The Court Got Baby Veronica Wrong

Veronica and her biological father Dusten Brown on April 11, 2013

Photo by Jeremy Charles/Washington Post/Getty Images

Yesterday the Supreme Court decided Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl and although it is not clear whether it will result in a ?win? for the Adoptive Couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, there is no question it is a win for adoptive couples in general.

Baby Girl involves an Indian child, Veronica Capobianco, who was placed for adoption with the Capobianco?s at birth. Her biological father, Dusten Brown, never agreed to the adoption?he says he gave up his parental rights without knowing that the child?s biological mother was going to give her up for adoption. Upon receiving notice of the pending adoption, Brown immediately contested it. Brown is an enrolled member of the Cherokee tribe of Oklahoma and he argued that the termination of his parental rights was invalid under a federal statute known as the Indian Child Welfare Act, which aims to strengthen and protect Indian families by preventing their unnecessary break up.

One of the ways ICWA protects Indian families is by forbidding the involuntary termination of Indian parents? parental rights. Under the statute, such terminations are forbidden in the absence of a heightened showing that serious harm is likely to result from the parent?s ?continued custody? of the child. Brown based his argument on this statutory provision and won in South Carolina. After two years of living with the Capobiancos, Veronica was turned over to her biological father. But now, in a 5?4 decision, the Supreme Court has said that the South Carolina courts were wrong.

The court based its ruling on a very literal meaning of ?continued? (they even cited the dictionary) and found it only applied in instances where the objecting parent had previously exercised physical or legal custody of the child. In this case, because Veronica was placed with the Capobiancos at birth, the court found this provision did not apply to Brown and thus, the court found that Brown?s parental rights could be involuntarily terminated. However, since the lower court believed it did not have this power, it never terminated his parental rights. As a result, the case will now be remanded back to the South Carolina family court.

Although the family court now has the authority to terminate Brown?s rights, there is good reason to think they won?t. Veronica has been in the care of her biological father for almost two years. He is her father, he loves her, and he wants to raise her.? Hopefully, these facts will matter to the family court, but it is pretty clear they meant very little to the majority.

According to the majority opinion, written by Justice Alito, the five justices? biggest concern with ICWA and the provision that prevents the involuntary termination of Indian parents? rights is that it might ?dissuade? potential adoptive parents from seeking to adopt Indian children. Well duh, that?s the point!?

ICWA was passed to make the adoption of Indian children harder and that is precisely what the majority is objecting to. As Justice Sotomayor states in her dissent, ?the majority openly professes its aversion to Congress?s explicitly stated purpose in enacting the statute.? Instead of protecting Indian parents, the majority opinion is an ode to the virtues of adoption. In fact, the majority likes adoption so much they suggest that instead of seeking to prevent the termination of his parental rights Brown should have tried to adopt Veronica!

The above statement is made in the context of a separate section of ICWA, section 1915(a), which delineates preferences for Indian children placed for adoption. According to this section, extended family members should be given top priority when an Indian child is placed for adoption. In his briefs, Brown relied on this section to argue that even without ICWA?s prohibition on involuntary terminations, his status as Veronica?s biological relative gave him preference over the Capobiancos in any adoptive placement. The court however, disagreed.

The majority held that ?[b]iological father is not covered by [this section] because he did not seek to adopt Baby Girl.? According to the court, if Brown had truly wanted to be considered a potential parent to Veronica he should have done so as an adoptive parent rather than a biological one. So a biological parent is not preferable to a potential adoptive parent and in fact, it is only by seeking to adopt that the biological parent becomes worthy of custodial consideration? This is a shocking statement and one that, as Scalia notes in his dissent, ?needlessly demeans the rights of parenthood.?

This disagreement over the importance of biology is at the heart of the Baby Girl case and it is why this case should matter to more than just Indian families and their advocates. For the majority, biology is insignificant, but as Scalia notes, ?it has been the constant practice of common law to respect the entitlement of those who bring a child into the world to raise that child.? More importantly, this recognition of parental rights is not arbitrary. It is a recognition that biology matters. As Justice Sotomayor wrote, ?the biological bond between a parent and child is meaningful.? I have no doubt that the Capobiancos also have a deeply meaningful bond with Veronica, and I cannot imagine their pain since losing her last year. But Dusten Brown is Veronica?s biological father, he loves her and wants to raise her. This should matter.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/06/baby_veronica_indian_adoption_case_the_supreme_court_got_it_wrong.html

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People's perception of the effect of stress on their health is linked to risk of heart attacks

June 26, 2013 ? People who believe that stress is having an adverse impact on their health are probably right, because they have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack, according to new research published online today (Thursday) in the European Heart Journal.

The latest findings from the UK's Whitehall II study, which has followed several thousand London-based civil servants since 1985, found that people who believe stress is affecting their health "a lot or extremely" had double the risk of a heart attack compared to people who didn't believe stress was having a significant effect on their health. After adjusting for factors that could affect this result, such as biological, behavioural or psychological risk factors, they still had a 50% greater risk of suffering or dying from a heart attack.

Previous results from Whitehall II and other studies have already shown that stress can have an adverse effect on people's health, but this is the first time researchers have investigated people's perceptions of how stress is affecting their health and linked it to their risk of subsequent heart disease.

"This current analysis allows us to take account of individual differences in response to stress," said Dr Hermann Nabi, the first author of the study, who is a senior research associate at the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health at Inserm (Institut national de la sant? et de la recherche m?dicale), Villejuif, France.

Dr Nabi and his colleagues from France, Finland and the UK, followed 7268 men and women for a maximum of 18 years from 1991 when the question about perceived impact of stress on health was first introduced into the questionnaire answered by study participants. The average age of the civil servants in this analysis was 49.5 and during the 18 years of follow-up there were 352 heart attacks or deaths as a result of heart attack (myocardial infarction).

The participants were asked to what extent they felt that stress or pressure they experienced in their lives had affected their health. They could answer: "not at all," "slightly," "moderately," "a lot," or "extremely." The researchers put their answers into three groups: 1) "not at all," 2) "slightly or moderately," and 3) "a lot or extremely." The civil servants were also asked about their perceived levels of stress, as well as about other lifestyle factors that could influence their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, and levels of physical activity. Medical information, such as blood pressure, diabetes and body mass index, and socio-demographic data, such as marital status, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic status, was also collected. Data from the British National Health Service enabled researchers to follow the participants for subsequent years and to see whether or not they had a heart attack or died from it by 2009.

After adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, civil servants who reported at the beginning of the study that their health had been affected "a lot or extremely" by stress had more than double the risk (2.12 higher) of having a heart attack or dying from it compared with those who reported no effect of stress on their health. After further adjustments for biological, behavioural and other psychological risk factors, including stress levels and measures of social support, the risk was not as great, but still higher -- nearly half as much again (49% higher) -- than that seen in people who reported no effect on their health.

Dr Nabi said: "We found that the association we observed between an individual's perception of the impact of stress on their health and their risk of a heart attack was independent of biological factors, unhealthy behaviours and other psychological factors."

He added: "One of the important messages from our findings is that people's perceptions about the impact of stress on their health are likely to be correct."

The authors say that their findings have far-reaching implications. Future studies of stress should include people's perceptions of its impact on their health. From a clinical point of view, doctors should consider patients' subjective perceptions and take them into account when managing stress-related health complaints.

Dr Nabi said: "Our findings show that responses to stress or abilities to cope with stress differ greatly between individuals, depending on the resources available to them, such as social support, social activities and previous experiences of stress. Concerning the management of stress, I think that the first step is to identify the stressors or sources of stress, for example job pressures, relationship problems or financial difficulties, and then look for solutions. There are several ways to cope with stress, including relaxation techniques, physical activity, and even medications, particularly for severe cases. Finally, I think that the healthcare system has a role to play. The conclusion of a recent study conducted for the American Psychological Association tells us that health care systems are falling short on stress management, even though a significant proportion of people believe that the stress or pressure they experienced has an impact on their health."

In their conclusion, the authors write: "Although, stress, anxiety, and worry are thought to have increased in recent years, we found only participants (8%) who reported stress to have affected their health 'a lot or extremely' had an increased risk of CHD. In the future, randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether disease risk can be reduced by increasing clinical attention to those who complain that stress greatly affects their health."

There are some limitations to the study, including the fact that it did not include blue-collar workers or the unemployed and therefore it may not be representative of the general population.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/V6BRIZt_10w/130626211919.htm

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DirecTV says Latin America unit over-reported subscriber numbers

(Reuters) - DirecTV said an internal investigation found that its Latin America unit had over-reported subscriber numbers at the end of March by about 200,000 due to improper practices by some employees.

The satellite TV provider said some Sky Brasil employees had improperly credited subscriber accounts to reduce or eliminate balances owed, artificially reducing attrition.

The company said it expected to take a pretax charge of about $25 million in the second quarter to recognize the increased churn.

Based on initial results of the investigation, the company estimated that the number of Sky Brasil subscribers as of December 31, 2012 would have been about 100,000 lower than previously reported to Brazil's national telecommunication agency.

The subscriber count at March 31 would have been about 200,000 lower, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. (http://link.reuters.com/cyz29t)

Sky Brasil had told the agency it had about 5 million subscribers at the end of December and about 5.3 million at the end of March.

DirecTV, which has a total of more than 20 million customers, owns about 93 percent of Sky Brasil.

Much of DirecTV's subscriber growth has come from the expanding middle class in countries such as Brazil. It also operates in Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Ecuador.

Last month, DirecTV's shares rose to a decade-high after it reported a first-quarter profit that beat analysts estimates, helped by better-than-expected growth in Latin America.

The company said it expects to remove substantially all subscribers who were improperly recognized as active from Sky Brasil's subscriber base by the end of June.

DirecTV shares, which have fallen marginally since the company reported first-quarter results on May 7, closed at $61.08 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/directv-says-probe-finds-irregularities-latin-america-unit-103653044.html

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Tomorrow is last day for Supreme Court to issue rulings on DOMA, Prop 8 (Americablog)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315237533?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Elevatr: Business Idea Management Revisited | iPhone.AppStorm

When it comes to task managers and note-taking apps, iPhone users are spoiled with choices, as there are literally thousands of ideas out there on the App Store all crying for our attention and our credit cards. I?m a man of simple tastes, which is why I don?t really use my iPhone for note-taking ? I?ll probably use something like Drafts to scribble down something quickly when I?m on the move but I still rely on my trusty Moleskine for all my proper note taking. Yep, I?m old fashioned like that.

But when Elevatr was released back in May, my eye turned for two reasons. First, this looked like a nice, simple way to jot down my thoughts and ideas without having to waste an hour getting acquainted with the app. And secondly, the interface is so minimal and flat it?s positively infectious (and I?m a big fan of flat interfaces, which is why I?m looking forward to iOS 7 so much!). Read on after the break for my full thoughts about Elevatr and whether it is the de facto app for managing your ideas on the iPhone.

Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on Twitter.

First Thoughts

One of the first things I noticed about Elevatr was the fact it was free in the true sense of the word. There?s no in-app purchases to unlock extra features and no obtrusive advertising to speak of ? just a simple yet beautiful splash screen prompting you to create a new idea. Understand now that Elevatr is nothing fancy and doesn?t come with a lengthy App Store description or endless lists of features; it lets you jot down your business ideas and that?s about it, really.

The splash screen of Elevatr.

The main bulk of your idea is restricted to 140 characters, just like a tweet on Twitter, which I actually don?t mind at all. For me, an idea should just be a quick mental note of something that I want to work on later, not a lengthy description which takes me 10 minutes to type out, and I feel that this 140-character restriction allows me to be very selective with my ideas. I said that minimal was rife in Elevatr, and it?s certainly being mirrored here.

Entering a description for your idea. Keep it short, now.

Next, you need to give your idea a name. Just like the main body, this is restricted too ? it?s only 20 characters. Elevatr wants you to keep things short and snappy and it?s certainly working for me. The whole app is enshrined in that wonderful Avenir typeface, which first made an appearance on iOS with Apple Maps and I actually prefer it to Helvetica. It provides a refreshing change to the norm.

Once you?ve created your idea, it?ll pop up in a list showing you the title and the time since you last edited it. Anything you do in Elevatr is automatically saved to your iPhone?s memory, though there is a cloud sync function built into the app as well.

Working With Ideas

Elevatr is focused more towards business users and the default categories present when you tap on an idea certainly reflect this. Ideas are split down into five different sections: The Idea, The Market, The Product, Business Model and Execution. The description of the idea that we entered above when we created our idea appears in the Pitch section of the The Idea section, but of course we can add different notes to each individual section.

The main screen for your idea, showing all of the different sections.

Sections are displayed in beautiful coloured bars and all you need to do is tap on each one to bring up more options. In the The Idea section, for example, this is split down into the problem and the solution, each of which I can add notes to. Unlike the idea title, as we saw above, you aren?t restricted here and you can type away to your heart?s content. Elevatr will also allow you to attach photos to each individual section from your iPhone, making things easier to remember.

