Cond? Nast Opens Vogue Cafe in Dubai, Continuing Brand ...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ??Cond? Nast International continued the expansion of its?non-publishing businesses,?yesterday, opening a second Vogue Caf?, situated in The Dubai Mall, in partnership with Inspired Brands.

In recent years, the company has stepped up its efforts to extend its most famous magazine brands ? powerful lifestyle signifiers ? into a number of non-publishing businesses, following a dip in advertising revenue experienced during the Great Recession and in response to the promising profitability of its current hospitality ventures.

Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of Cond? Nast International, told BoF in April: ?These businesses are already having a significant impact, the restaurant business which began in earnest two years ago, outperforms many countries where we publish magazines.?

Dubai?s Vogue Caf? joins Cond? Nast International?s existing hospitality ventures, including a Vogue Caf? and GQ Bar in Moscow, where there is also a Tatler club, and a second GQ Bar in Istanbul. A Vogue Club is set to open in Singapore in June.

Stuart Nielsen, director of restaurants at Cond? Nast International, told press at yesterday?s event, ?We will soon be announcing further expansion plans in the UAE.? In the past Nielsen has identified??the Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin American markets? as key to the company?s plans.

Read more about Cond? Nast International?s brand extensions:

Drinks at GQ

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/05/conde-nast-opens-vogue-cafe-in-dubai-continuing-brand-extensions.html

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The Cruz Missile

Sen. Ted Cruz is new to the Senate, and he seems in no hurry to make friends.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Sen. Ted Cruz doesn?t have as many friends as he says he does. In the latest round of ?Cruz?s simmering debate with Sen. John McCain (who labeled Cruz a "wacko bird"), Cruz spoke of "my friend, the senior senator from Arizona" while painting him as out of touch with his party and country. It usually takes a while for senators to learn how to weaponize compliments and imprecations of friendship, but Cruz is a quick study. After a patient attack on McCain's understanding of history, Cruz said: "I know my friend from Arizona is well aware of that because he is such an esteemed historian of this body." Like use of the word "frankly," which in Washington means just the opposite, Cruz?s sentence is best read in reverse: McCain is neither a friend, esteemed, nor a historian. (He is still, however, from Arizona.)

Do you need friends in the Senate anymore? Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah are testing this theory in new ways. The power of Tea Party activists in Republican politics, the public?s low esteem for Congress, and structural changes in the Senate like the elimination of earmarks and the weakening of appropriations power have created more incentives for senators to get by without a little help from their friends.

Cruz has had a series of run-ins with his colleagues since being sworn in only four months ago. He battled Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein over gun control, his Senate Republican colleagues over a threat to filibuster gun legislation; and most recently he tangled with McCain and Republican Sen. Susan Collins over budget procedure. He wears the dustups as a badge of honor. "Count me a proud wacko bird," he told an approving audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference, referring to McCain?s jab.

There was a time when a new senator could not have survived such a controversial start. "The making of a good senator is in some ways similar to the making of a good work of art," William White wrote in 1956 in Citadel: The Story of the U.S. Senate. "There are few shortcuts." Lyndon Johnson gave a copy of the book to freshman senators. It advised that a career rested "upon what is slowly developing and enduring ... rather than what is quick and spectacular. Eminence may be reached by a concentration on frenetic and untypical senatorial activity, but it will never be sustained in that way."

Ted Cruz didn?t read that book, and even if he did, he?s decided to write his own. Though his colleagues have suggested he tone down his hard charging approach, he continues to engage with verve on multiple fronts.

White?s description of the Senate described the institution before an ambitious John F. Kennedy vaulted to the presidency after serving only one term, beating out Senate lion Lyndon Johnson and other Senate veterans for his party?s nomination. A politician no longer had to build up a Senate career to make a national name. Sen. Barack Obama marked the final evolution of this theory. Sen. Ted Kennedy advised him to run soon lest he get too weighed down with associations to the Senate. Now Sens. Marco Rubio, Paul, and Cruz see the Senate cloak room as the waiting room to the Oval Office.

Cruz's constituents at home like his brand of truth telling. They sent him to Washington to ruffle feathers. He is seen as a patriot fighting for the right cause. Fans delight in his rhetorical flourishes, like his recent comparison of Senate debate to the argument among warring factions in Gulliver?s Travels over which end of the boiled egg to crack first before eating.

To join a club and immediately use it as a foil is seen as bad manners by Senate veterans. To portray your colleagues as sniveling weasels is seen as bad form. And, as one longtime Senate aide pointed out, it?s also probably worth pausing before telling John McCain you?re the one fighting for liberty when McCain actually did.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=36277a82ea34d9a13f8281f451a8214b

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Cannes crime: 2nd jewel theft during film festival

PARIS (AP) ? Thieves outsmarted 80 security guards in an exclusive French Riviera hotel and made off with a necklace that creators say is worth a staggering 2 million euros ($2.6 million) ? in the second such jewelry heist during this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The De Grisogono jewelry house said Thursday that the necklace was stolen after a party for festival attendees at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Tuesday night. In a statement, it said the theft occurred "despite the large security measures set in place: over 80 security guards plus police."

A police official said Thursday that the "high value" necklace was stolen overnight from the luxurious resort town of Cap d'Antibes. She gave no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record about an ongoing investigation.

