Gay pride parades draw huge crowds after marriage rulings

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dancing, cheering and toting placards, gay rights supporters took to the streets in huge numbers at annual gay pride parades across the United States on Sunday, with attendance boosted by recent Supreme Court rulings in support of same-sex marriage.

Gay pride celebrations were held in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and several other cities by marchers energized by the top court's rulings extending federal benefits to married homosexual couples and striking down a ban on same-sex marriages in California.

In San Francisco, two couples who sued to overturn the California ban led nearly 1 million people in one of the biggest parades in years. Some people carried signs that read "Thank you, Supreme Court!"

The two couples, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, got married on Friday, hours after the ban was lifted.

On Sunday, crowds cheered as they rode through the parade in a baby-blue convertible with rainbow-colored cans dragging from the back of the car. Some in the crowd were dressed in rainbow colors, others wore bridal dresses and tuxedos.

In New York, Edith Windsor, whose lawsuit prompted the Supreme Court decision to grant gay couples federal benefits, was among the grand marshals leading New York's Gay Pride march down Fifth Avenue.

Windsor, 84, recalled her late spouse, Thea Clara Spyer, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, before leading the parade to shouts of "Edie!"

"Thea, in her wheelchair, and I would watch the parade together every year," she said.

The annual gay pride parades mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. A police raid in 1969 on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, set off protests that popularized the slogan "Out of the closet and into the streets." The protests are widely credited with ushering in the modern gay rights movement.

Organizers of the gay parades in several cities said they planned for large turnouts after the Supreme Court issued its rulings on Wednesday.

The rulings came amid rapid progress for advocates of same-sex marriage in recent years in the United States and internationally. Opinion polls show a steady increase in U.S. support for gay marriage.

On Sunday, supporters of gay marriage also cheered news that a U.S. Supreme Court justice rejected a long-shot bid to halt same-sex marriages in California.

Justice Anthony Kennedy denied the request from supporters of the California gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, which state voters approved in 2008. Same-sex marriage opponents asked the high court on Saturday to overrule a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order that lifted an injunction barring same-sex unions.

On the streets of New York, many people heralded the rulings.

"It's awesome," said Howard Tran, a 36-year-old pediatric nurse who attended with his husband and their five-month-old twins.

The San Francisco parade was led by a contingent known as Dykes on Bikes, a lesbian motorcycle club.

Raucous cheers from the crowd also went up for California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris, both heterosexual politicians who have expressed strong support of same-sex marriage.

Newsom waved to the crowd as he rode with his wife and two young children in a white BMW with a rainbow striped hood.

(Additional reporting by Noreen O'Donnell in New York; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-pride-parades-draw-huge-crowds-marriage-rulings-005350280.html

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Senegalese president defends anti-gay law

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? Senegalese President Macky Sall has defended his refusal to decriminalize homosexuality one day after publicly clashing with President Barack Obama on the issue at a joint press conference.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sall said it was important for other countries to refrain from imposing their values beyond their borders. He compared his position on homosexuality to other countries' positions on polygamy, which is widely practiced in Senegal.

"We don't ask the Europeans to be polygamists," Sall said. "We like polygamy in our country, but we can't impose it in yours. Because the people won't understand it, they won't accept it. It's the same thing."

Senegal's penal code calls for prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to $3,000 for committing "an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex."

Despite the law, Sall maintained that gays were not persecuted in Senegal, and were prosecuted only if they violated the law. He also said the population, while opposed to homosexuality, was not actively intolerant.

"I think in Senegal people are very quiet. They are not very violent, even for the homosexuals," he said.

Local activists strongly disagree, pointing out that more than a dozen homosexuals are currently in jail for no other reason than their sexual orientation, with guilty verdicts having been handed down despite a lack of evidence. They also say extortion and other forms of discrimination are rampant.

In February 2008, police rounded up men suspected of being homosexuals after a Senegalese tabloid published photographs of a clandestine gay wedding in a suburb of Dakar. Gays went into hiding or fled to neighboring countries, but they were pushed out of Gambia by the president's threat of decapitation.

A report released this week by Amnesty International says 38 African countries ? about 70 percent of the continent ? criminalize homosexual activity.

In four of those ? Mauritania, northern Nigeria, southern Somalia and Sudan ? the punishment is death.

These laws appear to have broad public support. A June 4 Pew Research Center survey found at least nine of 10 respondents in Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society.

Sall warned that because of these views, public advocacy on behalf of gay rights could prompt a strong negative reaction. "We need to be careful, because in Africa and in certain Muslim societies, these are subjects that can provoke fundamentalism," he said.

In a December 2011 memorandum, Obama instructed federal agencies to promote gay rights overseas, drawing strong protests from some African officials and many of his African fans. But while experts say the U.S. has forcefully pushed for gay rights behind closed doors, the public positioning has been discreet, with officials often citing concerns about putting local activists in danger.

Prior to this week's Africa trip, Obama's second since becoming president, some advocates had pushed for him to vocally advocate for gay rights, saying the respect he commands in much of Africa could help sway public opinion.

