Did You Hear Something? Mice Can Cough, Study Finds

It may be as quiet as, well, a mouse, but mice apparently can cough, new research finds. The findings suggest the rodents could be used in research to fight coughing in humans.

Rodents make ideal lab animals because they grow quickly, reproduce in large numbers and are small enough to house easily, allowing scientists to form experiments on them en masse. Mice are often used in research to develop new medicines for people ? for instance, mice grimace when in pain, just like humans, and experiments that analyze their faces could help test out new painkillers.

It was a mystery as to whether mice can cough, since any such sounds would probably be barely audible at best. To help resolve this controversy, scientists at Guangzhou Medical College in China exposed 40 mice to fine mists of capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy. These mice were each placed in a machine known as a plethysmograph, a device that measures changes in body volume to detect when air moved in and out of the mice. The researchers also listened to mouse sounds with mini-microphones and watched the mice to monitor their body movements.

The rodents made a variety of sounds while sniffing, tapping their teeth, scratching their noses and twitching their heads. Among these sounds, the scientists identified explosive noises that coincided with the abrupt head-tossing, abdominal jerking and opened mouths one would expect with coughs. [The 10 Most Mysterious Diseases]

When given cough suppressants such as codeine, mouse coughing dropped dramatically. Capsaicin given before the experiment also helped suppress coughing during the experiments, likely by desensitizing the mice's nerves.

These findings suggest mice could be used in experiments looking for cough syrups and other medicines to fight coughing. Currently, guinea pigs are used for such tests, but they can be relatively expensive compared with smaller mice.

Recently, scientists have found that mice can sing ultrasonic melodies and rats laugh when tickled. This research adds to behavior people might not think rodents are capable of, said behavioral neurobiologist Erich Jarvis at Duke University Medical Center, who did not take part in this coughing research.

"It would be interesting to see if it's possible to get mice to voluntarily cough, and if so, what are the neural mechanisms in the brain for that," Jarvis told LiveScience. "If they can voluntarily cough, maybe the neural circuits for such coughing could be the precursors for their vocal communication circuits."

The scientists detailed their findings online March 21 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/did-hear-something-mice-cough-study-finds-134228301.html

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Phil Ramone, Grammy-winning producer, dead at 79

NEW YORK (AP) ? Phil Ramone, the masterful Grammy Award-winning engineer, arranger and producer whose platinum touch included recordings with Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon, died Saturday of complications stemming from heart surgery, his family said. He was 79.

Ramone, who lived in Wilton, Conn., had elective surgery on Feb. 27 to prevent an aortic aneurysm, son Matt Ramone said. He later developed pneumonia and died Saturday morning at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the son said.

Few in the recording industry enjoyed a more spectacular and diverse career. Phil Ramone won 14 competitive Grammy Awards and one for lifetime achievement. Worldwide sales for his projects topped 100 million. He was at ease with rock, jazz, swing and pop, working with Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, Elton John and Tony Bennett, Madonna and Lou Reed.

One of the biggest names not to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ramone was on hand for such classic albums as The Band's "The Band" and Bob Dylan's "Blood On the Tracks." He produced three records that went on to win Grammys for album of the year ? Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," Joel's "52nd Street" and Charles' "Genius Loves Company."

"I always thought of Phil Ramone as the most talented guy in my band," Joel said in a statement. "So much of my music was shaped by him and brought to fruition by him. I have lost a dear friend ? and my greatest mentor."

Fascinated by the mechanics of the studio, Ramone was a pioneer of digital recording who produced what is regarded as the first major commercial release on compact disc, "52nd Street," which came out on CD in 1982. He was even part of political history, advising presidential administrations on musical events and how to properly tape a news conference and helping to record the storied 1962 party for John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden that featured Marilyn Monroe's gushing rendition of "Happy Birthday."

He thrived whether producing music for the stereo, television, film or the stage. He won an Emmy for a TV special about Duke Ellington, a Grammy for the soundtrack to the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises" and a Grammy for the soundtrack to "Flashdance."

He had uncanny instincts and made an art out of the "Duets" concept, pairing Sinatra with U2 frontman Bono, Luther Vandross and other younger artists, Bennett with McCartney and Barbra Streisand, and Charles with Bonnie Raitt and Van Morrison. In Ramone's memoir, "Making Records," he recalled persuading a hesitant Sinatra to re-record some of his most famous songs.

"I reminded Frank that while Laurence Olivier had performed Shakespeare in his 20s, the readings he did when he was in his 60s gave them new meaning," Ramone wrote. "I spoke with conviction. 'Don't my children ? and your grandchildren ? deserve to hear the way you're interpreting your classic songs now?'"

A request from Sinatra led to another Ramone innovation: Singers performing simultaneously from separate studios.

A native of South Africa, Ramone seemed born to make music. He had learned violin by age 3 and was trained at The Juilliard School in New York. He might well have enjoyed a traditional concert career, but he was drawn as a teenager to the popular music he secretly listened to on his portable radio, the music people actually listened to, he explained.

By his mid-20s, he and partner Jack Arnold had opened a recording studio, A&R Recording, where he served as engineer for such visiting artists as Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. He also met Quincy Jones and Streisand, both of whom became longtime friends, when he was in his 20s. By the end of the 1960s, he had worked on "Midnight Cowboy" and other movie soundtracks and would credit composer John Barry with helping him become a producer.

His credits as a producer, engineer and arranger make it hard to believe they belong to just one person: Joel's "The Stranger," Simon's "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," concert albums by Dylan and the Rolling Stones, such popular singles as Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," Streisand's "Evergreen," Lesley Gore's "It's My Party," Judy Collins' "Send in the Clowns" and Stan Getz's and Astrud Gilberto's "The Girl from Ipanema."

The bearded, self-effacing Ramone was among the most famous and welcome faces within the business, yet he could walk down virtually any street unnoticed. He was not a high-strung visionary in the tradition of Phil Spector, but rather a highly accomplished craftsman and diplomat who prided himself on his low-key style, on being an "objective filter" for the artist, on not being "a screamer."

