Thursday, December 08, 2011

Windows 8: Microsoft can do it fast, cheap, or right...

Windows 8: TechRepublic By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

December 6, 2011. Takeaway: Deb Shinder doesn’t think Microsoft can afford to cut corners making Windows 8 for the sake of speed and/or cost and risk not getting it right.

Most of us - especially those of us who have worked on projects with set deliverables - have heard and used the saying that goes “Do you want it fast, do you want it cheap, or do you want it right? Pick two.” The implication is that you can’t have all three, and most of the time, that holds true.

Now Microsoft is faced with a dilemma as the company ramps up to deliver the drastically revamped next generation of Windows. They’re under pressure from some corners to do it fast, and there is always a contingent that clamors for them to do it cheaper, but can they afford to cut corners for the sake of speed and/or cost and risk not getting it right? I don’t think so.

Hurry or not?

On the one hand, there’s no big hurry to get a new desktop operating system out there. Many individuals and companies are just now in the process of upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 7 and still getting to know the “new” OS. It was released just two years ago; folks who stuck with XP for a decade are hard pressed to see any good reason to trade in the current model anytime soon. IDC is already predicting that Windows 8 will be “largely irrelevant to users of traditional PCs.”

Windows 7 is a big hit. People like it - even many of those who swore their undying love for XP. They aren’t going to want to give it up without a compelling reason. The average consumer won’t mind at all if Microsoft takes its time coming out with a new version of the OS.

On the other hand, the pressure is on for Microsoft to get a Windows 8 tablet into the game. Following the release of a Forrester survey purporting to show that interest in a Windows-based tablet is shrinking, a number of pundits have opined that the window of opportunity is closing fast, or that it may already be too late for Microsoft to catch up in the tablet market.

Personally, I have issues with both the research and the conclusions. The survey samples (both in the case of the Q1 survey that showed 46% of respondents interested in a Windows tablet and the Q3 survey showing that number at 25%) were not particularly large. The first was based on 3835 respondents, the second on only 2299. Is that really an accurate representation of the millions of potential customers who will be purchasing tablets in the future?

In addition, who decides when a market is “sewn up?” At one point, it seemed “too late” for anyone to beat Apple in the smart phone market - but then along came Android. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Microsoft has always excelled at coming from behind to take over a market segment (web browsing, word processing, server systems). It’s not over ’til the queen-size female vocalizes some music, and I see no reason to assume there’s a cut-off date after which the iPad must be declared the official “winner” of the tablet war for the rest of time.

Nonetheless, those at Microsoft are undoubtedly at least a little worried by the numbers. They’ve been talking about Windows on ARM for quite a while now, and with a deluge of Android slates hitting the shelves this holiday season, you know they’re just chomping at the bit to get a horse in that race.

Is the price right?

Each time a new version of Windows is released, I hear complaints about the price. The full retail price of Windows 7 Home Premium is $199. Full retail price of Windows 95 was $209.95. Sure, the Pro and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 cost more, but Home Premium is the edition that most consumers (the people I hear complaining) use, and it’s the edition that’s directly comparable to Windows 95.

Of course, these days the comparisons are always with Apple, and we hear endlessly about how “Snow Leopard only cost $29.” The problem with that argument is that Snow Leopard wasn’t, even by the standards of many Mac fans, really a new version of OS X - it was more like a service pack. Well, guess what. Microsoft doesn’t charge anything for service packs. Just imagine the outpouring of protests if Microsoft had charged thirty bucks for XP SP2, even though it added new features.

Okay, what about the cost of OS X Lion, an actual new edition? You can buy it for $69 on a thumb drive. However, you can’t compare that to the full edition of Windows, because you can’t install it on a computer that didn’t already have OS X installed. You can only install it on a Mac, and you can’t buy a Mac that comes without an operating system. So you have to compare it to the upgrade pricing for Windows, which lists for $119.99 but can be found for less at some retailers.

Yes, you’ll probably still pay a little more for Windows, but for that price you get the ability to install it on the hardware of your choice, including hardware that’s much less expensive than the hardware you’re forced to buy to run OS X. Oh, and if you’re building your own computer, you can get the System Builder’s edition, which is the full edition with SP1, for $99.

Then there’s Linux, which you can get at no cost at all. You’d think, with pricing like that, everyone would have abandoned both Microsoft and Apple long ago - but Linux still has less than 2% of the market share, according to NetMarketShare’s November 2011 statistics. Sometimes there are hidden costs to “free” solutions, and given the number of people I know who have tried some iteration of Linux at one time or another and then came running back to Windows (or bought a Mac), it seems price isn’t the overriding factor for most, even in a tough economy.

The importance of getting it right...the first TIME.

Microsoft learned from their experience with Vista just how important it is to wait however long it takes to get the software right before releasing it. Or at least, I hope they did. True or not, there is a pervasive public perception that the problems users encountered with Vista (slow performance, lack of expected features such as a new file system) were caused by a rush to market. This is so even though there was five years between the release of XP and the release of Vista, which is the longest interval ever between Microsoft operating system releases.

Rumors are flying about when Windows 8 will be released. A few days ago, Robert Boland reported that unnamed “sources close to Microsoft” say to expect the first Windows 8 beta in February 2012. There has been recent speculation in the press (neither confirmed nor denied by Microsoft) that the final release may be delayed, with the expected 2012 general availability date pushed back to 2013.

On the other hand, eWeek reported that a leaked slide deck indicates that Asus is preparing Windows 8 tablets before the end of 2012. PCWorld says Nokia is planning to launch the first Windows 8 tablet by June. Could it be that the company is focusing its efforts on the tablet market first, the strategy being to fine-tune and release the touch-friendly Metro-based OS on slates significantly earlier than it starts to sell the OS for the desktop?

Personally, I think that’s a good idea. Microsoft already owns the desktop with Windows 7; the tablet market is where the company needs to make a mark. But even there, I hope they don’t get too caught up in the pressure to put something, anything, up against the iPad and Android devices. I’m as eager as anyone to get my hands on a real Windows tablet, but I’d prefer to wait and see it done right, than to see the first Windows 8 tablet suffer the same fate as Vista.

I believe coming out with a first Windows Phone that, despite its elegant UI, lacked so many of the features and functionality that the iPhone and Droids already had was one of many reasons (including the “carrier conspiracy” mentioned last week) that Windows Phone 7 posted such lukewarm sales figures. Even though Mango went a long way toward catching up, sales haven’t picked up much. Maybe with their flagship tablet, they should try a different tactic and wait until they have a really spectacular product that works flawlessly upon release - even if the wait frustrates people like me.

Friday, December 02, 2011

Funny Finnish bunny thinks he's a chicken ...

Reuters

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Thu Dec 1, 2011. Otto would make the perfect chicken, except for a few hiccups.Hatching eggs, scratching around the coop and roosting on a beam with the rest of the hens are great habits for chickens, but rather unusual for an eight month old male rabbit.

The confused bunny came as a free gift to Ville Kuusinen's home, when he bought nine Silkie hens and a rooster from a farm.

The Kuusinens and their three children live on a small island in Velkua some 210 km (130 miles) northwest of Helsinki.

"When I went to the hen house, I noticed he was sitting on the eggs. Later I watched through the window how he jumped on the beam, failed, tried again and with a lot of practice eventually he stayed up there," Kuusinen told Reuters.

Otto does not like to sit on laps or eat carrots like most pet rabbits. The rabbit, who has lived with chickens all his life prefers chicken feed and runs with the chickens outdoors and sometimes plays with them by jumping over them.

"For the chickens he is one of them. He often sits on the beam between the hens and under their wings'," Kuusinen said.

But he said Otto's rabbity instincts still take over when a visitor steps into the hen house. He runs away and hides, but can be lured out with raisin buns.

(Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen, editing by Paul Casciato)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Woman gives birth at airport restroom...

Reuters

Tue Nov 29, 2011. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman gave birth in a restroom at Baltimore's airport after arriving on a flight, an airport spokesman said on Monday.

The woman gave birth to a boy on Sunday afternoon at Concourse D of Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the spokesman said.

Police and emergency medical personnel were called to the restroom and a Maryland Transportation Authority police officer assisted at the birth, he said.

