Thursday, May 31, 2012

6 Fun Board Games for Preschoolers to Play with the Family ...

Board games for preschoolers are a fun way for the family to sit and play together.? Most board games for young kids are very easy to learn and play, and with bright colors and fun objectives the child can stay engaged long enough to finish a game.? One of the things that makes for a good board game for kids is an ability to have a little competition, but not so much that a preschooler cannot have a good time.? Another thing that makes for a good family board game is for a little complexity that will keep a parent willing to keep playing over and over again.

These six board games provide fun for preschoolers and parents alike due to their look, feel, and fun objectives.



Candy Land

Candy Land has been one of the most popular board games for preschoolers for decades.? The rules are as simple as it gets.? The board consists of a trail of square colors, and players take turns turning over cards that tell which space to move to.

Why This is a Good Board Game For Preschoolers: No reading is required to play Candy Land.? All they have to do it draw a card, look at the color on the card, and move to the next space with that color.? Candy Land also is a race, which in my experience has always been the easiest way to have kids show a competitive spirit.? There are also some fun characters on the game board which provide a break from the colored squares.


Chutes and Ladders

Chutes and Ladders is a board game that consists of a grid of 100 squares with slides (chutes) and ladders that help the players move quickly from one square to another. The game has a spinner with numbers 1-6 that tell how many spaces to move. If the player lands on a ladder, they get to move ahead a few spaces.? If the player lands on a chute, they have to move back a few spaces.? Each of the ladders displays a child doing something good, and each of the chutes displays a child doing something bad.? Some kids might pick up on that, other might not.

Chutes and Ladders can take a while to play, which can be frustrating, especially if no one can successfully navigate through the chutes on the last row of spaces.? But overall it is a quality game.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Chutes and Ladders uses numbers to tell the players how far to move, which helps kids learn to count.? The grid also uses a snake-like pattern when moving up the board which requires a little bit of critical thinking, especially for younger players.? It is also exciting when they get to move up a ladder, and very exciting when mom or dad has to slide down a chute.


Trouble

Trouble is a fun board game in which players race around the board to get their four pegs from Start into Home.? The catch is that if you land on another player's piece, that piece has to go back to Start.? But if someone else lands on your piece, then your piece has to go back to Start.?

There is a popper in the middle of the board with a die.? When the popper is depressed, the die pops and the player must move however many spaces shown on the die.? It is a fun alternative to simply rolling a die.

Another fun aspect of the game of Trouble is that there are alternative forms of the game.? Whether it is with the character of Cars, Star Wars, or Dinosaur Train, kids can have fun with this game with their favorite characters from TV or movies.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Trouble involves counting after pressing the popper.? Kids also learn how to read a die, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but it can be a little confusing at first.? The game involves an exciting race around the board; a race that typically comes down to the wire.? Kids also enjoy landing on a peg of their opponent.


The Ladybug Game

The Ladybug Game is a fun board game in which players race their ladybug tokens around the board while trying to accumulate cardboard aphids that allow them to pass by certain spaces.? There is a stack of cards that are drawn that direct the players on what to do.? Much like Candy Land, there is no strategy to speak of.? You simply follow the directions on the card and hope for the best.? One thing I have started doing with my child is trading certain cards for aphids.? That way there is some sort of thinking and strategy that happens.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: The Ladybug Game is bright and colorful and of course features a "fun" bug with the ladybug.? Quite a bit of counting is involved in The Ladybug Game, whether it is the spaces around the board or the aphids that must be collected.


Horton Hears a Who

The Horton Hears a Who board game is a spinoff of the popular Dr. Seuss book and movie. This is a very fun game for preschoolers for primarily one reason, the elephant mask that must be worn.? The game begins with 6 colored clovers that are hidden around the room.? The nose of the elephant mask has a piece of velcro, and the players must put on the mask, find the needed clover, and pick up the clover with the mask.? Sounds crazy?? It kind of is.? It's not the most comfortable game for adults to play, but I've never seen a kid that didn't like it.? There is an actual board game aspect of the game, but it is secondary to the finding of the clovers.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: The Horton Hears a Who board game is fun for the exact reasons you might think it is fun.? Look at the elephant mask in the picture.? This is a hard game for kids to resist.


Five Little Monkeys

The Five Little Monkeys board game is more involved than you might think at first sight, but what gets preschoolers wanting to play is the bed.? The bed is pressed down, and during play the players place their tokens on the bed.? After each turn, a red button is pushed, and after a certain amount of button presses, the bed pops up and sends some of the tokens to the ground.? It makes a loud pop and makes a big mess.? A perfect recipe for preschool board game fun.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Five Little Monkeys uses a spinner which helps with counting.? There are also small tokens that must be collected, which requires some thinking on the part of the player.? But most of all, kids like this game because of the bed.