"The record producer is the music world's equivalent of a film director," he wrote in his memoir. "But, unlike a director (who is visible, and often a celebrity in his own right), the record producer toils in anonymity. We ply our craft deep into the night, behind locked doors."

Ramone's friendly style was especially welcomed by Joel. The singer-songwriter was already a popular artist in the mid-1970s, but he felt he lacked a sympathetic producer, one who appreciated Joel's bandmates as much as Joel. Ramone joined on for what became one of Joel's biggest successes, "The Stranger," released in 1977. As Joel explained at the time, Ramone fit right in with the musicians and encouraged everyone to relax and play more like they did on stage, like "rock and roll animals."

"We did songs in five takes instead of 15 or 20," Joel said. "He was one of the guys. We'd throw around ideas, kick the songs around, try them different ways and get them right. Sometimes we'd throw pizza at each other."

In a statement Saturday, Bennett said it was a joy to work with Ramone.

"Phil Ramone was a lovely person and a very gifted musician and producer," Bennett said. "He had a wonderful sense of humor and a deep love of music."

Ramone's many industry honors were returned in kind. He was chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and produced Grammy tributes for James Taylor, Brian Wilson and other artists. He was an advocate for musical education and a trustee for the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

His recent recordings included albums with Bennett, Simon, George Michael and Dionne Warwick.

"I still make records on the basis that three or four players and a singer, and the song, come together right there," he said recently for an interview on CBS.com. "It's a really strong way to work. I'm ready to work, musicians are ready to play. There's a feeling."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/phil-ramone-grammy-winning-producer-dead-79-213730199.html

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Freelancers cobble together part-time jobs to make 'portfolio careers'

By Alyssa Goldman, LearnVest

Russ Juskalian, 30, is a journalist based in Munich who has reported from Southeast Asia, above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland and from the Himalayan foothills in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

As you?d expect, he writes articles related to his travels. But, unlike most journalists, he also sells his photos, giving him a second career as a photographer.

If that weren?t enough, in his spare time, he teaches classes in science writing, international freelancing and travel writing through an online program offered by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

?My schedule varies dramatically from week to week, month to month,? he says. ?Because I have so many competing things going on ? writing, editing images, pitching, preparing for upcoming classes, grading student work ? I tend to compartmentalize my time, so that I have a series of tasks that I must get done before moving on to the next ones.?

So-called ?slashers,? like reporter/photographer/teacher?Juskalian, are part of an emerging trend known as the ?portfolio career.? And if you?re the right personality type, it can be an incredibly rewarding ? and profitable ? career move.

How portfolio careers became so big
Marci Alboher, author of ?One Person/Multiple Careers,? defines ?slashers? as individuals who?ve created a ?portfolio career? involving multiple identities. Their income comes from part-time employment, temporary work, freelance assignments or a personal business ? or they work a full-time job, while pursuing other lucrative interests.

Barrie Hopson, co-author of ?10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career,? says that this ?type of career offers a much more fulfilling work-life blend, not to mention a safety net of several jobs?so if you lose one or choose to quit a job, you?ll still have other sources of income.

During the heart of the recession, people took on portfolio careers out of necessity. So now that the job market is improving,?why is the slasher lifestyle becoming even more common.

?Increasingly, people are finding that they don?t want to do the same thing day in and day out,? Hopson says. ?The traditional, single-track career pattern of the last century (think ladder) is now more difficult to find, and if you do pursue that, you?ll almost certainly have to move between companies.?

That said, portfolio careers aren?t for everyone.

To determine if a portfolio career is right for you, consult your high school extracurricular schedule, suggests?Erin Albert, author of ?Plan C: The Full-Time Employee and Part-Time Entrepreneur.? Did you dabble in one or more activities, such as theater, music, art or sports? ??If you craved variety, then you?ll most likely crave variety now,? Albert says.

Another question to consider: If you won the lottery tomorrow, and money was no object, what would you do with your life? ?If your brain excitedly goes in 50 different directions in answer to that question, chances are that you have portfolio career potential,? Albert says.

If you think that you might be made of the right stuff, consider these questions before jumping into a portfolio career:

* Do you multitask and manage your time well?

* Do you crave flexibility and creativity?

* Are you organized?

* Are you open to new opportunities?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, this path could be the one for you.

Only one of the 46 portfolio careerists that Hopson studied have returned to a single-track career in the past two years. According to Hopson, all of the participants claimed that they were happier as slashers, which is no wonder, since most of them earned more within two years of their portfolio career than they ever did as a full-time employee.

What to do before launching a portfolio career?
Foresee and handle any conflicts of interest.?This applies to conflicts both with a specific day job and at the career level. For instance, if you stay at your full-time job, but you need more time to dedicate to other interests, have an honest conversation with your employer to come up with the best solution. Additionally, make sure that your other pursuits won?t negatively impact that?career overall.

Only one of the 46 portfolio careerists that Hopson studied have returned to a single-track.

?The good and bad news here is that you have the power to create whatever custom-designed career you want,? Albert says. ?But it does take work and an honest appraisal of what you really want.??

Have at least one consistent line of work.?Alboher notes that it?s always smart to have one or two steady jobs, so that you have a base level of income. Alboher adds that many portfolio careerists take the anchor-orbiter approach, meaning one job requires a physical presence at a certain location during a certain time (i.e. office job), while the other jobs (i.e. freelance work) ?orbit? around it.

Start a rainy day fund.?Put six months to two years of savings in your bank account to support your cost of living ? just in case.?For full-time freelancers, the recommendation is at least a year?s worth of savings. (Read more on the?seven reasons why you need an emergency fund.)?If you?d like to create your own business, Albert suggests launching it while still working your day job. Whether you decide to quit or not, saving is an absolute must?especially if you have a family. Albert explains that a person with three kids, a mortgage and a lot of bills has different (and greater) risks to consider than a recent college graduate.

