The bird is the latest word in animal cafes | Japan Pulse

Whooo would like a cup of coffee?

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For feline fanciers who aren?t allowed to keep pets at home, Japan has no end of cat cafes. But now bird lovers of a feather can also flock together at Tokyo?s new wave of cafes that host birds of prey. According to Daily Portal, this burgeoning trend started with Caf? Little Zoo?in Chiba. A cafe that houses not only a number of owls and hawks outside its doors, but also reptiles within. Visitors to the cafe get to hold and pet the animals under the supervision of staff. The cafe is now so busy that groups of four or more are advised to make reservations.

Tori no Iru Cafe ? where the birds are

Also taking reservations due to a flurry of recent media coverage is Tori no Iru cafe near Kiba station on the Tozai line. The shop is home to a Harris Hawk, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, parakeets, parrots and other birds.? Here too, customers are allowed to pet and hold the birds ? while a staff member watches like a hawk, of course.

The manager, Ms. Toriyama,? opened the establishment after keeping birds as pets herself. Although she gushes in her? Daily Portal interview that owls are quiet and easy to take care of, a British charity called the Suffolk Owl sanctuary begs to differ. The sanctuary emphasizes that birds of prey are unpredictable creatures with sharp claws that do not take well to confined spaces. Indeed, according to the BBC, high numbers of owls were abandoned in the UK last year for just this reason, after the popularity of the Harry Potter films triggered a trend for keeping the birds as pets. All the more reason, perhaps, that owl-lovers might want to visit the birds instead of trying to keep them at home.

Fukuro no Mise (?owl shop?) near Tsukishima station has sweaters, cards and other goods shaped like or decorated with owls, as well as items to help you raise your very own owl at home. (However, the sanctuary recommends building an aviary to keep owls ? we can?t help but wonder where a Tokyoite might find the space for one.) At Fukuro no Mise, just like at the other bird cafes, owls that have been raised in captivity to be docile can be held and petted for the price of a cup of coffee. Their talons are trimmed and their beaks are filed to reduce scratching.

At the Falconer?s Caf? in Mitaka, falconry enthusiasts bring their own birds to compare and contrast. The concept of this cafe is rather similar to dog cafes where dogs are not held captive within the cafe but brought along by their owners. Though Japan?isn?t?the most litigious of societies, bringing together small children and birds of prey?doesn?t?strike us as the brightest of ideas for a business. Smoothed claws aside, it might take just one nasty scratch or peck to ground this trend before it really takes flight ? or at least to ruffle a few feathers.

Photo courtesy of WikiCommons.

Tags: birds, cafes, cats

Felicity Hughes is a freelance journalist who has written articles for The Japan Times, Metropolis magazine and The Guardian. She enjoys hunting down trends and relishes ripping the plastic wrapping off shiny new stuff. Her CV lives here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Culture, Entertainment, Food & drink, Lifestyles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Source: http://blog.japantimes.co.jp/japan-pulse/the-bird-is-the-latest-word-in-animal-cafes/

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Britain's top Catholic cleric resigns, won't elect new pope

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric resigned on Monday following allegations he behaved in an inappropriate way with priests, and said he would not take part in the election of Pope Benedict's replacement.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien said he had tendered his resignation some months ago, ahead of his 75th birthday in March and because he was suffering from "indifferent health".

The Vatican said the pope, who steps down on Thursday, had accepted O'Brien's resignation as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh.

O'Brien, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, has been reported to the Vatican over allegations of inappropriate behavior stretching back 30 years, according to Britain's Observer newspaper.

The cardinal, who last week advocated allowing Catholic priests to marry as many found it difficult to cope with celibacy, rejected the allegations and was seeking legal advice, his spokesman said.1

"Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologize to all whom I have offended," O'Brien said in a statement, which made no reference to the recent allegations.

He said he would not attend the election next month of a new pope, saying: "I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me - but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor."

The Observer, which gave little detail on the claims, said three priests and a former priest, from a Scottish diocese, had complained over incidents dating back to 1980.

One said the cardinal formed an "inappropriate relationship" with him while another complained of unwanted behavior by O'Brien after a late-night drinking session.

Last year, O'Brien's comments labeling gay marriage a "grotesque subversion" landed him with a "Bigot of the Year" award from British gay rights group Stonewall.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; editing by Maria Golovnina and Jon Boyle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britains-most-senior-roman-catholic-cleric-resigns-112040627.html

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Graphene: A material that multiplies the power of light

Feb. 24, 2013 ? Bottles, packaging, furniture, car parts... all made of plastic. Today we find it difficult to imagine our lives without this key material that revolutionized technology over the last century. There is wide-spread optimism in the scientific community that graphene will provide similar paradigm shifting advances in the decades to come. Mobile phones that fold, transparent and flexible solar panels, extra thin computers... the list of potential applications is endless.

The most recent discovery published in Nature Physics and made by researchers at the Institute of Photonic Science (ICFO), in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, and Graphenea S.L. Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, demonstrate that graphene is able to convert a single photon that it absorbs into multiple electrons that could drive electric current (excited electrons) -- a very promising discovery that makes graphene an important alternative material for light detection and harvesting technologies, now based on conventional semiconductors like silicon.

"In most materials, one absorbed photon generates one electron, but in the case of graphene, we have seen that one absorbed photon is able to produce many excited electrons, and therefore generate larger electrical signals" explains Frank Koppens, group leader at ICFO. This feature makes graphene an ideal building block for any device that relies on converting light into electricity. In particular, it enables efficient light detectors and potentially also solar cells that can harvest light energy from the full solar spectrum with lower loss.

