., are developing crew-capable spacecraft under a separate NASA program. Those spaceships could be ready for NASA's use as early as 2017. In the meantime, U.S. astronauts have to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules at a cost of about $60 million per seat.

Extra credit:

  • The previous mission included a shipment of vanilla-chocolate swirl ice cream for the crew, stored inside a research freezer. This time, the Dragon will be bringing snacks that are "a little bit healthier," Shotwell said. She said the goodies would be coming from the orchard of a SpaceX employee's father ? but she wasn't more specific.
  • When Shotwell was asked about millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito's plan to send a married couple to Mars and back in 2018, she replied that SpaceX was not currently participating in the mission. "I think his plan is very ambitious," she said. Shotwell didn't slam he door on Tito, however. "We are a launch service provider, and if he can come up with the funding to execute this mission, I'd be happy to have him as a customer," Shotwell said.

More about SpaceX:


Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17135773-with-glitches-resolved-spacex-gets-dragon-ready-for-next-space-station-trip?lite

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IELTS Writing Task 2: 'money' topic - ielts-simon.com

Following on from yesterday's video, let's look at a writing task 2 question:

After leaving school or university, young people should choose a job or career that they love, rather than one that pays the best salary. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Don't attempt this question without spending some time planning first:

  • Decide on your overall point of view: agree or disagree (or maybe 'partly agree').
  • Plan your 4-paragraph essay structure: what will each paragraph be about?
  • Note some ideas for each main paragraph: think about how you will explain your ideas in detail, and what real-life examples you could use.

Source: http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2013/02/ielts-writing-task-2-money-topic.html

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GeneaPress: Antique Trader, Family Tree Magazine Sponsor ...


The Heirloom Registry?? created by Houstory??is hosting an online scavenger hunt March 4-10, featuring a dozen popular genealogy and antique blogs, as well as more than $500 in prizes. The latest giveaways include donations from Antique Trader magazine and Family Tree Magazine.

Ferndale, Wash. (PRWEB) February 27, 2013

The Heirloom Registry Scavenger Hunt, running from March 4-10, will feature more than $500 in prizes. The latest announced giveaways include two popular antique guides from Antique Trader, and a compact disc packed with 2012 issues of Family Tree Magazine.

Antique Trader magazine has contributed two of their most popular publications ? the ?Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2013? and the ?Warman's Antiques & Collectibles 2014? ? while Family Tree Magazine will be offering up their ?Family Tree Magazine 2012 Annual CD.?

?These are great prizes ? and resources ? for anyone interested in family heirlooms, antiques or family history,? said Dan Hiestand, Houstory marketing director. ?They are two leaders in their respective industries, and we are proud to partner with them both on the scavenger hunt.?

The mission of The Heirloom Registry is an important one for family historians and genealogists said Diane Haddad, managing editor with Family Tree Magazine.

?One of our goals at Family Tree Magazine and Family Tree University is to help people care for their family heirlooms and share the stories behind them with loved ones,? Haddad said. ?We hope being part of the Heirloom Registry Scavenger Hunt will inspire family historians to preserve information about those treasured objects.?

Antoinette Rahn, Antique Trader editor, said her magazine is excited to be involved with the hunt.
"We are thrilled to be participating in this special event,? Rahn said. ?What's not to love about a grown-up scavenger hunt focused on celebrating, researching and preserving heirlooms and antiques? It's an honor for us to be one of the ?stops? in this adventure, which includes so many companies we admire for their devotion to helping people learn from and commemorate the history of their own lives."

About Antique Trader

Antique Trader, a magazine published 26 times per year in Iola, Wis., has served the antiques and collectibles community since 1957. Antique Trader magazine has a weekly circulation of more than 50,000 readers and more than 3,000 unique daily visitors to its Web site ? which houses a free archive of more than 7,500 articles about antiques and collectibles ? and serves up more than 1 million page views every year. The publication also has active Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest platforms reaching nearly 22,000 fans and followers, and its blog has been rated one of the most widely read on antiques and collectibles. For more information, visit http://www.antiquetrader.com/

About Family Tree Magazine

Family Tree Magazine is part of the Genealogy Community at F+W Media, Inc. , which also encompasses Family Tree University online courses and webinars, genealogy books and the http://www.shopfamilytree.com/ online store. These publications and products are devoted to providing engaging, easy-to-understand instruction that makes genealogy a hobby anyone can do.

About The Heirloom Registry

The Heirloom Registry is a new service from Houstory. Record a family heirloom?s history in The Heirloom Registry, and its story travels with it. Always. Inexpensive, simple: Tag heirlooms with Registry IDs, and share stories in words and pictures at heirloomregistry.com. Registered stories are permanently accessible to future owners.

Source: http://www.geneapress.com/2013/02/heirloom-registry-scavenger-hunt-sponsors.html

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Cyprus draft bailout measures 'sufficient'

(AP) ? Cyprus' new finance minister says spending cuts and tax increases agreed with international creditors and included in a draft bailout agreement are sufficient to get the country's finances under control.

Michalis Sarris says Wednesday he would be "surprised" if more austerity was demanded.

Sarris says the faster a rescue package is finalized with the other 16 European Union countries that use the euro and the IMF the better. Outgoing Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said Cyprus has enough money to pay bills until the end of May.

