josh hamilton Susan Rice the Who jon bon jovi jon bon jovi Kliff Kingsbury Amish Mafia
Monday, April 29, 2013
Deal of the Day ? Loaded 15.6? Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition Core i7 1080p laptop
LogicBUY’s Deal for Sunday is the configurable?15.6″ Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition Laptop for $789.99. ?Starting configuration: 3rd gen Core i7 CPU 8GB 1600MHz RAM 1TB Hard Drive, 32GB mSATA SSD, 8-in-1 card reader 1080p display and 2GB Radeon HD 7730M discrete graphics ?Four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI v1.4a HD webcam Waves MaxxAudio 4 and [...]
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Higher expectations for digital media at NewFronts
FILE - This undated image released by Columbus 81 Productions shows comedians Jerry Seinfeld, left, and Michael Richards, former co-stars in the popular comedy "Seinfeld," in a scene from the finale of Seinfeld's web series, ?Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.? The Digital NewFronts will run Monday through Friday, as media companies like Google, Hulu and Vevo make presentations of their upcoming programming to advertisers in New York. Crackle, the Sony Pictures Entertainment digital network, is expected to promote the second season of Jerry Seinfeld?s Web series ?Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.? (AP Photo/Columbus 81 Productions)
FILE - This undated image released by Columbus 81 Productions shows comedians Jerry Seinfeld, left, and Michael Richards, former co-stars in the popular comedy "Seinfeld," in a scene from the finale of Seinfeld's web series, ?Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.? The Digital NewFronts will run Monday through Friday, as media companies like Google, Hulu and Vevo make presentations of their upcoming programming to advertisers in New York. Crackle, the Sony Pictures Entertainment digital network, is expected to promote the second season of Jerry Seinfeld?s Web series ?Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.? (AP Photo/Columbus 81 Productions)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Last year, the inaugural Digital NewFronts didn't skimp on the hype.
Google, Hulu, Yahoo and others made brash, glitzy presentations to advertisers trumpeting their ascendancy in a rapidly changing media landscape. Even Jay-Z dropped by.
There will be plenty of the same this week in New York at the second Digital NewFronts, the digital world's take on the annual TV "upfront" tradition. But ahead of this year's five-day-long overture to Madison Avenue, the talk is of both the great progress of digital entertainment and unrealized promises.
"It was absolutely a learning experience," Doug McVehil, senior vice president of content and programming for the music video destination Vevo, says about last year's NewFronts."I know there's some things we can do better this year both at the presentation itself and in terms of follow-up. But we're all fairly new at this. This is a young thing for the digital media industry."
In 12 months' time, the industry has come a long way. Netflix's first major original series, "House of Cards," proved that streaming video can compete with the most prestigious cable programs. Google's YouTube rolled out its 100-plus funded channels in a bid to bring higher quality videos (and thus advertisers) to its platform. One of the biggest TV stars, Jerry Seinfeld, launched a handsome Web series, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."
But some of the digital series touted last year have disappointed. Although Yahoo's "Bachelor"-spoof "Burning Love" has proved a modest hit, its Tom Hanks animated sci-fi series, "Electric City," didn't live up to its creator's reputation. While the top YouTube channels have grown considerably, several of its star-driven efforts have fizzled.
"Last year, there were some big promises about not only the quality but the volume of shows that people are going to make," says Eric Berger, executive vice president of digital networks for Sony Pictures TV, which owns the video site Crackle. "If you look back over the course of the year, as we talked to brands and agencies, there're some questions about quality and about the volume of things that were actually produced."
Crackle didn't participate in the NewFronts last year but will this year. It will be promoting, among other shows, an upcoming second season of Seinfeld's series.
Naturally, growing pains are inevitable, especially when so much is changing so fast. The wide array of NewFront presenters this year exhibits the evolving nature of media companies.
New presenters include The Wall Street Journal and Conde Nast, both venerable publishers known for their print products. But Conde Nast earlier this year launched online series slates for two of its magazines (GQ and Glamour), with plans to do the same for its other properties, including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. The Journal, more than any other newspaper, has developed live video programing with its "WSJ Live" app.
"The Journal has really transformed itself since News Corp.'s acquisition into a complete content provider and not just business, finance and economics," says Michael Rooney, chief revenue officer for The Journal, explaining its entry to the NewFronts. "The world still needs to learn and understand about that and what we have to offer."
Yahoo will come into its presentation on the heels of acquiring the rights to archival clips to all 38 years of "Saturday Night Live." YouTube recently announced that in May it will begin a series of theme weeks to highlight its premium channels, starting with comedy. On Sunday night, Vevo will kick off the fourth year of its flagship program "Unstaged," a concert live stream. (Vampire Weekend will perform with Steve Buscemi directing the webcast.)