The experiment consisted in sending a known number of photons with different energies (different colors) onto a monolayer of graphene. "We have seen that high energy photons (e.g. violet) are converted into a larger number of excited electrons than low energy photons (e.g. infrared). The observed relation between the photon energy and the number of generated excited electrons shows that graphene converts light into electricity with very high efficiency. Even though it was already speculated that graphene holds potential for light-to-electricity conversion, it now turns out that it is even more suitable than expected!" explains Tielrooij, researcher at ICFO.

Although there are some issues for direct applications, such as graphene's low absorption, graphene holds the potential to cause radical changes in many technologies that are currently based on conventional semiconductors. "It was known that graphene is able to absorb a very large spectrum of light colors. However now we know that once the material has absorbed light, the energy conversion efficiency is very high. Our next challenge will be to find ways of extracting the electrical current and enhance the absorption of graphene. Then we will be able to design graphene devices that detect light more efficiently and could potentially even lead to more efficient solar cells." concludes Koppens.

Scientists, industries and the European Commission are so convinced of the potential of graphene to revolutionize the world economy that they promise an injection of ?1.000 million in graphene research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. K. J. Tielrooij, J. C. W. Song, S. A. Jensen, A. Centeno, A. Pesquera, A. Zurutuza Elorza, M. Bonn, L. S. Levitov, F. H. L. Koppens. Photoexcitation cascade and multiple hot-carrier generation in graphene. Nature Physics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphys2564

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/top_news/~3/5QHhG2DLkpc/130224142831.htm

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Union workers at N. Ind. plant take severance deal

GOSHEN, Indiana ? Union workers at a northern Indiana trailer-hitch manufacturer have voted to forego arbitration and accept a severance agreement that will pay the most senior employees $36,000.

Most of the 350 United Steelworkers Local 9550 workers at Cequent Performance Products in Goshen supported the package in votes tallied Friday night, Local 9550 Vice President Deb Hathaway said.

"No matter what they give us it's still not enough for us losing our jobs," she said.

Steelworkers Sub District 4 Director Mike O'Brien said 240 of the 350 union members at the plant voted. He didn't disclose vote totals.

"It was certainly not unanimous but it wasn't close," O'Brien said. "I think a lot of people looked at, 'Well, this is what the company is offering and we take a chance going to arbitration.'"

Cequent, a subsidiary of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based TriMas Corp., announced in November it would move operations from the 450-employee plant 25 miles southeast of South Bend to Reynosa, Mexico, to lower shipping costs.

Workers with less than a year's seniority will receive $500 while those with 30 years or more will receive $36,000. Workers also will receive company health benefits for at least a month after they are laid off. The total severance package is worth more than $3.5 million, O'Brien said.

Layoffs began Friday, but O'Brien said he didn't know how many workers lost their jobs.

More than half the employees are scheduled to remain on the job through the end of June, with the last due to be let go in December.

Source: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/6982006e756e48fcb37a80518a293f1f/IN--Cequent-Factory-Closing

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Pharmaceutical Society alarmed over fake drug importation ...

The Greater Accra Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana has described as unfortunate news about the importation of fake drugs into the country.

Ernest Aboagye said he is alarmed and worried at such a discovery but said a greater danger is the practice where drugs are dispensed at both private and public health facilities without the supervision of pharmacists.

His comments come hours after the FDB issued a health alert about the importation of fake MIMET (Ergometrine) and Rox-Clav 625 Tablets into the country.

In an interview with Joy News, Ernest Aboagye said his outfit is not relenting in its efforts to ensure that the medicines given to end users are of high standards.

He said the huge problem facing the country is supervision at the various dispensaries and pharmacies.

According to him, too many pharmacies, private and public, have been selling drugs of different types to unsuspecting patients with dire consequences to the health of the patients.

He said the Council in the recent past took the National Health Insurance Authority to court over the same matter, stressing, there must not be an occasion where medicine is sold out without the presence of a pharmacist.

Such practices, he noted, is a huge public risk to Ghanaians.

Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/445482/1/pharmaceutical-society-alarmed-over-fake-drug-impo.html

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Keystone XL oil pipeline environmental impact statement 'imminent'

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Source: http://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3155404/Keystone-XL-oil-pipeline-environmental-impact-statement-imminent.html

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China, technology and the U.S. middle class: Chrystia Freeland

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech this week confirmed it: The pre-eminent political and economic challenge in the industrialized democracies is how to make capitalism work for the middle class.

There is nothing mysterious about that. The most important fact about the United States in this century is that middle-class incomes are stagnating. The financial crisis has revealed an equally stark structural problem in much of Europe.

Even in a relatively prosperous age ? for all of today's woes, we have left behind the dark, satanic mills and workhouses of the 19th century ? this decline of the middle class is more than an economic issue. It is also a political one. The main point of democracy is to deliver positive results for the majority.

All of which is why understanding what is happening to the middle class is urgently important. There is no better place to start than by talking to David Autor, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Autor is one of the leading students of the most striking trend bedeviling the middle class: the polarization of the job market. That is a nice way of saying the economy is being cleaved into high-paying jobs at the top and low-paying jobs at the bottom, while the middle-skill and middle-wage jobs that used to form society's backbone are being hollowed out.

But when I asked him this week what had gone wrong for the U.S. middle class, he gave a different answer: "The main problem is we've just had a decade of incredibly anemic employment growth. All of a sudden, around 2000 and 2001, things just slowed down."

Academics can usually be counted on to have a confident explanation for everything. That is why I was surprised and impressed by Autor's answer when I asked him where the jobs had gone. "No one really understands why that is the case," he said.

