ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Trey Burke raised his eyebrows in disbelief when asked about Michigan's most remarkable stat of the night.
"We only had two turnovers as a team?" Burke said.
The top-ranked Wolverines were nearly flawless at the start Wednesday night, and they went on to an easy 68-46 victory over Northwestern.
Burke had 18 points and eight assists in Michigan's first game since taking over the top spot in the AP poll for the first time since the 1992-93 season.
The Wolverines (20-1, 7-1 Big Ten) made 10 of their first 11 shots and went the entire first half without a turnover. They didn't commit a foul, either, until the final minute of the half.
Michigan's two turnovers for the game equaled a national low for any team this season, according to STATS.
"There's been times we had two turnovers ... in the first minute," coach John Beilein said. "We'll take it, and we'll move on."
The Wolverines can now prepare for Saturday night's showdown at No. 3 Indiana. Michigan fans began chanting "Beat the Hoosiers!" toward the end of Wednesday's game.
Michigan played without forward Jordan Morgan, who sprained his right ankle last weekend. Jon Horford started in Morgan's place and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Although Northwestern also shot well at the beginning, the Wolverines were relentless. Some of their points came easily, such as an alley-oop from Burke to Glenn Robinson III in transition.
But Michigan was also sharp from the outside. Nik Stauskas made a 3-pointer and Robinson added a layup, causing Wildcats coach Bill Carmody to call the first of two early timeouts. Stauskas added another 3 to give the Wolverines a 15-9 lead, and Michigan led by as many as 16 later in the half.
It was 36-21 at halftime.
The Wolverines didn't have any turnovers until 6-foot-10 freshman Mitch McGary tried to start a fast break himself by dribbling up the court and lost the ball with less than 12 minutes left.
"It's a very good passing team, especially with Burke," Carmody said. "They don't make mistakes. It's a good team. They can make you look pretty bad sometimes."
Alex Olah scored 10 points for Northwestern (12-10, 3-6).
"You have to approach every team the same, but we know that's the best team in the country, and Trey's one of the best players in the nation," Olah said. "Even if you make him give up the ball, they've got so many other guys who can score."
Northwestern looked ready to make a game of it when Dave Sobolewski was fouled shooting a 3-pointer with 15:37 to play and the score 40-31, but the sophomore guard missed all three free throws.
A three-point play by Horford made it 50-33.
Michigan finished at only 51 percent from the field, but Northwestern never really recovered from the early flurry.
Although Beilein has done his best to downplay the No. 1 ranking, there was a slightly different vibe before this game in Ann Arbor. Courtside fans were given big foam fingers to hold.
The Wolverines twice needed overtime to beat Northwestern last season, but Michigan won the first meeting of 2012-13 by 28 points earlier this month.
As expected, the rematch was played at a slow pace ? which made Michigan's quick double-digit lead all the more impressive.
"We have played Northwestern 12 times. I will be 60 soon, but I'm going to celebrate it as my 72nd birthday," Beilein said. "They've aged me 12 years. Getting ready for them is incredible. It is a tremendous challenge for our team."
Northwestern beat Illinois and Minnesota recently, but the Wildcats are without forward Drew Crawford for the rest of the season because of a right shoulder injury. Reggie Hearn, the team's leading scorer, was held to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting.
Northwestern shot 4 of 19 from 3-point range.
Robinson scored 13 points for Michigan, and Stauskas added 11.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Former Mayor Ed Koch has been moved to intensive care for closer monitoring of the fluid in his lungs and legs, his spokesman said Thursday.
Koch's cardiologist wanted to keep a closer eye on the 88-year-old, who was also showing an iron deficiency, spokesman George Arzt said.
Koch was readmitted to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital on Monday with shortness of breath. He had been released two days earlier after being treated for water in his lungs and legs. He had initially been admitted on Jan. 19.
His hospitalization follows two other ones in recent months.
In December, he was admitted with a respiratory infection. The former mayor was also hospitalized in September after feeling weak while staying with friends in North Carolina. He was treated for anemia, was released after three days and said he planned to head straight to his office at a law firm.
In 2009, Koch spent five weeks at the hospital, undergoing a quadruple bypass in June and gallbladder surgery in July.
Koch was mayor for three terms, from 1978 through 1989, and is credited with saving the city from near-financial ruin. His trademark question to residents was, "How'm I doing?"
Washington: Armed men barged into a Gurudwara in California City and took away the money from a donation box kept inside the complex, police said.
According to the local Livingston Police in California, three robbers entered the Gurudwara through the front door early on Sunday morning. One of the men was armed with a gun, while another with a knife. The third robber was unarmed.
The three men took a few thousand dollars from a donation box and left through a side door, local newspaper Merced Sunstar quoted police as saying on Tuesday.
North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) president Satnam Singh Chahal also said that the three men took money from the donation box and left through a side door.
Police Chief Ruben Chavez said all of the men were wearing hooded jackets or sweatshirts, concealing their identities. Police are searching for three unidentified men.
Chavez said while money has been stolen from the donation box before, it's the first robbery that he knows of at the Gurudwara. "This is more brazen because they did come in armed. Obviously it's someone who knew the temple because they knew where to go," he was quoted as saying.
"We're looking at different angles, and we will do our best to get to the bottom of it. We really want to identify who they are," Chavez said.
