Big Fish Games rolls out Play Instantly! cloud gaming service ...

by Edwin - on November 27th, 2011

Casual games seem to be all the rage these days, starting off with Bejeweled on the desktop computer all those years ago, where hours upon hours of productivity were seemingly lost even though employees looked ?hardworking? from behind the monitor. Well, casual gaming has certainly taken over the mainstream consciousness with the number of smartphones, portable media players like the iPod touch, and the old mainstay of portable gaming consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS and soon-to-come PlayStation Vita, all permeating every bit of our lives. If you can?t beat ?em, why not join ?em instead? I guess this is why Big Fish Games has introduced the first cloud gaming service for mobile devices, calling it Play Instantly! ? how apt, don?t you think so?

This is the first subscription service for games in the Apple App Store, where it will enable consumers to check out dozens of premium casual games that can be accessed via interactive video streaming. Using Play Instantly!, Big Fish?s casual game catalog will be on the huge electronic cloud always, where it is accessible on the iPad at first, before it is rolled out across a range of other devices and platforms sometime next year. In fact, this is not only the first cloud gaming service for mobile devices, it is also the first game subscription service that is made available over at Apple?s App Store.

For those who are interested, Big Fish?s Play Instantly! cloud gaming service is already available thanks to a free iPad app on Apple?s App Store. This new service will sport dozens of Big Fish?s premium casual games, and just to make sure you do not get bored so fast, new titles will roll out into the service each week. Big Fish hopes to increase the Play Instantly! content eventually to hit several hundred titles, and they will also explore new markets such as the Android platform, PC and Mac universes next year as well.

At press time, the service will be available for US customers, where it will expand globally to target a worldwide audience in due time. For those who are interested, you can check out Play Instantly! over at the Apple App Store here.

Press Release

Source: http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20111127/big-fish-games-rolls-play-instantly-cloud-gaming-service/

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Share Investing Tools and Methods at Jewish Online Donations

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Technical analysts utilize charts to show the historical past of worth motion for just a specific stock, in order to finest appraise the probable path of future movements. The technical analyst has countless equipment at their disposal which can be both directly, or indirectly, derived from your stock worth. The technical analyst takes advantage of these indicators to aid their decision about when to enter, or exit a trade, dependent on which type of opportunity they can be hoping to exploit. For the technical analyst, there is a few main styles of investing opportunity:

one. Trend investing;
2. Break-out investing; and
three. Reversal investing.

Trend investing is the most frequent and most intuitive strategy to promote investing. The concept of pattern investing is to enter a trade in the course of a well established uptrend, riding in the back again of increasing costs, and near out before the pattern comes to an conclusion. Trend investing seriously isn?t about hoping to capture all the uptrend, but fairly a sizeable part. The philosophy of pattern investing is finest remembered utilizing the following analogy:
When ingesting supper, it can be greater to get countless small-scale parts and be pleased, than to try to fit all of it in a single mouthful and choke.

Trend investing performs greater in markets which can be in reality trending. Even though noticeable, traders can normally strive to apply investing techniques which can be not suited for the present-day investing setting and promote sentiment. Coming into positions depending on pattern investing indicators in the non-trending or marginally bearish promote is going to be destined for failure. As a rule of thumb, if a stock is investing underneath its 150-day heading ordinary, then the stock is much more than probably in the long-term downtrend state. If it is usually underneath its 21-day heading ordinary, then the stock is much more than probably in the short-term downtrend state. As a pattern trader, it is usually preferable that worth motion is over the two the 21-day and 150-day heading averages.

An idea normally disregarded by traders is promote support. In order to substantiate that a stock is trending strongly, and along with the backing of your promote, entry indicators ought to arise on moderately major quantity. Believe it or not, typically, all upward worth movements inside the pattern should be accompanied by major quantity. This could be quantified utilizing the 50-day quantity heading ordinary, also because the 5-day heading ordinary. It?s always preferable to get the volume of stock traded for just a specific provider over its 50-day heading ordinary, also because the 5-day heading ordinary over the 50-day heading ordinary.

Different types of indicators often utilised in investing tendencies are:

? ADX;
? On Harmony Quantity (OBV);
? Numerous Shifting Averages (MMAs);
? Relative Strength index (RSI); and
? Price Oscillator.

A break-out trade develops soon after a stock has knowledgeable a pause in trending activity (i.e. durations of consolidation, accumulation, or other comparable non-trending worth activity). Once the worth breaks absent from this period of non-trending activity, the chance arises for just a break-out trade. As a general rule, the more time the inaction time (the time wherever a stock worth flat-lines), the more substantial the reaction (the better the improve in worth when the time period of inactivity expires). Break-out trades are a favourite among those that are equipped to recognise the chance, because they present high-probability trades at a decreased danger.

Different types of indicators often utilised in investing break-outs are:

? Bollinger bands;
? OBV;
? Shifting Regular Convergence -Divergence (MACD); and
? Stochastic Oscillator.

Reversal trades will probably look comparable to break-out trades, in spite of this, this are fundamental variances. Inside a break-out trade, worth activity stalls briefly, in advance of exploding in the specific path. Reversal trades, because the name suggests, involve a complete reversal from an individual pattern path for the opposite. That may be, worth motion reverses the pattern path with out a time period of consolidation, accumulation, or any noticeable time period of non trending activity. Reversals arise most commonly soon after there was a sharp downward rally in worth motion ? in the blind worry the market brutally drives costs downwards only to realise that in the strategy the stock is now significantly undervalued. This presents the chance to acquire a stock at a drastically discounted worth along with the promote behaves accordingly.

This investing opportunity presents the best volume of danger, but may produce the biggest volume of gain for that alert trader. Traders attempting to find these prospects has to be wary of your ?dead cat bounce?, wherever shares can rebound soon after a significant decreased stage giving the indication of a reversal trade, only to unexpectedly run from momentum and go on the downwards plummet. Sector support has to be monitored very carefully for this type of trade.

Different types of indicators often utilised in investing break-outs are:

? Trend lines;
? OBV;
? Count-back entry;
? MACD;
? Bollinger bands;
? RSI; and
? Stochastic Oscillator.

Presented that pattern investing is the most primary kind of method to choose from for the technical analyst, it is usually normally highly recommended that this type be undertaken for brand spanking new traders for the promote. At the time assurance happens to be constructed along with the trader is now highly effective utilizing this type of trade, surveying for break-out trades can follow. Reversal investing presents the best difficulty, and will be undertaken final.

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Source: http://www.jewishonlinedonations.com/?p=7455

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PFT: Chiefs' Palko will start over Orton on Sunday

Getty Images

Colt McCoy has looked like a backup quarterback this year. The situation around him has not been ideal, but he?s missed a lot of throws and looked less composed than he did a year ago.

People expected McCoy to be a great fit for Pat Shurmur?s West Coast offense. But McCoy played better in Brian Daboll?s more diverse attack last year, even if McCoy?didn?t have a good time during the process.

?There were times I had to pull my helmet off to call a play in the huddle,? McCoy told Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. ?Guys could hear him yelling, and they?d say, ?Just take it off.? People said to me, ?Man, I ain?t never seen anything like that. Just hang in there.??