It was a winningly modest reply. But work by Autor and two colleagues ? David Dorn, a visiting professor at Harvard, and Gordon Hanson of the University of California, San Diego ? is starting to untangle the two forces that both the conventional wisdom and the academy agree are probably responsible for a lot of what is happening to the middle class.

Those forces are technological change and trade. The easy assumption is that the two go together. After all, trade needs technology ? it is hard to imagine outsourcing without the Internet, sophisticated logistics systems and jet travel. Technology is dependent on trade, too: The opportunity for global scale is one reason technological innovation has yielded such outsize rewards.

But in a careful study of local labor markets in the United States, Autor, Dorn and Hanson have found that trade and technology had very different consequences for jobs.

"We were surprised at how distinct the two were," Autor said. "We found that the trade shock had a very measurable impact on the employment rate. Technology led to job polarization, but its employment effect was minimal." Trade, at least in the short term, really did ship jobs overseas. Technology did not kill jobs per se, but it did hollow out those essential jobs in the middle.

The big surprise, at least for believers (like me) in the classic liberal economic view that trade benefits both parties, is the strong and negative impact of globalization on U.S. workers ? Autor estimates it accounts for 15 to 20 percent of jobs lost.

"The rise of China was such a huge change. It really did matter," Autor said. "First, China is such a huge country. Two, China was 40 or 50 years behind in technology, so it had a lot of catching up to do. Third, it happened so fast."

What is striking, and frightening, is the extent to which, at least in the U.S.-China trade relationship, the knee-jerk, populist fears intellectuals tend to deride actually turned out to be true.

"U.S.-China trade is almost a one-way street. This trade relationship doesn't clearly give you the benefit that you can sell a lot of stuff to your trade partner," Dorn said. "If you talk to someone who is somehow involved in the promotion of free trade, they may say that maybe the headquarters of Apple benefits. That may be true. But the first-order effect is of job loss."

The impact of technology is more familiar. Autor, Dorn and Hanson found that it did not create fewer jobs overall, but it did hollow out the jobs in the middle.

"Technology has really changed the distribution of occupation. That doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with reduced unemployment, but it creates a more bimodal set of opportunities," Autor said. "There is an abundance of work to do in food service and there is an abundance of work in finance, but there are fewer middle-wage, middle-income jobs."

What is challenging about both of these trends, and what makes the hollowing out of the middle class a political problem as well as an economic one, is how different they look depending on whether you own a company or work for one.

Shipping middle-class jobs to China, or hollowing them out with machines, is a win for smart managers and their shareholders. We call the result higher productivity. But, looked at through the lens of middle-class jobs, it is a loss. That profound difference is why politics in the rich democracies are so polarized right now. Capitalism and democracy are at cross-purposes, and no one yet has a clear plan for reconciling them.

(Chrystia Freeland is a Reuters columnist. Any opinions expressed are her own.)

(Chrystia Freeland is managing director and editor, Consumer News, for Thomson Reuters. Before that, she was editor of Thomson Reuters Digital. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, she was U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times. Her time at the Financial Times also included posts as deputy editor of the FT in London, editor of the FT's Weekend edition, editor of FT.com, UK News editor, Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent. From 1999 to 2001, Freeland served for two years as deputy editor of the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. She began her career working as a stringer in Ukraine, writing for the FT, the Washington Post and the Economist.)

(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-technology-u-middle-class-chrystia-freeland-181252646--finance.html

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Southern Mississippi Residents, University Ravaged By Tornado http://trib.al/8yJ...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/theloop21/posts/371948806246384

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Esquire Fabricates, Drudge Falls For It (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/284347897?client_source=feed&format=rss

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NCAA Puts 75 Years' Worth of March Madness Highlights on YouTube

In 1992 Duke beat Kentucky in the NCAA championship by making a basket in the last second of the game. And you can relive that incredible moment—and hours more—today because the NCAA has put 75 years worth of March Madness highlights on YouTube. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/p--VnxyoP5w/ncaa-puts-75-years-worth-of-march-madness-highlights-on-youtube

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How You Can Use Online Videos to Improve Your Brand | Internet ...

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Source: http://internetandbusinessesonlinearticl.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-you-can-use-online-videos-to.html

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The American Scholar: En Garde - William Deresiewicz

All Points

Print

More reflections on the culture of the upper middle class

By William Deresiewicz

?

I suggested ?upper middle brow? not long ago as a name for the level of cultural production that embodies the sensibility of the so-called ?creative class,? or as David Brooks memorably dubbed them, the Bobos, bourgeois bohemians. Think Stewart/Colbert, The New Yorker, a lot of HBO and NPR and indie/Sundance-type movies, etc. I said that while there is a lot to recommend such smart and stylish work, it fails to rise above a certain level because it stays within the bounds of what its audience already believes. The problem is encoded in Brooks?s formulation: How do you make art that transgresses the assumptions of people who think that everything they do is transgressive? How do you create an avant-garde if everybody sees themselves as a rebel? How do you dissent when dissent is already commodified?

Brooks traces the roots of Boboism to the 1960s?the very decade, as Louis Menand has pointed out, when the old Masscult/Midcult/High Culture distinctions were being overrun in Pop art, rock ?n? roll, and the New Hollywood. The culture of the ?60s really was an avant-garde, and not only for its formal innovations or its violation of stylistic decorum, but because it embodied the moral revolt of the time: the sexual rebellion, the contempt for institutional authority, the insurgencies of socially marginal groups.