Cap d'Antibes is just down the coast from Cannes and even more exclusive. Its Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc often plays host to events during the festival, including Tuesday night's party, which included stars such as Sharon Stone, Ornella Mutti and others. The hotel is hosting another party Thursday night.

De Grisogono director Fawaz Gruosi said in the statement, "it is actually the first time it has happened in our 20-year history."

Last week, thieves stole about $1 million worth of jewels after ripping a safe from the wall of a hotel room in Cannes. The jewelry was taken from the Novotel room of an employee of Chopard, the Swiss-based watch and jewelry maker that has loaned bling to A-list stars walking the red carpet at the film festival.

___

Angela Charlton contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-crime-2nd-jewel-theft-during-film-festival-180059022.html

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Los Angeles voters approve limiting medical marijuana shops

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles, which has more storefront medical marijuana shops than any other U.S. city, will close hundreds of the dispensaries and hike taxes on those that will be allowed to remain under a ballot measure approved by a wide margin of voters.

Nearly 63 percent of voters supported Proposition D, which will cap the number of medical pot dispensaries at 135, compared with 37 percent opposed, according to preliminary results released on Wednesday, the day after the vote.

Two rival measures that also would have placed new restrictions on the city's medical marijuana industry were defeated by wide margins.

At least 850 storefront medical cannabis shops are estimated to be operating in Los Angeles, the country's second-largest city, and some residents have complained that the dispensaries are a blight on their neighborhoods.

"We've had a great amount of difficulty over the past few years on how to come up with a consensus for handling medical marijuana. This is the perfect solution," said City Councilman Paul Koretz, who worked to get Proposition D on the ballot.

The dispensaries that will be allowed to remain were in operation before city leaders approved a moratorium in September 2007 in a failed effort to prevent the arrival of new store fronts selling marijuana as medicine.

In the years following passage of that limit, hundreds of dispensaries opened amid lax enforcement and a successful challenge by pot activists in state court.

David Welch, an attorney for Angelenos for Safe Access, a group that had spearheaded one of the failed measures, said he would file a lawsuit challenging Proposition D on behalf of dispensaries that would not qualify under the new rules.

California was the first of 18 states to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes. But pot remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law, and a number of dispensaries in Los Angeles and elsewhere have been raided or forced to shut down by federal authorities.

Despite the prospect of greater city controls, campaign officials said many medical marijuana dispensaries joined the push for local regulation in an effort to gain legitimacy and stave off a potential federal crackdown.

COMMUNITY OUTCRY

Under the measure, which is due to go into effect in about 30 days, taxes on medicinal pot will be increased to $60 per $1,000 in gross sales, from the current rate of $50 per $1,000 in gross sales.

The city will send letters to all known dispensaries advising them to comply with the measure, which in some cases involves paying back taxes, said Jane Usher, special assistant city attorney for Los Angeles.

The city will seek court orders to force the closure of dispensaries that do not qualify to remain open and will not voluntarily shut down, she said.

The City Council put Proposition D on the ballot after a union and allied dispensaries gained enough signatures to place a similar measure before voters that would have capped the number of dispensaries at 135 but would not have hiked the tax.

The union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, which supports Proposition D, has sought to expand its reach into the legal marijuana industry by organizing dispensary workers. Many of the shops permitted to stay in business under the measure already have union ties, according to the UFCW.

Rigo Valdez, director of organizing for the UFCW, said the push to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the city reflects "a community outcry" over their proliferation.

"I think that if the city attorney and the city of L.A. says, 'We've got this,' that the federal government stays out" of enforcement in Los Angeles, he said.

In a sign of the loose rules that have governed medical marijuana outlets in Los Angeles, local officials said they were unsure of precisely how many store fronts exist. Officials estimate that between 850 to 1,700 dispensaries exist in the city, Koretz said.

The passage of the measure came just over two weeks after the California Supreme Court ruled that local governments in the state have the power to ban medical pot dispensaries.

"The good news is that we have quite a body of case law supporting the city's new measure," Usher said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-voters-ok-move-curtail-medical-marijuana-105425960.html

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College costs could go up, thanks to Washington

President Barack Obama straightens his tie before he receives an honorary doctorate of law at the Morehouse College??For a talented, creative few, there?s David Letterman. For most, there?s a labyrinth of paperwork, hard decisions and painful sacrifices that could have dramatic repercussions on their financial health decades from now.

Paying for college in America is hard. And a fight may be brewing in Washington that could leave college grads paying more?maybe a lot more.

Where does Letterman come in? The late-night comic endowed a scholarship at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. The Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship?grades don?t count, but proven creativity does?has helped 84 students since the 1985-86 school year, for a total of $448,048.

But when scholarships and grants?outright gifts either from the government or private institutions and individuals?fall short of covering escalating costs, American students turn to student loans. What?s going to happen? What?s President Obama doing about all of this? How did the federal government get involved in financing higher education in the first place? And is college worth it?

First, the history.

"The federal government really didn't get involved in financial aid until the New Deal,? according to Christopher Loss, a Vanderbilt University professor and the author of ?Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century." That's when it launched a work-study program that helped about 700,000 students pay for school by taking jobs like reshelving books and working in the dining halls or the labs.