The abuse McCoy took from Daboll and the Browns coaching staff apparently became a running joke among Browns players. But McCoy said he took the constant yelling personally.

?People [outside of football] thought something was wrong with me,? McCoy said.

Silver?s entire article is worth a read, but here was the money quote from my perspective:

?I had my dad as a coach [in high school], and Mack Brown as my coach [at Texas] ? the last two years it was my offense,? McCoy said. ?Then I come here and I?m thinking, ?We?re all professionals here.? It was [confusing].

?There came a point where I just really had to find . . . me . . . who I wanted to be. It really gave me an opportunity to search, to find that, to decide what I want to stand up for. Do I even want to do this? Do I want to put up with that? I decided, when my time comes to play, I?ll be ready.?

Fair or not, the Browns coaching staff probably believed McCoy hadn?t been coached hard since junior high school. ?McCoy told Silver he appreciated the coaches making him tougher.

While we are hesitant to give Daboll credit for McCoy?s success last year, the reality is that McCoy has regressed this season. He?s averaging 6.1 yards-per-attempt, compared to 7.1 last year.

The new Browns staff may be more respectful to McCoy, but we suspect they will do something crueler than mercilessly scream at him unless drastic improvement occurs over the next six games.

They?ll find a quarterback to replace McCoy.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/24/tyler-palko-will-start-over-kyle-orton-this-week/related

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Heart patients prefer longevity over quality of life (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? When an elderly person's chronic disease is impossible to cure, many doctors might assume that patient would chose to improve the quality of his or her remaining life rather than to extend it as is. Those doctors would be mistaken most of the time, according to a new study.

Swiss researchers who surveyed more than 500 elderly heart failure patients found three quarters wouldn't trade a longer life with symptoms for a shorter life without them, and the severity of symptoms was not a good predictor of who would pick a measure of relief over more time.

"I was quite surprised by the results," said lead author Dr. Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, of University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.

"Often we think we know what is best for a patient, but this is often wrong," he told Reuters Health in an email.

"When patients get to an age where the chance of dying in the near future becomes more evident, pure survival may be more important," said Brunner-La Rocca, who is also affiliated with the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Heart failure is a chronic and incurable condition, in which the heart is too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. It affects around six million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness and swelling in the legs and feet, reducing a person's ability to walk or exercise. Heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes can weaken the heart muscle over time, which can lead to heart failure.

The researchers surveyed 555 heart failure patients, most in their seventies and eighties, asking a series of questions about end-of-life preferences. Then they repeated the survey after 12 months, and again after another six months.

At the start of the study, 74 percent of the respondents said they would not choose to live one more year in excellent health over living two more years in their current state. After a year had elapsed, 80 percent were unwilling to trade more time for symptom relief.

At 18 months, few had changed their minds. When asked about whether they wanted CPR in a crisis, about a third said they didn't want to be resuscitated.

Even among people with "do not resuscitate" orders in their medical files, about a third said they in fact did want CPR. Dr. Eugene Storozynsky, who studies cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, noted that the study participants represented a broad range of people with heart failure -- from those with a just a few symptoms to those with many more severe problems.

Those with milder disease might not consider it bad enough to trade-off their remaining time.

"For these patients, it seems oral medications are still adequate enough to relieve their symptoms so they don't need to be frequently hospitalized," said Storozynsky, who was not part of the study.

Patients with end-stage heart failure require multiple hospitalizations in a short period of time due to their symptoms, he pointed out.

"Life expectancy may be six months or less without advanced therapies," he told Reuters Health.

"Patients in this study were less bothered by their symptoms, so I would define them as less sick than those with end-stage heart failure."

Participants in the study who were willing to trade more time for symptom relief were older, often female and had more heart failure symptoms, suggesting people may change how they manage their disease over time.

"We couldn't find particular patterns to predict what individuals would want," Brunner-La Rocca told Reuters Health.

"So it's crucial to individually discuss these issues with the patient." Storozynsky also thinks doctors should be upfront with patients.

"We should discuss all stages of heart failure to make them aware that at its end stage, their life will likely shorten," he said.

"Not to scare them, but inform them and tailor our treatment to their wishes."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/w41t5q

European Heart Journal, online November 18, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/seniors/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/hl_nm/us_heart_patients_longevity

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The Mind's Hidden Switches

Science Talk | Mind & Brain

Eric J. Nestler, director of the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, talks about his article in the December issue of Scientific American magazine on epigenetics and human behavior, called "Hidden Switches in the Mind"

November 22, 2011

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Eric Nestler, director of the Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City talks about his article in the December issue of Scientific American magazine, on epigenetics and human behavior, called Hidden Switches In The Mind.? ?
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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c2a45623dd2855f3ca36c55e6d33398f

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Stocks set for 6th losing day on Europe, China woes (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stock index futures were lower on Wednesday as worries about the euro zone crisis and weak data from China weighed on investor sentiment, putting the S&P 500 on track for a sixth day of losses.

World stocks hit their lowest in six weeks as weak demand in an auction for German benchmark bonds heightened fears the crisis would worsen. For details, see

Debt problems in Europe and the United States have pressured markets, and last week was the S&P's worst in two months. The index has fallen more than 5 percent in its current string of declines.

Chinese manufacturing shrank the most in 32 months in November, intensified concerns about a global economic slowdown. Crude oil fell 1.9 percent on fears of reduced demand from the world's No. 2 economy.

"The concerns about Europe continue to evolve, with people now looking at Germany, and this is all complicated by the poor manufacturing news out of China, which is concerning," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in New York.

S&P 500 futures fell 9.8 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 91 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 18.5 points.

The S&P managed Tuesday to hold near 1,187, seen as the next technical support and representing the 61.8 percent retracement of the 2011 high to low. The index fell below the 1,200 mark last week.

"I think that after all the losses we've suffered the market is oversold, but the fact that we've fallen so far so fast suggests there could still be further room to drop," Pavlik said.

Trading volume is likely to be low on Wednesday, the day before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, when U.S. markets are closed. That could amplify turbulence, which remains tied to Europe's volatility.

Deere & Co (DE.N) shares climbed 5.7 percent to $76 in premarket trading after quarterly earnings beat expectations and sales climbed 20 percent.

The U.S. Federal Reserve plans to run stress tests on six large U.S. banks, including Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N), using a hypothetical market shock that includes a deteriorating European debt crisis as part of an annual review. Bank of America fell 1.9 percent to $5.27 in premarket trading.

Investors also awaited a new round of economic data. Initial jobless claims are seen rising by 2,000 to 390,000 in the latest week, while October durable goods orders are forecast to fall 1 percent. Both are scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. EST.

In addition, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final November consumer sentiment index will be released at 9:55 a.m. EST. Economists look for a reading of 64.5, compared with 64.2 in the preliminary November report.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis dies in Mass.

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) ? Evolutionary biologist, author and National Medal of Science winner Lynn Margulis (MAR'-guh-liss) has died.

The University of Massachusetts, where she was a professor of geosciences, says Margulis died at her home on Tuesday. She was 73.

Margulis was once married to astronomer Carl Sagan. But she was best known for her theory of symbiogenesis. That theory argues that inherited variation does not come from random mutations in genes but from long-lasting interaction between organisms.