Sikhs make up nearly 20 per cent of Livingston's population.
In August, a Wisconsin shooting rampage at a Sikh Gurudwara left seven people dead.
Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra, who worships at both of the city's Sikh Gurudwaras, classified Sunday's robbery as "very disturbing."
"I was in Fresno when I got the call," Samra said. "The first thing that flashed in my mind was Wisconsin, right away."
The Wisconsin incident was one of the reasons officials at the temple had surveillance cameras installed, said Narinder Dola, vice president of the temple.
Three persons, including a woman, were present inside the Gurudwara at the time of incident. Dola was glad those inside the Gurudwara didn't confront the robbers. "I think they did the smart move, they didn't do anything, they just kept quiet."
A Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldier uses his mobile phone while another watches as they stand near a gas mask, bottom left, in their newly-dug trench at an outpost a mile away from a hill top ceased by Myanmar's government troops, five miles away from the town of Laiza, in Northern Myanmar's Kachin-controlled region, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. A key outpost protecting the headquarters of ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar has fallen to government troops, a spokesman for the guerrilla group said Sunday. The Kachin Independence Army spokesman said the hillside outpost at Hka Ya Bhum, near the guerrilla group's headquarters in the town of Laiza, was overrun Saturday afternoon. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
A Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldier uses his mobile phone while another watches as they stand near a gas mask, bottom left, in their newly-dug trench at an outpost a mile away from a hill top ceased by Myanmar's government troops, five miles away from the town of Laiza, in Northern Myanmar's Kachin-controlled region, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. A key outpost protecting the headquarters of ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar has fallen to government troops, a spokesman for the guerrilla group said Sunday. The Kachin Independence Army spokesman said the hillside outpost at Hka Ya Bhum, near the guerrilla group's headquarters in the town of Laiza, was overrun Saturday afternoon. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Myanmar's nearly 2-year-old reformist government has abolished a ban on public gatherings of more than five people that was ordered in 1988 on the day a military junta took power after crushing nationwide pro-democracy protests.
The state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported Tuesday that Order No 2/88 was abolished as it was not in line with a section of the constitution that says existing laws should remain valid as long as are not contrary to the constitution, which guarantees basic rights such as freedom of expression.
The order had been applied selectively to crush dissent against the military regimes that held power until the elected government of President Thein Sein took office in 2011. His administration has instituted political liberalization, including lifting strict censorship.
The order had declared "Gathering or marching in processions and delivering speeches on the streets by a group of 5 or more people are banned." The junta used many catch-all or vaguely defined orders and laws as a means of suppressing dissent, and courts generally handed out stiff sentences, jailing thousands of political prisoners. Most have been freed under amnesties promulgated by President Thein Sein.
In December 2011, a "Peaceful Assembly Law" was implemented specifically allowing public protests. However, permission must be obtained in advance, without which organizers are subject to penalties including prison terms. Several people have been arrested under the statute.
Exercise of the new-won freedoms has tested the patience of the authorities. Last year, sensationalistic photos and stories in the media threatened to exacerbate already deep tensions triggered by violent clashes between two separate ethnic communities in western Myanmar.
A defense ministry statement published in state media Tuesday blamed unspecified embassies, organizations and media of releasing news and announcements that could cause misunderstanding of the military and the government in connection with fighting against guerrillas of the Kachin ethnic minority in the north.
The statement carried in the Myanma Ahlin daily said the embassies and media had made one-sided reports of the army's activities that failed to mention destructive acts carried out by the Kachin Independence Army, and its attacks on government convoys carrying food supplies to bases.
It said the army was carrying out its duty to ensure the people's safety and smooth and secure transportation, and "has inevitably launched military operations in self-defense." It added that the military reiterated its commitment to fostering eternal peace and national unity with ethnic minorities including the Kachin.
The statement did not mention any specific organization, but the foreign ministry last week issued a statement rejecting a U.S. embassy statement of concern over government military activities.
The same issue of the newspaper reported that two villagers were injured when their motorcycle hit a land mine planted by the Kachin, and stated that the guerrillas had burned down a jade company building in same area.
The Kachin, like Myanmar's other ethnic minorities, have long sought greater autonomy from the central government. They reached a peace agreement with the previous military regime in 1994 but a cease-fire agreement broke down in June 2011 after the Kachin refused to abandon a strategic base near a hydropower plant that is a joint venture with a Chinese company.
The conflict has forced about 100,000 Kachin from their homes since then, and many are in camps near the Kachin headquarters in Laiza near the Chinese border.
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985. Its a distance learning national university. IGNOU is run by the central government of India. In 1987, The University had started offering two academic courses (Diploma in Management and Diploma in Distance Education) with only 4528 students. Today IGNOU has more than 4 million students in India. It has more than 60 Regional centres. Now IGNOU is offering a lot of academic courses. The course fees are also very affordable. The University has made a significant mark in the areas of higher education, community education and continual professional development.
Address: INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068 India
Official Website of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU University)
http://www.ignou.ac.in/
Youtube page of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU University)
After opening up sales in the US and Germany, Google has started selling its highly sought-after Nexus 4 smartphone in the UK, France and Spain [Update: not Australia] via?the Google Play Store.
According to?TechCrunch, Google is promising?shipping times as 1-2 weeks in each market.
