Sunday, June 30, 2013

One year passes since brutal death of Armenian military physician

YEREVAN. ? Saturday, June 29, 2013 marks the one-year anniversary of the death of military doctor Vahe Avetyan.?

On this occasion, a candlelight vigil is scheduled to be held nearby the restaurant complex where he was brutally beaten.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, an incident had occurred at Armenian capital city Yerevan?s Harsnaqar Restaurant Complex on June 17, 2012. Several military doctors, including Edgar Mikoyan, Arkadi Aghajanyan, Garik Soghomonyan, Artak Bayadyan and Vahe Avetyan, were brutally beaten by Harsnaqar security personnel, and Avetyan, 35, died in hospital on June 29.

Subsequently, a criminal lawsuit was filed into this incident, and six people stand trial.

The Restaurant?s owner is ruling Republican Party former MP, Football Federation of Armenia President, and businessman Ruben Hayrapetyan, who formally gave up his parliamentary seat in connection with this incident. But as per Avetyan?s relatives and the active civil society, Hayrapetyan himself should be brought to account for the killing of the military officer.

?

Source: http://news.am/eng/news/160317.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Are college student hook-ups linked to anxiety and depression?

June 28, 2013 ? As narratives of "hook-up" culture take center stage in popular media, behavioral researchers are starting to ask what psychological consequences, if any, may be in store for young adults who engage in casual sex.

A new study in The Journal of Sex Research found higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression among students who recently had casual sex. Entitled Risky Business: Is There an Association between Casual Sex and Mental Health among Emerging Adults?, the study surveyed over 3,900 heterosexual college students from across the United States about their casual sex behaviors and mental well-being. "Casual sex" was defined as having intercourse with a partner one has known for less than a week. Students from over 30 institutions around the country completed the online survey, making this the largest sample to be collected for a study on this topic. On average, 11% of students reported a casual sex encounter during the month prior to the survey, the majority of whom were men.

The study was led by Dr. Melina M. Bersamin of California State University, Sacramento. According to Dr. Bersamin, "It is premature to conclude that casual sexual encounters pose no harmful psychological risks for young adults." The results "suggest that among heterosexual college students, casual sex was negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with psychological distress."

The researchers also investigated the role of gender in determining mental distress linked to casual sex. Prior studies have found that women respond more negatively to casual sex than men, possibly because of double standards that allow men to have more sexual encounters with a greater number of partners than women. In this study, however, gender did not have an effect on outcomes.

"Risky Business" opens the door to future research questions about causal links between sexual behavior and mental health. Researchers have yet to determine whether casual sex leads to psychological distress, or if existing mental health problems cause young adults to engage in riskier behaviors.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Taylor & Francis, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Melina M. Bersamin, Byron L. Zamboanga, Seth J. Schwartz, M. Brent Donnellan, Monika Hudson, Robert S. Weisskirch, Su Yeong Kim, V. Bede Agocha, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, S. Jean Caraway. Risky Business: Is There an Association between Casual Sex and Mental Health among Emerging Adults? Journal of Sex Research, 2013; DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2013.772088

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/xp6zErJJCRw/130628130934.htm

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Windows Azure Now Stores 8.5 Trillion Data Objects, Manages 900K Transactions Per Second

P1110687Microsoft announced at the Build conference today that Windows Azure now has 8.5 trillion objects stored on its infrastructure. The company also announced the following: Customers do 900,000 storage transactions per second. The service is doubling its compute and storage every six months. 3.2 million organizations have Active Directory accounts with 68 million users. More than 50 percent of the world’s Fortune 500 companies are using Windows Azure. In comparison, Amazon Web Services said at its AWS Summit in New York earlier this year that its S3 storage service now holds more than 2 trillion objects. According to a post by Frederic Lardinois, that’s up from 1 trillion last June and 1.3 trillion in November, when the company last updated these numbers at its re:Invent conference. So what accounts for the differene between Azure and AWS? It all has to do with how each company counts the objects it stores. With that in consideration, it’s likely Azure’s numbers are far different if the same metrics were used as AWS. Nevertheless, the news highlights the importance of Windows Azure for Microsoft, especially as the enterprise moves its infrastructure, shedding data centers to consolidate and reduce their costs.  

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ru56ymMXCXc/

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New low-cost, transparent electrodes

June 27, 2013 ? Indium tin oxide (ITO) has become a standard material in light-emitting diodes, flat panel plasma displays, electronic ink and other applications because of its high performance, moisture resistance, and capacity for being finely etched. But indium is also rare and expensive, and it requires a costly deposition process to make opto-electronic devices and makes for a brittle electrode. Replacing indium as the default material in transparent electrodes is a high priority for the electronics industry.

Now, in a paper appearing in APL Materials, a new open-access journal produced by AIP Publishing, researchers report creating a sturdy, transparent, and indium-free electrode from silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) that could replace indium-based electrodes in some applications.

"Silver and titanium are much more abundant than indium in the earth's crust, and so we anticipate that electronic devices based on silver and titanium dioxide would be a more sustainable materials system and be manufactured at a low cost," said T.L. Alford, a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University who led the research.

The TiO2/Ag/TiO2 composite electrode multilayer film the researchers studied has been well characterized in the literature, but the team optimized both the thickness of the silver layer and the manufacturing process so that the multilayer film has a low sheet resistance and high optical transmittance, both properties necessary for high-performance.

The researchers created films with a sheet resistance as low as one sixth of that achieved by previous studies, while maintaining approximately 90 percent optical transmittance. With the choice of an underlying substrate made of polyethylene napthalate (PEN) -- a sturdy polymer used in a variety of applications from bottling carbonated beverages to manufacturing flexible electronics -- the researchers added additional durability.