But all that?s long since ossified by now. The baby boomers have become the Establishment; their morality has become the mainstream; and the sensibility of ?60s art has become the upper middle brow, the house style of the upper middle class. Irony is taken for granted. Formal innovation is expected. A mixture of aesthetic registers is de rigueur. Ridicule is aimed at what?s left of the cultural enemy. Nothing shocks, and nothing is intended to shock. Beneath the gestures of transgression there exists a moral consensus that is every bit as unexamined, as immobile, and as self-congratulatory as that which girded the ruling class the Bobos displaced. Somehow, the rebels of half a century ago have grown up to become the new Victorians. There?s a right way now to eat, vote, laugh, think.

Which means it really shouldn?t be that difficult to make an avant-garde. Here are some of the pieties that it might undertake to profane. That people are basically good. That freedom is the chief ingredient of happiness. That we control our fates. That society is slowly getting better. That we are more virtuous than those who came before us. That the universe coheres in a mystical whole. That it all works out in the end. In short, the whole gospel of self-improvement, progressive politics, ethical hygiene, and pantheistic spirituality. The upper middle brow is as committed to the happy ending as is Hollywood. Tragedy is inadmissible: the recognition that loss is loss and cannot be recuperated, that most people?s lives end in failure and emptiness, that the world is never going to be a happy place, that the universe doesn?t love us.

A new avant-garde would be not only experimental, but difficult. The upper middle brow is always inventive, but it is never difficult. Difficulty tells us there is something that we do not know, something that evades our mental structures. Instead of cutting the world to our measure?rendering it manageable, comfortable, and familiar, as the upper middle brow is meant to do?difficulty makes us recognize the narrowness of our experience, here on our little island of middle-class American normalcy. It starts with the truth and seeks to bring us to it, not the other way around. It isn?t fun, it isn?t soothing, and it isn?t marketable. It is only art.

William Deresiewicz is an essayist, critic, and the author of A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter. To read all the posts from his weekly blog, ?All Points,? click here.

Source: http://theamericanscholar.org/en-garde/

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Build a Dedicated Laptop Charging Station Into Your Desk

One of the problems with working in an office is that you have a lot of laptops, and laptops need charging. Rather than having individuals charge laptops at their desk, which wastes space and can lead to cables getting tangled around chair casters, why not build a specially designed charging station?

IKEA Hacker Jonathan Briggs put this rather large charging station together for his school, but you could easily do a smaller station for just a few laptops?the main idea is that by building the surge protector into your desk, you can avoid reaching behind a mess of cables to plug in your gadgets. All you need is an Expedits shelving unit from trusty old IKEA, a few power strips, everyday tools and a little time and effort. Of course, there's no reason to limit the charging station to just laptops. Cellphones and other gadgets would be equally at home. And if you have multiple workers, you can assign them to each cube and there'll never be any confusion about where anyone's devices are.

Depending on what's being charged, you might want to think about adding shelves in each cube, but the design gives you a good basis that can be tailored to your needs. Small offices?or even individuals looking for a neat charging solution?can use units of different sizes according to the number of people looking for a charging cube.

Click the IKEA Hackers link to see the full process.

Laptop Charging Stations | IKEA Hackers

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/D7rCkzwNh1I/build-a-dedicated-laptop-charging-station-into-your-desk

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US Military Casualty Statistics And The Main Concern For Senators

US Military

Written by Ludwig Watzal

February 10, 2013

The moral of the U. S. troops is not in good shape. And the follow-up costs of the so-called Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which was the attack on Afghanistan, Operation New Dawn (OND) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), like these attacks on Iraq were euphemistically called, are skyrocketing. Not to speak of the dramatically increasing suicides among military personnel, the social costs such as broken families, disabled, maimed, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), amputations, evacuations, and the demographics of casualties. A Congressional Research Service Report written by Hannah Fischer1 reveals the enormous human and financial costs the Afghan and Iraqi adventure that was brought upon the American people by a highly irresponsible government.

From 2001 to today, George W. Bush?s adventurism and President Obama?s continuation has cost the lives of 6 656 soldiers, and over 50 000 were partly severely wounded. Over the same period, almost 130 000 have been diagnosed with PTSD. From the year 2000 to 2012, 253 330 have been experienced TBI. At 1 715 soldiers with battle-injuries, amputations were performed, most of them were limb amputations; 800 service men had their leg amputated.

This sad statistics did not seem to interest the Senators. They could have asked the likely new Defense Secretary what he thought about these depressing facts. They only asked silly and irrelevant questions such as whether Hagel will be more subservient to the Israeli government in the future. Mainly, they were so obsessed with Hagel?s position on Israel and Iran as if both countries were the hub of the world. They performed like grand inquisitors. They asked Chuck Hagel to repent and to revoke his earlier statements about the ?Israel Lobby?, its intimidation of Congress and his other realistic political judgments about U. S. American foreign policy towards its client state Israel. And Hagel behaved like a poor sinner. Lindsey Graham, John McCain and their ilk proofed by their inquisitorial behavior on whose orders they were acting. Their script was written by the Lobby and their neoconservative think tanks that dominate inside the Belt way.

In an article on MWC news, M. J. Rosenberg characterized the difference between John Brennan?s Senate hearing and the Hagel charade with a John Lennon song: ?Imagine there?s no lobby/ it?s easy if you try/ No memorized talking points/ No need to lie.? The later ?hearing? was a competition for the best hypocrite and the best sycophant of the lobby?s election campaign support.

The dramatic figures of this report indicate that the Obama administration has more important things to do than planning the next war against Iran. Besides paying compensation for the suffering and the ravages the U. S. Empire inflicted on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration or one of the concerned parties should charge George W. Bush and his neoconservative monsters with crimes against humanity and war crimes before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The new book about ?Genocide in Iraq? published by Clarity Press sets out the case for prosecution involved in the Iraqi genocide during the sanction period from 1990 to the attack on Iraq in 2003.