The woman and the baby were transported to the Baltimore-Washington Medical Center and are in good condition, a hospital spokesman said.

The woman's identity was being withheld at her request. Other details, such as the origin of the flight, were not immediately available.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Greg McCune)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Rats help Colombia sniff out deadly landmines...

Reuters

BOGOTA (Reuters) Wed Nov 23, 2011. - In a laboratory on the grounds of a police-guarded complex, 11 white-furred rats wait their turn to impress trainers and perhaps receive a bit of sugar as reward.

The rodents could play an important role in making conflict-wracked Colombia safer. They are in the final stages of a training program to find landmines that kill or injure hundreds of people each year in Colombia.

The government project, which began in 2006, trains specially bred rats to detect the metals used in landmines, thousands of which have been laid during the country's decades-long conflict with left-wing guerrillas.

Colombian scientists decided to use rats because, like the dogs more traditionally used in land mine detection, they have a highly developed sense of smell. But the rats are lightweight and unlikely to detonate mines.

The rats are first taught to recognize voice commands and the specific smells of metals used in landmines, and then to work in large, outdoor areas, where the rodents will sniff and scratch when they find mines, as watchful handlers who will be well-trained in demining stand close by.
It has taken government scientists five generations of rats to be confident their training program is thorough enough to begin sending rats out into the countryside.

In the laboratory, an element of instinct has been built into the training, with baby rats scurrying after their mothers in plastic mazes during practice sessions. The mothers show their young how finding the dead end containing the same wires and metal pieces used in landmines can earn you a treat.

"These rats will be a great help, and will provide great input to those trying to carry out demining," said Erick Guzman, the police official and former canine handler who now is responsible for much of the rats' outdoor training.

"We are hoping that this generation will be ready at the beginning of next year to be tested in a real environment," he added as his favorite rat Sophie perched on his shoulder.

LANDMINES A CONSTANT MENACE

Experts say it is impossible to estimate the number of undetonated mines which remain in Colombia, but their impact is horrifying real.

In the first half of 2011, for example, mines killed 40 people and injured another 247, government statistics show. That compared with 535 dead and injured throughout 2010.
Experts confirm that most mines are planted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), other guerrilla groups and criminal gangs to deter security forces. The government says 31 of the country's 32 provinces may contain mines.

"Contrary to what you see in other countries that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, mines continue to be planted in our country ... while other countries continue to get the number of mines down, ours goes up," Luisa Fernanda Mendez, the scientific director of the rat program said.

Landmines are a pressing problem for security forces. More than half, or 63 percent, of land mine victims are military and police personnel, according to government figures.
Land mine clearance in Colombia is unusually slow-going because mines are sown in very close proximity to each other in rural areas only, making clearance operations treacherous.
The Colombian government cleared less than a tenth of a square mile in all of 2010, but uncovered a total of 194 explosive devices.

Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Colombia have until recently only been allowed to help land mine victims, not to mount demining operations themselves.

"Currently there is no humanitarian demining process except the one undertaken by the armed forces ... we have objections to that demining because, in our judgment, the process is not compatible with international standards for humanitarian demining," said Alvaro Jimenez, the national coordinator of the Colombian Campaign Against Mines.

"Demining should be a development carried out in service of the community, and the community should participate in all the steps."

The Organization of American States hopes to help NGOs expand their fledgling demining operations. They have mounted a program, to be completed by the end of the year, to train and accredit NGO demining teams to work in Colombia.

But despite any critiques of the government's current demining effort, rat project director Mendez has high hopes.

"If we do not begin to master the demining process, we will never complete the terms of the treaty, and moreover, we'll never have a free countryside," she said, while giving the rat crawling up the sleeve of her lab coat an affectionate pat.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Millions of escaped bees shut down highway...

Reuters By James Nelson

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) Tue Oct 25, 2011. A flatbed truck carrying hundreds of beehives overturned near a construction zone on a Utah highway, freeing millions of bees and forcing authorities to temporarily close Interstate 15, officials said on Monday."

The driver lost control, hit the concrete barrier and rolled over. Of course, we then had bees everywhere," said Corporal Todd Johnson with the Utah Highway Patrol.

The highway in southern Utah was shut down for several hours on Sunday evening and Monday morning, officials said.

Local beekeepers worked through the night to gather the escaped bees. Officials said there was a net over the beehives but bees still managed to escape after the truck overturned.

The truck driver and two law enforcement officers responding to the accident were stung by bees but the stings were not life-threatening, Johnson said.

"There were about 450 colonies on the load and probably about 45,000 bees to the colony," said Richard Adee with Adee Honey Farms in Bruce, South Dakota.

That would translate to more than 20 million bees.

Adee said the bees were headed to Bakersfield, California for almond pollination next spring.

"We stacked the equipment back together, put them back on trucks and trailers and whatever we could find to move them out of there," said beekeeper Melvin Taylor of Santa Clara, Utah.

"Then we tried to move them as far out of the metropolitan area as we could. Because when those bees come alive today they are going to be mad that their house is all (broken) apart," Taylor added.

Taylor said bees not gathered and removed likely perished in the accident and cleanup.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Gaddafi family demands body; NATO ends Libya war...

Reuters By Rania El Gamal

MISRATA,Libya (Reuters)Fri Oct 21, 2011.

NATO called an end to its air war in Libya, and the clan of Muammar Gaddafi demanded a chance to bury the body that lay on display in a meat locker after a death as brutal and chaotic as his 42-year rule.

In a statement on a Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, the ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mo'tassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte.

"We call on the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs' bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules," the statement said.

At an understated and sparsely-attended news conference late on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western alliance had taken a preliminary decision to call a halt to Operation Unified Protector on October 31.

Like other Western officials, Rasmussen expressed no regrets in public about the gruesome death of the deposed Libyan dictator, who was captured alive by the forces of the National Transitional Council but was brought dead to a hospital.

"We mounted a complex operation with unprecedented speed and conducted it with the greatest of care," Rasmussen said. "I'm very proud of what we have achieved."

The NATO operation, officially intended to protect civilians, effectively ended on Thursday with French warplanes blasting Gaddafi's convoy as he and others tried to escape a final stand in Sirte.

Gaddafi was captured wounded but alive hiding in a drain under a road. The world has since seen grainy film of him being roughed up by his captors while he pleads with them to respect his rights.

NTC officials have said Gaddafi later died of wounds in the ambulance, but the ambulance driver, Ali Jaghdoun, told Reuters that Gaddafi was already dead when he picked up the body.

"I didn't try to revive him because he was already dead," Jaghdoun said, in testimony that adds greater weight to the widespread assumption that Gaddafi was lynched.

The U.N. human rights arm said an investigation was needed to into whether he was summarily executed. The interim leaders have yet to decide what to do with the corpse.

BURIAL DISPUTE

In Misrata, a local commander, Addul-Salam Eleiwa, showed off the body, torso bare, on a mattress inside a metal-lined cold-store by a market on Friday. There was a bullet hole in his head.

"He will get his rights, like any Muslim. His body will be washed and treated with dignity. I expect he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery within 24 hours," he said.

Dozens of people, many with cellphone cameras, filed in to see that he was dead.

"There's something in our hearts we want to get out," said Abdullah al-Suweisi, 30, as he waited. "It is the injustice of 40 years. There is hatred inside. We want to see him."

In Tripoli, Gaddafi's death prompted a carnival-like celebration, with fireworks, a bouncy castle and candy floss for the children. "Muammar, bad," one small girl said to foreign journalists in English. "Boom boom."

"For some people from outside Libya it could look wrong that we are celebrating a death with our children," said one man with a child on his shoulders. "But it was 42 years with the devil."

RISKS OF DIVISION

Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent remains at large, believed by NTC officials to have escaped from besieged Sirte and headed for a southern border.

Without the glue of hatred for Gaddafi and his tribe to unite the factions, some fear a descent into the kind of strife that bedevils Iraq after Saddam Hussein. Optimists say that so far Libya's new rulers have quarreled but not fought.

"Can an inclusive, effective national government be formed? Yes, if factions can avoid fighting," Jon Marks, chairman of Britain's Cross Border Information consultancy said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the NTC had promised to explain how Gaddafi was killed.

"They're dealing with the death itself as well as the aftermath in as transparent a way as I think they can," he said. "They've fought bravely to liberate their country from this dictator. And, you know, he met an ignominious end yesterday."