Portfolio careers also have many benefits
?Anyone who has ever been pink-slipped, fired or laid off understands the importance of moving multiple careers forward and not putting all career eggs in one basket (figuratively speaking),? Albert says. ?By juggling multiple careers, one can have flexibility and adaptability, which are two key skills every employee in this post-economic downturn needs to have to succeed in the future.?

Plus, if you do choose to return to a traditional work environment, your extensive repertoire and transferable skills from your portfolio career might give you a leg up against other applicants.

Juskalian definitely seconds the flexibility and adaptability comments, not only because his income is irregular, but because his work flow is, too. Depending on what?s going on in his personal life, his schedule can swing between periods centered around friends and family to periods of almost no personal time and all traveling, writing, editing and teaching.

?I find my lifestyle very fulfilling,? he says. ?But there?s no doubt that it takes a certain mentality ? and a lot of energy ? to juggle my career.?

More from LearnVest:

8 Mistakes Not to Make on LinkedIn

The Most Surprising Childhood Expense at Every Age

Why I Chose My Spouse's Job Over Mine

8 Money Habits That Are Holding You Back

7 Top Home-Buying Mistakes People Make

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Big depositors in Cyprus to lose far more than feared

By Michele Kambas

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Big depositors in Cyprus's largest bank stand to lose far more than initially feared under a European Union rescue package to save the island from bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the terms said on Friday.

Under conditions expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros, the source told Reuters, while the rest of their deposits may never be paid back.

The toughening of the terms will send a clear signal that the bailout means the end of Cyprus as a hub for offshore finance and could accelerate economic decline on the island and bring steeper job losses.

Officials had previously spoken of a loss to big depositors of 30 to 40 percent.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday defended the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) bailout deal agreed with the EU five days ago, saying it had contained the risk of national bankruptcy.

"We have no intention of leaving the euro," the conservative leader told a conference of civil servants in the capital, Nicosia.

"In no way will we experiment with the future of our country," he said.

Cypriots, however, are angry at the price attached to the rescue - the winding down of the island's second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and an unprecedented raid on deposits over 100,000 euros.

Under the terms of the deal, the assets of Laiki bank will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus.

At Bank of Cyprus, about 22.5 percent of deposits over 100,000 euros will attract no interest, the source said. The remaining 40 percent will continue to attract interest, but will not be repaid unless the bank does well.

Those with deposits under 100,000 euros will continue to be protected under the state's deposit guarantee.

Cyprus's difficulties have sent jitters around the fragile single European currency zone, and led to the imposition of capital controls in Cyprus to prevent a run on banks by worried Cypriots and wealthy foreign depositors.

"CYPRUS EURO"

Banks reopened on Thursday after an almost two-week shutdown as Cyprus negotiated the rescue package. In the end, the reopening was largely quiet, with Cypriots queuing calmly for the 300 euros they were permitted to withdraw daily.

The imposition of capital controls has led economists to warn that a second-class "Cyprus euro" could emerge, with funds trapped on the island less valuable than euros that can be freely spent abroad.

Anastasiades said the restrictions on transactions - unprecedented in the currency bloc since euro coins and banknotes entered circulation in 2002 - would be gradually lifted. He gave no time frame but the central bank said the measures would be reviewed daily.

He hit out at banking authorities in Cyprus and Europe for pouring money into the crippled Laiki.

"How serious were those authorities that permitted the financing of a bankrupt bank to the highest possible amount?" Anastasiades said.

The president, barely a month in the job and wrestling with Cyprus's worst crisis since a 1974 war split the island in two, accused the 17-nation euro currency bloc of making "unprecedented demands that forced Cyprus to become an experiment".

European leaders have insisted the raid on big bank deposits in Cyprus is a one-off in their handling of a debt crisis that refuses to be contained.

MODEL

But policymakers are divided, and the waters were muddied a day after the deal was inked when the Dutch chair of the euro zone's finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said it could serve as a model for future crises.

Faced with a market backlash, Dijsselbloem rowed back. But on Friday, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot, a fellow Dutchman, said there was "little wrong" with his assessment.

"The content of his remarks comes down to an approach which has been on the table for a longer time in Europe," Knot was quoted as saying by Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad. "This approach will be part of the European liquidation policy."

The Cyprus rescue differs from those in other euro zone countries because bank depositors have had to take losses, although an initial plan to hit small deposits as well as big ones was abandoned and accounts under 100,000 euros were spared.

Warnings of a stampede at Cypriot banks when they reopened on Thursday proved unfounded.

For almost two weeks, Cypriots were on a ration of limited withdrawals from bank cash machines. Even with banks now open, they face a regime of strict restrictions designed to halt a flight of capital from the island.

Some economists say those restrictions will be difficult to lift. Anastasiades said the capital controls would be "gradually eased until we can return to normal".

The government initially said the controls would stay in place for seven days, but Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Thursday they could last "about a month".

On Friday, easing a ban on cheque payments, Cypriot authorities said cheques could be used to make payments to government agencies up to a limit of 5,000 euros. Anything more than 5,000 euros would require Central Bank approval.

The bank also issued a directive limiting the cash that can be taken to areas of the island beyond the "control of the Cypriot authorities" - a reference to Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus which considers itself an independent state. Cyprus residents can take 300 euros; non-residents can take 500.

Under the terms of the capital controls, Cypriots and foreigners are allowed to take up to 1,000 euros in cash when they leave the island.

(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-no-intention-leaving-euro-president-095234615--business.html

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Apple's 'Maps Ground Truth Specialists' fix Map app flubs

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 3 hrs.

Apple's Maps mess of six months ago is a distant memory for some, but not for the Cupertino company, which has worked quickly to rectify matters and improve its map app, introduced as part of its iOS 6 mobile operating system. That damage control includes hiring employees with the title of "Maps Ground Truth Specialists" around the globe to make sure Apple's maps are up to snuff.