Cyprus needs as much as ?17 billion ($22.3 billion) to stave off bankruptcy after its banks lost billions on bad Greek debt. The sum is equal to the value of the country's economy, raising questions whether it will be able to repay any loan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-27-Cyprus-Financial%20Crisis/id-f470b92a2c3e48e4839e64b8f3dd4e2a

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

How A Teacher Turned To Technology To Solve A Thorny Problem And Raised $100K

Screen Shot 2013-02-26 at 11.32.03 AMThe clincher, the thing that made Quick Key go viral, was a poorly-lit video of an excitable guy holding his iPhone up to a Scantron page, one of those test pages you used to fill out in school. He thumbs through page after page, making comments on students' performance as the app scans the page and instantly reports a grade. The video was amazingly compelling. The creator, Walter O. Duncan IV, can barely contain his excitement. His app looked great, it worked seamlessly, and the video struck a nerve with students and teachers, pocketing 260,000 views on YouTube and popping up on the front page of Reddit.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QvwDY5L8wJM/

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Infrared digital holography allows firefighters to see through flames, image moving people

Infrared digital holography allows firefighters to see through flames, image moving people [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Angela Stark
astark@osa.org
202-416-1443
Optical Society of America

Other applications could include monitoring breathing, cardiac beat detection and analysis, body deformation measurements during exercise

Firefighters put their lives on the line in some of the most dangerous conditions on Earth. One of their greatest challenges, however, is seeing through thick veils of smoke and walls of flame to find people in need of rescue. A team of Italian researchers has developed a new imaging technique that uses infrared (IR) digital holography to peer through chaotic conflagrations and capture potentially lifesaving and otherwise hidden details. The team describes its breakthrough results and their applications in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

Firefighters can see through smoke using current IR camera technology. However, such instruments are blinded by the intense infrared radiation emitted by flames, which overwhelm the sensitive detectors and limit their use in the field. By employing a specialized lens-free technique, the researchers have created a system that is able to cope with the flood of radiation from an environment filled with flames as well as smoke.

"IR cameras cannot 'see' objects or humans behind flames because of the need for a zoom lens that concentrates the rays on the sensor to form the image," says Pietro Ferraro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Istituto Nazionale di Ottica in Italy. By eliminating the need for the zoom lens, the new technique avoids this drawback.

"It became clear to us that we had in our hands a technology that could be exploited by emergency responders and firefighters at a fire scene to see through smoke without being blinded by flames, a limitation of existing technology," Ferraro says. "Perhaps most importantly, we demonstrated for the first time that a holographic recording of a live person can be achieved even while the body is moving."

Holography is a means of producing a 3-D image of an object. To create a hologram, such as those typically seen on credit cards, a laser beam is split into two (an object beam and a reference beam). The object beam is shone onto the object being imaged. When the reflected object beam and the reference beam are recombined, they create an interference pattern that encodes the 3-D image.

In the researchers' new imaging system, a beam of infrared laser light is widely dispersed throughout a room. Unlike visible light, which cannot penetrate thick smoke and flames, the IR rays pass through largely unhindered. The IR light does, however, reflect off of any objects or people in the room, and the information carried by this reflected light is recorded by a holographic imager. It is then decoded to reveal the objects beyond the smoke and flames. The result is a live, 3-D movie of the room and its contents.

The next step in moving this technology to the field is to develop a portable tripod-based system that houses both the laser source and the IR camera. The systems may also be suitable for fixed installation inside buildings or tunnels. In addition, the team is exploring other applications, most notably in the biomedical field for non-destructive testing of large aerospace composite structures.

"Besides life-saving applications in fire and rescue, the potential to record dynamic scenes of a human body could have a variety of other biomedical uses including studying or monitoring breathing, cardiac beat detection and analysis, or measurement of body deformation due to various stresses during exercise," Ferraro says. "We are excited to further develop this technology and realize its application for saving and improving human life."

###

Paper: "Imaging live humans through smoke and flames using far-infrared digital holography," M. Locatelli et al., Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 5, pp. 5379-5390 (2013) (link: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-21-5-5379).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and a movie of the new technique are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark.

About Optics Express

Optics Express reports on new developments in all fields of optical science and technology every two weeks. The journal provides rapid publication of original, peer-reviewed papers. It is published by the Optical Society and edited by Andrew M. Weiner of Purdue University. Optics Express is an open-access journal and is available at no cost to readers online at www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OE.

About OSA

Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Infrared digital holography allows firefighters to see through flames, image moving people [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Angela Stark
astark@osa.org
202-416-1443
Optical Society of America

Other applications could include monitoring breathing, cardiac beat detection and analysis, body deformation measurements during exercise

Firefighters put their lives on the line in some of the most dangerous conditions on Earth. One of their greatest challenges, however, is seeing through thick veils of smoke and walls of flame to find people in need of rescue. A team of Italian researchers has developed a new imaging technique that uses infrared (IR) digital holography to peer through chaotic conflagrations and capture potentially lifesaving and otherwise hidden details. The team describes its breakthrough results and their applications in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

Firefighters can see through smoke using current IR camera technology. However, such instruments are blinded by the intense infrared radiation emitted by flames, which overwhelm the sensitive detectors and limit their use in the field. By employing a specialized lens-free technique, the researchers have created a system that is able to cope with the flood of radiation from an environment filled with flames as well as smoke.

"IR cameras cannot 'see' objects or humans behind flames because of the need for a zoom lens that concentrates the rays on the sensor to form the image," says Pietro Ferraro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Istituto Nazionale di Ottica in Italy. By eliminating the need for the zoom lens, the new technique avoids this drawback.

"It became clear to us that we had in our hands a technology that could be exploited by emergency responders and firefighters at a fire scene to see through smoke without being blinded by flames, a limitation of existing technology," Ferraro says. "Perhaps most importantly, we demonstrated for the first time that a holographic recording of a live person can be achieved even while the body is moving."

Holography is a means of producing a 3-D image of an object. To create a hologram, such as those typically seen on credit cards, a laser beam is split into two (an object beam and a reference beam). The object beam is shone onto the object being imaged. When the reflected object beam and the reference beam are recombined, they create an interference pattern that encodes the 3-D image.

In the researchers' new imaging system, a beam of infrared laser light is widely dispersed throughout a room. Unlike visible light, which cannot penetrate thick smoke and flames, the IR rays pass through largely unhindered. The IR light does, however, reflect off of any objects or people in the room, and the information carried by this reflected light is recorded by a holographic imager. It is then decoded to reveal the objects beyond the smoke and flames. The result is a live, 3-D movie of the room and its contents.