At Thursday's press conference in Dakar, Obama said everyone should be equal under the law regardless of cultural differences. "When it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally," he said.

In response, Sall said Senegal was "still not ready" to decriminalize homosexuality. He said the country was "very tolerant" but needed more time to address the issue.

Though Obama's visit was seen as an opportunity to showcase Senegal's stability and history of peaceful democratic transition, the front pages of local newspapers on Friday were dominated by talk of the exchange on homosexuality. The newspaper Liberation, for example, praised Sall for his "courageous" stance and, alongside a photo of Obama and Sall, ran a banner headline that played on Obama's famous campaign slogan: "No, we can't."

Sall said Friday that he was not disappointed that the issue of homosexuality had received so much attention. He said he welcomed the opportunity to contrast his views with Obama's.

"I'm not disappointed, because I'm a democrat and I can understand very well the position of President Obama on this topic," Sall said. "We are friends. We are partners."

Asked Friday if he thought the day might come when gays are accepted in Senegal and throughout Africa, Sall said it was impossible to predict.

"I don't know what will happen in 10 years, because the world changes," he said. "It depends on each culture or each civilization. We have to take time. Because people need time to absorb. It's not something you can have in one day."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senegalese-president-defends-anti-gay-law-165212208.html

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What are your views on keeping native birds as pets? - Talk Budgies ...

General Budgie Talk Chat about general budgie stuff here.

I'm placing this thread in this category because this has to do wit the Normal Light Green Budgies that are native to Australia. Before that, I'd like to state that it's illegal in my country to have wild animals and birds as pets that are native to the country - mainly because we believe that wild animals are meant to survive in the wild. domesticating will cause extinction. Does USA, UK and Australia have similar laws regarding caging of wild birds and animals? For example, Indian ringnecks, the Green wild type is native to our country. If the Forest force finds them in possession of any human, even in the market, they will be fined and jailed. However its mutations are permissible to be kept as pets, as mutations that occur naturally die out because they're cast out from the flock and fall prey to predators faster. Which brings me to the question, is it all right in Australia to house Normal Light Green budgies in human aviaries? It would not have been permitted in my country for the reasons stated above. don;t necessarily agree 100% with our laws because I believe birds that have been bred and raised by humans would face difficulty adapting to the wild if set free after they've become heavily dependant on humans. I'd like some thoughts on this matter.

Uk you can keep native species but they must be close rung with the correct ring for the species. You must keep paperwork on their heritage and if you see them you have to give the new owners a copy of this to price they are captive bred. Any endangered species on the cites articles must also have the relevant paperwork and be close rung. It is illegal to take birds. Chicks. And eggs from the wild. If you have to rear a bird you have found it must be returned to the wild if that isn't possible due to disability etc you have to get a license for it. I have no problem with native birds being kept providing they are captive bred. Most of ours do not make good pets though they are kept in aviaries. If we ban the keeping of native species we have no captive population to fall back on should they become endangered.

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Unless you are a Native American, which my boyfriend loves to rub in my face constantly (he is Navajo), because they have rituals where they need them or something. Anyways, in the US most of the laws are to protect raptors, since many like the Peregrine are endangered. I personally wouldn't really want to keep any of the native birds in my area - they are all finches and sparrows and the like and they probably would not adapt well to captivity. Give me my personable parrots any day! On a side note, the only native parrot to the US would be the Carolina Parakeet, which is sadly extinct. Maybe they can clone it and I can become a rehabilitator hahaha

Posting Rules You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts HTML code is Off

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:04 PM.

Source: http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?t=119425

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Judge: Hobby Lobby won't have to pay fines

Customers are seen at a Hobby Lobby store in Denver on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. A challenge to the federal health care law faces its most prominent test yet in a full 10th Circuit hearing in Denver on Thursday. Hobby Lobby stores is challenging a federal mandate requiring it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morining-after birth control pill. The Oklahoma based arts and crafts chain says the mandate violates the religious beliefs of its owners. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Customers are seen at a Hobby Lobby store in Denver on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. A challenge to the federal health care law faces its most prominent test yet in a full 10th Circuit hearing in Denver on Thursday. Hobby Lobby stores is challenging a federal mandate requiring it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morining-after birth control pill. The Oklahoma based arts and crafts chain says the mandate violates the religious beliefs of its owners. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Hobby Lobby and a sister company will not be subject to $1.3 million in daily fines beginning Monday for failing to provide access to certain forms of birth control through its employees' health care plans, a judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton set a hearing for July 19 to address claims by the owners of Hobby Lobby and the Mardel Christian bookstore chains that their religious beliefs are so deeply rooted that having to provide every form of birth control would violate their conscience.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said Thursday the companies were likely to prevail, comparing the companies to a kosher butcher unwilling to adopt non-kosher practices as part of a government order.

Until the hearing, the government cannot impose fines against Hobby Lobby or Mardel for failing to comply with all of the Affordable Care Act. The companies' owners oppose birth control methods that can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus, such as an intrauterine device or the morning-after pill, but are willing to offer the 16 other forms of birth control mentioned in the federal health care law.