While Apple isn't the first company to have the Orwellian-sounding position of "Maps Ground Truth Specialists" ? Google has them, too ? it's noteworthy because of Apple's map flubs, something that caused CEO Tim Cook to make a public apology.

In the United States, those flubs included initially showing the Brooklyn Bridge as almost plunging into the water and marking a Florida supermarket site as one for a hospital.

Right now, there are seven openings for "Maps Ground Truth Specialists" around the world, including one in the United States. That role, Apple says in the job description, will include:

• Testing new releases of map code and data around the U.S.
• Collecting ground truth data to allow for analysis of the impact of potential map code or data changes relative to known truth.
• Utilizing local expertise to provide feedback about U.S.-specific mapping details.
• Evaluating competing products in-region relative to our maps.

As you can see, there are jobs all over the globe, including Australia. There last fall, police were warning drivers not to use Apple Maps because it wrongly placed the city of Midura in a national park, leaving some motorists stranded and in a snake-infested area.

? Via The Verge

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, DigitalLife and InGame on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

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Gay marriage foes draw fire for linking rivals to Nazi propaganda effort (Star Tribune)

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Short OR Long posts? Which one to choose? - Blogging Tips

Many people like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse and Seth Godin had built their empire online writing small posts. Maybe they don?t do it now. But they built their multi six figure business online.

On the other hand, people like Glen Allsopp, Onibalusi, built their business online writing long posts. Sometimes they write more than 4000 words for just one post.

So which type should you write? This is all what the post is about.

So Continue Reading.

Short Posts:

Short posts are posts which are less than 500 words. Sometimes it?s 200 words.

Here are the advantages of short posts:

1- Easy to write:

The best thing about short posts is that they are easy to write. You can write multiple short posts a day or at least one. Give your readers a lot of content and then gain the benefits.

2- You go to the point directly without fluff words:

This is another thing about short posts. You can give your readers a lot of tips in just 500 words and by this way you don?t waste their time. ?And they will love your content and come for the good tips.

Disadvantages:

Most of them are ignored after short time:

As they are easy to create, they are easy to ignore. Most of the old posts on the internet are ignored. Do you ever hear about any short post written from a year.

This rarly happens.

Long Posts:

Long posts are the currency of the web nowadays. They are posts that have more than 2000+ words, sometimes 4000 words.

Whenver you go and check any of GLen Allsopp posts or Jon Morrow?s posts, You will find that they are very long and you get a lot of information from it.

Here?s why Long posts are used nowadays:

1- They offer high value:

Usually, long posts contains a lot of information. You can cover everything about one topic and make it all in one resource page that people will come to check again and again over time.

2- They attracts links, shares, traffic and most importantly more subscribers:

Another great advantage and the most important advantage of writing long posts is that they are great for attracting high quality links from big blogs. You can also get hundreds if not thousands of likes, tweets and +1s from big influencers.

All this will get you a lot of visitors. Those visitors can be subscribers who you can build relationship with and then get more money.

Did you see how it?s great to write high quality long posts.

Disadvantages:

• It needs a lot of time to prepare
• You can be bored and so you readers will.

So which one should you choose?

You should continue writing when you can continue providing great value. Giving a lot of fluff can ruin your repitition.

However, I recommend writing long posts. You can?t be noticed nowadays with small posts.

Yes, they are easy to create.

Yes, they have value that people will love.

But with over 175 million blogs nowadays, you can?t be noticed with small posts.

This is one of the new Blogging Rules that you should follow.

So I recommend you to write even one post every 2 weeks but offer high value and then kick your ass to promote it.

You may also read:?How To Create Super Engaging Blog Content.

Source: http://www.bloggingtips.com/2013/03/28/short-long-posts/

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Swiss-born WWII spy is honored with Arlington burial

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Savana Joyeuse, granddaughter of Dr. Rene Joyeuse, and other family members attend Joyeuse's burial service at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

The family of Dr. Rene Joyeuse attend his burial service at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29. In the wheelchair is Joyeuse' widow, Suzanne Joyeuse, with their son's Marc Joyeuse, and Remi Joyeuse, right.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

The remains of Dr. Rene Joyeuse, of Saranac Lake, New York, a decorated Swiss-born WWII spy, during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29.

By Chris Carola /?Associated Press?

When Dr. Rene Joyeuse's request for burial at Arlington National Cemetery was rejected, the family of the decorated Swiss-born World War II spy launched a campaign to get the decision reversed. Months later, Joyeuse is getting his wish, thanks in part to the involvement of the nation's top covert operators, including CIA Director David Petraeus.

Before resigning amid a sex scandal last November, Petraeus played a key role in convincing Pentagon officials that Joyeuse, a retired doctor from upstate New York, deserved to lie in rest among some of America's greatest military heroes, people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

"It got attention at the highest levels, very high up. That's how important he (Joyeuse) was," said Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society, whose membership includes a dwindling number of veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, the nation's World War II intelligence agency and forerunner of the CIA. ?Continue reading.

