Thursday, May 31, 2012

National Flood Insurance Program Could Expire - Builder Review ...

With the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) set to expire May 31, NAHB continues to work doggedly to seek a five-year reauthorization of the federally-backed flood insurance program to ensure it remains efficient and effective in protecting flood-prone properties and creates more stability in the housing market.

The House on May 16 approved a one-month extension of the program in order to buy time to negotiate a longer-term reauthorization with the Senate. At this time, it is unclear whether the Senate will agree to the 30-day extension.

Call to Action:

Urge Your Senators to:
  • Support S. 1940, the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program;
  • Support any amendments that removes Section 107 or any ?residual risk? language;
If you have any questions or feedback, please email builderlink@nahb.org.

About NFIP Legislation:

The National Flood Insurance Program is extremely important to home builders and homeowners across the country. Over the past few years this program has had a series of extensions and four lapses that have caused construction delays, cancelled closings and in several cases, job losses; which is why a long term reform bill needs to be signed into law. S. 1940, reauthorizes the NFIP for five years which will give this issue a longer term solution.

The passage of S. 1940 is imperative for the home building industry, however it is not perfect. Section 107 of the bill would require any properties in areas behind dams or levees (known as ?residual risk? areas) to purchase flood insurance. For many communities, a great deal of time and taxpayer money was spent to provide additional flood protection for these areas, and in many cases a levee fee is also included in the property tax assessment. To now mandate the purchase of additional flood insurance policies at a cost to the homeowner is simply unfair.


In the past few years, the NFIP has experienced several short-term lapses in authorization, forcing many home buyers to delay or cancel closings due to the inability to obtain NFIP insurance for a mortgage. In other instances, builders were forced to stop or delay construction on a new home due to the lack of flood insurance approval, resulting in unnecessary delays and job losses.

NAHB supports a long-term extension of the NFIP.

The House has already passed a bipartisan five-year flood insurance reauthorization bill. A Senate version to extend the program for five years has not yet come to the Senate floor for a vote.

While both the House and Senate measures would keep the program running through 2016, significant differences remain between the two bills. Though NAHB strongly supports the House bill, the association has significant concerns with the Senate legislation and continues to work with senators to address these issues.

Established in 1968, the NFIP offers affordable flood insurance to more than 20,000 communities nationwide, and currently covers about 5.6 million policyholders.

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BlackBerry maker to study options, warns of loss

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The finest gold dust in the world

The finest gold dust in the world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Florian Aigner
florian.aigner@tuwien.ac.at
43-158-801-41027
Vienna University of Technology

Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology found a method to locate single gold atoms on a surface -- this should pave the way to better and cheaper catalysts

This release is available in German.

Most people value large chunks of gold but scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are interested in gold at the smallest possible scale, because single gold atoms are potentially the most reactive catalysts for chemical reactions. However, when gold atoms are placed on a surface they tend to ball up into tiny nuggets consisting of several atoms. A team of surface scientists now managed to fix single gold atoms on special sites of an iron-oxide surface. This could open the door to more efficient catalysts, requiring less of the precious material.

Gold Does Not Like to Be Alone

Gold is a noble metal and does not usually bond with other elements, but as a catalyst it facilitates chemical reactions. It can, for example, facilitate the conversion of poisonous carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. The effectiveness of gold as a catalyst depends on the size of the gold particles. Some evidence suggests that it works best if the gold is present in the form of single atoms. So far, however, this could not be studied in detail. "If individual gold atoms are put on a surface, they usually cluster up, forming nanoparticles", says Gareth Parkinson, who oversaw the experiments in the research group of Professor Ulrike Diebold at the Institute for Applied Physics at the TU Vienna.

Hot Surfaces Loose Atoms

Higher temperatures lead to a higher mobility of the gold atoms, so in order to stop the atoms from clustering, most surfaces must be cooled to a temperature so low that the desired chemical reactions would stop entirely. The researchers at the TU Vienna found a special kind of iron-oxide surface, which locks the single gold atoms in place.

A Good Place to Settle Down

The key to success is a slight deformation of the iron-oxide crystal structure. The oxygen atoms of the topmost layer are not aligned in perfectly straight lines, they are bent into wiggles by the atoms below. At the points where the lines of oxygen atoms are close to each other, the gold atoms attach permanently without losing grip. Even if the surface is heated, the gold atoms stay put only at 500 degrees celsius they start forming clusters.

"When a gold atom hits the iron oxide surface, it diffuses to one of the sites where it can be attached to the surface", says Gareth Parkinson. That way, many single gold atoms can be placed close to each other. When a gold atom hits a position already occupied by another gold atom, however, the two bond and start moving across the surface, picking up additional gold atoms along the way. When they have reached a critical size of at least five atoms, they become immobile again and the miniature gold nugget comes to rest.

New Paths for New Research

Ulrike Diebold expects that the new method will answer important open questions about catalysis. "We have created an ideal model system for probing the chemical reactivity of single atomic species", says Diebold. The recent experiments will also help to advance theoretical research: the quantum mechanically complex bonding between single atoms and this particular surfaces provide an excellent test case for theoretical calculations of highly correlated electron systems.