Board games are great ways for families to spend time with their preschoolers.? A good board game for preschoolers to play with the family can lead to fun afternoons or evenings that everyone will enjoy.


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Restaurant chains joining food truck culture | Atlanta Food & Drink ...

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

How consumer-electronics makers are faring

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10 Things to Know for Wednesday

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor waits for the start of his sentencing judgement in the courtroom of the Special Court for Sierra Leone(SCSL) in Leidschendam, near The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday May 30, 2012. The SCSL found Taylor guilty last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a bloody rampage during the decade-long war that ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead. Taylor became the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II. Taylor will serve his sentence in a British prison. (AP Photo/Toussaint Kluiters, Pool)

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor waits for the start of his sentencing judgement in the courtroom of the Special Court for Sierra Leone(SCSL) in Leidschendam, near The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday May 30, 2012. The SCSL found Taylor guilty last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a bloody rampage during the decade-long war that ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead. Taylor became the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II. Taylor will serve his sentence in a British prison. (AP Photo/Toussaint Kluiters, Pool)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters after speaking at a campaign event at the Somers Furniture warehouse in Las Vegas, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

FILE - In this April 28, 2001 file photo, master flatpicker Doc Watson performs at the annual Merlefest at Wilkes Comunity College in Wilkesboro, N.C. Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his management company. He was 89. (AP Photo/Alan Marler, File)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EDT):

1. UN RIGHTS BODY WILL HOLD SESSION ON SYRIAN MASSACRE

The special session will address the killing of more than 100 in Houla, which prompted the U.S. and at least a dozen other nations to expel Syrian diplomats.

2. DONALD TRUMP AGAIN QUESTIONS OBAMA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE

The real estate mogul renews his widely debunked doubts in TV interviews, partially overshadowing Romney's primary victory in Texas that helped him secure the Republican presidential nomination.

3. FORMER LIBERIAN PRESIDENT SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS IN PRISON

The war crimes tribunal orders the prison term for Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting notorious rebels in Sierra Leone's civil war.

4. DEALS WITH BANKS PILE FEES ON COLLEGE STUDENTS

A public interest group says as many as 900 colleges are pushing students into using payment debit cards that carry hefty costs, sometimes even to get their financial aid money.

5. HEALTH CARE CREDIT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES DISAPPOINTS

The feature of Obama's health care law has been claimed by only about 170,000 businesses out of a pool of as many as 4 million. The administration is now seeking ways to make it easier for businesses to apply.

6. DEFENSE BEGINS IN CLEMENS PERJURY TRIAL

When court resumes at 9 a.m., his lawyers plan to hammer the message that hard work ? not steroids or human growth hormone ? turned Clemens into a great pitcher.

7. LABOR DEPARTMENT RELEASES CITY-BY-CITY JOBLESS NUMBERS

At 10 a.m., it releases the April unemployment rates for more than 370 metro areas.

8. OBAMA COMMENT DRAWS COMPLAINTS FROM POLAND

The White House says the president misspoke when he used the term "Polish death camp" during a Medal of Freedom ceremony. Poles said Obama should have called it a "German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland," to distinguish the perpetrators from the location.

9. BLIND GUITAR-PICKING MASTER DOC WATSON DIES AT 89

His lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century.

10. TONY PARKER SCORES 34 TO LEAD SAN ANTONIO OVER OKLAHOMA CITY

The Spurs 120-111 victory was their 20th straight, giving them a 2-0 lead in the NBA Western Conference finals.

Associated Press

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James scores 32 as Heat run past Celtics in Game 1

Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce (34) during the first half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series, Monday, May, 28, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce (34) during the first half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series, Monday, May, 28, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) shoots over Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce (34) during the first half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series, Monday, May, 28, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade (3) and Lebron James, right, defend Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce (34) during the second half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series, Monday, May, 28, 2012, in Miami. The Heat won 93-79. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's Shane Battier reacts after scoring a three point basket during the second half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series against the Boston Celtics, Monday May, 28, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's Ronny Turiaf (21) blocks a shot by Boston Celtics' Brandon Bass (30) during the second half of Game 1 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals playoffs series, Monday May, 28, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MIAMI (AP) ? Dwyane Wade grabbed a rebound, turned and fired a 90-foot pass to LeBron James to set up one of the easiest scores the Miami Heat had all night.