She was also a strong proponent of the hypothesis that the earth acts as a living organism.

Margulis was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983 and received the National Medal of Science in 1999.

She was born in Chicago and enrolled at the University of Chicago when she was 14.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-23-Obit-Margulis/id-b7a3d45b3b5249c99d9864b77ea1e8ba

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Supreme Court to take Obamacare case this term - Le?gal In?sur?rec ...

The Supreme Court has just announced that it will take the Obamacare litigation, meaning that a decision will be rendered on the individual mandate, if not the entire law, by the end of June.

As reported in USA Today:

The Supeme court said today it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of?the Obama health care plan by March of next year, Reuters reports.

The timing means the court will deliver its decision in the summer, only a?few months before the 2012 presidential election, USA TODAY?s Joan Biskupic?reports.

The determination was part of a series of Orders released by the Court this morning.? The cases accepted?are the Florida litigations, limited to the following questions:

FLORIDA, ET AL. V. DEPT. OF H&HS, ET AL. ? ?The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to Question 1 presented by the petition.?

Question 1?was ?Whether Congress had the power under Article I of the Constitution to enact the minimum coverage provision.?

DEPT. OF H&HS, ET AL. V. FLORIDA, ET AL. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. In addition to Question 1 presented by the petition, the parties are directed to brief and argue the following question: ?Whether the suit brought by respondents to challenge the minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is barred by the Anti-Injunction Act, 26 U.S.C. ?7421(a).?

NAT. FED?N INDEP. BUSINESS V. SEBELIUS, SEC. OF H&HS, ET AL., FLORIDA, ET AL. V. DEPT. OF H&HS, ET AL. ? The petition for a writ of certiorari in No. 11-393 is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari in No. 11-400 is granted limited to the issue of severability presented by Question 3 of the petition.

When you add it all up, the Court will address the mandate, whether the lawsuit is barred because the mandate is a tax which has not yet come into effect, and whether the mandate is severable. In other words, just about all of the important legal issues appear to be on the table.

The decision will come in the middle of the campaign season, after a Republican nominee is all but selected.? I stand by my view that the decision to take the case puts Obama in a no win situation?politically:

From a purely political viewpoint, it is more important that the Supreme Court hear and decide the case prior to the 2012 election than it is which way the Court rules.

While of course throwing the mandate out is my strong (overwhelming) preference, politically for Republicans I don?t think it makes a huge difference which way the Court decides the case, as long as it decides the case prior to the 2012 election.

If the Supreme Court finds the mandate to be unconstitutional, it will deflate Obama?s presidency.? In one fell swoop, the entirety of Obama?s agenda will come crashing down.? It will be a political and personal humiliation.

If the Supreme Court upholds the mandate, Obama will be able to crow a little, but such a decision will leave the majority of people who hate the law with but one alternative:? Throw Obama and Senate Democrats out in November 2012.

Update:? SCOTUSBlog notes that the Justices have allotted a record amount of time for oral argument:

The allotment of 5 1/2 hours for oral argument appeared to be a modern record; the most recent lengthy hearing came in a major constitutional dispute over campaign finance law in 2003, but that was only for 4 hours.

And, it does not look like Elena Kagan recused herself from consideration of the cert petitions, so expect her to be part of the decision, notwithstanding very strong evidence that she had some level of prior involvement when Solicitor General.

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Source: http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/11/supreme-court-to-take-obamacare-this-term/

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Oprah Winfrey Gets Emotional While Accepting Oscar

The 2012 Academy Awards have come and gone for Oprah Winfrey, who received her honorary Oscar at Saturday night's Governors Awards ceremony. Winfrey, 57, broke down crying while accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The television icon, a 1986 Oscar nominee for The Color Purple, gave a heartfelt off-the-cuff speech to express her gratitude to the Academy.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/oprah-winfrey-gets-emotional-accepting-oscar/1-a-402223?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aoprah-winfrey-gets-emotional-accepting-oscar-402223

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The Hunger Games Trailer: A Primer

The Hunger Games comes out on March 23, 2012. Its first full-length trailer (below) hit the Internet yesterday and continues to build buzz, perhaps leading some to ask: What the heck is The Hunger Games?!?

In short, it's an upcoming trilogy, based on novels by Suzanne Collins, that takes place in a futuristic society named Panem. This world is comprised of 13 districts, most of which are struggling to survive, one of which is home to the all-powerful Capitol.

View the official preview below and then we'll guide you through the most important aspects of it. This way, you won't feel left out at the water cooler tomorrow...

The Hunger Games Trailer

WE OPEN in District 12, home to heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her good friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth). They like to hunt together. He'd like to do a lot more than hunt together... if you know what we mean!

CUT To the Reaping, an annual event in which one female and one male between the ages of 12-18 are chosen to represent each District in The Hunger Games, a game of attrition held in the Capitol's Arena. Only one comes out alive.

YES, that's Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, the MC of the Reaping and a citizen of the Capitol. Everyone there dresses this way.

THE NAME Primrose Everdeen is selected at random. That's Katniss' younger sister, prompting Katniss to volunteer to take her place. She does so and soon learns that the other District 12 rep is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), the son of a baker and the third prong in what will become a Katniss/Gale/Peeta love triangle.

ENTER LENNY KRAVITZ as Cinna, Katniss' stylist for The Hunger Games. He's there to "make an impression." Trust us, it works.

OTHER FACES we briefly see include: Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, the Capitol's answer to Ryan Seacrest; Donald Sutherland as President Snow, the mean man in charge; Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, the dude in charge of planning every year's Hunger Games; and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, a former Hunger Games champion from District 12, Katniss' mentor and a drunk.

LOTS OF SCENES of teenagers training, and for good reason. They're gonna have to start killing each other soon!

REMEMBER THE three fingers. Katniss flashes this sign toward the end of the trailer and it later grows into a rallying cry.

AND THEN WE'RE OFF to the Games! The preview concludes with Katniss grabbing a backpack of weapons and heading into hiding. Have no fear, though, she'll later come out and... come on. You don't want us to spoil the whole story, do you?!?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/the-hunger-games-trailer-a-primer/

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Swearing to Make Your Point: A Tale of F**k and Sh*t [Communication]

Profanity is a divisive subject. Some think obscenities have no place in any polite conversation, ever; some feel, judiciously applied, profanity is the best flavor in their communication spice rack; others lob expletives like they're trying to unlock a coveted F**k-Yeah Four-Letter Words badge. It's a touchy subject, and one at the focus of some enjoyable debate in the past week. So let's talk about it, shall we?

Note: This post is centered around a bunch of developers arguing about cursing in presentations, but the discussion is applicable beyond those bounds, so if you aren't a developer, don't let that turn you off. Also, since this post is about profanity, you're likely to find some ahead. If you're prone to the vapors at the sight or discussion of profanity, you may want to bring along your smelling salts. Image remixed from Zach Holman.

The Starting Point

GitHub developer Zach Holman presented a talk that quickly spread among the tech and startup crowd, in large part due to his fun and attractive slide deck. (His slides were so nice that he wrote up a post on slide design for non-designers, which we posted about two weeks ago.) His talk, and his slides, made use of profanity?even the dreaded f-bomb. And that's where the conversation started.