As we?ve previously detailed,?LG, which Google partnered with to design and manufacture the device?has been blamed in the past for the shortage.?Dan Cobley, the Managing Director of Google?s UK division,?took to Google+ last month to explain the issues, going so far as to apologize for LG?s ?scarce and erratic? supply of the smartphone. He later called LG?s communication ?flawed?, and promised that the device was now being shipped for anyone who had originally received a three to five day delivery estimate.
When we first reviewed the Nexus 4 back in November 2012, we called the device both beautiful and powerful; we found it proof that Google Now is the future of Android.
If you?re interest is piqued, you can snag one for yourself here.
If you like what you've seen so far from RIM BlackBerry's big launch event today, then you might want to know when you can get it? Those in the US might have hoped the rumors weren't true, but indeed, you will have to wait until March before you can get your hands on BlackBerry 10. Though when it does land, customers of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint (only Q10 confirmed) and T-Mobile (Z10 confirmed) will all be able to get onboard. The latter of that list has already confirmed it'll be stocking the LTE version of the Z10. BlackBerry's giving its home turf a little bit of a head start with a February 5th release date, but -- as we'd already heard -- it's the UK that gets the goods first, with the Z10 and Q10 both available starting tomorrow on all the major carriers. US pricing will depend on each operator, but expect to pay around $200.
How does the sense of smell work? Today two competing camps of scientists are at war over this very question. And the more controversial theory has just received important new experimental confirmation.
At issue is whether our noses use delicate quantum mechanisms for sensing the vibrations of odor molecules (aka odorants). Does the nose, in other words, read off the chemical makeup of a mystery odorant?say, a waft of perfume or the aroma of wilted lettuce?by ?ringing? it like a bell? Chemistry and forensics labs do this all the time with spectrometers?machines that bounce infrared light off mystery materials to reveal the telltale vibrations that the light provokes. Olfaction might, according to the vibration theory of smell, do the same using tiny currents of electrons instead of infrared photons (see previous coverage of the vibration theory here).
The predominant theory of smell today says: No way. The millions of different odorants in the world are a little more like puzzle pieces, it suggests. And our noses contain scores of different kinds of receptors that each prefer to bind with specific types of piecesSo a receptor that is set to bind to a molecule called limonene sends a signal to our brains when it finds that compound, and that's one of the cues behind the smell of citrus. Likewise that same receptor wouldn't bind to hydrogen sulfide?which smells of rotten eggs.
So, the promoters of the standard theory say, the familiar chemical interactions between receptor and odorant are all that's needed to explain olfaction. No fancy quantum vibration theory is necessary.
Yet here's a twist: odorant molecules typically contain many hydrogen atoms. And hydrogen comes in multiple forms, each very chemically similar to the others. But those different isotopes of hydrogen do strongly affect how a molecule vibrates. So deuterium, containing a hydrogen nucleus that has both a proton and a neutron (as opposed to plain-old-hydrogen that has just a proton), might help scientists discriminate between the proposed vibration and standard chemical binding theories of olfaction.
According to new research published today in PLoSONE, human noses can sniff out the presence of at least some kinds of deuterium. Specifically, experimenters found regular musk molecules smelled different from ones that contain deuterium. "Deuterated" musks, says researcher Luca Turin of the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center in Greece, lose much of their musky odor and instead contain overtones of burnt candle wax.
The finding represents a victory for the vibration theory, Turin says. And, he adds, it makes some sense, when you consider the purpose of our olfactory ability?whatever its mechanism is. The natural world contains thousands of types of molecules. Some are good for us, and some are bad. The nose helps to distinguish one from the other. "Olfaction is trying to be like an analytical chemist," Turin says. "It's trying to identify unknowns." Chemists identify unknowns using spectrometers. Olfactory receptors, according to the vibration theory, act like little wetware spectrometers.
Adding to Turin's quiver is a 2011 finding in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicating that drosophila flies, too, can smell the difference between a molecule called acetophenone (which to humans smells sweet) and its deuterated cousin.
That?s all well and good, says Eric Block, professor of chemistry at the University at Albany in New York State. But, he says, it hardly proves the vibration theory. For one, he points out that Turin once claimed humans, like drosophilia, could sniff out a deuterated version of the molecule acetophenone from the regular stuff. But in 2004 Nature Neuroscience published a contrary claim, that human noses can't smell the presence of deuterium in acetophenone (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). In Turin?s new paper, he says he's confirmed the 2004 finding, but Block remains unconvinced.
Who says you have to be Miami to have a South Beach night out?
Say adios to cabin fever with these vacation-inspired dates.
It happens every year: we love winter at first. The twinkly lights, the roaring fireplace and sparkly white snow all pull at our heartstrings. Not to mention, it's that time of year again where you can snuggle extra close to your date because you're "chilly."
More from YourTango: Love Bytes: Do Weddings Make Single Women Crazy?
But once the holidays have passed and the snow starts piling higher and the temperature drops lower, being trapped inside isn't so cute anymore and you feel like you've caught a serious case of cabin fever. Ugh.
Wouldn't you give practically anything to be lounging on a tropical beach somewhere, feeling the sand between your perfectly pedicured toes and sipping on a frozen daiquiri? Us too.
That's why we've come up with a list of themed date nights for any tropical vacation destination from Florida?s beaches to the French Riviera to cure your winter blues.
