Talks to end Quebec tuition hike standoff collapse

Montreal police and protesters face off on May 23, 2012 during
 a demonstration against student tuition hikes. Nearly 700 people were arrested overnight in rowdy 

TALKS between students and the Quebec government aimed at ending months of protests over a proposed tuition hike have collapsed, with nightly street demonstrations showing no sign of abating.

TALKS between students and the Quebec government aimed at ending months of protests over a proposed tuition hike have collapsed, with nightly street demonstrations showing no sign of abating.

Four days of negotiations had failed to reach an agreement, provincial premier Jean Charest said Thursday after students presented what they called their "bottom line" position to the Quebec government.

"The negotiations have been suspended," he told a press conference.

"Obviously we're disappointed. I would have preferred to have come to an agreement but unfortunately... there is still a divide between the positions of the government and the representatives of the student associations."


Earlier, student leaders accused the government of breaking off the negotiations for partisan ideological reasons.

The president of the federation of Quebec college students, Leo Bureau-Blouin, said they had presented government negotiators with proposals "that would not have cost the government or taxpayers a thing."

"But for political reasons, the government could not accept our demands," he said.   (AFP)

'New HIV/AIDS Of The Americas'

Chagas disease, a tropical illness that is transmitted by biting insects, may pose a major unseen threat to poor populations in the Americas and Europe, according to a report published May 29 in the journal PLoS.

The editorial, which was co-authored by several experts in tropical diseases from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, likens some aspects of the disease to that of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

"Endemic Chagas disease has emerged as an important health disparity in the Americas," the authors wrote. "As a result, we face a situation in both Latin America and the US that bears a resemblance to the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Like AIDS, Chagas disease, which is already prevalent in Central and South America, "has a long incubation time and is hard or impossible to cure," The New York Times reports.

The PLoS report found "a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people... who contracted the [HIV/AIDS] in the first two decades of the... epidemic." Among other similarities, the paper notes that both are chronic diseases that require prolonged treatment, and disproportionately affect those living in poverty.

To be clear, there are strong distinctions. Unlike HIV, a sexually transmitted disease, Chagas disease is caused by a parasite spread through bites from reduviid insects commonly known as kissing bugs. While HIV/AIDS attacks the body's immune system, Chagas afflicts the heart and digestive organs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, complications from Chagas disease can include inflammation of the heart, esophagus and colon, as well as irregular heartbeat and heart failure. According to Nature magazine, some believe that the disease may have killed Charles Darwin.

China to push forward equalization of public services

BEIJING, May 16 -- The State Council, or China's Cabinet, announced Wednesday that the government will work to give both urban and rural residents equal access to public services during the 2011-2015 period.

The government will promote a series of "livelihood projects," improve infrastructure and strengthen service networks concerning education, employment, social security, health and housing, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.

The government will prioritize less developed rural regions and impoverished areas by providing them with more fiscal spending and material assistance, according to the statement.

The statement said the government will ensure that fiscal spending on public services will grow according to the nation's economic growth and the government's fiscal income.  (Xinhua)

Marauding students surround police

   Police and students clash at the University of Auckland after the protest got out of control.

(New Zealand) Student protesters chanted "we've got the power" yesterday as they surrounded Auckland central police station after earlier shutting down Queen St.

Police stayed inside as protesters knocked on the station's doors and chanted "free all political prisoners (their colleagues)". In all, 43 protesters were arrested. The police eventually gave up trying to control the spontaneous march through the central city.

The protest was against the Budget and Finance Minister Bill English after education cuts announced in last week's Budget, which limit eligibility for students' allowances and require graduates to repay loans at a rate of 12 per cent of their income rather than 10.

Earlier attempts by police to corral the protesters had led to skirmishes near Symonds St. A group of officers became separated as they tried to make arrests and wrestled on the ground with protesters as jeering crowds surged around them. As a university lecturer appealed for calm other protesters threw shoes at police and tipped off their hats.

After marching through Albert Park the students shut down parts of Queen St twice during peak hour traffic. Several hundred ran through Mid City mall to evade police, who then backed off for the rest of the protest. Students pushed their way into the lobby of SkyCity casino, chanting "f*** the casino", as staff rushed to steer them back outside.

The march culminated with protesters sitting crosslegged on Queen St across from the Town Hall. Traffic was blocked for 30 minutes as protesters chanted "Bill English, we're all Greeks".