"The opinion makes it very clear what is a valid religious belief and what is not," said Emily Hardman, spokeswoman for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The group is representing the companies and their owners, the Green family.

Heaton asked the government and companies to seek some sort of solution before the hearing, given that the 10th Circuit has already cleared the way for the companies to challenge the law on religious grounds. While not binding beyond the states in the 10th Circuit, Thursday's ruling could benefit others that oppose all forms of birth control, Hardman said, such as Catholic hospitals.

"We got a fantastic opinion from the 10th Circuit, which will impact all the cases," she said.

The companies had faced fines totaling $1.3 million daily beginning Monday. Had they dropped its health care plan altogether, they could have been fined $26 million. The only alternative would be to pay for birth control that violates its religious beliefs, the companies' owners said.

The appeals court on Thursday had suggested the companies shouldn't have to pay the fines, but there were unaddressed questions pending at the lower court. Heaton resolved those Friday in the companies' favor: Hobby Lobby had shown they would suffer financial or spiritual consequences, and that an injunction was in the public interest.

In fighting Hobby Lobby and other companies that oppose some or all forms of birth control, government lawyers had said companies cannot pick which portions of the Affordable Care Act with which they will comply.

Spokesmen for the Department of Health and Human Services have repeatedly declined to comment on pending lawsuits over birth control coverage.

Electronic court filings did not show any response from the government to Hobby Lobby's latest injunction request, but Heaton said in his order that lawyers from both sides had weighed in.

Hobby Lobby's lawyers have said the U.S. Department of Human Services has granted exemptions from portions of the health care law for plans that cover tens of millions of people and that allowing the companies an injunction would be no great burden to the government at the expense of the Greens' religious freedoms.

The companies' lawyers calculated potential losses at $475 million in a year ? $100 per day for 13,000 workers ? while harms to the government are "minimal and temporary."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-28-Hobby%20Lobby-Birth%20Control/id-e17f67f0cf9c42db92380e11bdb9cdcf

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iMore show and ZEN & TECH double double features today! Watch them all here!

We're playing a massive amount of post-[WWDC(http://www.imore.com/wwdc-2013), inter-Talk Moble catchup here this week, and to take it to it's most extreme level, we're not only doing both the iMore show and ZEN & TECH today, but we're doing two episodes of each of them! That's four podcasts back-to-sorta-back today! Here are the details!

• 1pm PDT/4pm EDT/9pm BST: iMore show 353 with Peter Cohen and Daniel Jalkut.
• 5pm PDT/8pm EDT/1am BST: iMore show 354 with Brain Klug
• 6:30pm PDT/9:30pm EDT/2:30am BST: ZEN & TECH double feature with Georgia

We'll post the shows a few days apart so no one's feeds get jammed, but if you want to catch them all now, today, live, be here!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations". Want to subscribe to any or all of our shows? Head on over to our podcast page.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/nfoSxzObS1E/story01.htm

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US consumer spending up 0.3 percent in May

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. consumers spent more in May as their income rose, encouraging signs after a slow start to the year. But spending was weaker in April, February and January than previously estimated.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that consumer spending rose 0.3 percent last month, nearly erasing a similar decline in April. Income rose 0.5 percent.

At the same time, economists said the downward revisions to spending for three of the first four months of the year signal weaker growth in the April-June quarter, which ends this week.

Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said he thinks growth has slowed in the second quarter at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent. That's down from his previous forecast of a 2 percent rate. Economists at Barclays have cut their forecast from an annual rate of 1.8 percent to a sluggish rate of 1.4 percent.

Tepid growth could keep the Federal Reserve from scaling back its bond purchases later this year. Chairman Ben Bernanke spooked investors last week when he said the Fed will likely slow its bond-buying this year if the economy continues to strengthen. But Bernanke added that if the economy weakens, the Fed won't hesitate to delay its pullback or even step up its bond purchases again.

The bond purchases have helped keep interest rates low.

Dales also noted that the inflation gauge the Fed watches most closely has dropped to a record low of 1.1 percent, well below the Fed's 2 percent target. When inflation falls too low, the Fed normally keeps rates low to try to boost prices.

Economists are hopeful that growth will pick up in the second half of the year, and some recent data have been encouraging. Consumers, benefiting from low inflation, spent more at retail businesses in May, notably for cars, home improvements and sporting goods.

U.S. factories are fielding more orders. Higher home sales and prices are signaling a steady housing recovery. And employers added 175,000 jobs last month, in line with the average job growth over the past 12 months.

Steady job growth has lowered the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, down from 10 percent in 2009. And this week the Conference Board said a better job market helped lift Americans' confidence in the economy rose to the highest level in 5? years.

Still, on Wednesday the government downgraded its estimate for growth in the January-March quarter to a 1.8 percent annual rate, sharply below its previous estimate of a 2.4 percent rate. The main reason for the revision was consumer spent less than initially estimated. Some economists said the revision suggested that an increase in Social Security taxes this year was squeezing consumers more than expected.