These staycation dates are hot, hot, hot!
View the gallery: 5 Date Night Ideas To Beat The Winter Blues [PHOTOS]
More from YourTango: An Honest Love Note From The Eighth Grade
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University.
The study, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, bolsters the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. The research was conducted by Lee Saper, a recent Brown graduate, with Jack Mustard, professor of geological sciences.
The ridges, many of them hundreds of meters in length and a few meters wide, had been noted in previous research, but how they had formed was not known. Saper and Mustard thought they might once have been faults and fractures that formed underground when impact events rattled the planet's crust. Water, if present in the subsurface, would have circulated through the cracks, slowly filling them in with mineral deposits, which would have been harder than the surrounding rocks. As those surrounding rocks eroded away over millions of years, the seams of mineral-hardened material would remain in place, forming the ridges seen today.
To test their hypothesis, Saper and Mustard mapped over 4,000 ridges in two crater-pocked regions on Mars, Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis. Using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers noted the orientations of the ridges and composition of the surrounding rocks.
The orientation data is consistent with the idea that the ridges started out as fractures formed by impact events. A competing hypothesis suggests that these structures may have been sheets of volcanic magma intruding into the surrounding rock, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At Nili Fossae, the orientations are similar to the alignments of large faults related to a mega-scale impact. At Nilosyrtis, where the impact events were smaller in scale, the ridge orientations are associated with each of the small craters in which they were found. "This suggests that fracture formation resulted from the energy of localized impact events and are not associated with regional-scale volcanism," Saper said.
Importantly, Saper and Mustard also found that the ridges exist exclusively in areas where the surrounding rock is rich in iron-magnesium clay, a mineral considered to be a telltale sign that water had once been present in the rocks.
"The association with these hydrated materials suggests there was a water source available," Saper said. "That water would have flowed along the path of least resistance, which in this case would have been these fracture conduits."
As that water flowed, dissolved minerals would have been slowly deposited in the conduits, in much the same way mineral deposits can build up and eventually clog drain pipes. That mineralized material would have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. And indeed, Saper and Mustard found that these ridges were only found in areas that were heavily eroded, consistent with the notion that these are ancient structures revealed as the weaker surrounding rocks were slowly peeled away by wind.
Taken together, the results suggest the ancient Martian subsurface had flowing water and may have been a habitable environment.
"This gives us a point of observation to say there was enough fracturing and fluid flow in the crust to sustain at least a regionally viable subsurface hydrology," Saper said. "The overarching theme of NASA's planetary exploration has been to follow the water. So if in fact these fractures that turned into these ridges were flowing with hydrothermal fluid, they could have been a viable biosphere."
Saper hopes that the Curiosity rover, currently making its way across its Gale Crater landing site, might be able to shed more light on these types of structures.
"In the site at Gale Crater, there are thought to be mineralized fractures that the rover will go up and touch," Saper said. "These are very small and may not be exactly the same kind of feature we studied, but we'll have the opportunity to crush them up and do chemical analysis on them. That could either bolster our hypothesis or tell us we need to explore other possibilities."
###
The research was supported by a grant from NASA's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium and through a NASA subcontract with the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.
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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.
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University.
The study, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, bolsters the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. The research was conducted by Lee Saper, a recent Brown graduate, with Jack Mustard, professor of geological sciences.
The ridges, many of them hundreds of meters in length and a few meters wide, had been noted in previous research, but how they had formed was not known. Saper and Mustard thought they might once have been faults and fractures that formed underground when impact events rattled the planet's crust. Water, if present in the subsurface, would have circulated through the cracks, slowly filling them in with mineral deposits, which would have been harder than the surrounding rocks. As those surrounding rocks eroded away over millions of years, the seams of mineral-hardened material would remain in place, forming the ridges seen today.
To test their hypothesis, Saper and Mustard mapped over 4,000 ridges in two crater-pocked regions on Mars, Nili Fossae and Nilosyrtis. Using high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers noted the orientations of the ridges and composition of the surrounding rocks.
The orientation data is consistent with the idea that the ridges started out as fractures formed by impact events. A competing hypothesis suggests that these structures may have been sheets of volcanic magma intruding into the surrounding rock, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At Nili Fossae, the orientations are similar to the alignments of large faults related to a mega-scale impact. At Nilosyrtis, where the impact events were smaller in scale, the ridge orientations are associated with each of the small craters in which they were found. "This suggests that fracture formation resulted from the energy of localized impact events and are not associated with regional-scale volcanism," Saper said.
Importantly, Saper and Mustard also found that the ridges exist exclusively in areas where the surrounding rock is rich in iron-magnesium clay, a mineral considered to be a telltale sign that water had once been present in the rocks.
"The association with these hydrated materials suggests there was a water source available," Saper said. "That water would have flowed along the path of least resistance, which in this case would have been these fracture conduits."
As that water flowed, dissolved minerals would have been slowly deposited in the conduits, in much the same way mineral deposits can build up and eventually clog drain pipes. That mineralized material would have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock. And indeed, Saper and Mustard found that these ridges were only found in areas that were heavily eroded, consistent with the notion that these are ancient structures revealed as the weaker surrounding rocks were slowly peeled away by wind.
Taken together, the results suggest the ancient Martian subsurface had flowing water and may have been a habitable environment.
