Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49201126/
us open tennis aaliyah Empire State Building shooting Republican National Convention Karlie Redd guild wars 2 adrian gonzalez
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
German parliament bans laptops; members bring a typewriter
Featured
1 day
"Game on," I whispered to no one in particular as I walked out of a New York City hotel a few days ago. Barnes & Noble's executives and mark... Read more
11 hrs.
A ban on laptops by the German parliament has given rise to a humorous, anachronistic protest by the country's Pirate Party: instead of laptops, they brought in a?typewriter.
The ban became official a week ago, when the "Council of Elders," a group of senior officials, added new rules to the parliament guidelines that specifically prohibited laptops. Their objection is ostensibly that the fans and keyboards on such devices are loud and distracting; tablets are allowed, since they generally operate silently.
A second problem is the use of social networks during state business. Young and Internet-savvy factions like the Pirate Party advocate dissemination of information using the likes of Twitter and Facebook, but the Council of Elders deems it a "parallel debate" (as rendered?by Google Translate) and therefore bans such activity.
When the ban was announced, the Pirate Party members brought out an old electric typewriter instead, drawing instant remonstration from the parliamentary president,?Klaus Schlie, who accused them of "monkey business."
Monkey business or not, the symbolic?challenge to the ban resulted in debate and permission, for now, for members?to bring laptops. The matter was reported on the German news site KN Online, and the typewriter itself was captured by Twitter user @appgra.
The larger question, that of using social networks to augment political debates during parliament time, will be discussed at a later session.
Devin Coldewey is acontributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
qnexa kingdom of heaven national enquirer whitney houston arizona republican debate arizona debate enquirer national inquirer
Do You Text From Your Computer? [Reader Poll]
Walter Glenn - View Profile
- Google Plus
- RSS
Doesn't it seem silly to respond to text messages with your phone when you're sitting in front of a computer with a real keyboard? We've showed you how you can phone-ify your computer with Google Voice. If you don't like Google Voice, you can always use something like DeskSMS, which works with Android, Chrome, Firefox, or your jailbroken iPhone.
We'd like to know:
Photos by Transfuchsian (Shutterstock).
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/X65CBIUjZnI/do-you-text-from-your-computer
bcs championship bcs national championship 2012 university of alabama national championship game bcs game lsu vs alabama college football
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Everything the NFL Replacement Refs Need To Do Their Job Right [Toolkit]
barkley beltran space ball jim mora the weeknd echoes of silence gio gonzalez san francisco fire
Romney assails Obama after US ambassador's death
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) ? Mitt Romney led a chorus of Republican criticism of the administration's foreign policy on Monday, accusing President Barack Obama of minimizing the recent killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya as a mere "bump in the road" rather than part of a chain of events that threatens American interests.
White House press secretary Jay Carney called the accusations "desperate and offensive" as Romney and his allies sought to gain political advantage in the latter stages of a political campaign that seems to be trending Obama's way.
The president did not comment on the criticism when he and first lady Michelle Obama taped an appearance on ABC's "The View" that blended the personal with the political. Asked if a Romney presidency would be a disaster, Obama said the nation can "survive a lot." He added: "The American people don't want to just survive, we want to thrive."
The back and forth on foreign policy occurred as Romney said he was shifting to a more energetic schedule of public campaign events, bidding to reverse recent erosion in battleground state polls. After days spent largely raising campaign cash ? and trying to minimize the fallout from one speech to donors last spring ? he pledged to make the case for "real and positive change."
While national polls make the race exceedingly close, Obama has gained ground on Romney in many recent surveys when potential voters are asked to compare the two rivals in their ability to fix the economy. Sluggish growth and national unemployment of 8.1 percent make the economy by far the dominant issue in the race, and the two men have focused much of their time and advertising budgets on highlighting their differences on taxes, spending and plans for job creation.
The same polls show Obama with a healthy lead over Romney when voters are asked which candidate is better equipped to handle foreign policy, and the president has not shied away from trumpeting his decision to order the secret mission by U.S. forces that killed terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout more than a year ago.
At the same time, Romney's advisers say voters are more inclined to question Obama's handling of foreign policy after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, earlier this month resulted in the death of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Not only Romney, but other Republicans, as well, challenged Obama on foreign policy on Monday.
In a conference call with reporters, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the House majority leader, said: "Israel continues to find itself on the receiving end of harsh language by the president of the White House. ... There is a somewhat continued pattern of throwing Israel under the bus when Israel stands as our closest ally."
And the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued challenges to Democratic candidates in several races to "share their view" on Obama's remarks in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" over the weekend.
In the interview itself, Obama was responding when asked if recent events in the Middle East gave him pause for supporting governments that came to power following a wave of regime changes known as the Arab Spring.
He said he has long noted that events were going to be rocky, adding that the question itself "presumes that somehow we could have stopped this wave of change."
"I think it was absolutely the right thing for us to align ourselves with democracy, universal rights. ... But I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road because ? you know, in a lot of these places ? the one organizing principle has been Islam."
He added: "There are strains of extremism, and anti-Americans, and anti-Western sentiments and you know can be tapped into by demagogues."
Romney was eager to talk about the topic, squeezing interviews with three television networks into his schedule and touching on the subject at the beginning of a rally in Pueblo, Colo.
"I can't imagine saying something like the assassination of ambassadors is a bump in the road, when you look at the entire context, the assassination, the Muslim Brotherhood president being elected in Egypt, 20,000 people killed in Syria, Iran close to becoming a nuclear nation, that these are far from being bumps in the road," he told ABC.
"They represent events that are spinning out of the kind of influence we'd like to have. We're at the mercy of events rather than shaping the events in the Middle East."
U.S. officials are investigating the deaths in Libya, which occurred when the consulate was breached.
In his appearance on "The View," the president avoided a direct answer when asked if the attack had been terrorism.
"There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action. What's clear is that, around the world, there are still a lot of threats out there," he said.
Romney intends to return to the subject of international affairs and discuss foreign aid, trade agreements and international development when he addresses the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the campaign's thinking.
Romney, like Cantor, took a slap Monday at Obama's handling of relations with Israel.
"The president doesn't have time to actually spend time with leaders of these nations, particularly Bibi Netanyahu. I find that very troubling," he said.