New Dell Laptop battery would last more than 30 hours

Though Dell says it's making tracks away from the consumer PC market, it's not out yet. One of the company's newly announced Latitude laptops offers an impressive feature that will make anyone look twice.

The device is the Latitude E6430, and it boasts a staggering battery life of 32.7 hours.

Of course, an extra battery pack is required, but 32.7 hours is still more than four times longer than the MacBook Pro can withhold on a single charge.

Dell achieved the feat by using nine-cell battery along with a secondary battery, or battery slice. However, the battery itself was not the only factor in its extended lifespan. The Latitude E6430 is built around Intel's power-efficient Ivy Bridge processor; Intel told PCWorld that these next-gen chips are "faster on applications and graphics than predecessors" and can "save power through features like the ability to shut down idle cores." The 14-inch laptop also packs a solid state drive, as opposed to a typically more power-hungry spinning hard drive.

Along with the 32.7-hour battery life, the Latitude laptop can also recover 80 percent of its charge within an hour of plugging in.

The price of the business-oriented laptop has yet to be released.

Eurozone Unemployment Remains At Record level

Unemployment across the 17 countries that use the euro stuck at 11 percent in April — the highest level since the single currency was introduced back in 1999, piling further pressure on the region's leaders to switch from austerity to focus on stimulating growth.

The eurozone's stagnant economy left 17.4 million people out of a population of some 330 million without a job, with rates continuing to climb in struggling Spain, Portugal and Greece. The EU's Eurostat office said 110,000 unemployed were added in April alone.

In recession-hit Spain, unemployment spiked to 24.3 percent, the worst rate in the EU. It was up 0.2 points since March, and 3.6 percentage points compared to last year. Youth unemployment ballooned to a 51.5 percent, up from 45 percent last year.


Greece is the bloc's second worst performer with unemployment creeping further upwards to 21.7 percent in February, the last month for which figures are available. It compares to a rate of 16.1 percent a year earlier. The economy in Greece has been contracting far more than expected late last year, taking employment with it in a downward spiral.

Athens is facing June 17 elections where jobs are a key issue together with the fundamental question of whether the country wants to stay in the currency zone.

Like Greece, Ireland has been forced to rely on an international bailout but its economy returned to growth last year. It is beginning to show in the statistics since overall unemployment fell to 14.2 percent, when it stood at 14.7 only in December.

Unemployment was lowest in Austria, whose economy has been outperforming the European Unuon average, with 3.9 percent, followed by Luxembourg and the Netherlands with 5.2 percent.     (AP)

Zombie Apocalypse: CDC Denies Existence Of Zombies Despite Cannibal Incident

The horrific face-eating arrest in Miami and several other seemingly subhuman acts has many people wondering what's behind this flesh-munching wave of terror.

A zombie apocalypse, however, is not what we should be worried about, at least according to the federal government.

Over the years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a couple of tongue-in-cheek "zombie warnings," which really are just disaster-preparedness stunts. But on Thursday, the agency made it official: Zombies don't exist.

"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle in an email to The Huffington Post.

Nevertheless, recent incidents in which humans reportedly ate human flesh have the Internet in a firestorm, with "zombie apocalypse" being Google's third most popular search term by Friday morning.

The zombie craze seemed to start with an attack in Miami on Saturday, when Rudy Eugene, 31, was killed by cops while in the process of eating almost the entirety of a homeless man's face off. Then, on Tuesday, 21-year-old Alexander Kinyua of Maryland allegedly admitted to dismembering his roommate and then eating his heart and brain.

ZOM-BIE: n. also ZOM-BIES pl. 1. An animated corpse that feeds on living human flesh. 2. A voodoo spell that raises the dead. 3. A Voodoo snake god. 4. One who moves or acts in a daze "like a zombie." [a word of West African origin] - Max Brooks, "The Zombie Survival Guide"



Zombie-like characteristics have been confirmed in the animal kingdom, just not in humans. A newfound fungus in a Brazilian rain forest -- called Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani -- is known to infect an ant, take over its brain so as to move the body to a good location for growth, and then kill the insect.

Yet Daigle dismissed "fictional viruses" like Ataxic Neurodegenrative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, noting that other triggers have been alleged to cause zombie-like symptoms.

"Films have included radiation as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles, and rabies," he said.

But recently, some have found truth stranger than fiction.