Performances will play a big part of Vevo's presentation, with appearances by Carly Rae Jepsen, Kendrick Lamar and Jessie Ware. But McVehil says at this year's NewFronts, brands want more than a good show.
"As we mature, I think it's going to be about people looking hard at real numbers and performance and judging companies based on that more than how sexy their presentation was," McVehil says.
Some companies are going it alone. NBCUniversal's digital division, having been a part of the NewFronts last year, held a separate event in New York last week, as did the gaming network Machinima. The talent agency CAA will preview its clients' digital projects this week, but not in an official NewFront.
Still, there are close connections for several of the 18 media companies in the NewFronts. Disney Interactive has several YouTube channels and in February partnered with Vevo to produce family friendly music content.
Ad agency Universal McCann predicted deals at the NewFronts could reach $1 billion. That's still a fraction of what broadcast upfront presentations pull in, but few don't expect digital media to continue to increase their share of the advertising pie.
"We're bigger this year, both in terms of the scope of the event and the amount of content," says Mark Walker, senior vice president of Disney Interactive Entertainment. "We had a few programs before and some speculation. Now, we have conclusively demonstrated that there's a robust audience demand for the kind of high quality video content that we're producing."
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle
Associated Pressbloomberg Daily Caller Staten Island Trick or Treat Amy Weber Happy Halloween! Star Wars Episode 7
2 police shot outside Italian premier's office
ROME (AP) ? An unemployed Italian gunman shot and seriously wounded two policemen Sunday in a square outside the premier's office in Rome just as Italy's new government was being sworn in elsewhere in the city, the interior minister said.
Shots rang out in Chigi Square near a busy shopping and strolling area shortly after 11:30 a.m. just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new ministers were taking their oaths at the Quirinal presidential office, about a kilometer (half-mile) away.
The suspected gunman, dressed in a dark business suit, was immediately grabbed by other police in the square, wrestled to the ground and taken away.
The shooting "was the tragic gesture of an unemployed man," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters after briefing Letta and his new Cabinet about the attack.
A woman passing by during the shooting was also slightly injured, Rome's mayor said. It was unclear if she was grazed by a bullet or hurt in the panic sparked by the gunfire.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting outside the Chigi Palace, which houses the premier's office and other government offices, was timed to coincide with the swearing-in ceremony. But tensions have been running high in Italy following inconclusive elections in February that left the country mired in political deadlock amid a deep recession.
The 46-year-old Letta nailed down a coalition deal only a day ago between two bitter political enemies ? his center-left forces and the conservative bloc of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Reporters inside the Chigi Palace press office heard the shots and raced outside. An AP television producer saw the two wounded Carabinieri officers in the square outside the palace. One of them lay on the pavement with blood pouring out of his neck.
Alfano said the alleged gunman ? 49-year-old Luigi Preiti ? wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. He said six shots were fired.
Security was immediately stepped up near key venues in the Italian capital, but Alfano said authorities were not worried about related attacks.
"The general situation of public order is not causing any worry," he said. "Our initial investigation indicates the incident is due to an isolated gesture, although further investigations are being carried out."
Doctors at Rome's Umberto I Polyclinic said the more seriously injured of the two police officers was a 50-year-old brigadier. They told reporters that a bullet had entered the right side of the officer's neck, damaged his spinal column and was lodged near his shoulder.
The doctors said it wasn't yet known if the spinal column injury had caused any paralysis.
The other victim was a 30-year-old officer who was shot in the leg and had suffered a fracture, hospital officials said.
Preiti was taken to another Rome hospital. News reports said a protective collar was seen around the man's neck.
Italian media reports said the assailant was from southern Calabria and had lived for several years in northern Italy before moving back to Calabria after his marriage fell apart.
Sky TG24 TV quoted the man's brother as saying the alleged attacker had lost his job in a construction firm and was upset over marital problems.
An aide to Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told reporters at the presidential palace that the new Cabinet members were kept briefly inside for security reasons until it was clear there was no immediate danger.
The shooting sparked ugly memories of the 1970s and 1980s in Italy, when domestic terrorism plagued the country during a time of high political tensions between right-wing and left-wing blocs.
The new Cabinet ministers were seen smiling in a group photo as news of the shooting broke and it was apparent they weren't immediately aware of the attack.
"The news arrived after the swearing-in," said Dario Franceschini, one of the new ministers. "Premier Letta is following the situation."
