Saturday, June 29, 2013

Google developing Android videogame console - report

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is developing a videogame console and a wristwatch based on its Android operating system, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The devices could be available as soon as this Fall, the report, which cited anonymous sources, said.

Google, the world's No.1 Web search engine, is also working on a revamped version of the Nexus Q music-streaming device, the report said. Google unveiled the Nexus Q in June 2012, but never released the product, which received critical reviews.

Google is increasingly involved in the hardware business as it seeks to better compete against iPhone-maker Apple Inc . It acquired mobile phone company Motorola Mobility last year and Google is currently testing a wearable computing device known as Google Glass.

Google's Android operating system is the world's most popular mobile software, featured on three out of every four smartphones sold. A video game console could provide a significant opportunity for Google to expand Android's reach beyond its stronghold in smartphones and tablets.

Google was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-developing-android-videogame-console-report-233356209.html

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Religious Right on Gay Marriage: 'We Will Never, Never, Never, Never Give In'

Christian conservatives compared the struggle over gay marriage to epic crises and tragedies: to communism, to the financial crisis, to the biblical story of Lazarus coming back from the dead.?But while many in the religious right are saying the fight over gay marriage isn't over, even though the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional on Wednesday, lots of Republicans just want it to go away.

RELATED: 15 Months from the Convention, Here's Your Republican Field

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee tweeted, "My thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling that determined that same sex marriage is okay: 'Jesus wept.'"?Retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann said, "Marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted."?

RELATED: Federal Court: DOMA Violates Married Same-Sex Couples' Rights

The most dramatic immediate reaction was from the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer in a series of tweets: "Sodomy-based marriage is an egregious violation of the 'Laws of Nature and Nature's God.' May God have mercy on us. ? In our battle to defend marriage as God has defined it, we will never give in. We will never, never, never, never give in. ? Solzhenitsyn: 'One word of truth outweighs the whole world.' That includes the Supreme Court."?(Fischer excels at getting attention far beyond his influence, and pressured Mitt Romney's campaign to fire a newly hired foreign policy adviser because he's gay. The aide eventually?quit.)?

RELATED: California Is Past Prop. 8: Support for Marriage Equality Hits Record High

Before the decision was ever handed down, the?Christian Post's Eric Metaxas?wrote, "The False Narrative of Gay Marriage: It Is Not Inevitable." Metaxas explains that it looks like gay marriage is winning, but that's a mirage: "In his book,?The Black Swan, Nicholas Nassim Taleb discussed what he calls the 'narrative fallacy.' This refers to our 'limited ability' to look at a sequence of facts "without weaving an explanation into them." A push to legalize gay marriage in Illinois recently failed, he said. "While we face an uphill battle, what else is new?"

RELATED: The Annotated Transcript of the Prop 8 Oral Arguments, with For and Against

The?National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallager?said the fight would go on for decades, just like the fight over abortion:

"[Justice Anthony] Kennedy's decision is the Roe v. Wade of this generation, not this generation's Brown v. Board of Education. Like Roe, Kennedy stepped in to disenfranchise millions of voters' concerns to tilt unfairly the scale of justice controversial moral issue trending in a liberal direction. But like Roe the deep questions involved in marriage will not simply go away: At the heart of the gay marriage argument is an untruth: unions of two men or women are not the same as unions of husband and wife. The law cannot make it so. It can only require us to paint pretty pictures to cover up deep truths embedded in human nature."