According to the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, this defines genocide as ?acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group?, the former U. S. administration can also be charged with genocide, too. The imposed sanctions against Iraq are as heinous as the sanction against the Iranian people. None of the so-called moral authorities of the world have so far addressed the immorality and illegality of these criminal undertakings. Perhaps through an indictment of the people responsible, further deadly U. S. sanctions can be prevented.

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/10022013-u-s-military-casualty-statistics-and-the-main-concern-for-senators-oped/

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Is that an army in your wallet or just the SwissCard Lite?

Have you ever needed a pair of tweezers, scissors or a ruler while out and about? How about a magnifying glass, light or screw driver? What if you could carry all these items and more in your wallet? You can, if you carry the Victorinox SwissCard Lite. The SwissCard Lite is a credit card-sized device [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/02/09/is-that-an-army-in-your-wallet-or-just-the-swisscard-lite/

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An Architect's Family Home in Germantown, Tennessee

A reader and architect named David wrote me about the house he designed for his family in Germantown, Tennessee: ?It?s in an older neighborhood, developed in the late 70s, so we are surrounded by older homes and mature trees, which is great.? He describes the house as a mix of ?modern farmhouse? with ?some English cottage/arts & crafts influence.? It?s on the market, so take a look:

David says, ?It has concrete floors which are stained & waxed dark, which was great for small kids, easy to clean & they don?t scratch like hardwood.?

?We don?t have any ceiling moldings, and most of the rooms are the same color for the walls trim and ceiling. Wood planked walls, galvanized metal fixtures, and marble counters I think balance out the stark qualities of the monochromatic/modern aesthetic.?

?We love all the natural light, and my wife loves all the hidden storage, like the shelving behind these curtains in main room:?

?My favorite feature is the separate his/her bathroom. ?We share a common ?wet room? with showers and tub?but have our own vanities, toilets and closets.?

?I also love the swing-out carriage-style garage doors?.which I know is sort of a minor detail. ?We just recently completed the addition which included the garage and master bedroom down?so perhaps that?s why I?m so excited about those two things in particular!?

I always like seeing houses that architects design for themselves because you can tell how much thought went into every detail. Thanks to David for sharing his with us! For more photos and details, check the listing.

On Sundays I feature interesting properties for sale. Click here to see more, including this renovated Craftsman:

Tagged as: Architecture, carriage-style garage doors, concrete floors, Germantown, hidden storage, House Tour, modern farmhouse, real estate listings, Tennessee real estate

Source: http://hookedonhouses.net/2013/02/10/an-architects-family-home-in-germantown-tennessee/

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Top U.S. general backed arming Syrian rebels "conceptually"

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer said on Sunday he favored the idea of arming Syrian rebels during discussions within the Obama administration about how to help resolve the country's civil war, but there was never a specific plan under review.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he thought arming the rebels might help end the crisis more quickly and avert the collapse of government institutions, which could lead Syria to become a failed state.

"Conceptually I thought if there were a way to resolve the military situation more quickly it would work to the benefit not only of the Syrian people but also us," Dempsey told reporters aboard his plane from Afghanistan, where he attended a change-of-command ceremony for NATO-led forces.

"A failed state is defined by the collapse of its institutions," he said. "And so conceptually we thought about ways to prevent that from happening. Conceptually I was in agreement. Now there were enormous complexities involved that we still haven't resolved."

Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged their support for arming Syrian rebels during a Senate hearing last week, the first time they had been queried about the issue.

The CIA and State Department had recommended arming the rebels last year, but President Barack Obama ultimately decided against pursuing the option.

The revelation that Dempsey and Panetta had supported the idea along with CIA and State Department officials underlined the divisions in the administration over how to deal with the Syrian crisis.

IDENTIFYING THE OPPOSITION

Lawmakers including Senator John McCain have been critical of the administration's decision against taking more aggressive action.

So far the administration has limited support to providing non-lethal aid for rebels in the 22-month-old conflict, which has killed an estimated 60,000 people.

A disparate group of rebel factions are fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose troops are well-trained and armed. U.S. officials still have not been able to get a clear picture of all the groups and their ideological leanings.

"We still have a challenge identifying who among the opposition, if they achieved a position of dominance, would commit themselves to the longer-term objectives of establishing a representative government, an end to violence, preservation of the institutions so that Syria doesn't become a failed state," he said.

Dempsey said he did not believe that the possibility of arming Syrian rebels had been completely ruled out by the Obama administration.

"No one has taken any option off the table in any conversation in which I've been involved," he said.

Dempsey declined to say whether he still supported arming the rebels.

"What I will say is of the options that we have been considering, they all hinge on a much clearer understanding of the environment than I believe we currently have."

Dempsey said the United States was continuing to work with Israel, Turkey and Jordan to address common interests and concerns related to the Syrian conflict, from proliferation of ballistic missiles and humanitarian issues to chemical and biological weapons.

He said the United States still believes Syrian chemical weapons are secure.

"I want to be clear that we don't have persistent or perfect visibility. On the occasions when we have noted movement, they've been movements that appear to us to be intended to secure them, not to use them. But our ability to have a completely clear understanding is somewhat limited."

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-u-general-backed-arming-syrian-rebels-conceptually-220759856.html

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Attack on Iranian dissident camp in Iraq kills five

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and more than 25 wounded in a rocket attack on an Iranian dissident camp in Iraq's capital Baghdad early on Saturday, police sources said.

The dissident group Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) said six people including a woman died after its camp was hit by mortars and missiles, while the U.N. mission in Iraq said it was aware of a number of deaths.

