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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Sky broadcasts Barcelona Grand Prix testing in 3D, we go take a look

Geeks who are into fast cars and stereoscopic displays must think that watching F1 races in 3D is the bees-knees. However, FIA, the sport's governing body, has often been resistant to new technology -- only adopting HD a few years ago. That's why when the FIA asked Sky to produce a test-broadcast of the ~~practice~~ testing laps in the run up to the Barcelona Grand Prix, the British broadcaster jumped at the chance. Naturally, BSkyB wanted to show off its technical marvel, and so invited us to come and see what it was like. Of course, like the good geeks that we are, our attention was focused on keeping Sky's chief engineer Chris Johns in a corner and needling him with questions. Curious to find out what he said (apart from "please go away," of course)? After the break is where all the cool kids are at.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/f1-3d-eyes-on/

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Online legal info free for 20 Latin American countries - ABA Journal

Photo of Tim Stanley by Tony Avelar.

Legal Rebels Update: Timothy J. Stanley

Rebel Year: 2009 (Read his profile from 2009.) Home: Los Altos, Calif.

What he?s been up to: Twenty Latin American countries?including Mexico, Colombia and Cuba?now have access to free, online legal information thanks to Timothy J. Stanley and Justia.com. Next up, the company wants Justia sites for African countries. In the 1990s Stanley created FindLaw with his wife, Stacy Stern, and technologist Martin Roscheisen. They sold it to West Group in 2001, and in 2003 Stanley launched Justia.

Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company, makes its money developing websites, blogs, Google AdWords and social media marketing for law firms. Profits help cover Justia?s free information, which includes cases, codes, regulations, dockets, court filings, legal commentary, legal summaries, social media platforms and Facebook communities.

?The best part about being a lawyer,? says Stanley, also a computer programmer who writes code, ?is knowing what to put up for free.?

What has him energized: Passionate about publishing free legal information, Stanley is also a board member of Public.Resource.org, a nonprofit that shares public domain materials. Pug dogs are another love. He owns two, Sheba and Rio, and created a pug-themed Facebook page, Hug Pugs, which as of February had more than 331,000 likes. Comparatively, the Justia Facebook page had 125,391 likes and the Justia Latinoamerica page 174,329. The different sums don?t bother Stanley, and he explains that while they used the Facebook pages to help build up Latin American Justia communities, lawyers there really use the social media platform to help each other.

Source: http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/legal_rebel_timothy_j._stanley/

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Superbug CRE may endure in patients 1 year after initial infection: Study

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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Contact: Liz Garman
egarman@apic.org
202-454-2604
Elsevier Health Sciences

Washington, DC, February 27, 2013 -- Patients who tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) took an average of 387 days following hospital discharge to be clear of the organism, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

The study was conducted in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a 700-bed university-affiliated general hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. The research team analyzed follow-up cultures from 97 CRE-positive patients who had been discharged from the medical center between January 2009 and December 2010.

The average time until cultures became negative was 387 days. At three months, 78 percent of patients remained culture positive; at six months, 65 percent remained positive; at nine months, 51 percent, and at one year 39 percent of patients remained positive, meaning they could potentially become re-infected or transmit the germ to others.

Risk factors for extended carriage included the number of hospitalization days, whether and how often the patient was re-hospitalized, and whether the patient had an active infection as opposed to colonization without signs of active disease.

This is one of the first studies to determine length of CRE duration after hospital discharge and provides vital insight into treating formerly CRE-positive patients upon readmission as to limit the spread of this virulent and often deadly pathogen.

The authors state, "Patients with multiple hospitalizations or those who were diagnosed with clinical CRE disease should be assumed to have a more extended duration of CRE coverage and should therefore be admitted under conditions of isolation and cohorting until proven to be CRE-negative. These measures will reduce the hospitalization of CRE-positive patients among the general patient population, potentially preventing the spread of CRE."

CRE are extremely difficult-to-treat, multidrug-resistant organisms that are emerging in the United States. A CRE strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae recently spread through the National Institutes of Health hospital outside Washington, DC, killing six people. Because of increased reports of these multidrug-resistant germs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently alerted clinicians about the need for additional prevention steps to prevent transmission.

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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.

Superbug CRE may endure in patients 1 year after initial infection: Study Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liz Garman
egarman@apic.org
202-454-2604
Elsevier Health Sciences

Washington, DC, February 27, 2013 -- Patients who tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) took an average of 387 days following hospital discharge to be clear of the organism, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

The study was conducted in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a 700-bed university-affiliated general hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. The research team analyzed follow-up cultures from 97 CRE-positive patients who had been discharged from the medical center between January 2009 and December 2010.