In a campaign setting records for television advertising, both campaigns released new commercials during the day as Obama conceded some of his own had gone too far. "You know, do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign, the mistakes that are made in areas where there is no doubt that somebody could dispute how we are presenting things ? that happens in politics," he said during the "60 Minutes" taping. The remark was not part of the broadcast, but was posted to the CBS website.
___
AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed from New York; Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Philip Elliott contributed from Washington. Espo reported from Washington.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-assails-obama-us-ambassadors-death-210833811--election.html
nfl 2012 draft st louis rams miami dolphins buffalo bills minnesota vikings pittsburgh steelers seattle seahawks
Common-law, lone-parent families on the rise, census finds | The ...
For the first time, Statistics Canada says there are more people living alone in Canada than there are couples with children. One-person households now make up 27.6 per cent of all homes, a three-fold increase since 1961 that is especially notable in Quebec.
Fewer married couples
Despite a growing population overall, the number of married couples declined outright by 132,715 over the past decade.
Lone-parent families and multiple-family households, on the other hand, were on the rise. Single parents increased by 8.0 per cent from 2006, and more of those parents were fathers ? although eight out of 10 lone parents were still mothers.
Same-sex couples were also on a steep incline, up 42.4 per cent from 2006. About half of these couples were married, while the rest were common-law. Still, same-sex couples only made up 0.8 per cent of all couples in 2011.
And for the first time, Statistics Canada zeroed in on children living in untraditional arrangements.
In Canada?s first-ever national count of foster children, the agency revealed that there were 29,590 of them under the age of 14 in 2011, with the highest predominance in Manitoba, where there is a high First Nations population. Overall, 29 per cent of the country?s foster children were younger than 5, and 30 per cent were between 5 and 9 years old.
More than 17,000 households are involved in taking care of foster children, and more than half of those households had taken in at least two kids.
The pure numbers are only a start in figuring out how best to support some of the most vulnerable children in Canada, researchers say. But now that they are armed with better data, social scientists will be better able to determine the needs of foster children.
?For 10 years, I?ve wanted to track this,? said John Dunn, a former foster child who now advocates on their behalf.
What he needs to get a full picture is more data on how much money is flowing into the household ? information that won?t come until next August.
The census-takers also found that about one in 10 children under the age of 14 lived in some sort of stepfamily.
But such families are so complex that Statistics Canada had to include several diagrams with its census documents in order to better explain where those children came from.
The nuclear family is no longer the norm in Canada. The mom-pop-and-three-kids-under-one-roof model that typified Canadian households of 50 years ago has morphed into a complex and diverse web of family ties involving living alone, re-marriage, stepchildren, empty-nesters and multiple generations sharing a home.
Statistics Canada has released the third tranche of new data from its 2011 census, this time portraying the changes in Canadian families and living arrangements over five decades.
Married couples are in a long-term decline, single parenting has risen persistently, and families have gradually shrunk. The average family was 3.9 people in 1961, when the baby boom was in full swing. Now, it?s 2.9.
?We do see more complexity and definitely more diversity in families,? said Statistics Canada demographer Anne Milan.
Living alone: For the first time, Statistics Canada says there are more people living alone in Canada than there are couples with children. One-person households now make up 27.6 per cent of all homes, a three-fold increase since 1961 that is especially notable in Quebec. Meanwhile, couples with children have continued their decline, down to 26.5 per cent of all households, from 28.5 per cent in 2006.
Just 10 years ago, couples with children under 24 years old made up 43.6 per cent of all families (not including one-person households) ? by far the most typical kind of family.? Now, parents with children make up just 39.2 per cent of families, and a rising proportion of those parents are not officially married. The number of common-law couples surged almost 14 per cent between 2006 and 2011.
For the first time in 2011, Statistics Canada also measured the number of stepfamilies in the country, showing that now one in 10 children lives in some sort of reconstituted arrangement.
?The modern family is changing, and I think it?s a wonderful thing,? said Shannon Kennedy, an Ottawa-based wedding planner who finds herself on the front lines of fluctuating living arrangements on a daily basis. ?The rules of a nuclear family just don?t apply any more.?
In 2011, the most typical family was a couple with no children, continuing a pattern spotted in 2006. Statistics Canada found that 44.5 per cent of families have no kids at home, partly reflecting the aging of the baby-boomer bulge, the leading edge of which has started turning 65.
Overall, there were 9.4 million families in Canada in 2011, a 5.5 per cent increase from 2006.
Special to Asian Connections Newspaper with permission from CBC/Radio -Canada
mac virus santorum drops out bby zimmerman website miami marlins marlins marlins
Monday, September 24, 2012
Shaun White -- VODKA KING At Black Keys Wedding
Shaun White
VODKA KING
At Black Keys Wedding
EXCLUSIVE
Shaun White was VODKA MAN at the Black Keys wedding he attended before his public intoxication arrest last weekend -- sources tell TMZ, dude had his very own vodka handle at the party ... and was drinki-ng like a fish.
As we reported, a black-eyed White was arrested early Monday in Nashville following the wedding for Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney -- after allegedly trashing his hotel room, pulling a fire alarm, running from hotel staff ... and smashing his face.
Now, sources at the wedding tell TMZ, there's a good reason White was acting so crazy -- he had been on a vodka binge the entire night, carrying around his own personal vodka bottle, taking multiple shots with anyone game to join him.
One guest told us he saw White drink between 12-15 shots.
As we reported, White has since issued a mea culpa for the incident, saying, "I want to apologize for the unwise choices I made over the weekend and for any inconvenience it caused my family, friends, business partners, the hotel and their guests."
White says, "I was celebrating a happy occasion with a ton of family and friends and got carried away."
You can say that again.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CelebrityGossipEntertainmentNewsCelebrityNewsTmzcom/~3/TAA4CHQctWc/
mike starr ufc 141 fight card gli joseph gordon levitt katy perry russell brand mark hurd new ipad 3
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Sudden cardiac death is associated with a thin placenta at birth, researchers find
ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) ? Researchers studying the origins of sudden cardiac death have found that in both men and women a thin placenta at birth was associated with sudden cardiac death. A thin placenta may result in a reduced flow of nutrients from the mother to the fetus. The authors suggest that sudden cardiac death may be initiated by impaired development of the autonomic nervous system in the womb, as a result of fetal malnutrition.