###

Original publication: http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.216103

Picture download: http://www.tuwien.ac.at/dle/pr/aktuelles/downloads/2012/goldstaub/

Further Information:

Prof. Ulrike Diebold
Institute for Applied Physics
Vienna University of Technology
Wiedner Hauptstrae 8, 1040 Vienna
T: +43-1-58801-13425
ulrike.diebold@tuwien.ac.at

Gareth Parkinson, PhD
Institute for Applied Physics
Vienna University of Technology
Wiedner Hauptstrae 8, 1040 Vienna
T: +43-1-58801-13473
gareth.parkinson@tuwien.ac.at


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

?


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


The finest gold dust in the world [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Florian Aigner
florian.aigner@tuwien.ac.at
43-158-801-41027
Vienna University of Technology

Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology found a method to locate single gold atoms on a surface -- this should pave the way to better and cheaper catalysts

This release is available in German.

Most people value large chunks of gold but scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are interested in gold at the smallest possible scale, because single gold atoms are potentially the most reactive catalysts for chemical reactions. However, when gold atoms are placed on a surface they tend to ball up into tiny nuggets consisting of several atoms. A team of surface scientists now managed to fix single gold atoms on special sites of an iron-oxide surface. This could open the door to more efficient catalysts, requiring less of the precious material.

Gold Does Not Like to Be Alone

Gold is a noble metal and does not usually bond with other elements, but as a catalyst it facilitates chemical reactions. It can, for example, facilitate the conversion of poisonous carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. The effectiveness of gold as a catalyst depends on the size of the gold particles. Some evidence suggests that it works best if the gold is present in the form of single atoms. So far, however, this could not be studied in detail. "If individual gold atoms are put on a surface, they usually cluster up, forming nanoparticles", says Gareth Parkinson, who oversaw the experiments in the research group of Professor Ulrike Diebold at the Institute for Applied Physics at the TU Vienna.

Hot Surfaces Loose Atoms

Higher temperatures lead to a higher mobility of the gold atoms, so in order to stop the atoms from clustering, most surfaces must be cooled to a temperature so low that the desired chemical reactions would stop entirely. The researchers at the TU Vienna found a special kind of iron-oxide surface, which locks the single gold atoms in place.

A Good Place to Settle Down

The key to success is a slight deformation of the iron-oxide crystal structure. The oxygen atoms of the topmost layer are not aligned in perfectly straight lines, they are bent into wiggles by the atoms below. At the points where the lines of oxygen atoms are close to each other, the gold atoms attach permanently without losing grip. Even if the surface is heated, the gold atoms stay put only at 500 degrees celsius they start forming clusters.

"When a gold atom hits the iron oxide surface, it diffuses to one of the sites where it can be attached to the surface", says Gareth Parkinson. That way, many single gold atoms can be placed close to each other. When a gold atom hits a position already occupied by another gold atom, however, the two bond and start moving across the surface, picking up additional gold atoms along the way. When they have reached a critical size of at least five atoms, they become immobile again and the miniature gold nugget comes to rest.

New Paths for New Research

Ulrike Diebold expects that the new method will answer important open questions about catalysis. "We have created an ideal model system for probing the chemical reactivity of single atomic species", says Diebold. The recent experiments will also help to advance theoretical research: the quantum mechanically complex bonding between single atoms and this particular surfaces provide an excellent test case for theoretical calculations of highly correlated electron systems.

###

Original publication: http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.216103

Picture download: http://www.tuwien.ac.at/dle/pr/aktuelles/downloads/2012/goldstaub/

Further Information:

Prof. Ulrike Diebold
Institute for Applied Physics
Vienna University of Technology
Wiedner Hauptstrae 8, 1040 Vienna
T: +43-1-58801-13425
ulrike.diebold@tuwien.ac.at

Gareth Parkinson, PhD
Institute for Applied Physics
Vienna University of Technology
Wiedner Hauptstrae 8, 1040 Vienna
T: +43-1-58801-13473
gareth.parkinson@tuwien.ac.at


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

?


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


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Are All Fallen American Soldiers Heroes? (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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When is it ethical to prescribe placebos?

When is it ethical to prescribe placebos? [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michael Turton
turtonm@thehastingscenter.org
845-424-4040 x242
The Hastings Center

The American Medical Association's Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from prescribing treatments that they consider to be placebos unless the patients know this and agree to take them anyway. But this policy is not clearly the best way to protect or benefit patients, concludes an The American Medical Association's Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from prescribing treatments that they consider to be placebos unless the patients know this and agree to take them anyway. But this policy is not clearly the best way to protect or benefit patients, concludes an article in the Hastings Center Report. A commentary by two AMA bioethicists responding to the article also appears in the journal.