"This gives us a point of observation to say there was enough fracturing and fluid flow in the crust to sustain at least a regionally viable subsurface hydrology," Saper said. "The overarching theme of NASA's planetary exploration has been to follow the water. So if in fact these fractures that turned into these ridges were flowing with hydrothermal fluid, they could have been a viable biosphere."
Saper hopes that the Curiosity rover, currently making its way across its Gale Crater landing site, might be able to shed more light on these types of structures.
"In the site at Gale Crater, there are thought to be mineralized fractures that the rover will go up and touch," Saper said. "These are very small and may not be exactly the same kind of feature we studied, but we'll have the opportunity to crush them up and do chemical analysis on them. That could either bolster our hypothesis or tell us we need to explore other possibilities."
###
The research was supported by a grant from NASA's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium and through a NASA subcontract with the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.
[ | 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.
You simply can't control everything that your kids do on their smartphones, but a few simple steps will greatly reduce the risk.
By Leslie Meredith, TechNewsDaily
If online posts are tagged #NSFW ? not safe for work ? they're probably not appropriate for your kids. Over the weekend, Twitter's popular new video-making app Vine became stocked with porn.
Twitter has apologized for the pornographic clip that was included Monday as an editor's pick on the app's homepage stream and has removed the X-rated clip. But a whole lot of porn appears under a slew of hashtags, including #NSFW, #sex, #porn and other, um, more specific tags.
Chances are the videos will make the round of school lunchrooms before Twitter can clean up the service. But at Twitter and its video service?Vine ?that means adding a warning to say a post may contain possibly sensitive material. Twitter does not prohibit pornography as long as it's not used as a profile photo, a header image, a background image or violates U.S. law such as photos that involve children.
"Parents just don't have the opportunity to react. These things can happen in the blink of an eye," Joel Holl, CEO of?MMGuardian, a mobile monitoring app for parents, told TechNewsDaily.
Parents and teachers have been caught by surprise with the proliferation of both smartphones and apps. More than 30 percent of?American teens now own a smartphone, and that figure will reach 100 percent by 2016, according to Pew Research.
"An app goes viral and all the kids are talking about it, but parents may not even know it exists," Holl said. "Parents need some way of screening apps before kids use them."
Tips for parents
You simply can't control everything that your kids do on their smartphones, but a few simple steps will greatly reduce the risk:
If an app is based on sharing video, it can be a magnet for?porn. Apps that let kids send photos or videos that then "disappear" in a few seconds add to the risky nature of an app. The worst are those that connect kids with strangers for video chat.
Before downloading, read user reviews. You may get a heads up about questionable material.
Check the app's rating. Apple has a no-porn policy and assigns age ratings to each app. Google Play makes ratings optional and leaves their assignment up to app developers. However, the problems may stem from users, not the apps, so don't rely on either Apple or Google ratings in the same way as you do with video game and movie ratings.
Test the app yourself first to monitor other users' posts and interactions. If it's a social sharing app, search for hashtags (keywords) that signal inappropriate material ? if your search results turn up NSFW material, you can bet it's not safe for school, either.
As part of an ongoing solution, parents can use a?mobile security app?to receive alerts when a new app is downloaded to a child's phone, which provides an opportunity to step in and test the app earlier than might otherwise have been possible. Additional features to look for are the ability to block apps, set time limits on permissible apps and prevent texting while driving.
Copyright 2013 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
With more than 700,000 apps to choose from, finding the right ones for your needs can be overwhelming. Digital expert Mario Armstrong shares his picks for the best smartphone apps to keep you fit, organize travel plans, create photo books, and more.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. companies likely increased their orders for long-lasting manufactured goods that reflect investment plans. That would be an encouraging sign for the economy.
Economists are forecasting that orders for durable goods rose 1.9 percent in December, according to a survey by FactSet. The Commerce Department will release the report at 8:30 a.m. EST Monday.
In November, companies for the second straight month ordered more goods that signal investment plans.
Orders for core capital goods, the category that is considered a proxy for business investment plans, increased a solid 2.6 percent in November after a 3 percent rise in October which had been the strongest gain in 10 months.
Factories appear to be recovering slowly from a slump earlier in the year although there are still concerns given a weak global economy that is restraining U.S. exports.
Analysts believe that companies will boost spending further on computers and other equipment to expand and modernize now that Congress and President Barack Obama have reached a deal on taxes that will remove uncertainty that had been weighing on business investment decisions.
The last-minute agreement was approved by Congress on Jan. 1 and signed by Obama the next day. It averted widespread tax increases that had threatened to push the country back into recession. Still, most Americans will see some increase in taxes this year, which will likely slow consumer spending.
The Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. manufacturing had grown slightly in December with its manufacturing index rising to 50.7. That was up from a reading of 49.5 in November, which had been the lowest reading since July 2009, one month after the recession ended.
A reading above 50 indicates growth in manufacturing, while a reading below signals contraction.
The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the April-June quarter. The government will provide its first look at overall economic growth in the October-December quarter on Wednesday. Many analysts believe growth slowed in the final three months of last year to less than 2 percent.
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pushed Congress on Tuesday to overhaul the U.S. immigration system but disagreement with Republicans over securing the border with Mexico has already begun to sour bipartisan efforts.
"We need Congress to act on a comprehensive approach that finally deals with the 11 million undocumented immigrants," Obama said at a high school in Las Vegas.