Yes, James and Wade are clicking ? at the perfect time.

James scored 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Wade scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and the Heat beat the Boston Celtics 93-79 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. The stars were stars, and the role players more than did their parts as well, with the Heat enjoying a 48-33 edge in rebounds, blocking 11 shots and never trailing.

"One down. And they still have an opportunity in Game 2 to accomplish what they want to," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, referring to how Boston can still grab home-court advantage by winning Game 2. "At times it was a strange game. Some good runs, both teams. We felt we could have played better and I'm sure they felt the same thing."

Shane Battier had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who wasted an early 11-point first-half lead, then gave up 35 second-quarter points before running away to break a halftime tie ? getting going with a 9-2 run early in the third, that Wade-to-James touchdown pass part of the flurry.

"We didn't play our best game," James said. "And we want to just try to continue to get better throughout the series."

Kevin Garnett had 23 points and 10 rebounds for Boston, which got 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Rajon Rondo and 12 points from Paul Pierce. Ray Allen shot just 1 for 7 from the floor for Boston, which was outscored by 10 in the first quarter and 11 in the third.

"On the road, you can't have two quarters of lulls," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Miami.

And while both sides would say there's a long way to go in this series, Game 1 winners have a decided edge in any best-of-seven series, the conference final being no exception. In the 10 most recent postseasons, teams with 1-0 leads in conference finals have advanced 15 out of 20 times.

"They're home, they're comfortable and when you're comfortable you do things like that," Garnett said, suggesting Miami was showboating at times down the stretch. "We have to show them to take them out of their comfort zone. We've got to fight a lot harder."

James had 13 points in the first quarter ? two more than the entire Celtics roster ? and Miami ran out to a 21-11 lead. Garnett made three of his four shots in the quarter, while everyone else in Boston green was 2 for 16 from the floor.

"I thought they were ready to play," Rivers said. "I'm talking about Miami. I thought we kind of joined the game."

Boston scored 35 in the second quarter, erasing what was an 11-point deficit early in the period by scoring 27 points in the final 8:46 of the half to pull into a 46-all tie. Rondo, Garnett and Pierce combined to score 23 points in the quarter, looking absolutely vintage, near-perfect offensive execution getting to Miami time and time again.

And the Celtics' comeback happened even while they got hit with three technical fouls in the second quarter, plus Ray Allen missing four first-half free throws ? matching his career-worst for an entire game.

"We may never see that again," Rivers said.

In the end, it went down as merely a one-quarter lapse for Miami.

Another technical foul, this one on Rondo, came in the third quarter, likely born from frustration as the Heat started to roll again.

With the game tied at 50, Rondo missed three shots in a 31-second span early in the third, the last of those getting blocked by Battier ? who hit a 3-pointer 11 seconds later. That's when Miami got going, and by the end of the third, the Heat lead was 72-61.

"I think we believe we can beat them," Pierce said. "It's all about making adjustments. LeBron and Wade are great players. We've got to do a better job of slowing them down. As a group we believe we can win this series."

Rondo echoed Pierce's thoughts.

"We kept fighting," Rondo said. "It wasn't pretty. We missed four or five layups, a bunch of free throws. That being said, we were tied at halftime but we just didn't come out with the right mindset in the second half."

Miami did and takes a 1-0 lead into Game 2 as its reward. But James said he knows Boston is far from done.

"I look at them as a top opponent, as a top contender and a competitive group ... a championship-caliber team," James said.

NOTES: Spoelstra is now 6-0 in Game 1s at home. ... James passed Sam Jones (2,909) for 22nd on the NBA's playoff scoring list with a layup late in the first quarter, and Garnett passed Dirk Nowitzki (1,314) for 22nd on the league's postseason rebound list. ... The Heat left the floor at halftime with a 48-46 lead, then had two points by Joel Anthony taken off after a lengthy review showed he had a basket after the shot clock expired. ... Miami F Chris Bosh did a light pregame workout, but still remains out indefinitely with a lower abdominal strain. He was on the Heat bench for the first time in Miami's last six games.

Associated Press

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Astrologers say celestial charts favor Obama over Romney (reuters)

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

GitHub branches out, releases Windows client

GitHub branches out, releases Windows client

GitHub, the version tracking and collaboration platform for developers, has proven quite popular, especially with the open source crowd. There's been one glaring issue with the dev hub, though -- lack of an easy to use Windows client. Sure, app creators could sync their changes though command line tools and SSH, but Mac devs have had a slick desktop app to call their own for sometime. Now Microsoft users get the same benefits, including the ability to merge branches and roll back changes, wrapped in pretty Metro-friendly package. You'll find more info and a download link at the source.