The average time until cultures became negative was 387 days. At three months, 78 percent of patients remained culture positive; at six months, 65 percent remained positive; at nine months, 51 percent, and at one year 39 percent of patients remained positive, meaning they could potentially become re-infected or transmit the germ to others.

Risk factors for extended carriage included the number of hospitalization days, whether and how often the patient was re-hospitalized, and whether the patient had an active infection as opposed to colonization without signs of active disease.

This is one of the first studies to determine length of CRE duration after hospital discharge and provides vital insight into treating formerly CRE-positive patients upon readmission as to limit the spread of this virulent and often deadly pathogen.

The authors state, "Patients with multiple hospitalizations or those who were diagnosed with clinical CRE disease should be assumed to have a more extended duration of CRE coverage and should therefore be admitted under conditions of isolation and cohorting until proven to be CRE-negative. These measures will reduce the hospitalization of CRE-positive patients among the general patient population, potentially preventing the spread of CRE."

CRE are extremely difficult-to-treat, multidrug-resistant organisms that are emerging in the United States. A CRE strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae recently spread through the National Institutes of Health hospital outside Washington, DC, killing six people. Because of increased reports of these multidrug-resistant germs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently alerted clinicians about the need for additional prevention steps to prevent transmission.

###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/ehs-scm022713.php
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Why we don't eat horse meat: It's economics

John Carney , CNBC.com ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Why do we have such an aversion to horse meat?

The discovery of traces of horse meat in food products supposedly made of beef or pork has caused a scandal in Britain and, most recently, prompted Ikea to withdraw its Swedish meatballs from stores in 21 European countries.

Related: No horse in IKEA meatballs in the US, store says

The controversy is obviously about more than the mislabeling of food. The very idea of eating horse strikes many people in Britain and the U.S. as abhorrent ? despite the fact that horse is considered a proper food item in many parts of the world.

A new study from researchers at Oxford University says the roots of the taboo on horse meat are in the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. But the real reason may be something more pedestrian: simple economics.

Although church authorities did attempt to root out the practice of eating horse in Northern Europe and the U.K. because of its perceived connection with paganism, there's no evidence that this was the decisive factor in turning popular sentiment against horse meat.

It seems far more likely that the aversion grew out of common sense home economics. Cows are just more efficient sources of food than horses.

Brian Palmer of Slate explains that in terms of caloric content, 3 ounces of cows give you more bang per pound:

A three-ounce serving of roast horse has 149 calories, 24 grams of protein, and five grams of fat. The same amount of beef tenderloin has 179 calories, 24 grams of protein, and nine grams of fat. Horse milk, which some Central Asians drink in fermented form, has one-third the fat of cow's milk.

To the contemporary eye, that may make it sound as if horse meat is healthier than beef. But that's only because we have ample sources of calories and fat available to us. For most of human history, that hasn't been true. Medieval residents of Northern Europe would have certainly appreciated the higher calorie, higher fat content of beef. Even without the scientific ways of discovering precise fat and caloric intakes, it would have been easy to notice that a serving of beef left you feeling more full than a serving of horse.

What's more, the different digestive systems of horses and cows mean that cows are more efficient eaters. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that horses eat 63 percent more than cattle. This isn't just a matter of bulk. Horses also eat more "digestible material" with actual nutritional content than cows, according to the study.

This is rooted in the differences between the digestive systems of the animals. Here's how Jessica Walling, a graduate student at Central Washington University, explains it at the Mustang Management blog:

[Cows and horses] diverged from common ancestors into two families known as Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla ? ruminant and cecal digesters. Fermentation in the cecum and the rumen is similar. However, horses are only 70% as efficient as cows at digestion. This is because cattle regurgitate and chew partially digested food as "cud," repeatedly. Food is ground into smaller particle sizes. Another reason cattle are more efficient is because the food they intake is digested by microbes before it enters the true stomach.

Given a choice between raising cows and horses for food, it makes far more sense to raise cows. To put it differently, people who preferred beef to horse meat would have been healthier, heartier and used available resources more efficiently. They would, in short, have been more prosperous and successful. Over time, the beef eaters would triumph over the horse eaters.

While early Christian leadership may have nudged some in Europe away from eating horse meat, it's very likely the more efficient culinary taste would have won out even without a papal edict.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/why-eating-horse-meat-taboo-its-economics-1C8565314

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South Dakota legislator calls MMA ?Child porn of sports,? while governor says it?s too violent

A bill to create an athletic commission in South Dakota is going nowhere fast, largely thanks to the ignorance of Gov. Dennis Daugaard and state house Rep. Steve Hickey.

Their primary objective is to ban sanctioned mixed martial arts in the state. In a blog post, Hickey writes that, "MMA Cage Fighting is the child porn of sports."