Entering some text for the Problem section. I think it?s relevant here.

The entire app is very well thought-out from a business point of view and it?s clear that the developers have put some real effort into making Elevatr as useful as possible for commercial ideas. In The Product section, for example, this is split down into Use Cases, Product Features and Brand Identity, making it really easy to pinpoint your ideas exactly. One thing I did notice, though, was that you can?t change the section headers ? something which I would liked to have seen and I hope that this feature is rectified in a future update.

Sharing Your Ideas

As I mentioned before, Elevatr features a built-in cloud service which allows you to share your ideas with other users and you?ll have to create an account first (don?t worry, this is completely free ? there?s no in-app purchase to enable sharing). Once created, you can choose to share either the whole idea (with all the different sections) or you can select individual sections to share.

Sharing your ideas via the built-in cloud service.

Ideas can either be shared publicly (with a built-in link which can be viewed on any platform, not just on the Elevatr app) or privately, for which you can create a password.

Final Thoughts

Elevatr is one of those rarities in the App Store ? it?s something that manages to be everything all at once. It?s beautifully designed, extremely easy to use and manages to be fun as well. I was extremely impressed by the flat design and the simplicity of the entire app; although Elevatr is business orientated, this doesn?t mean the developers have to bloat it up with a load of features that no one wants. It?s simple and it works damn well.

I would have liked to been able to edit the individual section headers (sometimes they don?t just cut it for me) but I can see this issue being addressed in a future app. For such a young app, the results are extremely impressive, and for a free one even more so. I can see Elevatr finding a warm and snug home on the iPhones of almost any business user, and I do hope that this great little app sticks around for a while because the results?do?impress.

Source: http://iphone.appstorm.net/reviews/productivity/elevatr-business-idea-management-revisited/

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Report: Yanks GM angry at A-Rod for Twitter update

NEW YORK (AP) ? Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees are not seeing eye to eye on his hip injury.

The star third baseman tweeted Tuesday night that his hip surgeon has cleared him to play in rehabilitation games, a move that angered Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, according to ESPN.com.

"You know what, when the Yankees want to announce something, (we will)," Cashman told the website.

"Alex should just shut ... up," the GM said, punctuating his comment with a profanity.

Cashman added that he planned to get in touch with Rodriguez right away.

The general manager did not respond to calls from The Associated Press.

Rodriguez had left hip surgery on Jan. 16 and has been working out since May at the Yankees' Tampa complex. The three-time AL MVP took swings in a simulated-game situation for the first time on Monday.

On Tuesday night, he posted a message on Twitter: "Visit from Dr. Kelly over the weekend, who gave me the best news ? the green light to play games again!" Rodriguez also posted a photo of himself and Dr. Brian Kelly, who performed the operation in New York.

Rodriguez did not stop to speak with reporters Wednesday when he drove into the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Fla.

"I will continue to work hard until my efforts get me back in pinstripes and help my team win," Rodriguez said in a statement. "The tweet was pure excitement about Dr. Kelly's prognosis."

Cashman recently said Yankees doctors have not yet cleared A-Rod for minor league rehab games.

"I don't tweet, and I really don't follow Twitter. So I probably don't really know much of what is going on. As far as I know he has not been cleared," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday night after his team's 4-3 victory over Texas.

"There's always a chain of command with injuries. There has to be and that's the process. It goes through our training staff, our doctors and our GM and then it goes to me. I'm down on the totem pole."

Before the game ? and Rodriguez's tweet ? Girardi said Rodriguez "is making progress, which is good."

"He's in sim games until they decide he's ready to go out on a rehab. It's not yet," the manager said.

New to Twitter, Rodriguez sent his first tweet on May 31. He is expected to return to the Yankees around the All-Star break, shortly before he turns 38.

Benched by the team as he slumped through last year's playoffs, A-Rod has been in the news a lot lately even though he has spent almost no time with the Yankees this season. He is among the 20 or so players who may be disciplined by Major League Baseball for their links to the now-closed Miami anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America. A first offense under baseball's drug program results in a 50-game suspension and a second in a 100-game ban, but players don't serve penalties for a first offense until after any grievance is decided.

Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he used performance-enhancing drugs while with the Rangers from 2001-03. As baseball's highest-paid player with a $28 million salary this year, he would lose $7.65 million during a 50-game ban if it is served this year.

___

AP freelance writer Mark Didtler in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-yanks-gm-angry-rod-twitter-064201905.html

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Sony announces the Xperia SP M35t, its first TD-LTE device for China Mobile

Announced alongside the Xperia C just now is the TD-LTE version of the Xperia SP (M35t), and naturally, it's headed to China Mobile, which pretty much owns the technology right now. Like before, the device comes with a 4.6-inch 720p plus a touchscreen that works fine with gloves. Additionally, NFC and the iconic illuminating transparent element are still present. Not much was said about the detailed specs, though, so we're not sure if it's the same chipset inside. Again, stay tuned for further announcements.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/sony-xperia-sp-m35t-td-lte/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Kenny Ahern gets lots of laughs at Eau Claire Library | G.L. Berg ...

Comedian Kenny Ahern entertains children Wednesday during a stop at L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire. Ahern put on two performances at the library. View photos at Leader Telegram Photo Page.

Kenny has a BFA (Bachelor in Fun Arts) from Ringling Brothers and Barnum Clown College, and his professional study includes: Pavel Groditsky, The Soviet National School for the Circus and Variety Arts (movement workshop; Christopher Bayes, The Juilliard School? (Physical Comedy Master Class); Bill Irwin, New York/The Actors Center (Physical Comedy Master Class); and Movement Theatre International, Philadelphia.

Physical Comedian Kenny Ahern

Source: http://www.glberg.com/2013/06/kenny-ahern-gets-lots-of-laughs-at-eau-claire-library/

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Rezzed 2013: all of PC gaming life was here | Technology ...

The NEC is like something from one of JG Ballard's dystopian novels ? a vast, terrifying industrial edifice surrounded by a grey desert of car parks. It is brutal and ugly and difficult to walk to from one of the hotels ostensibly serving it, due to the utter lack of pathways. The vast windowless halls resemble secret government buildings; the sort that might house officials in the event of a nuclear apocalypse. And yet here is Rezzed, a wonderful affirmation of PC gaming.