GitHub branches out, releases Windows client originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 May 2012 06:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Storm Chasers: Study Aims to Go Inside Tornadoes

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Breast Cancer Patient Allegedly Fired TWICE While ... - NewsOne

cancer patient fired twice over her condition Connie Robinson has been fighting breast cancer for the past three years. That battle alone is enough for one person to endure.

SEE ALSO: Magic And The HIV-Positive Girl Who Changed Him Met 20 Years Ago This Week

But, during that same period, Robinson says she has been fighting for her right to work. The Daily Mail reports that Robinson has been fired twice because of technicalities from various medical and disabilities laws that are suppose to protect people like her.

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One year after taking a job as an employment specialist in 2009, she learned that she had breast cancer. She left work to undertake chemotherapy. But, during her last week of chemo, she was let go because her employer told her she exhausted a federal leave act that allows her to be away from work for a certain number of days, according to the Daily Mail. She later received a severance package.

SEE ALSO: Key Zimmerman Witness Changes His Story [VIDEO]

?I worked even when I was sick,? Robinson said. ?And it didn?t matter. You don?t matter.?

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the American Disabilities Act (ADA) are the two federal acts that protect people with illnesses or disabilities that affect their ability to work.

Her previous employer then encouraged her to apply for a non-profit position funded by a grant. But, given Robinson?s long family history with cancer, she became ill again in the spring of 2010 and was forced into chemotherapy once more. Several months later when she regained her health and was ready to work, she learned that she had been replaced. Her job was a temporary position which is given fewer protections under FMLA and ADA than fulltime employees.

?I was blaming myself,? Robinson said in tears. ?What if I hadn?t taken the chemo??

Both ADA and FMLA gives employees a certain time frame to fight a dismissal if they feel they were discriminated against. But, because Robinson was in the middle of fighting for her life, she had neither the time nor the wherewithal to file a grievance.

But one problem with both acts, according to employment lawyer Harris Butler, is that there are not enough protections for employees. ?If the employer wants to let you go, there is not a whole lot you can do about it,? he said.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment And Opportunity Commission, not everyone with a disability can be protected by the law. A person can prove that he or she has a disability in one of three ways:

  • A person may be disabled if he or she has a physical or mental condition that substantially limits a major life activity (such as walking, talking, seeing, hearing, or learning).
  • A person may be disabled if he or she has a history of a disability (such as cancer that is in remission).
  • A person may be disabled if he is believed to have a physical or mental impairment that is not transitory (lasting or expected to last six months or less) and minor (even if he does not have such an impairment).

Dr. Susan Schaffer, Robinson?s oncologist, says that stress from a job that is unsympathetic to an employee?s medical condition can negatively affect their treatment. ?I hear case after case of patients telling me ?my work is not good and if I miss a day, they?re gonna fire me?? Schaffer said.

Right now Robinson is cancer-free! That is the good news. The bad news is that she is worried about paying her bills because she is out of work.

Let us hope that Robinson can find an employer who is supportive of her medical issues and that her cancer stays away for good.

Go to the Daily Mail for more on this story.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

Game technology vs. cancer | Learn Computer Programming

The requirements are daunting for a team of scientists at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, who are helping to work on a cure for cancer: the ability to comprehend, interpret and apply complex concepts and data in a new format; the pursuit or completion of advanced degrees; patience and a tireless work ethic, and being a video game master.

OK, that last requirement isn?t mandatory? but it couldn?t hurt.

Samuel Cho and his team use graphic processing units (GPUs) ? the same technology that makes video game images look so realistic on the screen ? to simulate how human cells work. The goal is to find new targets for tumor-killing drugs by seeing how cells live, divide and die. What they learn could have an effect on all cancers, Cho says.

The project is a marriage of biophysics and computer science, although this union is experimental. Cho, a specialist in both fields, says, ?We?re really not interested in making images. However, we?re interested in performing the simulations. So we repurpose the technology for making the video game images to instead do computer simulations.

?What we found is that the simulations we can perform are much, much faster than the way people can normally do it on a regular computer. Video gamers usually purchase relatively high-end video cards that are usually $500 or so for the latest ones. We buy them off Amazon, put them into our regular desktop computer and then write programs to run our simulations on these graphics cards instead of on a regular computer.?