The tax increase has lowered take-home pay for most Americans. A person earning $50,000 a year has about $1,000 less to spend this year. A high-earning couple has up to $4,500 less to spend.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-27-Consumer%20Spending/id-4bef0c9dcb1644ebb75ffbc46bfb8537

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Japan factory output up 2 pct, CPI stops falling

TOKYO (AP) ? Japan got a dose of upbeat economic news Friday when the government said industrial production rose 2 percent in May from April, the fourth straight monthly increase, while the most-watched consumer price index stopped falling for the first time in seven months.

For years, Japan has been dogged by deflation, or falling prices, which can drag on economic growth, and the Bank of Japan has set a goal of 2 percent inflation within the next two years.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meanwhile, has embarked on an ambitious economic revival program since taking office six months ago through massive monetary easing, public works projects and structural reforms ? dubbed the "three arrows" of "Abenomics."

Data released by the government showed that the nationwide consumer price index minus fresh foods, which can be volatile, was unchanged from a year earlier after being in negative territory for six months. The last time it was zero percent was last October.

And the core CPI figure for June in Tokyo ? often used as a predictor for the nation ? rose 0.2 percent.

Investors bid up the Japan's benchmark stock index by more than 50 percent between the end of last year and May amid hopes for a revival, and the economy grew a stronger-than-expected 4.1 percent in annual terms in first quarter.

But share prices have fallen back over the past month amid concerns about the effectiveness of Abe's reform plans, a feeling that prices rose too high too fast, and concerns over the possible scaling back of the U.S. Federal Reserve's quantitative easing as the American economy improves.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped more than 3 percent by midday Friday, but those gains seemed more linked to a diminishing of concerns about the Fed's policies and a weaker yen, which was trading at about 98.7 yen to the dollar.

In another bit of other good news, the government said the jobless rate remained at 4.1 percent in May for a third month.

The outlook for Japan's vital manufacturing sector is a bit choppy. Despite the month-on-month gain, industrial production fell 1 percent compared with a year earlier. Manufacturers are projecting a 2.4 percent drop in June, followed by a 3.3 percent rebound in July, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

The report said shipments rose 0.8 percent from the previous month, while inventories fell 0.3 percent, an indication of increased economic activity.

Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities Ltd., said she is optimistic that Japan's economy will continue to improve in the coming months.

"Domestic consumer demand is following the growth in industry production," she said. "I think it's the result of a promising economic push."

Nishioka said preliminary indications suggest the CPI will rise 0.4 percent in June. She said that the yen's depreciation, which boosts profits at Japan's giant exporters such as Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., should help to buoy the economy.

"In 2012, the CPI didn't stay up because the overall economy was looking down," she said. "I think what's different this time is that the depreciation of the yen looks strong. If that continues, the rest of the economy will follow."

Abe has said reviving the economy is his top policy goal, and trumpeted his economic accomplishments over the first six months of his administration on Wednesday.

"Just as we were losing hope that we may never get our economy to grow back, we regained some confidence and think that perhaps Japan can play an active role in the center of the world once again," Abe said.

He also said a strong economy is key to assertive diplomacy. "A country that has lost economic power cannot demonstrate strength in diplomacy," he said.

__

Associated Press Writer Azusa Uchikura contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-factory-output-2-pct-cpi-stops-falling-050247316.html

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Simple two-drug combination proves effective in reducing risk of stroke

June 26, 2013 ? Results of a Phase III clinical trial showed that a simple drug regimen of two anti-clotting drugs -- clopidogrel and aspirin -- lowered the risk of stroke by almost one-third, compared to the standard therapy of aspirin alone, when given to patients who had minor or transient stroke symptoms to prevent subsequent attacks.

Described this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 4, 2013 print issue), the clinical trial was conducted at multiple sites in China and designed in partnership with a physician at UC San Francisco.

The trial involved 5,170 people who were hospitalized after suffering minor ischemic strokes or stroke-like events known as transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs, in which blood flow to the brain is briefly blocked. All patients were randomized into two groups and treated for three months with either aspirin alone or aspirin plus clopidogrel, which is marketed as Plavix. The three-month period following stroke is considered the most critical for medical intervention.

Overall, 8.2 percent of patients taking both drugs suffered subsequent strokes in the three months of follow-up compared to 11.7 percent of patients taking aspirin alone.

"The results were striking," said S. Claiborne Johnston, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology and associate vice chancellor of research at UCSF who was a senior author on the study.

The Chinese trial, called CHANCE (Clopidogrel in High-risk Patients with Acute Non-disabling Cerebrovascular Events), is nearly identical to a National Institutes of Health-sponsored trial that is already enrolling patients in the United States, including at UCSF, called POINT (Platelet-Oriented Inhibition in New TIA and Minor Ischemic Stroke).

"If POINT confirms CHANCE, then we're done -- the two-drug combination becomes the standard of care," said Johnston. "Anybody with a transient ischemic attack or minor stroke will get clopidogrel plus aspirin."

The POINT trial is important, said Johnston, because genetics, risk factors, and medical practice differences could all lead to differences in trial results in China compared to other countries. Johnston is the principal investigator of the POINT trial.

Stroke in China and the United States

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

More than 795,000 people in the United States have strokes every year, and, in 2008 alone, some 133,000 cases were fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 300,000 people in the United States have TIAs each year.