The lack of knowledge and the lack of research both Daugaard and Hickey showed about MMA has to be frightening for persons who live in South Dakota. If they can't be bothered to do the minimal research required to learn that MMA is far safer than other "mainstream" sports, including football, it's scary to think about the laws they'll pass in the state regarding education, health care and budgets.

The UFC is the largest MMA promoter in the world. No fighter has ever suffered traumatic brain injury, let alone died, in the UFC's 20-year history. A 2006 study done by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and which appeared in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found MMA has far less traumatic brain injury than other sports.

Mixed Martial Arts competitions have changed dramatically since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. The overall injury rate in MMA competitions is now similar to other combat sports, including boxing. Knockout rates are lower in MMA competitions than in boxing. This suggests a reduced risk of TBI [traumatic brain injury] in MMA competitions when compared to other events involving striking.

MMA events must continue to be properly supervised by trained referees and ringside physicians, and the rules implemented by state sanctioning?including weight classes, limited rounds per match, proper safety gear, and banning of the most devastating attacks? must be strictly enforced. Further research is necessary to continue to improve safety in this developing new sport.

A 2008 study released by the British Journal of Sports Medicine reached the same conclusions. After a five-year study, its authors wrote:

Injury rates in regulated professional MMA competition are similar to other combat sports; the overall risk of critical sports-related injury appears low. Additional study is warranted to achieve a better understanding of injury trends and ways to further lower injury risk in MMA.

The simple fact is that a random NFL player is at far greater risk of a serious brain injury than is a random MMA fighter. Sadly, neither Gov. Daugaard nor Rep. Hickey bothered to do much investigation or educate themselves before speaking out.

South Dakota state house Rep. Mark Johnston introduced a bill to create an athletic commission in the state for the express purpose of making the sport safer. According to the Argus Leader, Johnston said his goal is to prevent unregulated events where tragedies could possibly occur.

A state athletic commission's job is, at the core, to protect the fighters. It makes sure the proposed matches are fair and that promoters have doctors and an ambulance at all events. The commissions also require qualified referees, who stop fights when one fighter is in danger. It also requires fighters to undergo extensive medical examinations before fighting to make certain they are fit to compete. States such as Nevada, California and New York, with strong commissions, have discovered injuries fighters didn't know they had and prevented them from competing. That wouldn't be the case in South Dakota, with no commission to require those tests.

A fear of many states with strong commissions is that promoters will travel across state lines to put on shows in states such as South Dakota, where there is no regulation and where, as a result, costs are less. But the result is that it is far less safe for the competitors.

Sadly, neither Daugaard nor Hickey recognize that. Hickey told the Argus Leader he was angered by the thought of his state sanctioning MMA.

I'm offended that the state would legitimize cage-fighting and the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create. I think it's interesting that we declare that it is a crime for one human being to strike another, and yet the state now proceeds to legitimize, and label a sport, cage-fighting.

With all due respect, Gov. Daugaard, a few points:

? It is a crime for one human to strike another outside of the bounds of athletic competition. But it is no crime to strike another in the context of sport and when doctors and referees are available to protect the athletes and where the athletes have signed a contract to compete against each other.

? MMA fights sometimes get bloody. But no fighter to my knowledge has ever suffered anything worse than scarring as a result of being cut. It is important to note that a lot of the cuts are on the forehead above the eyes, where they mix with sweat and make them seem far worse than they are.

? States that have athletic commissions ban fighters who have sustained head injuries from competing again for several months. And before even being allowed to practice in a gym, the fighter needs to be cleared by a doctor.

? MMA is a combination of sports, many of which are already legal in South Dakota, including boxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu and judo.

Israelis plan to press Obama to free convicted spy

FILE - In this Friday, May 15, 1998 file photo, Jonathan Pollard speaks during an interview in a conference room at the Federal Correction Institution in Butner, N.C. Israel's president Shimon Peres, backed by thousands of followers, is leading an all-out effort to press U.S. President Barack Obama during his upcoming visit to free convicted spy Pollard and end one of the most painful sagas between the two allies. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's Nobel-laureate president, backed by thousands of followers, is leading an effort to press President Barack Obama during his upcoming visit to free convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, ending one of the most painful episodes between the two allies.

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for passing classified material to Israel.

Pollard is said to be in poor health, and his case has become a rallying cry in Israel. Leaders routinely call for his release and say his 28 years in prison are excessive punishment. But stiff opposition from the American military and intelligence community has deterred a string of American presidents from releasing him.

Next month's visit by Obama, coupled with a perceived softening of the American stance, is raising hopes that Pollard, 58, may finally get his freedom.

More than 65,000 Israelis have signed a petition calling on Obama to free Pollard, the Facebook page of the U.S. embassy in Israel has been flooded with pardon requests and a nationwide campaign began Tuesday urging President Shimon Peres to push for Pollard's release. He quickly agreed.