The next step in moving this technology to the field is to develop a portable tripod-based system that houses both the laser source and the IR camera. The systems may also be suitable for fixed installation inside buildings or tunnels. In addition, the team is exploring other applications, most notably in the biomedical field for non-destructive testing of large aerospace composite structures.

"Besides life-saving applications in fire and rescue, the potential to record dynamic scenes of a human body could have a variety of other biomedical uses including studying or monitoring breathing, cardiac beat detection and analysis, or measurement of body deformation due to various stresses during exercise," Ferraro says. "We are excited to further develop this technology and realize its application for saving and improving human life."

###

Paper: "Imaging live humans through smoke and flames using far-infrared digital holography," M. Locatelli et al., Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 5, pp. 5379-5390 (2013) (link: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-21-5-5379).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and a movie of the new technique are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Angela Stark.

About Optics Express

Optics Express reports on new developments in all fields of optical science and technology every two weeks. The journal provides rapid publication of original, peer-reviewed papers. It is published by the Optical Society and edited by Andrew M. Weiner of Purdue University. Optics Express is an open-access journal and is available at no cost to readers online at www.OpticsInfoBase.org/OE.

About OSA

Uniting more than 180,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/osoa-idh022613.php

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

NVIDIA details the T4i and Phoenix reference phone in latest video

NVIDIA knows we're all interested in the new Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i platform, and today they are throwing us a bit of a treat, video-style. Formerly known as Project Grey, the T4i is designed to deliver great performance in a smartphone, along with an integrated 4G LTE modem. To showcase this, they have built the Phoenix reference phone.

It's a complete package, sporting a 5-inch 1080p display, 13MP camera with NVIDIA's "Chimera" tech 60 GeForce GPU cores, and the T4i with integrated LTE. Since this isn't something that is going to be widely available for most of us, having a look at it on video may be as close as we ever get. 

Source: NVIDIA



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Fa3bXhX0cGk/story01.htm

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Mars may still be habitable today, scientists say

NASA / ESA

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this shot of Mars on Aug. 26, 2003, when the Red Planet was 34.7 million miles from Earth. The picture was taken just 11 hours before Mars made its closest approach to us in 60,000 years.

By Rod Pyle
Space.com

LOS ANGELES ? While Mars was likely a more hospitable place in its wetter, warmer past, the Red Planet may still be capable of supporting microbial life today, some scientists say.

Ongoing research in Mars-like places such as Antarctica and Chile's Atacama Desert shows that microbes can eke out a living in extremely cold and dry environments, several researchers stressed at "The Present-Day Habitability of Mars" conference held here at the University of California Los Angeles this month.

And not all parts of the Red Planet's surface may be arid currently ? at least not all the time. Evidence is building that liquid water might flow seasonally at some Martian sites, potentially providing a haven for life as we know it.

"We certainly can't rule out the possibility that it's habitable today," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the HiRise camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. [The Search for Life on Mars: A Photo Timeline]

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona

This image combining orbital imagery with 3-D modeling shows flows that appear in spring and summer on a slope inside Mars' Newton crater.

Surface water on Mars?
McEwen discussed some intriguing observations by HiRise, which suggest that briny water may flow down steep Martian slopes during the local spring and summer.

Sixteen such sites have been identified to date, mostly on the slopes of the huge Valles Marineris canyon complex, McEwen said. The tracks seem to repeat seasonally as the syrupy fluids descend along weather-worn pathways.

While the brines may originate underground, Caltech's Edwin Kite noted, there is an increasing suspicion that a process known as deliquescence ? in which moisture present in the atmosphere is gathered by compounds on the ground, allowing it to become a liquid ? may be responsible.

Astrobiologists are keen to learn more about these brines, for not much is known about them at the moment.

"Briny water on Mars may or may not be habitable to microbes, either from Earth or from Mars," McEwen said.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories. This image mosaic was taken by Curiosity's 100-millimeter Mastcam telephoto lens.

Hardy microbes
Martian life may be able to survive even in places where water doesn't seep and flow, some scientists stressed.

For example, microbes here on Earth make a living in the Atacama and the dry valleys of Antarctica, both of which are extremely cold and arid, said Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Antarctic sites also receive seasonally high ultraviolet radiation doses thanks to a hole in the ozone layer that tends to develop every August through November. This provides yet another parallel to Mars, whose thin atmosphere and lack of a protective magnetic field make the planet more radiation-bombarded than Earth.

In the Antarctic dry valleys, McKay said, organisms dwell within rocks, just deep enough to be shielded from the worst of the UV but close enough to the surface to receive the benefits of photosynthesis. Something similar might be happening on Mars today, if life ever evolved there.

McKay also discussed deliquescence, which in the Atacama allows salts to gather enough water to support the existence of life.

McKay offered some advice to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which landed in August to determine whether Mars could ever have supported microbial life: "Watch for salt along the road!"

A possible energy source
A number of presenters spent some time talking about perchlorate, a chlorine-containing chemical that NASA's Phoenix lander spotted near the Martian north pole in 2008.

McKay and other researchers think perchlorate may be the reason that NASA's twin Viking landers didn't detect any organic compounds ? the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it ? on the Red Planet back in the 1970s.

The Vikings vaporized Martian soil and looked for any organics boiling off. They found nothing but a few chlorine compounds that were attributed to contamination. But after Phoenix's perchlorate find, McKay and some other researchers performed an experiment.

They added perchlorate to some desert dirt from Chile known to contain organics. They heated the soil up and found the same chlorine compounds the Vikings did, suggesting that organics may have been present in the Vikings' samples but were broken down by the combination of heat and perchlorate.

While this backstory is interesting in its own right, perchlorate is also relevant to the possible habitability of present-day Mars.

"Perchlorate, it turns out, is a potent chemoautotrophic energy source," said Carol Stoker, also of NASA Ames, noting that the chemical could potentially sustain microbes in the dark Martian subsurface, where photosynthesis is not an option.