The new study, published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also found that sudden death was associated independently with poor educational attainment. However, sudden cardiac death was not associated with maternal body size, fetal size at birth, or the length of gestation.
Professor David Barker and colleagues examined sudden death within the Helsinki Birth Cohort, which consists of 6075 men and 6370 women who were born in the city during 1934-1944 and attended child welfare clinics. Detailed information was recorded on the birth records of the group including the placental weight and the length and breadth of the placental surface as well as the child's weight, head circumference, and length.
Professor Barker, of the University of Southampton, comments that 'There is currently a growing body of research that shows that coronary heart disease is associated with alterations in prenatal growth and this has led to the hypothesis that coronary heart disease originates in the womb as a consequence of fetal malnutrition. In research recently carried out by myself and colleagues, we found that coronary heart disease among men was associated with altered shape and size of the placenta.'
'Our new research published today continues the investigation of the relationship between cardiac death and development within the womb. Our new findings suggest that sudden death may be initiated by the impaired development of the autonomic nervous system in the womb, due to placental thinness. A thin placenta may result in fetal malnutrition, due to a shallow invasion of the spiral arteries in the placenta which provide nutrients and blood to the baby. There is evidence that people who experience fetal malnutrition and who are small at birth have an increased sympopathoadrenal response to acute stress, which is known to be linked to death from cardiac arrest.'
Among women, sudden death was associated with a large placental area in comparison to the baby's weight. Placenta expansion in sheep is well documented and the findings in this study suggest that the placenta attempted to compensate for a thin surface by expanding the area of the surface. Professor Barker notes that 'there is evidence that compensatory placental expansion occurs in human and that this expansion may be beneficial in some circumstances. However, if the compensation is inadequate and the fetus continues to be under nourished then the need to share its nutrients with an enlarged placenta may become a metabolic burden and the quality of fetal development may be harmed. We believe that the female foetuses in our study compensated for placental thinness by expanding the placental surface.
Professor Barker and his team also found that sudden cardiac death was strongly associated with low socio-economic status and with low education attainment. He suggests that 'poor educational results may be due to a poor cognitive ability or other issues such as the inability to concentrate or maintain attention. We suggest that the association we have found between sudden death and poor educational attainment results from impaired prenatal development of the autonomic nervous system. These findings build upon a body of research that has consistently reported associations between sudden cardiac death and low socio-economic status.'
In the study, a total of one hundred and eighty-seven men (2.7%) and forty seven women (0.7%) suffered from sudden unexplained cardiac death outside of the hospital. The rate of sudden cardiac death among men and women increased with placental thinness, with a hazard ratio of 1.47. The authors restricted their analysis to deaths that occurred outside of hospital and were certified as coronary heart disease, with men and women who had never been admitted to hospital with coronary heart disease.
Professor Barker and his team do acknowledge that there are some limitations to the study. The placental measurements were made during routing obstetric practice 70 years ago and the quality of these measurements was not routinely checked and neither were other clinical measurements, such as blood pressure. The mean placental weight in this study was also more than the median recorded in a recent series of deliveries in Europe.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oxford University Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- David JP Barker, Gail Larsen, Clive Osmond, Kent L Thornburg, Eero Kajantie, and Johan G Eriksson. The placental origins of sudden cardiac death. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1093/ije/dys116
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Chavez vs Martinez Yunel Escobar Irish Daily Star seth macfarlane justin tv justin tv Black Mesa
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Logging Sports Begin To Take Root Among Women | Idaho Travel ...
?
Orofino (photo courtesy Orofino Chamber of Commerce)
The theme was ?Logging Boots ? Our Country?s Roots,? but many of the competitors were wearing tennis shoes, the better to leap a thigh-high log, set a choker on the next log and hustle back over the top of the starting line, an even taller log peeled of bark and branches down to the creamy yellow heart of the tree.
One young man, readying himself for a chopping contest, added chain mail that fitted something like spats over his feet and shins.
All around the arena at Orofino?s signature event, it was apparent that traditional woodswork has changed. Instead of grizzled men of the woods, there were young men and women, some still in their teens, showing off the skills that earned family livings a couple of generations ago.
Printed T-shirts replaced flannel, and women were holding their own.
Tessa Pinkney, in a baseball cap, tank top and braids, said it was the University of Idaho?s logger sports club that first got her interested in lumberjack competition.
Like most beginners, she said, she started with ax-throwing because that?s the easiest, then teamed up with Luke Hendricks, 24, of St. Maries, a civil engineering major, for Jack and Jill sawing.
Now they?re doing well enough to talk about going professional, but probably not until she graduates, she said.
She joined in February 2011, and she was one of two women in the college club. Now, women make up half the 20-person team, she said. ?Having women on and them doing well gives others the confidence that they can do it, too,? Pinkney said.
Some come from outdoor-oriented majors like hers in resources, recreation and tourism. But everyone is different, she said. One is a wildlife major and another will be a physician?s assistant. Others are majoring in accounting, agriculture and fire ecology. Among the men, some are civil, mechanical or forest engineering majors.
Several of her teammates, both men and women, have worked in the past for the U.S. Forest Service, some on fire crews, one on a helitac base.
They compete against similar clubs from the University of Montana, Flathead Community College, Colorado State University and Oregon State University.
Her goal, however, is to turn professional after she graduates in about a year and a half. She shows off a chopping ax, a single-bladed steel blade that weighs 5 to 8 pounds, and her personal throwing ax, a 2-pound lightweight double-edged ax with a wooden handle shaved to fit her hands.
From the back of one of the trucks that brought 13 UI club members to Orofino, she pulls out an old cross-cut saw, a peg-and-raker, she said. The clustered four blades are the pegs and the single blade that alternates between them is the raker, designed to clean out the cut.
She and Hendricks are using a borrowed saw for Sunday?s competition, she said, a modified saw borrowed from Eric Hoberg, a UM alumnus who helps beginners.
They pay for the loan of the equipment, $5 for a one-time use and half their winnings if there are any. It?s to help offset the high cost of sharpening fees, Pinkney said. ?Fewer and fewer people know how to do it properly, so they can charge what they want.? The average seems to be about $15 a foot, or $100 for an entire saw, she said.
