Belief in God Can Improve Mental Health Outcomes | Psych Central ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 26, 2013

A new study suggests belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness.

Researchers followed patients receiving care from a hospital-based behavioral health program to investigate the relationship between patients? level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.

In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers comment that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without.

?Belief was associated with not only improved psychological well-being, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm,? says David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale.

Levels of depression, well-being, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.

Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high.

Patients with ?no? or only ?slight? belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment as patients with higher levels of belief.

Investigators believe the study demonstrates that a belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care.

?More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes.?

Investigators hope that the study will lead to additional investigation on the clinical implication of spirtual life as more than 90 percent of the U.S. population hold religious beliefs.

Source: McLean Hospital

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). Belief in God Can Improve Mental Health Outcomes. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 26, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/04/26/belief-in-god-improves-mental-health-outcomes/54121.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/04/26/belief-in-god-improves-mental-health-outcomes/54121.html

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Silk: Nature's Homespun Supermaterial

Most of your exposure to silk probably comes in the form of uncomfortably sensual linens or cobwebs in a dusty old closet. In reality, though, silk is an incredible and overlooked material. While it may have roots in the ancient past, it could also form the building blocks of the future. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4ShcNZGVZsU/silk-the-supermaterial-spun-by-nature

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Man named in poison letters case goes into hiding

SALTILLO, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi man whose home was searched in the investigation of poisoned letters sent to the president and others has apparently gone into hiding, but his attorney said he is cooperating and the FBI knows how to get in touch with him.

Everett Dutschke had his home and former business in Tupelo searched in connection with the letters, which allegedly contained ricin. They were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge named Sadie Holland.

Charges were initially filed against a celebrity impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.

On Thursday, investigators looked through a different home about 20 miles away and a plane circled above for much of the day.

A friend of Dutschke's told The Associated Press that both he and Dutschke stayed at the home for a while Wednesday before slipping out through the woods to rendezvous with someone who drove Dutschke elsewhere. He said Dutschke was just trying to escape the news media.

"I just helped him get out of the spotlight," Kirk Kitchens said Thursday at his home in nearby Saltillo.

Dutschke has not been arrested or charged in the letters case. The FBI has said nothing about the building searches or Thursday's developments.

Dutschke's lawyer, Lori Nail Basham, said there is no arrest warrant for her client, who continues to cooperate with investigators.

Earlier Thursday, Itawamba County Sheriff Chris Dickinson said agents told him Dutschke had been under surveillance, but authorities weren't sure where he had gone. He said they were satisfied he was not at the Ozark property.

Dutschke did not answer a call to his cellphone Thursday from the AP. He had previously kept in touch with AP reporters.

It was yet another strange turn in the case that began when charges were filed against 45-year-old entertainer Paul Kevin Curtis, whose lawyers now say he was set up for the crime.

Charges against Curtis were dropped Tuesday after authorities said they developed new information. His attorney, Christi McCoy, has said she does not know what new information led the FBI to abandon the charges but that the agency acted in good faith and worked from the information it had at the time.

The focus then turned to Dutschke. He said he was cooperating.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Dutschke said Tuesday as investigators combed through his house. His business was searched the next day.

Curtis attorney Hal Neilson said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis, and Dutschke's name came up. He said prosecutors "took it and ran with it."

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on an alleged conspiracy to sell body parts on a black market. But he claimed they later had a feud.

Judge Holland is a common link between two men who have been investigated and both know Wicker.

Holland was presiding judge in a case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney in 2004. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke in the past.

Steve Holland, a state representative, said he believes his mother's only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which he did.

Steve Holland said he doesn't know if his mother remembers Curtis' assault case.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus and Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-named-poison-letters-case-goes-hiding-225547523.html

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Autorip Rips DVDs and Blu-Rays as Soon as You Insert the Disc

Windows: Autorip automates the process of ripping DVDs and Blu-Rays by detecting when you insert a movie and beginning the rip immediately.

The app requires MakeMKV to be installed on your machine to rip the movies, and (optionally) Handbrake if you want to compress them to a smaller file. Once you install Autorip, you'll need to go through a quick, one-time set up process:

1. Right-click Autorip in your system tray and click "Settings."
2. Select the source drive to watch (this is your DVD or Blu-Ray drive).
3. Select the target folder to place videos when they've finished encoding.
4. Click the "Advanced" tab.
5. Under "Location of MKV Directory" select the folder where you've installed MakeMKV. Do the same for Handbrake, if you're using it.
6. Insert a disc to start ripping.

If you want to compress the video when you're done, uncheck the "Rip Only" box and set your Handbrake presets as well (we like High Profile with the MKV file format). You can choose to either have the app prompt you to enter the movie's name manually as soon as a disc is inserted, or automatically detect the title's name from the volume label.

Autorip will pull every video track off the disc and create an individual file for each. This is a great way to save all the special features or TV episodes if you want them, but they won't have proper labels and, if you don't want to keep them, you'll have to delete everything but the movie after you're done. This is a little annoying, but as long as you have a big hard drive, it's hard to beat Autorip's convenience.

Update: it looks like the tool is currently unavailable for download, because the developer's Dropbox account was getting too much traffic. For now, we've re-uploaded the portable version of the app (which we got before the site went down) on Mega, so you can download it here until the developer sorts it all out.

Autorip | Videoscripts

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/1AFLNN--nKQ/autorip-rips-dvds-and-blu-rays-as-soon-as-you-insert-th-477274988

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TomTom Start 55 TM

The TomTom Start 55 TM ($159.95 direct) is a low-end standalone GPS device with a mission. It exists to convince you that it's still worth buying, in an age of free smartphone GPS apps, and an oversaturated market where most people who want a standalone device already have one. To this end the Start 55 M makes a fairly compelling case, with an oversize 5-inch display, 3D lane guidance, and free lifetime map updates. It also sports an array of features that were commonplace on $300 devices just a few years ago. It's a decent buy for anyone with a flip phone without GPS, but its so-so accuracy gives us pause. Plus, better options are available if you're willing to spend a little more.

Design and Screen
The TomTom Start 55 TM?measures 5.2 by 3.5 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 8.9 ounces. The company's trademark EasyPort Mount stays attached to the device, and folds up with it in case you want to take the Start 55 TM out of the car. It adds about two ounces of weight compared with a device that separates the two, but it's still pretty convenient, and you can also pop the mount off if you want to.