Many strokes are minor -- shorter in duration than a full-blown stroke and usually have no lingering health impacts. In China, for instance, about 3 million new strokes occur every year, and about 30 percent of them are minor.

The protocol for the CHANCE trial was developed by Johnston and colleagues at Tiantan Hospital in China. The lead author of the study was Yongjun Wang, MD, of Beijing Tiantan Hospital.

China has many times more people who have strokes every year than the United States because of the size of the population and higher stroke rates, which allowed investigators to screen 41,561 patients in just three years at the 114 clinical sites, and enroll 5,170 patients in the trial.

Increased Risk of Subsequent Stroke

The reason for minor attacks is much the same as a full-blown stroke: a blood clot causes a blockage in the blood vessels that feed oxygen-rich blood to the brain. But in patients with TIAs and many minor strokes, the clot quickly goes away, usually in a few minutes, due to the natural mechanisms in the human body that are designed to deal with such clots.

However, in the weeks following a TIA or minor stroke, there is great risk that another clot will form, causing additional strokes -- potentially major ones. About 10 to 20 percent of people who have a TIA or minor stroke go on to have a subsequent stroke within three months.

Because of this risk, the first 90 days after a stroke or TIA is the most critical window for medical intervention. Currently, people who have minor strokes or TIAs are initially treated with aspirin alone. The purpose of the CHANCE trial was to determine whether clopidogrel with aspirin was more effective than aspirin alone in this intervention.

The drugs basically work the same way. They are "antiplatelet" agents, which target clotting agents found in the bloodstream know as platelets, preventing their aggregation. The combination is used commonly in patients who have heart attacks, but there has been no adequate clinical data to suggest it would work in stroke.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/df9E4AC9RSc/130626184021.htm

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Will.i.am says Pharrell's trademark is too similar

NEW YORK (AP) ? Will.i.am says a trademark Pharrell's company tried to register is too similar to his "I AM" trademark.

Will.i.am has owned the "I AM" trademark since 2001. He filed oppositions in March and May against Pharrell's company, i am OTHER. It launched in 2010.

In a statement Thursday, will.i.am's attorney Ken Hertz says trademark lawyers for will.i.am and Pharrell "discussed the matter for several months." He says because of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's deadlines, will.i.am "had no choice but to lodge his objection at the time he did."

Hertz says the lawyers for the musicians first spoke in December.

Pharrell says in a statement he's "disappointed" and "surprised" by will.i.am's opposition.

Will.i.am uses "I AM" for a number of his businesses, including his charity foundation I AM ANGEL.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/am-says-pharrells-trademark-too-similar-180120947.html

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Two Early Visionaries Among 2013 Internet Hall of Fame Inductees

Yesterday, the Internet Society announced this year's inductees to the Internet Hall of Fame. You'll notice popular names like Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia; Richard Stallman, the activist who launched the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation; and Aaron Swartz, the programmer and activist who tragically killed himself this past January.

But readers of this blog may also recognize two other internet legends among the list of the Hall of Fame's 32 new people: Robert Taylor and J.C.R. Licklider. That's because Taylor and Licklider wrote an incredibly forward-thinking 1968 paper on the future of networked computing that we looked at just last month. Their paper imagined quite presciently how computers might one day allow for humans to feel more connected across great distances. And it remains one of my favorite pre-internet artifacts predicting the meteoric rise of networked machines.

Curiously, some people are wondering why Mark Zuckerberg or Peter Thiel or Myspace Tom haven't yet been admitted to the Internet Hall of Fame. Which to me feels a bit like asking why 3 Doors Down hasn't been admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, sure, maybe they'll get there one day. Or maybe no one will remember who they are 10 years from now.

This year's induction ceremony will be held in Berlin on August 3rd. The ceremony was originally planned for Istanbul, but the location changed last week due to recent protests in the city and what the Internet Society described as an "unpredictable environment." You can watch a livestream of the event on August 3, 2013.

Photo: Aaron Swartz in Washington, D.C. in 2012 by Peter Partensky (Creative Commons)

Source: http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/two-early-visionaries-among-2013-internet-hall-of-fame-596588164

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Cool Biz stress

By Ken Y-N ( June 26, 2013 at 01:02) ? Filed under Business, Polls, Society

Advertisement

With the Japanese summer comes Cool Biz (and Ultra Cool Biz), an energy-saving initiative where everyone is encouraged to turn their air conditioning to 28 degrees and wear lighter and more casual clothes in the office. Shiseido, a cosmetics company, conducted a survey into awareness of smells in the workplace to see, amongst other things, if sweat was a source of stress.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of March 2013, 1,248 business persons living in Tokyo and Osaka and their surrounding areas were interviewed. The ages ranged from 20 to 59 years old, but no further information was provided.

I probably sweat the most in the office; my problem with commuting is usually far too cold a carriage!

This year I?m trying out Uniqlo?s AIRism underneath my work shirts. So far they feel great, and they stop my back sweat soaking into my shirt, but I?ll wait until it gets a lot hotter before delivering my final verdict. Its odour neutralising properties, however, are no match for my underarms!