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Rogers' more reasonable unlocking policy takes effect

See where an appropriate amount of public pressure will get you? As promised, Rogers' long-due rational unlocking policy is in full effect. You can now pay $50 to have Rogers unlock a device bought on contract if it's either fully paid off or has been on the network for 90 days, making it easier to take your phone on a vacation -- or to a rival carrier, if you also pony up any relevant cancellation fees. Likewise, you won't have to make a phone call now that retail staff have resources to unlock devices in-store. We can't say that the gesture delivers more freedom than buying already unlocked hardware like the Nexus 4, but those lured into a contract by a sweet deal on an iPhone 5 or HTC One won't have to feel completely fenced in for the whole three years.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Rogers RedBoard

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/rogers-more-reasonable-unlocking-policy-takes-effect/

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Historical contingency and the futility of reductionism: Why chemistry (and biology) is not physics

Even an omniscient being like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen could not have predicted the result of life's accidents (Image: Christian Fearing Godman)

The reductionist zeitgeist of physics cannot ?explain? chemistry any more than ?entropy? explains the inexorable march of life from birth to death. It?s important to understand what we mean when we say that physics cannot explain chemistry. Physics of course accounts for chemistry in the trite sense that molecules are composed of atoms. But then physics also ?accounts for? human behavior since the brain is ultimately composed of atoms too. Yet we have no clue how to get from atoms to things like jealousy and musical creativity. When we say that A explains B, it usually means there is an unbroken and logical thread of continuity connecting A to B by way of which the properties of A are manifestly demonstrated in B. This physics cannot do even in the highly reductionist realm of chemistry, let alone in ?higher? realms like neuroscience and sociology. These days emergence has become a fashionable word that?s often thrown around to describe any kind of complexity, but the emergence of chemical and biological properties that cannot be deduced from their underlying physics is in fact quite real.

There are several reasons why the reductionist approach in science doesn?t always work, but one of the most important ones was alluded to by the physicist and writer Jeremy Bernstein in a Wall Street Journal review of a biography of George Gamow and Max Delbruck:

Some sciences are more unruly than others. Here?s a parable to illustrate what I mean. Imagine that when the first life form appeared there was a super intelligent freak. If this freak had had a complete knowledge of the laws of physics, what could it have predicted? Quite a lot. All atomic nuclei consist of neutrons and protons, and the number of protons determines each element?s chemical nature. Knowing this, the freak could have predicted all the elements that could possibly exist, along with their respective characteristics. Suppose that it also knew all the laws of biology, including the ?central dogma,? which explains how genes are expressed as proteins. Even so, it could not have predicted the existence of giraffes, nor even the fact that my brother and I share only half our genes. Both of these are evolutionary accidents. If it had not been for random mutation there would be no giraffes, and my brother and I might have shared all our genes, as male bumblebees do. Biology is not like physics.

This paragraph succinctly drills down to one of the fundamental limitations of physics-based reductionism and it?s a point that applies to chemistry as well. It?s a very important one. The problem is that reductionism cannot account for the role of historical contingency and accident. Even if an all-powerful being could account for all biological scenarios emerging from an initial state of the universe, it could never tell us why one particular scenario is preferred over others. As Bernstein says, evolutionary accidents by definition cannot be predicted from starting conditions because they depend on chance and opportunity.

In addition function can never be uniquely derived from reductionism even if structure is. For instance in his book ?Reinventing the Sacred?, the complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman makes a powerful argument that even if one could derive the structure of the human heart from string theory in principle, string theory would never tell us that its most important function is to pump blood. The function of biological organs arose as an adaptive consequence of the countless unpredictable constraints that molded them during evolution. In addition the evolution of both structure and function was a mix-and-match process that depended as much on chance encounters as on strict adaptation. All this can never be captured in a reductionist worldview.

The same principle applies to chemistry. Evolution has fashioned many unique molecules that underpin life?s machinery. The question facing many chemists and especially chemists working on the origins of life is, why this particular molecule and not that one? Here are some more specific conundrums: Why are there only twenty amino acids, why are there alpha amino acids instead of beta or gamma amino acids (which have extra carbon atoms), why is amino acid stereochemistry (molecular ?handedness?) L while sugar stereochemistry is D, why does DNA consist of a very specific set of four nucleotides and no other, why did nature choose phosphates in the construction of so many important biomolecules (the chemist Frank Westheimer comes close to answering this question), why does a given protein fold into only one unique functional structure, why is water is the only solvent known to sustain life, and in general why are the myriad small and large molecules of life what they are. In retrospect of course one could provide several arguments for the existence of these molecules based on stability, function and structure but there is no way to predict these parameters prospectively.

The fact is that an all-powerful, super-reductionist freak would have been useless in accounting for the unique existence of life?s chemical precursors. This is because there is nothing in the nature of these molecules which dictates that their presence should have been uniquely determined. For instance we now know from chemical studies that beta and gamma amino acids can also fold into the kind of helix and sheets motifs that are ubiquitous for alpha amino acids. They also have other favorable properties like chemical diversity which might have made them better building blocks compared to alpha amino acids. Yet for some reason they were discarded during evolution. Why? We could come up with several arguments. For instance because of their floppiness, maybe the higher order versions had to pay an unacceptable entropic penalty that could not compensate for their folding propensity. Or maybe a reaction called the Strecker reaction that is thought to produce alpha amino acids could never be superseded by beta amino acid-forming chemical reactions. Or perhaps alpha amino acids shield hydrophobic or water-hating side chains much better than their longer chain counterparts. These are all cogent reasons, and yet I am sure we could find an equal number of arguments against alpha amino acids if we searched hard enough. The truth is that the ultimate failure to find an explanation for the existence of alpha amino acids is a powerful reminder of the importance that chance and circumstance played in the evolution of both biomolecules as well as living organisms. Reductionism does not help us in tracing a path through this random, probabilistic landscape of evolution. The identities of life?s fundamental building blocks were shaped by chance followed by Darwinian natural selection.

This role of contingency and accident is one of the most important reasons why the reduction of chemistry and biology to physics will not work. Even if reductionism could provide us a list of all possible scenarios in chemical and biological evolution, it could never tell us which one would be preferred and for what reason. This is yet another reason why chemistry and biology are not physics.

This is a revised and updated version of a post on The Curious Wavefunction blog.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c54a3f03a4dca74b0960df8c4169ac62

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New system to restore wetlands could reduce massive floods, aid crops

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive system to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning tool, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region's historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.

Using this approach, the researchers found they could capture the runoff from 29 percent of a watershed using only 1.5 percent of the entire area.

The findings were published in Ecological Engineering, a professional journal, and a website is now available at http://wrestore.iupui.edu/ that allows users to apply the principles to their own land.