MEK calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought alongside the forces of former Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

It is now seeking to recast itself as an Iranian opposition force but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite Muslim-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces invaded and toppled Saddam in 2003.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is heavily reliant on Shi'ite Iran and leans on Tehran for political support at home and in the wider Sunni-dominated region, where he has few friends.

The attack struck the group's base in the former U.S. military compound "Camp Liberty" in the western part of the capital, where most of the group was relocated by Iraqi authorities last year from a base given to them by Saddam.

"At 5:30 a.m. around 18 Katyusha rockets landed in the camp, west of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 42," said an Iraqi policeman at the base, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another police source said between 25 and 45 people had been wounded.

Photographs and footage sent by the MEK to Reuters showed bloodied bodies laid out on blankets.

A spokesman for the group said they did not know for sure who was behind the attack, but said one likely suspect was Iran's Quds force - an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards with a special focus on military operations outside the country.

MEK, which was formally removed from the U.S. State Department's official list of terrorist organizations last year, has blamed previous attacks on the Quds force.

Also known as the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, the group led a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran during the 1970s that also included attacks on U.S. targets.

The United Nations intends to process them for refugee status in other countries, but they have complained that the conditions at Camp Liberty are poor and that they have not been permitted to bring many of their personal belongings.

Maryam Rajavi, who heads the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), called on the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to speed up the process, asking the Iraqi government to return them to their former base "Camp Ashraf" in the meantime.

(Reporting by Raheem Salman and Isabel Coles; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-one-dead-attack-iranian-dissident-camp-iraq-072730683.html

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Fox attacks 4-week-old baby boy at London home

LONDON (AP) ? British police are investigating a fox attack on a 4-week-old baby in his home in London.

Scotland Yard said the boy was admitted to a hospital Wednesday after the fox injured his hand. British media including the BBC and the Press Association reported Saturday that the fox bit one of the baby's fingers, and that the boy was recovering after surgery.

It was not clear how the fox entered the home.

Mayor Boris Johnson is calling for more to be done to tackle what he called the "growing problem of urban foxes." Some have called for a cull of the animals, which are a common sight at night in quieter areas of the capital.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fox-attacks-4-week-old-baby-boy-london-142327392.html

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Video: Maria's Observation: Nemo & the Markets

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50748630/

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Quvenzhan? Wallis in Talks for Annie Remake

Though it was only a few weeks ago that we learned that Willow Smith was no longer going to be starring in the Will Smith and Jay-Z-produced musical remake of Annie, it appears that director Will Gluck (Friends with Benefits) already has his sights set on a pretty big get to lead the film.? EW reports that Beasts of the Southern Wild star (and Best Actress nominee) Quvenzhan? Wallis is apparently in consideration to star in the redo, though the magazine cautions that Gluck and the producers have yet to make any firm casting decisions.? Hit the jump for more.

Though EW makes sure to note that nothing is firm, I actually think Wallis is an inspired choice to lead the musical.? This would be a major leap for the 9-year-old actress who made her film debut with the stunning Beasts, and I?m inclined to believe that she just might be keen on taking the gig given her penchant for dancing at recent awards ceremonies.? In addition to being flat-out adorable, Wallis showed considerable promise with her work in the Sundance indie and I?m interested to see how her career blossoms from here.

One hopes that her parents and handlers will ensure that the girl?s childhood isn?t sacrificed for an acting career.? We should hear more with regards to the Annie adaptation soon, as the goal is to start production later this year for a fall 2014 release.

Watch the trailer for the 1982 film below.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926820/news/1926820/

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10 Things to Know about the big storm

Payloaders clear snow from the Long Island Expressway just west of exit 59 Ocean Ave where several cars and a truck are abandoned after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 31, 2013, in Ronkonkoma , N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Payloaders clear snow from the Long Island Expressway just west of exit 59 Ocean Ave where several cars and a truck are abandoned after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 31, 2013, in Ronkonkoma , N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

A group of men help push a sports car up a snow-covered street in the Old Port section of Portland, Mane, during a snow storm, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013. The storm is expected to dump up to two feet of snow on the region. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Riders wait in a bus stop where color-tinted windows collect snow during a storm, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, in Portland, Maine. The National Weather Service says a blizzard warning is issued Friday evening for the southern coast. The forecast calls for up to 2 feet of snow and winds gusting to 50 mph.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

1. MORE THAN 650,000 LOST POWER IN NEW ENGLAND

Even the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Mass., had to shut down and turn to backup generators.

2. GUSTS HIT 82 MPH, BUT OUTAGES COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

With leaves gone, damage to power lines from falling branches was less than it might have been.

3. AT LEAST SEVEN PEOPLE HAVE DIED

The deaths include three in Canada and an 11-year-old boy who died in Boston of carbon monoxide in a running car as his father tried to shovel it free.

4. MORE THAN 3 FEET OF SNOW FELL IN CONNECTICUT

Maine and Long Island recorded 30-plus inches, with Massachusetts and New Hampshire not far behind.

5. IT WAS ALL TOO MUCH FOR THE POSTAL SERVICE

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers..." was canceled when New England delivery was halted.

6. AIR TRAVEL IS COMING BACK

Flights started landing at JFK Saturday morning, and Boston's Logan hopes to open partially by 11 p.m.

7. WHERE SNOWMOBILES BECAME RESCUE VEHICLES

Despite warnings and highway closings, hundreds of drivers were stranded on Long Island.

8. HOW SANDY VICTIMS WERE HIT AGAIN

Staten Islanders without power had only a tent shelter and tarps for protection.

9. NBA ROAD TRIPS WERE EXTENDED

The Knicks were stuck in Minnesota, the Spurs hunkered down in Detroit and the Brooklyn Nets took the train home from Washington.