Because of a less expensive manufacturing process and the wide availability of titanium dioxide, silver and PEN, the new TiO2/Ag/TiO2 thin film could one day help make devices such as electronic displays and solar cells more affordable by replacing more expensive indium-based electrodes.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Institute of Physics (AIP), via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Aritra Dhar, T. L. Alford. High quality transparent TiO2?Ag?TiO2 composite electrode films deposited on flexible substrate at room temperature by sputtering. APL Materials, 2013; 1 (1): 012102 DOI: 10.1063/1.4808438

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/H1X-9lhBbuM/130627130953.htm

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Friday, June 28, 2013

'Lola' tops 204 mph, breaking electric vehicle land speed record

Autos

2 minutes ago

Drayson Racing team members celebrate their land speed record.

The Detroit Bureau

Drayson Racing team members celebrate their land speed record.

With all the emphasis on electric propulsion these days, it might seem hard to believe that it?s been 39 years since General Electric ? yes, GE ? set the FIA World Electric Land Speed Record. But that achievement has finally been bested by a sleek, Le Mans Prototype dubbed ?Lola.?

On an RAF airbase in Yorkshire, England, an 850-horsepower battery-electric built by Drayson Racing hit a top speed of 204.185 miles per hour during a pair of runs down a 3-kilometer (nearly 2-mile) track. That was a full 29 mph faster than the 175 mph record set way back in 1974 by the Battery Box General Electric.

?I?m delighted we?ve beaten the record tonight and can show the world EVs can be fast and reliable,? said Lord Paul Drayson, whose firm built the 2,200 battery, and who personally piloted it during the record run. ?It is not the outright speed of 204.185 mph that is most impressive about this record, but the engineering challenge of accelerating a 1000 kilogram electric vehicle on a short runway over a measured mile.?

Officially known as the Drayson B12 69/EV the enclosed racer used ultra-light carbon fiber for its chassis and body to compensate for the heft of a 30 kilowatt-hour battery pack. It also relied on custom-designed Michelin LM P1 tires.

Though most folks likely associate electric propulsion with ? but slow ? vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt, the reality is that battery power can also deliver some impressive performance as an electric motor yields maximum torque the moment it starts spinning.

Drayson?s Lola can launch from 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds, for example, and keep gaining speed until it?s pushed well past 200 mph. In fact, Lord Drayson is apparently looking to soon beat his own record, tweeting to fans that on an additional run the car was ?very lively at 216 mph.?

While he may be celebrating victory, the claimed record could come under dispute. The Buckeye Bullet, an EV built by students at Ohio State University, actually achieved a 307.7 mph average during two runs at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in August 2010 ? and was seen as capable of reaching 400 mph. But that effort was not officially sanctioned by the FIA, leaving GE?s Battery Box the certified record-holder for another three years.

To proponents, what matters most is the increasing focus in electric racing and battery propulsion, in general.

There?s clearly a lot more interest, for example, has nudged its ZEOD RC battery race car up to 186 mph, and Top EV Racing claims to have launched its battery dragster from 0 to 100 in a mind-boggling 0.8 seconds.

What could put battery racing square in the public eye is the new Formula E series set to launch in 2015. Not surprisingly, Lord Drayson is looking to participate when that program gets underway.

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2defcb70/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Clola0Etops0E20A40Emph0Ebreaking0Eelectric0Evehicle0Eland0Espeed0Erecord0E6C10A464452/story01.htm

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DOMA, Voting Rights, And The Bigot?s Last Gasp (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315493110?client_source=feed&format=rss

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As the Pearl Turns

60-Second Science

Microscopy reveals that a growing pearl's surface has a sawtooth pattern that can cause it to ratchet around as it grows, resulting in the familiar sphere. Sophie Bushwick reports

More 60-Second Science

Flawless pearls are among the most symmetrical spheres with biological origins. But how do they get so round? Turns out they turn.

Pearls form when mollusks such as oysters create so-called pearl sacs around intrusive pieces of grit. The sac coats the irritant with layers of smooth nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl. The growing pearl rotates itself, which allows the nacre to deposit evenly over its surface.

By examining pearls under a fluorescence and a scanning electron microscope, researchers discovered that the surface actually has a saw-tooth texture. As the mollusk moves, the pearl is jostled to the next tiny tooth. The work is published in the journal Langmuir. [Julyan H. E. Cartwright, Antonio G. Checa, and Marthe Rousseau, Pearls Are Self-Organized Natural Ratchets]

A pearl's motion influences its nacre coverage, and thus its final shape. Depending on its surface pattern, it might turn in a single direction to create a drop or ring, or rotate more freely to form a sphere. If a defect prevents this motion, the final product will be shapeless. The resulting asymmetrical pearl is doomed to be booed. Roundly.

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]????
?


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/biology/~3/kfXd93Ljg34/episode.cfm

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Taking on TREB's take on the Toronto land transfer tax | Metro

After I published a post last week imploring Toronto real estate agents to get over their obsession with the city?s five-year-old land transfer tax, I heard from a bunch of people who agreed. Some of them even work in real estate. They get that cutting $340 million out of the city budget necessarily means negative consequences, whether they come in the form of much higher property taxes over the long-term or service cuts to the kinds of municipal programs that actually help make Toronto a desirable place to buy a home.

But then there was the Toronto Real Estate Board. They didn?t like my arguments so much.

TREB emailed asking for a chance to respond. And I?m happy to give it to them.

Here?s what TREB?s Chief Government and Public Affairs Officer Von Palmer had to say in a letter to?Metro?s?editors:

In his Blog posting of June 18, 2013, Matt Elliott advised REALTORS? to stop?fighting the Toronto Land Transfer Tax. The Toronto Real Estate Board?disagrees that targeting home buyers, with tens of thousands of dollars in?double taxation, is good for our City. ?In fact, it?s hurting our City.