The "Swearing Is Bad" Crowd

Microsoft employee Scott Hanselman pitched the tent poles of the anti-swearing camp in his post, Profanity doesn't work, and his take is pretty simple:

I believe that having S*** and F*** in your conference slides or titles doesn't make you cool or professional, or a better coder. It makes you look crass. When is it appropriate and why is it appropriate when other things aren't?

Hanselman feels that "words that are evocative of sex and feces are in fact not appropriate", and the long and short of Hanselman's argument is that since swearing has the potential to alienate your audience, it should be avoided.

There's certainly truth to the first part. Profanity does alienate some people. If you've ever spent a few entertaining hours looking at user reviews of movies on IMDb, you can find absurdly detailed analyses of how many swear words a film contains, regardless of the film's much more substantial content.

Following Hanselman's post, developer Rob Conery offered his take on the problem of swearing in presentations, titled Fucking Your Way Out:

The slide [at right] is taken from a talk by Zach Holman. It's a gorgeous slide deck and Zach shows a deft hand at communicating ideas in a very concise way. I want to make this clear again: I'm not offended at the presence of the F-bomb, I'm offended that someone with his talent takes the easy way out.

Making your point with profanity is what the general population uses as punctuation to emphasize a point. It's conversational punctual shorthand.

Conery's main point appears to be "Educated folk should not use words common among the uneducated masses" (my words, not his). Eep. He even goes so far as to call them "Walmart words" (his words), which, frankly, is more offensive than any profanity I'd heard in Holman's talk.

Between these two common anti-profanity arguments, both clearly hold some truth. So how about the flip side?

In Defense of Profanity

Holman posted a response, called simply Swearing, and breaks down his defense of swearing in presentations to three main points:

1. Swear words are succinctly emotional and evocative
2. Swearing is a crafted part of his persona?one that's served him well
3. He'd rather lose audience numbers to his profanity than audience connection (which he feels is stronger because of his voice)

Regarding his last point:

I'm less concerned about my overall reach than I am with connecting with my audience. Put another way: I'm content with losing a handful of people if that means I connect much stronger with everyone else.

Your reputation is your brand. Just like a company, your brand can be deeply impacted by a small group of passionate followers. I've been seeing this for years- the same avatars retweet me, the same names show up in discussions about me, the same sites help promote my projects. I'm fortunate and humbled to have these people at my back.

I wouldn't have nearly as many of them if I played it safe. I enjoy keeping an edge, and they respect that. Someone else could construct a beige persona and cultivate a following, but that would be less effective for me because I'm not nearly as good at fitting that personality.

Holman isn't the only speaker whose persona has a little profanity in its grout. David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the popular open-source web framework Ruby on Rails and co-founder of web company 37Signals, is a popular speaker who's big on profanity. Best-selling author, passionate speaker, and social media dude Gary Vaynerchuk is perhaps the poster boy of profanity in communication. You can watch him speak in the video below.

Apart from an individual's personal proclivity, it's also worth noting that profanity is persuasive. One 2006 study found that swearing at the start or end of a persuasive speech can influence the audience:

To see whether swearing can help change attitudes, Scherer and Sagarin (2006) divided 88 participants into three groups to watch one of three slightly different speeches. The only difference between the speeches was that one contained a mild swear word at the start:

"?lowering of tuition is not only a great idea, but damn it, also the most reasonable one for all parties involved."

The second speech contained the 'damn it' at the end and the third had neither.

When participants' attitudes were measured, they were most influenced by the speeches with the mild obscenity included, either at the beginning or the end.

For some, there are miles of distinction between "damn" and "fuck". For others, not so much.

My Perspective

Now to come clean: In my personal life and aspects of my professional life, I swear casually and often. Profanity rarely carries the negative connotation for me that it does for some (as with all things, context is everything), and I agree with Holman when he says:

The emotions [profanities] raise can't be reached as succinctly with other tools. They're powerful. When chosen with deliberate consideration, they aren't a cop-out; they're the strongest way to connect with a particular audience.

It's worth noting that we rarely use profanity on Lifehacker. Offending people doesn't have much to do with that (though any time we've used profanity, you can believe I hear about it from disgruntled readers), but unlike, say, a deck of slides, where word economy is at a premium, we have plenty of space to make our point, and profanity doesn't make a lot of sense for the Lifehacker brand.

In conversation with friends, coworkers?even my boss?I un-self-consciously swear all the time. It's a very natural part of the way I communicate. Sometimes I use big words. Sometimes I use bad words. When applied to a specific audience, I'd be shocked to learn that anyone was turned off or offended by my profanity.

Whether you're pro- or anti-swearing, obviously context is the most important thing. Unless you're still rebelling against your parents or are choosing to swear for an actually considered reason, there's no point in dropping profanity at the expense of your message.

How About You?

The main takeaway here, as with all things, is "it depends". Using profanity in your communication is a choice, and since it is such a polarizing subject, it's something you want to take a considered approach to. (Oh, and one other useful pro-swearing tidbit: Profanity relieves pain.)

So what's your take? Do you swear with abandon? Reserve your profanity for the right audience? Keep profanity locked in a safe at all times? Share your perspective in the comments.

---

You can contact Adam Pash, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/7IIUy7htZiA/swearing-to-make-your-point-a-tale-of-fk-and-sht

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Intel RTS2011LC Liquid Cooling Solution