10. YES, MICHAEL KORS WORE UGGS TO FASHION WEEK

"I came in looking like Pam Anderson," the designer joked after trading up for black leather boots in New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-09-10-Things-to-Know-Northeast-Snow/id-0d9cb0347731407eb67520c27f061d3b

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Stock index futures cut gains following jobless claims data

"The Bachelor" continues the second part of its two-night event on Tuesday at 9 PM ET/PT, and Sean Lowe hinted contestant Tierra, who has provided no shortage of drama when she's with the women, might be sticking around on the show a little while longer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-signal-mixed-open-095903468--finance.html

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Lindsay Lohan, Bags Searched at LAX

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/lindsay-lohan-bags-searched-at-lax/

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Ubuntu smartphones will begin launching in October

One lucky man's best friend is a dog named Buddy. The homeless man, who's from a remote area in Washington state, suffered a medical emergency and had no way to call for help. He did, however, have his plucky pooch. The Australian shepherd mix was found by a woman walking her dog on train tracks [...]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ubuntu-smartphones-begin-launching-october-011919383.html

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Number of Pa. beer, wine retailers open question

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's liquor privatization plan could result in many more Pennsylvania retailers selling beer and wine than he anticipates, a Senate Democrat said Thursday, as industry players critiqued legislation that has yet to be introduced.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Law and Justice Committee, said at least 10,000 retailers would qualify for the new licenses, twice as many as Corbett estimates, and warned that it would compound social problems and crime.

"I just see it all on the down side," said the Allegheny County lawmaker, whose committee oversees liquor legislation and who favors keeping the state store system.

Corbett spokesman Eric Shirk said the administration's consultant based its estimate of 5,000 stores on the experience of other states.

"Our number is based off a scientific, educated study," he said.

Shirk noted that Corbett's proposal calls for increased funding for state police enforcement activities, stiffer penalties for sellers who serve alcohol to minors and expanded treatment and prevention programs.

Corbett has billed his plan as a revenue-neutral strategy for enhancing consumer convenience and modernizing Pennsylvania laws governing the sale of alcoholic beverages. The plan is expected generate a four-year windfall of $1 billion from the initial sale of licenses, which the governor proposes using to create a block grant program for public schools.

Unlike licenses involving the sale of liquor, Corbett's plan sets no limit on the number of wine and beer licenses that could be sold to retailers including big-box stores, grocery stores and pharmacies.

Licensees would face annual renewal fees ranging from $10,000 to $35,000 and limits on how much they may sell per transaction. For example, convenience stores could sell only one six-pack of beer at a time.

Most beer in Pennsylvania is sold by the case through about 1,200 retail distributors, while wine is sold at the more than 600 state stores that Corbett wants to close and replace with twice as many private liquor and wine stores.

Efforts to get the state out of the liquor and wine businesses have perennially failed.

Corbett's initiative would dramatically open the sale of alcoholic beverages to private entrepreneurs, ending 80 years of state control, but critics were taking shots at the plan even before it was drafted into legislation.

Law and Justice Committee Chairman Charles McIlhinney, Ferlo's Republican counterpart on the panel, said last month he is sponsoring a bill that would keep the state stores open while allowing beer retailers to buy special licenses to sell wine and liquor.

Mark Tanczos, president of the Pennsylvania Malt Beverage Distributors Association, which represents many of the 1,200 beer distributors, objected to a proposed $150,000 fee that distributors would have to pay for enhanced licenses that allow them to sell wine and to sell beer in six-packs as well as by the case.

"We've been asking to let them sell six-packs for 30 years," said Tanczos, who owns a Bethlehem distributorship. "I don't know why we're singled out to pay that much."

Jay Wiederhold, president of the Pennsylvania Beer Alliance, which represents about 45 wholesale distributors that deliver beer to retailers, said the proposal would increase overhead because trucks would be making more trips and more stops without an offsetting increase in revenue.

"You're really not going to sell much more beer," Wiederhold said. "If you bought a case of beer a week, you're still going to buy a case a week."

Louis Sheetz, executive vice president of marketing for the Altoona-based Sheetz convenience store chain, which was granted a license to sell beer at its Altoona store in 2010 after a court battle with distributors, said the one six-pack limit is unrealistic because customers typically want at least two six-packs, or 12 cans or bottles.

"A case equivalent (24 containers) would be a great customer convenience," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/number-pa-beer-wine-retailers-145351219.html

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The Wadia Intuition 01 PowerDAC: American roots with Italian style ...

When Italian private equity firm Quadrivio SGR went shopping a few years ago, it wasn?t clear to everyone why they were acquiring some of the biggest names in audio during a recession. The new parent holding company, Fine Sounds SpA, which is based in Milan , now owns Audio Research Corp., Sonus Faber, Sumiko, McIntosh Labs, and Wadia Digital ? some of the biggest names in high-end audio.

Rather than gut the assets, Fine Sounds SpA infused these five stalwarts with cash, and more importantly, human capital. Italian designers and American engineers met halfway (hope they had a boat) and there has been nothing but praise for the quality of the products and even the pricing which, considering the brands, has remained fairly stable.?

Sonus Faber designer, Livio Cucuzza, who has designed some of the most beautiful loudspeakers in the world, went to work with his U.S. counterparts, and the first child of this new marriage, the Intuition 01 PowerDAC, has everyone feeling that twinkle up and down their legs.

Wadia, which is based in Saline, Michigan, has been cranking out some of the best digital products in the world under the steady hand of John Schaffer for many years. Schaffer, unlike many in the high-end world of audio refusing to see the apple about to crush the orchard, had an ?intuition? from the very beginning about the significance of the iPod and how it would change digital audio forever.?