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun and Tim Gaynor in Sirte, Barry Malone, Yasmine Saleh and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Christian Lowe in Algiers, Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Andrew Quinn in Islamabad, Paul Eckert in Washington and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Friday, October 21, 2011

Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future ...

Reuters By Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor

<--Gaddafi captured, covered in blood

SIRTE, Libya (REUTERS Thu Oct 20, 2011. Muammar Gaddafi was killed after being captured by the Libyan fighters he once scorned as "rats," cornered and shot in the head after they overrun his last bastion of resistance in his hometown of Sirte.

His body, bloodied, half naked, Gaddafi's trademark long curls hanging limp around a rarely seen bald spot, was delivered, a prize of war, to Misrata, the city west of Sirte whose siege and months of suffering at the hands of Gaddafi's artillery and sniper made it a symbol of the rebel cause.

A quick and secret burial was due later on Friday.

"It's time to start a new Libya, a united Libya," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared. "One people, one future."

A formal announcement of Libya's liberation, which will set the clock ticking on a timeline to elections, would be made on Saturday, Libyan officials said.

Two months after Western-backed rebels ended 42 years of eccentric one-man rule by capturing the capital Tripoli, his death ended a nervous hiatus for the new interim government.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a veiled dig at the Syrian and other leaders resisting the democrats of the Arab Spring, declared "the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."

But Gaddafi's death is a setback to campaigners seeking the full truth about the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland of Pan Am flight 103 which claimed 270 lives, mainly Americans, and for which one of Gaddafi's agents was convicted.

Jim Swire, the father of one of the Lockerbie victims, said: "There is much still to be resolved and we may now have lost an opportunity for getting nearer the truth."

"That's for Lockerbie," said the front-page headline in The Sun, Britain's best selling daily newspaper.

Confusion over Gaddafi's death was a reminder of the challenge for Libyans to now summon order out of the armed chaos that is the legacy of eight months of grinding conflict.

The killing or capture of senior aides, including possibly two sons, as an armored convoy braved NATO air strikes in a desperate bid to break out of Sirte, may ease fears of diehards regrouping elsewhere - though cellphone video, apparently of Gaddafi alive and being beaten, may inflame his sympathizers.

As news of Gaddafi's demise spread, people poured into the streets in jubilation. Joyous fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouting "Allahu Akbar."

Others wrote graffiti on the parapets of the highway outside Sirte. One said simply: "Gaddafi was captured here."

Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe." He was then shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried the 69-year-old to hospital.

"He was hit by a bullet in the head," Jibril said, adding it was unclear which side had fired the fatal shot.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who spearheaded a Franco-British move in NATO to back the revolt against Gaddafi hailed a turn of events that few had expected so soon, since there had been little evidence that Gaddafi himself was in Sirte.

But he also alluded to fears that, without the glue of hatred for Gaddafi, the new Libya could descend, like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, into bloody factionalism: "The liberation of Sirte must signal ... the start of a process ... to establish a democratic system in which all groups in the country have their place and where fundamental freedoms are guaranteed," he said.

NATO, keen to portray the victory as that of the Libyans themselves, said it would wind down its military mission.

"KEEP HIM ALIVE"

The circumstances of the death of Gaddafi, who had vowed to go down fighting, remained obscure. Jerky video showed a man with Gaddafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

The brief footage showed him being hauled by his hair from the hood of a truck. To the shouts of someone saying "Keep him alive," he disappears from view and gunshots are heard.

"While he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," a senior source in the NTC told Reuters before Jibril spoke of crossfire. "He might have been resisting."

Officials said Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim, also seen bleeding but alive in a video, had also died. Another son, heir-apparent Saif al-Islam, was variously reported to be surrounded, captured or killed as conflicting accounts of the day's events crackled around networks of NTC fighters rejoicing in Sirte.

In Benghazi, where in February Gaddafi disdainfully said he would hunt down the "rats" who had emulated their Tunisian and Egyptian neighbors by rising up against an unloved autocrat, thousands took to the streets, loosing off weapons and dancing under the old tricolor flag revived by Gaddafi's opponents.

Mansour el Ferjani, 49, a Benghazi bank clerk and father of five posed his 9-year-old son for a photograph holding a Kalashnikov rifle: "Don't think I will give this gun to my son," he said. "Now that the war is over we must give up our weapons and the children must go to school.

Accounts were hazy of his final hours, as befitted a man who retained an aura of mystery in the desert down the decades as he first tormented "colonial" Western powers by sponsoring militant bomb-makers from the IRA to the PLO and then embraced the likes of Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi in return for investment in Libya's extensive oil and gas fields.

There was no shortage of fighters willing to claim they saw Gaddafi, who long vowed to die in battle, cringing below ground, like Saddam eight years ago, and pleading for his life.

One description, pieced together from various sources, suggests Gaddafi tried to break out of his final redoubt at dawn in a convoy of vehicles after weeks of dogged resistance.

However, he was stopped by a French air strike and captured, possibly some hours later, after gun battles with NTC fighters who found him hiding in a drainage culvert.

NATO said its warplanes fired on a convoy near Sirte about 8:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET), striking two military vehicles in the group, but could not confirm that Gaddafi had been a passenger. France later said its jets had halted the convoy.

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone, Yasmine Saleh and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Jon Hemming in Tunis, Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Christian Lowe in Algiers, Tim Castle, Peter Apps and William Maclean in London, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Alister Bull, Jeff Mason and Laura MacInnis in Washington and Vicky Buffery in Paris; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Man-flu is real to a fifth of British women...

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) Thu Oct 20, 2011. One in five British women believe that the debilitating "man-flu" disease which temporarily leaves sufferers prostrate on the sofa watching televised sports is real, according to a new study.

The survey, which questioned 2,000 British adults about health and wellbeing, showed that misconceptions and old wives' tales, including the myth that eating carrots improves night vision, prevail among the population when it comes to beliefs about common illnesses.

"Unbelievably, there are still a lot of misconceptions around how minor illnesses and conditions are caused or prevented," study leader Mike Smith, said in a statement.

The top 10 health myths ranged from the theory that eating carrots will aid night vision to the belief that too much stress will turn your hair grey, both subscribed to by one in 10 of the population.

More than a third of people said that sugar makes children hyper, and 37 percent said they believed we lose most of our body heat through our heads -- the most popular misconception of the survey.

While the face, head and chest are more sensitive to temperature change than the rest of the body, covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other, researchers said.

"The Contagion study suggests that a large majority of the population are still under the illusion that they can, for example, get square eyes from watching too much television, or get better night vision from eating more carrots," Smith said.

"These are just not true, but do go to show that no matter how many millions are spent on health and education, some medical myths still prevail," he said.

When illness strikes, almost half of people agreed that men exaggerate their symptoms to get attention, with 38 percent also believing that men take longer to recover from illness than women.

Over half of respondents admitted to self-diagnosis, using the internet to research their symptoms.

"Old wives' tales are just that -- tales that should not be listened to or abided by. If the public are in any real doubt as to how to treat a condition, they should always refer to their GP (family doctor) or professional medical adviser," Smith said.

The study was specially commissioned to mark the release of Hollywood thriller "Contagion" starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

After the iPhone 4S, Android just feels wrong....!!

ZDNet

Summary By James Kendrick October 18, 2011.

As a long-time happy Android phone user, it surprises me that it only took using the iPhone 4S for a few days to point out that using Android just feels wrong.

Like I usually do when new gadgets hit the tool kit, I have been using only the iPhone 4S for the past few days. I still have my Nexus S 4G Android phone running the current version of Gingerbread, but it remained on the charger while I carried the new iPhone everywhere. Last night I decided it was time to pick up the Nexus and get reacquainted with the phone that has served me well. It didn’t take me long to realize that after using the smooth, polished iPhone 4S that Android just feels wrong.

This realization hit me hard, as I found that as I used the Nexus, a phone I absolutely love, the user experience was jangling my nerves. The inconsistencies in the interface between apps and the occasional lag doing simple things like scrolling in windows just screamed at me. I hadn’t really noticed it before, but after using the iPhone these things jump out at me.