Research results

Q1: What stresses do you feel regarding Cool Biz? (Sample size=1,248, multiple answer)

Worry about the smell of my own sweat	44.8%
Feeling all sticky with sweat	42.3%
Cannot concentrate in the heat	38.9%
Get irritable in the heat	32.3%
Worry about sweat stains	31.3%
Bothered by the smell of other people?s sweat	25.5%
Dark office	11.8%
I look all dishevelled	7.9%
Don?t know what to wear	7.9%
Other	1.0%
Don?t feel any particular stress	26.2%

Q2: Do you worrk about smells in business-related situations more than in causal ones? (Sample size=1,248)

Very much so	13.9%
Yes	50.0%
No	30.7%
Not at all	5.4%

Q3: During a summer day, at what point do you sweat the most? (Sample size=1,248)

Commuting	55.0%
In the office	18.6%
On returning home	10.2%
After 5 pm	6.5%
On waking	6.3%
After returning home	2.7%
Other	1.0%

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Weight loss's effect on heart disease risks

June 25, 2013 ? A landmark study investigating the long-term effects of weight loss on the risks of cardiovascular disease among patients with Type 2 diabetes has now concluded, with significant results to be published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Conducted at the University of Pittsburgh and at clinical facilities throughout the United States, the multicenter clinical trial investigated the effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention program, intended to achieve and maintain weight loss in overweight or obese people with Type 2 diabetes, on rates of cardiovascular disease. Begun in 2001, the trial enrolled more than 5,000 people at 16 clinical centers across the United States and is the longest intervention study of its type ever undertaken for patients with diabetes.

John Jakicic, chair and professor in the Department of Health and Physical Activity in Pitt's School of Education and Director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center, served as principal investigator for the University of Pittsburgh's role in the study. He, along with colleagues throughout the University, is among the researchers comprising the national Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) Research Group, which carried out the study and authored the New England Journal of Medicine paper.

Among the study's main findings is that weight loss among members of the study's Intensive Lifestyle Intervention group, provided with a program of weight management and increased physical activity, resulted in no difference in heart attacks and strokes when compared with the study's control group, the Diabetes Support and Education group, which was provided with only general health information and social support.

The effect of the intervention program on weight loss, however, was significant: Participants in the intervention group lost 8.7 percent of their initial body weight after one year of the study versus 0.7 percent among the control group's members; the intervention group also maintained a greater weight loss, 6 percent of their initial weight, versus 3.5 percent for the control group, at the study's conclusion.

The Look AHEAD study is the first to achieve such sustained weight loss. A weight loss of 5 percent or more in short-term studies is considered to be clinically significant and has been shown to improve control of blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and other risk factors. Comparable weight loss can also help prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes in overweight and obese adults.

"While the findings from the Look AHEAD study did not support that engagement in a weight- loss intervention was effective for reducing the onset of cardiovascular disease incidence or mortality, this does not mean that overweight adults with diabetes should not lose weight and become more physically active," said Jakicic. "Rather, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence from this study to date that has shown that weight loss and physical activity were associated with numerous other health benefits.

"These include improving physical function and quality of life, reduction in risk factors such as lipids and blood pressure with less reliance on medication, better diabetes control with less reliance on medication, improved sleep, psychological and emotional health benefits, and many others," Jakicic said. "Thus, adults with diabetes can begin to realize many of these health benefits with even modest reductions in body weight and modest increases in physical activity."

The study sought to determine whether weight loss achieved with a lifestyle program would help individuals with diabetes live longer and develop less cardiovascular disease. While short-term studies had shown that weight loss improved control of blood sugar and mitigated risk factors for heart disease and stroke in overweight and obese individuals with Type 2 diabetes, the longer-term effects of weight loss were not well studied. In particular, it was unknown whether weight loss achieved with a lifestyle intervention alone could reduce the risk of heart disease in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes, affecting approximately 25 million Americans over the age of 20. Complications of Type 2 diabetes include heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, the nervous system disease known as neuropathy, and amputations. The total cost of Type 2 diabetes in 2012 was estimated to be $245 billion. This disease, for which there is no cure but which involves ongoing treatment, can be managed with diet, physical activity including regular exercise equal to at least 30 minutes of brisk walking each day, modest weight loss, and a variety of medications. The Look AHEAD study has shown that these lifestyle factors are effective for improving the management of Type 2 diabetes.

Study participants were individuals between 45 and 75 years of age with Type 2 diabetes and a body-mass index of 25 or greater. Sixty percent of the study participants were women, while 37 percent were from ethnic and racial minority groups.

The University of Pittsburgh's General Clinical Research Center and Clinical Translational Research Center served as participating clinical sites, with researchers here recruiting more than 330 participants over a three-year span. Jakicic credited the Division of Endocrinology within the Department of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry in Pitt's School of Medicine, and the Department of Epidemiology in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health, with the success of the local clinical trials.