Congress launched the program in 1933 and discontinued it in 1943 amid evidence the economy was growing enough that cash-strapped students could find part-time jobs, Loss told Yahoo News. It's largely forgotten today in part because it was succeeded, in 1944, by the GI Bill.

"The surprising thing was really the extent and the munificence of the GI Bill. It covered education, unemployment insurance, home and business mortgages," Loss explained. The program helped almost half of the country's 16 million veterans go to school, 2.2 million of whom did so at a college or university. "It frankly has never been equaled," the professor said.

The next major step was the National Defense Education Act of 1958?partly a product of Cold War concerns, notably due to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

The law "got the federal government involved in the student loan business, providing qualified colleges and universities with funds for that purpose," Loss said.

The Higher Education Act of 1965, part of then-President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, "really married together these three kinds of instruments that had been tried and tested: grants, loans, and work-study," Loss said. "It's still the cornerstone of federal financial aid policy."

Government-provided student loans are hugely popular with the public, with the business sector that craves an educated workforce, and with many policymakers who regard them as an investment. Still, in the Republican primaries leading up to the 2012 presidential campaign, candidates like Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Gov. Rick Perry wanted to abolish the Education Department, which has had sole oversight over federal student loans since 2010.

Has the federal role in financial aid ever come under serious attack? Not in the way that it has in the last few years, Loss said.

"For years, loans have been the main source of aid for many students, and now that the economy has been bad?and the payoff of a degree less immediate?new questions are being asked," he said.

In an economic downturn, Loss said, "The debate changes, and you hear more about affordability?and pretty justified concerns about the ticket price and what students are getting from some of these institutions."

Now, the current fight: On July 1, the interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans will jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. For the estimated 9 million borrowers, that?s about $1,000 more to pay over the life of the loan. It doesn?t sound like much, but experts say that could force some families and individuals to put off college or give up on the idea entirely. And it would squeeze recent graduates who are struggling to pay back what they borrowed but are caught in a tepid job market.

The good news is that it probably won?t happen?a similar fight last year ended when Congress passed a one-year extension of the lower rate. The bad news is that both Obama and Republican lawmakers have proposed fixes that will raise rates.

Obama has repeatedly sounded the alarm over rising college costs. In his State of the Union speech this year, he urged Congress to confront institutions of higher education by making eligibility for federal student aid contingent on providing a quality, affordable education.

?Taxpayers can?t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for higher education,? he told lawmakers. ?Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it?s our job to make sure that they do.?

He hit the same theme in a May 9 speech, saying, ?Going forward, colleges that don't do enough to keep costs down, I think, should get less taxpayer support.?

Obama?s proposal would set a new rate each year, but then keep the rate fixed for the life of the loan. Rates would be tied to the 10-year Treasury rate, plus 0.93 percentage points on subsidized Stafford loans, 2.93 percentage points on unsubsidized Stafford Loans, and 3.93 percentage points on PLUS loans for parents.

There would be no cap on the rates, but borrowers could tie their repayments to their income and see their debt forgiven after 20 years of timely payments.

Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, has a rival proposal that would see the rate on loans change annually.

Kline's plan would combine the subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans into one, setting the rate at the 10-year Treasury Note plus 2.5 percentage points. The proposal would set the rate on PLUS loans at the 10-year Treasury plus 4.5 percentage points.

Under Kline's proposal, the unsubsidized and subsidized programs would be combined at a rate of the 10-year Treasury plus 2.5 percentage points; PLUS loans would tack on 4.5 percentage points to the Treasury. There would be caps: 8.5 percent for the Stafford loan and 10.5 percent for the PLUS.

The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), an independent group that looks at college affordability, has concerns about the Obama proposal and the Kline plan, since both would make borrowing to pay for college more expensive than it is today.

The two blueprints are "the kind of fix that doesn?t actually serve the needs of students and families who need the assurance that loans will be affordable over time,? TICAS President Lauren Asher told Yahoo News.

Asher pointed favorably to legislation from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that would freeze current rates for two years. It would be paid for by closing "unnecessary" tax loopholes, she said. "That buys time to come up with a smart, comprehensive fix at no cost to taxpayers."

It's a big deal. Two-thirds of the class of 2011 graduated with student loan debt,?according to TICAS.?The average burden was $26,600, and total student loan debt totaled around $1 trillion.

And ... is it worth it?

Here, the Obama White House has provided a pretty useful tool for aspiring college students and their families. The College Scorecard provides an at-a-glance description of individual institutions of higher education, including important nuggets like annual cost, graduation rates and student loan default rates. (If you went to college and want to feel old, put in your alma mater.)

The Department of Labor rounds out the picture by helping students figure out what they can expect from different professional fields in terms of salary?obviously a factor given the weight of graduate debt. (The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics also has an online tool.)

A student eager to become a reporter might think twice after consulting the My Next Move calculator. The field's median pay is $35,870 (that's not median entry pay, either). The site reports the glum news that "new job opportunities are less likely in the future" but notes, "This work is part of the green economy." Huzzah?

Podiatrists have a median salary of $118,030, according to the BLS.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/college-expensive-thanks-washington-might-soon-paying-more-094712032.html

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Shulman: Not 'responsible' for IRS 'lookout' list

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman is sworn in prior to testifying before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.??

Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said that he was "not personally responsible" for the agency's practice of placing elevated scrutiny on conservative groups that applied for nonprofit status, but that he regrets it occurred during his tenure.

"I certainly am not personally responsible for creating a list that had inappropriate criteria on it. What I know, with the full facts that are out, is from the inspector general's report, which doesn't say I'm responsible for that," Shulman said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. "With that said, this happened on my watch and I very much regret that it happened on my watch."

Shulman, who served as IRS commissioner from 2008 to 2012, appeared before the Senate panel with outgoing Acting Commissioner Steven Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George on Tuesday. Both Shulman and Miller have said that the agency acted inappropriately in how it reviewed groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/former-irs-commissioner-not-personally-responsible-targeting-conservative-164324385.html

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RNA capable of catalyzing electron transfer on early earth with iron's help, study says

RNA capable of catalyzing electron transfer on early earth with iron's help, study says

Monday, May 20, 2013

A new study shows how complex biochemical transformations may have been possible under conditions that existed when life began on the early Earth.

The study shows that RNA is capable of catalyzing electron transfer under conditions similar to those of the early Earth. Because electron transfer, the moving of an electron from one chemical species to another, is involved in many biological processes ? including photosynthesis, respiration and the reduction of RNA to DNA ? the study's findings suggest that complex biochemical transformations may have been possible when life began.

There is considerable evidence that the evolution of life passed through an early stage when RNA played a more central role, before DNA and coded proteins appeared. During that time, more than 3 billion years ago, the environment lacked oxygen but had an abundance of soluble iron.

"Our study shows that when RNA teams up with iron in an oxygen-free environment, RNA displays the powerful ability to catalyze single electron transfer, a process involved in the most sophisticated biochemistry, yet previously uncharacterized for RNA," said Loren Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The results of the study were scheduled to be published online on May 19, 2013, in the journal Nature Chemistry. The study was sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which established the Center for Ribosomal Origins and Evolution (Ribo Evo) at Georgia Tech.

Free oxygen gas was almost nonexistent in the Earth's atmosphere more than 3 billion years ago. When free oxygen began entering the environment as a product of photosynthesis, it turned the earth's iron to rust, forming massive banded iron formations that are still mined today. The free oxygen produced by advanced organisms caused iron to be toxic, even though it was ? and still is ? a requirement for life. Williams believes the environmental transition caused a slow shift from the use of iron to magnesium for RNA binding, folding and catalysis.

Williams and Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry postdoctoral fellow Chiaolong Hsiao used a standard peroxidase assay to detect electron transfer in solutions of RNA and either the iron ion, Fe2+, or magnesium ion, Mg2+. For 10 different types of RNA, the researchers observed catalysis of single electron transfer in the presence of iron and absence of oxygen. They found that two of the most abundant and ancient types of RNA, the 23S ribosomal RNA and transfer RNA, catalyzed electron transfer more efficiently than other types of RNA. However, none of the RNA and magnesium solutions catalyzed single electron transfer in the oxygen-free environment.

"Our findings suggest that the catalytic competence of RNA may have been greater in early Earth conditions than in present conditions, and our experiments may have revived a latent function of RNA," added Williams, who is also director of the RiboEvo Center.

This new study expands on research published in May 2012 in the journal PLoS ONE. In the previous work, Williams led a team that used experiments and numerical calculations to show that iron, in the absence of oxygen, could substitute for magnesium in RNA binding, folding and catalysis. The researchers found that RNA's shape and folding structure remained the same and its functional activity increased when magnesium was replaced by iron in an oxygen-free environment.

In future studies, the researchers plan to investigate whether other unique functions may have been conferred on RNA through interaction with a variety of metals available on the early Earth.

In addition to Williams and Hsiao, Georgia Tech School of Biology professors Roger Wartell and Stephen Harvey, and Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor Nicholas Hud, also contributed to this work as co-principal investigators in the Ribo Evo Center at Georgia Tech.

###

Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu

Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128307/RNA_capable_of_catalyzing_electron_transfer_on_early_earth_with_iron_s_help__study_says

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Top Reasons To Take Up Music Lessons - Arts And Entertainment ...

Copyright (c) 2013 Louis IEA

Music is significant in getting attention from a large group of people. Music soothes the soul in ways that even the experts cannot explain.This is the main reason why you would find people opting for music lessons simply to ease their life stresses. Music is a course that is offered in almost all the universities all over the world. The good thing about this course is that it is not demanding. Certainly, you would not compare medicine to music. Music is something that you engage yourself fully into it to make certain that you achieve the desired results. Research also proves that most individuals taking up music lessons have the passion to listen to music. So, why should you take up music lessons?

It is a career opportunity

Who said that you cannot earn a living if you took up music lessons as your career path? Many have done it and hence you would also make it in being the best. The fact that it is offered by universities means that there is an opportunity for you to exploit fully. The good thing is that, the market is quite rewarding due to music lovers out there. Hence, marketing your skills would not be a tough task for you.

Entertainment

It is fun to take up music lessons as it would be a good way to entertain yourself as you learn. There are wide arrays of music genre that you would entertain yourself with. From the classic genres to the modern music you would learn al this. This would be a good way to entertain yourself. After all, life is not all about being serious.