And yet there are many conservatives who indicated they do not want this battle to go on forever and ever. Conservative pundit Dana Loesch said this was a blow to Democrats, because DOMA was an example of big government. "DOMA doesn't surprise me. Even I thought it was unconstitutional," RedState editor Erick Erickson tweeted. House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement saying, "While I am obviously disappointed in the ruling, it is always critical that we protect our system of checks and balances. A robust national debate over marriage will continue in the public square, and it is my hope that states will define marriage as the union between one man and one woman." Likewise, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul advised, "I would tell people who are for traditional marriage: the battle is lost at the federal level; concentrate on your state." But the fight in the states will not be to stop gay marriage -- dozens banned it in their state constitutions between 2004 and 2006. The fight in the states is going the opposite direction, just as it is federally.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/religious-gay-marriage-never-never-never-never-161507613.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Cespedes, Colon lead A's to 6-3 win over Mariners

SEATTLE (AP) ? Yoenis Cespedes hit a pair of two-run homers and Bartolo Colon won his seventh straight start to lead the Oakland Athletics past the Seattle Mariners 6-3 on Friday night.

Cespedes homered in the first inning and again in the ninth for his third career multihomer game ? all this month. Jed Lowrie and Coco Crisp also went deep for the Athletics, who maintained their one-game lead in the AL West over Texas.

Colon (10-2) gave up three runs and seven hits over eight innings, tying unbeaten Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers for most wins in the American League. Colon is 11-1 in his career at Safeco Field, the best record for any pitcher with at least seven decisions in the Mariners' home park.

Grant Balfour pitched the ninth for his 18th straight save to begin the season.

Nick Franklin hit a three-run homer for Seattle, which has lost three straight and five of six.

Hisashi Iwakuma (7-3) lost at home for the first time this season, giving up four runs and six hits ? including three homers ? in seven innings. His home ERA rose from 0.92 to 1.46.

The matchup between two of the American League's top starters turned into a relative slugfest.

Iwakuma had never given up more than two home runs in a game, and it was the first time in 18 career home starts he allowed more than one homer.

Franklin's three-run shot against Colon marked the first time the pitcher had allowed a home run or more than two earned runs in a game since May 14, before he started his winning streak.

Cespedes gave Oakland a two-run lead in the first inning with a shot that bounced off the upper-deck railing above the left field out-of-town scoreboard. It wasn't the first big hit Cespedes has had against Iwakuma ? he is 6 for 15 with three homers against the Mariners' starter.

Brendan Ryan singled with one out in the third for the Mariners' first hit, and after a single by Endy Chavez, Franklin's fourth home run gave Seattle a 3-2 lead.

Lowrie tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fourth, and Crisp pushed Oakland ahead with his solo drive that just cleared the right-field wall in the sixth.

The Mariners were hurt by a baserunning blunder in the sixth. After a leadoff single, Kyle Seager was thrown out trying to take two bases on a passed ball. Kendrys Morales' single and Raul Ibanez's walk gave Seattle two on with one out, but the Mariners were unable to push a run across.

Oakland added insurance runs in the ninth off reliever Tom Wilhelmsen. Lowrie led off with a single and Cespedes followed with another homer to left field, his 15th of the season.

NOTES: Oakland C John Jaso was a late scratch because of a left palm abrasion. ... Seattle promoted pitching prospect Taijuan Walker to Triple-A Tacoma. Walker, the Mariners' top pick in the 2010 draft, was 4-7 with a 2.46 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 14 starts for Double-A Jackson. ... Two of Seattle's 2013 draft picks, Austin Wilson (second round) and Lachlan Fontaine (13th), took batting practice before the game.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cespedes-colon-lead-6-3-win-over-mariners-050408073.html

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Barack Obama and Xi Jinping: Dreams from their fathers

President Barack Obama meets with China's then-Vice President Xi Jinping in the Oval Office in February 2012 (Jason??

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif.?This weekend's meeting between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, at the Sunnylands estate outside Palm Springs, Calif., stems from what White House and Chinese officials have described as the presidents' mutual desire to develop a personal relationship.

If they feel like dealing with their own histories, they might find they have plenty to talk about.

As boys, both spent their childhoods without a father present. Obama?s parents separated almost immediately after he was born, and he met his father just once, when he was 10. In 1963, When Xi was 10, his father, then an opposition government figure, was "purged" and sent to a factory far from their home in Beijing, according to "China's Management Revolution" by Charles-Edouard Bou?e, though Xi saw him occasionally after that.

