BANGKOK (AP) ? Renewed jitters about the debt crisis in Europe sent Asian stock markets lower Thursday.
Banks in Cyprus are due to open later Thursday for limited banking only after being shut for nearly two weeks as an emergency loan was being pieced together to prevent the nation's financial sector from collapsing.
The agreement reached late Monday with international lenders gives Cyprus a 10 billion euro ($12.9 billion) bailout but forces losses on depositors with more than 100,000 euros in the country's two largest banks.
Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne said the deal has sparked fears it may be repeated in other European nations that faced similar circumstances. In an email commentary, he said investors saw the deal "as a monster in the shadows for banks in Portugal, Spain and Italy" since it requires depositors ? not the public or its tax contributions ? to take the pain.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.6 percent to 12,300.42. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent to 22,214.61. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2 percent at 1,990.04. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent to 4,984.30.
Investors are waiting to see the reaction later Thursday, when Cypriot banks open their doors. Authorities have been putting measures in place to prevent a rush of euros out of the country's banks. Cash withdrawals will be limited to 300 euros ($383) per person each day, and no checks will be cashed.
Peter Lai of DBS Vickers Securities in Hong Kong said he was expecting a "disastrous phenomenon" in Cyprus when banks reopen.
"We also expect there'll be some kind of bank run. So lots of people are trying to get their cash back and this undoubtedly will be some kind of bad impact on the Cyprus banking system and people believe that or they think that this may affect the euro system," he said.
Meanwhile, in Italy, a leading political party failed in its attempt to form a new government. The stalemate has raised concerns that the country will be unable to manage its deep debts. Italy is the third-largest economy of the 17 countries that use the euro.
Financial stocks across Asia slumped. Japan's Mizuho Financial Group dropped 2.4 percent. Agricultural Bank of China fell 2.9 percent in Hong Kong.
In Australia, Newcrest Mining plummeted 7.9 percent after the company said its gold production target for the 2012-13 fiscal year would not be reached.
Wall Street stocks closed mostly lower Wednesday on Europe worries. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.2 percent to close at 14,526.16. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to close at 1,562.85. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.1 percent to 3,256.52.
Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 7 cents to $96.65 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 24 cents to close at a five-week high of $96.68 per barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2783 from $1.2774 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 94.06 yen from 94.38 yen.
___
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson
FILE - This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S. Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack on Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshal's Office, File)
FILE - This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S. Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack on Jan. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshal's Office, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2011 file photo, Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, second right, move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. Hundreds of pages of police reports in the investigation of the shooting rampage were released Wednesday, March 27, 2013 marking the public's first glimpse into documents that authorities have kept private since the attack more than two years ago. (AP Photo/James Palka, File)
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) ? As authorities investigated the rampage that killed six people and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, they compiled nearly 3,000 pages of documents that include everything from interviews with survivors and victims to police reports filed from the scene of the crime.
The documents were released Wednesday, and they provide new insight into how the shooting occurred and the motivations behind gunman Jared Loughner. One of the main themes to emerge was the increasingly erratic behavior of Loughner, perhaps summed up best by his father as he told investigators: He "just doesn't seem right lately."
A look at some of the major findings:
LOUGHNER
The gunman was polite and cooperative with authorities who were holding him the afternoon following his morning shooting rampage. The conversation as Loughner sat in restraints in an interview room was mainly small talk. Little was said over the four hours. Loughner asks at one point if he can please use the restroom and says "Thank you" when allowed. At another point he complained that "I'm about ready to fall over."
GUNMAN'S MOTHER
Loughner's mother, Amy, described his run-ins with authorities, his use of marijuana and cocaine, his journals and his increasingly erratic behavior. She also says the parents took a shotgun away from Loughner after he was kicked out of a community college and tested him for drugs because his behavior was so strange.
GUNMAN'S FATHER
Randy Loughner said his son became increasingly difficult, and it was a challenge to have a rational conversation with him. "I tried to talk to him. But you can't, he wouldn't let you," he said "Lost, lost, and just didn't want to communicate with me no more."
MENTAL ILLNESS
Despite their son's increasingly bizarre behavior, Loughner's parents never sent him to get help. Randy Loughner said that his son had never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Had he seen a doctor, the detective asked. "No," replied the father. The parents were also asked about any journals or writings that Loughner kept. The father said they were written in an indecipherable script.
GOING TO THE SCENE
Loughner went to a convenience store immediately before the shooting and had the clerk call a cab for him. As he waited for the car, he was pacing inside and outside the store and went to the bathroom three or four times. The employee said that as Loughner was waiting for the cab, he looked up at a clock and said, "nine twenty-five, I still got time."
TRAFFIC STOP
Loughner was pulled over earlier in the day for a traffic violation by a wildlife agent. He cried and said, "I've just had a rough time," and then composed himself, thanked the agent and shook his hand after he was let go with a warning. The agent asked Loughner again if he was OK, and Loughner said he was going home.
THE SCENE
Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez helped tend to his boss after she was shot in the head. In an interview, he described the chaos: "She couldn't open her eyes. I tried to get any responses for her. Um, it looked like her left side was the only side that was still mobile. Um, she couldn't speak. It was mumbled. She was squeezing my hand.