Self discipline

Yes music lessons are easy but if you would be taking up lessons on how to play certain instruments, you would have to be disciplined to ensure that you get what is taught. This is a virtue that you get from taking up music lessons. You would know the importance of keeping time and doing homework in knowing hoe to play certain instruments to perfection. Without a doubt, after 3-4 years of doing this, you would emerge a different person that can transform the society positively.

Get to learn about different cultures

In the music lessons that you take up, you would have to learn more about the history of music. In doing this, you would be getting to know more of cultures out there and the instruments that they use to compose their own music. This is a good way to appreciate ones culture and getting to know how other people view your culture from their own perspective.

Lastly, life is always about learning new things on a regular basis. Thus, taking up music lessons even for fun would not be a bod idea after all. You would have something to be proud of knowing that you spent time to learn how to play a certain instrument. Just as the experts would say; learning never comes to a stop. Thus, you should always be ready to learn new things as life moves on.

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Source: http://arts-entertainment-insider-info.blogspot.com/2013/05/top-reasons-to-take-up-music-lessons.html

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Obama delivers historic Morehouse commencement

Obama speaks in Baltimore, May 17, 2013. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

President Barack Obama took a break from the trifecta of controversies?IRS, Benghazi, Deptartment of Justice?swirling around the White House on Sunday to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College, the historically black, all male school in Atlanta.

"What I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address," Obama told 500 graduates and an estimated 10,000 onlookers, most of them in ponchos, on the college's stormy, rain-soaked campus. "Use that power for something larger than yourself."

While the message may have been unremarkable, the occasion was historic: Obama became the first sitting president to address Morehouse, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose spirit was evoked throughout the speech.

"Many of you know what it?s like to be an outsider, to be marginalized, to feel the sting of discrimination," Obama said. "That?s an experience that so many other Americans share. Hispanic Americans know that feeling when someone asks where they come from or tells them to go back. Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love they share. Muslim Americans feel it when they?re stared at with suspicion because of their faith. Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work?she sure feels it."

The president said that while it might be tempting for graduates to use their degrees for personal wealth, they should aim for more. "I know some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself," Obama said. "Maybe you feel like you escaped, and you can take your degree, get a fancy job and never look back. And don?t get me wrong?with the heavy weight of student loans, with doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could scarcely imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty.

"It is not just the African-American community that needs you," Obama said. "The country needs you. The world needs you."

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, attendees arrived as early 3:30 a.m. to reserve a spot at the open-air ceremony.

The president said that growing up, he used to chalk up some of his own "bad choices" to being black.

"We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices," Obama said. "We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made a few myself. And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. But one of the things you?ve learned over the last four years is that there?s no longer any room for excuses."

First-year Morehouse College president John Wilson introduced President Obama. Prior to taking the Morehouse job, Wilson ran the White House's historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) initiative.

After the ceremony, the president was scheduled to later attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at the home of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

It was Obama's second graduation speech in as many weeks. Last week, the president delivered the commencement address at Ohio State. His third and final speech of graduation season, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., is slated for Friday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-morehouse-commencement-speech-172854207.html

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Tom Falco: I Long for the Days of Old-fashioned Spam

Have you noticed the proliferation of a new type of spam out there? I call it Spam 2.0.?It was so easy in the "old days" to receive unwanted spam in your email inbox and just delete it, now spam is a sly thing, it creeps into everything and there are many forms. Social media is now the new spam magnet.

Twitter unwittingly sends spam now, as do Facebook and even Instagram. Twitter spam comes in a few forms, the main type are the ads that show up usually advertising Oreos or a TV show or something and that's okay, because Twitter is free and someone has to support it some way. It's just odd seeing it in your feed. It's marked as "advertising" but it's still a little odd.

The new form of Twitter spam that I don't care for are those people who follow you so that you follow them; they don't care what you have to say, and while I like to think people are following me to get my daily words of wisdom and cartoon updates, that's not the case -- they just want my follow back so they can grab it and unfollow.

There are those who actually follow and keep following you but it's almost an insult because you know they don't care. You know the type -- they have 103,000 followers and they follow 103,000 people, it's an even distribution. It's a numbers game. They follow you, you follow them and no one cares what the other has to say. Let's just keep the numbers up and even.

One insulting thing I have come upon is a person with thousands (or millions) of followers and they only follow like eight people back. If it's Lady Gaga, I get it; if it's just a nobody who plays the follow and drop game, I don't like that, you know, they follow you, you follow back and they drop you. I feel that everything they tweet after that is just spam. Because if they were interesting, they wouldn't need to play this game and they would care enough to interact with you by following you.

One other Twitter spam annoyance is that once you follow someone back they start DMing you, you know, Direct Messages. You open the door a crack and they take advantage.

Facebook now has constant ads showing, which again, pays the bills, so it isn't all bad, but the ads don't appear to the side like they used to, they are now part of your Facebook feed and they appear as if a friend posted them. You can't tell what's what on Facebook now. Is the ad something a friend "likes?" Is it a paid ad? Is it something I "liked" and forgot about?