"Action must be taken now before an outbreak!" an anonymous reader told The Huffington Post. "Zombies may be subdued by destroying the brain or removing the head. It is now your responsibility to prevent the apocalypse."   (Huffingtonpost.com)

Microsoft IE10's new policy upsets advertisers

Microsoft's decision to turn off Web site tracking by default in IE10 is not sitting well with advertisers.

The Do Not Track feature prevents third-party Web sites from tracking your online activity. Web sites that receive the Do Not Track, or DNT, signal from your browser are supposed to honor that request, just as telemarketers are not supposed to call people on a "do not call" registry.

The ability to know where you go and what you do online concerns many users and privacy advocates. But advertisers use such information to determine how and where to target their ads.

Such an option can be enabled or disabled in the browser but has always been disabled by default, allowing the user to make the decision. IE10 in Windows 8 would be the first browser to ship with the option turned on. The Digital Advertising Alliance, which represents advertisers, said it had agreed to honor the DNT policy as long as it was not enabled by default.

Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch tried to justify the choice to turn on DNT by default in IE10 in a blog post yesterday. Lynch said that Microsoft made the decision because the company believes that consumers should have more control over how their online activities are tracked, shared, and used.

Ad companies are supposed to start honoring DNT requests by the end of 2012.But so far they've only agreed not to use the information they collect about users, while the Federal Trade Commission wants them to stop collecting the information in the first place.

Sports History Icon Publishes Memoir, Closes Chapter at MANHATTAN COLLEGE

Renowned writer and history professor George B. Kirsch, Ph.D., has dedicated four decades of his life to teaching American, European and sports history at Manhattan College, including serving as department chair for 17 years.

Now, for the first time, he’s returning to his roots by writing about and teaching his own history, starting at the beginning.

Kirsch recently published Six Guys From Hackensack: Coming of Age in the Real New Jersey, a personal memoir about friendship and growing up in post-World War II America, set against the changing social climate of Hackensack, N.J.

Written in a very different style than his other works (Golf in America, 2009; Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime During the Civil War, 2003; Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States, 2000; Baseball and Cricket: The Creation of American Team Sports, 1989), Six Guys From Hackensack began as a therapeutic exercise when Kirsch’s wife was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) — Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“I thought writing about my life would give it some perspective. It’s not about who wins the World Series,” says Kirsch, a Boston Red Sox fan with a soft spot for underdog stories. “But it’s about who’s in love, who’s sick, who dies. If you capture life like you remember it as kids, then it matters.”

Born in the Northeast Bronx in 1945, Kirsch moved to Hackensack as a child and met the five friends whom the plotline follows through school, Little League, dating and life at college.

These memories and anecdotes are analyzed in the stirring social context of Hackensack in the 1950s and 60s — when shopping malls threatened Main Street businesses such as Kirsch’s father’s dress shop, when schools were on the cusp of integration, and when the country entered the Vietnam War.

Kirsch says the experiences he had growing up in a suburban Jewish household surrounded by Hackensack’s diverse African-American, Italian and Polish neighborhoods have shaped his views on inclusion and ethics — ideals he also encountered at Manhattan College.

“The Lasallian tradition for me meant exploring ethical and moral issues in history,” Kirsch says, noting that he’s valued the support of the Brothers throughout his career, especially their respect for academic and religious freedom.

After graduating from Cornell, Kirsch chose graduate school at Columbia over Harvard Law School. In 1972, he accepted a position at Manhattan College, having just finished his dissertation — a biography of Jeremy Belknap, a Revolutionary War patriot preacher.

In the 1980s, he began teaching one of his favorite pastimes and passions: sports history, which at the time, held a dubious reputation in academia. But Kirsch took the opportunity to launch the department to the front of the sports history movement.

“George uses sports as a way to understand the American dream,” says Jeff Horn, Ph.D., professor and current chair of the history department. “His approach to teaching is to let the history speak for itself. His inspiration is his trust in the judgment of his students, to allow them to make sense of things in their own way and time.”

Connecting sports with history has proven to be a successful model for Kirsch, who has published numerous books in the field, including his most popular Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime During the Civil War (2003), which sold nearly 10,000 copies. He has also contributed to the “Disunion” blog, a Civil War-themed section of The New York Times’ Opinionator column.

Early in his career at Manhattan, Kirsch founded the American studies program. After become chair of the history department in 1984, he oversaw the Robert Christen Program in Early American History and Culture and supervised the hiring of new full-time faculty members. He also took an active interest in Jasper sports, and was instrumental in lobbying for the women’s basketball team to receive varsity status in 1978.