She?s talked to some people about learning, ?but it?s a really specific skill set. The younger generation is going to have to learn sooner or later if we?re going to maintain our saws.?
Equipment can be expensive, $400 to $600 to buy an ax head plus $20 or $30 for a handle. The modified crosscut saws can be $2,000 to $5,000.
It helps to start at the college level because the school already has equipment, she said.
Between events, the 13 UI students who came down for the show packed slab-like shavings from where the practice blocks were prepared into the back of a dump truck. They stick around afterward to help clean up and in return the organizers give them leftover blocks to use in practice.
On cue, the announcer comes on to tell the audience those are college kids over on one side cleaning up the place. ?You don?t know how much we appreciate them,? he said.
But it?s not over yet. New events are called, and the students gear up to compete and to help, especially as the five-person relay approaches.
It?s a speed event, Pinkney said, that starts with the ax throw, then the choker race, then the obstacle pole where the sawyer with a chain saw runs up a log to the end and cuts of a cookie, then runs back down. The fourth person takes a stock saw and cuts cookies up and down, and the event ends with an underhand chop, where the person stands on the block and cuts a ?V,? first on one side, then turns and cuts on the opposite side.
And may the best women and men win.
By SANDRA L. LEE
The Lewiston Tribune
Information from: Lewiston Tribune,?http://www.lmtribune.com
Source: http://www.idahotravelrecreation.com/blog/2012/09/19/logging-sports-begin-to-take-root-among-women/
derrick rose torn acl pacers undrafted free agents braveheart james harden earthquake california earthquake california
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
New 'ATM' takes old phones and gives back green
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 17-Sep-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Josh Chamot
jchamot@nsf.gov
703-292-7730
National Science Foundation
Using sophisticated artificial intelligence, kiosks evaluate unwanted tech for resale and recycling
When new cell phones or tablets enter the marketplace, yesterday's hot technology can quickly become obsolete - for some consumers. For others, the device still has value as an affordable alternative, or even as spare parts.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ecoATM of San Diego, Calif., has developed a unique, automated system that lets consumers trade in those devices for reimbursement or recycling.
Using sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) developed through two NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, ecoATM kiosks can differentiate varied consumer electronics products and determine a market value. If the value is acceptable, users have the option of receiving cash or store credit for their trade - or donating all or part of the compensation to one of several charities.
ecoATM finds second homes for three-fourths of the phones it collects, sending the remaining ones to environmentally responsible recycling channels to reclaim any rare earth elements and keep toxic components from landfills. ecoATM is certified to the eWaste environmental standards of Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO 14001.
"The basic technologies of machine vision, artificial intelligence, and robotics that we use have existed for many years, but none have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling," says ecoATM co-founder and NSF principal investigator Mark Bowles. "But we've done much more than just apply existing technology to an old problem - we developed significant innovations for each of those basic elements to make the system commercially viable."
ecoATM received its first NSF support in 2010, then received follow-on funding from Coinstar, Claremont Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank to launch the first kiosks in 2011. The company expanded to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and other areas along the east coast this month, and plans to have more than 300 kiosks deployed by the end of 2012 in shopping malls and large stores across the country.
The system began as a wooden-box prototype that required the presence of an ecoATM representative to ensure that users were being honest with their trades. While that setup proved consumers would be comfortable with the device-exchange concept, it was limited by the need for human intervention.
The first NSF SBIR grant allowed ecoATM to develop artificial intelligence and diagnostics that delivered 97.5 percent accuracy for device recognition, removing human oversight and making the system viable for broad use. A follow-on NSF SBIR grant is helping ecoATM close that final 2.5 percent accuracy gap.
According to Bowles, traditional machine vision generally relies on pattern matching, pairing a new image to a known one. Pattern matching is a binary approach that cannot handle the complexity of ecoATM's evaluation process, which includes eight separate grades based on a device's level of damage.
"We are now able to tell the difference between cracked glass on a phone, which is an inexpensive fix, versus a broken display or bleeding pixels, which is generally fatal for the device," says Bowles. "We were warned by leading machine-vision experts that solving the inspecting/grading problem-with an infinite variety of possible flaws-was an impossible problem to solve. Yet with our NSF support, we solved it through several years of research and development, trial and error, use of artificial intelligence and neural network techniques."
The company's databases are now trained with images of more than 4,000 devices, and when an identification mistake occurs, the system learns from that mistake.
When a user places their device into an ecoATM kiosk, the AI system conducts a visual inspection, identifies the device model and then robotically provides one of 23 possible connector cables for linking it to the ecoATM network (the company warns consumers to erase all personal data before recycling).
Using proprietary algorithms, the system then determines a value for the device based on the company's real-time, worldwide, pre-auction system. Within that system, a broad network of buyers have already bid in advance on the 4,000 different models in eight possible grades, so the kiosk can immediately provide compensation.
A number of robotic elements enable the kiosk to safely collect, evaluate and then store each device in a process that only takes a few minutes.
"The ecoATM project is an extremely innovative way to motivate the public with an incentive to 'do the right thing' with discarded electronics, both socially and environmentally," says Glenn Larsen, the NSF SBIR program officer overseeing the ecoATM grants. "This may change behavior from simply dumping unwanted electronics to a focus on recycling, while helping put more hi-tech devices in the hands of others that might not otherwise be able to afford or acquire them."
The company is partnered with San Diego-based D&K Engineering to help design and build the kiosks domestically, and has expanded from an original workforce of less than 10 in 2010 to a team of more than 150 employees and contractors today.
Since its founding, ecoATM has filed over 20 patents, been awarded seven patents to date, and won numerous awards. The company is currently one of three finalists for a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Inaugural Innovation Entrepreneur Award.
"ecoATM meets the required thresholds of both convenience and immediate financial incentive necessary to inspire mass consumer participation in electronics recycling," adds Bowles. "We believe we are the first system to achieve those thresholds."
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
Public release date: 17-Sep-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Josh Chamot
jchamot@nsf.gov
703-292-7730
National Science Foundation
Using sophisticated artificial intelligence, kiosks evaluate unwanted tech for resale and recycling
When new cell phones or tablets enter the marketplace, yesterday's hot technology can quickly become obsolete - for some consumers. For others, the device still has value as an affordable alternative, or even as spare parts.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ecoATM of San Diego, Calif., has developed a unique, automated system that lets consumers trade in those devices for reimbursement or recycling.