  • Toronto is the only place in Ontario where you pay a municipal LTT?on top of the provincial LTT, upfront.
  • Studies have found that the Land Transfer Tax is directly?responsible for dampening Toronto home sales by 16% per year.
  • This tax unfairly forces only five percent of Torontonians each year?(those purchasing a home), to subsidize the other 95 percent.

We will keep fighting on behalf of home buyers, because that is the right?thing to do.

Palmer?s points are well taken, but I?m still holding to the position that, taken together, they don?t add up to a great argument for why the city should force itself to either find more than $300 million in service cuts or significantly increase the property tax burden on residents.

TREB gets a lot of mileage out of their claim that the land transfer tax is ?double taxation,? which is one of those things that sounds terrible even though it hardly makes a lot of sense. If Toronto levying its own land transfer tax on top of the provincial land transfer tax qualifies as double taxation, then so too should the years-old practice of the provincial government levying its own sales tax atop the federal GST.

And, hey, both the provincial and federal governments tax my income too ? sound the double tax alarm.

As for the idea that ?Toronto is the only place in Ontario where you pay a municipal LTT on top of the provincial LTT, upfront,? I?m not really sure what else there is to add. Does anyone dispute that? Is there a reason that kind of thing is inherently bad?

I think most home buyers understand that their municipal tax burden will vary based on the municipality they choose to buy into. Sure, in Toronto, a $500,000 house will come with an upfront bill for about $5,725 to pay off the municipal land transfer tax. But it?ll only cost me $4,152 in annual property taxes, according to this calculator. ?And yeah, if I buy the same house in Missisauga, I skip the land transfer tax, but my property tax bill comes out about $800 higher each year ? at $4,910. If I live in the Toronto house for about seven years, I actually come out ahead in terms of taxes paid to the municipality ? even with the upfront land transfer tax.

None of this would seem to be about what?s ?the right thing to do.? It?s just different approaches to municipal finance.

But what about the idea that Toronto?s land transfer tax has actually hurt the real estate market? TREB?s statistic that the land transfer tax ?is directly responsible for dampening Toronto home sales by 16% per year? sure sounds bad. But it turns out they get that figure from a C.D. Howe study ? a study with a methodology that raises a lot of questions.

C.D. Howe doesn?t, for example, look at condominium sales in their study. They just decide to put that whole segment off the market off to the side. And condos, you might have heard, kind of make up a giant part of Toronto?s real estate market.

And that 16% figure isn?t just a straight-up decline in the number of home sales after the land transfer tax was implemented. Instead, the Institute glosses over data showing that sales and the average price of real estate actually increased after the implementation of the tax and instead focuses on a narrow comparison of ?forward sortation areas.? By doing so, they limit themselves to comparing sales in border areas, so sales in areas of Etobcioke were compared to sales in areas of Mississauga, for example, while areas of Scarborough saw comparisons to parts of Durham Region.

If that seems like a convoluted way to conduct this kind of analysis, then I?m with you.

Much simpler is this the notion of fairness. ?This tax unfairly forces only five percent of Torontonians each year (those purchasing a home), to subsidize the other 95 percent,? says TREB. But this line of thinking runs dangerously close to an argument against progressive taxation.

Yes, people who are in a position to afford pricy real estate in Toronto are contributing more revenue to fund the services this city needs. On years they buy houses or condos, they?re definitely paying more than your average minimum wage renter or that pair of seniors that have lived in their home for fifty years.?But I don?t necessarily see anything wrong with that.?It might actually be fairer.

News Worth Sharing:

Source: http://metronews.ca/voices/ford-for-toronto/721281/taking-on-trebs-take-on-the-toronto-land-transfer-tax/

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Deen's name to be removed from Caesars buffets

AAA??Jun. 26, 2013?1:49 PM ET
Deen's name to be removed from Caesars buffets
By DAVID BAUDERBy DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show, with host Matt Lauer, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this publicity image released by NBC, celebrity chef Paula Deen, right, appears on NBC News' "Today" show, with host Matt Lauer, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 in New York. Deen dissolved into tears during a "Today" show interview Wednesday about her admission that she used a racial slur in the past. The celebrity chef, who had backed out of a "Today" interview last Friday, said she was not a racist and was heartbroken by the controversy that began with her own deposition in a lawsuit. Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and as a celebrity endorser by Smithfield Foods. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

(AP) ? Paula Deen's name is being stripped from four buffet restaurants owned by Caesars, part of the continuing fallout over her admission that she used a racial slur in the past.

Caesars said Wednesday its decision to rebrand its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind. was a mutual one with Deen.

Meanwhile, the celebrity chef's representatives distributed four letters supporting Deen from other companies that work with her, as she fights to keep her business empire from crumbling.

Deen appeared in a "Today" show interview earlier Wednesday, dissolving into tears and saying that anyone in the audience who's never said anything they've regretted should pick up a rock and throw it at her head.

The chef, who specializes in Southern comfort food, repeated that she's not a racist.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-26-Paula-Deen/id-51d86a192b5e4906ae8aee85609e8c2d

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

A stepping-stone for oxygen on Earth

June 26, 2013 ? For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis -- the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules -- first began. Now, a team led by geobiologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found evidence of a precursor photosystem involving manganese that predates cyanobacteria, the first group of organisms to release oxygen into the environment via photosynthesis.

The findings, outlined in the June 24 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), strongly support the idea that manganese oxidation -- which, despite the name, is a chemical reaction that does not have to involve oxygen -- provided an evolutionary stepping-stone for the development of water-oxidizing photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.