"I did some training as a Certified Nursing Assistant and as a phlebotomist, um, when I was in high school. So I knew that we need to see if she's got a pulse. She was still breathing. Her breathing was getting shallower. Uh, I then lifted her up so that she wasn't flat on the ground against the wall," he said.
GUNS
Loughner bought a 12-gauge shotgun in 2008, but his parents took it away from him after he was expelled from college and administrators recommended that any firearms be taken away. The shotgun was the only gun his parents knew Loughner owned.
CARING FOR GIFFORDS
A firefighter described how he cared for Giffords after arriving at the scene. "You'd ask her to grab your hand and she would grab your hand," he said. He and paramedics rushed her to the hospital in an ambulance, giving her oxygen and an IV.
THE ENCOUNTER
Hernandez described how constituents and other people were lining up to see Giffords, and he was helping people sign in. He recalled handing Loughner a clipboard. "The next thing I hear is someone yell, 'gun,'" he said.
LOUGHNER FRIEND
One-time Loughner friend Zachary Osler was an employee at a store where Loughner later bought a Glock handgun before the shooting. Osler was questioned about seeing Loughner shopping inside, sometime before Thanksgiving. He describes an awkward encounter with his former friend. "His response is nothing. Just a mute facial expression. And just like he, he didn't care." Osler told investigators he had grown uncomfortable with Loughner's personality, "He would say he could dream and then control what he was doing while he was dreaming." Osler says Loughner never mentioned Giffords to him.
REACTION
Osler said when he learned that Loughner was the suspect in the shooting, "my jaw just dropped. And I was like I know this person. Why he would do it? What would his motive be? If he had people help him? I do not know."
POSSESSIONS
Police reports show what authorities found in Loughner's possession after the shooting. In Loughner's left front pocket were two magazines for a Glock, both fully loaded. In his other front pocket was a foldable knife with about a 4-inch blade. In his back right pocket, he had a baggie with some money, a Visa credit card and his Arizona driver's license. He was wearing a black beanie, a black hoodie-type sweatshirt, khaki pants and Sketchers shoes.
WITNESS
A witness described seeing an ominous-looking man in his early 20s wearing a backpack near the shooting scene. The witness later described recognizing Loughner as the same person from photos on the news.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? When it officially came online at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in early January 2012, Gordon was instantly impressive. In one demonstration, it sustained more than 35 million input/output operations per second--then, a world record.
Input/output operations are an important measure for data intensive computing, indicating the ability of a storage system to quickly communicate between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world. Input/output operations specify how fast a system can retrieve randomly organized data common in large datasets and process it through data mining applications.
The supercomputer's record-breaking feat wasn't a surprise; after all, Gordon is named after a comic strip superhero, Flash Gordon.
Gordon's new and unique architecture employs massive amounts of the type of flash memory common in cell phones and laptops--hence its name. The system is used by scientists whose research requires the mining, searching and/or creating of large databases for immediate or later use, including mapping genomes for applications in personalized medicine and examining computer automation of stock trading by investment firms on Wall Street.
Commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2009 for $20 million, Gordon is part of NSF's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, or XSEDE program, a nationwide partnership comprising 16 high-performance computers and high-end visualization and data analysis resources.
"Gordon is a unique machine in NSF's Advanced Cyberinfrastructure/XSEDE portfolio," said Barry Schneider, NSF program director for advanced cyberinfrastructure. "It was designed to handle scientific problems involving the manipulation of very large data. It is differentiated from most other resources we support in having a large solid-state memory, 4 GB per core, and the capability of simulating a very large shared memory system with software."
Last month, a team of researchers from SDSC, the United States and the Institute Pasteur in France reported in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior that they used Gordon to devise a novel way to describe a time-dependent gene-expression process in the brain that can be used to guide the development of treatments for mental disorders such as autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.
The researchers identified the hierarchical tree of coherent gene groups and transcription-factor networks that determine the patterns of genes expressed during brain development. They found that some "master transcription factors" at the top level of the hierarchy regulated the expression of a significant number of gene groups.
The scientists' findings can be used for selection of transcription factors that could be targeted in the treatment of specific mental disorders.
"We live in the unique time when huge amounts of data related to genes, DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biological objects have been extracted and stored," said lead author Igor Tsigelny, a research scientist with SDSC as well as with UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center and its Department of Neurosciences.
"I can compare this time to a situation when the iron ore would be extracted from the soil and stored as piles on the ground. All we need is to transform the data to knowledge, as ore to steel. Only the supercomputers and people who know what to do with them will make such a transformation possible," he said.
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The renowned Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), founded nearly 200 years ago to advance geographical science, is to enhance Silversea voyages even further by providing detailed scientific and historical information to guests embarking on some of the greatest journeys around the globe.
The Society, based in London, and whose Royal Patron is Queen Elizabeth II, is partnering with leading luxury expedition cruise operator Silversea to share some of the world?s most important geographical research and archive material with guests traveling on Silversea expedition ships, including Silver Explorer and Silver Galapagos.