Don’t get me wrong, the Android Gingerbread interface isn’t bad, it’s just not always smooth. In just a few days with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 I had come to expect operation to be fluid and consistent system-wide. That’s just not the case with Android, and every little interruption in smooth operation now accumulates into a feeling of frustration as I use the phone.

The biggest area of discontent is in web browsing, one of the primary things I do with a smartphone. I have long found stock Android browsers to be lacking, not in a major way but in fluid operation. That never bothered me as the strength of Android is the number of apps available, and third party browsers stepped in and served my needs just fine. Or so I thought.

After the totally flawless operation of Mobile Safari on the iPhone 4S, I realize that the browsing experience in Android just falls short. Sometimes pages stutter while loading, other times a page doesn’t load at all. Hitting the X to stop a stalled page and then refreshing the page to get the browser to load the page was something I had gotten used to doing to make it work. Now that seems like a jarring interruption to what I now know can be a fluid experience. And don’t get me started on pinching to zoom in or out on web pages and how terrible that is on Android compared to iOS.

The lack of fluid operation in Android may be due to the OS, or perhaps it is hardware related. It might be due to better apps on the iPhone, or tighter control by Apple over them. I really don’t care as a user, I want the best user experience I can get. The good one delivered by the iPhone 4S makes it clear to me how wanting the Android experience actually is. It just feels wrong.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pastor accused of cashing dead teacher's pension checks...

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Fri Oct 14, 2011. A New York pastor has been arrested and accused of fraudulently cashing pension checks worth nearly a quarter-million dollars sent to a school teacher who died more than a decade ago, authorities said on Thursday.

Rev. Victor Rosa was accused of deceiving New York City's Teacher Retirement System into thinking that teacher Maria Sicardo was still alive and had her checks sent to a building he owns in the Bronx, investigators said.

He would cash the checks, which amounted to about $241,000, often at a local bank, investigators said. Investigators said they interviewed bank staff, who recalled Rosa often preached about God to other customers while waiting in line.

Sicardo died in April 2000 at age 75.

A report by the New York City's Department of Investigation said in the years after her death, someone sent fraudulently notarized documents to the Teacher Retirement System, purportedly signed by Sicardo, affirming that she was still alive.

In 2010, Rosa received a call from the Teacher Retirement System and told the caller that Sicardo had died three months earlier, in June 2010, in Puerto Rico, the report said.

He said he would return the checks for July, August and September, it said.

Investigators said they caught Rosa cashing the checks at a bank in the city's Bronx borough on security camera footage.

He was arrested last week in Orlando, Florida, where he now lives, and is slated to face prosecution by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)

Artist can paint nude models only after dark...

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Fri Oct 14, 2011. An artist arrested for applying body paint to a nude model in New York's Times Square will have charges against him dropped if his models strip naked only after dark, according to a court agreement reached on Thursday.

Police arrested Andy Golub, 45, in July and charged him with violating public exposure and lewdness laws. He has been painting nude models for about three years.

Golub's lawyer, Ronald Kuby, argued that New York laws do not prohibit public nudity in the name of art, and a compromise was reached that was the basis of the court ruling.

Under the agreement, "he is permitted to paint bare breasts any time, anywhere, but the G-strings have to stay on until daylight goes out," Kuby said after a hearing in Manhattan criminal court.

State laws against public exposure exempt "any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment," Kuby said. Municipalities are allowed to devise their own restrictions, but New York City generally does not do so, Kuby said.

Golub, of Nyack, New York, said he likes to paint nude models because their bodies have energy and dynamism that he finds lacking in canvas.

"I feel that when I do live body painting it's a good thing, a positive thing," he said.

Charges against Golub will be dropped in six months if he abides by the terms of the agreement and is not arrested again. Charges against Karla Storie, a model from Texas arrested with him, will be dismissed if she too is not arrested again in the next six months.

Golub said he was planning to return to criminal court on Friday and paint a nude model in a park near the courthouse.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Senators ditch pen and paper for iPads...

Reuters By Roberta Cowan

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)- Fri Oct 7, 2011 10:01am EDT. Members of the Dutch Senate, or upper house of parliament, won't strain their backs or weigh down their bike panniers by carrying stacks of printed documents from work anymore, since they are all now expected to work on their Apple iPads.

When members of the Senate returned from the summer recess two weeks ago, they were told they had one week left of working with printed files: After that they must stop printing out documents and wasting paper, and learn how to use a new Senate app especially designed for their new iPads.

The Dutch Senate is the first in Europe to distribute digital documents through a tablet computer. Two weeks into the project the 75 senators are generally "delighted" with managing the reams of documents using their iPads, according to Secretary General of the Senate, Geert Jan Hamilton.

"We have had enormous piles of paper couriered to our houses every week, thick envelopes with planning and committee meeting documents, but now from 6 pm every Friday you just open the Senate app and find all the documents for the next week," Hamilton told Reuters on Thursday, a day after the man credited with inspiring the iPad's creation died.

Although printing the occasional document is permitted, it is expected that most of the senators will use the iPad exclusively once they are accustomed to using the tablet computer.

They can use their iPads to consult and manage information, including calendars, legislative bills, parliamentary correspondence, and meeting documents through an app developed especially for the Dutch Senate.

Creating the Senate app and buying the iPads, a plan which has been in the works for about a year, cost about 150,000 euros ($201,053) and according to Hamilton will save the Senate around 140,000 euros in printing and courier costs in the first year.

"I am very optimistic that this will reduce costs," said Hamilton, adding that after the first year, he expects the annual costs for the upkeep and occasional printing of some documents will be in the 35,000 euro range.

The iPads, considered an office tool and equipped only with various news-related approved apps, won't have any connectivity problems in the historic Dutch parliamentary buildings, since an extra 21 wifi transmitters were kitted out in the senate building in early September.

Security concerning the information stored on the app isn't a big concern, according to Hamilton who said that unlike other Dutch parliamentarians and government employees, senators normally handle documents which are already publicly available.

"I am very pleased with the reception, and many say they consider it a very well-organized way of providing all the necessary information they have to deal with as well as reducing the enormous amount of paper involved."

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- who inspired the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad -- died on Wednesday at age 56. ($1 = 0.746 Euros)

(Reporting By Roberta B. Cowan, editing by Paul Casciato).

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Higher testosterone may equal lower heart risks...

Reuters

Wed Oct 5, 2011 (Reuters) - Elderly men with naturally higher levels of testosterone may be less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke than those men with lower levels of the hormone, according to a study.

Findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology showed that of 2,400 Swedish men in their 70s and 80s, those with the highest testosterone levels were less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke over the next several years than men with the lowest levels.

But the results do not prove that testosterone itself deserves the credit, and it's too soon to recommend testosterone replacement to try to lower heart risks.

"What we can say is that elderly men with high testosterone levels are relatively protected against cardiovascular events, and therefore lower testosterone is a marker for increased cardiovascular risk," said Asa Tivesten, at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden, who led the study.

It's known that any serious health condition can lower testosterone levels, as can obesity. But in the study, the researchers accounted for a number of health factors -- including the men's weight, blood pressure and any diagnoses of diabetes, heart disease or stroke at the outset.

Of 604 men in the bottom quarter for levels of the "male" hormone at the study's start, 21 percent had a heart attack, severe chest pain or stroke over roughly five years.

That compared with roughly 16 percent of the 606 men who started out with the highest testosterone levels.

Even accounting for health factors, men in the highest-testosterone group still showed a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease or stroke compared with the other three-quarters of the study group.

But that doesn't rule out the possibility that something other than testosterone may be at work, said JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study.

"Low testosterone may be a marker of other health conditions that put men at higher risk of cardiovascular disease," she said.

Potential reasons for why higher natural testosterone levels may be good for the heart include the fact that higher testosterone generally means less body fat and more lean muscle.

What's needed, she added, is evidence from clinical trials that actually test whether testosterone replacement in older men cuts the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Those trials are ongoing and so far, she noted, the results are mixed on whether testosterone replacement improves "intermediate" outcomes like cholesterol or blood sugar levels.

No one yet knows if it affects the ultimate outcomes of cardiovascular disease and lifespan.

"There are many unanswered questions, and I don't think this means that men should be trying to boost their testosterone with testosterone replacement therapy," she said.