Metal fencing closes off Chigi Square, which flanks Via del Corso, one of Rome's most popular streets with strollers. The public can cross the square by showing identification, and sometimes people can cross it without being stopped. It was unclear if the assailant had asked permission to enter the square.
Rome was jammed Sunday with tourists and residents enjoying a warm sunny morning on the last day of a four-day weekend.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-police-shot-outside-italian-premiers-office-115304512.html
fox sports obama speech Art Modell Frank Ocean Gay bill clinton andy roddick Costa Rica Earthquake
Friday, April 26, 2013
Optimus G Pro for AT&T leaks out ahead of LG's US press event
Want a glimpse of what LG may have in store for the US market come the first of May? Chances are this latest render (pictured above) from @evleaks could very turn out to be AT&T's Optimus G Pro variant. From the looks of things, not much has changed design-wise since we reviewed the 5.5-inch global model, with the removable, high-gloss backplate still sporting that sub-surface pattern first introduced on the Optimus G. Even the arrangement of the rear camera, flash and speaker appear to have remained the same -- the only noticeable difference is the AT&T globe situated none too subtly below. Whether or not LG's reworked its internals remains to be seen, but with the event now less than a week away, we'll have all the answers soon enough.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T, LG
Source: EVLeaks (Twitter)
act of valor woody guthrie benson henderson 2012 dunk contest edgar vs henderson berkshire hathaway ufc 144
Kinect plus projector makes anything a remote control
LOST the TV remote control again? Never mind ? just create another one on the arm of your sofa with a swish of your hand. While you are at it, why not turn the top of your coffee table into a lighting controller, so you can dim your lamps while you kick back and watch a movie. The system that makes this happen, called WorldKit, is working in Chris Harrison's lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And it could be in our homes in the next five years, he says.
WorldKit combines cameras, projectors and computers to allow everyday surfaces like walls, tables, doors and worktops to host interactive controllers for gadgets including TVs, digital video recorders, hi-fis or room lighting.
The system uses a Microsoft Kinect depth camera to pinpoint which surface your swishing hand is requesting to become a controller. As you move your hand back and forth, you say out loud what you want the surface to turn into ? for example, "TV remote". WorldKit's software uses voice recognition to work out what type of remote you want and a digital projector on the ceiling beams an image of that controller onto the chosen surface. The Kinect camera then works out which buttons you are pressing. Harrison's team will demonstrate the system this week at CHI 2013, a conference on human-computer interaction, in Paris, France.
Harrison says the system will be useful when small "pico" projectors have become cheap and power-efficient enough to be dotted around our homes. "No one has yet come up with the killer app that will drive projector prices down. WorldKit might be that app," he says.
The system has other uses. For instance, it could beam interactive cookery instructions onto a kitchen worktop, creating a space for each ingredient to be placed in. These spaces then light up as software takes you through the recipe.
The technology impresses Patrick Baudisch, a computer scientist at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, whose team will be presenting a way to track people in rooms using interactive floors
at CHI 2013. "WorldKit looks like a very useful step forward in ubiquitous computing. It will help the field move forward and bring smart home applications a step closer to reality," he says.
This article appeared in print under the headline "TV remote control..."
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
lottery ticket megga millions what is autism the giver march 30 rimm pauly d project
Mindscapes: The woman who was dropped into her body
Mindscapes is our new column on brain science with a difference: we meet people who live with the world's most mysterious neurological conditions
Name: Louise Airey
Condition: Depersonalisation disorder
"I feel like I have been dropped into my body. I know this is my voice and these are my memories, but they don't feel like they belong to me."
It happened out of the blue. Louise Airey was 8?years old, off sick from school, when suddenly she felt like she had been dropped into her own body. "It's just so difficult to verbalise what this feels like," she says. "All of a sudden you're hyper aware, and everything else in the world seems unreal, like a movie."
She panicked, but told no one. The feeling soon passed but returned several times until, at the age of 19, a migraine triggered a sensation of being disconnected from the world that was to last 18 months. When she was in her 30s she was diagnosed with depersonalisation disorder ? an altered sense of self with all-encompassing feelings of not occupying your own body, and detachment from your thoughts and actions. It has come and gone throughout her life, but since a traumatic pregnancy 20 months ago, these feelings have remained constant.
"Other people seem like robots," Airey says. "It's like I'm watching a film, like I'm on my own in the centre of everything and nothing else is real. I'll be speaking to my children and I'll catch my voice talking and it seems really alien and foreign. It makes you feel very separated and lonely from everything, like you're the only person that is real."