After years on the back burner, immigration reform has suddenly looked possible as Republicans, chastened by Latino voters who rejected them in the November election, look more kindly on an immigration overhaul.
Obama spoke a day after a group of influential Senate Democrats and Republicans laid out a broad plan of their own that is similar to White House immigration proposals.
But differences quickly emerged between what Obama would like and the proposals by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" senators.
While the senators' plan insists on first toughening border security before allowing illegal immigrants to take steps to gain citizenship, the Obama plan does not.
That difference was enough to raise concerns among Republican lawmakers who are trying to frame a package that can pass the Republican-led House of Representatives. A Hispanic Republican, Senator Marco Rubio, warned Obama not to ignore his party's concerns about border security.
"I think that would be a terrible mistake," Rubio told Fox News. "We have a bipartisan group of senators that have agreed to that. For the president to try to move the goalposts on that specific requirement, as an example, does not bode well in terms of what his role's going to be in this or the outcome."
Under the Obama proposal, undocumented workers would be required to register, undergo national security and criminal background checks, pay fees and penalties, learn English and go to the back of the immigration line behind those who are applying to enter the country legally.
"We all agree these men and women should have to earn their way to citizenship. But for comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship," Obama said.
However, Republicans will likely oppose any immigration plan that doesn't put border security first.
"This provision is key to ensuring that border security is achieved, and is also necessary to ensure that a reform package can actually move through Congress," said newly elected Senator Jeff Flake of the border state of Arizona.
Another point of contention is expected to be whether same-sex couples are granted the same benefits as heterosexual couples under immigration reform - something the White House says Obama will insist upon but which the Senate group did not deal with.
Obama's speech in Nevada a little more than a week after his second inauguration reflects the growing clout of Hispanic voters, as does Republican willingness to move on the issue.
The Democratic president said that if Congress is unable to act in a timely fashion, he will propose immigration legislation of his own and "insist that they vote on it right away."
Immigration reform could give Obama a landmark second-term legislative achievement, but the White House is mindful that success on such a divisive issue will require a delicate balancing act.
(additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland, Editing by Alistair Bell and Doina Chiacu)
If you are setting up a blog one of the first things you need to do is choose a domain name, This is your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is your virtual address on the internet. Your domain name is what your loyal readers/potential customers will use to locate your blog.
Ideally, it needs to be a reasonably short, memorable name and you can be as creative as you like, Bear in mind, however, that a straightforward domain name such as www.monetizeblogging.com not only gives a clue to what the site is about (Monetization Tips), but is also useful in terms of search engine placement and optimization.
Domain names can be bought quite cheaply these days and have a variety of extensions such as .com, co.uk, biz and .tv are also available and other varieties are likely to come online in time. If ?possible, try to purchase the domain name with the .com extension and/or your country?extensions?(co.uk/co.fr/co.za, etc).
Consider the following:
1. Have several domain name choices in mind. Your first one might not be available.
2. If possible, use a key word that relates to your product or service in the domain name.
3. Choose catchy, memorable name where possible.
4. Make sure the domain name is easy to spell.
5. Check the?sleeping?of your domain name before you make your purchase. Once you?ve pressed the purchase button, you can?t make any corrections.
6. Remember to renew your domain name on time annually to maintain ownership.
When choosing the domain name, remember the acronym RAIL:
1. R- recall. How easy is to recall the name?
2. A-aesthetics. How does the name look? Does it look good on business cards and company literature?
3. I-impressions. First impressions are crucial. Does the name sound good?
4. L-length. Domain names are limited to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, ten numerals and hyphen ? 37 characters in all. When?picking?a name, less is more. A short name is preferable to a long one.
The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force to counter a growing threat of hacking and to conduct offensive operations against foreign foes, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing U.S. officials.
The officials, who were not named because the plan is not yet public, said the move would increase the cybersecurity force fivefold, from 900 personnel to a total of 4,900 troops and civilians.
It said senior Pentagon officials made the decision late last year amid a string of attacks, including one that wiped out more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company.
The increase in personnel was requested by the head of the Defense Department's Cyber Command.
A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment, but said he was aware of the report in the Washington Post.
The plan, the paper said, calls for creating three types of force under the Cyber Command.
"National mission forces," would protect computer systems that undergird electrical grids and other kinds of infrastructure. "Combat mission forces," would help commanders abroad execute attacks or other offensive operations, while "cyber protection forces," would focus on protecting the Defense Department's own systems.
(Reporting by Sarah Lynch; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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Allison Adato had been covering celebrity chefs for People magazine for a while when she noticed her jeans were getting a little snug because of a work calendar packed with food festivals, restaurant openings and other dining events.
At the same time, Adato realized that not all the chefs she was covering were overweight. Many were trim despite being surrounded by rich, tantalizing diet-busting food all day long. A quest for the answers to how those chefs did it led to Adato's book, "Smart Chefs Stay Slim: Lessons in Eating and Living from America's Best Chefs." The book includes more than 50 recipes from chefs like Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert.
Over email, Adato, who is now a senior editor at People magazine and who lives in New York, answered a few questions about the book.
Q: Where did the idea for the book come from?