There are more than two million items in the Society?s historic Collections, including over one million maps, 500,000 photographs, 250,000 books and journals, manuscripts, and iconic artifacts which date back as far as 1482.
The Society has always been a notable supporter and communicator of the work of geographical explorers and scientists, including that of Charles Darwin, Dr. David Livingstone, Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary. Its support for geographical research to understand our changing world?its environments, peoples and places?continues actively today, informing issues that range from sea level change to migration.
Silversea guests will benefit from a wide range of specialist visual and written content from the Society, enabling guests to learn even more about their expeditions to destinations including Antarctica, the Arctic, the Gal?pagos, South America, Africa and Europe.
Founded in 1830, the Royal Geographical Society is a respected professional body for geography and geographers and is one of the largest and most innovative geographical societies in the world, as well as the biggest in Europe. Its objective is to advance geographical science. To do so, it champions and supports field research and scientific expeditions, enhances geographical and environmental education, and raises public understanding of the world.
?This is a partnership which will bring incredible historic and current geographical information to our guests, as well as unite two experts in their respective fields,? said Enzo Visone, CEO of Silversea Cruises. ?Silversea Expeditions are known for being the best exploration voyages worldwide?they will retain their world-class position with this valuable partnership with the Royal Geographical Society.?
?We are delighted to enter into partnership with Silversea, extending the Society?s work to embrace and enthuse Silversea guests with our understanding of the wonderful and changing world in which we all live and that they will experience, enjoy and discover through their travel experiences,? added Dr. Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
Silversea recently announced the introduction of voyages to Gal?pagos. Its year-round schedule of 7-day expedition voyages aboard the 100-guest, all-suite Silver Galapagos will begin operating in late September 2013 and feature the following options:
Western Itinerary: Sailing Saturday to Saturday roundtrip from Baltra Island, Silver Galapagos will trace a path across the western, southern and eastern islands, including Santiago, Bartolom?, Isabela, Fernandina, Floreana, San Crist?bal, and Santa Cruz.
North Central Itinerary: Sailing Saturday to Saturday roundtrip from Baltra Island, this itinerary encompasses the northeast, central and southeast islands of Santa Cruz, Genovesa, Seymour Norte, San Crist?bal, Espa?ola, and Plazas Sur.
Contact: Bernhard Hovemann Bernhard.Hovemann@rub.de 49-234-322-4235 Ruhr-University Bochum
How Drosophila recovers the neurotransmitter histamine
Bochum, 18.3.2013
In the fruit fly Drosophila, the functions of the three enzymes Tan, Ebony and Black are closely intertwined - among other things they are involved in neurotransmitter recycling for the visual process. RUB researchers from the Department of Biochemistry showed for the first time that flies cannot see without this recycling. Their analysis of the enzyme Black also raises new questions as to its function. Anna Ziegler, Florian Brsselbach and Bernhard Hovemann report in the Journal of Comparative Neurology", which chose this topic as cover story.
Tan, Ebony and Black are important for the visual process and the formation of the cuticle
The fruit fly's genes tan, ebony and black contain the construction plans for three enzymes with the same names that work together in hardening the outer shell of the body, the cuticle. The same enzymes also occur in the compound eye of the fly. Researchers therefore assume that Tan, Ebony and Black work together in vision - similar to the way they do in the formation of the cuticle. In fact, flies with mutations of the ebony and tan genes cannot see. A mutation of the black gene, however, has no such effect. Prof. Hovemann's team examined where the enzyme Black appears in the compound eye and the role it plays in vision.
Black and Ebony always occur together
First, the scientists tested where the genes ebony and black are active in the compound eye of the fruit fly and in its extra eyes on the head, the ocelli. They put different types of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors, under the microscope. The result: both genes are always read together - just like in the cuticle. This suggests that the functions of the enzymes Ebony and Black are closely linked.
Vision requires a continuous flow of the neurotransmitter histamine
When light falls into the compound eye, the photoreceptors release the neurotransmitter histamine. In previous studies, Bochum's biochemists already demonstrated that histamine is recycled via the glial cells surrounding the photoreceptors. There, the enzyme Ebony inactivates the neurotransmitter histamine by binding it to the amino acid -alanine, thus creating -alanyl-histamine. This molecule is transported from the glial cells back into the photoreceptors. Here, -alanine is split off again by the enzyme Tan, and histamine is produced. Previously, it was assumed that the enzyme Black is responsible for producing the -alanine, which is required for the inactivation of histamine. However, if a fly's eye has no functional Black, the visual process still runs normally. Hovemann's team therefore looked into the question of whether there is another supply route for -alanine. They also tested whether the fly eye can get around the recycling of histamine; this would be possible if the photoreceptors could directly reabsorb the released neurotransmitter, without it being inactivated in the glial cells.
No functioning sense of sight without histamine recycling
The researchers examined flies that were neither able to produce histamine themselves nor recycle it, because they lacked the enzyme for histamine synthesis and the enzyme Ebony. The team measured the flies' vision using so-termed electroretinography, which not only shows the excitation of the photoreceptor cells, but also the transmission of the signal to the brain. Even when the researchers added histamine from outside, the flies were blind. With this test, they showed for the first time that, for vision, Drosophila is dependent on the histamine recycling in the glial cells. Without recycling the enzyme Ebony, the cells in the insect eye cannot make any use of the neurotransmitter.