The experience with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in women offers a cautionary tale.

Before 2002, many women used HRT in the hopes of warding off heart disease and osteoporosis. Then a large U.S. clinical trial found that women given pills containing estrogen and progesterone actually had higher risks of blood clots, heart attack, stroke and breast cancer than women given placebo pills.

Now HRT is largely used only for treating severe hot flashes -- and then, only at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible.

"So there are concerns about the risks in men," Manson said.

Among those are the potential for testosterone to contribute to blood clots, liver damage or prostate cancer.

"This is a study of endogenous (natural) hormone production. It does not provide information about what is happening when hormones are given as a therapy," Tiveston said. SOURCE: bit.ly/oDvZxv

(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Health

Drunk Dutch drivers must fit alcolocks to cars...

Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Wed Oct 5, 2011. Dutch drivers caught operating a car while massively over the legal alcohol limit will be forced to fit their cars with "alcolocks" which automatically lock the engine if the driver is over the limit.

Convicted drunk drivers found in control of with blood alcohol levels over 1.3 mg/dl -- more than six times the legal limit of 0.2 mg/dl -- will be ordered to install alcolocks in their cars, the transport ministry said on Wednesday.

The new rules will come into effect on December 1, in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The way the alcolock works is that the driver must first breathe into it to unlock the engine, and will have to repeat the same process at regular intervals during the journey.

If the mini-breathalyzer, which is fitted to the dashboard, indicates a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, the engine will not turn on.

The alcolocks will be installed for two years with a possible six-year extension if the driver continues to drink and drive. In the worst cases, the driver's license will be revoked, and the driver will have to wait five years before he or she can take a new test.

About 200 people die every year because of drink-driving, Dutch media reported.

The Netherlands, home to global beer brand Heineken, is famous for its beer industry, and ranks 14th among Europe's top beer consumers, lagging the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium.

Annual consumption of beer in the Netherlands is more than 1 billion liters.

Swiss speedster trapped by his own mobile phone...

Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Wed Oct 5, 2011. A Swiss motorist used his mobile phone to record himself driving on an autoroute near Geneva at 320 km an hour, nearly three times the speed limit, police said Wednesday.

But the offence was only uncovered six months later when the 28-year-old was questioned in another case and investigators found the images still on the phone.

Some shots were focused on the speedometer of his car, a Bentley Continental, according to a police spokesman.

Others showed the road, revealing where he was, and the phone's timer recorded the date and the time -- just before 3:30 in the morning local time last April.

Police said the driver, whom they declined to name, probably took the shots to impress his friends. His license was confiscated and he is free on bail awaiting trial.

(Reported by Robert Evans, editing by Paul Casciato)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Worrall died in jail from medical problem...

<--Kathleen Worrall (left) stabbed her sister Susan.

Sydney - Thu Sep 22 2011 .A woman jailed for killing her sister after a row about a hair straightener died in her cell as a result of a medical condition, a coroner has found.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell said it would never be known whether 22-year-old Kathleen Worrall made up a story about being bashed by a prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

He concluded on Thursday that she died of pulmonary thromboembolism with morbid obesity.

An inquest into her death heard Worrallhad long suffered from congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a genetic disorder that affects the adrenal glands.

At the time of her death she weighed 133kg, a side-effect of medications she was taking.

Worrall was found by fellow prisoners at Dillwynia Women's Correctional Centre on the morning of August 1, 2010.

Worrall was jailed on June 4 after being found guilty of stabbing her sister Susan more than 50 times with a knife.

She was serving six years for manslaughter, with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

The inquest, held at Parramatta Local Court, lasted less than two hours.

It heard her mother Maureen had reported to Corrective Services NSW that Kathleen had told her she had been bashed by a male prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

Mrs Worrall made the complaint after receiving toxicology reports that showed bruising on her daughter's buttocks, back and lower neck.

Mr Mitchell said the truth about the allegations would never be known.

"If she did make it up, it's an indication of the degree of distress she was suffering," he said.

"If it did happen, all I can say is that police have tried and failed to clarify the matter."

Mr Mitchell said regardless, Worrall had seemed to be "happy, outgoing, loved, keen to get on with life, and as her father said, euphoric".

"That is something her parents can cling to," he said.

© AAP 2011

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Windows 8: full details revealed...

Tech Authority by Barry Collins in Los Angeles on Sep 14, 2011

Los Angeles, Sep 14, 2011. Traditional Windows desktop relegated, as Microsoft moves into the touchscreen era.Microsoft has revealed full details of Windows 8, with an all-or-nothing approach to touch technology, writes Barry Collins in Los Angeles.

Inside Windows 8: a visual tour

All versions of Windows 8 - whether used on a touchscreen device or not - will use the operating system's new Metro interface, which was first developed for Windows Phone 7 devices.

The familiar Windows desktop, which has been the cornerstone of the operating system since Windows 95, has been effectively demoted to an "app".

Microsoft insists that the touch-oriented interface is suitable for any device, regardless of whether it has a touchscreen or not. "We envision an OS that scales from small form-factor, keyboardless tablets, all the way up to servers," said Windows president Steven Sinofsky, at a special press preview of the new operating system.

What's more, the company believes that every device should have a touchcreen. "The UI is the same UI, whether you use a mouse, keyboard or touch," said Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Windows Experience. "Every screen needs to be touch. A monitor without touch feels dead."

New application model

The advent of Windows 8 sees Microsoft introduce a new style of application, dubbed Metro Style apps, and its own app Store. The Metro Style apps are run in full-screen mode, with no Windows taskbar or other menu items getting in the way.

"Every single pixel of your beautiful screen is for your app," said Harris. "You're just immersed in the content."

Metro Style apps have more in common with the lightweight web apps found in Google Chrome than traditional Windows software. They can be written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as the more traditional C and C++ programming languages.

Microsoft will automatically syncrhonise a user's Metro Style apps across their Windows 8 devices, and allow users to pick up an app from where they left off on another device.

The Metro Style apps will be downloadable for the Microsoft Store, which offers developers the chance to offer "free trials" of their applications to customers, automatically wiping the app from users' machines when the trial period expires. All software distributed through Microsoft's Store has to be vetted by the company first - a process that the company claims will take mere hours, not the days and weeks that developers wait for software to be approved by Apple.

Old-style desktop

There will still be a place for traditional, desktop-style applications. These will run from the Windows 7-style Desktop, which now appears as an app on the Windows 8 Start Screen. "The Desktop is just another app that you can launch when you want to," said Harris. "There are no compromises. When you want a mouse and keyboard you can have it."

Microsoft insisted it wasn't trying to phase out desktop software in favour of the Metro apps. "There's no new conspiracy here," said Steven Sinofsky, in a spiky exchange with journalists who questioned Microsoft's motives. "We don't think the Desktop is some old place that you will never want to go."

Traditional x86 software will also be sold in the Store alongside the Metro apps.

No version announcements

Microsoft hasn't announced a release date, price or even which versions of Windows 8 will be offered to consumers and businesses. Sinofsky did however suggest there will be an element of differentiation between the versions of Windows that run on traditional x86 processors and the version running on ARM-based chips.

Despite showing off versions of Microsoft Office running on ARM processors earlier this year, Sinofsky claimed the "vast library" of x86 software "is not an asset we're going to port to ARM."

New Metro Style apps coded in HTML/JavaScript will, however, run equally as well on ARM processors as x86, suggesting Microsoft views the ARM versions of Windows as a pure tablet play.

Comments in this discussion

"Not convinced either. I like the monitor at the far end of my table so I have space for my paperwork etc. Not great if I have to touch the screen regularly. Ok, I can use the traditional desktop ..." By P.Visser

Related Articles.

Windows 8 Explorer to get the ribbon treatment.

Microsoft shows Windows running on ARM.

Copyright © PC Pro, Dennis Publishing

Sunday, September 11, 2011

And the most tolerant nation for sex scandals is...

Reuters By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Sep 8, 2011. When politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in France last week, cleared of a New York sex scandal, he returned home smiling despite facing a frosty reception. Maybe he should have gone to Mexico, instead.

Pay attention Anthony Weiner, Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and others caught up in public, sexual indiscretions.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday shows 57 percent of Mexicans would be either very likely or somewhat likely to tolerate the sexual indiscretions of stars and politicians.