And some Earth microbes use perchlorate for food, so that could be happening on Mars as well, scientists have pointed out.

"The Present-Day Habitability of Mars" took place Feb. 4-5 and was co-hosted by the NASA Astrobiology institute and the UK Center for Astrobiology. Archived videos of conference presentations are available here.

Follow Space.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.

Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17091020-mars-may-still-be-habitable-today-scientists-say?lite

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NextGen eBiz: SEO for Small Business

I believe, it?s every small business owners dream to see their small organization transformed into a large organization spread around the world. It does not mean they want grow into 5000-employee organization with $10Billion turnover in next 5yrs. It?s about their reach to customer base across the Globe.

In today?s online economy, where small business is no longer limited by their physical location or reach, their dream to go global is far closer than it was ever been.

In the past, one of the challenges with any business to market their products worldwide was lack of sales and marketing infrastructure. To build it required constant business growth complimented by huge investment.

Internet marketing is a blessing for every small business owner with a dream to grow big. Internet marketing is the most cost effective way for any business to market their products and services worldwide. Best of all, Internet marketing is not a domain of select few. Numerous Internet marketing specialists can help achieve your objectives.

Even though, technology has made it look like a breeze for any business to jump into Internet marketing but it can result in zero outcome if you don?t do it right.

Internet marketing? must be treated with respect and care. It?s important to understand and evaluate all available internet marketing options and see which of these Internet marketing strategy best suites your business.

Internet marketing? is a combination of multiple options e.g. Email marketing, Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ), Ad Words, Affiliate marketing and now the fastest growing, Social Media Marketing ( SMM ).

So far, promotion through Search Engine Optimization is the most cost effective from longer terms perspective. Getting found through organic search gives more credibility to your business as compared to be listed at the top through Adwords.

To maintain your ranking requires constant work in terms of continually updating your website content, regular blogging and maintaining local listing through Google places etc.

Google constantly changes their search algorithms in other words, rules are changed regularly and that affects every site. For this, you need a good Search engine optimizer who can keep track of the changes and make regular submissions. Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is all about doing simple things regularly, ethically and by keeping your customers best interest in mind.

We at NextGen ebiz offer combination of online marketing techniques, innovative design & strong application development capabilities to provide best output and results to enhance site rankings and ultimately business over the internet.

Source: http://nextgenebiz.blogspot.com/2013/02/seo-for-small-business.html

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Oscars Review: MacFarlane Proves He's An Oscar Guy In Hosting Gig

NEW YORK ? He ruffled feathers. He maybe even turned some viewers off.

But it's likely no one turned off Seth MacFarlane.

Best-known until recently as the bad-boy creator and character voice behind "Family Guy" and last summer's hit film "Ted," MacFarlane seized the camera Sunday as host of ABC's Oscarcast and proved to its vast audience that he's a ridiculously versatile entertainer, a guy who can be as charming as he is famously irreverent, even polarizing.

Here's a guy who could toss off a joke Bob Hope might have delivered decades ago ("It's Sunday. Everybody's dressed up. This is like church ? only with more people praying"), then carry off a deliberate groaner like his wisecrack that, while, an actor like Daniel Day-Lewis really captured Abraham Lincoln in his Oscar-winning performance, "I would argue that the actor who really got inside Abraham Lincoln's head was John Wilkes Booth."

Viewers could have gotten fair warning of what to expect from MacFarlane last fall when he hosted "Saturday Night Live" with skill.

But this Oscars hosting gig was the Main Event, and he earned a large measure of credit for keeping the show in satisfying equilibrium.

This was an elegant affair, including a surprise appearance by first lady Michelle Obama, live from the White House, who announced the best picture.

The lovely stage setting glowed and shimmered. And it was put to good use in a show-stopping production number saluting movie musicals including "Chicago," "Dreamgirls" and "Les Miserables," performed by stars from those films.

On a program that honored the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films, Adele wailed the theme song from the newest, "Skyfall." Far juicier, Shirley Bassey belted out the theme from "Goldfinger" about as forcefully as she did in 1964.

And accompanying the In Memoriam tribute, in a year that saw the passing of composer-songwriter Marvin Hamlisch, Barbra Streisand made a rare television appearance to sing "The Way We Were" in his honor.

(If any of the studio-perfect performances raised suspicions of lip-syncing, the academy declared all the singing was done live.)

Speaking of music, the orchestra got surprisingly aggressive forcing off winners in mid-acceptance, often with the sinister theme from "Jaws," of all things.

But silver-tressed Claudio Miranda, accepting the best cinematography Oscar for "Life of Pi," didn't need the hook. Beginning with "Aw, gee, wow," he seemed to be channeling Diane Keaton in "Annie Hall" as he gratefully stumbled through his thank-yous with a series of gasps, sentence fragments, and finally his own self-imposed wrap-up, "Oh, my God, I can't even speak." In his brief appearance, he became the patron saint of any viewer who was ever forced to speak in public from the heart ? and crumbled.

Few presenters knocked it out of the park in their fleeting turns, but none had viewers' teeth grinding.

Perhaps inevitably, Mark Wahlberg was reunited with his "Ted" co-star, a digitally rendered Teddy bear voiced by MacFarlane. Ted, at his politically incorrect best, wondered aloud where the post-Oscars orgy would be ("Jack Nicholson's house," Wahlberg finally replied) and professed that he was Jewish to ensure he would "work in this town."

Yes, MacFarlane had his moments of dubious taste. What did anybody expect who'd ever spent a moment with "Family Guy"?

But did he really cross the line when he described "Django Unchained" as "the story of a man fighting to get back his woman who's been subjected to unthinkable violence ? or, as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie"?

Especially on a night where everyone else seemed to be on their best behavior, MacFarlane's strategic misbehavior furnished welcome relief.

In interviews beforehand, he had spoken of his hope to strike a balance between respect for Hollywood and some necessary sass. Mission accomplished.