The 5-inch display features 480-by-272-pixel resolution?low-end, but expected on a device at this price?and a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. It's a plastic resistive screen, with relatively poor contrast, though, and it washes out a bit in direct sunlight.

TomTom preloads maps for the United States and Canada. A crowdsourced Map Share feature crowd sources changes on roads, such as new speed limits or construction sites, and lets you update the device on a daily basis using the included USB cable. That's probably too much work for most people, but the option is there. You also get official lifetime map updates four times per year, plus lifetime real-time traffic reports.

Routing Performance
Once on the road, the main 3D map interface is typical of TomTom devices, which is to say informative and well-organized. There's plenty of relevant trip data along the bottom of the screen, with oversized numerals and a new, pop-up speed limit sign that's easier to read than before. If you've got an older TomTom device, this one offers slightly better graphics and more readable trip information along the bottom.

Unfortunately, actual performance wasn't up to snuff, even for a budget device. The main issue: GPS lock. After setting a destination and pulling out of a parking garage in Manhattan, it took the Start 55 TM six full minutes?to figure out where it was; up until then, it just said "waiting for a valid GPS signal." It did better once the car was parked out in the street, but it was never fast. Map animations are also sluggish, on the order of just over one frame per second, which gives away the Start 55 TM's older, low-cost processor.

Routing was accurate as usual, but even here, I found it easy to trip up the Start 55 TM. To cite one example, it wanted me to drive two blocks around in Manhattan gridlock to enter the lower level of the Queensboro bridge, even though I was right in front of the entrance ramp to the upper level, and even though both levels would take me to the same place in Queens just as easily.

Other Features and Conclusions
Some features are unexpected and welcome on a budget device. One interesting addition is 24/7 Roadside Assistance, which is a nice thing to have if your car doesn't already come with it (it's the Basic plan on TomTom's site).?The Start 55 TM also popped up red light camera alerts while I drove up Third Avenue in Manhattan.

Real-time traffic reporting is the basic kind, which means it has to be a major accident or congestion on a major highway for it to tell you about it. I spent over half an hour in Manhattan gridlock with not so much as a peep from the 55 TM; all it did was adjust my ETA later and later, until a 12 minute trip became 40 minutes. TomTom's higher-end devices and GPS app offer optional access to HD traffic, which updates every two minutes and is considerably more accurate, but not this one.

Searching for addresses and POIs is easy to figure out, but not quite as useful as it could be. For one, the type-ahead feature was slow in my tests; it took several seconds after each letter finger press for the device to figure out potential completions for the street address. POI category organization remains a problem for TomTom; the overly broad "Shopping" section contains just about every errand destination you'd run on a regular basis, making it difficult to find nearby stores without running manual searches.

In the end, no matter how many times pundits declare standalone GPS devices "dead," plenty of people still prefer having a separate unit on the windshield dedicated to this single purpose. That said, I'd rather steer you toward something just a bit more expensive that works better?especially considering there are plenty of deals to be had with higher-end units around the Web. A good option would be TomTom's own VIA 1605TM, which delivers smoother performance and more accurate location finding, as well as a larger 6-inch display. Otherwise, looking for a bargain on a last-generation GPS might be your best bet, as you can get a better deal on a higher-end model from a few years ago, such as the Magellan RoadMate 5045-LM?a 4 star $250 GPS from late 2010 that is selling for around $100 at the time of this writing.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/aZbQK9Ia0QU/0,2817,2417670,00.asp

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New Private Rocket Set to Launch Today After Delays

A U.S. spaceflight company is hoping the third time's the charm in order to launch a brand-new rocket into space on its maiden flight today (April 21).

After two delayed launched attempts, the privately built Antares rocket is once again poised to blast off from a seaside pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Liftoff is set for 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).?

You can watch the Antares rocket launch live on SPACE.com beginning 4:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT), courtesy of NASA's webcast.

Today's launch attempt will be the third in a week for Antares, which was built by the Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. A minor mechanical glitch thwarted a launch try on Wednesday (April 17) just minutes before liftoff. Strong winds prevented and an attempted launch on Saturday. [LaunchPad Photos: Antares Rocket Ready to Fly]

The Antares rocket is designed to launch Orbital's unmanned Cygnus spacecraft on cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station for NASA. Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract to provide at least eight cargo deliveries using Cygnus and Antares, but first the company wants to make sure the rocket will perform as expected.

"Obviously we would like to have gone Wednesday. But going through the prelaunch procedures a couple of times now is great experience for our launch team," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski told SPACE.com in ?an email. "Practice now will pay dividends later when we are down to a small launch window, less than five minutes, for our [space station] resupply missions later this year."

Orbital Sciences has a three-hour window for today's ?attempted launch. The 13-story Antares rocket will lift off from the new Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the southern tip of Wallops Island, Va., where it shares land with NASA's Wallops Flight Facility is based. The NASA center has long been the home of the agency's small sounding rocket launches and balloon science projects.

"We have also been pleased with the performance of the vehicle and the launch facility. We have not been working any technical issues, which has been encouraging," Beneski said. "That's remarkable since this is a first time launch for the rocket and the pad."

Today's launch attempt will not carry a full Cygnus spacecraft into orbit. Instead, the rocket is topped with a mockup that will mimic the weight of an actual cargo ship. The rocket is also carrying three?coffee cup-size Phonesat satellites?? named Alexander, Graham and Bell ? as part of a space technology experiment for NASA. A fourth nanosatellite, called Dove 1, is also being flown for a commercial customer, Orbital officials said.

Orbital is one of two companies with NASA contracts to deliver space station cargo. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) also has a $1.6 billion deal for at least 12 cargo missions using its Falcon 9 rockets and unmanned Dragon space capsules.

NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in 2011, so the space agency is relying on Orbital Sciences and SpaceX to fly American cargo to the International Space Station. NASA officials also hope to launch American astronauts to the station using private spaceships by 2017. Currently, the U.S. space agency relies on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the station.

There is a chance that observers along? much of the U.S. East Coast could spot the Antares rocket soaring toward space during today's launch test. NASA has advised local observers to watch the launch from its Wallops Flight Facility Visitors Center or the nearby Assateague National Seashore. Maps and graphics released by Orbital?officials, however, suggest the launch could be seen from as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south as Charleston, S.C., weather permitting.