Placebos are commonly understood to be inert treatments, such as sugar pills, that have no pharmacological effect, but the AMA defines placebos more narrowly, as therapies that a physician believes lack a specific pharmacological effect on the conditions being treated. The physician's belief may or may not align with the prevailing medical view of a treatment. "There are borderline and controversial cases, such as acupuncture and antidepressants, in which individual physicians might reasonably disagree with the medical community's consensus about whether a treatment is an active treatment or a placebo," writes Anne Barnhill, a philosopher and bioethicist who is studying social work at Columbia University.

The article cites a recent poll of American internists and rheumatologists that found that a significant number of them admit to giving patients placebos without disclosing the therapies as such. While some placebo use is patently unethical providing a treatment that "has no scientific basis and is dangerous, is calculated to deceive the patient by giving false hope, or which may cause the patient to delay in seeking proper care" other uses of placebos are widely seen as ethical, writes Barnhill.

Some placebos might offer medical benefit to patients with certain conditions, Barnhill notes, and the limited available data suggest that placebos are more effective when presented as active treatments. As a result, she adds, some bioethicists have argued that an undisclosed placebo is the best available treatment for some patients. "If the best available treatment is sometimes an undisclosed placebo," she writes, "then the AMA's policy prohibits physicians from offering the best available treatment in some cases."

In addition to failing to benefit patients, the AMA policy may not meet two of its other goals: protecting patients' autonomy and their trust in physicians. The rationale for requiring physicians to disclose their belief that a treatment is a placebo is that patients need this information in order to give informed consent about whether to take the treatment. Informed consent is essential to patient autonomy. But it is unknown whether patients find this information relevant to their decision-making, Barnhill says, because "there's little data on patients' attitudes toward placebos."

Because of this lack of data, Barnhill also argues that the AMA policy does not help protect patients' trust in physicians. "The AMA seems to assume that uncovering undisclosed placebo use reduces patients' trust in physicians. But this is not a given," she writes. "When they uncover undisclosed placebo use, patients might conclude that their physicians are untrustworthy liars or quacks, or that their physicians do not believe that they are truly sick or, that their physicians are open-minded, cutting-edge, and savvy about mind-body connections."

Barnhill recommends that the AMA consider revising its policy on placebo use. If the goal is to protect patients from harm, safeguard their trust, and respect their autonomy, she says, then rather than requiring physicians to disclose their personal belief about whether a treatment is a placebo, the policy might require physicians to report on the medical community's consensus on the treatment's status.

In the same issue of the Hastings Center Report is a commentary by Bette-Jane Crigger, director of Ethics Policy for the AMA and secretary of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which wrote its ethical guidelines on placebo use, and Matthew K. Wynia, director of the AMA's Institute of Ethics. Regarding Barnhill's recommendation that the placebo policy be based on professional consensus, rather than individual doctor's judgment, they write, "We'd be tempted to agree but, as in so much of medicine, it isn't clear that a strong consensus is actually possible here." How, they ask, should doctors distinguish between so-called impure placebos medications that have a pharmacological effect on some illnesses but not necessarily for the ones for which they are being prescribed from off-label prescribing?

Crigger and Wynia emphasize that the overarching intent of AMA policy is to encourage physicians to be honest with their patients. "If there is professional disagreement on how or whether a particular pharmacologic agent works, then patients deserve to know that," they write. "If a doctor holds an outlier view, then his or her patients deserve to know that as well.

###



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

?


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


When is it ethical to prescribe placebos? [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michael Turton
turtonm@thehastingscenter.org
845-424-4040 x242
The Hastings Center

The American Medical Association's Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from prescribing treatments that they consider to be placebos unless the patients know this and agree to take them anyway. But this policy is not clearly the best way to protect or benefit patients, concludes an The American Medical Association's Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from prescribing treatments that they consider to be placebos unless the patients know this and agree to take them anyway. But this policy is not clearly the best way to protect or benefit patients, concludes an article in the Hastings Center Report. A commentary by two AMA bioethicists responding to the article also appears in the journal.

Placebos are commonly understood to be inert treatments, such as sugar pills, that have no pharmacological effect, but the AMA defines placebos more narrowly, as therapies that a physician believes lack a specific pharmacological effect on the conditions being treated. The physician's belief may or may not align with the prevailing medical view of a treatment. "There are borderline and controversial cases, such as acupuncture and antidepressants, in which individual physicians might reasonably disagree with the medical community's consensus about whether a treatment is an active treatment or a placebo," writes Anne Barnhill, a philosopher and bioethicist who is studying social work at Columbia University.

The article cites a recent poll of American internists and rheumatologists that found that a significant number of them admit to giving patients placebos without disclosing the therapies as such. While some placebo use is patently unethical providing a treatment that "has no scientific basis and is dangerous, is calculated to deceive the patient by giving false hope, or which may cause the patient to delay in seeking proper care" other uses of placebos are widely seen as ethical, writes Barnhill.

Some placebos might offer medical benefit to patients with certain conditions, Barnhill notes, and the limited available data suggest that placebos are more effective when presented as active treatments. As a result, she adds, some bioethicists have argued that an undisclosed placebo is the best available treatment for some patients. "If the best available treatment is sometimes an undisclosed placebo," she writes, "then the AMA's policy prohibits physicians from offering the best available treatment in some cases."