Over the course of last weekend, around 5000 gamers poured into Hall 9 of this intimidating pleasure complex, to play everything from major Triple A releases to bedroom coded indie experiments. Of the big guys, my favourite was Total War: Rome II. It's an utterly lavish real-time strategy sequel set in the ancient world and featuring an amazing 700 different units, including gigantic battle elephants that rampage over the sharply detailed landscape squishing enemies like insects. Brand new are the combined naval and land battles, which allow players to siege port towns and disembark units onto the beaches. Behind the scenes, the team has added an element of mass to units, so that attacking with camels downhill creates a thudding impact into enemy lines. It is completely enthralling and exciting ? especially when zooming into your trireme as it rams the bejesus out of an opposing vessel.

Here, too, was the first opportunity to play Shadow Warrior, an incredibly bloody re-imagining of the classic first-person hack-'em-up, originally developed by 3D Realms. Using a variety of traditional Japanese weapons from swords to shuriken, delighted players were able to turn the screen into a crimson slaughter house of spraying blood and flying body bits. Apparently, developer Flying Wild Hog has toned down some of the frat boy sexism of the first title, but the gore definitely remains.

There was plenty more nostalgic wallowing for veteran gamers. I was delighted to see the forthcoming re-master of classic top-down co-op shooter The Chaos Engine, from Bitmap Brothers. Instead of going for a full HD remake, the team has polished the original steam punk blaster, adding better controls and a fuller save system. Another old school britsoft star, Team 17, was here with Worms Clan Wars, a PC-only instalment with improved physics and a hefty multiplayer league system. And then I momentarily wished I brought my sons to see Minecraft: The Walls, a PvsP survival version of my household's favourite game. Teams of players must construct a fort, then defend it against other squads in the same sector. It looked like enormous fun.

Elsewhere, Mitu Khandaker was showing off the latest build of her wonderful sci-fi parody, Redshirt; a wry study of Facebook addiction and Star Trek tropes. There was Richard Perrin, with his beautifully illustrated game Journal, which turns the everyday childhood travails of a young girl into a dramatic adventure. Drawing huge crowds were two projects co-developed by games journalists: the compelling open world survival game, Project Zomboid, with a script by Will Porter, and Sir You Are Being Hunted the amazingly atmospheric stealth game designed by Rock Paper Shotgun contributor Jim Rossignol that procedurally generates spooky renditions of the English countryside filled with gun-wielding robots.

However, by far the strangest title on the main show floor was Revenge of the Sunfish 2, a bizarre non-linear narrative adventure composed from a series of surrealist mini-games. Imagine if WarioWare had been conceived as a co-production between Terry Gilliam and Jeff Minter and you're sort of there. One minute you're a cat shooting severed human heads, the next you're a giant throwing tea cups at dogs, all accompanied by weird sound effects and wonky 8bit visuals. The work of lone Australian coder Jacob Waldemar Buczynski, who has spent five years on the project, it was one of the most talked about titles at Rezzed, confounding journalists with its solipsistic majesty.

For me though, the most intriguing draw was the leftfield tunnel, a long corridor dedicated to indie developers. Here I got my first play of Fullbright Company's engrossing adventure Gone Home, in which a daughter returns from traveling to find her family missing and the house empty: you have to explore each room, discovering notes and clues that hint at what has happened. Subtle and engaging it is an intriguing example of the sort of experiential game design that is flourishing in the indie sector.

I also tried the brilliantly tense, Silhouette, a sort of turn-based two-player murder sim from South African studio Manikin Games. One player takes on the role of the intended victim and must find a key to escape a creepy house, while the other participant is the maniacal slasher who has to hunt them down. Cleverly, movements are taken in timed turns, with the length of each segment reducing as the slasher gets closer to his or her prey. For the victim it's all about memorising the layout and avoiding the many physics objects that litter each room; for the killer, the skill is in trapping your opponent and ensuring a quick stabby onslaught so that the other player can't escape and grab one of the health pick-ups. It's frantic stuff, especially as the game can be played by two people on one keyboard, the proximity between hunter and victim adding to the ghoulish fun.

If you're looking for this year's Super Hexagon, you may want to keep an eye on Helix from the unconventional and uncompromising developer, Michael Brough. This turbo-paced tablet game gets you to swirl your avatar in circles around a series of incoming foes. Completing a full 360 degree pass eliminates the enemy, and tackling them in groups cranks up the combo multiplier. Like Super Hexagon it's fast-paced and gruellingly demanding, and the interface has been refined to absolute perfection. This is effectively uncut crack for high score hounds.

I tried two really interesting experimental titles as well. Icefishing is a sort of interactive audioscape designed by sound and music design student, Nate Gallardo. Players simply navigate a series of red and black environments shooting at white objects and hitting a button to instantly mutate the space into weird discordant shapes. Inspired by glitch bands like Oval, as well as the Japanoise scene, it's a mix between interactive art project and disorientating sound tool. Meanwhile, Morphopolis is a visually gorgeous hidden object puzzler set in a rich micro-world of insects and plant life. Designed by two architecture graduates Ceri Williams and Dan Walters, and heavily influenced by seventies graphic design, the game was a category winner at this year's Association of Illustrators Awards.

The biggest queues of the event were for the two indie titles being shown using the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset: Undercurrent and Ether One. I only got to try the latter, an interesting adventure title in which you play as a restorer, a gifted psychic capable of gaining access to another person's mind. Your job is to repair the memories of a mentally ill patient, although slowly it becomes clear that your character's own past is not what it seems. The Rift provides a neat technological metaphor for this process of immersion and the effect is startling at times ? simple actions like negotiating a staircase take on a weird semi-reality as you look down and sense the distance to the bottom. Fascinating stuff. On the subject of VR I was also given a quick trailer of forthcoming sci-fi thriller Routine, set on an eerily abandoned lunar base. Channeling the original Dead Space and the movie Moon, it's a promising title and it's set to support the Oculus headset.

As well as the showfloor, Rezzed included a series of developer sessions, which were all really interesting. My favourite had Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijam of Dutch studio Vlambeer, chatting through the company's history and providing insight into the development of new title, Luftrausers, an improved version of the free flight shooter. The duo spoke with charm and humour about the studio's early days and its approach to development, which is all about very fast prototyping followed by months of iteration and refinement. You can watch all the sessions online via the Rezzed YouTube channel.

On the Sunday afternoon, I helped judge a Game Jam, where teams were given just ten hours to create games based around the theme, 'The '80s'. They were all so good; so clever, funny and intriguing, and I hope the winner, The 80 Spies, will be released as a full game, because it's a great riff on Chris Hecker's forthcoming Spy Party.

Personally, the toughest yet most important experience was playing the demo of That Dragon, Cancer, Ryan Green's heartwrenching game about his little son's battle with terminal illness. Designed as a sort of autobiographical adventure, the scene I played took place in a hospital intensive care unit where Ryan sits with Joel as the baby howls in pain and frustration. It is devastating. You can explore the room, but you cannot leave it, and the sampled sounds of the baby's cries are almost unbearable, while Ryan (who narrates the game) conveys his fear, hope and sheer lethargy.