Editor's note:?If you snap a great photo of Orbital's Antares rocket launch that?you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him?@tariqjmalik?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/private-rocket-set-launch-today-delays-121300846.html

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Happy 23rd Birthday, Emma Watson!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/happy-23rd-birthday-emma-watson/

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Kelvin Gastelum wins ?The Ultimate Fighter? with upset of Uriah Hall

The Uriah Hall hype train came to a halt on Saturday night as Kelvin Gastelum managed a tight, split-decision win over the heavily favored Uriah Hall in the final of "The Ultimate Fighter" on Saturday night. The judges saw it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 for Gastelum. With the win, Gastelum won the UFC's reality show tournament, a new motorcycle and a six-figure UFC contract.

Hall got to the final by knocking out three straight opponents in spectacular fashion. Gastelum, his teammate on the show, neutralized Hall with several takedowns throughout the bout. Early in the fight, he added in nasty ground and pound with elbows. Hall answered with a big slam in the second round and some takedowns and strikes of his own, but the overwhelming power he used to get to the final was not there.

Gastelum was the last fighter picked by Chael Sonnen during the first episode of the show, but he got to the final with three straight upsets. He continued with the upset win over Hall, and has now guaranteed his spot in the UFC. He still has plenty to prove in the UFC's middleweight division as he looked gassed late in the bout, but being the guy who stopped Hall is a good way to enter the division. At just 21, he has plenty of time to develop into an even better middleweight.

Hall's loss was shocking because the three straight wins he rattled off to get to the final were so overwhelming. His knockout of Adam Cella in the first round was one of the most memorable in TUF history, and earned him a $25,000 bonus as the fans voted it the best of the season. Sonnen, who coached Hall during the show, said that Hall was well on his way to being a UFC champion.

He has been such a popular fighter this season that it's highly likely that Hall will still get another shot in the UFC. But the buzz around him will drop off considerably, and his rise to the top of the MMA world will not be as fast as everyone expected.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Arizona State AD upset with Notre Dame over possible game cancellation
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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/kelvin-gastlum-wins-ultimate-fighter-upset-uriah-hall-034306348--mma.html

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Russia bans 18 Americans after similar US move

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia on Saturday banned 18 Americans from entering the country in response to Washington imposing sanctions on 18 Russians for alleged human rights violations.

The list released by the Foreign Ministry includes John Yoo, a former U.S. Justice Department official who wrote legal memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques; David Addington, the chief of staff for former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney; and two former commanders of the Guantanamo Bay detention center: retired Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and Adm. Jeffrey Harbeson.

The move came a day after the U.S. announced its sanctions under the Magnitsky Law, named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian police officials of stealing $230 million in tax rebates. He died in prison the next year, allegedly after being beaten and denied medical treatment.

The U.S. State Department released a statement Saturday in response to Russia's latest decision.

"As we've said many times before, the right response by Russia to the international outcry over Sergey Magnitsky's death would be to conduct a proper investigation and hold those responsible for his death accountable, rather than engage in tit-for-tat retaliation," according to the statement.

Neither Washington nor Moscow put high-ranking or politically prominent figures on their lists, perhaps aiming to limit the effect on U.S.-Russian relations that have deteriorated, despite President Barack Obama's initiative to "reset" relations with Moscow.

The Magnitsky law infuriated Russian authorities, and parliament quickly passed a retaliatory measure than banned Americans from adopting Russian children. Russia also has banned U.S. funding for any non-governmental organization deemed to be engaging in politics.

"I think that both sides showed a definite restraint because in Washington and in Moscow there were hotheads demanding to inflate the list to an unthinkable size," parliament member Vyacheslav Nikonov, who focuses on foreign affairs, was quoted as saying by the news agency Interfax.

The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying there also is a "closed part" of the list of banned Americans and that the U.S. knows of its existence. The U.S. law in turn allows the administration to compile a separate classified list of Russian officials subject to visa bans.

The public U.S. list includes Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, two Russian Interior Ministry officers who put Magnitsky behind bars after he accused them of stealing $230 million from the state. Two tax officials the lawyer accused of approving the fraudulent tax refunds, and several other Interior Ministry officials accused of persecuting Magnitsky, also were on the list. Absent were senior officials from Russian President Vladimir Putin's entourage whom some human rights advocates had hoped to see sanctioned.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. sanctions struck "a strong blow to bilateral relations and joint trust."

Also on Russia's list are 14 Americans whom Russia says violated the rights of Russians abroad. It does not give specifics of the alleged violations, but includes several current or former federal prosecutors in the case of Viktor Bout, the Russian arms merchant sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison for selling weapons to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group.

A federal judge, one FBI agent and four U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents also are on the list. Some of them were involved in the case of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted for drug smuggling.

"It's important that the criteria on which the Russian list was composed differ fundamentally from the Americans'. On the Russian list, including the closed part, are people actually responsible for the legalization of torture and indefinite detention of prisoners in Guantanamo, for arrests and unjust sentences for our countrymen," Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

___

Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-bans-18-americans-similar-us-move-083713754.html

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Kobe out for season with torn Achilles tendon

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) ? Kobe Bryant had surgery Saturday on his torn Achilles tendon, ending his season with two games left in the Los Angeles Lakers' playoff chase.

Lakers trainer Gary Vitti thinks Bryant will need at least six to nine months for recovery from the most serious injury of his 17-year NBA career. Given Bryant's history of swift recovery from countless minor injuries, Vitti and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak both believe the 34-year-old guard could be back for their season opener in the fall.

"I think that's a realistic goal for him, based on what he was talking about this morning," Kupchak said at the Lakers' training complex after visiting Bryant at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic.

Bryant completely tore his left Achilles tendon late in the Lakers' 118-116 win over Golden State on Friday night, falling to the hardwood after pushing off his planted foot in an ordinary move toward the hoop. Although he stayed in the game to hit two tying free throws with 3:08 to play, Bryant's season was over.

Bryant's foot will be immobilized for about a month to prevent him from stretching out the tendon, followed by a lengthy rehabilitation process. Nobody knows how the injury will affect Bryant's play, but his decision to have surgery less than 24 hours after getting hurt suggests he's determined to get back on top swiftly.

"He's already taken the challenge," Vitti said. "For us, it's going to be trying to slow him down."

And while it's far too early to predict exactly when Bryant will be back, the Lakers say they wouldn't consider parting ways with their franchise player, who will make nearly $30.5 million next year. If the Lakers used the amnesty clause on Bryant in early July, they could save possibly $80 million in luxury taxes.

"That's not even something that we've discussed," Kupchak said. "That's the furthest thing from our mind right now."

While the rest of the Lakers prepared for their final two regular-season games in a tumultuous season, Bryant's injury left many Lakers fans wondering whether the club had done enough to protect Bryant from himself.