"Water-oxidizing or water-splitting photosynthesis was invented by cyanobacteria approximately 2.4 billion years ago and then borrowed by other groups of organisms thereafter," explains Woodward Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology at Caltech and a coauthor of the study. "Algae borrowed this photosynthetic system from cyanobacteria, and plants are just a group of algae that took photosynthesis on land, so we think with this finding we're looking at the inception of the molecular machinery that would give rise to oxygen."

Photosynthesis is the process by which energy from the sun is used by plants and other organisms to split water and carbon dioxide molecules to make carbohydrates and oxygen. Manganese is required for water splitting to work, so when scientists began to wonder what evolutionary steps may have led up to an oxygenated atmosphere on Earth, they started to look for evidence of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis prior to cyanobacteria. Since oxidation simply involves the transfer of electrons to increase the charge on an atom -- and this can be accomplished using light or O2 -- it could have occurred before the rise of oxygen on this planet.

"Manganese plays an essential role in modern biological water splitting as a necessary catalyst in the process, so manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis makes sense as a potential transitional photosystem," says Jena Johnson, a graduate student in Fischer's laboratory at Caltech and lead author of the study.

To test the hypothesis that manganese-based photosynthesis occurred prior to the evolution of oxygenic cyanobacteria, the researchers examined drill cores (newly obtained by the Agouron Institute) from 2.415 billion-year-old South African marine sedimentary rocks with large deposits of manganese.

Manganese is soluble in seawater. Indeed, if there are no strong oxidants around to accept electrons from the manganese, it will remain aqueous, Fischer explains, but the second it is oxidized, or loses electrons, manganese precipitates, forming a solid that can become concentrated within seafloor sediments.

"Just the observation of these large enrichments -- 16 percent manganese in some samples -- provided a strong implication that the manganese had been oxidized, but this required confirmation," he says.

To prove that the manganese was originally part of the South African rock and not deposited there later by hydrothermal fluids or some other phenomena, Johnson and colleagues developed and employed techniques that allowed the team to assess the abundance and oxidation state of manganese-bearing minerals at a very tiny scale of 2 microns.

"And it's warranted -- these rocks are complicated at a micron scale!" Fischer says. "And yet, the rocks occupy hundreds of meters of stratigraphy across hundreds of square kilometers of ocean basin, so you need to be able to work between many scales -- very detailed ones, but also across the whole deposit to understand the ancient environmental processes at work."

Using these multiscale approaches, Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that the manganese was original to the rocks and first deposited in sediments as manganese oxides, and that manganese oxidation occurred over a broad swath of the ancient marine basin during the entire timescale captured by the drill cores.

"It's really amazing to be able to use X-ray techniques to look back into the rock record and use the chemical observations on the microscale to shed light on some of the fundamental processes and mechanisms that occurred billions of years ago," says Samuel Webb, coauthor on the paper and beam line scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, where many of the study's experiments took place. "Questions regarding the evolution of the photosynthetic pathway and the subsequent rise of oxygen in the atmosphere are critical for understanding not only the history of our own planet, but also the basics of how biology has perfected the process of photosynthesis."

Once the team confirmed that the manganese had been deposited as an oxide phase when the rock was first forming, they checked to see if these manganese oxides were actually formed before water-splitting photosynthesis or if they formed after as a result of reactions with oxygen. They used two different techniques to check whether oxygen was present. It was not -- proving that water-splitting photosynthesis had not yet evolved at that point in time. The manganese in the deposits had indeed been oxidized and deposited before the appearance of water-splitting cyanobacteria. This implies, the researchers say, that manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis was a stepping-stone for oxygen-producing, water-splitting photosynthesis.

"I think that there will be a number of additional experiments that people will now attempt to try and reverse engineer a manganese photosynthetic photosystem or cell," Fischer says. "Once you know that this happened, it all of a sudden gives you reason to take more seriously an experimental program aimed at asking, 'Can we make a photosystem that's able to oxidize manganese but doesn't then go on to split water? How does it behave, and what is its chemistry?' Even though we know what modern water splitting is and what it looks like, we still don't know exactly how it works. There is a still a major discovery to be made to find out exactly how the catalysis works, and now knowing where this machinery comes from may open new perspectives into its function -- an understanding that could help target technologies for energy production from artificial photosynthesis. "

Next up in Fischer's lab, Johnson plans to work with others to try and mutate a cyanobacteria to "go backwards" and perform manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis. The team also plans to investigate a set of rocks from western Australia that are similar in age to the samples used in the current study and may also contain beds of manganese. If their current study results are truly an indication of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis, they say, there should be evidence of the same processes in other parts of the world.

"Oxygen is the backdrop on which this story is playing out on, but really, this is a tale of the evolution of this very intense metabolism that happened once -- an evolutionary singularity that transformed the planet," Fischer says. "We've provided insight into how the evolution of one of these remarkable molecular machines led up to the oxidation of our planet's atmosphere, and now we're going to follow up on all angles of our findings."

Funding for the research outlined in the PNAS paper, titled "Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria," was provided by the Agouron Institute, NASA's Exobiology Branch, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program. Joseph Kirschvink, Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology at Caltech, also contributed to the study along with Katherine Thomas and Shuhei Ono from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/Jr95gYiRb8g/130626153924.htm

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Sony expands high-end Cyber-shot lineup with RX100M2, full-frame RX1R (hands-on)

Sony expands highend Cybershot lineup with RX100M2, fullframe RX1R handson

Sony's brilliant RX100 and RX1 advanced point-and-shoots will live to see another day. Instead of replacing these two well-received pocket cams, the company has opted to expand the upper end of its Cyber-shot lineup, adding two very compelling new models. First up is the RX1R, a full-frame compact that'll retail for $2,799, the same price last year's model still commands today. In fact, it's nearly identical to 2012's flavor, with the exception of a redesigned sensor, which drops the optical low-pass filter in the interest of sharper captures. Of course, without that component, the camera is susceptible to moire and false color issues, so the RX1R is a better fit for landscape photographers than portrait shooters or photojournalists. It also sports Triluminous Color output through the HDMI port, for enhanced visuals on select HDTVs.