Intel's new Sandy Bridge?E processors offer outstanding performance, but the high price of chips such as the Core i7-3960X doesn't get you everything you need. Finally admitting that the enthusiasts most interested in this tier of products will probably want to buy their own coolers for keeping the chip chill, Intel has stopped packaging one with each processor. But Intel knows enough to keep its foot in the door, and is doing so with its own line of cooling devices. Among these is the RTS2011LC Liquid Cooling Solution ($85-$100 list), a closed-loop propylene glycol cooler the company has wisely designed to fit any of its contemporary sockets (LGA2011, LGA1155, LGA1156, and LGA1366). The good news is that it works as advertised; the bad news is that using it may get you hot under the collar.
?
Because Intel intended the RTS2011LC to work with so many sockets, a lot of hardware is included in the package. In addition to the pump, which comes preconnected to the radiator, you'll find a 120mm exhaust fan, two mounting brackets (and the necessary double-sided tape for attaching one to the motherboard if required), three sets of screws, and two sets of retention screws (one for use with the LGA2011 socket, one for everything else), a set of four spacers to assist in unusual installation scenarios, two packets of thermal interface material (TIM), and zip ties for keeping everything organized. The only extra tool you'll need will be a Phillips screwdriver (which you should have within arm's reach of your computer all the time anyway), but you'll use it only briefly.
?
Oh yes, something else is included as well: installation instructions. That, however, is a term I must use incredibly loosely. The bound sheaf of pages is, frankly, more of a picture book. The front matter and warranty information are rendered in a dozen different languages, but no explanation in any language is provided for the series of diagrams in between that supposedly show to attach the RTS2011LC to your motherboard.
?
If you're experienced doing this sort of thing, you'll be able to puzzle it out. But even then you may have to work at it. The problems with the images begin immediately, with the two sets of screws and the two sets of the screw-in socket mounts looking terrifyingly alike. (One set of each is a bit shorter than the others, but there's no other visible difference.) Then, in step one of the procedure, the same item is shown as being used in two different ways, and with two different letter labels: L one place, and J in another. (The L is correct; J, judging by the parts "list," is an entirely different object meant for another purpose altogether.) Later, a double-headed arrow bookended by socket names appears over a picture of another piece of hardware, with no specific clue as to what it means or what it's supposed to do. A few pages further on, there are bewildering breakdowns of how to set up the radiator, with two pages that apparently directly contradict each other, and the pump, which uses two arrows in a clumsy attempt to convey idea that would benefit from at least two or three sentences.
?
Let me tell you what the manual doesn't.? Screw the radiator to the inside of the case (on either the rear or the top, wherever you have room) and?affix an exhaust fan onto its inside plane. If the?four feet on the?retention bracket?do not?display the name of the socket onto which you're?installing the cooler, rotate them until they do.? After adding a dollop of TIM?to the CPU, place the?bracket around the pump, secure the pump inside by rotating it a quarter-inch or so, then secure the?brackets to the motherboard itself (and thus the pump onto the CPU) by screwing it into place, either with your screwdriver or your fingers.?In other words, this is nowhere near as complicated as the diagrams make it look.? But to have so many things in them be misleading or incorrect, and to not have a written step-by-step guide to accompany them, is simply bewildering. Intel has made available, on YouTube and its website, a video?(complete with?narration in crystal-clear English) that demonstrates the installation procedure. Watching it?should not be required for something like this, but it?will add much-needed clarity for inexperienced cooler installers.
?
Even after sorting out the process, however, following it wasn't painless. The retention bracket was?difficult to work with. You're supposed to hold it in one hand,?guide the pump through it with the other, twist the pump so the teeth on it and the teeth on the bracket match up (so the pump won't move), and then screw down the whole apparatus. But several times while we were trying to do this, the pump got disengaged and we had to start all over. A couple of other times, the top knobs of the bracket's?thumbscrews came off in our hands and had to be reattached?necessitating putting down the pump and top bracket, and restarting from the beginning yet again.? Few?aftermarket coolers we've dealt with have been this fussy.
?
That said, once we got it running in a test system with a Core i7-3960X on an Intel DX79SI motherboard, everything was fine. For what it's worth, it looked understated and handsome, its?general black coloring nicely highlighted by?blue LEDs in both the fan and the pump.? Our system idled at about 93 degrees Fahrenheit at its stock 3.3GHz clock speed, and at 98 degrees while overclocked to 4.6GHz. With all six of?our Core i7-3960X's?cores operating under full load, the temperatures?averaged 139.5 degrees at 3.3GHz and 166.3 degrees at 4.6GHz. This is the only LGA2011 cooler we've assessed so far, but these numbers strike us as well?within acceptable ranges given what we've seen?on systems using?other Intel sockets. This may not be a spectacular choice for keeping your processor's temperature under control?we're just not sure yet?but it definitely works. There should even be enough additional headroom for further overclocking.
?
No, performance is not a particular problem with the Intel RTS2011LC Liquid Cooling Solution, and that's a good thing given its unwieldy design. Being able to install it on any current Intel socket is nice, but we've used coolers from other companies like Thermaltake, Cooler Master, and Antec that also fit multiple platforms and are considerably less aggravating. As soon as we can, we'll get some of their newer (or revised) models in for use with the LGA2011 socket and see if they're less troublesome. Until then, if you feel that traditional air cooling by way of Intel's simpler models isn't enough for you, the RTS2011LC will do the job?just know you'll run the risk of losing your own cool while trying to install it.

More CPU and Component Reviews:
??? Intel RTS2011LC Liquid Cooling Solution
??? Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition
??? AMD FX-8150
??? Nvidia Quadro 4000
??? Nvidia Quadro 5000
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/u-2yRL7wBNc/0,2817,2396285,00.asp

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Cardinals Edge Eagles 21-17: Philadelphia Gives Up Another 4th Quarter Lead

PHILADELPHIA ? With John Skelton leading the way, the Arizona Cardinals sure look like a different team.

Skelton threw a 5-yard TD pass to Early Doucet with 1:53 left and the Cardinals rallied for a 21-17 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Michael Vick had another so-so performance and the Eagles (3-6) blew a fourth-quarter lead for the fifth time this season.

Starting for the injured Kevin Kolb, Skelton threw three touchdown passes to lead the Cardinals (3-6) to their second straight win. He threw a tying TD pass to Larry Fitzgerald in the fourth quarter of a 19-13 overtime win against St. Louis last week that snapped a six-game losing streak.

Fitzgerald had two TD catches and made a sensational, over-the-shoulder diving catch to set up the go-ahead score on Sunday.

The defending NFC East champion Eagles were expected to be Super Bowl contenders after a slew of big-name acquisitions in the offseason. Instead, they've struggled miserably and have lost seven of their past eight home games.

Alex Henery kicked a 36-yard field goal with 5:06 remaining after Nnamdi Asomugha's interception to put the Eagles up 17-14.

But the Cardinals answered.

Skelton completed a 30-yard pass to LaRod Stephens-Howling on fourth-and-2 from the Cardinals 32 to keep the winning drive going. On third-and-10 from the Eagles 38, Fitzgerald made an incredible catch to the 1.

Beanie Wells was stopped for no gain and lost 4 yards on the next run. But Skelton hit Doucet coming out of the backfield for a go-ahead TD to cap an 87-yard drive and give the Cardinals a 21-17 lead.

Vick's desperation deep pass on third-and-20 was intercepted by A.J. Jefferson to seal Arizona's win.

Asante Samuel returned an interception 20 yards for a touchdown and LeSean McCoy had a 1-yard TD run to give the Eagles a 14-7 lead.

Vick was 16 of 34 for 128 yards and two interceptions. He's hardly resembled the guy who was an MVP candidate and Pro Bowl starter last season.

Skelton completed 21 of 40 for 315 yards, three TDs and two picks.

Asomugha made up for a costly penalty by intercepting Skelton at the Cardinals 30 and returning it to the 26. Vick left the game after taking a hard hit to the side on a 7-yard run. Vince Young handed off on third down, setting up Henery's field goal.

Cardinals kicker Jay Feely missed two field goals in the first quarter, hooking a 35-yard attempt wide left and a 43-yarder wide right.

The Eagles played without three starters, including two-time Pro Bowl wideout DeSean Jackson. He was inactive after missing a team meeting Saturday morning, two people familiar with the situation said.

Helped by a crucial penalty, the Cardinals tied it at 14 on Skelton's 7-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald in the fourth quarter. An offside call on Asomugha allowed Arizona to extend the drive after an incomplete pass on third-and-10.

A few plays later, Fitzgerald caught a pass that was tipped by Joselio Hanson and scampered into the end zone for his franchise-record 70th career TD. Roy Green had 69 TDs for the Cardinals from 1979-90.

Vick made another poor pass that was intercepted by Richard Marshall at the Eagles 44 on the following series. But Philadelphia coach Andy Reid challenged after seeing several replays on the stadium's video board and the play was overturned because the ball hit the ground.