The fourth-leading scorer in NBA history has logged heavy minutes all season on his high-mileage legs, basically dictating his own playing time while the Lakers chased a playoff spot. He has played far more minutes than any other NBA player over 30, including nearly 46 minutes per game in the seven games leading up to Friday night.

"Shame they ran him into the ground," tweeted Clippers forward Matt Barnes, Bryant's teammate with the Lakers in the previous two seasons.

Bryant simply doesn't like to sit out, even when he's hobbling ? as he was Friday night after hyperextending his left knee early in the second half. While Achilles tendon tears can occur in athletes under any level of stress, even first-year coach Mike D'Antoni acknowledged he might have forced Bryant to sit out a bit more if the Lakers weren't desperate for every victory to stay in playoff position.

"He's a warrior," D'Antoni said. "All I do is respect what he wanted to do for the franchise and the city. He's earned the right to do certain things. ... I would have probably (made Bryant rest more) if we were comfortably in the playoffs. When you're trying to win at all cost, maybe you make some decisions that you'd better not."

Kupchak said the Lakers' leadership doesn't hold D'Antoni responsible for not overriding Bryant's decisions. Bryant has played more than 38 minutes per game this season, tops among his teammates.

"I don't think Mike is at blame here one bit," Kupchak said. "Even if you take Kobe out of a game, there's a lot of times where he'll just get up and put himself back in the game. ... I spoke to Kobe about 10 days ago about the 48-minute thing ... and I said, 'I have concerns.' His message to me was, 'Mitch, I hear what you're saying, but we've got to get into the playoffs, and I'm playing, and there's nothing you can do about it.'"

Los Angeles (43-37), which hosts San Antonio on Sunday and Houston on Wednesday, is one game ahead of the Utah Jazz (42-38) for the final postseason spot in the Western Conference. Utah holds the tiebreaker, which means the Lakers must finish one game ahead to make the playoffs for the 16th time in Bryant's career.

Even if the Lakers hang on for a likely first-round matchup with defending conference champion Oklahoma City, the NBA playoffs will go on without Bryant for the first time since 2005.

"You always want the game's best stars in the postseason," Miami guard James Jones said. "That's when everyone is watching. That's when our audience is captivated. You want our best players out there to give fans the best product. Unfortunately, things like this happen, and you just wish him a speedy recovery."

Bryant's injury inspired an outpouring of support across the league, with everyone from LeBron James to Chris Paul tweeting words of support.

"I love the fact that he got up and made two free throws with a torn Achilles," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "I'd have been lying on the floor crying like a baby. ... He is as tough as a competitor as we've seen ? ever. You know, he'll be missed. I would love him to be healthy, but he's not going to be, and we're going to miss him."

Bryant fought back tears in the locker room moments after learning his tendon was torn, and he wrote a lengthy Facebook post about his injury early Saturday morning, saying his "frustration is unbearable."

"Why the hell did this happen ?!?" Bryant wrote. "Makes no damn sense. Now I'm supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!? How in the world am I supposed to do that?? "

He added: "Maybe this is how my book ends. Maybe Father Time has defeated me...Then again maybe not!"

"One day, the beginning of a new career journey will commence. Today is NOT that day."

Bryant's spirits had improved by the time he got to the hospital, where he put photos of himself going into an MRI machine and preparing for surgery.

Bryant has been ferociously competitive while trying to keep the Lakers' playoff hopes afloat during a season featuring an awful start, an early coaching change and countless smaller setbacks along the way, many due to injuries. While most of his teammates sat out significant stretches with various ailments during the season, Bryant played through a sprained ankle and countless minor woes, missing only two games.

"We have a strong, deep team," said Gasol, who had a triple-double against Golden State. "We have high-quality players that are experienced and ready for a challenge. We're fueled by these injuries. We want to take on the challenge and prove we're a good team even without our best player."

The star-packed roster assembled by Kupchak last summer has played together for just a few games this season, thanks to a staggering stretch of serious injuries.

Gasol, Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Hill all have missed large chunks of the season, and Howard has struggled to get back to full strength while recovering from offseason back surgery and a nagging torn labrum in his right shoulder. Antawn Jamison will need offseason surgery on his injured right wrist, and Metta World Peace recently came back a month earlier than expected from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee ? although he appears to be nowhere close to full strength.

"If you look at our season, it's been a nightmare," Vitti said. "When you try to look at the whys, it's bad luck."

Jodie Meeks, averaging 8.0 points, will start in Bryant's spot against the Spurs. The Lakers won't know until game time whether Nash will return from a right hamstring injury that has kept him out for six games.

The Lakers are likely to rely heavily on their big-man duo of Gasol and Howard, two proven veteran scorers who have worked together splendidly on occasion. During Los Angeles' win over Golden State, Gasol embraced a playmaking role and threw a series of alley-oops to Howard, who addressed the team after practice Saturday.

"We know what we have to do," said Howard, an unrestricted free agent this summer. "We know he's out, but we can't put our heads down like it's over with. We have to go out there and play. We have a lot of talented guys on this team. I think we can accomplish something great, with or without Kobe."

___

AP Sports Writers Tim Reynolds in Miami and Kyle Hightower in Orlando contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kobe-season-torn-achilles-tendon-203141950--spt.html

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Keith Richards joins Clapton at Crossroads Festival

NEW YORK (AP) ? Eric Clapton's Crossroads festival has become the mecca for riff worshippers, so it was appropriate that guitar deity Keith Richards made a surprise appearance to perform with Clapton.

The Rolling Stone received perhaps the most sustained standing ovation of the night as he joined his old pal toward the end of Crossroads, a two-night concert festival at Madison Square Garden that brought together a dazzling array of guitar masters, from John Mayer to Jeff Beck to legends like Buddy Guy, and of course, Clapton and Richards.

Richards ? whose Stones announced another tour earlier this month ? flashed his typical wry smile to the crowd before joining Clapton in playing the blues standard and Clapton favorite "Key to the Highway. "

"Now we're gonna rock it up," Richards said before launching into "Sweet Little Rock N' Roller."

Richards' appearance was only the beginning of Clapton's hour-plus long set, which included hits like "Crossroads" and "Little Queen of Spades." It also featured other special guests, like Robbie Robertson, who sang the classic "I Shall Be Released."

"I just want to say it's an honor to be here in honor of Crossroads and Eric Clapton," said Robertson.