A: The idea to write the book came from my asking, 'How do the pros in this field handle this puzzle?' It was a question I heard from a lot of people when they learned I was writing about chefs they had seen on television: 'Why is she so thin?' or 'If I had his job, I'd be as big as a barn.' or 'What's his secret?'
So I set about asking some of the best chefs in the country who had also managed to either keep in shape or to lose a lot of weight, even as they continued working with the rich, wonderful food they feed us. People like Cat Cora, Thomas Keller, Rick Bayless and Michelle Bernstein shared their stories. As I learned how they ate on the job or at home with their families, the way I was eating and cooking also evolved.
Q: How did your cooking evolve?
A: I cook at home more often and rely less on takeout. I make sure to cook meals that will appeal to my husband and 10-year-old son, but also suit the way I want to eat too. For me the biggest lesson was eating only the food you love - not contorting your diet to include bland foods that you think will help you lose weight. ... Chefs don't cook at home the way they do at work, so I was happy to discover that the recipes they shared with me were very easy. What they do is pack food with a lot of flavor so that it satisfies.
Q: And what about eating healthy at restaurants?
A: They also had great tips about eating out since, as chefs and frequent diners, they consider the question from both sides of the plate. I loved hearing how Tom Colicchio will sometimes order only appetizers, or how Naomi Pomeroy will sometimes take home leftovers. If chefs do it, it is definitely OK for us to do so.
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a new smartphone from Xolo to India, HTC's crackdown on a custom ROM distributor and the UK's largest mobile spectrum auction to date. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of January 21st, 2013.
Xolo A500 debuts in India with Android 4.0
A new Android 4.0 smartphone known as the Xolo A500 became available within India this week, and from all appearances, it's entirely run of the mill. That said, with a price of ?6,999 ($130), it may just turn a few heads. The Xolo A500 sports a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display, along with a dual-core 1GHz CPU (Snapdragon S4 Play) and dual-SIM functionality. You'll also find a 5-megapixel rear camera, along with a front-facing VGA shooter. The device includes a 1,500mAh battery, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and supports microSD cards up to 32GB in size. [Fone Arena]
Ofcom kicks off 4G spectrum auction in UK
The largest mobile spectrum auction to date in the UK began this week, which is set to nearly double the wireless resources available to Britons. In all, 28 lots of spectrum are available across the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands, which will add 250MHz of spectrum to the 333MHz in use today. Telefonica (O2), Vodafone, EE, Hutchison (Three), Niche Spectrum Ventures (BT), HKT and MLL are participants in the auction, which carries a total reserve price of £1.36 billion. According to UK regulator Ofcom, the auction will take place in several rounds over the coming weeks. [Android Central]
AT&T CEO reveals interest in smartphone financing
Verizon's Lowell McAdam now has some company. During this week's earnings call, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed that AT&T is similarly monitoring T-Mobile's shift to drop the subsidized business model and instead provide customers the ability to finance their new smartphone purchase. While Stephenson may lack grace with his words, the intent is clear: "We expect there to be some dynamics in the marketplace that -- and we'll have to respond to some of it -- we find interesting, like the handset financing that they're doing." Curiously, Stephenson admitted that AT&T has considered the approach in the past, but like Verizon, much of how his company responds will depend on consumers' reception of T-Mobile's new approach. [FierceWireless]
US Cellular now offers carrier billing for online shopping
US Cellular announced this week that it now supports carrier billing for online purchases. The system was launched in partnership with Boku, and subscribers may pay for goods at participating merchants by entering their mobile number at checkout and then confirming the purchase with a text message. From there, customers will find the total amount of the purchase added to their wireless bill. [PhoneScoop]
AT&T working to integrate Data Sense for Windows Phone 8
Data Sense is one of the more unique features of Windows Phone 8, which allows users to monitor their data usage and squeeze more from their data plan through the magic of server-side compression. Verizon is the only carrier to support the feature within the US, but that may soon change, as AT&T has revealed that it's "exploring Data Sense and how to optimize the experience" for its subscribers. About damn time, right? [FierceWireless]
HTC forces shutdown of custom ROM site
A provider of many popular Sense-based ROMs is no more. This week, HTCRUU closed its doors and took its repositories offline in acquiescence to legal threats from HTC. Historically, HTC has taken an admirably lax approach to distribution of customized Sense ROMs, which are popular among enthusiasts of the company's smartphones. Naturally, many other sources exist for custom Sense blends, which raises the question of whether this move was but a one-off showing of legal force, or whether HTC will take a more active approach to ending the underground custom ROM community. Those interested can learn more of the situation on Reddit. [Android Police]
Other random tidbits
Following in the footsteps of Android and iOS, Microsoft has upped the mobile data cap of app downloads and updates for Windows Phone to 50MB. [WPCentral]
The Meizu MX2 is now available as a subsidized handset for customers of China Unicom. The smartphone can be gotten for free with all two-year plans of ¥226 or more per month, or with all three-year plans of ¥156 or more per month. [GSM Arena]
Colombia's state-owned telecom, UNE EPM, announced that it would invest $2.5 million to bring LTE services to Barranquilla -- the country's fourth most populous city -- which sports a population of approximately 1.8 million. [RCR Wireless]
An internal leak has revealed that the HTC 8S will become available at Bell Mobility on February 1st. [MobileSyrup]
Videotron has announced that it'll begin selling the Nexus 4 on January 30th. Similarly, Fido is accepting reservations (and a requisite $40 deposit) for the smartphone, which it's targeting for an early February arrival. [MobileSyrup 1, 2]
Jan. 25, 2013 ? Japanese researchers show for the first time that primates modify their body movements to be in tune with others, just like humans do. Humans unconsciously modify their movements to be in synchrony with their peers. For example, we adapt our pace to walk in step or clap in unison at the end of a concert. This phenomenon is thought to reflect bonding and facilitate human interaction. Researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute report that pairs of macaque monkeys also spontaneously coordinate their movements to reach synchrony.