Flies can also see with disturbed -alanine production
Cells are not only able to produce -alanine with the aid of the enzyme Black, but also by converting the molecule uracil into -alanine using other enzymes. Hovemann's team inactivated both production pathways for -alanine and tested the vision of the fruit fly again. According to the electroretinogram, the animals' sense of sight was not impaired by the double mutation. "The results seem to represent a contradiction", says Bernhard Hovemann. "Although the insect eyes with the double mutation cannot produce -alanine, the animals seem to have normal vision. At the same time, our data clearly shows that the recycling by attaching -alanine is necessary for the animals to see." The researchers suggest that -alanine like histamine is recycled in a circuit between glial cells and photoreceptors. This would mean that the enzyme Black merely compensates for -alanine losses. "That would explain why we do not immediately find visual defects in flies which cannot produce new -alanine", says Hovemann. These puzzles can, however, only be solved by further studies.
###
Bibliographic record
A.B. Ziegler, F. Brsselbach, B.T. Hovemann (2013): Activity and coexpression of Drosophila black with ebony in fly optic lobes reveals putative cooperative tasks in vision that evade electroretinographic detection, Journal of Comparative Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/cne.23247
Images online
Images related to this press release can be found online at: http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2013/pm00078.html.en
Further information
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hovemann
Work Group for Molecular Cell Biochemistry
Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Ruhr-Universitt
44780 Bochum, Germany
Editor: Dr. Julia Weiler
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Bernhard Hovemann Bernhard.Hovemann@rub.de 49-234-322-4235 Ruhr-University Bochum
How Drosophila recovers the neurotransmitter histamine
Bochum, 18.3.2013
In the fruit fly Drosophila, the functions of the three enzymes Tan, Ebony and Black are closely intertwined - among other things they are involved in neurotransmitter recycling for the visual process. RUB researchers from the Department of Biochemistry showed for the first time that flies cannot see without this recycling. Their analysis of the enzyme Black also raises new questions as to its function. Anna Ziegler, Florian Brsselbach and Bernhard Hovemann report in the Journal of Comparative Neurology", which chose this topic as cover story.
Tan, Ebony and Black are important for the visual process and the formation of the cuticle
The fruit fly's genes tan, ebony and black contain the construction plans for three enzymes with the same names that work together in hardening the outer shell of the body, the cuticle. The same enzymes also occur in the compound eye of the fly. Researchers therefore assume that Tan, Ebony and Black work together in vision - similar to the way they do in the formation of the cuticle. In fact, flies with mutations of the ebony and tan genes cannot see. A mutation of the black gene, however, has no such effect. Prof. Hovemann's team examined where the enzyme Black appears in the compound eye and the role it plays in vision.
Black and Ebony always occur together
First, the scientists tested where the genes ebony and black are active in the compound eye of the fruit fly and in its extra eyes on the head, the ocelli. They put different types of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors, under the microscope. The result: both genes are always read together - just like in the cuticle. This suggests that the functions of the enzymes Ebony and Black are closely linked.
Vision requires a continuous flow of the neurotransmitter histamine
When light falls into the compound eye, the photoreceptors release the neurotransmitter histamine. In previous studies, Bochum's biochemists already demonstrated that histamine is recycled via the glial cells surrounding the photoreceptors. There, the enzyme Ebony inactivates the neurotransmitter histamine by binding it to the amino acid -alanine, thus creating -alanyl-histamine. This molecule is transported from the glial cells back into the photoreceptors. Here, -alanine is split off again by the enzyme Tan, and histamine is produced. Previously, it was assumed that the enzyme Black is responsible for producing the -alanine, which is required for the inactivation of histamine. However, if a fly's eye has no functional Black, the visual process still runs normally. Hovemann's team therefore looked into the question of whether there is another supply route for -alanine. They also tested whether the fly eye can get around the recycling of histamine; this would be possible if the photoreceptors could directly reabsorb the released neurotransmitter, without it being inactivated in the glial cells.
No functioning sense of sight without histamine recycling
The researchers examined flies that were neither able to produce histamine themselves nor recycle it, because they lacked the enzyme for histamine synthesis and the enzyme Ebony. The team measured the flies' vision using so-termed electroretinography, which not only shows the excitation of the photoreceptor cells, but also the transmission of the signal to the brain. Even when the researchers added histamine from outside, the flies were blind. With this test, they showed for the first time that, for vision, Drosophila is dependent on the histamine recycling in the glial cells. Without recycling the enzyme Ebony, the cells in the insect eye cannot make any use of the neurotransmitter.