I don't cry at films or books; I mean, I never have so far. But at the end of the demo, I put down the controller, and had to leave the building in tears. There are personal elements to this; the loss of my dad to cancer, of course, but also the terror any parent has of their child being ill ? too ill to help. I stood outside in the drizzle for 20 minutes, composing myself, and then went back in. I'm speaking to Ryan and his team soon.

Rezzed said a lot to me about PC games, and about video games in general. The crowd was friendly, the developers enthusiastic and welcoming. This is an era in which massive million-pound projects stand beside games written in bedrooms for nothing, and both come out of it richer and more interesting ? nothing seems out of place.

This is also an era in which games are truly expressive and filled with emotion. Sure, there is mindless shooting galore and there always will be, that is fine (Hotline Miami 2 was at Rezzed and looking AWESOME). But there is so much more; from the strategic depth of Total War to a man and his son in a hospital room, desperate and defiant. I will write more about most of these games in the coming weeks. For now, I just wanted to cram it all onto a page. These are incredible times for gaming. How lucky we are.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jun/24/rezzed-review

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Controversial Egypt Islamist quits as Luxor governor

CAIRO (Reuters) - The new governor of Egypt's Luxor province, controversially appointed last week despite belonging to a hardline Islamist group that killed 58 tourists there in 1997, announced his resignation on Sunday.

"We will not accept that one drop of blood be spilt because of a position that I did not personally aspire to at any time," Adel Mohamed al-Khayat said in a news conference, saying the decision had been made after consultations with his party.

A member of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which mounted campaigns against Egypt's military rulers and tourist industry at various times from the 1970s to 1990s, al-Khayat was appointed a week ago by President Mohamed Mursi in a move that showed the growing importance of al-Gamaa as an ally of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Khayat had denied any personal role in militant attacks, having worked as a civil servant after a brief association with al-Gamaa as a student.

But his appointment prompted uproar in Luxor, in the southern heartlands of al-Gamaa support. Workers in the tourist industry around its pharaonic temples feared the new governor could put off visitors at a time when business is already poor due to continued unrest following the 2011 revolution.

(Reporting by Cairo bureau; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/controversial-egypt-islamist-quits-luxor-governor-110641662.html

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South Africa: Mandela in critical condition

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The South African presidency says the health condition of Nelson Mandela has become critical.

The office of President Jacob Zuma said that the president had visited the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader on Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that Mandela's condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.

Zuma says in a statement that the doctors are "doing everything possible to get his condition to improve."

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-mandela-critical-condition-195909065.html

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All The World's Plant Life, Visualized

This picture might look like an incomplete map of the world, but it is in fact the highest resolution view ever of all the world's plant life, mapped out by NASA's Suomi NPP satellite.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/g9Ri09MwnLA/all-the-worlds-plant-life-visualized-554518111

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Michael Jackson: How Long Can You Survive Without Sleep?

A doctor told a courtroom this week in Los Angeles that Michael Jackson went without "real" sleep for 60 days leading up to his death. The testimony raises questions about how long a person can survive without shut-eye, and whether it matters what type of sleep a person slips into when they snooze.

Jackson had been receiving nightly infusions of propofol, a surgical anesthetic, for two months to treat his insomnia as he prepared for a series of comeback shows.

Even if the drug made Jackson feel well rested, it would have sent him into a rather superficial slumber each night, said Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard sleep scientist who testified at the trial against the pop star's concert promoter this week, according to CNN. [Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

Czeisler reportedly told the courtroom that propofol suppresses rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. If Jackson hadn't died primarily of an overdose of the anesthetic (and another sedative) on June 25, 2009, the lack of REM sleep may have eventually killed him, Czeisler said.

"It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner," Czeisler was quoted as saying by CNN. "Your stomach would be full, and you would not be hungry, but it would be zero calories and not fulfill any of your nutrition needs."

Is REM sleep important?

While sleep deprivation over time has been linked to obesity and chronic diseases, such as diabetes and breast cancer, it's difficult to pin those side effects on a specific aspect of sleep, and not all scientists agree that REM sleep has crucial restorative powers in itself.

"There's no evidence that REM sleep deprivation by itself will kill anyone," Dr. Jerome Siegel, professor of psychiatry at UCLA, told LiveScience.

REM sleep is characterized by heightened brain activity and is the state when dreams are at their most intense. The phase is thought to originate in the area at the base of the brain called the pons. Oftentimes damage to this critical part of the brain spells death. However, there are some cases of people who have survived an injury to this region and are living normal lives, but without ever experiencing REM sleep again, said Siegel, who is also affiliated with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

Israeli researcher Peretz Lavie followed a patient who had lost REM sleep after a brain injury. The man went to law school and became the puzzle editor for Tel Aviv newspaper.

And if it's true that a lack of REM sleep can kill you, then no one should be taking MAOIs and SSRIs, common classes of antidepressants, Siegel said; these drugs have been known to inhibit the dream-making state of slumber.

The Jackson case does underscore what little scientists know about the purpose of sleep, let alone a specific phase. One thing researchers do know is that people are more alert when they wake up from REM sleep.

"You can see an evolutionary advantage for having this state that allows you to be alert when you're awakened," Siegel said.

How long can you stay awake?

Randy Gardner holds the record for the longest a person has ever voluntarily gone without sleep, staying awake for 264 hours (about 11 days) when he was 17 for a school science fair project in 1965.

No person has ever definitively died from lack of sleep alone, and it's ethically dicey to explore those boundaries in the lab. Last year, a 26-year-old Chinese man attempting to watch every game of the European Cup reportedly died after staying awake for 11 days. Reports at the time suggested he was drinking alcohol and smoking throughout the sleepless soccer-watching binge, making it difficult to rule sleep deprivation the primary cause of death.

In famous experiments in the 1980s at the University of Chicago, scientists kept rats from sleeping by jolting them awake every time they nodded off. The animals consistently died within two weeks, but Siegel thinks their deaths may have had more to do with the surge of the stress hormone cortisol and increase in blood pressure every time they were woken up than the sleep deprivation.

"What they're dying of is being repeatedly awakened which is quite different from sleep deprivation," Siegel said. "If you stay up all night, none of this happens."

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitterand Google+.Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-long-survive-without-sleep-143543141.html

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The Top 10 Advantages Of Article Marketing | Content for Reprint

Author: Brian Blogs | Total views: 54 Comments: 0
Word Count: 754 Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 1:34 PM

So, what's the big deal with article marketing? What is it all about in the first place?