Not so rare
Depersonalisation disorder is not as rare as you might think, says Anthony David at King's College London and the Maudsley Hospital: it may affect almost 1 per cent of the British population (Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1007/s00127-010-0327-7). We've all probably experienced mild versions of it at some point, in the unreal, spaced-out feeling you might get while severely jet-lagged or hung-over, for example. Now neuroscientists are beginning to uncover what goes wrong in those who persistently feel unreal. Their findings could tell us something about how we all form a sense of self, and potentially, bring a treatment for those who have the disorder.
The sense of self has much to do with our awareness of our physicality and how we interact with the outside world. The brain integrates all the information coming in from the external world and from internal sensations and forms a default setting of "this is me here and now", says Nick Medford, who studies depersonalisation at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK. "If that setting changes somehow, then you feel 'not right', in a way that might be very hard to put into words."
There are probably several ways that change can occur, but Medford's work is looking at the emotional detachment characteristic of depersonalisation. In people who have the disorder, areas of the brain that are key to emotion are much less active than normal. These people also show unusual autonomic physical responses to external stimuli, such as evocative images (Emotion Review, DOI: 10.1177/1754073911430135).
David and his colleagues are also looking at why people with depersonalisation disorder report emotional "numbing" ? the feeling that the world is somehow alien. They have found that some areas in the brain's frontal lobes, which help keep emotions in check, are overactive, or too controlling.
Living the scream
One symptom related to this skewed brain activity is the sensation of all sounds competing against each other to be heard. It's like living inside Edvard Munch's painting The Scream, Airey says, which some critics have suggested is about depersonalisation. "The person and the landscape are screaming, you can't get any peace."
Another area of the brain that appears to be less responsive in depersonalisation is the anterior insula, responsible for integrating physical and emotional sensations. This might explain why sufferers don't feel in touch with the world, Medford says.
It's not only the outside world that seems strange, says Airey. The disorder makes it almost impossible for her to relate to herself. "Everything that you're familiar with yourself ? your thoughts, your memories ? become alien," she says. "Memories of things you've done don't feel like they belong to you; it robs you of your past. I know rationally that they're my thoughts, my voice, my memories, but they're all wrong ? that why it's so frightening. It takes away the core of who you are."
Airey says she would investigate any potential treatment. There is an epilepsy drug, Lamotrigine, that has shown some promise when combined with an antidepressant in trials. Transcranial magnetic stimulation ? in which an electromagnet stimulates or suppresses neuronal activity ? is also being explored by David's team to retrain the depersonalised brain.
"Rationally knowing that I'm real, that these memories are real, that my voice is my own, but not feeling like they all belong to me is somehow worse than being away with fairies," Airey says. "It's like I'm a sane person gone mad."
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
Belk Led Zeppelin Ned Rocknroll Norman Schwarzkopf Avery Johnson kennedy center honors boxing day
Museum find proves exotic ?big cat? prowled British countryside a century ago
Apr. 25, 2013 ? The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century.
The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was analysed by a multi-disciplinary team of Durham University scientists and fellow researchers at Bristol, Southampton and Aberystwyth universities and found to be a Canadian lynx -- a carnivorous predator more than twice the size of a domestic cat.
The research, published today in the academic journal Historical Biology, establishes the animal as the earliest example of an "alien big cat" at large in the British countryside.
The research team say this provides further evidence for debunking a popular hypothesis that wild cats entered the British countryside following the introduction of the 1976 Wild Animals Act. The Act was introduced to deal with an increasing fashion for exotic -- and potentially dangerous -- pets.
The academics believe such feral "British big cats" as they are known, may have lived in the wild much earlier, through escapes and even deliberate release. There is no evidence that such animals have been able to breed in the wild.
The study of the Canadian lynx, rediscovered by research team member Max Blake among hundreds of thousands of specimens at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, details records unearthed at the museum which showed the animal had originally been mislabelled by Edwardian curators in 1903 as a Eurasian lynx -- a close relative of the Canadian lynx.
The records also showed that the lynx was shot by a landowner in the Devon countryside in the early 1900s, after it killed two dogs.
"This Edwardian feral lynx provides concrete evidence that although rare, exotic felids have occasionally been part of British fauna for more than a century," said lead researcher, Dr Ross Barnett of Durham University's Department of Archaeology.
"The animal remains are significant in representing the first historic big cat from Britain."
Co-author Dr Darren Naish, from the University of Southampton, added: "There have been enough sightings of exotic big cats which substantially pre-date 1976 to cast doubt on the idea that one piece of legislation made in 1976 explains all releases of these animals in the UK.