Flies can also see with disturbed -alanine production
Cells are not only able to produce -alanine with the aid of the enzyme Black, but also by converting the molecule uracil into -alanine using other enzymes. Hovemann's team inactivated both production pathways for -alanine and tested the vision of the fruit fly again. According to the electroretinogram, the animals' sense of sight was not impaired by the double mutation. "The results seem to represent a contradiction", says Bernhard Hovemann. "Although the insect eyes with the double mutation cannot produce -alanine, the animals seem to have normal vision. At the same time, our data clearly shows that the recycling by attaching -alanine is necessary for the animals to see." The researchers suggest that -alanine like histamine is recycled in a circuit between glial cells and photoreceptors. This would mean that the enzyme Black merely compensates for -alanine losses. "That would explain why we do not immediately find visual defects in flies which cannot produce new -alanine", says Hovemann. These puzzles can, however, only be solved by further studies.
###
Bibliographic record
A.B. Ziegler, F. Brsselbach, B.T. Hovemann (2013): Activity and coexpression of Drosophila black with ebony in fly optic lobes reveals putative cooperative tasks in vision that evade electroretinographic detection, Journal of Comparative Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/cne.23247
Images online
Images related to this press release can be found online at: http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2013/pm00078.html.en
Further information
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hovemann
Work Group for Molecular Cell Biochemistry
Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Ruhr-Universitt
44780 Bochum, Germany
Editor: Dr. Julia Weiler
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
So, Google is closing Google Reader in order to focus on more important projects, such as Google Glass. If you want to know what Hitler thinks about it - watch the video. May be the numerous petitions will make Google change its mind, but in any case, now it's appropriate to talk about alternative solutions. There are a lot of alternatives, but basically, these are very weak solutions. It's logical, because there was no sense to seriously develop RSS service, having the free Google Reader as rival. Hopefully, the best alternatives to Google Reader will appear in the next 3 months. In the meantime, we suggest three options that look decent right now:
Netvibes
Netvibes - is a French service, which has long been on the market. They even sell the enterprise solution for creating intranet dashboards. It works quickly and reliably. Even yesterday during the invasion of Google Reader users the service worked fine. In Netvibes you can quickly import your feeds from Google Reader. Unfortunately, there are no native apps for Android / iPhone, but it provides the mobile web-interfaces that are quite slow, but in general - working properly.
Feedly
Besides Netvibes, there are few services that have considerable drawbacks (Feedly, BazQux, OldReader, NewsBlur). Of them - we would recommend Feedly. It provides a perfect web interface and even mobile apps for Android/iPhone. But it's the browser plugin, so you can't use it on several computers. There is actually the sync option, but it works via Google Reader. Despite this, the service looks most promising, if Feedly build the own feed server (BTW they have promised to do it).
FeedDemon
If you read the news on one computer, you may consider installing a desktop program to read RSS. The best of them (for Windows) - is FeedDemon. The main advantage - no one will be able to take it away, this program will always work. There are two FeedDemon versions - paid and free. The free - has a small ad unit. The paid provides additional features, such as filtering feeds by keyword. It costs $20.
exploring dreamstate: Dear self: fuck you skip to main | skip to sidebar
there is no such thing as a true belief
Friday, March 15, 2013 9:13 PM Posted by Zee
0
Reblog from Recovering Yogi Dear self: fuck you Published on November 22, 2010 by Kris Nelson ? By Kris Nelson Dear Self, Maybe, instead of meditating with crystals and chanting mantras, you could just stop?being an asshole. Please don?t misunderstand. I don?t have anything against meditating with crystals?(privately*) and chanting mantras, per se. That?s fine. And it?s the latter that?s?important. If I could sum up my lifetime of spiritual work and the canon of human wisdom and?devotion, as I see it, it amounts to the following: don?t be an asshole. I don?t mean to mock or make light of spiritual work and the canon of human wisdom.?Well, that?s not true, I do. Modern spirituality is also easy to mock. (Brilliant?mockery, by the way, is what makes RecoveringYogi great.) Though, the real greatness of?RecoveringYogi rests not in its mockingly flippant perspective that consistently spews?foul language, but instead resides in its capacity to see, express and retain the value?of the things it mocks. That?s post-post-modernism, bitches. Sadly, in all the indulgence of self in the name of indulging the Self, something?valuable is often lost, and that?s the refinement of self. It?s troubling to me that?most people embedded in the culture and practice of self-awareness, self-improvement?and self-empowerment are rarely actually aware, improved or empowered, and are often?instead more self-righteous, contemptuous and critical ?than the ?common man.? ?(Like?me and this post, for instance.) The Walt Disney Company, for example, typically treats?their employees better than most yoga studios, and they?re big assholes. You see, my dear friend, I had an experience about five years ago. One minute I was talking with Adyashanti, and the next minute I was like, ?OMG,?everything really is one.? And then I woke up the next day and I was like, ?OMG,?everything is oner.? And then the next day, ?Double OMG, everything is onerer.? This?went on for about six months, and the experience still rests in my heart and saturates?my mind with ecstatic embrace. From this aha moment forward, I taught yoga less; I taught spirituality more. I did the?satsang thing. I blogged. I would talk with people one-on-one and they would have?similar experiences? but the experiences would never sustain. This was all neat. But, sadly, with this new awakening came a lot of awareness,?humility and honesty. Suddenly, I knew. I knew what I had been hiding from all my life,?and that was the fact that I was an asshole. And, sadly, in my supreme state of?resplendent revelatory enlightenment, I knew that I was still an asshole and probably?also a total douche bag. In my non-thinking state, a thought floated up through my?mind: Dear Self, Fuck You. I worked all my life to be enlightened, and the only thing I got was the realization?that I was?and still am?an asshole. Waking up doesn?t abolish the ego (which is, very simply, your conception of self?and?even more simply: who you think you are). It just puts it in perspective. With my?newfound perspective, I realized I could be a better self. Not from the place of self-awareness, self-improvement or self-empowerment, but simply because that?s what my?heart wanted. Instead of writing a book about waking up or going on a speaking satsang tour, I?decided that I would focus simply on being less of an asshole? and also get a real job.?I would generally try to be less self-centered. I would help old ladies across the?street. (This is hard in West Hollywood because there?aren't?many old ladies except the?elderly Russian women that smell like cabbage and hang out by Whole Foods.) Back to my original point: If your yoga doing, crystal rubbing, and handstand pressing?isn't?making you less of a self-centered dick disguised in chanting beads, consider?doing something else. Otherwise, you too might wake up one day to realize that you?re?just an asshole.