“Given the enormous demands of teaching and serving as chair for 17 years, George has raised a family, he has written many books, he is a model of how younger scholars in every field can carve out the time to continue to have an intellectual life,” Horn says. “And he’s done it with such an understated grace and a genuine generosity of spirit.”

Three years ago, Kirsch set up the George B. and Susan Kirsch Scholarship, which honors his wife, who passed away in 2008, and is awarded to the most outstanding history major enrolled in the school of arts’ junior class.

Kirsch plans on teaching at the College for another year, before starting a new life chapter — focusing on a few writing projects and catching up with the five guys from Hackensack.

“But I am most proud of my teaching,” Kirsch concludes, admitting he will miss the classroom. “The preparation, fairness, and consistent commitment to being a good teacher.”

Rare camera system on trial at Whitman; will be used in Parkinson’s research

Tom Knight is asking his students to open their eyes. Literally.

Through a 2010 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the assistant biology professor has procured a unique research tool called the “EyeSeeCam” (with “GazeCam”), which he and some of his students will utilize this summer as they try to break ground in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.

“There are only three of these systems in the world,” Knight said. “And ours is the only one in the world now located outside of Munich, Germany.”

The Murdock grant awarded to Knight totaled $66,000. Whitman matched the grant at $19,500. The EyeSeeCam, which records what the eyes of its user actually see, cost $33,000.

Tom Knight, assistant professor of biology

“We could measure eye movements before, but not eye and head movement coordination with a device that is lightweight and completely portable. We received the EyeSeeCam last July and have completed only initial experiments, but we’re still trying it out to see how it works in natural environments,” Knight said while observing his student, Peter Osseward ’12 playing speed chess with Jeremy Norden ’12. Osseward set up the EyeSeeCam to record data and video measuring how Norden’s eyes moved during the games.

The EyeSeeCam is worn on the head. One camera records the scene in front of the user. But what makes this camera system special is that it also has a “GazeCam,” an eye-movement driven video camera that records what the eyes are seeing by following a user’s eyes as they dart back and forth to focus on various objects. The lag time for the camera is only 10 milliseconds.

“This is cool,” said Norden, the subject of this brief experiment, and a chess aficionado. “I can see my gaze was more focused on my opponent’s pieces than my own,” he realized, after reviewing the GazeCam video playback from his three-minute chess match.

The Murdock Trust looks for projects that have as a main objective the acquisition of new knowledge, according to the Murdock Web site. The training of students in conducting research is another important consideration. Knight’s students are deeply involved in his work, and this summer they will use the camera system for more than analyzing a chess match.

The plan is for Knight and his student Whitney Griggs ’13 to work with patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a neurological disorder that affects at least 500,000 people in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The research will be funded by a Perry Summer Research Award, a Whitman internal grant program for faculty/student collaborative research.

Research suggests that retraining Parkinson’s patients on how to follow objects with their eyes may compensate for some of the deficits caused by the disease, such as difficulties walking. The EyeSeeCam can monitor how these patients track targets, such as LED lights on a wall, and doctors can use the results to retrain their patients’ eye movements.

According to Knight, the camera system might also help doctors diagnose Parkinson’s before the debilitating disease progresses.

“The camera system can measure if eye and head movements are starting to slow,” which could portend the onset of the disease, rather than having to wait until a patient shows major signs, such as difficulty walking or reaching for a cup, Knight said.

“Having this rare tool puts Whitman on par with big research groups. We can make a major impact on a serious disease from an undergraduate-only institution like Whitman,” Knight said.

But before Knight’s students begin working with Parkinson’s patients, they will continue testing the capabilities of the EyeSeeCam.

Moving on from experimenting with multiple games of speed chess, Osseward and Norden are eager to use the system in a game of ultimate Frisbee®.

“Maybe,” Knight said. “It will have to be a gentle game of Frisbee®. The camera is fragile. And expensive.”

Professor Thomas of Furman University writes book on public education

Furman University education professor Paul Thomas has published his 13th book, Ignoring Poverty in the U.S. — The Corporate Takeover of Public Education (Information Age Publishing).