Wadia understood that a business model dependent on selling $10,000 CD players and DACs was never going to be sustainable in the long run. So when Schaffer brought the first 170i transport to a CES show ? which was designed to turn your iPod into a music server ? people began getting nervous. His instincts were correct, and the subsequent 171i transport ($600), 151 PowerDAC, and 121 decoding computer ($1,300) were home runs and continue to sell like crazy to this day.

If you use an iPod as your main source, you have never really heard just how good it can sound unless you connect it to an audio system using a high-end component like that of Wadia?s. While not inexpensive, this gear is capable of transforming your entire system.?

The Intuition 01 is an extension of the Wadia PowerDAC concept, but in a very sleek-looking chassis, and with far more sophisticated circuitry. The Intuition 01 combines a 350 watts-per-channel Class D+ power amplifier, 32-bit AD/DA digital preamplifier, and a 32/384 DSD-capable USB DAC. There are 6 digital inputs (2 Coax S/PDIF, 1 AES/EBU, 2 Wdialink/I2S, and 1 Toslink) and two analog RCA inputs, which means that you can connect a turntable and analog tuner as well.

The design is one of the most gorgeous looking pieces of industrial design to come out of the audio industry in years, and is very light. The entire package weighs less than thirteen pounds, and sounds utterly remarkable. Connect it to a great pair of loudspeakers like the KEF LS50s, Dynaudio Focus 260s, or Sonus Faber Venere 3.0s and you will have as good an audio system as you will ever need.

While not inexpensive at $8,000 (depending on finish choices of silver, anodized black, anodized brushed chrome, nickel), the Intuition 01 may be the more forward-thinking one-box solutions to ever come out of the industry, and certainly utilizes some of the most sophisticated digital converters available.

A comparable collection of components of this quality could easily run you $15,000 or more, and that doesn?t even include the loudspeakers.

It?s pretty clear from the Intuition 01 that Fine Sounds SpA knew exactly what it was getting when it brought Wadia Digital into the fold: a wolverine tired of wearing flannel, but utterly dashing in the finest Italian wool.

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/forza-michigan-the-wadia-intuition-01-powerdac/

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Worried about 'sextortion'? FBI shares cautionary tale

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 11 hrs.

The FBI is urging computer users ? young teens and parents of those teens ? to take precautions to help prevent becoming victims of "sextortion," where criminals use social networks to gain users' trust, convincing them to send lewd or pornographic photos or videos, then threatening to share them widely if more photos aren't sent.

In one recent case, a 13-year-old girl pleaded with a man who had initially gained her trust that she did not want to take her shirt off in front of a webcam, telling the extortionist she had "a life, please do not ruin it," the FBI said in a release. But eventually, stricken with fear, the teen gave into his demands.

That man, Christopher Patrick Gunn, of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced last month to 35 years in prison for producing child pornography through his massive online sextortion scheme, the FBI said.

For more than two years, he gained the trust of girls in a half-dozen states and in Ireland by using two ruses. One was the "new kid" approach. He created a fake Facebook profile, and posted in messages to the girls that he was new in the area and looking to make friends, said the FBI. "Once he established a level of trust, he began making demands."

In the second ruse, he pretended to be Justin Bieber on various video chat services, including Skype. (Gunn, in his 30s, does not look like the teen heartthrob, so he may have only been using text chat on the services.) Once Gunn convinced the teens he was Bieber, the FBI says, "he offered them free concert tickets or backstage passes in exchange for topless photos or webcam videos."

With either ploy, Gunn "got to know everything about the girls ? their friends? names, their schools, their parents? names ? it was like a script," Erik Doell, a special agent in the FBI?s Montgomery office who investigated the case, said in the release. "Once he got a picture, the girls would just go along with it. They would do whatever they could to keep their reputations intact."

Frighteningly, the Gunn case is hardly an isolated one.

Just last week, the FBI arrested a 27-year-old Los Angeles-area man who they say tricked women into posing nude on Skype's video chat service. The man, Karen "Gary" Kazaryan, is believed to have hacked into hundreds of women's Facebook accounts, looking at them for naked pictures. He then took on the persona of some of the women and persuaded their friends to send naked photos of themselves or appear nude on Skype, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement.

Also last week, an Indiana man, Richard Finkbiner, agreed to plead guilty to charges that he tricked more than a dozen teens into stripping or performing sexual acts via webcam, then using recordings of the sessions to coerce them into making even more explicit videos. He faces a sentence of 30 to 50 years in prison. (NBC News' Alex Johnson wrote about this case in 2012.)

The FBI has issued a list of "precautions" users should take when on the Internet, but really, they come off as baseline safety tips for those who aren't familiar with the Internet:

• Cover your webcam when you're not using it.
• Turn off your computer when you're not using it.
• Don't assume your anti-virus software will be a guarantee against a digital intruder.
• Don't open attachments without checking, first-hand, that they were sent to you from someone you know. "If you receive a message with an attachment from your mother at 3 a.m., maybe the message is not really from your mother," the FBI says, urging that teens be more suspicious online.
• Finally, if your computer has been compromised, or if you are receiving extortion threats, "don't be afraid" to talk to your parents or to police, the agency says.

Sextortion isn't just about letting a criminal get into your computer; it's about letting them get into your head. The first line of defense is not falling prey to social engineering. If someone has gained your trust without you really checking them out, no amount of computer security will keep them out.

And when that trust turns to fear, these criminals can get anything they want. Not letting them in ? psychologically, as well as digitally ? can make a huge difference in what happens to a young person's life.

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

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/worried-about-sextortion-fbi-shares-cautionary-tale-1B8287395

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