"It seems more likely that escapes and releases have occurred throughout history, and that this continual presence of aliens explains the 'British big cat' phenomenon."
The researchers point out in their paper that Eurasian lynxes existed in the wild in Britain many hundreds of years ago, but had almost certainly become extinct by the 7th century. Laboratory analysis of the Bristol specimen's bones and teeth established it had been kept in captivity long enough to develop severe tooth loss and plaque before it either escaped or was deliberately released into the wild. Ancient DNA analysis of hair from the lynx proved inconclusive, possibly due to chemicals applied to the pelt during taxidermy.
Julie Finch, head of Bristol's Museums, Galleries & Archives, said: "Bristol Museum, Galleries and Archives were pleased to be a part of this ground-breaking research, which not only highlights the importance of our science collections, it establishes the pedigree of our 100-year old Lynx and adds to our knowledge and understanding of 'big cats' in the UK.
"Our museum collections are extensive and caring for them requires the considerable skills of our collections officers. We have an amazing collection of taxidermy animals on display and we welcome museum visitors to come along, to take a closer look and discover more about the natural world."
Dr Greger Larson, a member of the research team from Durham University and an expert in the migration of animals, said: "Every few years there is another claim that big cats are living wild in Britain, but none of these claims have been substantiated. It seems that big cats are to England what the Loch Ness Monster is to Scotland.
"By applying a robust scientific methodology, this study conclusively demonstrates that at least one big cat did roam Britain as early as the Edwardian era, and suggests that additional claims need to be subjected to this level of scrutiny."
The lynx is now on public display at Bristol museum.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southampton, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Max Blake, Darren Naish, Greger Larson, Charlotte L. King, Geoff Nowell, Manabu Sakamoto, Ross Barnett. Multidisciplinary investigation of a ?British big cat?: a lynx killed in southern England c. 1903. Historical Biology, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2013.785541
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/CDGCWic5qdo/130424222428.htm
i want to know what love is courtney mercury retrograde bath salts heart shaped box lucid 2012 ncaa tournament bracket
Thursday, April 25, 2013
U.S. arms makers boost earnings, shares surge
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. weapons makers reported higher-than-expected profit and improved margins for the first quarter, even as revenue began to taper off after more than a decade of sharp growth in U.S. military spending.
Boeing Co's
Shares of the companies rose sharply on their financial results, with General Dynamics shares closing nearly 7 percent higher at $71.73 in what analysts said amounted to a strong vote of confidence in the firm's new chief executive, Phebe Novakovic.
Boeing shares closed 3 percent higher at $90.83, while Northrop shares gained 3.2 percent to close at $73.77. Lockheed shares, which saw big gains on Tuesday, edged up another 0.65 percent higher to close at $97.69.
Operating margins remained steady or improved across the sector, ranging from 10.3 percent to 12.4 percent, but executives warned that uncertainty about future military spending levels could weigh on revenue this year and next.
"Weaker revenues and strong earnings are typical of this point in the defense spending cycle. However, the erosion in revenues is probably a leading indicator of where earnings are headed," said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.
"Earnings eventually will erode as the impact of sequestration is fully felt," he said, referring to across-the-board federal spending cuts.
Northrop Grumman, which builds unmanned planes and other military equipment, said it was focused on executing programs, cash deployment and tweaking its portfolio as mandatory spending cuts known as sequestration start to take effect.
The company reported net earnings of $489 million, or $2.03 a share, compared with $506 million, or $1.96 a share a year earlier. Revenue dipped to $6.1 billion from $6.2 billion.
"Looking ahead, we recognize that we are operating in an uncertain and constrained budget environment," said Northrop Chief Executive Wes Bush.
Bush told analysts that he did not expect cancellation of any significant Northrop programs as a result of sequestration in fiscal 2013, but continuing uncertainty about future budget cuts could weigh on bookings this year.
Sales and bookings in the third and fourth quarters would help clarify the outlook for 2014, Bush said. "It is very likely this is going to negatively impact sales in 2014," he said. "To think that the sequester somehow dissipates and goes away and doesn't impact the future is putting your head in the sand."
Bush said a broader strategic review initiated by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and due to be completed next month would also help inform future budgets. He cited double-digit growth on programs in the cyber security arena.
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall said his office was closely involved in Hagel's department-wide review.
Kendall on Wednesday unveiled plans to further improve the way the Defense Department buys arms, including new guidelines on profits on fixed-price contracts, but he insisted the Pentagon did not aim to cut into companies' margins.
"We're not after people's profits as a way to reduce costs," Kendall told reporters at the Pentagon. "We want to tie profit and performance together."