In addition to failing to benefit patients, the AMA policy may not meet two of its other goals: protecting patients' autonomy and their trust in physicians. The rationale for requiring physicians to disclose their belief that a treatment is a placebo is that patients need this information in order to give informed consent about whether to take the treatment. Informed consent is essential to patient autonomy. But it is unknown whether patients find this information relevant to their decision-making, Barnhill says, because "there's little data on patients' attitudes toward placebos."

Because of this lack of data, Barnhill also argues that the AMA policy does not help protect patients' trust in physicians. "The AMA seems to assume that uncovering undisclosed placebo use reduces patients' trust in physicians. But this is not a given," she writes. "When they uncover undisclosed placebo use, patients might conclude that their physicians are untrustworthy liars or quacks, or that their physicians do not believe that they are truly sick or, that their physicians are open-minded, cutting-edge, and savvy about mind-body connections."

Barnhill recommends that the AMA consider revising its policy on placebo use. If the goal is to protect patients from harm, safeguard their trust, and respect their autonomy, she says, then rather than requiring physicians to disclose their personal belief about whether a treatment is a placebo, the policy might require physicians to report on the medical community's consensus on the treatment's status.

In the same issue of the Hastings Center Report is a commentary by Bette-Jane Crigger, director of Ethics Policy for the AMA and secretary of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which wrote its ethical guidelines on placebo use, and Matthew K. Wynia, director of the AMA's Institute of Ethics. Regarding Barnhill's recommendation that the placebo policy be based on professional consensus, rather than individual doctor's judgment, they write, "We'd be tempted to agree but, as in so much of medicine, it isn't clear that a strong consensus is actually possible here." How, they ask, should doctors distinguish between so-called impure placebos medications that have a pharmacological effect on some illnesses but not necessarily for the ones for which they are being prescribed from off-label prescribing?

Crigger and Wynia emphasize that the overarching intent of AMA policy is to encourage physicians to be honest with their patients. "If there is professional disagreement on how or whether a particular pharmacologic agent works, then patients deserve to know that," they write. "If a doctor holds an outlier view, then his or her patients deserve to know that as well.

###



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

?


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


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Acting in Unison Stirs Up Aggression

Head Lines | Mind & Brain Cover Image: May 2012 Scientific American MagazineSee Inside

A more tightly knit team, it seems, is a fiercer foe

Image: Ahmad Faizal Yahya/iStockphoto

In this groundbreaking adventure into the worlds of psychopaths, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton argues that there is a fine line between a brilliant...

Read More??

Military leaders have long known that marching in unison makes for a tight-knit platoon. Past research by psychologist Scott Wiltermuth of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business suggests that this cooperation emerges when the group members? emotions are aligned. Now he finds such synchrony can also encourage aggression, according to a study published in January in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Wiltermuth and his colleagues assigned subjects to groups. The researchers gave each group a set of cups and taught them a choreographed cup-moving routine that they would perform later to music. To create an atmosphere of competition, the researchers tasked them with memorizing a list of cities?they would be tested later, and the highest-scoring groups could win $50. Then all participants put on headphones and performed the cup routine in time to the music they heard. In some groups, participants ended up moving the cups in sync with one another; in other groups, each subject heard music with varying beats and could not coordinate with other participants. After completing the cup activity, the researchers told each group they could select the music a different group would hear during its cup-moving routine. One of the options was a loud, aggravating blast of static. Teams that had moved in sync were more likely to choose the noxious noise than those that had been out of sync. A more tightly knit team, it seems, is a fiercer foe.

In a companion study, to be published in Social Influence, Wiltermuth found that members of an in-sync group were also more destructive. The groups were given live pill bugs and told to shoo them into boxes described as ?exter?minators? (in reality, the boxes held the bugs unharmed). When prompted by a leader, those that had moved in sync earlier drove 54 percent more insects into the extermination boxes than did out-of-sync control subjects.

Wiltermuth explains that these findings underscore the importance of questioning our actions and those of our leaders. ?We are doing things we wouldn?t otherwise do, because we feel an emotional connection to our team,? he says.

This article was published in print as "Emotions in Lockstep."


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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

In Defense of the Four-Door Coupe

Audi A7 Tail

?

Just about a decade ago, the introduction of the contradictory phrase "four-door coupe" angered me. I distinctly remember testing the Mercedes-Benz CLS at its press launch thinking, "This is a pretty car, but why not just call it a sedan?" I doubted the long-term viability of the genre, but the world's oldest automaker enjoyed the last laugh, as countless imitators have since carved a niche for themselves by building similarly-themed slope-tailed sedans.

?

Last week I tested the $76,000 BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe, an attractive (if pricey) alternative to run-of-the-mill Bimmers. But I didn't fully grasp the genre's potential until I borrowed an Audi A7 the following week back at home. The key differentiator? This time, I was able to strap in a baby seat and shuttle my six month-old around town... and in doing so, I didn't feel old. The Audi seemed strangely sleek for its size, and the surprising steering feel and transient handling response actually made this 4,210 lb four-door fun to drive.