I have a few fan pages for various things and these consist of people that can just follow you without you "friending them." I get lots of spam there in direct messages. There again, you are opening the door to anyone and they take advantage. There is a "remove DM" button of some sort, I have used it and now people can't reach me with direct message spam. And if you don't regulate your fan pages, it turns into a spam free for all because people will just post whatever they want to sell on your feeds.

Instagram was a nice, little, benign app. I use it to post cartoons daily, I post one Tomversation comic strip a day, people love it.

The spam started on Instagrm with people putting up photos that weren't photos, but were ads to get followers, you know, their ad would say "Do this and get 1 million followers," and when you would look at the spammer's own following they themselves had four followers!

Another form of Instagram spam is where jerks leave comments under your photo with links to some sort of follow back or get followers site. Now I have noticed a bunch of?spammer accounts?following me. They come in groups, you may get dozens of these bots following all at once and you get all excited because your follower number is up, only to be deflated when Instagram catches up with them and deletes their accounts, then all at once you may see your numbers drop by the hundreds!

The worst now is that Instagram has added "tagging," which works like Facebook, where friends can tag you in their photos. Only spammers are now tagging you on Instagram. They tag a photo of you on their site, which is not a photo of you, it's an ad or something and when you see that you are tagged, you go over to their site to see what your're tagged in. I fall for it all the time.

There are lots of other spam creeps creeping in, like through blog posts and commenting and things like that. But don't get me started on that ....

Tom Falco's daily comic strip, Tomversation, may be seen at
Tomversation.com (along with his blog)
or at Instragram at Instagram.com/tomversation.com

?

Follow Tom Falco on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tomversation

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-falco/i-long-for-the-days-of-ol_b_3294802.html

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NASA Designs the Scientifically Perfect Space Meal

After being strapped onto the front of a 15-story controlled explosion and launched clear out of the atmosphere to live in an experimental laboratory orbiting around the Earth at thousands of miles an hour, the least NASA can do is give you a good meal.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nk5RLCAlI3s/nasa-designs-the-scientifically-perfect-space-meal-508302287

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Venezuela's military enters high-crime slums

In this May 14, 2013 photo, a National Guard soldier frisks a man outside his car at a checkpoint that is part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. Since Monday, this scene is playing out day and night at dozens of military checkpoints set up here in the socialist government's latest attempt to control the oil-rich country?s pandemic of violence. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this May 14, 2013 photo, a National Guard soldier frisks a man outside his car at a checkpoint that is part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. Since Monday, this scene is playing out day and night at dozens of military checkpoints set up here in the socialist government's latest attempt to control the oil-rich country?s pandemic of violence. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this May 14, 2013 photo, a National Guard soldier checks a driver's vehicle documents at a checkpoint that is part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. Critics dismiss the "Secure Homeland" initiative as a political charade that risks degenerating into human rights abuses while having no lasting impact on crime. But to many residents, weary of being terrorized by armed gangs, seeing troops on the streets is a welcome projection of government power. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this May 14, 2013 photo, National Guard soldiers patrol on motorcycles as part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. With some 15,000 killings a year, Venezuela?s homicide rate is the fifth highest in the world, according to U.N. statistics. Critics dismiss the "Secure Homeland" initiative as a political charade that risks degenerating into human rights abuses while having no lasting impact on crime. But to many residents, weary of being terrorized by armed gangs, seeing troops on the streets is a welcome projection of government power. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this May 14, 2013 photo, Gen. Antonio Benavides, left, gives instructions to a soldiers during a security operation that is part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. The murder rate doubled during the 14-year-rule of the late President Hugo Chavez as cheap access to guns and an ineffective justice system fed a culture of violence in slums like Petare, parts of which have become no-go zones for outsiders, including police. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this May 14, 2013 photo, National Guard soldiers patrol as part of the "Secure Homeland" initiative in Petare, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Caracas, Venezuela. The initiative started in the Caracas area on Monday and will be expanded to the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo next week. Human rights activists worry that sending soldiers trained for warfare on policing missions will only make things worse for the residents they are meant to protect. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

PETARE, Venezuela (AP) ? Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas.

Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons.

He's clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela's notoriously crime-infested capital.

Since Monday, this scene is playing out day and night at dozens of military checkpoints set up here in the socialist government's latest attempt to control the oil-rich country's pandemic of violence.

Critics dismiss the "Secure Homeland" initiative as a political charade that risks degenerating into human rights abuses while having no lasting impact on crime. But to many residents, weary of being terrorized by armed gangs, seeing troops on the streets is a welcome projection of government power.

"You have to act forcefully so that people feel the force of the state," said 47-year-old Irving Garcia, an unemployed former Army reservist, who like many Caracas residents has firsthand experience of violent crime. Garcia said he was shot in the chest when he unknowingly walked into a restaurant robbery. The bullet shattered his sternum, he said, inviting a reporter to feel a piece of protruding bone through his shirt.

With some 15,000 killings a year, Venezuela's homicide rate is the fifth highest in the world, according to U.N. statistics. The murder rate doubled during the 14-year-rule of the late President Hugo Chavez as cheap access to guns and an ineffective justice system fed a culture of violence in slums like Petare, parts of which have become no-go zones for outsiders, including police.