Well, it is the simple practice of creating written content and publishing such articles online on any of the hundreds, if not thousands, of article directories found on the Internet. Now directories that post article submissions can cater to niches that range from broad-based to specific ones. With that out of the way, what's the point of article promoting? Here are its top 10 benefits:

1. Builds Your Online Credibility.

By sharing knowledge to other people, you are establishing a reputation as an expert in a particular field - maybe even several. The more information and knowledge you provide, the more credibility you build. As a consequence, you become someone who can be trusted by your followers/readers, which will eventually be good for business.

2. Let You Help Others.

Speaking of shared knowledge, your articles that get published may be able to help other people learn more, find answers to questions, or solve their problems. Regardless of what kind of business you have, your write-ups contain knowledge that netizens are searching for.

3. Increases Your Business Exposure.

The rule of thumb in promotions and advertising is that it usually takes 3-7 instances of exposure before your brand gets recognized. This means that when someone notices something that's related to your company, say, a logo, online ad, or article, these become part of their subconscious. Now article marketing lets you reach out multiple times to your readers.

4. Develops Brand Awareness.

As was mentioned, having a lot of articles out on the Web will let you reach many customers and prospects several times. What you may not realize, however, is how wide this reach is. You see, article directories often make your work available to websites and blogs the world over for reprint. And if your work is high-quality, imagine how many people will create positive associations with your company.

5. Promotes Your Services and Products.

Although nobody really wants to read sales pitches, you can subtly promote what your business has to offer through your write-ups. This can be done by including 'suggestions' in your work, and perhaps some links that will lead to your website should your input catches the readers' attention somehow. Of course, make sure your content is of value so they'll read in the first place.

6. Stimulate Website Traffic.

Aside from subtle suggestions, you can still directly promote your business through your article. This is since each of your articles will have bio/author boxes where you can include links to your company site. By simply including a short 'teaser' at the conclusion portion of your post, you might entice click-throughs from your readers, which can lead to possible click-to-sales conversions.

7. Attract New Customers.

Whether your business is fresh out of the oven or has been around for several years now, article marketing will help you gain new patrons. In fact, it's almost a guarantee that you do so. You see, when consumers go online for research, they might end up finding your article and getting impressed by it - so they click your site like and voila! You now have a new customer.

8. Enhance Your SEO Efforts.

This is made possible by the link-building that occurs when your article gets published. And the most your work gets reprinted or republished because of its quality, the most links that lead to your website. Search engines will perceive this as reliability and will give your site better rankings. This leads to better market visibility.

9. It Is for Free.

Almost all article directories offer their sites for posting at no charge. Although some offer upgrades that provide more interesting features, such sites are usually free to use. And even if you did decide to pay for more features, your returns are still likely to be very high. The benefits will greatly outweigh the costs.

10. It Is an Incredibly Easy Promotional Method.

Indeed it is, as it's just a matter of writing useful, high-quality content and taking the time to post them. Besides, you don't have to do the work yourself as you can always outsource the writing aspect to professional writers.

In conclusion, article marketing offers a win-win opportunity for any business owner.

Brian Blogs is a part time internet marketer, in a first class work from home program. He invites you to visit his website for free video and audio training on building a very affordable home business, at your own pace. For more inside information, go below for details…. nhttp://www.empowernetwork.com/truestory3.php?id=srecuocs01

Related to: how to work from home - internet marketing - Network Marketing - article marketing opportunities - Work From Home - online business - Work at home - blogging - Home Business - article marketing

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1: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

by: Steve Shaw on: Sat, 23 Apr 2011

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

by: Michel Maling on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

3: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

by: Mike Christie on: Sat, 29 Sep 2012

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

by: WJaegel on: Tue, 18 Dec 2007

5: Simple Article Writing: 5 Steps For Beginners Who Are Learning To Write Articles (Try This!)

When you look at an article, you may say, "That article looks great, but I have no idea how I would produce something that good." In this article I am going to help you break your article creation process down into "blocks"--smaller bits of information that when assembled together will form a top quality article submission.

by: Steve Shaw on: Sun, 21 Apr 2013

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/the-top-10-advantages-of-article-marketing.htm

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94% Blancanieves

All Critics (55) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (3)

The Brothers Grimm would have been surprised, possibly amused.

A sensual and sophisticated retelling of a beloved fairytale re-imagined as a homage to European silent cinema, Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger's black-and-white Blancanieves will leave you transfixed.

Most films are experiences to be ignored or at best forgotten. "Blancanieves" is a little classic to be treasured.

It is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors.

Blancanieves, which won 10 Goyas (Spain's equivalent of the Oscars) and was a smash hit in its native Spain, has traces of a kinky undertone and an uncommon willingness to embrace the darkness inherent in this fairy tale.

As if bewitched, the legend of Snow White is transferred to Seville in the early twentieth century and transformed into high melodrama.

Blancanieves is painstakingly crafted, emotionally gripping at times, and more authentically Grimm than most interpretations, and it puts a slightly unsettling new spin on Prince Charming and the proverbial happily-ever-after ending.

The film is -- to understate the matter -- overconceptualized.

Like The Artist, Blancanieves is delightfully novel, but it also feels trapped by its innovative gimmickry.

A boldly conceived fairy tale from Spain

Succeeds in all its cinematic experiments

The story might be familiar, but Berger's film is so beautifully shot and so wonderfully scored - and so distinctively Spanish - that it stands as its own film.

Blancanieves holds to the structure, but not strictures, of the source fairy tale.

A new, purely silent movie from Spain that never once speaks and doesn't need to speak. What's more, it seems to get the infinite possibilities of silence, and how much passion can come from it.

Berger's film doesn't show loyalty to any traditional version of Snow White. Berger's Blancanieves takes a darker approach, which seems appropriate.

A completely enchanting fairy tale about the vicissitudes of fate, in live action and glorious black and white.

The fun in the Spanish "Blancanieves" is the way it plays with our expectations.

May not have much depth to its characters or particular surprise, but its lovely depiction of family's ability to harm and mend has the flair of flamenco and the sorrow of opera.

No, "Blancanieves" isn't subtle, but it's an unforgettable time at the movies.

Inspired filmmaking steeped in the imagery of silent film history, a dark Iberian strain of Roman Catholicism and the magic of fairy tales.

... lusty and heartfelt, fiery flamenco and spirited country jig. Don't go expecting a Disney-fied fable. Berger seasons with S&M and the kind of macabre touches you'd expect in vintage Browning or Bunuel.