The need for new approaches to assist farmers and agencies to work together and use science-based methods is becoming critical, experts say. Massive floods and summer droughts have become more common and intense in the Midwest because of climate change and decades of land management that drains water rapidly into rivers via tile drains.

"The lands of the Midwest, which is one of the great food producing areas of the world, now bear little resemblance to their historic form, which included millions of acres of small lakes and wetlands that have now been drained," said Meghna Babbar-Sebens, an assistant professor of civil and construction engineering at Oregon State. "Agriculture, deforestation, urbanization and residential development have all played a role.

"We have to find some way to retain and slowly release water, both to use it for crops and to prevent flooding," Babbar-Sebens said. "There's a place for dams and reservoirs but they won't solve everything. With increases in runoff, what was once thought to be a 100-year flood event is now happening more often.

"Historically, wetlands in Indiana and other Midwestern states were great at intercepting large runoff events and slowing down the flows," she said. "But Indiana has lost more than 85 percent of the wetlands it had prior to European settlement."

An equally critical problem is what appears to be increasing frequency of summer drought, she said, which may offer a solid motivation for the region's farmers to become involved. The problem is not just catastrophic downstream flooding in the spring, but also the loss of water and soil moisture in the summer that can be desperately needed in dry years.

The solution to both issues, scientists say, is to "re-naturalize" the hydrology of a large section of the United States. Working toward this goal was a research team from Oregon State University, Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, the Wetlands Institute in New Jersey, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They used engineering principles, historic analysis and computer simulations to optimize the effectiveness of any land use changes, so that minimal land use alteration would offer farmers and landowners a maximum of benefits.

In the Midwest, many farmers growing corn, soybeans and other crops have placed "tiles" under their fields to rapidly drain water into streams, which dries the soil and allows for earlier planting. Unfortunately, it also concentrates pollutants, increases flooding and leaves the land drier during the summer. Without adequate rain, complete crop losses can occur.

Experts have also identified alternate ways to help, including the use of winter cover crops and grass waterways that help retain and more slowly release water. And the new computer systems can identify the best places for all of these approaches to be used.

###

Oregon State University: http://www.orst.edu

Thanks to Oregon State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127505/New_system_to_restore_wetlands_could_reduce_massive_floods__aid_crops

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John Donahoe, eBay President And CEO, To Take The Disrupt NY Stage

We're pleased to announce John Donahoe, President and CEO of eBay, as a Disrupt NY speaker. Under his tutelage, eBay and its subsidiary PayPal have grown tremendously, with both companies expecting to do $20 billion each in 2013 mobile commerce.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Oatnoz8xXl0/

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Britain loses battle over EU bank bonus caps

By Claire Davenport

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain suffered a long-expected political defeat on Wednesday when it failed to stop European Union countries waving through a cap on bankers' bonuses, an EU law that will hit London hardest.

Corporate largesse is under attack across Europe with Switzerland earlier this month voting to impose some of the world's strictest controls on executive remuneration amid public anger at Wall Street-style excess in company boardrooms.

But capping bonuses at the level of base salary represents a setback for Britain - home to the EU's largest financial centre - and, for some, underscores the country's waning influence in the EU.

Earlier this year, Chancellor George Osborne tried to change the new rules but none of his EU counterparts supported him. Britain could not veto the rules on its own.

A spokeswoman for the rotating EU presidency, currently held by Ireland, said ambassadors from member states had reached a qualified majority agreement on the rules.

The bonus caps are one element of new regulations to strengthen banks' balance sheets and prevent a repeat of the taxpayer bailouts that have fuelled public anger at the sector.

Other measures include increasing the level of capital and liquid assets held by banks and are part of the new framework to introduce internationally agreed rules known as Basel III.

Some members of the European Parliament are also seeking to extend bonus curbs to fund managers but these have not yet been agreed.

On Wednesday the cap for banker bonuses received the support of 26 EU countries - all members except Britain - at a meeting of the bloc's ambassadors.

A referendum this month in Switzerland - which is outside the European Union - voted 67.9 percent in favour of allowing shareholders to veto executive pay proposals and banning big rewards for new and departing managers.

Britain's Osborne opposes the bonus caps which he says would weaken rather than strengthen banks by forcing them to raise fixed salaries to retain staff.

While the rules are set to be introduced as early as January 2014, the provisions for bonus limits will impact payouts made only in the following year.

The rules should make it harder to make large payouts such as the bonus worth more than 17 million pounds cashed in this week by Rich Ricci, the head of Barclays' investment bank.

The strict limits have already been slightly eased by allowing bonuses of twice base salary if shareholders agree, but are nonetheless the toughest in the world. They will also apply to the staff of European banks operating outside the region.

Bankers willing to wait longer than five years for some of their payout could slightly exceed the two times salary limit.

Up to a quarter of a banker's bonus can be paid in such long-term instruments as share options, bonds or other non-cash payments which can be cashed in after five years.

The European Parliament is set to formally endorse the new rules in April.

(Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-loses-battle-over-eu-bank-bonus-caps-154142432--sector.html

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NKorean defector groups report computer attacks

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Websites and organizations run by North Korean defectors in South Korea say they have suffered cyberattacks, one week after computer systems at some South Korean banks and TV networks were widely disrupted.

Daily NK, which posts news about North Korea, says it experienced a cyperattack Tuesday, while South Korea's Yonhap news agency says that Free North Korea Radio was also attacked.

Daily NK says its site was temporarily paralyzed by a cyberattack that was routed through the United States. It says some access was restored about an hour later but the attacks were continuing.

Yonhap says a computer network used by seven local governments was also briefly attacked, as was a network belonging to broadcaster YTN.