Chavez banned gun sales, expanded a new national police force and stepped up policing and other programs in high-crime areas. Now, his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, is adding military muscle by deploying 3,000 troops on the streets. The initiative started in the Caracas area on Monday and will be expanded to the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo next week.

Human rights activists worry that sending soldiers trained for warfare on policing missions will only make things worse for the residents they are meant to protect.

"It's going to aggravate the situation, unfortunately, because the army isn't prepared to deal with issues of public safety," said Liliana Ortega, director of the COFAVIC human rights group. "We have various emblematic cases in which the use of the armed forces resulted in disproportional force."

She said they include the 1989 street riots known as the "Caracazo," when 300 people were killed, and a 1992 prison riot in Caracas in which 63 prisoners died.

The soldiers, who work together with the National Guard and national police force, have the power to make arrests but are supposed to hand over the detainees to civilian authorities. Any human rights abuses would be tried by civilian courts, according to the constitution.

In deeply divided Venezuela, there are also concerns over the initiative's political undertones. Maduro narrowly won an April 14 presidential election that the opposition claims he stole through fraud, voter intimidation and abuse of government powers. Some of the first military units were deployed in areas under the political control of the opposition.

Petare, for example, lies in Miranda state, which is governed by Henrique Capriles, Maduro's challenger in the presidential election. The mayor overseeing Petare also is from the opposition.

On Tuesday night, the military commander in charge of the troops in Petare, Gen. Antonio Benavides, led a motorcycle-borne unit roaring up deserted, winding streets, with a gaggle of journalists in tow. They stopped for a meeting with grass-roots Chavistas in the hilltop Bombilla neighborhood.

"How often does the mayor come here? How often does the governor come here?" Benavides asked the crowd of about 40 people. "Never," they replied, unanimously.

A Capriles poster on a staircase above the outdoor gathering indicated not everyone here supports the government.

David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia, said that for Maduro, the security initiative was both "an effort to fight crime and an effort to maintain or recover support in places where it has been declining because of crime and violence, among other issues."

Though the idea of using military force against criminals resonates among Venezuelans, Smilde said, it would probably amount to little more than setting up road blocks and trying to project a presence on street corners. "But of course that just means that crime takes place a block away," he said.

Some in Petare said the success of the initiative would depend not only on the soldiers' ability to hunt down criminals and delinquents, but to win the trust of its law-abiding residents.

"What matters is how they are integrating with society, what they teach our young," said Carmen Apote, 47.

At one checkpoint, on a potholed street where stray dogs rummaged through foul-smelling litter from a daytime food market, irritated taxi drivers complained that the stop-and-search was bad for business.

"They make it hard for us," said Jorge Torres, 50. "We can't stop anywhere we want to and people don't know where we can pick them up."

He conceded the area was safer, for now, but predicted the military presence would be short lived. The government has said the soldiers will stay in the streets for a few months until regular law enforcement units can be boosted by new recruits.

"Once they leave, everything changes," Torres said.

___

Associated Press video: https://vimeo.com/66289079

___

AP writer Jorge Rueda in Caracas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-17-Venezuela-Troops%20on%20Streets/id-08b7759961c9412785fa562623f7befc

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Boeing tapped to build ViaSat-2 satellite, launch set for mid-2016

ViaSat-1 recently earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-capacity satellite in (or out of) the world, but it may need to hand off that title come 2016. ViaSat-2, the company's next-gen bird, will double the capacity of its predecessor while also extending coverage to a larger portion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, along with the aviation and shipping routes between the East Coast and Europe. Boeing will manufacture the new equipment, which will be based on the 702HP satellite platform. Once in orbit, ViaSat-2 will serve residential customers, air travelers and government agencies alike, with a massive seven-fold increase in coverage. There aren't many details beyond that, but you're welcome to dig through the press release, posted right after the break.

Filed under: Wireless, Science, Internet

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/boeing-to-build-viasat-2/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Recon Instruments reveals Recon Jet, a sports HUD so bright it needs shades (video)

We know Glass comes with some snap-on shades, which is no doubt great when casually vlogging in the sun. If you're heading down a mountain, though, you're going to need something a little more like Recon Jet. You may know Recon Instruments from its line of technolicious HUD ski goggles, but Jet sees the firm leap into more casual (yet no less useful) eyewear. Inside you'll find a dual-core processor, WiFi, GPS, Ant+, Bluetooth and an HD camera, plus all the sensors you could want (altimeter, thermometer, accelerometer etc). Recon Jet comes with its own open platform (which typically has been based on Android), and will have some existing native apps (video streaming, Facebook integration, etc.) on display at Google I/O this week. Comparison with Mountain View's own product will be inevitable, but we're guessing that Recon hopes you'll leave Glass on your desk, while popping Jet on for the weekend.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/recon-instruments-reveals-recon-jet/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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O.J. Simpson testifies in bid for new trial

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? His leg shackles rattling as he shuffled to the witness stand, a grayer, bulkier O.J. Simpson made his case for a new trial on armed robbery charges Wednesday, saying he was relying on the advice of his trusted attorney when he tried to reclaim mementos from his football glory days.

After more than four years in prison, Simpson seized the opportunity to recount how he and some friends confronted two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007, and how he believed he had the right to take back what he claimed had been stolen from him, including photos and footballs.