A car carrying eight people went off the side of a road in Ohio and flipped into a pond, killing six teenagers. WKYC's Will Ujek reports.
By Thomas J. Sheeran, The Associated Press
WARREN, Ohio -?Two teens who escaped a crash that killed six friends in a swampy pond wriggled out of the wreckage by smashing a rear window and swimming away from the SUV, a state trooper said Monday.?
The inside of the sport utility vehicle was entirely under water within minutes of the crash, said State Highway Patrol Lt. Brian Holt.?
Scott R. Galvin / AP
Beduareo Marquez climbs up the pond embankment where he retrieved a shoe from the crash site that six teens died on Park Ave. in Warren, Ohio on Sunday.
Investigators don't yet know why the eight were in the speeding vehicle without permission when it smashed into a guardrail and flipped over into the pond Sunday morning around daybreak, Holt said.?
No one in the group had asked to take the vehicle and its owner was not related to any of the teens, Holt said. The vehicle was licensed to a resident of Youngstown, about 20 miles away.
"That's all we know right now," he said.
The two teens who escaped have talked with investigators, Holt said. The two boys ran a quarter-mile to a home to call 911, the highway patrol said.
Investigators were focused on speed as a key factor in the crash and said weather did not play a role.
While citing an unspecified "high rate" of speed, investigators wouldn't speculate on whether alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash on a two-lane road snugged between guardrails in an industrial section of the city.
"I can't believe you're gone," Mariah Bryant, 12, wrote in a message taped to a stuffed bear at the scene in memory of her half-brother, Daylan Ray, 15, who was killed.
'Love and miss you' "I love and miss you so much," said the message, which drew a steady stream of onlookers. The bear was part of a growing memorial of stuffed animals at the roadside.
Deanna Behner said her 15-year-old son and the other teenagers were close friends who lived in the same neighborhood on the east side of Warren, Youngstown TV stations WKBN and WYTV reported. Behner told the stations that authorities unsuccessfully tried for hours to save her son, Kirklan Behner.
The Honda Passport veered off the left side of a road and overturned about 60 miles east of Cleveland, State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston said. Investigators say it came to rest upside down in the swamp and sank with five of the victims trapped inside. A sixth, who was thrown from the SUV during the crash, was found under it when the vehicle was taken out of the water.
Holt said Sunday evening that speed was a factor, although investigators were still trying to determine the speed at the time of the accident.
"We will not be speculating on alcohol and-or drug usage pending toxicology reports," Holt said.
At an impound lot where the wreckage was taken, with windows smashed and extensive damage to the front end, hood and roof.
Ralston didn't know where the teens were headed when the crash happened and Holt said later it wasn't clear how long they had been out.
"All I know is my baby is gone," said Derrick Ray, who came to the crash site after viewing his 15-year-old son Daylan's body at the county morgue. He said he knew that his son, a talented football player who was looking forward to playing in high school, was out with friends, but didn't know their plans.
Warren Fire Department Capt. Bill Monrean said a cold water rescue team was deployed to the scene and got five teens out of the submerged vehicle.
'Knew we had a chance' "Being a cold water rescue situation, cold water extends life," Monrean told AP Radio. "We knew we had a chance; even being in there a while."
Two of the teens, both 15, were brought to a hospital in full cardiac arrest, St. Joseph Health Center nursing supervisor Julie Gill said, and were pronounced dead there. She said they were treated for hypothermic drowning trauma, indicating they had been submerged in cold water.
The two survivors, 18-year-old Brian Henry and 15-year-old Asher Lewis, both of Warren, were treated for bruising and other injuries and released, she said.
All those killed were ages 14 to 19, authorities said. State police identified the others as the 19-year-old driver Alexis Cayson; Andrique Bennett, 14; Brandon Murray, 14; and Kirklan Behner, Ramone White and Ray, all 15. The Highway Patrol said Cayson was the only female in the vehicle.
Rickie Bowling, 18, a friend of Behner, sobbed at the crash scene as she recalled his playfulness and reputation as a cut-up.