The Eagles went ahead 14-7 late in the second quarter after a holding penalty on Marshall negated Adrian Wilson's interception in the end zone. Vick scrambled 14 yards to the Cardinals 3 one play after his pass into triple coverage was picked.

A play later, McCoy scored for the ninth straight game, setting a team record.

'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/cardinals-eagles-21-17-michael-vick_n_1091322.html

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White House circulated plan to replace Chu

FILE - In this Nov. 29, 2010 file photo, Energy Secretary Steven Chu gives a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. Top officials at the White House circulated a plan calling for the ouster of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other top Energy Department officials as the administration braced for a political storm brewing over the failing solar energy company Solyndra. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 29, 2010 file photo, Energy Secretary Steven Chu gives a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. Top officials at the White House circulated a plan calling for the ouster of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other top Energy Department officials as the administration braced for a political storm brewing over the failing solar energy company Solyndra. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Top officials at the White House circulated a plan calling for the ouster of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other top Energy Department officials as the administration braced for a political storm brewing over the failing solar energy company Solyndra.

An email from a clean-energy activist and former official in President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign said Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was a brilliant man but "not perfect" for other critical DOE missions, including creating jobs. The Feb. 25 email from Dan Carol, a former issues adviser in Obama's campaign, was circulated by then-Chief of Staff Peter Rouse and seen by at least 18 White House officials, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and then-energy adviser Carol Browner.

The emails were released late Friday by the government in response to a subpoena by House Republicans, who are investigating a $528 million federal loan received by Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif. The firm later went bankrupt and laid off its 1,100 workers.

A White House spokesman said Friday the plan to oust Chu was not taken very seriously.

Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for Chu, called Carol "an activist with an agenda" and said his email was not solicited by the White House. His suggestion about Chu was not taken seriously, Leistikow said.

Rouse, in a March 14 email to Deputy Chief of Staff Nancy-Ann DeParle, passed along Carol's proposal, saying he was "not that interested in Dan's criticism of Secretary Chu," but said Carol was smart and shared the president's views on energy policy. Rouse asked White House officials to comment on Carol's analysis of the administration's energy policy.

In the three-page email, Carol said Chu should be reassigned as chief scientist at Energy, where he could "reinspire and reorganize" DOE's labs.

"This is a HUGE job and he would be perfect for it," Carol said, adding that Chu "is a wonderful and brilliant man, but he is not perfect for the other critical DOE mission: deploying existing technologies at scale and creating jobs."

The memo also says the energy secretary should be "comfortable meeting with bankers," adding that the bookish Chu is not comfortable doing that. Carol also recommended an overhaul of Energy Department staff, including Chu's deputy, the department's chief of staff and its undersecretary.

Carol acknowledged that Obama was unlikely to replace Chu, "out of personal affection or perhaps concern of perceived public perception of failure."

Even if Chu were not reassigned, Carol added, the Energy Department should redirect its efforts on the $38 billion loan guarantee program and other spending. "There is a still A LOT of money over there that could be repurposed to better uses," he wrote.

Carol suggested Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as a replacement for Chu, adding that the new secretary should not come from Silicon Valley. Such an appointment "will get caught up in the wave of GOP attacks that are surely coming over Solyndra and other inside DOE deals that have gone to Obama donors and have underperformed," Carol wrote.

Solyndra's implosion and revelations that administration officials rushed to complete the loan in time for a September 2009 groundbreaking have become an embarrassment for Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of his green energy program.

The Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee has subpoenaed White House communications on Solyndra and has released thousands of pages of emails related to the company.

The White House on Friday rejected the GOP subpoena, calling it overly broad. Instead officials provided 135 pages of documents that administration officials said meet the "legitimate oversight interests" of congressional investigators.

In a letter to top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Friday, White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said the documents "do not contain evidence of favoritism to political supporters or any wrongdoing by the White House in connection with the Solyndra loan guarantee." GOP lawmakers have said the loan to Solyndra appears politically motivated, and that major Obama donors received unusual access to the White House.

GOP Reps. Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns, who lead the energy committee and a subcommittee on investigations, respectively, said in a statement Friday that they appreciated the White House response to the subpoena.

"We're hoping this is the beginning of an effort to finally make public these missing pieces of a process that left us all holding the bag for over 500 million dollars," said Upton, of Michigan, and Stearns, of Florida.

Chu is scheduled to testify before the energy panel on Thursday.

Chu's spokesman, Leistikow, said the emails released Friday, and others released by the administration in recent weeks, "reaffirm that decisions were made on the merits and that all of the baseless allegations about political considerations just aren't borne out by the facts."

Matthew Daly can be followed at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-11-White%20House-Energy/id-7b962c39120249fa8ec5851ca4dfe82a

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Lutetia: A rare survivor from the birth of Earth

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2011) ? New observations indicate that the asteroid Lutetia is a leftover fragment of the same original material that formed Earth, Venus and Mercury. Astronomers have combined data from ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, ESO's New Technology Telescope, and NASA telescopes. They found that the properties of the asteroid closely match those of a rare kind of meteorites found on Earth and thought to have formed in the inner parts of the Solar System. Lutetia must, at some point, have moved out to its current location in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

A team of astronomers from French and North American universities have studied the unusual asteroid Lutetia in detail at a very wide range of wavelengths [1] to deduce its composition. Data from the OSIRIS camera on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft [2], ESO's New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and Spitzer Space Telescope were combined to create the most complete spectrum of an asteroid ever assembled [3].

This spectrum of Lutetia was then compared with that of meteorites found on Earth that have been extensively studied in the laboratory. Only one type of meteorite -- enstatite chondrites -- was found to have properties that matched Lutetia over the full range of colours.

Enstatite chondrites are known to be material that dates from the early Solar System. They are thought to have formed close to the young Sun and to have been a major building block in the formation of the rocky planets [4], in particular Earth, Venus and Mercury [5]. Lutetia seems to have originated not in the main belt of asteroids, where it is now, but much closer to the Sun.

"But how did Lutetia escape from the inner Solar System and reach the main asteroid belt?" asks Pierre Vernazza (ESO), the lead author of the paper.

Astronomers have estimated that less than 2% of the bodies located in the region where Earth formed, ended up in the main asteroid belt. Most of the bodies of the inner Solar System disappeared after a few million years as they were incorporated into the young planets that were forming. However, some of the largest, with diameters of about 100 kilometres or more, were ejected to safer orbits further from the Sun.

Lutetia, which is about 100 kilometres across, may have been tossed out from the inner parts of the young Solar System if it passed close to one of the rocky planets and thus had its orbit dramatically altered [6]. An encounter with the young Jupiter during its migration to its current orbit could also account for the huge change in Lutetia's orbit [7].

"We think that such an ejection must have happened to Lutetia. It ended up as an interloper in the main asteroid belt and it has been preserved there for four billion years," continues Pierre Vernazza.

Earlier studies of its colour and surface properties showed that Lutetia is a very unusual and rather mysterious member of the asteroid main belt. Previous surveys have shown that similar asteroids are very rare and represent less than 1% of the asteroid population of the main belt. The new findings explain why Lutetia is different -- it is a very rare survivor of the original material that formed the rocky planets.