Crossroads Guitar Festival, which benefits Clapton's Crossroads Centre for substance abuse in Antigua, has been held every three years since 2004; this Friday and Saturday was its first at Madison Square Garden.

The show lasted almost five hours, with each performer showcasing his own particular brand of wizardry on the instrument (all the headliners were men, though there were a few women as supporting players in the program).

Clapton joined Los Lobos and Robert Cray early on and Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks played an acoustic set and brought out Gregg Allman. Keb' Mo' and Taj Mahal paid tribute to the blues in their acoustic set, while newcomer Gary Clark Jr. had the crowd on its feet throughout most of his electrifying set, which was followed by another fiery set, this one by Jeff Beck.

Other highlights a performance by blues great Buddy Guy an a set from Vince Gill, Keith Urban and Albert Lee.

"It's one of the greatest things that ever happened, getting this invitation from Eric Clapton," Gill gushed onstage.

The night ended with just about all of the evening's performers coming back on stage for a jam session with Clapton.

"See you in three years," Clapton told the crowd before exiting the stage.

___

Online:

http://www.crossroadsguitarfestival.com

http://crossroadsantigua.org

http://www.ericclapton.com

___

Follow Nekesa Mumbi Moody at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/richards-joins-clapton-crossroads-festival-064148063.html

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Syria blasts international envoy ahead of briefing

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syrian state media are accusing the U.N.'s envoy of being a "false witness" as he prepares to brief the international body on the country's two-year old conflict.

Al-Thawra daily said Saturday that Lakhdar Brahimi has taken sides in the conflict and his briefing "will not alleviate the suffering of Syrians."

The U.N. and Arab League envoy for Syria is scheduled to address the Security Council on Thursday.

Brahimi has not been able to make progress in his mission to push forward a peace plan for Syria first presented in June at an international conference in Geneva.

He angered the Syrian government by saying in December that the four-decade rule of the Assad family had gone on "too long."

Syria accused him of interfering in its internal affairs.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-blasts-international-envoy-ahead-briefing-100219794.html

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On Immigration, Passage Is Only the Beginning

IN THE NEWS: Bipartisan House duo to introduce gun bill ? Gang of Eight settles on ?cutoff date? for legal status ? How Washington ruined governors ? OFA?s meager fundraising ? Cohen says Lauper tweet was a ruse ? Did humans eat Neanderthals?

THE TAKE

On Immigration, Passage Is Only the Beginning

It?s finally coming. That immigration bill from the Gang of Eight should make its appearance soon and with it a chance of creating a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has thrown his money and prestige behind the effort and momentum seems to be there. Even tea-party types such as Rand Paul are showing sympathy for the idea of a pathway.

But it?s worth remembering that in 1986, Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform and it didn?t work very well. The Immigration and Reform Control Act of 1986, or the Simpson-Mazzoli bill, granted a kind of amnesty. But it didn?t stem illegal immigration, of course.

This new Marco Rubio-blessed legislation may have momentum. But like all big shifts in policy, it could come with unintended consequences, too. Passage is just the beginning.

Matthew Cooper
mcooper@nationaljournal.com

TOP NEWS

KING AND THOMPSON FOLLOW MANCHIN, TOOMEY?S LEAD. Following Wednesday?s announcement of a bipartisan agreement on firearms background checks by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., plan to introduce a corresponding bill in the House next week, Politico reports. King said Friday, ?I?ve known Pat from the House. We started working with his office. We?re going to introduce the bill, it will probably be Monday or Tuesday at the latest.? We?re also showing [it] to a number of possible other cosponsors.? Read more

GANG OF EIGHT SETTLES ON CUTOFF DATE. A comprehensive immigration-reform proposal from the Gang of Eight reportedly would bar any undocumented persons who arrived in the United States after Dec. 31, 2011, from applying for legal status, The New York Times reports. While Democratic members of the group pushed for a cutoff of Jan. 1, 2013, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sought an earlier date. Read more

• Rubio has reportedly decided to commit fully to comprehensive reform, and ?is planning a media blitz to promote the bill,? including appearances on the Sunday talk shows and appeals to Spanish-language media and conservative radio hosts. Read more
  

SEBELIUS DISCUSSES ?CULTURE OF VIOLENCE.? During testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, where she was to defend her department?s budget request, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed the impact of violence on the nation?s children, The Washington Examiner reports. ?I think we have a culture of violence in this country that is alarming, it clearly has different impact on different people, but there's no question that it does have at minimum a desensitization for a lot of developing minds about what the impact of violence is and certainly for someone who is disturbed may have an even more frightening impact." Read more

• The New York Timesreports that lawmakers are quietly working on several plans that would ?lead to some of the most significant advancements in treating mental illness in years,? and that the plans stand a good chance of inclusion in a final gun-control bill.

OBAMA GROUP RAISES MODEST $4.8 MILLION. Organizing for Action, the independent group made up of former Obama campaign staffers, raised just $4.8 million in the first quarter of 2013, the Associated Press reported. In an e-mail to supporters, the group ? which is pressuring lawmakers on gun and immigration legislation ? said that 109,000 people donated, with an average donation of $44. Read more

McCOTTER SUES FORMER STAFFERS OVER PETITION SCANDAL. Former Rep. Thad McCotter, R-Mich., who resigned from Congress in 2012 after failing to secure the requisite signatures for a primary ballot slot, has filed a lawsuit against former deputy district director Don Yowchuang and former student intern Dillon Breen, alleging that the two ?purposefully submitted forged petitions in order to keep McCotter off the ballot.? Yowchuang received probation after pleading no contest to forgery charges, while Breen was not criminally charged in the case. Read more

HOW WASHINGTON RUINED GOVERNORS. It used to be governors cared more about problem solving than ideology. But across the full range of economic and cultural issues, Democratic and Republican state officials are pulling apart far more than they did as recently as two decades ago. On gun control, gay marriage, immigration, taxes, and participation in President Obama's health care law, among other issues, states that lean red and those that lean blue are diverging to an extent that is straining the boundaries of federalism, National Journal's Ronald Brownstein and Stephanie Czekalinski report. Read more

COHEN SAYS LAUPER TWEET WAS A RUSE. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., actually convened a press conference Friday to discuss his since-deleted tweet praising the pop star Cyndi Lauper as ?hot.? His explanation: it was all a clever deception to get the press to draw attention to the Memphis music scene. Cohen said he learned his lesson when his recent tweets to a young model raised eyebrows (turns out the model was a long-lost daughter he had only become acquainted with recently). Read more

QUOTABLE

?First time I can remember having a joint Democrats and Republicans lunch since I?ve been here.? ? Sen. Bob Corker on Thursday?s joint Senate lunch (Roll Call) ??