Participants were assigned randomly to the Intensive Lifestyle Intervention group or the Diabetes Support and Education group. Members of the Intensive Lifestyle Intervention group were enrolled in a weight management program that provided individual and group support for making changes in eating behaviors and engaging in physical activity. The intervention program focused on home-based, functional activities including helping participants balance, climb stairs, and get out of a chair, among other examples. Diabetes Support and Education group members received what Jakicic called "usual care, with some very infrequent support on general health topics that were not related to diet, physical activity, or weight loss."

Participants were required to have their own health care providers manage their diabetes and other conditions. Look AHEAD did not provide medical care, but it did assist participants in finding a health care provider if they did not have one.

The Look AHEAD study was intended to run for 13.5 years, the maximum length of time researchers had determined might be required to see a difference in heart disease between two groups. After 11 years, however, the Look AHEAD Data and Safety Monitoring Board, an independent monitoring board that provides recommendations to the National Institutes of Health, reviewed the data the study had collected and determined that Look AHEAD could reach the definite conclusion that there were no differences in cardiovascular disease rates between the study's two groups.

Speculating on the failure of weight loss to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, researchers suggested that even greater weight loss may be necessary to reduce cardiovascular risk in diabetes patients who are overweight or obese. They also suggested that by providing participants in both groups, and their health care providers, with annual feedback on the participants' blood pressure, lipids, and blood sugar control, the cardiovascular disease risks for all experiment participants may have been reduced at a comparable rate.

The paper is titled "Cardiovascular Effects of Intensive Lifestyle Intervention in Type 2 Diabetes." It appeared online in the New England Journal of Medicine today, June 24, 2013. Research conducted at the University of Pittsburgh's General Clinical Research Center and Clinical Translational Research Center was funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award and a National Institutes of Health grant.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/glhgqGmNABs/130625074205.htm

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5 Things iOS 7 Tells Us About Your Next iPhone and iPad

One of the wonderful things about getting your first iPhone was the sheer self-sufficient simplicity of the thing?here was a device that served as a map, mp3 player, notebook, phone, and anything else you might need, all crunched into a beautiful little package. But if this year's WWDC was any indication, that era of autonomous Apple devices is nearing an end.

A lot has already been said about the graphic design changes made by Jony Ive in iOS 7, from the app icons, to the colors, to the typography itself. But there are plenty of other things to be gleaned from this new iOS. Underneath the cosmetic changes?which look far more radical than they act?we can see the faint outline of a foundation being laid for a new generation of mobile devices.

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A User Interface With a Physics Engine

Parallax looks cool and all, but it?s also just a taste of what?s to come from iOS 7?s cryptically named dynamic motion controls, in the UIKit. Connecting animated UI elements with the accelerometer transforms them into nearly real-world objects, which respond to the gestures and movements of the user.

According to Matt Webb, the founder of London UX studio Berg, we?re seeing the emergence of a UI hybridized with a physics engine. ?As flat as the visual design of iOS 7 is, this is where Apple's skeuomorphs have gone: Into the behavior of the UI itself,? he said over email. ?There's a whole new design language here, just waiting to be discovered.?

Once developers start to unpack and explore this new language, we'll begin to see all of the ways in which this physics-based UI can be utilized. Some have called parallax a gimmick, but it's really more of an appetizer for the many ways the accelerometer could make the iOS interface adaptable to the world around it. Imagine if your phone knew to switch into a simplified mode when you're on your bike, or in the car. Or if you could shake away notifications. Or if on-screen objects reacted to light, motion, and touch the same way off-screen objects do.

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Image via.

Color and Customization

Most of us reached our functional limit for iOS 7 criticisms sometime last week, but there are a few interesting tidbits that may tell us something about the future iPhone 5S or 6. As Philippe Azimzadeh has pointed out, plenty of the new UI details deal with color. For example, certain graphic elements will change according to the color of the background behind it. Even the apps themselves have been given their own distinct ?mood? colors.

Image by Martin Hajek

All of this hints at the introduction of multi-colored iPhone or iPad bodies, which users could customize their iOS skin to complement. Down the line, the UI color scheme and hardware color schemes might be completely interchangeable. In fact, it seems as though Apple is attempting to make every UI element on the homescreen ?disappear,? by presenting the control center text over a semi-transparent lens, and by unifying the color scheme between navigation and status bar. Only apps themselves will have a consistent palette.

Apple is built upon a very specific design ethos: each product has its own definite hard- and software language and appearance. But personalization may be the future.

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New Sensors, New Interactions

There's been plenty of speculation that the forthcoming iPhone 5s (or 6) will likely incorporate new sensors. Those could include a fingerprint sensor, which would tailor the iOS interface to users based on biological data, or an altitude sensor, which would increase the precision of location-based services and apps. The future iPhone UI could adapt your security settings based on your location?either at home, work, or out in public.

Nick Bilton hinted at this a while back when he interviewed a sensor engineer for The New York Times. "One way to [increase security and privacy on mobile phones with sensors] is to build software that detects how you hold and interact with the device?almost like a motion fingerprint," he wrote. "After you use a new phone for a short period of time, it will start to learn your patterns and automatically lock or unlock the phone accordingly. This could be used for more secure banking too."