"Lutetia seems to be the largest, and one of the very few, remnants of such material in the main asteroid belt. For this reason, asteroids like Lutetia represent ideal targets for future sample return missions. We could then study in detail the origin of the rocky planets, including our Earth," concludes Pierre Vernazza.

Notes

[1] The electromagnetic spectrum represents the complete range of wavelengths covered by the different types of electromagnetic radiation. Visible light is the most familiar form, but many others exist. Many of these types of radiation are used in everyday life, such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared and ultraviolet light and X-rays.

[2] The Rosetta spacecraft, on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, flew past Lutetia on 10 July 2010.

[3] Rosetta's OSIRIS camera provided data in the ultraviolet, ESO's NTT provided data in visible light, while NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and Spitzer Space Telescope provided data in the near-infrared and mid-infrared respectively.

[4] The enstatite chondrites (E chondrites) are a unique class of meteorites that account for only about 2% of the recovered meteorite falls. The unusual mineralogy and chemistry of E chondrites is consistent with formation relatively close to the Sun. This is further supported by isotope measurements (verified for oxygen, nitrogen, ruthenium, chromium and titanium): E chondrites are the only groups of chondrites that have the same isotopic composition as the Earth and Moon system. This strongly suggests that the Earth formed from enstatite chondrite-type materials and also that E chondrites formed at about the same distance from the Sun as Earth.

In addition it has been recently shown that formation from enstatite chondrite bodies can explain Mercury's unusual and previously inexplicable composition. This suggests that Mercury -- like Earth -- largely accreted from enstatite chondrite-like materials.

[5] Although they all formed from similar material, it remains a mystery why the inner three planets are so different.

[6] This process is very much like the gravitational assist methods used to change the direction and speed of space probes by arranging for them to fly close to a planet.

[7] Some astronomers think that the gaseous giant may have been closer to the Sun in the early days of the Solar System, before moving outwards to its current position. This would have caused havoc in the orbits of other objects of the inner Solar System due to the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Southern Observatory - ESO.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. P. Vernazza, P. Lamy, O. Groussin, T. Hiroi, L. Jorda, P.L. King, M.R.M. Izawa, F. Marchis, M. Birlan, R. Brunetto. Asteroid (21) Lutetia as a remnant of Earth?s precursor planetesimals. Icarus, 2011; 216 (2): 650 DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2011.09.032

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/~3/WNrsr2FobwY/111111095110.htm

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Top Paris store drops carols for rock n roll X-mas (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? Live rock and roll is replacing recorded Christmas carols in the windows of Galeries Lafayette as the Parisian department store seeks to drum up curiosity, and client numbers, for this year's gift-buying season.

True to tradition, the shop is putting on a dazzling show for shoppers and tourists alike in the countdown to Christmas, but this year it is seeking to strike a chord with music-mad teenagers as much as fairytale fans young and old.

With a debt crisis forcing much of Europe into austerity, consumption has dropped in recent weeks, making crowd-pullers all the more important, even for upmarket stores that can count on a large tourist contingent in the heart of the French capital.

Rock legend Iggy Pop, bare-chested as always, has helped Galeries Lafayette get the show on the road, posing for photo fliers in red Santa hat and matching shoes in addition to his signature electric guitar.

The goal of reaching out to teenagers rather than toddlers is clear.

The opening weeks include nightly live shows in the window by a variety of major-label rock and folk bands, one from Mali, another from Australia and most of the others from France itself.

And apart from the live shows, furry creatures and fairytale puppets will give way this year to life-size mannequins in black leather to rag dolls draped in glamour garb -- all hand-made, hand-painted and more hard-edged than the customary annual display of smurfs, snowmen and abundant lovable puppets.

Galeries Lafayette, which first started doing its Christmas window shows after World War Two, says that this year's show was inspired by the increasingly close relationship between rock and fashion.

There are other good reasons.

French household spending dropped 1.3 percent in September versus the same month a year earlier and spending on clothing fell 7.3 percent, according to France's statistics office.

"Shoppers are so stretched at the moment that actually getting them into the stores is the first challenge," said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Kantar Retail, an industry consultancy.

"Converting that shopper into a purchase is the next challenge."

(Reporting By Anna Maria Jakubek; Editing by Brian Love and Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111111/od_nm/us_xmas_rocknroll_odds_f

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Psychologists increase understanding of how the brain perceives shades of gray

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Vision is amazing because it seems so mundane. Peoples' eyes, nerves and brains translate light into electrochemical signals and then into an experience of the world around them. A close look at the physics of just the first part of this process shows that even seemingly simple tasks, like keeping a stable perception of an object's color in different lighting conditions or distinguishing black and white objects, is, in fact, very challenging.

University of Pennsylvania psychologists, by way of a novel experiment, have now provided new insight into how the brain tackles this problem.

The research was conducted by professor David H. Brainard and post-doctoral fellow Ana Radonji?, both of the Department of Psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. They collaborated with Sarah R. Allred and Alan L. Gilchrist of Rutgers University's Department of Psychology.

Their research will be published in the journal Current Biology.

The process of seeing an object begins when light reflected off that object hits the light-sensitive structures in the eye. In terms of color shade, the perception of an object's lightness depends on the object's reflectance. Objects that appear lighter reflect a larger percentage of light than those that appear darker; a white sheet of paper might reflect 90 percent of the light that hits it, while a black sheet of paper might only reflect 3 percent.

Interestingly, due to differences in illumination across a scene, the intensity of the light that comes from a surface to an observer's eye does not tell the observer about the surface's lightness. Although it might seem counterintuitive, a black sheet of paper in direct sunlight might reflect thousands of times more light into a person's eyes than a white object in the shade. To determine the shade of gray of a paper, the brain must therefore do more than measure the absolute intensity of light entering the eye.

"The amazing fact about our brains is that they deliver a perception of objects that is stable over the huge range of light that gets to our eyes. We want to know how the brain takes the amount of light that gets to the eye and turns it into a perception that depends on the object rather than on that total amount of light," Brainard said. "If the brain couldn't do that, objects wouldn't have a stable appearance, and it would be a disaster."

One of the puzzling aspects of this capability is that the range of the reflectance of objects is relatively small, especially compared to the range of light intensities in images coming from the world. In the earlier example, the white paper is only 30 times as reflective as the black paper, but the absolute amount of light that they actually reflect can vary by a much greater degree.

"Within one snapshot, the intensity of light coming of the brightest portion of the image could be a million times greater than that coming from the darkest portion," Radonji? said. "The question is how does the visual system map the huge range of intensities within a single image onto the much smaller but meaningful range of surface lightnesses."

Indeed, it is the mismatch of ranges that presents one of the fundamental perceptual challenges for the brain. If it picks the lightest part of an image as "white" and a shade 30 times as dark as "black," preserving the reflectance range, there could be a tremendous number of shades that are darker still that would be indistinguishable from each other.

One hypothesis is that the brain works around this problem by segmenting the image into separate regions of illumination, thereby reducing the range of luminance it must compare.