Using sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) developed through two NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, ecoATM kiosks can differentiate varied consumer electronics products and determine a market value. If the value is acceptable, users have the option of receiving cash or store credit for their trade - or donating all or part of the compensation to one of several charities.
ecoATM finds second homes for three-fourths of the phones it collects, sending the remaining ones to environmentally responsible recycling channels to reclaim any rare earth elements and keep toxic components from landfills. ecoATM is certified to the eWaste environmental standards of Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO 14001.
"The basic technologies of machine vision, artificial intelligence, and robotics that we use have existed for many years, but none have been applied to the particular problem of consumer recycling," says ecoATM co-founder and NSF principal investigator Mark Bowles. "But we've done much more than just apply existing technology to an old problem - we developed significant innovations for each of those basic elements to make the system commercially viable."
ecoATM received its first NSF support in 2010, then received follow-on funding from Coinstar, Claremont Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank to launch the first kiosks in 2011. The company expanded to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and other areas along the east coast this month, and plans to have more than 300 kiosks deployed by the end of 2012 in shopping malls and large stores across the country.
The system began as a wooden-box prototype that required the presence of an ecoATM representative to ensure that users were being honest with their trades. While that setup proved consumers would be comfortable with the device-exchange concept, it was limited by the need for human intervention.
The first NSF SBIR grant allowed ecoATM to develop artificial intelligence and diagnostics that delivered 97.5 percent accuracy for device recognition, removing human oversight and making the system viable for broad use. A follow-on NSF SBIR grant is helping ecoATM close that final 2.5 percent accuracy gap.
According to Bowles, traditional machine vision generally relies on pattern matching, pairing a new image to a known one. Pattern matching is a binary approach that cannot handle the complexity of ecoATM's evaluation process, which includes eight separate grades based on a device's level of damage.
"We are now able to tell the difference between cracked glass on a phone, which is an inexpensive fix, versus a broken display or bleeding pixels, which is generally fatal for the device," says Bowles. "We were warned by leading machine-vision experts that solving the inspecting/grading problem-with an infinite variety of possible flaws-was an impossible problem to solve. Yet with our NSF support, we solved it through several years of research and development, trial and error, use of artificial intelligence and neural network techniques."
The company's databases are now trained with images of more than 4,000 devices, and when an identification mistake occurs, the system learns from that mistake.
When a user places their device into an ecoATM kiosk, the AI system conducts a visual inspection, identifies the device model and then robotically provides one of 23 possible connector cables for linking it to the ecoATM network (the company warns consumers to erase all personal data before recycling).
Using proprietary algorithms, the system then determines a value for the device based on the company's real-time, worldwide, pre-auction system. Within that system, a broad network of buyers have already bid in advance on the 4,000 different models in eight possible grades, so the kiosk can immediately provide compensation.
A number of robotic elements enable the kiosk to safely collect, evaluate and then store each device in a process that only takes a few minutes.
"The ecoATM project is an extremely innovative way to motivate the public with an incentive to 'do the right thing' with discarded electronics, both socially and environmentally," says Glenn Larsen, the NSF SBIR program officer overseeing the ecoATM grants. "This may change behavior from simply dumping unwanted electronics to a focus on recycling, while helping put more hi-tech devices in the hands of others that might not otherwise be able to afford or acquire them."
The company is partnered with San Diego-based D&K Engineering to help design and build the kiosks domestically, and has expanded from an original workforce of less than 10 in 2010 to a team of more than 150 employees and contractors today.
Since its founding, ecoATM has filed over 20 patents, been awarded seven patents to date, and won numerous awards. The company is currently one of three finalists for a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Inaugural Innovation Entrepreneur Award.
"ecoATM meets the required thresholds of both convenience and immediate financial incentive necessary to inspire mass consumer participation in electronics recycling," adds Bowles. "We believe we are the first system to achieve those thresholds."
###
[ | E-mail | 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/2012-09/nsf-nt091412.php
lindsay lohan’s playboy cover leaked online lindsay lohan’s playboy cover leaked online va tech shooting 2011 coriolanus coriolanus v tech top model all stars
Mitt Romney's 'Clinging to Guns and Religion' Moment (Atlantic Politics Channel)
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Superbug kills 7th person at Md. NIH hospital
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) ? A deadly germ untreatable by most antibiotics has killed a seventh person at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland.
The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/OPQOYb) reported the death Friday. NIH officials told the paper that the boy from Minnesota died Sept. 7. NIH says the boy arrived at the research hospital in Bethesda in April and was being treated for complications from a bone marrow transplant when he contracted the bug.
He was the 19th patient at the hospital to contract an antibiotic-resistant strain of KPC, or Klebsiella pneumoniae. The outbreak stemmed from a single patient carrying the superbug who arrived at the hospital last summer.
The paper reported the Minnesota boy's case marked the first new infection of this superbug at NIH since January.
Associated Pressgolden globe nominations 2012 war in iraq war in iraq government shutdown iraq war over iraq war over maurice jones drew
Friday, September 14, 2012
U.S. hostage urges Netanyahu to meet al Qaeda demands
DUBAI (Reuters) - A U.S. aid worker held by al Qaeda in Pakistan for more than a year has appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help meet the demands of his captors and secure his release, a group that monitors Islamist websites said on Wednesday.
Hostage Warren Weinstein said U.S. President Barack Obama had shown no interest in his case and had failed to respond or accept al-Qaeda's demands, the SITE monitoring service said.
"Therefore, as a Jew, I am appealing to you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the head of the Jewish State of Israel, as one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf, to work with the mujahideen and to accept their demands so that I can be released and returned to my family, see my wife, my children and my grandchildren again," SITE quoted Weinstein as saying in a video released by al Qaeda.
Weinstein, who was kidnapped in the central Pakistani city of Lahore in August 2011, pleaded with Obama in a similar recording in May, saying his life was in his hands.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in December the group was responsible for Weinstein's abduction and demanded the release of all those in U.S. detention for ties to his Islamist militant group or the Taliban.
He also demanded an end to air strikes by the United States and its allies against militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia and Gaza.
(Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-hostage-urges-netanyahu-meet-al-qaeda-demands-164606151.html
concord safe and sound botticelli x factor winner footlocker julia gillard julia gillard
'Rehab with Dr. Drew' jettisons celebrity addicts
By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor
For five seasons, "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" showed the painful truths -- and occasional triumphs -- of addiction treatment through the eyes of the famous. But for season six, there's a twist: The celebrities are gone, and regular folks are in. Dr. Drew Pinsky will take on the desperate situations of eight non-celebrities and try to make them well again.
"Addiction is a disease that affects everybody; it cuts across all classes, all ethnicities," he told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie Wednesday. "It's really, to me, the medical problem of our time."
And he had a sobering reality to share: "Your probability of dying, if you need to see me (for addiction treatment), is higher than (from) the significant majority of cancers."
Pinsky was joined by Denise Mariano, whose son is one of those treated in the new season. She noted that it all went wrong for him when he became addicted to prescription painkillers.
"It's pills and pills and pills and then they go to the heroin because instead of $30 a pill, you have to pay $5 a bag, and it's pretty much the same substance," she said.
"Parents that say 'Not?my kid' -- scariest words a parent can say," said Drew. "Pills, pills, pills.... Pills are the way people get hurt today. It's the gateway, and it's a killer. It's both."
See how regular people do when taken under Dr. Drew's wing when the new season of "Rehab with Dr. Drew" airs on VH1 on Sunday.
Do you think the switch to ordinary people on "Rehab with Dr. Drew" is a good one? Let us know on Facebook!
Related content:?
More in The Clicker:
jessica simpson chris brown 911 Google Docs masterchef Dictionary.com Chicago teachers strike
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Prince William, Kate start Asia tour in Singapore
Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, view a hybrid orchid named in their honor while touring the Orchid Garden within the Singapore Botanical Gardens in Singapore, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The British royal couple are on an official three-day trip to Singapore. (AP Photo/Stephen Morrison, Pool)
Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, view a hybrid orchid named in their honor while touring the Orchid Garden within the Singapore Botanical Gardens in Singapore, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The British royal couple are on an official three-day trip to Singapore. (AP Photo/Stephen Morrison, Pool)
Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, smiles during a ceremony naming a hybrid orchid in their honor at the Orchid Garden within the Singapore Botanical Gardens in Singapore, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are on an official three-day trip to Singapore. (AP Photo/Stephen Morrison, Pool)
Prince William and his wife Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, view an orchid hybrid named after Diana, late Princess of Wales, during a tour the Orchid Garden within the Singapore Botanical Gardens in Singapore on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The British royal couple is on an official three-day trip to Singapore. (AP Photo/Stephen Morrison, Pool)
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, left, stops to talk to an honor guard member during the welcome ceremony at the Istana, or Presidential Palace, on Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012 in Singapore. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge started an official three-day trip to Singapore Tuesday. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Prince William and his wife Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, tour the Orchid Garden within the Singapore Botanical Gardens in Singapore on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. The British royal couple is on an official three-day trip to Singapore. (AP Photo/Stephen Morrison, Pool)
SINGAPORE (AP) ? Prince William and his wife Kate saw an orchid named for them and another for his late mother Princess Diana in Singapore on Tuesday, 15 years after she was to have viewed the flower herself.
Diana was due to visit the white orchid named in her honor in 1997, but was killed in a car crash two weeks earlier.
William stared at its delicate flowers, saying, "It's beautiful, it's beautiful."
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to Singapore Botanic Gardens was their first stop on a nine-day tour of the Far East and South Pacific.
Manager Alan Tan Chye Soon said he was preparing for Diana's visit when the car crash occurred.
"It was so sad that she never saw it. It is one of our favorite orchids, and most popular," he said. "It was like William and Kate are fulfilling her promise today."
The royal couple was also shown an orchid with white and purple blooms that is jointly named for them.
Kate wore a pale floral dress to the event. She was carrying an orchid bouquet when she and William greeted staff and spectators at the historic Raffles Hotel later in the day.
The couple will also visit the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu in honor of the queen's Diamond Jubilee marking her 60 years on the throne.
Associated PressKristen Stewart Rupert Sanders Photos BBC 2016 Olympics TD Bank mountain lion hanley ramirez Christian Bale visits victims
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Congress returns for short pre-election session
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2011 fie photo the U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington. Fresh off a five-week vacation, lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, for a brief pre-election session in which Congress will do what it often does best: punt its problems to the future. At issue is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the day-to-day operations of the federal government. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2011 fie photo the U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington. Fresh off a five-week vacation, lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, for a brief pre-election session in which Congress will do what it often does best: punt its problems to the future. At issue is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the day-to-day operations of the federal government. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - In this July 12, 2012, file photo Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is pursued by reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Fresh off a five-week vacation, lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, for a brief pre-election session in which Congress will do what it often does best: punt its problems to the future. At issue is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the day-to-day operations of the federal government. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - In this July 19, 2012, file phto Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Fresh off a five-week vacation, lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, for a brief pre-election session in which Congress will do what it often does best: punt its problems to the future. At issue is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the day-to-day operations of the federal government. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? When lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, they face big issues, including taxes, spending cuts and the prospect of a debilitating "fiscal cliff" in January. Yet Congress is expected to do what it often does best: punt problems to the future.
With Election Day less than two months away, their focus seems to be on the bare minimum ? preventing a government shutdown when the budget year ends Sept. 30.
Democrats controlling the Senate and their House GOP rivals also will also try to set up votes intended to score political points or paint the other side with an unflattering brush two months before the election. Their efforts are sure to be overshadowed by the presidential campaign.
Topping the agenda of substantive business is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the government's day-to-day operations. The annual appropriations process on Capitol Hill collapsed about midway through the campaign season. The stopgap measure would give the next Congress time to fashion a full-year plan. There would be no more sure way of driving Congress' approval ratings even lower than for lawmakers to stumble into a government shutdown right before the Nov. 6 vote.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hope to present the measure this week, with a House vote as early as Thursday. The measure also will ensure a steady flow of money into disaster aid accounts.
More challenging is what to do with one of the most significant pieces of leftover business, a five-year farm bill. It would overhaul crop safety net programs while funding the food stamp program that now provides assistance to more than 46 million people.
The current farm act expires at the end of September. House Republican leaders are wary of bringing the bill to the floor. It now appears that Congress will at most opt for a temporary extension of the old bill, including drought aid for livestock producers whose assistance programs expired last year.