"He was one of a kind," she said. "Everyone knew him in the neighborhood. In school, he always made everyone laugh."
Officials opened a school where several of the victims attended to provide counseling for families Sunday night. Superintendent Michael Notar called the crowded closed-door session heartbreaking and said counselors would be available again Monday in schools.
Cheryl Moore, 54, whose nephew is a classmate of some of the victims, emerged from the counseling session and said it was helpful. "I just feel we have to come to grips with what happened today," she said.
All eight were from Warren.
Warren, located near the Pennsylvania state line, is a mostly blue-collar city that was hit by the decline of U.S. steel mills. It has more than 41,000 residents in the industrial Mahoning Valley region.
Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed this report.?
Related:?Ohio town mourns 6 teens killed in mysterious car crash
? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
After mostly avoiding interviews for several weeks before the high-profile launch of her controversial book, ?Lean In,? Sheryl Sandberg broke her silence Sunday night with a pre-taped chat on the CBS program ?60 Minutes.? And while the interview was mostly friendly, Sandberg recounted some revealing anecdotes that she?s also shared in her book and recent speeches on the subject of women and their careers.
Arguing that the women?s revolution has ?stalled? ? she cites statistics that show women?s gains in top corporate jobs have slowed ? the Facebook chief operating officer contends that women must push themselves forward to advance their own interests, in spite of social conditioning to do the opposite.
To illustrate her point that women are often reluctant to negotiate for higher salaries, for example, Sandberg and her husband described their different reactions when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recruited Sandberg from a senior post at Google to run the business operations at Facebook. Sandberg says she was ready to take Zuckerberg?s first offer, but her husband, Dave Goldberg, and her brother-in-law convinced her to ask for a better financial package. (Ultimately, that package included enough shares in Facebook stock to make her a billionaire, at least on paper, before the company?s share price declined.)
?Not because the money mattered so much, but it was the principle,? said Goldberg, a former Yahoo executive who?s now CEO of the startup SurveyMonkey. ?I wanted Mark to really feel he stretched to get Sheryl because she was worth it.?
Sandberg also talks about her first six-month performance review from Zuckerberg. By her account, Zuckerberg told her, ?You?re biggest problem is you worry way too much about everyone liking you all the time.? According to Sandberg, her then-24-year-old boss told her that she would never make an impact unless she said something that at least someone disagreed with. ?It?s going to hold you back,? she says he warned her.
Those are just two of several instances in which Sandberg has acknowledged her own insecurities. At the same time, she says she was called ?bossy? as a child and says that?s partly why she wants to change the way society views women who assert themselves.
?This is deeply personal for me,? Sandberg told the CBS correspondent Norah O?Donnell. ?I want every little girl who someone says they?re bossy to be told instead, ?You have leadership skills.? ?
?Because you were told you were bossy?? asks O?Donnell.
?Because I was told that,? Sandberg says. ?And because every woman I know who was in a leadership position was told that.?
It may be noted that Sandberg only smiled modestly during the interview when O?Donnell remarked on her wealth and success and called her, at one point, ?one of the most powerful women in the world.?
And while saying it bothers her that there?s never been a woman president of the United States, Sandberg also brushed off O?Donnell?s question about whether she might run herself.
?I feel like I?m doing all the leaning in that I can do right now,? she said.
CBS has posted the interview and some additional video clips here, on?the??60 Minutes? website. Sandberg?s foundation, LeanIn.Org, has its own website. And here?s the Merc?s article on her book and the Lean In campaign.
(Photo credit: ?60 Minutes? ? CBS)
Brandon Bailey (118 Posts)
Brandon Bailey covers Google, Facebook and Yahoo for the San Jose Mercury News, reporting on the business and culture of the Internet.
TRIPOLI, Libya -- Fifty-one people have died since Saturday after drinking homemade alcohol, most of them in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and more than 300 others were suffering from alcohol poisoning, the health ministry said on Monday.
The consumption and sale of alcohol is banned in the North African country, even though it is available on the black market.
In a statement on its website, the ministry said 38 people had died in Tripoli and another 13 had died while on their way to Tunisia for treatment.
"There have been 378 cases of alcohol poisoning so far," the ministry said, adding the illegal concoction was believed to have contained methanol. The deaths were among that figure.
It gave no further details about the alcohol or its source.
With its long, porous borders, Libya has seen a significant increase in drug and alcohol trafficking since the 2011 war that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
In this week's MacGyver Challenge, we asked you to hack something cool with magnets. We received some great entries, but the winning hack shows us a simple way to improve a bottle opener.
Check out the description of the winning entry below and read about some of our other favorite entries.
Winner: Catch Bottle Caps With Magnets
Sometimes, the simple hacks are the best and this week's winner shows us something that almost anyone can make use of right away. Jmbarbera mounted the magnet from an old hard drive (a great source of strong magnets) under a wall-mounted bottle opener. It's surprisingly effective, catching the bottle cap every time. No longer will that stray bottle cap get away from you, hiding face up and waiting for your bare feet.
Honorable Mentions
We got a lot of great entries and we'd be remiss if we didn't share some of our favorites. Here are some of the entries that really impressed us.