The vast majority of shooters are going to be much more excited about the Cyber-shot RX100M2, though. This "Mark II" variant of the RX100 borrows a few features from Sony's NEX line, which is never a bad thing. Looking at the camera, you'll first notice the 3-inch 1.3M-dot tiltable LCD, which can flip 84 degrees upward and 45 degrees downward. There's also a Multi Interface Shoe for adding on accessories like a microphone, OLED EVF or external flash. Additionally, the USB port is now a Multi Interface Terminal, so it'll work with the RM-VPR1 remote, and Sony added WiFi, NFC, and Triluminous Color output through the HDMI connector. On the imaging front, there's a brand new 1-inch BSI CMOS sensor, boosting sensitivity to the tune of one full stop (we're told ISO 3200 shots are comparable to ISO 1600 on the RX100). The top sensitivity also jumps from ISO 6400 to 12,800, which is pretty fantastic for a point-and-shoot.

As with the RX1, you'll still be able to snag the RX100 for some time to come. And for many photographers, last year's model may be the best pick -- the RX100M2, while a bit more feature-packed, retails for a $100 more than its predecessor, with a $750 MSRP. The RX1R, however, maintains the same pricing as the RX1, at $2,799. Both cameras, which you can check out now in the hands-on gallery below, are expected in stores by the middle of July.

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Microsoft launches Bing platform for developers

Microsoft launches Bing platform for developers

Microsoft wants developers to make Bing a central part of their apps, and it's powering that with a new developer platform unveiled today at Build. The Bing kit will let programmers tap the search engine's wealth of knowledge, providing direct information and translations when they're relevant. It should also grant access to natural interfaces, such as gestures, as well as real-world map data. Microsoft showed the platform at work in both Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8, so it's clear that developers who want Bing's resources won't be locked into any one device type.

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NASA's Voyager 1 explores final frontier of our 'solar bubble'

June 27, 2013 ? Data from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, suggest the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.

Research using Voyager 1 data and published in the journal Science today provides new detail on the last region the spacecraft will cross before it leaves the heliosphere, or the bubble around our sun, and enters interstellar space. Three papers describe how Voyager 1's entry into a region called the magnetic highway resulted in simultaneous observations of the highest rate so far of charged particles from outside heliosphere and the disappearance of charged particles from inside the heliosphere.

Scientists have seen two of the three signs of interstellar arrival they expected to see: charged particles disappearing as they zoom out along the solar magnetic field, and cosmic rays from far outside zooming in. Scientists have not yet seen the third sign, an abrupt change in the direction of the magnetic field, which would indicate the presence of the interstellar magnetic field.

"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space, but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun's magnetic field."

Scientists do not know exactly how far Voyager 1 has to go to reach interstellar space. They estimate it could take several more months, or even years, to get there. The heliosphere extends at least 8 billion miles (13 billion kilometers) beyond all the planets in our solar system. It is dominated by the sun's magnetic field and an ionized wind expanding outward from the sun. Outside the heliosphere, interstellar space is filled with matter from other stars and the magnetic field present in the nearby region of the Milky Way.

Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. They toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before embarking on their interstellar mission in 1990. They now aim to leave the heliosphere. Measuring the size of the heliosphere is part of the Voyagers' mission.

The Science papers focus on observations made from May to September 2012 by Voyager 1's cosmic ray, low-energy charged particle and magnetometer instruments, with some additional charged particle data obtained through April of this year.

Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun and still inside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun Aug. 25 when it reached the magnetic highway, also known as the depletion region, and a connection to interstellar space. This region allows charged particles to travel into and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line, instead of bouncing around in all directions as if trapped on local roads. For the first time in this region, scientists could detect low-energy cosmic rays that originate from dying stars.

"We saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles. They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."

Other charged particle behavior observed by Voyager 1 also indicates the spacecraft still is in a region of transition to the interstellar medium. While crossing into the new region, the charged particles originating from the heliosphere that decreased most quickly were those shooting straightest along solar magnetic field lines. Particles moving perpendicular to the magnetic field did not decrease as quickly. However, cosmic rays moving along the field lines in the magnetic highway region were somewhat more populous than those moving perpendicular to the field. In interstellar space, the direction of the moving charged particles is not expected to matter.

In the span of about 24 hours, the magnetic field originating from the sun also began piling up, like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp. But scientists were able to quantify that the magnetic field barely changed direction -- by no more than 2 degrees.

"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said Leonard Burlaga, the lead author of one of the papers, and based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/RSctGZatbW0/130627140803.htm

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With more at stake, US and Russia cool war of words over l'Affaire Snowden

The Edward Snowden affair elicited a round of threats and needling from US and Russian officials, but the two powers have appeared to pull back, mindful they have more consequential mutual interests.

By Howard LaFranchi,?Staff writer / June 26, 2013

Transit passengers eat at a cafe with a TV screen with a news program showing a report on Edward Snowden, in the background, at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow Wednesday.

Sergei Grits/AP

Enlarge

After the threats and the needling over the Edward Snowden affair, the United States and Russia appear to be settling down and accepting the reality that the two world powers have little choice but to live and work together.

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The arrival at Moscow?s international airport Sunday of Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted by American authorities for leaking top-secret information on US surveillance programs, had US officials beginning with Secretary of State John Kerry warning Russia Monday of the ?consequences? it risked if it didn?t turn over the fugitive.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be getting a bit of a thrill at the expense of the US as he made the case Tuesday for not turning over Snowden on the grounds of human rights ? an issue the US Congress and many US NGOs cite in their criticisms of the Russian government.