If not for some faintly disturbing imagery and a pleasingly feminist heroine, you could mistake this for a movie actually made in the 1920s (and even those two factors weren't utterly unknown then).

No quotes approved yet for Blancanieves. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blancanieves/

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UFO over Stonehenge? Britain releases its last big batch of X-Files

British National Archives

A "discoid shape" is circled in a picture taken at Stonehenge and submitted to the British Ministry of Defense in 2009. The ministry said trying to identify the speck would be an "inappropriate use of defence resources."

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Britain's Ministry of Defense finished up its release of almost 60 years' worth of UFO sighting reports on Friday with a bang: a 4,300-page cache of documents that describe strange sights over Stonehenge and Parliament, and lay out the reason why the ministry shut down its UFO desk three and a half years ago.

Thanks in part to the proliferation of camera phones, the number of UFO reports in the U.K. doubled in 2008, to 208 reports for the year, said David Clarke, a UFO historian who reviewed the latest files in a YouTube video. Then, in 2009, the pace of sightings tripled, to a running total of 643 reports by November of that year.

"That really did put a strain on the resources that the MoD had committed to this subject, and really led up to their decision to finally pull the plug on Britain's X-Files, simply because they just didn't have the resources to investigate these sightings, or to look at them in any detail," Clarke said. "So they just tended to be filed away."

---

That was basically what happened to the Stonehenge sighting: In January 2009, the ministry received several photographs that showed a speck in the sky over the millennia-old monument in Wiltshire. "I didn't see anything in the sky at the time, because I was focusing upon the stones," the witness wrote in an archived email. "Upon uploading them to my computer, though, I spotted the discoid shapes in the background. ... I'm sure you get this kind of thing every day! However, I'm very fond of my UFOs so needed to share them!"

The ministry wrote back, saying that it doesn't try to identify the source of UFO sightings "unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom." Trying to explain every sighting would be an "inappropriate" use of defense resources, the ministry said. A similar reply was sent to a witness who reported seeing "a craft that had green, red and white lights" hovering over the Houses of Parliament in February 2008.

UFO historian David Clarke discusses highlights from Britain's final batch of X-Files.

Clarke said many of the mobile-phone snapshots sent in between late 2007 and late 2009, the period covered by Friday's document release, were of such poor quality that it was hard to tell what was going on. The "vast majority" of cases turned out to have down-to-earth explanations, he said. Here's a sampling of the highlights:

• A police helicopter crew in Wales reported seeing a cluster of small, rotating objects in the sky in June 2008 ? and when word got out about the sighting, the tabloid Sun newspaper heralded it as an "ALIEN ARMY." The ministry concluded that they were Chinese lanterns floating up from a nearby wedding party.
• The Sun also trumpeted a story about a damaged wind turbine in North Lincolnshire in January 2009, quoting witnesses who reported that bright spheres of light were flashing in the sky when the turbine broke. "UFO HITS WIND TURBINE," The Sun proclaimed. The ministry declined to investigate, but a journalist at The Guardian said the lights were actually fireworks set off nearby to celebrate her father's 80th birthday. Experts said the turbine probably broke due to an unrelated mechanical failure.
• A woman in Dorset reported seeing a "bright white fireball" come through her kitchen window in August 2009. She said the fireball fell into a carrier bag and disappeared in a flash of "blinding white sheet lightning." Clarke said the report matches the classic description of ball lightning, an electrical phenomenon that is not yet fully understood.?
• A schoolgirl in Altrincham sent the ministry a letter in January 2009, describing a set of small objects that she and her father saw flying over the family's garden. At the bottom of the letter, she drew a picture of an alien waving goodbye from a flying saucer. "Please send a letter telling me the answer. ... I have the right to know," she wrote. The UFO desk reported that the girl was sent a bag of goodies from the Royal Air Force.

British National Archives

A schoolgirl's letter includes a drawing of an alien in a flying saucer.

"We have now come to the end of this program of release for the UFO files, and it is often said about UFOs that 'the truth is out there,'" Clarke said in the video, which was recorded amid the ministry's filing cabinets. "In my opinion, the truth is actually in here, in these files."

The latest batch of files, as well as previously released X-Files, can be downloaded via the British National Archives website.

More of Britain's X-Files:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2da0fef3/l/0Lcosmiclog0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C210C190A638730Eufo0Eover0Estonehenge0Ebritain0Ereleases0Eits0Elast0Ebig0Ebatch0Eof0Ex0Efiles0Dlite/story01.htm

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AP EXCLUSIVE: Taliban offer to free US soldier

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

The offer came as an Afghan government spokesman said President Hamid Karzai is now willing to join planned peace talks with the Taliban ? provided that the Taliban flag and nameplate are removed from the militant group's newly opened political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. Karzai also wants a formal letter from the United States supporting the Afghan government.

The only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war is U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition."

Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl's current whereabouts. Among the five prisoners the Taliban have consistently requested are Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a former top Taliban military commander, both of whom have been held for more than a decade.

Bergdahl's parents earlier this month received a letter from their son through the International Committee of the Red Cross. They did not release details of the letter but renewed their plea for his release. The soldier's captivity has been marked by only sporadic releases of videos and information about his whereabouts.

The prisoner exchange is the first item on the Taliban's agenda before even opening peace talks, said Suhail, who is a top Taliban figure and served as first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad before the Taliban government's ouster in 2001.

"First has to be the release of detainees," Suhail said when asked about Bergdahl. "Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward."

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected in Doha ahead of Saturday's conference on the Syrian civil war. He was not expected to meet with the Taliban although other U.S. officials might in coming days.

On Wednesday in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. had "never confirmed" any specific meeting schedule with Taliban representatives in Doha.

The reconciliation process with the Taliban has been a long and bumpy one that began nearly two years ago when the U.S. opened secret talks that were later scuttled by Karzai when he learned of them.

It was then that the U.S. and Taliban discussed prisoner exchanges and for a brief time it appeared that the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners would be released and sent to Doha to help further the peace process. But Karzai stepped in again and demanded they be returned to Afghanistan over Taliban objections.

Since then, the U.S. has been trying to jumpstart peace talks and the Taliban have made small gestures including an offer to share power. The Taliban have also attended several international conferences and held meetings with representatives of about 30 countries.

If the Taliban hold talks with American delegates in the next few days, they will be the first U.S.-Taliban talks in nearly 1 ? years.

Prospective peace talks were again thrown into question Wednesday when Karzai became infuriated by the Taliban's move to cast their new office in Doha as a rival embassy.

The Taliban held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday in which they hoisted their flag and a banner with the name they used while in power more than a decade ago: "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." Later, the Taliban replaced the sign to read simply: "Political office of the Taliban."