Cho says the graphics cards? main function is to ?render images and get them on the screen. At a very fundamental level, what it?s doing is basically number-crunching because the location of each pixel and intensity are calculated behind the scenes on these graphics processors. That?s how those pixels are determined.?

The main character for these scientists isn?t from the Legend of Zelda or Super Mario series but rather a key RNA molecule that forms part of the human telomerase enzyme. The enzyme ?is only found in cancerous cells,? Cho says.

?The way that it works is, in a normal cell there are these things called telomeres at the end of each DNA string. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres are shortened little by little by little until they get to a certain length, and that?s when the cell knows never to divide again and then it pretty much dies.

?In a cancerous cell, the enzyme telomerase keeps on adding to ends of the DNA, so the cell doesn?t know when to die, and it keeps dividing over and over and over again. That?s basically the definition of what cancer is.?

Learning how the RNA molecule assembles itself, or ?folds,? and functions in that enzyme provides new information in researching cancer treatments. Cho says scientists ?took this very large enzyme and kept on chopping it up into little bits to see whether it would still function. What they found was that only when you cut out this particular RNA section that the function just disappears. So that?s why it?s a critical part of the enzyme.?

Graphic cards and speed

Cho says his project ? three years in the making ? is just part of a massive cancer research effort that?s aided by rapidly escalating computer science innovation.

?I?m certainly not the only one who?s using these graphics cards to do computational research,? Cho says. ?A good example would be that if you take a look at the world?s top 100 supercomputers, the United States used to have the top supercomputer in terms of raw performance. A few years ago, Japan came out with a supercomputer that was much faster than that of the United States and knocked them off the top of the charts. It was mostly because they incorporated these graphics cards into their supercomputers.

?After that, the Japanese computer was knocked off the list by a Chinese supercomputer. The main reason was that they had also used these graphics cards. Now the United States is about to release their own supercomputer. ? It seems like this is the direction that people will be going in for high-performance computing for quite some time.?

It also helps scientists that the sheer number of games consoles has helped GPUs drop in cost and grow in power: ?Five hundred dollars is not expensive when you consider that in our simulations, the speed we get is roughly 30 times? that of the average computer, Cho says. ?Imagine buying 30 computers versus buying one computer that has one graphics card. In that case, the economics seem to work out better.?

Cho says graphics cards of different levels are available at different places, including from the companies that make the cards. ?If you want a very specialized one for a computing cluster, they have servers that you would have to purchase directly from IBM? or some company that specializes in these kinds of products.

Anqi Zou, an undergraduate student who?s working on the project with Cho, says the games? widespread popularity has the general public curious about using video cards in scientific computing.

?People familiar with video games pretty much all have heard about NVIDIA, the manufacturer of the GPUs we are using, and are very surprised by this notion of using video cards on scientific computing,? he says. ?I think this concept performs as a great hook to get the audience interested in this topic.

?This technology can not only be used in understanding the movement of molecular particles and the cause of cancer and developing treatments (what we are doing now) but also be applied in countless fields such as cosmology, combustion science, financial analysis to name a few. Even as a computer science major, I was very impressed when I first knew about this technology.?

Algorithms, analyses

There can be obstacles when combining computers and science ? in this case, developing new algorithms and codes for programming on CPUs because of the complexity of calculating due to the myriad interactions involved. This emerging field makes it essential to be an expert in both biophysics and computer science, as is Cho.

In addition, the relative newness of this process makes it even more crucial that its accuracy be proven and reliable. Zou ? who analyzes and compares data outputs generated by the simulations, then documents them ? says ?my role is important because, given that using the GPUs is still very new to many scientists, people are concerned about the accuracy of the results generated from this new technology.?

Still, the use of GPUs and gaming consoles in medical research has been building momentum for several years, with no end in sight. Since 2007, Sony?s PlayStation 3 has helped researchers in the fight against Alzheimer?s, Parkinson?s and other cancers by supporting Stanford University?s Folding@home project: When a PlayStation 3 console isn?t being used for games, its processors can use spare computing cycles and join a network of machines around the world to simulate folding ? the mysterious process by which the body?s proteins assemble themselves.

Article source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/20/3247066/game-cards-help-cancer-fight.html

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Motorola reinvents the TV interface with DreamGallery concept (video)

Motorola reinvents the TV interface with DreamGallery concept (video)

Motorola is demonstrating how it expects TVs of the future will work with its DreamGallery concept. Powered by the company's Medios cloud-service, the display is designed to let you browse content as if it was the internet -- with bookmarks, personalized recommendations and interactive search tools. Its designed to work across your TV, computer, tablet and smartphone, aggregating Cable, Internet TV and VOD under a single interface that sits behind pull-tabs around the picture. If you're curious to see if this is easier to use than TiVo, head on past the break to catch your first glimpse.