This research opens the door to much-needed neurophysiological studies of spontaneous synchronization in monkeys, which could shed light into human behavioral dysfunctions such as those observed in patients with autism spectrum disorders, echopraxia and echolalia -- where patients uncontrollably imitate others.
In the research, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team led by Naotaka Fujii developed an experimental set-up to test whether pairs of Japanese macaque monkeys synchronize a simple push-button movement.
Before the experiment, the monkeys were trained to push a button with one hand. In a first experiment the monkeys were paired and placed facing each other and the timing of their push-button movements was recorded. The same experiment was repeated but this time each monkey was shown videos of another monkey pushing a button at varying speeds. And in a last experiment the macaques were not allowed to either see or hear their video-partner.
The results show that the monkeys modified their movements -- increased or decreased the speed of their push-button movement -- to be in synchrony with their partner, both when the partner was real and on video. The speed of the button pressing movement changed to be in harmonic or sub-harmonic synchrony with the partners' speed. However, different pairs of monkeys synchronized differently and reached different speeds, and the monkeys synchronized their movements the most when they could both see and hear their partner.
The researchers note that this behavior cannot have been learnt by the monkeys during the experiment, as previous research has shown that it is extremely difficult for monkeys to learn intentional synchronization.
They add: "The reasons why the monkeys showed behavioral synchronization are not clear. It may be a vital aspect of other socially adaptive behavior, important for survival in the wild."
The study was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas 'Neural creativity for communication' (22120522 and 24120720) of MEXT, Japan.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RIKEN.
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Journal Reference:
Yasuo Nagasaka, Zenas C. Chao, Naomi Hasegawa, Tomonori Notoya, Naotaka Fujii. Spontaneous synchronization of arm motion between Japanese macaques. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01151
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.
Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.
In isolation, this week's stories are all pretty notable, but if you put them together, it begins to sound a lot like the plot of a movie. Four-stranded DNA, a database of alien planets, a new super-chemical to kill hospital bugs and a byzantine gamma-radiation blast. You can almost picture the plucky heroine trying to unpick the galactic conspiracy before someone loses an eye -- and if you've already cast weepy Clare Danes in the role, then you've already passed the entry exam to read Alt-week.
NASA's Kepler observatory is designed to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and civilizations traces of exoplanets and has clocked up around two thousand unconfirmed sightings. The team behind the program have decided to lessen the workload by opening up its findings and letting armchair astronomers worldwide participate. As well as being able to chip in with opinions about what constitutes a planet, the team are letting students develop data mining experiments, looking for patterns that could assist in the discovery of alien life -- or just look neat when graphed visually.
Scientists think that a blast of Gamma radiation might have hit our planet in the halcyon days of the year 775. Fusa Miyake discovered Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10 traces in tree rings from the era, which point to a gamma ray burst from a celestial body other than the Sun. Of course, the natural question is why we have no recorded instances of Dr. Brvce Banner turning green and smashing up Byzantine Constantinople? Well, it seems that astrophysicist Ralph Neuhauser has the unexciting answer -- most of the radiation would have been caught by the atmosphere, meaning that it's highly unlikely anyone succumbed to an accidental overdose.
Hospital bugs like MRSA are easy to kill when they're outside your body, just as long as you've got some alcohol nearby. If they get inside you, then there's always the option of taking an antibiotic or two to kill 'em off. If, however, they've hitched a ride on a catheter that's implanted into your body, then the bugs can grow a biofilm -- in short, a biological beachhead that will constantly reinfect you and is impenetrable to antibiotics. IBM, in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, has developed a hydrogel that can be smeared all over such implants, greatly reducing the risk of infection. Safe enough to go into the human body, the hydrogel prevents biofilms from growing and, thanks to its positive charge, attracts negatively charged microorganisms, which it then pops like water balloons. There's no word on if Big Blue plans to share the discovery with chemical corporations, but it certainly sounds better than downing a shot of Purell every time we venture in for a check-up.
DNA can only be found in a double helix, right? That fact seems destined for the biology section of Snopes after scientists found a quadruple helix. A team at Cambridge University used structure-specific markers to tag the G-Quadruplex, proving that these structures can exist in the human body as well as in petri dishes and in simple organisms. It transpires that they can form during cell division at the point where DNA is being replicated, and may have a hand in the development of some cancers -- meaning they're of great interest to oncologists.
Seen any other far-out articles that you'd like considered for Alt-week? Working on a project or research that's too cool to keep to yourself? Drop us a line at alt [at] engadget [dot] com.
[Image Credit: NASA / IBM / JP Rodriguez / G.Biffi]
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Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
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If you are setting up a blog one of the first things you need to do is choose a domain name, This is your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is your virtual address on the internet. Your domain name is what your loyal readers/potential customers will use to locate your blog.