At the ceremony, the Taliban welcomed dialogue with Washington but said their fighters would not stop fighting. Hours later, the group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Bagram Air Base outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, that killed four American service members.

Karzai on Wednesday announced his government is out of the peace talks, apparently angered by the way Kabul had been sidelined in the U.S.-Taliban bid for rapprochement.

The Afghan president also suspended negotiations with the United States on a bilateral security agreement that would cover American troops who will remain behind after the final withdrawal of NATO combat troops at the end of 2014.

However, Karzai spokesman Fayeq Wahidi said Thursday that the Afghan president is willing to join peace talks with the Taliban if the U.S. follows through with promises he said were made by Kerry in a phone call.

Wahidi said Kerry promised Karzai that the Taliban flag and a nameplate with their former regime's name would be removed and the U.S. would issue a formal letter supporting the Afghan government and making clear that the Taliban office would not be seen as an embassy or government-in-exile.

Once those commitments are met, Wahidi said, "We would see no problem in entering into talks with the Taliban in Qatar. "

On Thursday, the "Islamic Emirate" nameplate had been removed from the Taliban office. The flagpole inside the compound was apparently shortened and the Taliban flag ? dark Quranic script on a white background ? was still flying but not visible from the street. Journalists gathered at the office shot images of the flag through the gaps in the walls.

The Taliban have long refused to talk to Karzai's representatives but the opening of the office was seen as a first step toward those meetings.

Suhail said the Taliban are insistent that they want their first interlocutors to be the United States. "First we talk to the Americans about those issues concerning the Americans and us (because) for those issues implementation is only in the hands of the Americans," he said.

"We want foreign troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan," he added. "If there are troops in Afghanistan then there will be a continuation of the war."

Suhail indicated the Taliban could approve of American trainers and advisers for the Afghan troops, saying that "of course, there is cooperation between countries in other things. We need that cooperation."

He said that once the Taliban concluded talks with the United States, they would participate in all-inclusive Afghan talks.

Suhail ruled out exclusive talks with Karzai's High Peace Council, which has been a condition of the Afghan president, who previously said he wanted talks in Doha to be restricted to his representatives and the Taliban. Instead, the Taliban would talk to all Afghan groups, Suhail said.

"After we finish the phase of talking to the Americans, then we would start the internal phase ... that would include all Afghans," he said. "Having all groups involved will guarantee peace and stability."

____

Gannon reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Brian Murphy in Dubai contributed to this report.

____

Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and can be reached at www.twitter.com/kathygannon

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-taliban-offer-free-us-soldier-073132683.html

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Video: NSA Says 'Snooping' Works

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52246691/

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Lots of Americans Want Health Care Via Their Smartphone - Health ...

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) ? Plenty of Americans are eager to use their mobile phones and tablet computers to better manage their health care, a new poll finds ? though the nation has a way to go before we?re all consulting Dr. Smartphone.

In a Harris Interactive/HealthDay survey released Tuesday, more than one-third of respondents who are online said they were ?very? or ?extremely? interested in using smartphones or tablets to ask their doctors questions, make appointments or get medical test results.

Similar numbers of respondents were eager to use mobile phones and tablets for actual health-care services ? such as monitoring blood pressure or blood sugar, or even getting a diagnosis. Such phone and tablet apps are, however, either just getting off the ground or not yet on the market.

The survey results show that the demand for digital assists to health care is ?strong and likely to grow,? said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll.

But he added that big questions remain: What types of services will consumers be able to get with their mobile devices, and when?

?The devil will surely be in the details,? Taylor said, ?and these are very big details.?

An expert in health-care information agreed. ?Right now, we?re looking at a patchwork system,? said Titus Schleyer, who heads the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, based at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Companies are developing a number of apps that, along with equipment attached to your phone or tablet, can help diagnose everything from ear infections and eye diseases to irregular heartbeats and malaria. One goal is to bring better health care to remote parts of the world.

But there are already apps out there designed for the masses ? including ones to manage your blood pressure or blood sugar readings, for example. You take the reading via a monitor that plugs into your smartphone, and the app records all the information, which can then be e-mailed to your doctor or sent to your electronic health record, Schleyer said.

Of course, your doctor has to have the systems in place to do something with that information. And, Schleyer added, depending on where you live, and what health system you?re in, that may or may not be the reality.

Schleyer said he has first-hand experience with the obstacles. His wife found an app that let her record and organize her blood pressure readings, only to discover that her smartphone ?couldn?t talk? to their health-care system?s portal.

She ended up just bringing her smartphone to her doctor?s visit.

?This poll shows us that the public is interested in using these apps,? Schleyer said. ?But the health-care system has to make it easier for them to do it.?

Taylor said that in some other countries, services like these are more widely used because they are required or doctors are compensated to employ them. ?But in this country,? he said, ?most doctors and hospitals have little or no incentives to provide them. They are unlikely to offer them until it is in their interest to do so.?

Another poll finding was that, not surprisingly, younger adults are more eager to use their smartphones and tablets than older adults. Only one-quarter of people aged 65 and older were very interested in using the devices to help manage their blood pressure, for instance ? compared to 38 percent of younger people.

On one hand, Schleyer noted, older adults could stand to benefit the most from such technology, because they?re more likely to have chronic health conditions and need more contact with their doctors.

On the other hand, they may simply not be as comfortable with smartphones and tablets as younger generations are, he said.

Despite the interest in tapping into smartphones and tablets for health care, some poll respondents had some misgivings. They were less inclined to want e-mail or text ?reminders? to exercise, quit smoking, or take medication, for example.

Schleyer said that may be because it?s a bit like having your mom nag you electronically. Plus, many Americans are already inundated with e-mails and texts. ?People may feel there?s already too much digital information flying at them,? he said.

Poll respondents were also worried about the security of their electronically transmitted medical information: 47 percent were ?somewhat confident? it would be secure, while roughly 40 percent were ?not very? or ?not at all? confident.

That?s a valid worry, Schleyer said. However, he also doubts that a hacker would have much interest in the blood pressure readings you?re sending to your doctor. ?They?re probably more interested in your credit card number.?

Schleyer thinks there?s a lot of promise for technology to improve health care for Americans ? if, for instance, consumers can get not only test results sent to their phones, but also user-friendly information on what those results mean.

?But right now, none of this is mature yet,? he said.

The poll results are based on an online survey of 2,050 Americans aged 18 and older, conducted between May 22-24.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more on health information technology.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/06/18/lots-of-americans-want-health-care-via-their-smartphone/

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