Continue reading Motorola reinvents the TV interface with DreamGallery concept (video)

Motorola reinvents the TV interface with DreamGallery concept (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Can a Solar Eclipse Really Blind You?

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Hiring The Very Best Mortgage Brokers For Top Level Home ...

A number of key individuals come into play when you opt to purchase a residence. The initial person to engage is the real estate professional who?ll check the listings to discover the best home for your price. The 2nd key individual or persons you may need will be the lenders who will fund most of the property price. Bring mortgage brokers to that particular mix and you might just emerge with the ideal financing that fits your preferences.

Each significant person in the real estate transaction has an expertise to generate the entire purchase a nice experience. A broker?s expertise will assist you to select the right financing option to get your home. A mortgage loan broker has numerous associates in the financial sector, and that means you will have a wealth of alternatives in terms of lenders. But a broker?s help doesn?t start and end with just offering you with lender options.

Once your mortgage loan officer has shortlisted the businesses that could present you with financing, the next step is to inquire about your mortgage broker about the form of loans you should look at. Here are a few available: fixed-rate, adjustable-rate or negative-amortization. A mortgage broker would know which actual type of mortgage will work best to suit your needs. A fantastic broker will not just simply thrust one kind of loan on you but he?ll provide you with comprehensive information and facts that permit you to make the right choice. She or he will likely tell you the pros and cons of choosing one over the other.

As you may well know, the price tag on a four-bedroom house or even a two-bedroom loft (or whatever kind of home you?ve got your view on) along with the professional prices of your agent, legal counsel plus much more aren?t the only charges to take into account when you?ve finally made a decision to become a property owner. Your realtor should be able to explain to you on any additional charges you?ll want to pay up, expenses like relevant taxes. Plus, the property buyer is not incurred any fee for utilizing a home broker.

Lastly, the best mortgage broker will assist you to look for ways to lessen your costs. For example, shorter mortgage conditions can generate lower mortgage rates. Your broker can find lenders with quicker payment schedules and shorter amortization renewals.

Home mortgages don?t have to be a complicated wreck or wind up sinking you with big debts when you acquire the services of a broker. If you find yourself picking one, take particular curiosity about how he provides you with the info you will need. A good and reliable broker won?t only supply you with the answers you would like to hear but instead truthfully guide you towards the smartest financing solution.

A reliable mortgage broker is the one that sees what you really need at the best price you can afford. Halifax mortgage brokers are trustworthy brokers you can get to help you acquire your dreamhouse. Discover other tips on home financing at Securing Amazing Real Estate Sydney.

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Ex-NBA star, Olympian Bob Boozer dies at 75

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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Exclusive: Did White House "spin" tip a covert op?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House efforts to soft-pedal the danger from a new "underwear bomb" plot emanating from Yemen may have inadvertently broken the news they needed most to contain.

At about 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 7, just before the evening newscasts, John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top White House adviser on counter-terrorism, held a small, private teleconference to brief former counter-terrorism advisers who have become frequent commentators on TV news shows.

According to five people familiar with the call, Brennan stressed that the plot was never a threat to the U.S. public or air safety because Washington had "inside control" over it.

Brennan's comment appears unintentionally to have helped lead to disclosure of the secret at the heart of a joint U.S.-British-Saudi undercover counter-terrorism operation.

A few minutes after Brennan's teleconference, on ABC's World News Tonight, Richard Clarke, former chief of counter-terrorism in the Clinton White House and a participant on the Brennan call, said the underwear bomb plot "never came close because they had insider information, insider control."

A few hours later, Clarke, who is a regular consultant to the network, concluded on ABC's Nightline that there was a Western spy or double-agent in on the plot: "The U.S. government is saying it never came close because they had insider information, insider control, which implies that they had somebody on the inside who wasn't going to let it happen."

DOUBLE AGENT

The next day's headlines were filled with news of a U.S. spy planted inside Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who had acquired the latest, non-metallic model of the underwear bomb and handed it over to U.S. authorities.

At stake was an operation that could not have been more sensitive ? the successful penetration by Western spies of AQAP, al Qaeda's most creative and lethal affiliate. As a result of leaks, the undercover operation had to be shut down.