?

If that's not a great excuse to buy into the silliness of an oxymoronic marketing phrase, I don't know what is.

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Food writer opens cooking school to share secrets

It was with much anticipation and some trepidation that I met Robert Carrier for lunch recently. Food personalities have been invading Toronto in droves, but it is rare that one has the chance to meet a real cooking superstar. Not only is he England's foremost food writer (having been the former food and drink editor of House Beautiful, The Sunday Times of London, the English Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines, The Daily Telegraph and Homes & Gardens), he has also written the cookbooks that many of us learned to cook from or to use in furthering our cooking knowledge.

When I met him as he visited Toronto to publicize his latest book, Cooking with Carrier (Gage, $19.95), it was almost an earth-shattering decision to choose the right lunch spot. Finally I gave up trying to second-guess what would please him and decided on Joso's, one of my favorite places. When he arrived, he began joking with the chef and staff in the kitchen and my fears were quelled.

He turned out to be a romantic and charming personality. He once owned a theater in Montmartre and his background in drama showed as he described his food experiences - obviously the love of his life. He owns two restaurants - Carrier's in London (a must if you are traveling there) and Hintlesham Hall in Suffolk, where he also lives a good deal of the year. He has also started a cooking school there to which both amateurs and professionals are flocking. Recently he started a new magazine, Robert Carrier's Kitchen, which is published weekly.

He spoke of the differences he had found between teaching people and writing for them and expressed delight that people who attended his cooking seminars were so enthusiastic. After 30 years in the food profession, although he himself kept growing and learning, he didn't think everyone's interest would still be so keen.

He has found that people to want to learn the recipes that are cooked in restaurants rather than basic techniques and that some students don't even realize that they do not know the basics. The thing that upsets him the most, however, is that people do not invest more in good equipment, especially knives, pots and pans. He dislikes most kitchen machines, with the exception of food processors, which he thoroughly enjoys using. For more information on his classes, which sound so interesting that I am tempted to attend, write: Carrier Seminar of Cooking, Hintlesham Hall, North Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

Mr. Carrier likes to keep learning about new cuisines, such as Thai cooking. Every year two apprentices are allowed to come to his restaurants to study, but when a Thai chef came a few years ago the restaurant learned more from him than vice versa. This Thai influence is reflected in items on Mr. Carrier's restaurant menus and his course on French Nouvelle Cuisine also emphasizes the oriental influence in cooking.

Mr. Carrier is also revising his first and possibly most famous cookbook, Great Dishes of the World, originally published 1963 (Thomas Nelson & Sons) in order to keep up with people's changing food expectations. He feels that people are now eating lighter meals, they want things to look as beautiful as they taste, and that quick, pan-fried dishes have become very popular. With these points in mind, he will change the popular cookbook to emphasize garnishing, quick cooking and a lighter style.

One of his most prized possessions is an original copy of this book given to him by a man who had used it over the years in running three successful restaurants. The pages of the book, covered in grease from the restaurants and tattered by much use, testified to the fact that Mr. Carrier was his guru in the matter of cooking.

Here's a recipe from Mr. Carrier's new cookbook that is popular at his own restaurants. PATE aux HERBES 1 pound lean pork Butter 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 pound fresh or 1/4 pound frozen leaf spinach 1/4 pound cooked ham 1/4 pound unsmoked bacon 1/4 pound pork fat 1/4 pound cooked beef tongue 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 tbsps. finely chopped fresh basil (or 1 tbsp. dried) 2 tbsps. finely chopped fresh parsley 2 tbsps. finely chopped chervil (or 1 tbsp. dried) 24 spikes rosemary, finely chopped (or 12 spikes dried) 4 eggs, beaten Salt and freshly ground black pepper Cayenne pepper Freshly grated nutmeg 6 ounces chicken livers 2/3 cup heavy cream (whipping) 2 tbsps. unflavored gelatine (2 envelopes) Thin strips of pounded pork fat Gherkins Cut the pork into small cubes, place in blender or food processor and blend until minced. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large frying pan, add chopped onion and saute, stirring constantly, until it is transparent. Add spinach and continue to cook, stirring, until the spinach has wilted (if fresh). Remove onions and spinach and chop coarsely. Add onion and spinach mixture to pork and blend again. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Dice ham, bacon, pork fat and beef tongue and add to green pate mixture. Then add finely chopped garlic and fresh herbs.

Stir in the beaten eggs and add the salt and freshly ground pepper, cayenne and nutmeg to taste.

Dice chicken livers and saute in 2 tablespoons butter until golden.

Stir in cream and gelatine (which you have dissolved in a little water) and mix well. The raw pate with now be a nice, loose, spoon able mixture ready for cooking.

Line the bottom and sides of an ovenproof terrine with thin stips of pounded pork fat. (Note: you can ask the butcher to do this for you. But I warn you, don't ask him on a busy Saturday morning when the shop is crowded.) Spoon pate mixture into terrine and cover with thin strips of pork fat. Cook in a preheated 325 degrees F. slow oven for 1/2 hour and then lower the heat to 300 degrees F. and cook another 30 to 40 minutes.