We may be about to see that prediction come true. The swipe-anywhere unlock gesture in iOS 7 could be a step towards introducing fingerprint-based security, for example. And the newfound adaptability of the UI?using the accelerometer?paves the way for developers to incorporate other sensor data into UI behaviors, including security based on location.

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The iPhone as Digital Brain

From Greek gods to modern computers, humans tend to mold their inventions in their own image. Mobile devices are no different: Traditionally they encase a series of systems in a single shell. But that?s quickly changing, since there?s no reason that hardware peripherals need to be sandwiched within the same device. At WWDC, we got a taste of how Apple is opening up iOS to pull data from new hardware platforms?for example, the new iOS 7 car app, which will connect your phone to your in-car dash.

Industrial designer and Gizmodo contributor Don Lehman describes these as ?hardware apps,? and explains that this could be where Apple delves into smart watch territory, if they do at all. ?One of the biggest points of design for smart watches is battery consumption the more capabilities you add to a device, the more power it consumes,? he says. ?But if the device acted as a peripheral to the smartphone, it could offload some of those also allows you to keep cost and size down.?

We?re already beginning to see the emergence of a UI that would support a series of peripherals. On the iOS 7 pull-down control center, for example, we?re given a quick read of what?s up in terms of weather, iCal, and other disparate apps. That functionality could carry over to display info from hardware platforms.

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Building a ?Connective Tissue? Between Devices

We can?t talk about hardware apps without talking about what?s linking all these peripherals to our phones. ?Just like Apple's ?Digital Hub? strategy from the last decade," says Webb, "they're putting the pieces in place to become the ?Internet of Things? hub too." iOS 7 will support AirDrop, finally enabling iOS users to exchange files between devices without Wi-Fi. On the AirPlay side of things, 9to5 Mac reports that Apple is also planning to open up AirPlay Audio to developers, allowing them to leverage audio on any hardware platform, rather than just certain types of audio devices.

One of the less-discussed features unveiled at WWDC this year was something called the Apple Notification Center Service, which will allow your phone to push notifications to any other Bluetooth-enabled hardware. The ANCS is what will allow your phone to push iCal notifications directly to, say, a Bluetooth-enabled smart watch, or headphones, or wireless speakers. That sounds fairly small, but according to Webb, the ANCS is an early indication that Apple is laying the groundwork for a network of smart devices that are in constant contact.

All of these newly connected devices will need a central iOS 7 command center, too. Days before WWDC even happened, Webb speculated that Apple will eventually introduce an app to collect all of the hardware peripherals in iOS. He named this imaginary feature ?Nightstand,? (analogous to Newstand) and described it as a ?virtual table for physical things.? It?s easy to imagine iOS 7?s new control center fulfilling this function, too. Meanwhile, a combination of AirDrop, AirPlay, and Bluetooth will work together to form a ?connective tissue of a peripheral ecosystem around smartphones, just as USB was for peripherals around the PC.?

Of course, speculation is just that: speculation. But in many ways, WWDC was the opening salvo to an entirely new kind of Apple product ecology?one that is far more flexible and immersive than anything we?ve seen before. Future iPhones and iPads won?t be phones so much as brains, acting as central processors that suck data from dozens of sensors and hardware apps, communicating through an interface that adapts to the world around it.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5-things-ios-7-tells-us-about-your-next-iphone-and-ipad-520148679

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Ecuador confirms Snowden seeking asylum there

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? Ecuador's foreign minister said Monday his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, wanted for revealing classified U.S. secrets.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he could not comment on Snowden's location after the U.S. fugitive did not board a flight from Moscow to Cuba on which he was booked.

"I cannot give information with respect to that ... we cannot offer specific information about the specific situation of Mr. Snowden at this moment," he said.

Patino did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide on Snowden's asylum request, which he said "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world."

Snowden had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after revealing the spy programs. He flew to Moscow on Sunday and was booked on an Aeroflot flight to Cuba on Monday, but an airline representative said he didn't board the plane and AP reporters on the flight couldn't see him.

Patino said Ecuador was in touch with the highest authorities of Russia about the case.

"The government of Ecuador has maintained a respectful diplomatic contact with the government of Russia and has informed it that Ecuador is considering the petition for asylum on the part of Mr. Snowden," he said.

Patino read a letter from Snowden to Ecuador's president in which he asked for asylum "due to the risk of persecution by the government of the United States and its agents."

Snowden said in the letter that he revealed the information about the highly classified spy programs because the U.S. "is intercepting the majority of communications of the world."

"I have been accused of being a traitor" and "there have been calls for me to be executed or imprisoned," the letter said. He said it was unlikely that he could receive a fair trial.

Patino said Ecuador would not base its asylum decision on its potential to damage the country's relationship with the United States.

"There are some governments that act more upon their own interests, but we do not," Patino said. "We act upon our principles."

He added, "We take care of the human rights of the people."

Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks earlier said Snowden was bound for Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks." The organization's founder, Julian Assange, was granted asylum by Ecuador last year and has been staying at the country's embassy in the United Kingdom to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-confirms-snowden-seeking-asylum-135822013.html

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