But it's not certain lawmakers will do even that. Without a formal extension, food stamp and other nutrition programs would continue to function beyond Sept. 30. Most farmers would not be affected because the current farm bill covers 2012 crops regardless of when they are harvested.
The food and farm legislation has bedeviled House leaders because many GOP conservatives want deeper cuts to food stamps than Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the measure, are willing to go for.
In all likelihood, political votes are on tap. New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a key Democratic Party strategist, wants a procedural vote on the House Republican budget plan written by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee.
"Let 'em embrace it again," Schumer said while making the rounds at the Democratic convention last Thursday.
In the House, Republicans promise a vote Friday on a bill called the "No More Solyndras Act," which would phase out Energy Department loan guarantees for solar and wind energy companies. It's unlikely to even get a vote in the Senate.
Solyndra Inc. went bankrupt last year after receiving a loan guarantee from the Obama administration, even as some White House aides raised red flags. The California company's failure left taxpayers on the hook for $500 million.
But after a full five-day workweek, House members could be packing up and leaving the Capitol by Friday evening to return to their districts to campaign. At most, they'll return the following week. The Senate is also likely to have a shortened September schedule.
What may be most noteworthy then about the abbreviated pre-election session is not what Congress is doing but the stack of must-do work that lawmakers are leaving unfinished until a postelection lame-duck session.
Topping the list is the expiration of the full menu of President George W. Bush-era tax cuts on Dec. 31. The resulting tax increases, when combined with more than $100 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the same time, have become known as the fiscal cliff. Economists warn that unless Congress acts, the one-two austerity punch would send the fragile economy back into recession.
The automatic cuts are punishment for the inability of last year's deficit reduction "supercommittee" to strike a bargain to cut 10-year deficits by at least $1.2 trillion as promised by last summer's debt and budget pact. The Bush tax cuts were originally set to expire at the end of 2010 but were renewed two years ago. President Barack Obama promises to raise the top tax rate on upper bracket earners back to the Clinton-era level of 39.6 percent, up from 35 percent now.
Other pressing issues for the lame-duck session include averting an almost 30 percent cut in physicians' Medicare fees, the food and farm bill, passing the annual Pentagon policy bill, a Russia free trade bill and legislation to reform the Postal Service, which is now losing $25 million a day. Congressional inaction now would mean the Postal Service will default on a $5.5 billion payment into its retiree health care fund that's due at the end of the month.
Associated Pressaudacious pollen count mexico city first day of spring mexico earthquake aziz ansari aziz ansari
Friday, September 7, 2012
Report: NCAA investigating UCLA hoops recruits
LOS ANGELES (AP) - UCLA says two of its freshmen basketball recruits have not yet received final amateurism certification from the NCAA and is disputing what it calls "misleading and inaccurate public reports" regarding its incoming class.
A Scout.com report says freshmen Kyle Anderson and Tony Parker are being investigated by the NCAA for potential basketball recruiting violations.
Freshman Shabazz Muhammad has been the subject of an ongoing NCAA investigation involving alleged improper benefits he received in his recruitment from boosters of his AAU program.
The forward from Las Vegas was one of the nation's mostly highly sought-after recruits last spring when he chose UCLA over Kentucky and Duke.
"Recently, there have been misleading and inaccurate public reports regarding the initial-eligibility certification of our men's basketball team's incoming class," athletic director Dan Guerrero said in a statement Monday.
"Currently, there are two men's basketball student-athletes who have not yet received final amateurism certification from the NCAA. UCLA will not, and cannot, endanger the privacy of our student-athletes or the confidentiality of the process by providing a more specific response at this time to these reports," he said.
The report posted Sunday on Scout.com's website, which cites unspecified sources close to the situation, says the NCAA is looking into allegations of violations involving Anderson and Parker. It says sources have indicated another college basketball program turned in evidence of violations in the recruitments of Muhammad, Anderson and Parker. The report said it was unknown whether UCLA was specifically named in the alleged violations.
Muhammad didn't accompany the Bruins on their exhibition trip to China last month because of the ongoing NCAA investigation into his relationship with the AAU booster and the alleged improper acceptance of airline flights for some of his recruiting visits. The school has only said that Muhammad, his family and UCLA is working with the NCAA during the process.
Anderson and Parker were on the China trip, although Parker didn't play because of a strained left hamstring. Anderson, a forward from Jersey City, N.J., and Parker, a center from Lithonia, Ga., were among the nation's top recruits last spring.
"As a member of the NCAA, UCLA works closely with the national office to establish the facts and circumstances for a fair and thorough review for each of our incoming student-athlete's academic and amateurism records," Guerrero said.
It has been a turbulent year for UCLA's basketball program. Last month, redshirt junior center Anthony Stover was dismissed for failing to meet NCAA eligibility requirements. In February, a Sports Illustrated report suggested the program was in disarray under coach Ben Howland, with teammates fighting and some players using drugs and alcohol.
Last December, star player Reeves Nelson was kicked off the team for bad behavior and last fall senior Jerime Anderson was suspended for two games in connection with the theft of a laptop.
UCLA missed the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years after finishing last season with a 19-14 record.
weather nyc open marriage department of justice doj dept of justice weather chicago swizz beatz
Scott Gaines Named Head of Faculty for Wexford University
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, September 06, 2012 ?(PR.com)? Scott Gaines was recently named head of faculty for Wexford University, an online university that offers a variety of degree programs in health, nutrition and fitness disciplines.
Gaines, who currently served as senior vice president of the National Exercise and Sports Trainers Association (NESTA), where he oversees the development of educational programs for fitness professionals, brings nearly two decades experience in the fitness industry to this new position for the online university. In addition, Gaines is a nationwide speaker on fitness topics including biomechanics and cardiovascular program design and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member for Wexford University as well as A.T. Still University, Chapman University and Concordia University, teaching courses including Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Functional Biomechanics and Advanced Program Design for Athletes.
?I?ve had the pleasure to work with Scott at NESTA and to hear him offer the latest in fitness education across the country, so I am very pleased to announce this new appointment for the growing online Wexford University,? said John Spencer Ellis, founder of NESTA, which includes Wexford University as its higher education division. ?As head of faculty, Scott will help to advance the art of education in the always evolving fitness, health and nutrition world and to ensure that students receive a top-notch online education.?