Leading-man handsome with a gleaming smile, he began the broadcast without a net and looking totally relaxed: Alone on the stage, he delivered a series of one-liners, most of which scored. (The Oscarcast was being watched by "close to a billion people worldwide," he intoned, "which is why Jodie Foster will be up here in a bit to ask for her privacy.")

Then he opened the door to his reputation for raunch with the appearance on a video screen of William Shatner as "Star Trek's" Captain Kirk, who had arrived from the future to scold MacFarland in advance for the hosting performance he was just starting.

"The show's a disaster," declared Shatner.

As evidence, he pointed to an "incredibly offensive song that upsets a lot of actresses in the audience."

With that, a pre-taped production number featured MacFarlane singing "We Saw Your Boobs," saluting a roster of actresses who have bared themselves in their films.

But then, in an effort to atone, MacFarlane sang a classy rendition of "The Way You Look Tonight" accompanied by Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum in dance.

Not good enough, said Shatner, who then revealed a video clip where MacFarlane, costumed in a Flying Nun habit, hit on Oscar nominee Sally Field in the green room.

Back and forth went the routine: Bad Seth and Good Seth. Both were very funny, stewarding a broadcast that never went askew.

___

Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/oscars-review_n_2756931.html

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Apple signals emerging-market rethink with India push

NEW DELHI/BANGALORE (Reuters) - As BlackBerry launches the first smartphone from its make-or-break BB10 line in India, one of its most loyal markets, the company faces new competition from a formidable rival that has long had a minimal presence in the country.

More than four years after it started selling iPhones in India, Apple Inc is now aggressively pushing the iconic device through installment payment plans that make it more affordable, a new distribution model and heavy marketing blitz.

"Now your dream phone" at 5,056 rupees ($93), read a recent full front-page ad for an iPhone 5 in the Times of India, referring to the initial payment on a phone priced at $840, or almost two months' wages for an entry-level software engineer.

The new-found interest in India suggests a subtle strategy shift for Apple, which has moved tentatively in emerging markets and has allowed rivals such as Samsung and BlackBerry to dominate with more affordable smartphones. With the exception of China, all of its Apple stores are in advanced economies.

Apple expanded its India sales effort in the latter half of 2012 by adding two distributors. Previously it sold iPhones only through a few carriers and stores it calls premium resellers.

The result: iPhone shipments to India between October and December nearly tripled to 250,000 units from 90,000 in the previous quarter, according to an estimate by Jessica Kwee, a Singapore-based analyst at consultancy Canalys.

At The MobileStore, an Indian chain owned by the Essar conglomerate, which says it sells 15 percent of the iPhones in the country, iPhone sales tripled between December and January, thanks to a monthly payment scheme launched last month.

"Most people in India can't afford a dollar-priced phone when the salaries in India are rupee salaries. But the desire is the same," said Himanshu Chakrawarti, its chief executive.

Apple, the distributors, retailers and banks share the advertising and interest cost of the marketing push, according to Chakrawarti. Carriers like Bharti Airtel Ltd, which also sell the iPhone 5, run separate ads.

India is the world's No. 2 cellphone market by users, but most Indians cannot afford fancy handsets. Smartphones account for just a tenth of total phone sales. In India, 95 percent of cellphone users have prepaid accounts without a fixed contract. Unlike in the United States, carriers do not subsidise handsets.

Within the smartphone segment, Apple's Indian market share last quarter was just 5 percent, according to Canalys, meaning its overall penetration is tiny.

Still, industry research firm IDC expects the Indian smartphone market to grow more than five times from about 19 million units last year to 108 million in 2016, which presents a big opportunity.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd dominates Indian smartphone sales with a 40 percent share, thanks to its wide portfolio of Android devices priced as low as $110. The market has also been flooded by cheaper Android phones from local brands such as Micromax and Lava.

Most smartphones sold in India are much cheaper than the iPhone, said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

"Where the masses are - there, Apple still has a gap."

'I LOVE INDIA, BUT...'

Apple helped create the smartphone industry with the iPhone in 2007. But last year Apple lost its lead globally to Samsung whose smartphones, which run on Google Inc's free Android software, are especially attractive in Asia.

Many in Silicon Valley and Wall Street believe the surest way to penetrate lower-income Asian markets would be with a cheaper iPhone, as has been widely reported but never confirmed. The risk is that a cheap iPhone would cannibalize demand for the premium version and eat into Apple's peerless margins.

The new monthly payment plan in India goes a long way to expanding the potential market, said Chakrawarti.

"The Apple campaign is not meant for really the regular top-end customer, it is meant to upgrade the 10,000-12,000 handset guy to 45,000 rupees," he said.

Apple's main focus for expansion in Asia has been Greater China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, where revenue grew 60 percent last quarter to $7.3 billion.

Asked last year why Apple had not been as successful in India, Chief Executive Tim Cook said its business in India was growing but the group remained more focused on other markets.

"I love India, but I believe that Apple has some higher potential in the intermediate term in some other countries," Cook said. "The multi-layer distribution there really adds to the cost of getting products to market," he said at the time.

Apple, which has partly addressed that by adding distributors, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Ingram Micro Inc, one of its new distributors, also declined comment. Executives at Redington (India) Ltd, the other distributor, could not immediately be reached.

BlackBerry, which has seen its global market share shrivel to 3.4 percent from 20 percent over the past three years, is making what is seen as a last-ditch effort to save itself with the BB10 series.

The high-end BlackBerry Z10 was launched in India on Monday at 43,490 rupees ($800), close to the 45,500 rupees price tag for an iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of memory. Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, Nokia's Lumia 920 and two HTC Corp models are the main iPhone rivals.

BlackBerry will target corporate users and consumers in India for the Z10, said Sunil Dutt, India managing director, adding that it will tie-up with banks for installment plans.

Until last year, BlackBerry was the No. 3 smartphone brand in India with market share of more than 10 percent, thanks to a push into the consumer segment with lower-priced phones. Last quarter its share fell to about 5 percent, putting it in fifth place, according to Canalys. Apple was sixth.

(Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in MUMBAI and Poornima Gupta in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by Tony Munroe, Mark Bendeich and Chris Gallagher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-signals-emerging-market-rethink-india-push-011705541--sector.html

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Calgary's Olympic venues stand the test of time | Metro

Many Olympic sports require specialized facilities that, after the games are over, often fall into disrepair or are dismantled altogether.

Calgary, however, has managed to not only maintain most of the venues it built for the 1988 Winter Games but expand on them, too.

?The facilities here are not only still relevant, they?re flourishing,? said Dale Oviatt, communications director for Winsport, which operates the ski hill, sliding tracks, ski jumps and ice surfaces at Canada Olympic Park.

?When you look at some of the previous countries that have hosted Winter Olympics,? Oviatt added, ?their venues are no longer used for what they were intended for, or they?re completely shut down.?

By comparison, COP still hosts World Cup luge, bobsled, and skeleton events, as well as freestyle ski and snowboard competitions. The same facilities are also regularly used for public recreation.

The national ski jumping team still trains on COP?s smaller ski jumps, and while the largest jump is no longer in use, Oviatt said it?s largely because athletes? ability and equipment has advanced so much the jump would need to be retrofitted for safety.

?They would pretty much almost land on the Trans-Canada Highway,? Oviatt said.

The Olympic Oval at the University of Calgary, meanwhile, has not only remained a hub for competition and training ? and become known for being ?the fastest ice in the world? ? but has also grown into a centre for sporting excellence, in general.

?This building, connected with the sport medicine centre, Canadian Sport Centre Calgary, and the research the laboratories at the university, has created one of the greatest training environments you will find in any country, in any city in the world,? said Roger Jackson, who served as CEO of Own The Podium 2010. ?You just cannot put together what we have put together on the campus for high-performance sport.?

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Catriona Le May Doan recalled dreaming of a facility like the Oval as an aspiring young speed skater in Saskatchewan, but thinking it would never become a reality.

?Back in Saskatoon, I remember seeing the models of this oval and thinking, ?That would never, ever happen,?? she said. ?And yet, it did happen. And it happened because of these ?88 games.?

Tale of two Ovals:

  • In the past 25 years, a total of 287 world records have been set at Calgary?s Olympic Oval in long-track and short-track speed skating.
  • Meanwhile, the Richmond Olympic Oval, built for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, is no longer used for speed skating and has been criticized by some for being a ?money pit.?

Source: http://metronews.ca/features/calgarys-olympic-moment/572537/calgarys-olympic-venues-stand-the-test-of-time/

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Pediatricians oppose school suspension, expulsion

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A group representing pediatricians says disciplining students with out-of-school suspension or expulsion is counterproductive to school goals and should only be used on case by case basis.

The policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that pediatricians familiarize themselves with the policies of their local school districts, and advocate for prevention and alternative strategies.

"The adverse effect of out-of-school suspension and expulsion on the student can be profound," the experts write in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.

"Data suggest that students who are involved in the juvenile justice system are likely to have been suspended or expelled. Further, students who experience out-of-school suspension and expulsion are as much as 10 times more likely to ultimately drop out of high school than are those who do not," they add.

Kathy Cowan, director of communications for the National Association of School Psychologists in Bethesda, Maryland, said their organization largely supports the AAP's statements.

"Sometimes (out-of-school suspension and expulsion) are absolutely necessary, but they're not effective at improving behavior in general," Cowan told Reuters Health.

The AAP says students who are punished with out-of-school suspension and expulsion may be left without supervision during the day and engage in more inappropriate behavior.

The experts also say out-of-school suspension and expulsion does not deal with possible underlying issues, such as drug abuse, racial tension, violence and bullying.

In addition to the costs incurred by the school district from disciplinary hearings and providing services for the child, the pediatricians say there is also a cost to society.

"A high-school dropout will earn $400,000 less over a lifetime than a high school graduate. The dropout will pay $60,000 less in taxes," they write.

To prevent out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, the pediatricians suggest developing early interventions for preschool children, early identification of children who may have problems in school and clear codes of conduct.

Specifically, they recommend a Positive Behavior Intervention and Support program as a preventive, alternative, tool that teaches proper behavior on a school-wide level and that addresses problems with groups and individual students as well.

The AAP also called on Pediatricians to screen for and recognize behavioral problems in early childhood, to be in communication with the school's nurse or counselor, to be involved with special accommodations for certain students and to be appropriately compensated for their involvement.

Cowan said the AAP should be applauded for their efforts.

"Pediatricians are such an important voice on these issues, because parents trust the pediatricians and they're the ones seeing kids," she said.

Dr. Jeffrey Lamont, the policy statement's lead author, could not be reached for comment before deadline.

(This story has been refiled to say Dr. Lamont could not be reached for comment before deadline in final paragraph)

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/HjQ8dI Pediatrics, online February 25, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pediatricians-oppose-school-suspension-expulsion-213943058.html

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'Identity Thief' Wins Box Office During Oscars Weekend

While Melissa McCarthy was presenting at Sunday night's show, she also took back the #1 spot at the box office.
By Ryan J. Downey


Melissa McCarthy in "Identity Thief"
Photo: Universal Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702538/identity-thief-oscars-weekend-box-office.jhtml

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Atmos Energy partners with United Way

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/corsicanadailysun/posts/485663854828454

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 7 gaming headset hands-on

Mad Catz announced the F.R.E.Q. 7 gaming headset last week, and the company has the $200 cans on hand here at Mobile World Congress. As you may recall, the marquee spec is Dolby Pro Logic IIx processing, which expands 5.1-channel audio to 7.1 channels for a richer aural experience. Another cool feature: these over-ears come bundled with both a standard stereo connector and a cord with USB for connecting directly to your computer (both have mini-USB on one end). The F.R.E.Q. 7 wasn't plugged in so we can't speak to sound quality, but they feel lightweight, and the red color really pops in real life. (There's also a matte black option.) The devices are currently available for pre-order, but you can get a hands-on look now in our gallery.

Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 7 gaming headset hands-on

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/mad-catz-f-r-e-q-7-gaming-headset-hands-on/

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Saturday's York-Adams sports scoreboard

Following is Saturday's schedule of York-Adams sports events. Scores will be posted when they become available.

SATURDAY

High School Boys' Basketball

District 3-AAAA Quarterfinals

York High 72, Chambersburg 47. F
--York High will face either McCaskey or Reading at 6:30 pm at the Giant Center on Tuesday for a semifinal contest.

District 3-AA Quarterfinals

Columbia 77, York Catholic 69. F

Delone Catholic 59, Hanover 47. F

Girls' High School Basketball

District 3-AAA Quarterfinals

West York 58, Berks Catholic 46. F

Susquehannock 59, Lancaster Catholic 53. F

Palmyra vs. Eastern at Milton Hershey High School, 4:30 p.m.

High School Wrestling

District 3 Individual Tournament

Hersheypark Arena

Day 2

Class AA: 9 a.m.
Live updates can be found HERE.

Class AAA: 10 a.m.
Live updates can be found HERE.

High School Swimming

District 3 Class AAA Diving Championships at Gov. Mifflin, 9 a.m.

High School Bowling

District 3 Individual Bowling Championships at ABC North Lanes, 1 p.m.

College Baseball

York College at Lynchburg (DH), Noon

Men's College Lacrosse

Muhlenberg at York College, 1 p.m.

Women's College Lacrosse

York College at Goucher, Noon

Source: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/sports/ci_22650555/saturdays-york-adams-sports-scoreboard?source=rss

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Falcon Pro Hits 100k Twitter Token Limit; Here?s How You Can Help Save the Best Twitter App!

Falcon-Pro

How many of you out there use Falcon Pro for Twitter? Probably quite a few of you. It?s a very popular app, and some even call it the best Twitter app for Android. But that?s not keeping Twitter from enforcing their new API rules. Twitter has a new API, and one of the rules is that each app has 100,000 tokens. One token is used for each user. Once that 100,000 user limit is reached, no one else can connect to the app or use it. Which really sucks. But there is a temporary solution.

For those of you not using Falcon Pro, please login to your Twitter account at Twitter.com and go to the apps section under settings and select ?revoke access? for Falcon Pro and any other apps you aren?t using anymore. That will free up your token so someone else can use it. Yeah its not the best way to go about it, but it?s better than nothing.

Revoke-Falcon-Pro

These new API rules have become a huge hassle for developers. In factit cost Chris Lacy to stop developing Tweet Lanes quite some time ago. This new 100k token rule is really going to discourage developers from developing for Twitter. But what Twitter has failed to realize is that apps is what made Twitter what it is today. Without all these awesome apps, they wouldn?t be as popular as they actually are. Here?s what Falcon Pro?s developer Joaquim Verg?s had to say about this fiasco:

Joaquim-Verg?s-joenrv-on-Twitter-e1361619203259

He?s not going down without swinging either. Joaquim has created a petition to get Twitter to lift this rule or in the least bit raise the token limit. He also told us that there are only 40,000 active installs of Falcon Pro. Meaning around 60,000 users pirated the app. Which is pretty unfortunate. It?s ?kinda sad that people would pirate a developers hard work when he?s only asking for $2. But hey you can sign the petition, and hopefully Twitter will raise the token limit.

How many of you use Falcon Pro as your main Twitter app? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Android Spin

Tags: Applications, apps, Carbon, falcon pro, featured, plume, token limit, twitter

Category: androidheadlines.com, Applications

Source: http://androidheadlines.com/2013/02/falcon-pro-hits-100k-twitter-token-limit-heres-how-you-can-help-save-the-best-twitter-app.html

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F-35 fleet grounded after engine crack found

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Pentagon on Friday grounded its fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine blade in one plane.

The problem was discovered during what the Pentagon called a routine inspection at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., of an F-35A, the Air Force version of the sleek new plane. The Navy and the Marine Corps are buying other versions of the F-35, which is intended to replace older fighters like the Air Force F-16 and the Navy F/A-18.

All versions ? a total of 51 planes ? were grounded Friday pending a more in-depth evaluation of the problem discovered at Edwards. None of the planes have been fielded for combat operations; all are undergoing testing.

In a brief written statement, the Pentagon said it is too early to know the full impact of the newly discovered problem.

The F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program at a total estimated cost of nearly $400 billion. The Pentagon envisions buying more than 2,400 F-35s, but some members of Congress are balking at the price tag.

Friday's suspension of flight operations will remain in effect until an investigation of the problem's root cause is determined.

The Pentagon said the engine in which the problem was discovered is being shipped to a Pratt & Whitney facility in Connecticut for more thorough evaluation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/f-35-fleet-grounded-engine-crack-found-212548478--politics.html

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Police: Report of gunman at MIT is unfounded

BOSTON (AP) ? Police in Massachusetts say a call reporting a gunman on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus was unfounded and that there is no threat to public safety.

Police said Saturday that officers searched for a man reported to be carrying a long rifle and wearing body armor and found nothing. A spokeswoman for the university says the school also called off a campus-wide lockdown.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-report-gunman-mit-unfounded-153446026.html

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Georgia: Criminal Charges against Tbilisi Mayor Spark Conflict

Tbilisi?s first popularly elected mayor, Gigi Ugulava, one of Georgia?s most powerful politicians, has been charged with embezzlement-misappropriation of budget funds and money laundering.

While the 37-year-old mayor, one of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili?s closest allies, has denied any wrongdoing, the February 23 indictment is another political blow to the president, and puts another yawning crack into efforts by the country?s divided national government to coexist peacefully.