Authorities have not confirmed who was behind last week's cyberattack but suspect North Korea.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-26-SKorea-Computer%20Crash/id-ff4939cc3b7143f6b7e6f2242d0227a9

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New 'World War Z' Trailer Still Doesn't Want To Talk Zombies

We all know what zombies are, right? They either walk or sprint — depending on your preference — and in general, they tend to feed on the flesh of the living. That's a pretty basic definition of what was at one time in the last few years the trendiest of all movie monsters. Ironically, all [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/25/world-war-z-trailer/

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Botonists find novel way plants pass traits to next generation: Inheritance behavior in corn breaks accepted rules of genetics

Mar. 26, 2013 ? New research explains how certain traits can pass down from one generation to the next -- at least in plants -- without following the accepted rules of genetics.

Scientists have shown that an enzyme in corn responsible for reading information from DNA can prompt unexpected changes in gene activity -- an example of epigenetics.

Epigenetics refers to modifications in the genome that don't directly affect DNA sequences. Though some evidence has suggested that epigenetic changes can bypass DNA's influence to carry on from one generation to the next, this is the first study to show that this epigenetic heritability can be subject to selective breeding.

Researchers bred 10 generations of corn and found that one particular gene's activity persisted from one generation to the next whether the enzyme was functioning or not -- meaning typical genetic behavior was not required for the gene's trait to come through.

And that, the scientists determined, was because the enzyme targets a tiny piece of DNA -- previously thought of as "junk DNA" -- that had jumped from one area of the genome to another, giving that little fragment power to unexpectedly turn on the gene.

The gene in question affects pigmentation in the corn plant. As a result of these experiments, the researchers were able to change yellow kernel corn to a blue kernel variety by compromising the activity of the enzyme in each male parent.

"This is the first example where somebody has been able to take an epigenetic source of variation and, through selective breeding, move it from an inactive state to an active state," said Jay Hollick, associate professor of molecular genetics at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "The gene changes its expression in an epigenetic fashion and it doesn't follow standard inheritance behaviors. Those two factors alone have pretty profound implications not only for breeding but also for evolution."

The study appears online in the journal The Plant Cell.

Plant breeders tend to expect to generate desired traits according to what is known as Mendelian principles of inheritance: Offspring receive one copy of genes from each parental plant, and the characteristics of the alleles, or alternative forms of genes, help predict which traits will show up in the next plant generation.

However, epigenetic variations that change the predictability of gene behavior have complicated those expectations.

"The breeding community searches for novel traits that will have commercial interest and they really don't care what the basis is as long as they can capture it and breed it. Epigenetic heritability throws a kink in the expectations, but our findings also provide an opportunity -- if they recognize the variation they're looking for is the result of epigenetics, they could use that to their advantage," said Hollick, also an investigator in Ohio State's centers for RNA Biology and Applied Plant Sciences.

"Just by knowing that this allele behaves in this epigenetic fashion, I can breed plants that either have full coloration or no coloration or anything in between, because I am manipulating epigenetic variation and not genetic variation. And color, of course, is only one trait that could be affected."

With a longtime specialization in the molecular basis for unexpected gene activity in plants, Hollick had zeroed in on an enzyme called RNA polymerase IV (Pol IV). Multiple types of RNA polymerases are responsible for setting gene expression in motion in all cells, and Pol IV is an enigmatic RNA polymerase that is known in plants to produce small RNA molecules.

Pol IV has puzzled scientists because despite its strong conservation in all plants, it appears to have no discernible impact on the development of Arabidopsis, a common model organism in plant biology. For example, when it is deleted from these plants, they show no signs of distress.

In corn, however, Hollick's lab had discovered previously that the absence of Pol IV creates clear problems in the plants, such as growing seeds in the tassel.

Hollick and colleagues observed that plants deficient in Pol IV also showed pigmentation in kernels of ears expected not to make any color at all -- meaning they were expected to be yellow.

"Since we knew the misplaced tassel-seed trait was due to misexpression of a gene, we hypothesized that this pigment trait might be due to a pigment regulator being expressed in a tissue where it normally is never expressed. Molecular analysis showed that that was in fact the case," Hollick said.

The researchers selected dark kernels and light kernels from multiple generations of plants and crossed the plants derived form these different kernel classes to create additional new generations of corn.

"We found that the ears developed from those plants had even more darkly colored kernels and fewer lightly colored kernels. We could segregate the extreme types and cross them together and get this continued intensification of the pigmentation over many generations," he said. "We generated more progeny that had increasing amounts of pigment. This is taking a gene that is genetically null, that doesn't have any function in this part of the plant, and turning it from a complete null to a completely dominant form that produces full coloration.

"Essentially we were breeding a novel trait, but not by selecting for any particular gene. We were just continually altering the epigenetic status of one of the two parental genomes every time."

This led the scientists to question why the affected alleles of the pigmentation gene would behave in this way. An investigation of the affected alleles revealed the nearby presence of a transposon, or transposable element: a tiny piece of DNA that has leapt from one area of the genome to another.

Because the sequence of some small RNA fragments that come from Pol IV's activity are identical to the sequence of these transposons, the finding made sense to the scientists.

"Now that we know that Pol IV is involved in regulating transposons, it's not surprising that genes that are near transposons are now regulated by Pol IV," Hollick said.

This work was supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service and the National Science Foundation.

Hollick conducted this work at the University of California, Berkeley, before he joined Ohio State's faculty. Co-authors are former Berkeley colleagues Karl Erhard Jr., Susan Parkinson, Stephen Gross, Joy-El Barbour and Jana Lim.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University.

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Journal Reference:

1. K. F. Erhard, S. E. Parkinson, S. M. Gross, J.-E. R. Barbour, J. P. Lim, J. B. Hollick. Maize RNA Polymerase IV Defines trans-Generational Epigenetic Variation. The Plant Cell, 2013; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.107680

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/bzvdDxaq0K8/130326112003.htm

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Speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates: Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Two forthcoming European Physical Journal D papers challenge established wisdom about the nature of vacuum. In one paper, Marcel Urban from the University of Paris-Sud, located in Orsay, France and his colleagues identified a quantum level mechanism for interpreting vacuum as being filled with pairs of virtual particles with fluctuating energy values. As a result, the inherent characteristics of vacuum, like the speed of light, may not be a constant after all, but fluctuate.