Remove from oven to cool, pressing excess juices out of the terrine with a board or back of a spoon. Serve cold, cut into slices, with gherkins.

Note: To remove pate from the terrine, place terrine in a pan of hot water for a minute or two then insert a sharp pointed knife all around pate loosening it from the sides of the terrine. Turn terrine upside down over serving plate and pate will slide easily. Serves 10 to 12.

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UN agency has big concerns about Flame virus

A United Nations agency charged with helping member nations secure their national infrastructures plans to issue a sharp warning about the risk of the Flame computer virus that was recently discovered in Iran and other parts of the Middle East.

"This is the most serious (cyber) warning we have ever put out," said Marco Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the U.N.'s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union.

The confidential warning will tell member nations that the Flame virus is a dangerous espionage tool that could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure, he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

"They should be on alert," he said, adding that he believed Flame was likely built on behalf of a nation state.

The warning is the latest signal that a new era of cyber warfare has begun following the 2010 Stuxnet virus attack that targeted Iran's nuclear program. The United States explicitly stated for the first time last year that it reserved the right to retaliate with force against a cyber attack.

Evidence suggests that the Flame virus may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections.

"I think it is a much more serious threat than Stuxnet," Obiso said.

He said the ITU would set up a program to collect data, including virus samples, to track Flame's spread around the globe and observe any changes in its composition.

Kaspersky Lab said it found the Flame infection after the ITU asked the Russian company to investigate recent reports from Tehran that a mysterious virus was responsible for massive data losses on some Iranian computer systems.

So far, the Kaspersky team has not turned up the original data-wiping virus that they were seeking and the Iranian government has not provided Kaspersky a sample of that software, Obiso said.

Some skeptical
A Pentagon spokesman asked about Flame referred reporters to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS officials declined to respond to specific questions about the virus, but an agency spokesman issued a brief written statement that said: "DHS was notified of the malware and has been working with our federal partners to determine and analyze its potential impact on the U.S."

Some industry participants appeared skeptical that the threat was as serious as the U.N. agency and Kaspersky had suggested.

Jeff Moss, a respected hacking expert who sits on the U.S. government's Homeland Security Advisory Council, said that the ITU and Kaspersky were "over-reacting" to the spread of Flame.

"It will take time to disassemble, but it is not the end of the Net," said Moss, who serves as chief security officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which manages some of the Internet's key infrastructure.

"We seem to be getting to a point where every time new malware is discovered it's branded 'the worst ever,'" said Marcus Carey, a researcher at with cyber security firm Rapid7.

Organizations involved in cyber security keep some of their communications confidential to keep adversaries from developing strategies to combat their defenses and also to keep other hackers from obtaining details about emerging threats that they could use to build other pieces of malicious software.

Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

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20 Excellent Abstract Illustrations by Russ Mills | designrfix.com

You might have already heard of Russ Mills. If not, let us tell you who this incredible artist is. Between urban fine art and contemporary graphics, Russ creates collisions of real and digital media with a firm foundation in drawing. He mainly focuses on the human form, particularly the face, interweaving elements from the animal kingdom often reflecting the absurdity of human nature.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Video: Opera & Facebook's Phone Frenzy

CNBC's Jon Fortt reports shares of Norway-based software company, Opera Software, are soaring on news Facebook might buy the company for its mobile phone technology.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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Nikon pushes out D4, D800 firmware update, fixes lock-up issues and other bugs

Nikon pushes out D4, D800 firmware update, fixes lock-up issues and other bugs

It wasn't long ago that we heard about the "lock-up" woes D4 and D800 owners were experiencing on their shiny new shooters, but luckily for them, Nikon just outed a fix to take care of those issues. Aside from solving the aforementioned annoyance, the firmware update (B:1.01) also mends a problem allowing RAW files to be network-transferred while in JPEG-only mode, as well as a bug causing bits like aperture and exposure compensation to change unexpectedly when using certain custom settings. You can grab the updates now via the source links below, and be sure to let us know how it all turned out in the end.

Nikon pushes out D4, D800 firmware update, fixes lock-up issues and other bugs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 May 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Jack Librarian: Collective action for ebook collections

I?ve spent a lot of time over the last several years thinking, writing, and speaking about ebooks [see also: Jason Griffey, Bobbi Newman]. And I still agree with the notion that unless ebook publishing and distribution changes, libraries are still screwed.

So let's change things. Here are three things *you* can do.

Sign this petition asking publishers to lend ebooks to libraries.?


While you wait for the petition to hit 10K and then for publishers to be moved by this overture, you can do the next two things.