But after the venting and the fun, both sides are pulling back to more reasoned positions. The changed tone reflects a mutual desire not to let the Snowden affair spoil the chances of the US and Russia pursuing more long-term and consequential mutual interests, including a political solution in Syria and continued cooperation on nuclear issues.

Secretary Kerry toned down his words, saying the US is not looking for a ?confrontation? with Russia or any other country, and Mr. Putin said he did not wish to see the Snowden tempest ?affect in any way the businesslike character of our relations with the United States.?

Even as Snowden reportedly remained at Moscow?s airport Wednesday ? speculation bubbled that he might take Thursday?s scheduled Moscow-to-Havana flight before continuing to Ecuador, a country he has petitioned for asylum ? some officials and US-Russia experts said they expect relations between the two powers to simmer down to where they were before the Snowden affair.

In other words, functioning and respectful, if not exactly warm or characterized by a long list of common perspectives.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/h2hNyi6MMWE/With-more-at-stake-US-and-Russia-cool-war-of-words-over-l-Affaire-Snowden

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Wimbledon rules orange shoes out but not colored undies

By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Federer received orders from Wimbledon organizers on Wednesday to change his orange-soled shoes that breach an all-white rule although women players will not be pulled up for wearing colored knickers.

Wimbledon, the world's oldest tennis tournament, has the strictest dress code in tennis, stating for the past 40 years that players must wear "predominantly" white.

The rules stipulate no solid mass of color, no fluorescent colors, little or no dark and bold colors, and preferably all white shirts, shorts and skirts.

The tournament's clothing police allow no exceptions, even for top players like Federer, the seven-times champion ranked the world's eighth most powerful celebrity by Forbes magazine this week.

"He has been asked to change his shoes," said a Wimbledon spokesman ahead of the Swiss player's match on Wednesday against Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky on Center Court.

He said several other players had also been asked to change their shoes to abide by the rules but no other warnings had been issued for other violations of the dress code.

The sight of colored knickers emerging as women rivals Maria Sharapova from Russia and American Serena Williams serve failed to make organizers see red and the colored nails sported by a list of women players on court have not been ruled out.

Knickers have caused a stir at Wimbledon in the past, dating back to 1949 when American Gussie Moran was accused of "putting sin and vulgarity into tennis" by wearing lace-trimmed knickers at the All England Club in south London.

KNICKERS, LOGOS AND STYLE

Six years ago Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin shocked organizers by wearing a pair of crimson underpants beneath her white outfit which had officials reaching for the rule book but to no avail.

"The rules state that players can wear any color underwear they like provided it is no longer than their shorts or skirt. Anything else must be white," said a Wimbledon spokesman.

The all-white dress code is one of the traditions at Wimbledon, which dates back to 1877 when women wore ground-length dresses on the court, and officials are keen to uphold standards.

In 1985 the U.S. player Anne White was called to one side after arriving on court in an all-in-one, head-to-toe lycra bodysuit to play against Pam Shriver. She was asked to wear something more conventional and obliged but lost her match.

However this year second seed Victoria Azarenka and Czech player Eva Birnerova played in white leggings on the first day of the two-week championships although it was unclear if this was a fashion choice or to stay warm in chilly temperatures.

Second seed Azarenka had to pull out of the tournament through injury on Wednesday.

Logos are forbidden on any of Wimbledon's 19 courts with Czech American player Martina Navratilova in 2004 famously taking scissors to her hat to cut out an offending logo.

However British champion Andy Murray, who beat Benjamin Becker in his first round, was not hauled up for sporting the name of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity on his sleeve.

The world No. 2 is hoping to win the tournament for his former doubles partner, Ross Hutchins, who is being treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma at The Royal Marsden hospital and was in the royal box on opening day on Monday to watch Murray in action.

Despite the dress code limiting fashion flair on the court, some players try to add their own style with mixed success.

Sharapova, the world No. 3 who designs clothing for Nike, is closely watched by fashion followers and in 2008 turned up in a tuxedo-style top and shorts, much to her opponent's chagrin.

"It's very pleasant to beat Maria. Why? Well, I don't like her outfit. That was one of my motivations," said her compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva after beating Sharapova.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wimbledon-rules-orange-shoes-not-colored-undies-150159028.html

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EagleTech Arion ET-AR204B-WH 2.0 Bluetooth Speakers review

When I upgraded to the iPhone 5, my speaker docks suddenly became obsolete. Sure I could get an adapter, but what if the connector changes again? Since then, I have checked out a few alternatives, such as the EagleTech Arion ET-AR204B-WH 2.0 Bluetooth Speakers. Let’s listen in and see how well they performed.?? Specifications Bluetooth [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/25/eagletech-arion-et-ar204b-wh-2-0-bluetooth-speakers-review/

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Amazon and PBS expand partnership to offer more shows on Prime Instant Video

Amazon Kindle Fire

Expanded deal brings Downton Abbey and loads of PBS KIDS programming to Prime members

Amazon has extended a deal with PBS to offer hundreds more episodes from past seasons of several TV series on the network. The deal will make more episodes from popular programs such as NOVA, Masterpiece and Ken Burns documentaries available for free to Amazon Prime members. The deal also adds more PBS KIDS programming with Caillou, Arthur, Daniels Tiger’s Neighborhood, Dinosaur Train and Wild Kratts -- all available for unlimited watching with FreeTime Unlimited on Kindle devices.

The new extended deal also makes Amazon the exclusive video subscription distributor of the third season of Downton Abbey, building on its previous announcement that it will be the exclusive subscription home to all seasons of the program later this year. Amazon says that Prime Instant Video now offers over 41,000 movies and TV episodes for Amazon Prime members to enjoy.