Keep Your Dryer Door Open
Like many of us, Steve had a dryer door that would start to swing closed whenever he and his family loaded clothes. Fed up with that bit of irritation, Steve decided to solve the problem Lifehacker-style. He cut a small piece out of the drywall and mounted a magnet inside the wall. He patched the hole, covered it up with a little spackle and paint, and now the door stays open whenever it touches the wall. If your door just doesn't want to stay open, the first thing to check is whether the dryer is level?most have adjustable feet. But if that doesn't solve your problem, Steve's hack may be just the thing you're looking for.
Stick Your Smartphone Anywhere With This Magnetic Case Hack
Stone-D likes sticking his iPhone 5 to things, so he fitted neodymium magnets to his Moshi case. His photo does most of the talking, but he can now stick his phone to pretty much any metal surface like his fridge or monitor. As a bonus, he can use the magnets to mount a jeweler's loupe to the case for macro photography.
Save Space While Organizing Your Makeup
Elizabeth lives in a small house where storage is at a premium. She wanted a way to organize her makeup, make it easily accessible, and save space while doing it. Her solution? She painted a piece of sheet metal and mounted it to the back of her closet door. Elizabeth then glued magnets to the backs of her various makeup pots and slapped them right on her new metal board. Problem solved. You can read more about how Elizabeth put this together on her blog.
Create a Periodic Table of Spices
Tyler wanted a creative way to display his spices. Sure, people have long been using magnetic spice racks, but being an engineer and an Alton Brown fan, Tyler wanted to follow the notion of cooking as chemistry. After spending some time on Wikipedia researching taxonomy, he decided to create a periodic table that grouped his herbs and spices by Order and also included the Family, Genus, Species, and English names. He also created the symbols used on the tins. The end result provides out-of-the-way storage and it's a thing of beauty. Tyler has created an instructable where you can learn more about he made it.
A big thanks to everyone who took the time to send us entries! Be sure to check back every week for a new challenge.
Plus, Phantom is out to sea, 21 and Over is short on laugs, and The Last Exorcism Part II wasn't screened for critics.
Also opening this week in limited release:
Oscar-nominated War Witch, a drama about a Congolese girl who is kidnapped and forced to be a child soldier, is at 89 percent.
A Place at the Table, a documentary about the effect of hunger on poor Americans, is at 88 percent.
Hava Nagila: The Movie, a doc about the history of the celebratory song, is at 75 percent.
Leviathan, a meditative documentary about commercial fishing boats and their environs, is at 73 percent.
Stoker, starring Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode in a thriller about a teenager recovering from her father's death who becomes close with her mysterious uncle, is at 68 percent.
Ginger & Rosa, starring Elle Fanning and Christina Hendricks in a drama about a pair of teenage friends with anxieties about their home lives and the threat of nuclear war, is at 55 percent.
The End of Love, starring Mark Webber and Shannyn Sossamon in a drama about a young father dealing with the death of his wife, is at 55 percent.
The Sweeney, starring Ray Winstone in an action thriller about a group of tough cops investigating a murder, is at 52 percent (check out Winstone's Five Favorite Films here).
Finally, props to Donald Whitman Jr. for guessing Dark Skies's 30 percent Tomatometer.
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Public release date: 18-Mar-2013
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In this week's MacGyver Challenge, we asked you to hack something cool with magnets. We received some great entries, but the winning hack shows us a simple way to improve a bottle opener. 
Like many of us, Steve had a dryer door that would start to swing closed whenever he and his family loaded clothes. Fed up with that bit of irritation, Steve decided to solve the problem Lifehacker-style. He cut a small piece out of the drywall and mounted a magnet inside the wall. He patched the hole, covered it up with a little spackle and paint, and now the door stays open whenever it touches the wall. If your door just doesn't want to stay open, the first thing to check is whether the dryer is level?most have adjustable feet. But if that doesn't solve your problem, Steve's hack may be just the thing you're looking for.
Stone-D likes sticking his iPhone 5 to things, so he fitted neodymium magnets to his Moshi case. His photo does most of the talking, but he can now stick his phone to pretty much any metal surface like his fridge or monitor. As a bonus, he can use the magnets to mount a jeweler's loupe to the case for macro photography.
Elizabeth lives in a small house where storage is at a premium. She wanted a way to organize her makeup, make it easily accessible, and save space while doing it. Her solution? She painted a piece of sheet metal and mounted it to the back of her closet door. Elizabeth then glued magnets to the backs of her various makeup pots and slapped them right on her new metal board. Problem solved. You can read more about how Elizabeth put this together on her blog.
Tyler wanted a creative way to display his spices. Sure, people have long been using magnetic spice racks, but being an engineer and an Alton Brown fan, Tyler wanted to follow the notion of cooking as chemistry. After spending some time on Wikipedia researching taxonomy, he decided to create a periodic table that grouped his herbs and spices by Order and also included the Family, Genus, Species, and English names. He also created the symbols used on the tins. The end result provides out-of-the-way storage and it's a thing of beauty. Tyler has created an instructable where you can learn more about he made it.