Register your library with the Open Library ebook lending program


The Open Library/Internet Archive not only provides millions of free public domain ebooks, they also lend out ebooks from a set of 20th century works. They work with willing publishers to lend ebooks using a "traditional model" of one book being lent to one person at a time for up to two weeks. If your reader is in the IP range of a registered library, all they have to do is create an Open Library account, and then they can effortlessly borrow books from Open Library without any library intervention.
And that's how I pitched it when I talked to with my Library Administration about registering The Leddy Library with The Open Library: willing publishers, no intervention required by the library (although we could do some interesting integration with our OPAC down the road if we wanted to) and our readers will another option if they want reading material for their Nook or whathaveyou.

So, I got the okay and I registered our library. Because of that registration, I received a longer form in my inbox that I then filled out. I sent that form and one book donation to the Internet Archive. A few short weeks later, we now can offer ebooks that can be read online and offline.? You can too.

Have your library help unglue a book

I don't pretend I know what the shape of the ebook landscape will be in the future but I do know what I like in the present. As such, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of unglue.it (if you are unfamilar with the venture, Andy Woodworth has just written a good description of the project).

I've been following the five unglueit campaigns with interest and while been good to see a number of individuals who have stepped forward to personally invest in a future where ebooks are available to everyone *and* publishers and authors are compensated, I was a little concerned that I hadn't seen any libraries make a pledge to support this future.

So a couple of weeks ago, I made a brief presentation to the Leddy Library Information Services Department meeting and asked my colleagues if anyone had any concerns if I made a pledge on behalf of my collection responsibility (I buy books from the library's "General Books" fund). Hearing none, I again checked with my Library Administration who recognized this an effort that was aligned with our Open Access efforts, and said that I could this is out as a pilot.

Yesterday I sat with our coordinator who is in charge of the logistics of monograph ordering and we made an unglueit account together. We then associated that account with an already existing Amazon account, and made a $25 pledge. The whole thing took about 5 minutes, tops.

Personally, it is difficult to think of less risky experiment for an organization. If a book's campaign doesn't go through, there is no cost to the library and regardless of a campaign's outcome there is absolutely no obligation to do anything after making a single pledge. One can link to the unglue'd book on the Open Library in one's OPAC or one can take a copy and host it locally. Or the library can do nothing at all in knowing that the book is freely available online and readers will be able to find it using their own devices.

If I would very much like to see more libraries (as opposed to librarians) make pledges on unglue.it. As such, I will increase my own personal pledge to unglue this work by $25 as soon as I see another library making a pledge.

And I hope it's the library that you work for.

Libraries are the result of collective action. Libraries are loosely associated and widely distributed. When we coordinate ourselves independently to achieve common goals, we are very powerful. Maybe the examples of collective action I have give above aren't the best examples of what we can achieve when we work together but I believe that even if they aren't they can be good practice to get us ready for great work to come.

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Soteira receives $375K in debt financing

Medical device company Soteira Inc. in Natick has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its fifth round of debt financing in two years, this time for $375,000.

The most recent round comes from 40 investors, according to the filing. Named as directors in the fling are John Corcoran, president of Trinity Partners, LLC and co-founder of Soteira; Al Wiegman, partner of HLM Venture Partners; and Joseph Ciffolillo, partner of Spray Venture Partners. The round brings the total debt financing the company has taken in since July 2010 to more than $4 million.

In May 2009, Soteira Inc. raised $6.6 million of a $12 million Series C equity financing round, and the previous year, it closed on a $12 million Series B round of financing.

The company was incorporated in 2004 to develop and market technologies to treat vertebral compression fractures. According to its website, it has launched multiple products to advance patient care in the field of osteoporotic bone repair, and in 2008, it established a subsidiary company, Soteira GmbH, which currently manages distribution in Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Austria.

Soteira Inc. is led by CEO Larry Jasinski.

In 2010, the company renewed their lease for 10,000 square feet of office and lab space at 14 Tech Circle in Natick.

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Hibiscus

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Android v. Apple: The Latest Round of Legal Disputes in a Long ...

On April 24, Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender of the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Apple was in violation of infringement of a Motorola patent ?on 3G wireless technology. The violation is in regards to the use of the 3G wireless technology in Apple?s iPhone and iPad devices.?Judge Pender?s initial ruling (available here) is still subject to review and approval by the ITC?s panel of six Commissioners. Apple has already appealed and has sued Samsung (the owner of the Motorola patent) for its own alleged patent infringements.

This latest loss for Apple is certainly significant, but is just one piece in the ever growing patent disputes among smartphone makers. With the technology trend from 3G wireless technology to faster 4G wireless technology, the amount of patents?and subsequent litigation?is only likely to increase. Samsung,?Apple?s opponent before the ITC, also happens to be?among the industry leaders in regards to 4G technology and its patents. This would seemingly?advantage Samsung in upcoming settlements with Apple. However, Apple is one of the industry leaders in user interface technology and has filed suit against Samsung for Samsung mobile products that run the Android operating system, which allegedly infringes on Apple patents. The only thing for certain is that the ITC ruling will not be the last in a continued legal battle between these two technology giants.

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Gamify your sweat and make films more exciting

Kat Austen, CultureLab editor

rexfeatures_799264a.jpg(Image: WestEnd61/Rex Features)

Getting really sweaty is not normally a good thing. But imagine if doing so could make the film you're watching more exciting - or even change what happens next. Technology firm Sensum is launching a smartphone app that will use your sweat to make life far more entertaining.