They were followed by Belgians at 55 percent. In the United States, the tolerance factor was 48 percent. France, in fact, was way down the list at only 33 percent, while Japan was the least forgiving country at only 28 percent.

In total, 44 percent of some 18,700 respondents in more than 20 countries said they would likely tolerate a scandal.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey also asked if behavior exhibited in sex scandals was reflective of people's true personalities, or if fame and power led them to think they could get away with their acts.

In France, some 80 percent of respondents said fame was the root cause, while Mexico was about equally divided: 49 percent on the side of power and 51 percent on personality.

Throughout all the world, the decision was roughly split with 46 percent saying power and 54 percent citing personal characteristics. In the U.S. the percentages were 43 percent power, 57 personality.

"There is a Jekyll and Hyde issue here, and in some places the behavior is just more acceptable," said John Wright, managing director at Ipsos.

In recent months Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund and a presumed candidate for the French presidency, faced a possible trial in the United States for allegedly attempting to rape a hotel maid.

Last week, New York City prosecutors dropped charges, allowing him to return to France where he faced a mostly chilly public reception and unease among his political allies.

Former U.S. congressman Weiner, golfer Woods and football star Favre faced their own sex scandals in the last two years.

A slight majority of the respondents around the world, 51 percent, said women were just as likely as men to engage in sexual indiscretions but less apt to get caught in the act. Perhaps it's no surprise, Mexicans agreed, at 51 percent.

The full poll can be found at www.ipsos.com.

(Reporting and writing by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis)

Ordinance would cover naked bottoms...

Reuters By Laird Harrison

OAKLAND (Reuters) Fri Sep 9, 2011. In the San Francisco Bay area where tolerance is king, it is a rare politician willing to clamp down on citizens who let it all hang out.

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener stepped into that position earlier this week when he introduced an ordinance that would require nudists to cover their seats in public places and wear clothes in restaurants.

Public nudity, he explains, is legal in San Francisco and in recent years a group known informally as Naked Guys have shown unbridled enthusiasm for appearing in the nude.

"I see it pretty regularly, and unfortunately there are nudists who are not doing what they should," Wiener told Reuters.

The nudists, who expose themselves most often in the city's famous gay neighborhood, the Castro District, have got Wiener and others worrying about public health.

"I'm not a health expert, but I believe sitting nude in a public place is not sanitary," he said. "Would you want to sit on a seat where someone had been sitting naked? I think most people would say, 'No.'"

Wiener, who represents the Castro neighborhood, said he hears from merchants who fear the public displays may drive away customers, hurting the business' bottom lines.

That's particularly true in restaurants. He acknowledged that he has not seen any research establishing a health risk. "But when you have your orifices exposed in an eating establishment, a lot of people don't like it," he said.

California does have legislation against indecent exposure. But the law is lenient enough that it has barely affected San Francisco's current coterie of flaunters.

Weiner's proposed ordinance will next be assigned to a committee, and Wiener expects a public hearing within months. Clothing required.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston)

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Abandoned for two weeks, starving dogs eat owner...

Reuters

JAKARTA Wed Sep 7, 2011.(Reuters) - Seven dogs starved of food and water for two weeks are suspected of eating their Indonesian owner after he returned to his hometown in Manado from a holiday, local media reported on Tuesday.

A neighborhood guard was curious when he saw luggage lined up at the front of Andre Lumboga's house, days after the 50-year old arrived back home. He approached the house, smelled something foul and called the police, according to a report.

"His skull was found in the kitchen, and his body was found in the front of his house," Eriyana, a local police chief in Batam, an island off Sumatra, told VIVAnews website.

Lumboga arrived home last Wednesday, but his body was just discovered on Monday.

"We suspect that the dogs were hungry, so they attacked Andre, because they had not been fed for 14 days," he said. Police also found bones of two other dogs, believed to have also been eaten by the hungry canines.

Lumboga was from northern Sulawesi island, a predominantly Christian area, where the local spicy diet is famous in Indonesia for including dogs, bats and forest rats.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Ed Lane)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Is chocolate good for your heart? It depends...

Reuters By Ben Hirschler

PARIS (Reuters) Mon Aug 29, 2011. Chocolate may be good for the heart but cardiologists are not giving you a license to indulge.

New research presented at Europe's biggest medical meeting Monday suggested chocolate consumption might be associated with a one third reduction in the risk of developing heart disease.

Just why there should be such a link was unclear, the European Society of Cardiology congress was told.

There has been a string of scientific studies in recent years showing a potential health benefit from eating chocolate. Dark chocolate, in particular, contains compounds called flavanols thought to be good for the blood system.

In an attempt to paint a clearer picture, Oscar Franco and colleagues from the University of Cambridge pooled results from seven studies involving 100,000 people.

Five of the studies showed a beneficial link between eating chocolate and cardiovascular health, while two did not.

Overall, the findings showed the highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29 percent reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.

Franco said there were limitations with the pooled analysis, which did not differentiate between dark and milk chocolate, and more research was needed to test whether chocolate actually caused better health outcomes or if it was due to some other confounding factor.

"Evidence does suggest chocolate might have some heart health benefits but we need to find out why that might be," said Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, who was not involved in the research.

"If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, there are much better places to start than at the bottom of a box of chocolates."

Franco, whose findings were also published online in the British Medical Journal, said while it seemed chocolate had heart benefits, these could easily be outweighed by the unhealthy nature of much confectionery.

"The high sugar and fat content of commercially available chocolate should be considered, and initiatives to reduce it might permit an improved exposure to the beneficial effect of chocolate," the research team wrote.

Health and Lifestyle

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Funeral home accused of losing woman's body...

Reuters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) Wed Aug 24, 2011. The daughters of an Alabama woman who died in 2010 sued the funeral home on Tuesday that handled her burial, saying it lost the body and couldn't find it even after digging up several graves. .

The three daughters of Jimmie Lee Scott said in their lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County that after their mother died, her body was handed over to Ross-Clayton Funeral Home Inc.

The firm oversaw an April 2010 funeral service for Scott and her casket was taken to the Oakwood Cemetery Annex in Montgomery for burial, the lawsuit states.

The daughters and others in attendance left after a graveside service, where the casket was positioned over the plot where Scott was to be interred, court papers indicate.

Later, daughter Dakota Scott went to take flowers to her mother's grave, but found the tombstone was far away from where she remembered the service being held, the lawsuit said. Nevertheless, the funeral home is said to have assured her the site was correct.

A representative of the funeral home later contacted Scott and told her the funeral home would have to move her mother's casket and body, because another family owned the plot, the lawsuit states.

But when workers dug up the grave, no casket or body was found in the plot where Jimmie Lee Scott's headstone had been placed, the court papers said.

The same day, other graves were dug up in a vain search for Jimmie Lee Scott's body, which has still not been found, the lawsuit said.

"The plaintiffs have been forced to relive some of the saddest days of their lives -- the death and burial of their mother -- whom they deeply love and for whom they desire a peaceful and certain resting place," attorneys for the three women wrote in the lawsuit.

David Ross, the head of the funeral home, declined to comment on the suit when reached by phone on Tuesday night.

The lawsuit does not say how old Jimmie Lee Scott was when she died.

Also named as a defendant in the suit were the representative from the funeral home who is said to have handled the arrangements, and Forest Hills Memorial Park LLC, a cemetery company the plaintiffs say was contacted by the funeral home to deal with the burial.

Forest Hills had "a long history of problems, some of which are similar to the complaint in this case," the lawsuit said. A representative for Forest Hills could not be reached for comment.

Jimmie Lee Scott's daughters were seeking at least $2 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Verna Gates: Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Bull semen spill causes scare, closes highway...

Reuters By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) Wed Aug 24, 2011. A spill of frozen bull semen bound for a breeder in the state of Texas triggered a scare on Tuesday that temporarily shut down a U.S. interstate highway during the morning rush hour.

The incident began when the driver of a Greyhound bus carrying the freight alerted the fire department he had lost a part of his load while negotiating the ramp on a highway near Nashville.

"We didn't know what it was, but we were told (the canisters) were non-toxic," said Maggie Lawrence, a fire department spokeswoman.