The initial story of the foiling of an underwear-bomb plot was broken by the Associated Press.

According to National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, due to its sensitivity, the AP initially agreed to a White House request to delay publication of the story for several days.

But according to three government officials, a final deal on timing of publication fell apart over the AP's insistence that no U.S. official would respond to the story for one clear hour after its release.

When the administration rejected that demand as "untenable," two officials said, the AP said it was going public with the story. At that point, Brennan was immediately called out of a meeting to take charge of damage control.

Relevant agencies were instructed to prepare public statements and urged to notify Congressional oversight panels. Brennan then started the teleconference with potential TV commentators.

White House officials and others on the call insist that Brennan disclosed no classified information during that conference call and chose his words carefully to avoid doing so.

The AP denies any quid pro quo was requested by them or rejected by the White House. "At no point did AP offer or propose a deal with regard to this story," said AP spokesman Paul Colford.

As for his appearance on ABC, Richard Clarke acknowledges he made a logical "leap" when he said that "inside control" meant "there was human inside control rather than anything else I could imagine." But he adds that over the course of a week, ABC "took extraordinary measures ... to make sure" that nothing it was planning to broadcast would damage ongoing counter-terrorism operations.

PREMATURE SHUTDOWN

As a result of the news leaks, however, U.S. and allied officials told Reuters that they were forced to end an operation which they hoped could have continued for weeks or longer.

Several days after the first leaks, counter-terrorism sources confirmed to Reuters that a central role in the operation had been played by MI-5 and MI-6, Britain's ultra-secretive domestic and foreign intelligence services, whose relationship with their American counterparts has been periodically strained by concern about leaks.

These sources acknowledged that British authorities were deeply distressed that anything at all had leaked out about the operation.

The White House places the blame squarely on AP, calling the claim that Brennan contributed to a leak "ridiculous."

"It is well known that we use a range of intelligence capabilities to penetrate and monitor terrorist groups," according to an official statement from the White House national security staff.

"None of these sources or methods was disclosed by this statement. The egregious leak here was to the Associated Press. The White House fought to prevent this information from being reported and ultimately worked to delay its publication for operational security reasons. No one is more upset than us about this disclosure, and we support efforts to prevent leaks like this which harm our national security," the statement said.

The original AP story, however, made no mention of an undercover informant or allied "control" over the operation, indicating only that the fate of the would-be suicide bomber was unknown.

The White House may ultimately have to explain its handling of the case both to Congressional oversight committees and to leak investigations the administration itself has launched.

The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Representative Mike Rogers, announced a "preliminary review" of leaks about the operation.

Two leak investigations have been opened by the executive branch as well, one by the Director of National Intelligence and one by the FBI.

On Wednesday, FBI director Robert Mueller, appearing before the Senate Judiciary committee, promised the bureau would "investigate thoroughly."

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Warren Strobel and Jim Loney)

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En route to a quantum computer

En route to a quantum computer [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Angelika Kuehnle
kuehnle@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-23930
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Volkswagen Foundation gives 550,000 support to material sciences project being conducted under the aegis of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

The Volkswagen Foundation is financing a materials science project being conducted jointly by the universities in Mainz and Osnabrck in collaboration with the Jlich Research Center. The support is to be provided over a period of three years and will total 550,000. The project managers, Professor Dr. Angelika Khnle and Dr. Wolfgang Harneit of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), were notified of the grant in March 2012. This project is a continuation of a recently completed earlier project that was also financed by the Volkswagen Foundation. The overall objective of the projects is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a quantum computer on the basis of electron spins. Quantum computers are theoretically capable of far more efficient calculations than those of today's silicon-based computers. However, the necessary materials that would make quantum computers suitable for everyday use have yet to be invented.

For its experiments, the project team working under Khnle and Harneit is using special fullerenes, soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules with enclosed nitrogen atoms. The electron spin of this nitrogen atom serves as a qubit, the quantum equivalent of the classic silicon-based computer bit. To read these qubits, the scientists have to insert the fullerenes in diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers, i.e., point defects in the diamond lattice, which can be scanned optically. It was Wolfgang Harneit who originated the idea of using fullerenes as qubits and who set out the original concepts in 2002.

In the first project, the researchers confirmed that the results of quantum calculations using fullerenes could be read with the aid of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds. However, as the fullerenes failed to configure appropriately in the diamonds, it was not possible to perform coherent calculations. In the second project, the researchers plan to attach the fullerenes to carbon nanotubes and then insert these in diamonds. The resulting configuration should then make it possible to perform intelligible complex quantum calculations.