BEDTIME READING

WHY DID THE NEANDERTHALS DISAPPEAR? DID HUMANS EAT THEM? For 200,000 years, Neanderthals ruled Europe and Asia. Then within 15,000 years of contact with modern humans, they were suddenly, and mysteriously, gone. What happened? Bones, teeth, and new DNA mapping technology are providing the answers. ?A deeper desperation is etched in their bones,? Hall writes. ?These fractures were?clop?made by humans," said Antonio Rosas of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, imitating the blow of a stone tool. Whether for food or rituals, humans cannibalized their close relatives. And as researchers piece together Neanderthal DNA, it?s increasingly apparent that Neanderthals were closer to humans than previously thought. Read more

PLAY OF THE DAY

LASSOING AN ASTEROID. North Korea's threats toward the United States continue to be in the news, as the one-year anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un?s ascension to power was celebrated. Conan O?Brien mentioned the anniversary in regard to Kim?s lack of height. Meanwhile, Jay Leno looked at a new survey that says half of voters would vote for Ronald Reagan over Obama; The Daily Show?s Jon Stewart was interested in the African-American vote in the 2012 election; and as NASA announced plans this week to lasso an asteroid close to the moon for study, Stephen Colbert was curious as to the purpose of the program. Watch it here

THE QURIK

CHINESE NEWS FALLS FOR SATIRE OF NORTH KOREA THREATENING MICROSOFT According to The New Yorker?s Andy Borowitz, a potential North Korean nuclear-missile test (that even has the Pentagon on alert) went awry this week thanks to an unspecified glitch in Windows 8. A media outlet in China picked up the piece?not realizing that The Borowitz Report is totally, hilariously fake. The Guangdong-based 21st Century Business Herald, a daily with a circulation of 762,000, rebroadcast the news, unaware that it was picking up a satirical item from the noted humorist.

SUNDAY TV

IMMIGRATION AND GUNS. This week will feature Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., touting immigration reform on no fewer than six Sunday shows. The week will also feature two other big newsmakers: Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., architects of this week?s deal on background checks.

NBC?s Meet the Press hosts Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

CBS?s Face the Nation hosts Rubio, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., with her husband, Mark Kelly.

ABC?s This Week hosts Rubio, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

Fox News Sunday hosts Rubio, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn

CNN?s State of the Union hosts Rubio, Manchin, and Toomey

Bloomberg?s Capitol Gains hosts Fannie Mae CEO Tim Mayopoulos and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

C-SPAN?s Newsmakers features Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.

Subscribe to The EdgeSee The Edge Archive

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-passage-only-beginning-160701958--politics.html

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Code In Twitter Music's Placeholder Page Shows Web Interface, Track Purchasing, Charts And Service Integrations

Since we have nothing much to go on other than a static landing page for Twitter #music, some folks didfurther inspection within the CSS on the login page, and certain features and integrations became apparent. We’ve reached out to Twitter to confirm what we’ve seen, and we’ll update our story once we hear back. Until then, here’s what can be taken from the styling code itself, picked up on by desginer Youssef Sarhan: - Both web interface and separate downloadable app - Pull in Tracks from iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and Rdio - YouTube and Vevo integration - We Are Hunted’s charts feature - Turn playing tracks on/off - Track purchasing - Tweet a track .iconmusic-spotify-connect-btn{background-position:-4431px -0px;height:32px;width:179px} .iconmusic-player-source-rdio{background-position:-2801px -0px;height:19px;width:30px} .iconmusic-player-source-itunes{background-position:-2751px -0px;height:19px;width:30px} .iconmusic-player-source-soundcloud{background-position:- 2851px -0px;height:14px;width:92px} .iconmusic-player-source-vevo{background-position:-2963px -0px;height:9px;width:53px} .youtube-vid player{position:absolute;padding:10px;height:200px} While this is in no way a finalized “feature set” for the Twitter #Music app, it is more information than we had before and confirmation of what we’ve seen others testing out on Twitter, which are basically embedded music players in Twitter Cards. And of course, since this is a Twitter-owned page, so the code speaks for itself. Here’s a look at what the player will look like, again referenced in the CSS for the page: Here’s that on/off switch for playing tracks: These are some random graphical elements that point to what services will be included as well: In addition to all of this, it looks like Twitter will be bringing in bios of musicians, perhaps from their Twitter profiles. All of this integration makes complete sense and perhaps the selling of music will be controlled by the artist themselves. If you’re listening to a track that someone shared from Spotify and want to purchase it immediately, it doesn’t matter which service Twitter hooks into, there’s a good chance that you’re going to follow through with your purchase. This could mean big bucks for Twitter as it marches towards going public, perhaps as early as next year. This all gives us more of a sense of what the #Music service itself might look like, even though we have no screenshots to prove it. Much in the way that Twitter set up “hashtag pages” for brands such as NASCAR, Twitter is taking all of the data that it’s currently collecting and just showing it off in a different, more consumable way. If #Music becomes a full-featured service that artists can use to sell

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GHUWN63rVqk/

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Redesigned material could lead to lighter, faster electronics

Apr. 10, 2013 ? The same material that formed the first primitive transistors more than 60 years ago can be modified in a new way to advance future electronics, according to a new study.

Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed the technology for making a one-atom-thick sheet of germanium, and found that it conducts electrons more than ten times faster than silicon and five times faster than conventional germanium.

The material's structure is closely related to that of graphene -- a much-touted two-dimensional material composed of single layers of carbon atoms. As such, graphene shows unique properties compared to its more common multilayered counterpart, graphite. Graphene has yet to be used commercially, but experts have suggested that it could one day form faster computer chips, and maybe even function as a superconductor, so many labs are working to develop it.

Joshua Goldberger, assistant professor of chemistry at Ohio State, decided to take a different direction and focus on more traditional materials.

"Most people think of graphene as the electronic material of the future," Goldberger said. "But silicon and germanium are still the materials of the present. Sixty years' worth of brainpower has gone into developing techniques to make chips out of them. So we've been searching for unique forms of silicon and germanium with advantageous properties, to get the benefits of a new material but with less cost and using existing technology."

In a paper published online in the journal ACS Nano, he and his colleagues describe how they were able to create a stable, single layer of germanium atoms. In this form, the crystalline material is called germanane.