Source: Amazon

    


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Was first curveball thrown 2 million years ago?

FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 file photo made with a multiple exposure, Boston Red Sox's Jon Lester pitches in the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Boston. A new study suggests the ability to throw hard and accurately first appeared in a human ancestor 2 million years ago. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 file photo made with a multiple exposure, Boston Red Sox's Jon Lester pitches in the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Boston. A new study suggests the ability to throw hard and accurately first appeared in a human ancestor 2 million years ago. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

(AP) ? It's a big year for throwing. The greatest closer in baseball history, Mariano Rivera of the Yankees, is retiring. Aroldis Chapman, the overpowering Cincinnati Reds reliever, continues to fire fastballs beyond 100 mph.

And now some scientists say they've figured out when our human ancestors first started throwing with accuracy and fire power, as only people can: Nearly 2 million years ago.

That's what researchers conclude in a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature. There's plenty of skepticism about their conclusion. But the new paper contends that this throwing ability probably helped our ancient ancestor Homo erectus hunt, allowing him to toss weapons ? probably rocks and sharpened wooden spears.

The human throwing ability is unique. Not even a chimp, our closest living relative and a creature noted for strength, can throw nearly as fast as a 12-year-old Little Leaguer, says lead study author Neil Roach of George Washington University.

To find out how humans developed this ability, Roach and co-authors analyzed the throwing motions of 20 collegiate baseball players. Sometimes the players wore braces to mimic the anatomy of human ancestors, to see how anatomical changes affected throwing ability.

The human secret to throwing, the researchers propose, is that when the arm is cocked, it stores energy by stretching tendons, ligaments and muscles crossing the shoulder. It's like pulling back on a slingshot. Releasing that "elastic energy" makes the arm whip forward to make the throw.

That trick, in turn, was made possible by three anatomical changes in human evolution that affected the waist, shoulders and arms, the researchers concluded. And Homo erectus, which appeared about 2 million years ago, is the first ancient relative to combine those three changes, they said.

But others think the throwing ability must have appeared sometime later in human evolution.

Susan Larson, an anatomist at Stony Brook University in New York who didn't participate in the study, said the paper is the first to claim that elastic energy storage occurs in arms, rather than just in legs. The bouncing gait of a kangaroo is due to that phenomenon, she said, and the human Achilles tendon stores energy to help people walk.

The new analysis offers good evidence that the shoulder is storing elastic energy, even though the shoulder doesn't have the long tendons that do that job in legs, she said. So maybe other tissues can do it too, she said.

But Larson, an expert on evolution of the human shoulder, said she does not think Homo erectus could throw like a modern human. She said she believes its shoulders were too narrow and that the orientation of the shoulder joint on the body would make overhand throwing "more or less impossible."

Rick Potts, director of the human origins program at the Smithsonian Institution, said he is "not at all convinced" by the paper's argument about when and why throwing appeared.

The authors did not present any data to counter Larson's published work that indicates the erectus shoulder was ill-suited for throwing, he said.

And it is "a stretch" to say that throwing would give erectus an advantage in hunting, Potts said. Large animals have to be pierced in specific spots for a kill, which would seem to require more accuracy than one could expect erectus to achieve from a distance, he said.

Potts noted that the earliest known spears, which date from about 400,000 years ago, were used for thrusting rather than throwing.

___ Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

___

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-06-26-Throwing%20Arm/id-7a703efec63540ec941b295e44c70252

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The Cutlery You Use Changes the Way Your Food Tastes

The Cutlery You Use Changes the Way Your Food Tastes

Be careful next time you reach for a spoon: your choice of cutlery could significantly affect the way your food tastes.

That's according to new research published in the open access journal Flavour, which suggests that the size, shape and color of cutlery changes the way we perceive. Performing a number of experiments, the researchers showed that the choice of utensil has a dramatic difference on our appreciation of food.

In one experiment, the researchers altered the weight, size and 'fanciness? (that's a technical term...) of spoons, then got participants to rate the density, expensiveness, and sweetness of each yogurt (really, they were all the same yoghurt). In another, the yoghurt was tasted using either red, blue, green, white, or black spoons (otherwise identical in size and shape). And a final experiment, participants tasted two types of cheese using forks, spoons, knives and toothpicks.

The results? Oddly, eating with a heavy spoon made yogurt seem cheaper, less dense, and generally less likeable?but also sweeter. When eating from a blue spoon, participants found the same yoghurt saltier; when eaten from a white spoon it seemed sweeter. As for the cheese experiment: participants found that cheese eaten from a knife tasted saltier, while there was little difference between eating from a spoon or fork.

The overall message? Taste isn't dictated just by our tastebuds, but how we eat, too. The researchers explain:

?How we experience food is a multisensory experience involving taste, feel of the food in our mouths, aroma, and the feasting of our eyes. Even before we put food into our mouths our brains have made a judgment about it, which affects our overall experience. Subtly changing eating implements and tableware can affect how pleasurable, or filling, food appears."

And while it's all incredibly interesting, it could be of some health benefit, too. If we perceive food eaten from knives and blue spoons as saltier, for instance, then the effect could be exploited to try and help reduce our sodium intake. And that can only be a good thing. [Flavour via Discovery]

Image by USDAgov under Creative Commons license

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-cutlery-you-use-changes-the-way-your-food-tastes-583459658

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Senator Wendy Davis is Filibustering Anti-Choice Legislation in Texas (Balloon Juice)

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Microsoft to unveil latest Windows adjustments

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 file photo, the Microsoft Corp. logo, left, is seen on an exterior wall of a new Microsoft store inside the Prudential Center mall, in Boston. Microsoft will use its annual developers conference to release a preview of Windows 8.1, a free update that promises to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company?s flagship operating system. The Build conference, which starts Wednesday, June 26, 2013, in San Francisco, will give Microsoft?s partners and other technology developers a chance to try out the new system before it becomes available to the general public later in the year. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 file photo, the Microsoft Corp. logo, left, is seen on an exterior wall of a new Microsoft store inside the Prudential Center mall, in Boston. Microsoft will use its annual developers conference to release a preview of Windows 8.1, a free update that promises to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company?s flagship operating system. The Build conference, which starts Wednesday, June 26, 2013, in San Francisco, will give Microsoft?s partners and other technology developers a chance to try out the new system before it becomes available to the general public later in the year. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

(AP) ? Microsoft has released an update to Windows 8, aiming to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company's flagship operating system.