Meanwhile, in another study, Gerd Leuchs and Luis L. S?nchez-Soto, from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, Germany, suggest that physical constants, such as the speed of light and the so-called impedance of free space, are indications of the total number of elementary particles in nature.

Vacuum is one of the most intriguing concepts in physics. When observed at the quantum level, vacuum is not empty. It is filled with continuously appearing and disappearing particle pairs such as electron-positron or quark-antiquark pairs. These ephemeral particles are real particles, but their lifetimes are extremely short. In their study, Urban and colleagues established, for the first time, a detailed quantum mechanism that would explain the magnetisation and polarisation of the vacuum, referred to as vacuum permeability and permittivity, and the finite speed of light. This finding is relevant because it suggests the existence of a limited number of ephemeral particles per unit volume in a vacuum.

As a result, there is a theoretical possibility that the speed of light is not fixed, as conventional physics has assumed. But it could fluctuate at a level independent of the energy of each light quantum, or photon, and greater than fluctuations induced by quantum level gravity. The speed of light would be dependent on variations in the vacuum properties of space or time. The fluctuations of the photon propagation time are estimated to be on the order of 50 attoseconds per square meter of crossed vacuum, which might be testable with the help of new ultra-fast lasers.Leuchs and Sanchez-Soto, on the other hand, modelled virtual charged particle pairs as electric dipoles responsible for the polarisation of the vacuum.

They found that a specific property of vacuum called the impedance, which is crucial to determining the speed of light, depends only on the sum of the square of the electric charges of particles but not on their masses. If their idea is correct, the value of the speed of light combined with the value of vacuum impedance gives an indication of the total number of charged elementary particles existing in nature. Experimental results support this hypothesis.

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Journal References:

1. Marcel Urban, Fran?ois Couchot, Xavier Sarazin, Arache Djannati-Atai. The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30578-7
2. Gerd Leuchs, Luis L. S?nchez-Soto. A sum rule for charged elementary particles. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30577-8

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/OKTioXXFUZ8/130325111154.htm

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SpaceX capsule headed for return trip to Earth

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:58pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A Space Exploration Technologies' cargo ship parked at the International Space Station for three weeks returns to Earth on Tuesday and will ferry back experiment samples key to ongoing science research.

The Dragon spaceship, built and operated by the privately owned company known as SpaceX, is due to depart the orbital outpost at 7:06 a.m. EDT and parachute down into the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico's Baja California about 5-1/2 hours later.

A skeleton crew of three astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station will oversee Dragon's release. Three new crew members are due to launch to the orbital complex, a $100 billion project of 15 nations, on Thursday and, for the first time, arrive the same day.

The Dragon cargo ship reached the station on March 3 with more than 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of science equipment, spare parts, food and supplies. It was the second of 12 planned cargo runs for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract. A second freighter, built and operated by Orbital Sciences Corp is expected to debut this year.

The U.S. space agency hired both firms to fill the gap left by the retirement of its space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Dragon's arrival was delayed a day while SpaceX engineers grappled with a thruster pod problem that had threatened to derail the mission.

"I don't want to go through that again. That was hard-core," SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk said during a keynote speech at the popular South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.

Engineers believe the glitch was caused by a blockage in a pressurization line or a stuck valve. It was cleared and the capsule made a precision rendezvous with the station with no problems.

Dragon is due to return to Earth with 2,668 (1,210 kg) of cargo, including a freezer filled with biological samples from the crew for medical research.

While Russian, European and Japanese freighters also service the station, only the SpaceX vessel is designed to return cargo to Earth, a critical transportation link that had been lost with the retirement of the shuttles.

SpaceX is working to upgrade the Dragon capsule to fly people as well. A test flight with company astronauts is targeted for 2016.

In addition to enhancing the Dragon capsules, SpaceX is working on an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket. Last week, the rocket's new Merlin engines completed a 28th and final test run, certifying it for flight, said SpaceX spokeswoman Christina Ra.

The company plans to debut its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket on a science satellite-delivery mission for the Canadian Space Agency in June. That rocket also will be the first flight from SpaceX's new launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Five previous Falcon 9 flights have launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Dragon's return initially was scheduled for Monday, but it remained docked an extra day due to high seas in the Pacific. Splashdown now is targeted for 12:34 p.m. EDT on Tuesday about 246 miles off the coast of Baja California.

A recovery ship will retrieve the capsule and ferry it back to the Port of Los Angeles, a journey expected to take about 30 hours.

Meanwhile, Orbital Sciences Corp, which holds an eight-flight, $1.9 billion NASA contract for station resupply flights, plans to test launch its new Antares rocket as early as April 16 from the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Orbital's Cygnus cargo capsule is targeted to make a demonstration run to the space station later in the year.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/MiP1f_WXMAk/story01.htm

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Foldify updated with coloring book mode and more

Foldify by Pixle, one of the more clever recent iPad apps, has updated to version 1.2. When Foldify originally launched, you could pick one of several paper cutout forms, draw whatever you wanted onto them, print them out, and make little paper figures/toys out of them. It was and is delightful! (I made the HULK!) But...

Leanna pointed out that for people who didn't spend their childhood drawing comics or otherwise making with the art, it could be a little intimidating. She wanted templates with existing images she could color in. Well, Pixle listened, and now Foldify 1.2 includes 8 Coloring Book templates.

There are also assorted bug fixes, performance enhancements, and work around along for the ride. If you haven't tried Foldify yet, it's an amazing amount of iPad-meets-real-world fun, so check it out. If you have, grab the update now.

• $2.99 - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/jfQYjpEdsO0/story01.htm

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