Researchers have tried to create germanane before. This is the first time anyone has succeeded at growing sufficient quantities of it to measure the material's properties in detail, and demonstrate that it is stable when exposed to air and water.

In nature, germanium tends to form multilayered crystals in which each atomic layer is bonded together; the single-atom layer is normally unstable. To get around this problem, Goldberger's team created multi-layered germanium crystals with calcium atoms wedged between the layers. Then they dissolved away the calcium with water, and plugged the empty chemical bonds that were left behind with hydrogen. The result: they were able to peel off individual layers of germanane.

Studded with hydrogen atoms, germanane is even more chemically stable than traditional silicon. It won't oxidize in air and water, as silicon does. That makes germanane easy to work with using conventional chip manufacturing techniques.

The primary thing that makes germanane desirable for optoelectronics is that it has what scientists call a "direct band gap," meaning that light is easily absorbed or emitted. Materials such as conventional silicon and germanium have indirect band gaps, meaning that it is much more difficult for the material to absorb or emit light.

"When you try to use a material with an indirect band gap on a solar cell, you have to make it pretty thick if you want enough energy to pass through it to be useful. A material with a direct band gap can do the same job with a piece of material 100 times thinner," Goldberger said.

The first-ever transistors were crafted from germanium in the late 1940s, and they were about the size of a thumbnail. Though transistors have grown microscopic since then -- with millions of them packed into every computer chip -- germanium still holds potential to advance electronics, the study showed.

According to the researchers' calculations, electrons can move through germanane ten times faster through silicon, and five times faster than through conventional germanium. The speed measurement is called electron mobility.

With its high mobility, germanane could thus carry the increased load in future high-powered computer chips.

"Mobility is important, because faster computer chips can only be made with faster mobility materials," Golberger said. "When you shrink transistors down to small scales, you need to use higher mobility materials or the transistors will just not work," Goldberger explained.

Next, the team is going to explore how to tune the properties of germanane by changing the configuration of the atoms in the single layer.

Lead author of the paper was Ohio State undergraduate chemistry student Elizabeth Bianco, who recently won the first place award for this research at the nationwide nanotechnology competition NDConnect, hosted by the University of Notre Dame. Other co-authors included Sheneve Butler and Shishi Jiang of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Oscar Restrepo and Wolfgang Windl of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The research was supported in part by an allocation of computing time from the Ohio Supercomputing Center, with instrumentation provided by the Analytical Surface Facility in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Ohio State University Undergraduate Instrumental Analysis Program. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, the Center for Emergent Materials at Ohio State, and the university's Materials Research Seed Grant Program.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Pam Frost Gorder.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Elisabeth Bianco, Sheneve Butler, Shishi Jiang, Oscar D. Restrepo, Wolfgang Windl, Joshua E. Goldberger. Stability and Exfoliation of Germanane: A Germanium Graphane Analogue. ACS Nano, 2013; : 130326123449003 DOI: 10.1021/nn4009406

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/w9fiRPZ0kZo/130410131502.htm

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Rebel Wilson Will Teach Us How To 'Catfish' At The 2013 MTV Movie Awards Pre-show

The first season of "Catfish" shined a light on a dark corner of internet relationships where people misrepresent themselves to the people who have fallen in love with them. A big part of what was so shocking about "Catfish" was that the people Nev and Max found seems so normal, just like you and me. [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/09/rebel-wilson-catfish-mtv-movie-awards/

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MacBreak Weekly 345: Beyonc?'s Baby Bump

Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko and I talk about the latest Apple rumors including the new iPhone, the $13,000 OS, and more.

Download and subscribe: TWiT.tv

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/tloM8E34k0s/story01.htm

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Israel closes Gaza crossing after rockets fired

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel shut a crossing with Gaza after rockets were fired from the Hamas-ruled territory at the Jewish state on the day it commemorated the Holocaust.

The military said it closed the Kerem Shalom terminal Monday. Another crossing would be open for humanitarian cases only, it said.

Israel has blockaded the coastal territory since the Islamic militant Hamas took over in 2007.

Israeli police said several rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel the previous evening, as annual ceremonies were held nationwide to remember the 6 million Jews murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators.

Israeli TV showed footage of people in the south of the country abandoning a memorial ceremony and running for cover as sirens wailed warning of incoming rockets.

No injuries resulted from the attack, police said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-08-ML-Israel-Palestinians/id-49342ab296a743588f0b0b777f99663c

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Distorted thinking in gambling addiction: What are the cognitive and neural mechanisms?

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Fascinating new studies into brain activity and behavioural responses have highlighted the overlap between pathological gambling and drug addiction. The research, which is presented at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013)? has implications for both the treatment and prevention of problem gambling.

Dr Luke Clark, a senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge (UK), told the meeting that neurocognitive tests of impulsivity and compulsivity, and also positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the brain have started to show how gambling becomes addictive in pathological gamblers -- people whose gambling habit has spiralled out of control and become a problem.

"Around 70% of the British population will gamble occasionally, but for some of these people, it will become a problem," he said. "Our work has been seeking to understand the changes in decision-making that happen in people with gambling problems. It represents the first large scale study of individuals seeking treatment for gambling problems in the UK, at a time when this disorder is being re-classified alongside drug addiction as the first 'behavioural addiction'. Given the unique legislation around gambling from country to country, it is vital that we understand gambling at a national level. For example, 40% of the problem gamblers at the National Problem Gambling Clinic report that the game they have a problem with is roulette on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals; this kind of gambling machine is peculiar to the British gambling landscape."

In collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of the UK's only specialist gambling clinic in the Central and North West London NHS Trust, Dr Clark and his colleagues compared the brains and behaviours of 86 male, pathological gamblers with those of 45 healthy men without a gambling problem.

"We approach gambling within the framework of addiction, where we think that problematic gambling arises from a combination of individual risk factors, such as genetics, and features of the games themselves. To study individual factors, we have been testing gamblers at the National Problem Gambling Clinic on neurocognitive tests of impulsivity and compulsivity, and we have also measured their dopamine levels using PET imaging," said Dr Clark.

The tests showed that problem gamblers had increased impulsivity, similar to people with alcohol and drug addictions, but there was less evidence of compulsivity. Levels of dopamine -- a neurotransmitter involved in signalling between nerve cells and which is implicated in drug addiction -- showed differences in the more impulsive gamblers.