In addition, Gaines has a master?s degree in Human Movement with an emphasis in Corrective Exercise from A. T. Still University and a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine where he was a scholar athlete in rowing. Gaines is also an experienced martial arts instructor with a third-degree black belt in the traditional Korean art of Tang Soo Do.
Wexford University offers degree programs including an associate of arts degree in Fitness Training, a bachelor of science degree in Health and Fitness, a master of science degree in Nutrition and Exercise, a master of arts in Applied Sports Psychology and a doctorate degree in Applied Sports Psychology. Registration for classes beginning in January starts on Sept. 15.
Wexford University is dedicated to providing world-class education through cutting-edge technology, offering direct application degree programs in an accelerated format with 100 percent online learning to save time and money. Programs include an associate of arts degree in Fitness Training, bachelor?s degree in Health and Fitness, master?s degree in Nutrition and Exercise as well as master?s degree and doctorate degree in Applied Sport Psychology. Wexford University is the higher education division of NESTA (National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association). For more information, please visit http://wexford.edu/.
Contact Information:
John Spencer Ellis Fitness & Personal Development
John Spencer Ellis
949-589-9166
Contact via Email
http://www.johnspencerellis.com
Click here to read the full story: Scott Gaines Named Head of Faculty for Wexford University
Press Release Distributed by PR.com
Source: http://health.rambergmedia.com/scott-gaines-named-head-of-faculty-for-wexford-university/
jet crash virginia beach petrino clayton kershaw tyler perry face transplant maundy thursday fab melo
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
NBC's 'Biggest Loser' adds teens; Michaels returns
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "The Biggest Loser" will return in January with the weight-loss show's first young teen participants and trainer Jillian Michaels back on duty.
The show's 14th season will take on a new "mission" against the national increase in childhood obesity, NBC said Tuesday. Youths between the ages of 13 and 17 will join teams trying to shed pounds and get fit.
Unlike adults competing for a $250,000 prize, the teenagers won't be subject to elimination from the show and will not be weighed for the broadcast, NBC said.
The show's producers discussed adding teens at length and are "incredibly sensitive" to safeguarding them, Michaels said.
"It's brave, it's bold and I'm sure it's going to be controversial, and we'll do the best we can to handle it in the most positive and effective way possible," the usually tough-talking fitness expert said.
The goal is to focus on the kids' health rather than their weight, Michaels said, adding, "It's about getting them on the softball team, not into a size four."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past three decades, with about 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 considered obese based on height and weight measurements.
The season's 18 contestants will be divided into six-member teams, each including at least one youngster.
Michaels, who took a break from "Biggest Loser" to pursue adoption of a daughter, will join trainers Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince in working with the young contestants, with medical staff and childhood obesity experts also involved.
The hard-driving trainer, who also has an infant son with her partner, says it remains to be seen whether motherhood will alter her overall approach toward adults who are "killing themselves" with bad health habits.
"I am a different person, motherhood changes your DNA. However, being a mom and doing this job are very different aspects of my life and personality," she said, adding, "I'm not going to make any promises."
"Biggest Loser" will return in early January, NBC said, but a debut date was not announced.
___
NBC is controlled by Comcast Corp.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbcs-biggest-loser-adds-teens-michaels-returns-125238891.html
san francisco 49ers san francisco 49ers sf 49ers joe paterno died 49ers game ravens ray lewis
Monday, September 3, 2012
Biden: Paul Ryan 'Walked Away' From Deficit Commission
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Vice President Joe Biden launched a new attack on Rep. Paul Ryan in his home state of Wisconsin today, criticizing the Republican vice presidential candidate for not admitting in his convention speech that he was a member of the bipartisan deficit commission he railed against Wednesday evening.
"What he didn't tell you is he sat on that commission," Biden said at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. "He sat on that commission, and were he and his house Republican friends that he leads, had they voted with the commission, it would have been voted on, but he voted no. He would not let it go to the floor. He walked away."
During his convention speech Wednesday, Ryan criticized the way President Obama initiated and handled the commission, but the Wisconsin congressman failed to mention his own role on it.
"[Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing," Ryan said in Tampa.
Ryan was one of eight Republicans on the 18-member commission and was among three Republicans on the panel who voted against the commission's recommendations, which failed to be adopted.
Biden also highlighted how the commission recommended $3 in spending cuts for every dollar raised in tax revenue, a proposal Romney and Ryan oppose.
"Congressman Ryan failed to mention any of that - a convenient omission I'd say," Biden said.
"I love these guys how they claim to care about the deficit," Biden said. "Ladies and gentlemen, the thing I most love at them is about how they discovered the middle class at their convention. Isn't that amazing? All of a sudden their heart was bleeding for the middle class."
Biden repeated his attack on Romney's foreign policy positions, including Romney's stances on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and touched on the number of lives lost in each of those wars.
"In Iraq, where my son served for a year, we lost 4,488 fallen angels, 32,227 wounded, over 16,000 requiring care for the rest of their lives. Romney said it was a mistake to end that war by bringing all our warriors home. In Afghanistan, we have lost 1,980 fallen angels as of yesterday, and I'm precise because every single one of those lives deserves to be recognized," Biden said.
The vice president offered a critique of Ryan's Medicare plan, saying he and Romney supported "Vouchercare" not Medicare.
Biden, who some have nicknamed " Amtrak Joe ," spoke to the Green Bay crowd at the National Railroad Museum and recounted his frequent trips on the rails between Wilmington, Del., and Washington, D.C., declaring, "I am a railroad guy."
"Whoever set this up hit a soft spot in my heart. I'm the biggest railroad guy you've ever known," Biden said. "I have traveled round trip from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, D.C., a 250-mile round trip, over 7,900 times, man. I am a railroad guy."
And Biden shared with his crowd his love for the Green Bay Packers, which started when he attended a Catholic school that was led by a group of Norbertine priests, whose abbey was based in Wisconsin.
"We always started homeroom with a prayer in Catholic school, and in our school it was the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and Vince Lombardi and it would go from there," Biden said. "We loved the Packers, man. If it wasn't your favorite team, it was your number two team."
Also Readcritics choice awards super pac dre kirkpatrick mls superdraft school cancellations bald barbie peoples choice awards
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)