Both fathers dedicated their lives to government work, Obama Sr. as an economic development technocrat and Xi Zhongxun as a leading member of the Community Party, one who helped usher in China?s political and economic revolutions.

Obama Sr., while he never attained the inner-party status of the elder Xi, was a dedicated civil servant. Bou?e also writes that after Kenya won independence from British colonialism in 1963, he returned to the country from his American and European economics studies and became an influential economic and planning figure.

At his professional peak, Obama Sr. was the acting No. 2 at the Industry, Commerce, Tourism and Infrastructure Section in the Kenyan government, where he oversaw road construction, building, postal office plans, telecommunication development, harbors and airways. This promotion was redemption after Obama?s reportedly heavy drinking and arrogance fueled his dismissal from another economic and tourism job.

Like Obama Sr., Xi Zhongxun had an ability to restore and rise above professional setbacks. After he was "purged" again in 1962 for allegedly supporting a controversial Chinese biography, he was fully "rehabilitated" by 1978 when he realigned himself with the economically liberal Communists who would vote to open the Chinese economy to the world.

It?s that second act in the early '80s that puts him in a more unique sect of Chinese revolutionaries, said Clayton Dube, the executive director of the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California.

?In some ways, he has a much longer tutelage than his predecessors,? Dube said. ?When the party leaders said, 'This is the fellow we are going to groom for the top job,' they had seen something in him.?

Of course there are some major differences between Obama and his father, and Xi and his. Xi Zhongzun's party status is why many Western observers have considered Xi a ?princeling,? a presidential moniker that is virtually unmentioned in Chinese media, Dube said.

Obama Sr.?s role never helped grease opportunity for his American son, according to the Pulitzer Prize winning biographer David Maraniss.

"[Obama the son] knew nothing about ... his father, or about the nature of his life?s struggle since he had returned to Nairobi?his drinking, his womanizing, his abusive temper, his serious car crashes, his job dismissals,? Maraniss wrote in "Barack Obama: The Story." ?Barry could not know that perhaps the luckiest thing that happened to him in his young life was that his father had left, sparing his mother and him years of unpredictability and potential domestic violence.?

While they may not acknowledge their fathers? legacies in meetings, they could bond over another fundamental similarity: their daughters. Sasha and Malia Obama are a few years younger than the 20-year-old Xi Mingze.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/barack-obama-xi-jinping-dreams-fathers-205224120.html

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Why inflation matters: How the Fed is creating real estate inflation ...

Inflation matters.? It matters a lot.? Contrary to what you may hear in the mainstream press the Federal Reserve has done everything to stoke the fires of inflation.? The reasons for this include creating asset inflation that is understated in CPI data and also setting up a system where consumption is almost forced upon consumers.? How so?? With negative interest rates consumers are losing money by simply having their money in a savings account.? Even a modest rate of inflation will erode purchasing power when banks are paying zero percent on your hard earned deposits.? Yet this is all part of the design.? Inflation matters because it does encourage spending.? You want to spend today given that your current dollars will lose value tomorrow.? The Fed likes inflation so much that it has reignited the housing market once again while it has expanded its balance sheet to over $3.3 trillion.? Inflation absolutely matters.

?A brief history of inflation on the dollar

What is interesting is the US dollar held steady for nearly 60 years between 1870 and 1933:

inflation on prices

Once the gold standard was abandoned, the US dollar has been on a steady decline since the 1930s.? It is an interesting trajectory including the era when Nixon closed the gold window.? We are merely making an observation of the data here.? Without a doubt the US dollar has lost its purchasing power over the decades.? This matters because it has also had a major impact on wages and the standard of living especially for the US middle class.

Adjusting for inflation household wages are back to levels last seen in 1995:

inflation adjusted income

This matters because gas is no longer $1 a gallon and no longer can you work part-time at a minimum wage job and put yourself through college.? Those days are gone.? The cost of living for most Americans has gotten more expensive.? We found out this week that home values are increasing at their fastest pace since 2006.? The annual increase in prices is over 10 percent.? Of course much of this is not coming from wage growth and this should be obvious because of the previous chart.? This is largely coming from the actions being taken on by the Fed which is funneling trillions of dollars into the housing market via negative rates and encouraging the financial sector to speculate once again in housing.