"Previous PET research has shown that people with drug addiction have reduced dopamine receptors. We predicted the same effect in pathological gamblers, but we did not see any group differences between the pathological gamblers and healthy men. Nevertheless, the problem gamblers do show some individual differences in their dopamine function, related to their levels of impulsivity: more impulsive gamblers showed fewer dopamine receptors," said Dr Clark. "These studies highlight the overlap between pathological gambling and drug addiction.

"To study the properties of the games themselves and how they relate to problem gambling, we have focussed on two psychological distortions that occur across many forms of gambling: 'near-miss' outcomes (where a loss looks similar or 'close' to a jackpot win) and the 'gambler's fallacy' (for example, believing that a run of heads means that a tail is 'due', in a game of chance). In one important discovery, we were the first lab to show that gambling 'near-misses' recruit brain regions that overlap with those recruited in gambling 'wins'. These responses may cause 'near-misses' to maintain gambling play despite their objective status as losses."

Dr Clark said that these findings had implications for both prevention and treatment. "Gambling distortions like the 'near-miss' effect may be amenable to both psychological therapies for problem gambling, and also by drug treatments that may act on the underlying brain systems. By understanding the styles of thinking that characterise the problem gambler, we may also be able to improve education about gambling in teenagers and young adults, to reduce the number of people developing a gambling problem."

The researchers also found a striking demonstration of the underlying brain regions that are involved in gambling when they studied the gambling behaviour of patients who had experienced brain injury due to a tumour or stroke.

"We have seen that two gambling distortions -- the 'gambler's fallacy' and the 'near-miss' effect -- that are evident in the general population, and which appear to be increased in problem gamblers, are actually abolished in patients with damage to the insula region of the brain," he said. "This suggests that in the healthy brain, the insula may be a critical area in generating these distorted expectancies during gambling play, and that interventions to reduce insula activity may have treatment potential.

"The insula is quite a mysterious part of the brain, tucked deep inside the lateral fissure. It is important in processing pain and, more broadly, in representing the state of the body in the brain, and it is striking that gambling is a very visceral, exciting activity. Our ongoing neuroimaging work will look at the relationship between responses in the insula and the body during our gambling tests."

Future work will investigate the styles of thinking that are in evidence when the problem gamblers at the National Problem Gambling Clinic play the simplified games the researchers have developed. "This is the first study to directly look at whether these biases are more pronounced in problem gamblers. We are also starting to recruit the siblings of problem gamblers (those who do not have a gambling problem themselves) in order to look at underlying vulnerability factors," concluded Dr Clark.

This research is funded by grants from the UK's Medical Research Council, and involves further collaboration with researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/FIugbNX4fB0/130408085046.htm

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How communities effectively punish antisocial behavior

Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research provides an insight into how groups of people tackle social dilemmas and effectively punish those engaging in anti-social behaviour.

Neighbours playing loud music is an example of where a social dilemma can arise about who should tackle the wrong-doer if a whole group of people is affected. If everyone expects someone else to punish the wrongdoer, the loud music will persist. However, research by the University of Oxford and the ETH Zurich has revealed that when a group can identify a strong member from amongst themselves, it is more likely that this results in a tacit agreement about who should punish the wrongdoer.

By contrast, when a group finds it hard to identify which of their members is the strongest, the wrongdoer is less likely to be deterred, say the findings published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

In a laboratory experiment, the researchers involved 120 volunteers, divided into groups of four, to play games with money tokens. Each player was given a bank of 140 money tokens with one of the four randomly assigned as the cheat. The cheat could decide whether to refrain from cheating and gain nothing, or risk cheating to potentially gain 70 tokens from each of the three players. The three players had to decide independently whether to challenge the cheat to reclaim the money for themselves, as well as the other players -- the snag being that the challenge would entail a monetary cost to the challenger while the free-riding players would retrieve the full 70 tokens. However, if none of the players challenged the cheat, the cheat would keep their tokens and get away with it.

First, the cost for the player challenging the cheat was set at 30 tokens, meaning that player could only claim 40 tokens while a free-rider received back 70 tokens. In this set of games, about one-third (35 per cent) of the players challenged the cheat to reclaim the money, despite the cost to themselves.

A marked change in the pattern emerged, however, when the costs to the challengers were made slightly unequal. While two of three players would lose 40 tokens for challenging the cheat, the other one of the three would only lose 30 tokens. In these games, a tacit agreement set in that the strongest of them, i.e. the player with the least to lose, should challenge the cheat, even though the differences in the monetary strengths of the players were only small. The researchers also varied the size of the penalty that would be imposed on the cheat to assess what role this played to stop cheating behaviour.

They found that in groups with a strong player, money tokens were reclaimed from the cheat by the strong player in 83 per cent of cases. What is more, when the penalty for cheating was increased from 0 to 40 penalty points, this resulted in a substantial reduction of cheating in groups with a strong player; a reduction as high as in groups with all equal players where the penalty for cheating was increased from 0 to 120 penalty points.

Surprisingly perhaps, the researchers discovered that when the wrongdoer knew that there was a strong player in the group and the risk of punishment was therefore high, this proved to be as effective a deterrent as monetary penalties three times higher in groups with players of equal strength.

Co-author Dr Wojtek Przepiorka, from the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, said: 'Our findings help us understand how social order was possible in human prehistory, where official law enforcement bodies did not exist. It suggests that the natural order was for groups where someone was marked out as the strongest would be more likely to challenge the wrongdoer. The idea of who was strongest would have varied according to the society's norms and culture: it could be body size, wealth, valour or other endowments.

'Interestingly this certainty of being punished can be a stronger deterrent than the size of the penalty itself. This is also informative of cooperative behaviour amongst members of a community and indicates how social norms may have developed.'

Andreas Diekmann, Professor of Sociology at ETH Zurich, who also authored the study, said: 'It is important to learn more about how social order has emerged in human groups without third party intervention. In contrast to previous studies, with our experiment we were able to demonstrate that it is possible to solve cooperation problems without assuming individuals with punitive preferences. A very small degree of inequality amongst the group members is enough to make the punishment of wrongdoers more likely and this has a deterrent effect. As a result, antisocial behaviour is reduced substantially even though punishment is rarely exercised.'

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oxford.

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Journal Reference:

1. W. Przepiorka, A. Diekmann. Individual heterogeneity and costly punishment: a volunteer's dilemma. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2013; 280 (1759): 20130247 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0247

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/HocihPqN_Ug/130407144507.htm

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Source: http://garage-door.ezinemark.com/how-to-find-the-perfect-garage-door-7d388bd37830.html

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