Sensum pairs a wrist-mounted galvanic skin response (GSR) sensor, made by Dublin company Shimmer Research, via Bluetooth to a smartphone with the Sensum app installed. The sensor measures how much you sweat while watching different videos, and sends the data to the smartphone which then uploads the data to the Sensum website. Then you can play back the video overlaid with a graph that shows just what made you jump.

You are also given a score for how much you engaged with what you saw, which you can compare to others'. That gamification aspect is addictive. "You're getting rewarded for taking part," says Sensum's Gawain Morrison. It works - I found myself wanting to be sweatier for the first time ever, just so that I could feel more emotionally sensitive.

But the data isn't just collected and gamified, it can be used to change what you're watching in real time too. Last year Morrison's Belfast-based production company Filmtrip launched their interactive short horror film Unsound at SXSW, which responded to the audience's excitement - measured by their GSR and heart rate - by making the footage even gorier and the music more tense. "The physiology of the user shapes their entertainment experience," says Morrison.

New-Scientist-2.jpg

(Image: Shimmer Research)

Now that the technology has become mobile it can be rolled out on a much broader scale. "The mobile version allows us so much more room," says Morrison. "You can do proper deep-level immersion stuff and physiology encryption. If you go to a film with one of these devices on you're going to come out of that with data unique to you. For an alternate reality game tied into a film you then have totally personal physiological encryption."

Morrison foresees the platform being used to unlock content - be it games, comic books or extra plot - that is personally tailored for each viewer. "You're getting a personal reward for engaging with the film," he says. "All the further content is led by how you engaged with it."

Bringing it back to its origins, though, Filmtrip is working with science-fiction novelist Ian McDonald on the script of a feature-length film with multiple endings where physiological markers from the audience will change the film's music, special effects, character paths and even the ending.

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Monday, May 28, 2012

'Eco-Anarchists' Targeting Nuclear and Nanotech Workers

The author of "The Paranoid Style of American Politics" spends a few pages at the start of the essay stressing that he just means paranoid Style, not clinical paranoia, and that it is hardly limited to America, but has cropped up all over the world.

Well, it sure seems to be alive and well in Switzerland and Mexico, to name two places that have suffered these attacks. The rhetoric in the Mexican note, about nanotech, from the "ITS" ("Individuals Tending to Savagery", at least they're honest) rings with your standard conspiracy-theory stuff about it ending the world. The anti-nuclear rhetoric in the other is similar towards nuclear armageddon, with the deaths from the "European Fukushima" just around the corner. (Amazing how France has avoided them for 40 years of 77% nuke power generation).

From the original "paranoid style" essay:

"The paranoid spokesman, sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms ? he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization . . . he does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish."...that pretty neatly explains how they can go around blowing up engineers and professors. Since the "paranoid style" essay has become popular again lately because it also jogs memories of some Tea Party fears about Obama taking away all guns or rounding up Christians into camps or whatever, it's worth noting that this is where that kind of thinking eventually takes you if pursued to a logical conclusion. The author also stresses that the "paranoid style" is not a left or right thing, but found on both sides.

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Letter: We must demand that crude oil be taken off the stock market

Folks, it's time to start screaming about being raped by the Big Oil Companies that our taxes subsidize.?

On 02/17/2011, I paid $2.649 for a gallon of gas, I passed the same station 25 minutes later and the price had jumped to $3.399.?

I later found out that a barrel of crude oil still in the ground had jumped from $95.42 to $100.00, however it stayed there for only 20 minutes and closed at $98.90.?

Since that day, crude (still in the ground) has only topped $100.00 per barrel about 50 days, the rest of the time it has been around the $95.42 price that it was on 02/17/2011. On 5/15/2011 a barrel of crude in the ground closed at $94.78, gas $3.899. On 5/17/2012, exactly one year later, crude in the ground closed at $92.81 and gas was $3.749; 5/18/2012 it was $92.56, gas $3.699; 5/19/2012 it closed at $92.48, gas was $3.649; 5/20/2012, $91.48, ?but gas was still $3.679.?

On 5/22/2012 crude was $92.57 but gas jumped up to $3.899, WHY??On 5/23/2012 the crude was still only $89.90, gas still $3.899.

We the citizens of the USA must demand that crude oil be taken off of the stock market and re-regulated. Gas for our auto's must be affordable to all Americans. Gasoline at the pump should cost no more today than $2.50 or less per gallon per the cost of crude in the ground.?

It's not "are you better off today then you were on 01/20/2009." It's "is the USA better?off today then it was on 01/19/2009."?

The answer to that is yes, the USA is.?

However we still have a ways to go and with a vote for D we will continue going forward and will get to "yes you are better off".?

A vote for R is a vote to go backwards, these teapublicans are telling us over and over what they will do, to us, and think we are too dumb to realize it.

WILLIAM H. KORTH/Grand Blanc

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