The company made a preview of Windows 8.1 available for free as a download on Wednesday.

At an event Wednesday in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged that the company pushed hard to get people to adopt a new tile-based user interface. Microsoft is now back-pedaling, making it easier to reach and use the older "desktop" interface.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-26-Microsoft-Windows%20Tuneup/id-0636f437e03c4954974be0485b747533

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Former Qatari PM drove bold, maverick foreign policy

By Regan Doherty

DOHA (Reuters) - The manager of Qatar's rise to global prominence, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, used charm, tenacity and economic clout to broker peace and topple dictators overseas and build an investment nest-egg for future generations at home.

Sheikh Hamad was replaced as prime minister and foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle announced on Wednesday, following the accession of 33-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as emir.

There was no immediate word on whether he would retain his job as vice chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a sovereign wealth fund with assets believed to be $100-200 billion, although Qatar watchers expect him to keep that job.

During his two decades as foreign minister, Qatar hosted the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East but also cozied up to America's foes Iran, Syria and Hamas in pursuit of leverage. Last week the Afghan Taliban also opened an office in Doha.

At the heart of Doha's rise to international limelight was a decision made early on in the rule of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to end a tradition of automatic deference to Saudi Arabia, the dominant power in the Arabian peninsula.

The independent-minded policy that resulted saw tiny Qatar punch well above its weight in world affairs, striding the stage as a peace broker, often in conflicts in Muslim lands.

The country's boldness contributed to Qatar's success as a regional mediator - Doha developed an ability to engage almost everyone from the United States to Hezbollah, and even eventually Saudi Arabia, an old foe and regional powerbroker.

Qatar's unusual foreign alliances amazed its friends and astounded its critics. For example, it went further than most of its neighbors in establishing contacts with Israel, although these were later ended.

PERSONAL WEALTH

Alongside foreign policy, Sheikh Hamad's role at the QIA has given him authority over its numerous acquisitions, which in recent years included London department store Harrods, Singapore's Raffles hotel and stakes in German sports car maker Porsche and Barclays bank.

He owns personal stakes in many Qatari companies, including Qatar Airways as well as Project Grande (Guernsey), the developer of London's One Hyde Park project and several hotels in Doha; his personal wealth is estimated to be in the billions.

"He has been one of the primary architects of the Qatar project, along with the emir. His practical domestic influence has been second to none," said David Roberts, director of the Royal United Services Institute based in Doha.

"He has also been an extremely effective salesman of Qatar, and has helped boost its cache abroad tremendously."

Sheikh Hamad, appointed foreign minister in 1992, played a key role in facilitating the 1995 coup in which his cousin, the country's outgoing Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, seized power from his father.

For this, he appears to have been rewarded with influence for life.

"Hamad bin Jassim will be very difficult to replace, largely because he was an extremely charismatic figure. He brought a distinct charisma and energy, the intangible qualities of what it takes to be a truly good diplomat," said Michael Stephens, researcher at the Royal United Services Institute based in Doha.

Named prime minister in 2007, Sheikh Hamad played a personal role in facilitating Qatar's numerous conflict resolution efforts, brokering talks in conflicts ranging from Lebanon to Yemen and Darfur to the Palestinian territories.

In 2007, he brought the Lebanese government and Hezbollah-led opposition to Qatar for talks to try to resolve a broader political showdown that had paralyzed the country for more than a year, helping to end the worst internal fighting in Lebanon since the country's civil war.

In 2009, he helped broker a peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the country's Justice and Equality Movement, helping to largely quell the conflict in Darfur.

ARAB SPRING

Sheikh Hamad also promoted the Arab Spring, in which Qatar lent significant support to rebels fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by supplying them with weapons and fuel.

The state has also been Egypt's top financial backer, signaling an intention to play a leading role in rebuilding the economy of the most populous Arab country after a 2011 uprising.

Some officials in other Gulf Arab states believe Qatar has a long-term strategy to use the Muslim Brotherhood, an international movement that seeks to bring about Islamist rule in Muslim states through peaceful means, to redraw the region.

In March, Sheikh Hamad for the first time publicly dismissed allegations of any partiality to the Brotherhood.

"The Ikhwan (Brotherhood) was not in power when we visited Egypt and gave $2 billion. It was under the rule of the military, actually. We were there before there were elections," he told a news conference.

"We have been accused of trying to buy Egypt. Egypt is bigger than our money."

Qatar's energetic support for Syria's rebels has been criticized by some Western and Gulf Arab officials for handing arms and cash indiscriminately to militant Islamists who want a Sunni Islamist state in Syria.

Qatar says it simply wants Assad removed from power and the killing of civilians stopped. But some analysts say its support for the rebels may crimp its ability to present itself as an honest broker in future conflicts.

"After the conflict in Syria, Qatar cannot any longer pose like this in the Arab world," said Neil Partrick, a Gulf security expert.

(Reporting by Regan Doherty, Yara Bayoumy and Amena Bakr, Writing by William Maclean, Editing by Jon Hemming and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-qatari-pm-drove-bold-maverick-foreign-policy-172833156.html

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