When firefighters arrived on the ramp, they saw "four small propane-sized canisters (that) began to emit a light vapor," Lawrence said.

In addition to the vapor, the canisters also let off an unpleasant odor and the ramp was closed while emergency personnel tried to determine what was in the containers.

The bus driver turned around to retrieve the canisters. Once emergency personnel learned the smoking canisters were nothing hazardous and that they simply contained frozen bull semen that had been stored on dry ice, Tennessee Department of Transportation and fire department workers cleared the ramp.

"It was no different to us than if a mattress fell off a truck," said transportation spokeswoman B.J. Doughty.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Greg McCune)

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sprint to land Apple's iPhone: How wireless carrier dynamics will change...

ZDNet

Sprint to land Apple's iPhone: How wireless carrier dynamics will change By Larry Dignan August 23, 2011.

Summary: Sprint lands the iPhone 5 and the wireless carrier competitive dynamic changes.

Sprint will reportedly get Apple’s iPhone 5 in October and the move has wide ramifications in the wireless carrier pecking order.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October. The move will put Sprint’s line-up on equal footing with both AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, has performed fairly well, improved customer service and landed new customers with a value-oriented pricing approach. The problem for Sprint: AT&T and Verizon had a lock on the iPhone.

Now all of that changes and Sprint is saved. Traffic into Sprint stores will improve and it’s possible that the three wireless providers will split iPhone sales. The fallout should be interesting to watch.

Also: CNET cell phone buying guide

Here’s a quick view of what this Sprint move means.

•Verizon Wireless’ aim to improve is smartphone mix is in jeopardy. Verizon didn’t get the pop from the iPhone 4 that it expected. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone 5, which was thought to turbocharge Verizon’s smartphone growth, will arrive late. As a result, Verizon’s smartphone mix isn’t likely to be 50-50 at the end of the year as planned in January. Sprint entering the iPhone picture changes the equation. Will Sprint split iPhone 5 sales with AT&T and Verizon? After all, AT&T fended off Verizon with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS sales. In other words, Verizon’s iPhone utopia isn’t going to happen.

•AT&T gets more competition. AT&T weathered the Verizon storm well, but Sprint is likely to change the carrier dynamic. The wild card in this competition is whether AT&T can maintain a lock on low-priced iPhones such as the 3GS.

•Pricing plans will matter more. If the big three carriers have the iPhone, customers will choose the best pricing plans and data caps as a differentiator. Network quality will also matter. Verizon, Sprint and AT&T are likely to move prices lower to grab share. Customer service will also matter. Verizon and Sprint are top dogs on customer service.

•Sprint becomes much more viable. With the iPhone, Sprint can keep customers, land more family plans and lower churn rates. There are serious questions about Sprint’s 4G network plans going forward as the company rolls out its network vision, but the iPhone puts the carrier on much better footing

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Woman, 90, beats back burglars with cane...

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Mon Aug 22, 2011. A feisty 90-year-old German woman chased away three would-be burglars from her rural farmhouse with her cane, police said on Monday.

The retired farmer was moving around her house with the help of a walking frame and spotted the intruders -- two men and one woman.

She grabbed her cane and started beating the burglars with it. The trio fled the house in a town outside Muenster.

"It was quite courageous of her," a police spokeswoman said. "But on the other hand it was also quite dangerous. She was quite fortunate that nothing serious happened."

(Reporting by Kalina Oroschakoff, editing by Mike Collett-White)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Vampire arrest sparks discussion on pop culture...

Reuters By Deborah Quinn Hensel

HOUSTON(Reuters) Thu Aug 18, 2011. The arrest of an American man who broke into a woman's house and tried to suck her blood over the weekend has sparked discussion about the impact of vampire books and movies on youth culture.

Whether pop culture played a role in the attack remains to be seen, as 19-year-old Lyle Monroe Bensley awaits a psychiatric evaluation in jail on burglary charges in Galveston, Texas.

Found growling and hissing in a parking lot and wearing only boxer shorts, the pierced and tattooed Bensley claimed he was a 500-year-old vampire who needed to "feed," Galveston Police Capt. Jeff Heyse said.

Vampires have been a focal point of literature since Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula". But fascination, particularly among young people, has peaked in recent years with the popularity of the "Twilight" books about teenage vampires and the television series, "True Blood."

"I think the vampire is a metaphor for the outsider and the predator in all of us," said author Anne Rice, whose Vampire Chronicles series has captured the imaginations of horror fans since the 1970s.

"We're all conscious at times of being alone, of being alienated, of being a secret self that fears exposure to the judgments of others. So we feel like vampires," she told Reuters.

Bensley is now being held in the Galveston County Jail on a $40,000 bond for home burglary with intent to commit a felony.

The woman, who lived near Bensley and did not know him, escaped the attack unharmed, Heyse said.

Kevin Petroff, chief of the Galveston County District Attorney's office, told Reuters no defense attorney has been appointed to date, and if Bensley had hired a lawyer privately, no notice had been filed.

YOUTHFUL FOR ETERNITY

Dr. Thomas Garza, who teaches a course in vampire lore at the University of Texas, said young people might aspire to be like vampires because they cheat death and are able to stay beautiful, powerful, and youthful for eternity.

The modern vampire in popular culture is more attractive, suave, and fashionably dressed than the Old World Slavic vampires, adding to the resurgence of their appeal, he added.

"I would say that it is the Twilight saga in particular that has brought out the younger teen fans. In that connection, Edward is a very 'safe' vampire, a kind of 'starter vamp' for beginners, if you will," Garza said.

"He's pretty, yes, so the seduction's there, but he's more than reluctant to act on his and Bella's sexual desires. He can go out in daylight - and even 'sparkles' in the sun, giving him a completely non-threatening character. He drives a Volvo, for goodness sake."

While Bensley's Texas antics have captured international attention, the delusion of actually being a vampire has been a contributing factor in other criminal cases as well.

In 1996, a 16-year-old Kentucky youth obsessed with the role-playing game, "Vampire, the Masquerade," enlisted three other teenagers to go with him to Florida to help kill the parents of his former girlfriend.

Two years later, a San Francisco man claiming to be a 2,000-year-old vampire was arrested for slashing the necks of four homeless people, one fatally. A serial killer arrested in England in 1949 allegedly drank a cup of blood from each of his six victims.

Rice has interacted with thousands of fans of her Vampire Chronicles novels, but said such intense personal identification with vampires was "quite beyond me."

"My readers are romantics. They're into the poetry and the romance of vampires; they don't think they themselves are vampires," Rice said. "I have never personally met anyone in all these years who claimed to be a vampire."

(Edited by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Mother's blood test reveals baby's sex...

Reuters By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK Tue Aug 9, 2011 (Reuters Health) - Blood drawn from expectant mothers could offer parents an earlier sneak peek at their baby's sex than methods currently used in the U.S., researchers said Tuesday.

The test may be particularly valuable for families that harbor sex-linked genetic disorders like hemophilia, they add.

Because such disorders mostly strike boys, knowing that the baby is a girl could spare the mother diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, that carry a small risk of miscarriage.

"It could reduce the number of invasive procedures that are being performed for specific genetic conditions," said Dr. Diana Bianchi of Tufts University School of Medicine, who worked on the new study.

But other researchers voiced concerns, saying it could be misused to terminate a pregnancy if the baby isn't of the desired sex.

"What you have to consider is the ethics of this," said Dr. Mary Rosser, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

"If parents are using it to determine gender and then terminate the pregnancy based on that, that could be a problem," she told Reuters Health. "Remember, gender is not a disease."

The test looks for small pieces of the male sex chromosome in the mother's blood, which would mean she is carrying a baby boy. Some European hospitals already rely on the method, called cell-free fetal DNA, although it's not available from doctors in the U.S.

"What they are finding in England is that many women are not going on to have the invasive tests," Bianchi told Reuters Health.

In those procedures, doctors either extract a small amount of the fluid that surrounds the fetus (amniocentesis) or they take a sample of the placenta (chorionic villus sampling). Between one in 100 and one in 600 mothers miscarry as a result, according to Bianchi.

In a fresh look at the medical evidence for the blood test, she and her colleagues analyzed 57 earlier studies that included more than 6,500 pregnancies.

They found parents could trust the test 98.8 percent of the time when it said they'd have a boy, and 94.8 percent of the time when it indicated a girl.