"If you can get all of the surfaces to be in the same region of illumination, then the reflectance range and luminance range will match, allowing the visual system to use within-region ratios to estimate surface lightness," Radonji? said.

To test whether this is indeed the mechanism at work, the researchers decided to push the limits of the visual system. They conducted an experiment where participants viewed images that, similar to real world images, had a very large range of light intensities ? as large as 10,000 to 1. Unlike natural images, however, those images did not contain any cues that would allow the visual system to segment them into separate regions of illumination.

To perform the experiment, the research team built a custom high dynamic range display. Participants were then asked to look at a 5x5 checkerboard composed of grayscale squares with random intensities spanning the 10,000 to 1 range. The participants were asked to report what shades of gray a target square looked like by selecting a match from a standardized gray scale.

If the visual system relied only on ratios to determine surface lightness, then the ratio of checkerboard intensities the participants reported should have had the same ratio as that of the black and white samples on the reflectance scale, about 100 to 1. Instead, however, the researchers found that this ratio could be as much as 50 times higher, more than 5,000 to 1.

"We're pushing this visual system beyond the limit we think it normally has to deal with, and because people can still make discernments in this situation it means that the ratio hypothesis is not the only one that's at work. Our experiment blows that out of the water," Brainard said. "What seems to happen instead is that the visual system takes that huge intensity range and maps it gracefully onto grayscale values in a way that preserves one's ability to discern between shades across high ranges of light intensities."

While the experiment doesn't reveal the actual mechanism behind the brain's ability to reconcile the mismatch in ranges, it does suggest new avenues of vision research in both psychology and biology. Further experiments may show how these discernments are made, why the eyes and brain are able to keep making them even in situations beyond what can be encountered in the real world, and how the phenomena demonstrated in this experiment operate along with other visual mechanisms for images that incorporate more of the richness of the real world.

###

University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor returns to hospital

LOS ANGELES?? Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was rushed to a hospital on Wednesday for the second time in less than a month after complications arose from her recently replaced feeding tube, her husband said.

'Her stomach is bleeding and her feeding tube is coming out," Frederic Prinz von Anhalt told Reuters. "It's not good."

The 94-year-old actress was hospitalized just over two weeks ago due to complications with a feeding tube attached to her stomach. The tube was replaced and she returned home.

Gabor has been in and out of hospitals numerous times since July 2010, when she fell out of bed and broke her hip. Last January, doctors amputated a portion of her leg and in February, she was treated for a lung infection.

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Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45228176/ns/today-entertainment/

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Paul Snyder: "Christmas Tree Tax" Was Not a Tax, Not Obama's, But Local Farms Trying to Help Themselves (Huffington post)

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2 reeling first-place teams meet Thursday

San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers stares back at the field as coach Norv Turner, left, walks past after Rivers threw his second interception for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers stares back at the field as coach Norv Turner, left, walks past after Rivers threw his second interception for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Oakland Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer (3) passes against the Denver Broncos in the third quarter of an NFL football game in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Two reeling teams that somehow remain atop their division open the NFL's Thursday night package in Oakland. Picking a winner could come down to who throws more picks: Philip Rivers of the Chargers or Carson Palmer of the Raiders.

San Diego has lost three straight, allowing a solid grip on the slippery division to disappear. Now, the Chargers are tied with Oakland, loser of two straight, and Kansas City at 4-4.

Certainly the league was hoping for some sort of shootout as it begins its NFL Network telecasts, and it might get one. If the air is filled with footballs, look for defenders to be catching some of them.

Rivers, having the worst season of his eight-year career, ranks 20th in passer rating, has thrown a league-high 14 interceptions and is making poor decisions. Last Sunday, two of his passes were returned for touchdowns and a third nearly was.

He also helped the Chargers keep it close in a 45-38 loss to unbeaten Green Bay.

"We scored 38 points. That in itself is good," Rivers said. "Obviously, you can't turn the ball over. That was the difference in the game, turning it over. That's something I need to keep working on and do a better job of. We gave ourselves a chance and never quit. But there's no consolation when you lose."

Oakland, a 7-point underdog, has lost divisional games to Kansas City and Denver, bringing both of those clubs back into the AFC West race. As expected, new quarterback Carson Palmer looked rusty (or worse) in the six quarters he's played since ending his self-imposed retirement and being traded by Cincinnati to the Raiders.

Palmer has thrown six interceptions and three touchdowns and has an ugly 53.9 rating.

"You go out and win on Thursday night and it's a great feeling again," Palmer said. "You have a chance to be on top of the division, but you have a chance to get a win and feel good about your team and just keep trucking through the season. I'm extremely excited about what we can be. I think the future is bright."

San Diego's immediate future is brighter.

CHARGERS, 34-23

Detroit (plus 3) at Chicago

Lions come off bye, Bears off nice Monday night showing. Both are wild-card threats.

BEST BET: BEARS, 24-23

St. Louis (plus 2?) at Cleveland

Hard to favor Browns over anyone, and Rams are beginning to show moxie.

UPSET SPECIAL: RAMS, 17-10

Buffalo (plus 5?) at Dallas

Bills are pretty good at fixing woes after a loss and match up well against inconsistent Cowboys.

BILLS, 28-27

Pittsburgh (minus 3) at Cincinnati

Bengals can stamp themselves as true contender with win here. We don't believe quite yet.

STEELERS, 23-17

New Orleans (pick-em) at Atlanta

Statement win for Falcons in NFC South race.

FALCONS, 30-28

New York Giants (plus 3?) at San Francisco

Renewal of a classic rivalry of the 1980s and early '90s. Winner has inside track for playoff bye.

GIANTS, 22-21

New England (plus 1?) at New York Jets

The matchups no longer work for the Patriots. Jets will get physical from outset.

JETS, 27-23

Minnesota (plus 13?) at Green Bay, Monday night

No Brett Favre drama this time. Or any drama.

PACKERS, 37-20

Denver (plus 3) at Kansas City

What happened to all that Chiefs momentum? They can recapture it here.

CHIEFS, 24-17

Jacksonville (minus 3) at Indianapolis

Might be Colts' best opportunity for a win. Do we have the guts to make that pick?

Nope.

JAGUARS, 20-7

Houston (minus 3) at Tampa Bay

Texans can really show they are new and improved with big road win.

TEXANS, 28-27

Tennessee (plus 3) at Carolina

Titans regressing, starting to look like rebuilding team, exactly what Panthers are.

PANTHERS, 23-16

Washington (plus 3?) at Miami

A winning streak for the Dolphins? Why not?

DOLPHINS, 17-13

Baltimore (minus 7) at Seattle

Even with the expected emotional letdown after win over Steelers, Ravens have too much for Seahawks.

RAVENS, 20-9

Arizona (OFF) at Philadelphia

Cardinals QB Kevin Kolb's injury erases any line. Eagles are finished if they fall.

EAGLES, 26-17

___

RECORD:

Against spread: 7-6 (overall 71-50-3); straight up 8-6 (overall 88-42).

Best Bet: 2-7 against spread, 4-5 straight up.

Upset Special: 7-2 against spread, 5-4 straight up.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-11-09-FBN-Pro-Picks/id-5fa6c6caa84744a9a028b1b83615817d

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