The Fed which relies heavily on CPI data is likely to continue on this road given that inflation as measured by this metric is looking rather timid:

cpi

According to the latest data the annual change in inflation is only moving at 1 percent.? But if housing is the biggest line item for Americans and just went up by 10 percent, why is this not reflected in the CPI?? Once again we run into the problem of the CPI using the owners? equivalent of rent (OER) measure.? This measure missed the last housing bubble and is going to miss it once again.

Just to exemplify how poorly a job OER does on measuring price changes in the housing market let us examine annual changes of OER versus those in the Case Shiller Index:

oer and case shiller

As you would expect, rents are fairly stable over time since they reflect the actual ability of someone to pay out of net income.? Yet home values can be manipulated by the Fed by the tweaking of interest rates to make housing payments more affordable yet home prices more expensive.? Or in this case, a flurry of investors from Wall Street buying up rentals.? At the end of the day, you are paying more for less.

Inflation absolutely matters and you need to know where to look to see these changes.? The fact that the Fed is pushing on the housing angle again yet is ignoring the divergence between OER and the Case Shiller is troubling.? The lessons should be clear and housing is the biggest expense for Americans.? They fully understand this and continue to stoke the fires of inflation.

Source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Why_inflation_matters%3A_How_the_Fed_is_creating_real_estate_inflation_and_hiding_behind_inflation_data_to_continue_their_expansionary_ways/26431/0/38/38/Y/M.html

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

New technology makes breast cancer surgery more precise

June 1, 2013 ? Any breast cancer surgeon who regularly performs lumpectomies confronts the question "Did I get it all?" Thirty to 60 percent of the time in the U.S., the answer is "no," requiring the patient to undergo a second surgery to remove the remaining tumor.

Surgeons at UC Irvine Medical Center are the first in the country to use a device that reduces by half the need to reoperate and cut out breast cancer cells missed during an initial lumpectomy. The MarginProbe System lets the surgeon immediately assess whether cancer cells remain on the margins of excised tissue. Currently, patients have to wait days for a pathologist to determine this.

"All of my patients know someone who has had to go back into surgery because their doctor didn't get the entire tumor out," said UC Irvine Health surgical oncologist Dr. Alice Police. "The ability to check tissue in the operating room is a game changer in surgery for early-stage breast cancer."

The goal in a lumpectomy is to completely remove the cancer while preserving as much normal breast tissue as possible. If a pathologist finds cancer cells on the edges of the tissue taken out, surgeons must assume the lumpectomy didn't get the entire tumor.

The Food & Drug Administration approved MarginProbe in December 2012, and UC Irvine Medical Center is the first hospital in the U.S. to employ the system, according to manufacturer Dune Medical Devices.

Police, assistant professor of surgery at UC Irvine and medical director of Pacific Breast Care in Costa Mesa, and Dr. Karen Lane, associate professor of surgery and clinical director of the UC Irvine Health Breast Health Center in Orange, began operating with MarginProbe in early March.

They had participated in an FDA trial that included more than 660 women across the U.S. In the prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-arm study, surgeons applied the device to breast tissue removed during in-progress initial lumpectomies and, if indicated, shaved additional tissue on the spot. This was found to reduce by 56 percent the need for repeat surgeries.

"It will save you a lot of anxiety," said Jane Madigan, a Costa Mesa resident who underwent the procedure with Police as part of the MarginProbe trial. "You will come out of that surgery knowing you are cancer-free."

The system comprises a sterile handheld probe and a portable console. When the probe tip touches an excised lumpectomy specimen, radio-frequency signals are transmitted into the tissue and reflected back to the console, where they are analyzed using a specialized algorithm to determine tissue status.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/L-WrUMEAbOU/130601133929.htm

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