In a video clip, Peres is shown receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama. The camera then pulls back, showing the wall of a prison cell with the following message: "Mr. President, please save me. J. Pollard."

Speaking to high school students Tuesday, Peres, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, said he would try.

"I intend to raise the issue of Jonathan Pollard during my meeting with President Obama," he said. "(I) will do everything I can to convey this clear message: Jonathan Pollard must be released from prison on humanitarian grounds."

Pollard, a Jewish civilian intelligence analyst, was arrested by FBI agents in Washington in 1985 after unsuccessfully seeking refuge at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He pleaded guilty to leaking classified documents to Israel and received a life sentence. He is eligible for parole in two years. With little time left on his sentence, Israelis believe it would pose little risk for Obama to free Pollard.

The Pollard affair is enmeshed in highly fraught issues. One is the very idea of spying against an ally ? especially a country's primary patron. Another is the delicate issue of suspected dual loyalties among American Jews, and their own concerns about being seen in such a light.

Once a niche cause of the Israeli religious right wing, the call for Pollard's freedom has now become a matter of consensus in Israel. A wide range of politicians, artists and Nobel Prize winners have embraced Pollard's cause. The influential writers A.B. Yehoshua and David Grossman ? leading voices of the Israeli peace camp ? and former President Yitzhak Navon are among the prominent names backing the calls for his release.

"Both he (Pollard) and Israel have repeatedly expressed remorse. We have learned our lesson and have been living with the painful consequences for nearly three decades," their petition reads. "It is our fervent hope and prayer that your upcoming trip to Israel will bring us the good news we have waited for, for so very long, and that this tragic and painful episode can finally be put to rest once and for all."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said he plans to honor Pollard with the "Jerusalem Freedom Award," which represents "the goal of the Jewish people to be free in our land," according to the municipality.

White House officials say there is no change in policy and no plans to free Pollard.

Aaron David Miller, a former American Mideast peace envoy who served under six U.S. secretaries of state, said freedom seemed like a long shot.

"A Pollard release would certainly make Netanyahu's day," Miller said, but would risk angering many in Washington.

Advocates note that some of those convicted for spying for American enemies have served far shorter prison terms.

Even after all these years, many details of the case remain a mystery. Pollard delivered piles of documents to his handlers, and their full extent has never been disclosed.

Pollard's lawyer, Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, said the material had traditionally been shared with the Israelis. She said the information included details about Arab and Soviet military capabilities, and it helped Israel carry assassinate a senior PLO official in Tunisia in 1988.

Darshan-Leitner said Pollard suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney stones. "His medical condition is very precarious," she said.

A recently declassified 1987 CIA damage assessment concluded that Pollard did not spy against America. According to the version published in December by the National Security Archive, a George Washington University project, Pollard cooperated "in good faith" while in custody and his handlers' requests were limited to intelligence on the Pakistanis, Arab states and the Soviets.

Pollard was granted Israeli citizenship in the late 1990s during Netanyahu's first term. While Netanyahu was out of office, he visited Pollard in prison, Last year, Netanyahu made a formal appeal to the U.S. for his release and a personal plea to allow him to attend his father's funeral. The requests were denied.

For years, the Americans resisted an early release by saying it would harm national security. The stiff punishment was also seen as a deterrent to allies, warning them of the consequences of spying on American soil. But opposition has begun to crack, raising hopes that a breakthrough may be near.

Former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, along with Lawrence Korb, the assistant secretary of defense at the time, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, Sen. John McCain and former Vice President Dan Quayle have all called for Pollard's release in recent years.

Pollard's wife, Esther, said that given these developments, and the passage of time, the moment was ripe for Obama "to right this injustice."

"I pray that President Obama will respond without any further delay," she said in an email message.

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AP International Political Writer Steven R. Hurst in Washington contributed.

___

Online: http://www.atzuma.co.il/presidentobama

___

Follow Heller on Twitter (at)aronhellerap.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-26-ML-Israel-Convicted-Spy/id-c0346cde14a54a6f90db97114597b44a

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Google+ Sign-In lets you use account info across iOS, Android and web apps

These days it seems like every app wants your Facebook or Twitter info -- it figures that Google wants a piece of that action, too. Today the software giant announced Google+ Sign-in, a new feature that makes it possible to log into non-Google apps using your credentials for its myriad services (your Gmails, your YouTubes, et al). Google promises that Sign-in, which will be available for Android, iOS and web apps alike, will deliver the "protections and safeguards you've come to expect," plus some tweaks for the Google Maps Android API. The feature also makes it possible to decide what information you're sharing, so you don't spam the rest of us with your fitness goals (have we mentioned how fit you're looking these days?). You can also manage all of the apps you're using with Sign-In through Google+. More information for developers and users alike can be found in the source link below.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google