"We are working on quantum computers that are scalable because we are at the limits of silicon technology," says Angelika Khnle. "A quantum computer is a completely revolutionary type of computer and a successful implementation would have impressive capacity." The current project is entitled "Spin quantum computing based on endohedral fullerenes with integrated single-spin read-out via nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond." It will be sponsored through the Volkswagen Foundation's "Integration of Molecular Components in Functional Macroscopic Systems" program, just like its predecessor.

Angelika Khnle's research makes her an important contributor to the Molecularly Controlled Non-Equilibrium (MCNE) Cluster of Excellence at JGU, which is currently competing in the final round of Germany's Federal Excellence Initiative.

###


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?


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.


En route to a quantum computer [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Angelika Kuehnle
kuehnle@uni-mainz.de
49-613-139-23930
Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

Volkswagen Foundation gives 550,000 support to material sciences project being conducted under the aegis of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

The Volkswagen Foundation is financing a materials science project being conducted jointly by the universities in Mainz and Osnabrck in collaboration with the Jlich Research Center. The support is to be provided over a period of three years and will total 550,000. The project managers, Professor Dr. Angelika Khnle and Dr. Wolfgang Harneit of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), were notified of the grant in March 2012. This project is a continuation of a recently completed earlier project that was also financed by the Volkswagen Foundation. The overall objective of the projects is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a quantum computer on the basis of electron spins. Quantum computers are theoretically capable of far more efficient calculations than those of today's silicon-based computers. However, the necessary materials that would make quantum computers suitable for everyday use have yet to be invented.

For its experiments, the project team working under Khnle and Harneit is using special fullerenes, soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules with enclosed nitrogen atoms. The electron spin of this nitrogen atom serves as a qubit, the quantum equivalent of the classic silicon-based computer bit. To read these qubits, the scientists have to insert the fullerenes in diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers, i.e., point defects in the diamond lattice, which can be scanned optically. It was Wolfgang Harneit who originated the idea of using fullerenes as qubits and who set out the original concepts in 2002.

In the first project, the researchers confirmed that the results of quantum calculations using fullerenes could be read with the aid of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds. However, as the fullerenes failed to configure appropriately in the diamonds, it was not possible to perform coherent calculations. In the second project, the researchers plan to attach the fullerenes to carbon nanotubes and then insert these in diamonds. The resulting configuration should then make it possible to perform intelligible complex quantum calculations.

"We are working on quantum computers that are scalable because we are at the limits of silicon technology," says Angelika Khnle. "A quantum computer is a completely revolutionary type of computer and a successful implementation would have impressive capacity." The current project is entitled "Spin quantum computing based on endohedral fullerenes with integrated single-spin read-out via nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond." It will be sponsored through the Volkswagen Foundation's "Integration of Molecular Components in Functional Macroscopic Systems" program, just like its predecessor.

Angelika Khnle's research makes her an important contributor to the Molecularly Controlled Non-Equilibrium (MCNE) Cluster of Excellence at JGU, which is currently competing in the final round of Germany's Federal Excellence Initiative.

###


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

?


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


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Flavors Fluctuate With Temperature

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Chilling or heating bitter, sour, sweet and astringent solutions changed their flavor intensity in different ways. Sophie Bushwick reports.

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Does an ice-cold drink actually taste better than the same beverage at room temperature? Depends on what its taste is: a new study finds that the intensity of some flavors varies with temperature. The work is in the journal Chemosensory Perception. [Martha R. Bajec, Gary J. Pickering and Nancy DeCourville, Influence of Stimulus Temperature on Orosensory Perception and Variation with Taste Phenotype]

Researchers took solutions that tasted bitter, sour, sweet, or astringent?a flavor found in legumes and raw produce that creates a dry, puckering feel in the mouth. They either chilled the solutions to 5 degrees Celsius, the recommended temperature for keeping food cool?or heated the solutions to 35 degrees Celsius, a couple degrees below human body temperature. Volunteers then rated the tastes.

Both sour and astringent solutions tasted stronger at warm temperatures, and the intensity lasted longer than it did with chilled drinks. Bitter flavors came through best when chilled. And temperature had no effect on perception of sweetness.

For most people, temperature can enhance flavors. But for some, dubbed thermal tasters, temperature alone can be a flavor. Heating or cooling parts of the tongue creates the sensation of taste without food?a finding that?s hard to swallow.

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]


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Friday, May 18, 2012

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Mental health plan unveiled in N.S.

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