The Georgian Ministry of Finance?s Investigative Service alleges that Ugulava was involved in a convoluted real estate transaction that cost ?the budget? 10 million lari (approximately $6 million) in a bid to place a private national broadcaster, Imedi, which had been critical of Saakashvili, under de-facto government control. Though they have not detailed their reasoning, investigators have termed the alleged misuse of funds ?money laundering.?

The case centers around the city?s sale and subsequent repurchase of a four-hectare plot of land in a popular Tbilisi neighborhood, Rike, that was aggressively promoted for development during Saakashvili's United National Movement's years in power.

The finance ministry maintains that Ugulava helped orchestrate the city?s sale of the land for 7 million lari ($4.24 million), but then had it repurchase the land, two years later, for 17 million lari ($10.3 million) to provide compensation for the alleged Imedi takeover to Georgian-American businessman Joseph Kay, who was then overseeing the station?s operations. Allegedly, 10 million lari from the sale was sent to an offshore account owned by Kay.

Another charge of embezzlement-misappropriation of budget funds stems from a student work program initiated by the Tbilisi city government that investigators maintain was used to pay 4.1 million lari ($2.48 million) to youth activists for Saakashvili?s United National Movement party.

Ugulava has denied the charges categorically, maintaining that the investigation is an attempt by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili?s Georgian Dream to usurp control of Tbilisi?s city government, and to lay the groundwork for dictatorship.

?I?m ready to prove my innocence,? he told media and supporters on February 23, asserting the day before that if the ?freedom of my country? means going to jail, he is ready to go.

Over the past five months, one former cabinet minister has been jailed, another charged in-absentia, and scores of lower-ranking former officials have been investigated and/or arrested.

At the same time, while UNM politicians remain a majority in the Tbilisi city government, a growing number have left the party over the past several weeks. The party has also lost power in regional governments since last October?s parliamentary election.

The combined effect has sparked growing allegations that the Georgian Dream is more interested in introducing ?political terror? than in working with an opposition or achieving justice.

In a February 22 television interview, President Saakashvili picked up that theme, claiming that the charges against Ugulava are linked to the fact that Prime Minister Ivanishvili, when a private investor, had been ?interested? in the Tbilisi property in question, which was eventually sold to another investor, and that a ?disagreement? with the billionaire had occurred.

For now, however, Uglava?s path does not lead directly to jail: General Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili told journalists that there is no indication that Ugulava will be arrested at this point. He did note, however, that Saakashvili could be called in for questioning.

In what has been seen as a counter-move against more serious steps deemed likely to come (in particular, the mayor?s resignation from his post pending trial), former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili, the secretary-general of the UNM, has been named as one of Ugulava?s deputy mayors.

Senior members of the Georgian Dream coalition though, have asserted that no political persecution is taking place, and that the investigation into Ugulava was carried out ?normally.?

The fact that no concrete evidence against Ugulava yet has been released to the public has not, however, hindered the new government and other political parties from assuming the mayor?s guilt ? a practice common in Georgia during the UNM?s years in power as well.

The prime minister weighed in on the case on February 22, telling journalists, without citing grounds, that Ugulava ?spent the people?s money.?

Source: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66595

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Inside Robin Roberts' Courageous Fight Against MDS

Robin Roberts' return to "Good Morning America" Wednesday marked the end of a long road that began with her announcement she had a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS and would take medical leave from morning TV to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

As the anchor left to take care of her health, cameras followed her journey. The personal and candid look at her fight against MDS, filled with laughter and tears, will air on a special "20/20" tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Roberts tells her story of the toughest fight of her life in her own words -- from sharing her diagnosis to viewers on "GMA," to finding the perfect match for a bone marrow donor in her sister Sally-Ann, to dealing with the loss of her beloved mother, and the highs and lows of the treatment and recovery.

Physical exams, blood and painful bone marrow tests and chemotherapy quickly became Roberts' "new normal."

The day before she entered the hospital, her longtime hairdresser, Petula Skeete, shaved her head. It was a decision Roberts made to take control in her life, she said.

"It was so traumatic last time and I wanted to be in control," she said. "I am in control. I am deciding when my hair goes. I'm not waiting in that hospital bed for it to fall out. I'm not waiting. I made this decision. And it was the right decision."

Robin Roberts Got Obama Interview Just After Getting Dire Prognosis Watch Video Robin Roberts' Recovery: Why She's Ready for Return Watch Video

Watch "20/20" TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET for a behind-the-scenes look at Roberts' journey.

Roberts underwent 10 consecutive days of intensive chemotherapy, which decimated her marrow and immune system, to prepare her for the transplant. Her constant companion was an IV pole.

"When I started, there was just like something for hydration, and then they would add another bag. ? they would put chemo, and ? all of a sudden I couldn't even see the pole for all the bags that were hanging off of it," she said. "Some of it was nutrition and there was this white bag called, 'lipids.' And it would come in the room, and I could just smell it. And it looked like... white-out. That's how it was. But it was giving me life, it was keeping me alive."

She grew so attached to the pole, Roberts said, that she decided to name it.

"A friend went online and saw that the disco name for Robin is Roshanda, so Roshanda was the name of my IV pole," said Roberts, who used it as a disco poll to dance with when her spirits were high.

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It was small moments like these, the anchor said, that helped her get into the right frame of mind before her transplant in late September.

The morning of the transplant on Sept. 20, Roberts was surrounded by her sisters, Dorothy Roberts McEwen and Sally-Ann Roberts, her bone marrow donor, and close friends. The day began with quiet prayer and soulful song. Roberts said it was all a blur.

"I've seen the video, and I've seen the people that were in the room and everything that happened. I don't remember," she said. "I was in another place. ? I had gone through ten consecutive days of chemotherapy. I had nothing left."

Using a syringe, Dr. Sergio Giralt of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center injected millions of Sally Ann's stem cells slowly and steadily into Roberts' system.

WATCH: Robin Roberts Talks Beating MDS With Diane Sawyer

CLICK HERE to Follow Robin's Journey

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/robin-roberts-journey-inside-courageous-fight-mds/story?id=18562093

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