General Dynamics, which builds ships, tanks and Gulfstream business jets, reported slightly higher first-quarter earnings, far exceeding analysts' forecasts, but revenue fell short of expectations.
General Dynamics said net earnings rose to $571 million, or $1.62 per share, from $564 million or $1.57 per share, a year earlier. Revenue dipped to $7.4 billion from $7.58 billion.
Novakovic, who has carried out a series of management changes since taking over on January 1, said the company was focused on operations, cost improvement and cash generation.
"Going after overhead is critical to margin expansion in the down environment," she told analysts. She said General Dynamics would continue to reduce its workforce as needed in the current budget environment but declined to forecast any specific areas targeted for layoffs.
Boeing, the second-largest U.S. weapons maker, said its defense earnings rose 12 percent to $832 million, while revenue slipped 1 percent to $8.1 billion.
Boeing's operating margin remained the lowest among the companies that reported earnings this week, although it rose to 10.3 percent from 9 percent a year earlier.
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said Boeing expected growth in key areas such as space, unmanned systems, intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance, and cyber security. He said the company also expected expanding sales of its smaller commercial satellites.
(Editing by John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-arms-makers-boost-earnings-shares-surge-221411743--finance.html
St Patrick lisa vanderpump Dancing With the Stars 2013 NIT Bracket March Madness 2013 bracket March Madness 2013 selection sunday
Merck melanoma drug wins "breakthrough" designation
(Reuters) - U.S. regulators have granted Merck & Co's experimental treatment for advanced melanoma a "breakthrough therapy" designation, which could speed development and regulatory review of the product.
The medicine, whose chemical name is lambrolizumab, is also being tested against other forms of cancer. It belongs to a promising class of therapies that harness the body's immune system to find and attack cancer cells. It targets a protein called PD-1, or Programmed Death receptor.
The FDA created the "breakthrough therapy" designation earlier this year for medicines deemed likely to demonstrate "substantial improvement" over existing drugs.
Although it is intended to provide an easier path for drug development, Merck said it was not yet clear what specific benefits the designation would afford.
Merck shares slipped 0.6 percent in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange to $48.36.
.
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merck-melanoma-drug-wins-breakthrough-designation-153700142--finance.html
one direction tulsa news scalloped potatoes the ten commandments charlton heston moses tulsa shooting
Chernobyl follow-up study finds high survival rate among young thyroid cancer patients
Apr. 24, 2013 ? More than a quarter of a century after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, many children and teenagers who developed thyroid cancer due to radiation are in complete or near remission, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Following the April 26, 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union, the number of children and teenagers diagnosed with differentiated thyroid cancer spiked in Ukraine, Belarus and western areas of Russia. Most of the patients developed the papillary subtype of differentiated thyroid cancer. Although this cancer tends to be more aggressive in children than adults, nearly all of the patients tracked in the study responded favorably to treatment.
"Even though some patients did not receive optimal treatment initially, the vast majority went into remission after receiving state-of-the-art radiodine treatment and follow-up care," said study lead author Christoph Reiners, MD, of the University of W?rzburg, Germany. "Many patients recovered from advanced cancers. Of this group, 97 percent had cancer spread to the lymph nodes, and 43 percent had cancer metastasize in the lungs."
The observational study followed the treatment and outcomes of 229 Belarusian children and adolescents who underwent surgery in Belarus and radioiodine therapy in Germany. The study participants were among the highest-risk young patients exposed to radiation from the accident.
Despite the risk, 64 percent of the patients are in complete remission and 30 percent nearly complete remission of their cancer. One patient died of lung fibrosis, a side effect of cancer treatment. Only two had cancer recurrences.
The findings suggest victims of more recent nuclear accidents like the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan face lower risk of developing advanced-stage thyroid cancer, Reiners said.
"Although people fear a similar thyroid cancer 'epidemic' will affect Japan, the quick actions taken to evacuate or shelter residents and ban potentially contaminated foods following the Fukushima accident greatly reduced the risks of children developing radiation-induced thyroid cancer," Reiners said. "In addition, Chernobyl has taught us how important it is to have at-risk children and adolescents screened for thyroid cancer to catch any cases in their early stages. Because public health authorities are aware of the risks, screening programs for children from the Fukushima area already have been initiated."