"It was my stuff. I followed what I thought was the law. My lawyer told me I couldn't break into a guy's room. I didn't break into anybody's room. I didn't try to muscle the guys. The guys had my stuff, even though they claimed they didn't steal it," the 65-year-old former NFL star and actor said.

Simpson did not testify when he was tried and convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in 2008. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.

His fall from long-ago fame and fortune was demonstrated as he made his way to the stand with shackles around his ankles for a hearing on his claim that he was poorly represented by his attorney during the trial.

As his new lawyer, Patricia Palm, questioned him, he provided details that seemed to encompass every minute of a weekend that began with plans for a friend's wedding and ended with him under arrest.

He said he knew the memorabilia dealers, had no fear of them and certainly didn't need guns. "There was no talk of guns at all," he said. Simpson declared he never even saw guns during the confrontation.

During the trial, two former co-defendants who testified for the prosecution said they had guns.

Simpson's bid for freedom hinges on showing his lawyer badly represented him. He mentioned the lawyer, Yale Galanter, from the outset.

"He was my guy," he said of his long friendship and professional relationship with Galanter.

But he blamed Galanter's advice for getting him in trouble. He said Galanter told him he was within his rights to take back his possessions as long as there was no violence or trespassing.

Another Simpson attorney from the 2008 trial has said it was Galanter who pushed on Simpson a decision not to testify.

While the trial prosecutor testified earlier that there were preliminary discussions with Galanter about a plea bargain, Simpson testified he was never told a bargain was under consideration and that he did not remember any offer being given to him at trial.

Asked by Palm if he knew he could have gotten as little as 30 months in prison if he pleaded guilty to robbery, Simpson said no, and that he would have considered it if he had known.

Simpson also said Galanter led him to believe he could not be convicted on the charges.

"If you understood you could be convicted on the state's evidence, would you have testified?" Palm asked.

Simpson said yes.

Dressed in a drab blue prison uniform, Simpson spoke clearly as he recounted events leading to the hotel room where the dealers had the memorabilia. His voice cracked a bit as he recounted recognizing items on the bed, including framed photos that used to hang on the wall of his Los Angeles home.

"Look at this stuff. Some of the stuff I didn't really realize was gone. These were things I hadn't seen in 10 years," he said. "You know, you get a little emotional about it."

There is no jury in the hearing and Simpson's fate will be determined by District Judge Linda Marie Bell.

While Simpson's previous court cases, including his 1995 acquittal in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman, were media events, there were empty seats in the courtroom for the first two days of the hearing.

But on Wednesday the courtroom was full, with Simpson family members and friends in the second row. A marshal turned people away, sending them to an overflow room where video was streamed live.

Still, the scene was much tamer than in the past.

"This is less hoopla than I expected. It's real toned down," said Wyatt Skaggs, a retired defense attorney visiting from Laramie, Wyo.

___

Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr

LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 14: O. J. Simpson (R) talks to his defense attorney Patricia Palm during a break in an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 14, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... more? LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 14: O. J. Simpson (R) talks to his defense attorney Patricia Palm during a break in an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 14, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oj-simpson-testifies-bid-vegas-trial-170536252.html

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Microsoft Surface Pro coming to the UK on May 23rd starting at ?719

Microsoft has a good excuse for the Surface Pro's late arrival in the UK: the company claims that demand in the US stripped its cupboards bare, leaving nothing but RT crumbs to sell on this side of the Atlantic. In any case, Redmond tells us that a date has now been set, with the Core i5-powered tablet due to be available from Microsoft's online store from May 23rd. For once, Brits can look forward to dollar-equivalent pricing, with the 64GB version going for £719 and the 128GB model fetching £799 inclusive of VAT. (That may not be cheap, but at least it's fair.) Meanwhile, the bendy Touch Cover will continue to cost £99, and the more traditional key action of the Type Cover will add another tenner on top of that. So, there it is. Just in time for Haswell to make us wonder when a more power-efficient sequel might be coming out.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/microsoft-surface-pro-coming-to-the-uk-may-23rd/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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HTC One, two months on ...

How has HTC's latest flagship fared after two months in the hands of an AC editor?

It’s been just over two months since I first got my hands on the HTC One -- first, a pre-production demo unit, then a final European retail model. For most of that time, HTC’s impressive 2013 flagship has been my daily driver -- the phone I use every day, and take with me just about everywhere I go. In that time it’s seen plenty of normal use, and ten days or so of not-so-normal use in New York City for our Galaxy S4 and #TM13 coverage

But the HTC One was in short supply when it first launched in Europe and it’s only recently hit the U.S. market, so we’re in a bit of a unique position to have used the phone for this long. With that in mind, now seems like the right moment to reflect on our time with the device.

Just as we did for the Nexus 4 in January, it’s time for our long-term, two-month retrospective feature on the HTC One. We’ve already brought you a full review of the phone, and a casual review of the Sprint version, of course. So consider this article a chance for us to share the kind of details that don’t come to light in the course of our normal review process, and an opportunity to let you know what to expect in the months ahead if you pick up an HTC One today.

Check past the break to learn how the HTC One has coped with 61 days in the hands of an Android Central editor.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ir94b46J8TM/story01.htm

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