That leaves some room for error, which could be important if parents are making medical decisions based on the results -- such as whether or not to get an invasive procedure to look for genetic disorders.

However, the current non-invasive alternative -- an ultrasound done at the end of the first trimester -- isn't always good at spotting a baby's sex, Bianchi's team reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

And the blood test is reliable as early as seven weeks into the pregnancy, whereas ultrasound is not.

Bianchi said one study had estimated the blood test costs about 255 pounds in the UK (about $413), all included. While it's available over the Internet, she said her team had only looked at hospital-based test performance.

"I don't know why it is not being incorporated in the US," she said.

Rosser, however, chalked that up to the ethical issues it raises.

"It is a great test that can be part of our armamentarium of noninvasive testing that we use," she said. "But it should only be used by families that are at risk for sex-linked diseases."

Bianchi said she owns stock in Verinata Health, a company that is developing cell-free fetal DNA tests for Down syndrome, although that company had no role in the new study.

The American College of Medical Genetics did not respond to requests for comment on the DNA tests.

SOURCE: bit.ly/4HWZ7 Journal of the American Medical Association, August 10, 2011.

(This story has been corrected in paragraph 3 to show said disorders mostly strike boys, not only strike boys)


Police arrest EFTPOS skimmers...

ZDNet Australia By Luke Hopewell, ZDNet.

<--Police arrest EFTPOS skimmers

August 15th, 2011. NSW Police yesterday raided homes and arrested five men in connection with an international EFTPOS-based skimming and fraud ring.

The five men aged between 25 and 45 were arrested in Sydney as part of what the police are alleging is a high-tech, international syndicate of financial fraudsters.

Police believe that the men arrested were working for the syndicate in Australia, which also has connections to Europe and the United States.

The five men are set to face Parramatta Local Court today, charged with an array of offences including conspiracy to cheat and defraud, possessing equipment to make identification documents, dealing with identification information and possession of false or misleading documents.

Police Strike Force Wigg, set up in 2008 to investigate EFTPOS skimming in the state, also executed search warrants across Sydney yesterday and discovered a bevy of electronic fraud equipment including EFTPOS terminals, PIN underlay, laptops and mobile phones. Police also seized fake travel documents, international credit cards and a sum of cash to the tune of $10,000.

Strike Force Wigg has racked up 25 arrests for EFTPOS fraud in NSW since 2008, seizing over 50 EFTPOS terminals and approximately 18,000 fake or blank transaction cards.

While the arrests are encouraging, police continued to encourage EFTPOS users to remain vigilant when using their cards.

Commander detective superintendent Colin Dyson said today that "the NSW Police Force is committed to targeting fraud-related crime and today's operation has resulted in the significantly disruption of an alleged international syndicate".

"The public are reminded, however, of the need to be vigilant when using their credit and debit cards, and when making EFTPOS transactions," Dyson added.

Dyson said several months ago at a security conference that some European criminals regard Australia as an easy target for card fraud, due to the fact that banks haven't deployed extensive chip card integration into ATMs.

"Romanian crooks have told us Australia is the laughing stock of the world because of the technology in the banks," Dyson said.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Frustrated Woods simply can't let it go, poor guy...

Reuters By Simon Evans

Tiger Woods of the U.S. wipes sand from his eyes after hitting from a sand trap on the ninth hole during the first round of the 93rd PGA Championship golf tournament at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, August 11, 2011.Credit: Reuters/Matt Sullivan

JOHNS CREEK, Georgia (Reuters) Thu Aug 11, 2011 - Tiger Woods offered a tantalizing glimpse of his old self at the PGA Championship on Thursday before the erratic play that has dogged him through the past, winless, two years returned to wreck his opening round.

"I'm not down, I'm angry right now," said a dejected Woods, a four-times PGA Championship winner who found himself down at the foot of the leaderboard alongside club professionals Mike Northern and Faber Jamerson.

After five holes, on the more challenging back nine, Woods was three under par and tied for the lead before his game unravelled to leave him with his worst first round score in a major -- a seven-over-par 77.

Birdies in glorious sunshine, warm applause from the gallery and Woods in contention for a major - for an hour it felt to those watching that the 35-year-old, whose career has been derailed by personal troubles and injuries, really was back.

Now the challenge for Woods becomes simply to play well enough on Friday to survive the cut and avoid another low point in a deeply disappointing season.

Woods, who had looked tidy and in control in ideal conditions, said that his old swing problems returned as he consciously loosened up following three birdies in the first five holes.

"Every shot I hit up to that point were all mechanical thoughts, I put the club in a certain position, and I was doing that and I said, 'You know what, I'm feeling good. Let's just let it go.' And it cost me the whole round," he said.

Before his three-month absence to resolve leg injuries, Woods, who has not won a tournament since 2009, had been working on a new swing with coach Sean Foley.

MECHANICAL PROCESS

Dealing with the mechanical process andre-adjusting so many parts of a game that once seemed to come so naturally to him clearly means that the 14-times major winner can no longer just let the shots flow.

Saying he had many elements of his technique to work on before returning for his second round, Woods was clearly frustrated that he could not lift his game for a major.

"I can't say just one (thing to work on), because it's a lot of different things," he said. "What causes the ball to shape more? It's a bunch of things. So it's just unfortunately I'm not at a point that I can let it go.

"I've been in this process before: I've been through it with (coach) Butch Harmon; I've been through it with Hank (Haney); and now I've been through it with Sean.

"I just thought, this is a major, and you peak for these events. And once you get to a major championship, you just let it fly, let it go. And I did and it cost me."

The downfall began with a double-bogey on the tricky, long par-three 15th where Woods struck his tee shot into the water hazard to the right of the green.

Another double came on the 18th and then the front nine, Woods' back nine, was a long and painful series of mistakes with four bogeys, a double-bogey on the sixth and just one birdie on the fifth to ease the pain.

It was a sorry end to his round but it was even sadder to hear Woods describe how he simply cannot do what he once produced to order.

"I'm in a major championship, it's time to score, time to play and time to let it go," he said. "And it cost me the round."

(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)


Man allegedly stole, swallowed client's ring...

Reuters

CHICAGO Wed Aug 10, 2011 (Reuters) - A Chicago-area home repairman was charged with felony theft on Tuesday after he allegedly tried to hide the evidence by gulping it down, presumably without chewing first.

Prosecutors say 30-year-old Wilfredo Gonzalez was helping remodel a home in Cicero, Illinois, last Friday when he allegedly stole a diamond ring the homeowner had left in her bathroom.

When she realized the ring was missing, the homeowner had her husband confront Gonzalez, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

The repairman at first denied taking the ring. But when the confrontation turned into a struggle, prosecutors say he pulled the ring out of the place he had hidden it and swallowed it.

Police were called and took Gonzalez to a hospital, where a stomach X-ray revealed the missing ring working its way down his gastrointestinal tract.

The officers subsequently retrieved the missing ring.

Gonzalez faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

(Reporting by James Kelleher; Editing by Xavier Briand)




Saturday, July 30, 2011

Germans brew more beer for first time since 2007...

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Thu Jul 28, 2011 - Warm weather and a strong export market in the first six months of the year have helped German brewers reverse a long decline in beer production.

The total volume of beer produced in Germany in the first half rose on an annual basis for the first time in four years, up 1.0 percent to 4.946 billion liters, government data showed Thursday.

"It's definitely down to the temperature," said Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, pointing to an unusually warm April and May that had boosted demand.

The amount of beer produced for domestic consumption in the first six months rose from the first time since the hot summer when Germany hosted the soccer World Cup in 2006, edging up by 0.2 percent.

Although the average German of legal drinking age still puts away about 120 liters of beer a year -- roughly a glass a day -- consumption has fallen in recent years as Germans turn to wine and other beverages.

However, foreigners are developing an increasing taste for German beer -- the ingredients of which have been subject to strict government regulation since the 16th century.

The volume of beer produced for export, just over a tenth of national production, grew by an annual 5.3 percent in the first six months of 2011, with a marked 13.6 percent rise in beer destined for outside the European Union.

Most German brewers are relatively small, privately owned companies, although one of the best known international brands produced in Germany, Beck's, is owned by the world's largest brewer, Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)