Other researchers working on the study include: J. Biko, H. Haenscheid and H. Hebestreit of the University of W?rzburg; S. Kirinjuk and O. Baranowski of the Hospital for Oncology in Minsk, Belarus; R. Marlowe of Spencer-Fountayne Corporation; E. Demidchik of the National Academy of Science in Minsk; V. Drozd of the International Fund Help for Patients with Radiation Induced Thyroid Cancer in Belarus; and Y. Demidchik of the Belaruisan Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Endocrine Society, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Christoph Reiners et al. Twenty-Five Years after Chernobyl: Outcome of Radiodine Treatment in Children and Adolescents with Very-High-Risk Radiation-Induced Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma. JCEM, 2013 (in press)
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/AS4u1iNXIZY/130424132630.htm
Lumineers The Lumineers grammys miguel frank ocean Justin Timberlake Grammys adam levine
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Senate panel backs Obama nominee for Medicare/Medicaid chief
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee to oversee Medicare and Medicaid won the backing of a key Senate panel on Tuesday, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate that could make Marilyn Tavenner the programs' first official administrator since 2006.
The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously to endorse Tavenner as head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that provides health coverage to some 100 million elderly, disabled and poor Americans, while also overseeing implementation of Obama's signature healthcare reform law.
Tavenner has been running CMS as acting administrator since late 2011.
"I think she'll make a terrific administrator. One of the best," said Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the committee's Democratic chairman.
If confirmed by a full Senate vote, Tavenner would officially take the helm at a time of daunting challenges for U.S. healthcare policy. Obama's reform law is heading for full implementation on January 1 and both Medicare and Medicaid are in the political firing line for possible deficit reductions.
A nurse and former hospital company executive who also oversaw health policy in her home state of Virginia, Tavenner's private sector credentials have won vital support from Republicans. Among her backers is House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who introduced her at an April 9 confirmation hearing.
Tavenner vowed in hearing testimony to run the $820 billion Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a business.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Bill Trott)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-backs-obama-nominee-medicare-medicaid-chief-145107426.html
Tropical Storm Isaac amber portwood Phyllis Diller Darla Moore newsweek Tony Scott UFC 151
Monday, April 22, 2013
Yahoo axing six more apps and services as part of streamlining effort
Get ready to say goodbye to another another batch of Yahoo products at the end of this month. As the company continues to streamline and focus its services, March 31st will be the last day of stand-alone existence for Upcoming, Yahoo Deals, Yahoo Kids, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo Mail and Messages for feature phones. Noting an aim to slim down to roughly 15 offerings from 75, as The Register points out, this follows a few weeks after the company nixed other services like its BlackBerry app. Additionally, if you've been hanging onto the old version of Yahoo Mail, you'll have no choice but to switch to the new version by June 3rd. There's not word on what we can expect next, although EVP of Platforms Jay Rossiter notes that cuts like these are needed so it can focus on more experiences like its new Mail and Weather apps. You'll find the details for each cut at the source link.
Update: The total number of offerings being killed this time around is six, not seven as initially reported.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Register
Source: Yahoo
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RMg8EElxw9Q/
christine double fine adventure turbo tax katharine mcphee cold mountain valentines day ideas the villages florida
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Quake in China kills at least 102, injures more than 2,200
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing at least 102 people and injuring about 2,200 close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008.
The earthquake occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya'an city and the epicentre had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake was felt by residents in neighbouring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.
State television said 102 people had been confirmed dead with more than 2,200 injured, 147 of them seriously.
President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims to limit the death toll.
Li arrived in Chengdu and was on his way to the disaster zone by helicopter, state media said.
"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying.
For a map of the earthquake zone please click:
http://link.reuters.com/vek57t
Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya'an, though Chengdu airport had reopened.
Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, where water and electricity were cut off. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital, which appeared only lightly damaged.
Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 32 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicentre, almost all low rise houses and buildings had collapsed, according to footage broadcast on state television.
"We are very busy right now, there are about eight or nine injured people, the doctors are handling the cases," said a doctor at a Ya'an hospital who gave her family name as Liu.
The hospital was seeing head and leg injuries, she added.
"SHAKES AND TREMORS"
A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya'an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.
Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China's main centres for protecting the giant panda.
"There are still shakes and tremors and our area is safe. The pandas are safe," said a spokesman with Ya'an's Bifengxia nature park, a tourism park that houses more than 100 pandas.
Shouts and screams were heard in the background while Reuters was on the telephone with the spokesman.
"There was just an aftershock, an aftershock, our office is safe," he said.
Numerous aftershocks jolted the area, the largest of which was magnitude 5.1.
Sichuan is one of the four major natural-gas-producing provinces in China, and its output accounts for about 14 percent of the nation's total.
Sinopec Group, Asia's largest oil refiner, said its huge Puguang gas field was unaffected.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.
The devastating May 2008 quake was 7.9 magnitude. (Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Sanjeev Miglani)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eearthquake-magnitude-7-0-hits-county-chinas-sichuan-011333183--sector.html
chris brown and rihanna nightline brady quinn brady quinn bloom box obama sweet home chicago accenture match play
Friday, April 19, 2013
Around the Web?
Happy Friday! The countdown to the weekend begins after these reads: A police officer’s act of kindness brightens a little girl’s day — PEOPLE.com New study claims no tie between light drinking during pregnancy and child development — US News How one dad supported his son and took a stand against bullying — The Stir [...]
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/aY0oN43I7ik/
ja rule amityville horror acm passover recipes 2012 kids choice awards kansas ohio state wrestlemania results
ORU President Mark Rutland gives final address at university
By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer on Apr 18, 2013, at 1:49 AM??Updated on 4/18 at 5:51 AM
ORU President Mark Rutland: The outgoing president told students in his final address that when he arrived on campus four years ago, he was "afraid that I would just look old and stuffy. I'm not hip. I've got hips, but I'm not hip. I was afraid we couldn't find that connection. But the fact of the matter is, in four years, I feel a deep sense of love for you and from you."
A teary Mark Rutland addressed the students at Oral Roberts University for the last time Wednesday.The outgoing ORU president has been a popular speaker at twice-a-week chapel services for the past four years.
Before he spoke, students and faculty and board members, public officials and national Christian leaders talked about his influence at ORU, some in person and some by video.
Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said by video that Rutland brought ORU from "a very bad place to a very good place."
Alumnus Rick Fenimore said Rutland left a good and secure position to accept a job that "thrust him into chaos, and against all odds he managed to turn it around in just four years."
Dan Holman, representing the students, called Rutland "a real leader, and that's not something we see a lot of these days."
Rutland told the students that when he arrived on campus four years ago, he was "afraid that I would just look old and stuffy."
"I'm not hip," he said. "I've got hips, but I'm not hip. I was afraid we couldn't find that connection.
"But the fact of the matter is, in four years, I feel a deep sense of love for you and from you. We feel loved by the student body, and that's a wonderful thing."
Rutland likened his job at ORU to the maid who cleans his hotel room when he travels, a person who doesn't own the hotel.
"She just comes in and tidies up the room and leaves," he said.
"I felt that my job here was to be a housekeeper. ... Come in, tidy up and leave. I don't own anything; none of this is mine."
At the end of the chapel service, nationally known Christian television hosts James and Betty Robison of "Life TODAY" made a surprise appearance, walking onto the stage at Christ Chapel, where they hugged Mark and Alison Rutland.
The two couples have known each other for years and have ministered together.
James Robison called Rutland "one of the most gifted preachers on the planet."
Mark Rutland came to ORU after the resignation of President Richard Roberts. ORU was facing critical financial problems, a large debt and several lawsuits.
Under Rutland's leadership, and with donations of more than $100 million from the Green family of Oklahoma City, the university is now debt-free, and the campus has been extensively renovated. The new Armand Hammer Alumni-Student Center opened in January.
Rutland announced last year that he would step down after this semester to pursue other ministry opportunities in Georgia.
Bill Sherman 918-581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Rutland gives final address at ORU
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
dallas clark litter marinol flight attendant pau gasol trade michael madsen spring forward
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Assad says West will pay for backing al Qaeda in Syria
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Western nations will suffer the consequences for what he said was their support for al Qaeda militants in his country's civil war.
"The West has paid heavily for funding al Qaeda in its early stages in Afghanistan. Today it is supporting it in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price later in the heart of Europe and the United States," he told Syrian television channel al-Ikhbariya, according to extracts published on the Syrian presidency's Facebook page on Wednesday.
Assad was speaking a week after Syria's rebel al-Nusra Front, one of the most effective rebel forces battling his troops, formally pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
The United States has designated the Nusra Front a terrorist organization and the presence of militant Islamists in Syria's two-year conflict poses a quandary for Western powers who favor Assad's overthrow, but are alarmed at the growing influence of the Islamists in Syria.
"The truth is, what is happening is that we are mainly facing extremist forces," Assad said in the interview.
The United Nations says more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, which started as mainly peaceful protests two years ago but has evolved into a civil war.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans and Mariam Karouny; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assad-says-west-pay-supporting-al-qaeda-syria-183513048.html
litter marinol flight attendant pau gasol trade michael madsen spring forward day light savings
Foxconn Is Microsoft's Biggest Patent Licensee (Of, Uh, Android Patents...?)
     |
tamera mowry slow jam the news madden cover obama slow jams the news metta world peace ron artest gladys knight
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)