The book examines how the United States views poverty, people living in poverty, and the weight of poverty on teaching and learning in public schools. Thomas challenges cultural myths about students in poverty, charter schools as viable education reform, and “no excuses” ideologies behind political and public discourse about schools. He confronts many assumptions about poverty, teaching and learning that are rarely examined and argues for education reform based on research and preparing students for democracy.

Before joining the Furman faculty in 2002, Thomas taught high school English in rural South Carolina. He earned undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in education from the University of South Carolina.

He is a column editor for the English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, and series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Sense Publishers), in which he authored the first volume —Challenging Genres: Comics and Graphic Novels. He has written commentaries for the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, Education Week, The State, and The Greenville News.

Tyler Todd ‘12 first to receive History Honors Degree under new honors program

Tyler Todd '12 (center) with PC history professors (from left) Dr. Alan Shackelford and Dr. Rick Heiser. 

Presbyterian College student Tyler Todd of Waterloo, S.C., became the first student to graduate with honors under the history department’s newly restructured honors program.

A double major in history and political science with a minor in French, her honors project involved original research and an extensive research paper she presented to the department. For her project, Todd chose to research Laurens County and the experience with “The Lost Cause.”

The Lost Cause refers to the ideology crafted by many white Southerners after the Confederacy was defeated during the U.S. Civil War. From 1865 to the present, the Lost Cause has served two purposes, according to Todd’s research. First, she concluded, it was a coping mechanism that allowed white Southerners to find glory in defeat. Second, she wrote that it veiled the reality of slavery in a vision of heritage, giving them justification for maintaining a racial apartheid despite federally mandated emancipation and constitutionally guaranteed equality. Within the Lost Cause, said Todd, Southerners were able to ignore the role of slavery in the Civil War while placing stock in admirable Confederate attributes such as honor, bravery, and chivalry. It is due to the Lost Cause, she wrote, that the South took such a long time to commit itself to racial equality.


“Many people learn new information while in college, but Tyler grew by challenging her preconceptions and prior assumptions. This created opportunities for herself and, in turn, the history department,” said Dr. Alan Shackelford, visiting assistant professor of history and Todd’s mentor. “Tyler grew and matured as both a scholar and an individual while working through the honors project and as a student at PC. Tyler today is more a product of her own thinking than she was two years ago. That is one of most gratifying things a teacher can see in a student.”

Todd declared as a history major in her freshman year. While attending PC, she was determined to get the most out of the college experience. She remained active in all of her classes and was accepted into the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society.

In the summer of 2011 she participated in the Summer Fellows Program, a summer research program that would expand her knowledge and research capabilities. That fall, she joined the revitalized history club and completed an internship in the archives at PC. At that time, she was encouraged to complete honors level research.

“The history department’s goal is to identify top level students and challenge them to pursue their talents and goals through the program,” said Shackelford. “Tyler is the first student to be a Summer Fellow and to go through the history department honors program. These academic opportunities are the kind you will find at the very best liberal arts colleges in the country.”

The new honors program as designed by the history department is more formal and rigorous. “It’s designed to ensure that the students who embark upon this demanding course will be in a position to succeed. It requires students to be intentional and thoughtful as they begin the project, and it helps the department’s faculty engage with the project from its earliest conception to its ultimate completion,” said Shackelford.

“I knew it would be challenging, but it was also very fun,” said Todd. “All the professors in the department were instrumental in the overall process. Each of them taught me key elements that shaped and molded my interest and brought me to the point where I was prepared and able to successfully complete the honors program.”

One of the most significant elements of the honors program is the mentor/mentee relationship. For PC, this structure allows faculty to see the potential in students and help each one of them achieve it in their own way.

“The professors at PC care about me beyond my academics,” said Todd. “Their support and constant inquiries during the research process were much needed and greatly appreciated.”

In her final semester at PC, Tyler took 18 hours of course work and completed the honors research project.

“It was difficult juggling everything and the experience improved my time management skills and increased my level of patience,” she said.

Todd is described by her professors as a self-starter with initiative.

“She created a schedule and structure to make it happen and to be successful,” Shackelford said. “Most people want to know that a significant level of work will achieve a guaranteed result. Research and scholarship make no such promise; it is very entrepreneurial in that sense. Tyler took a risk; she asked a question, researched it, and found a compelling answer to it.”

“The process taught me to be open minded, tolerant and flexible,” Todd said. “My goal was to take a complex and polarizing issue and make it such that people with opposing views can understand one another.”

Todd attributes much of her success at PC to the nurturing environment and the mentoring relationships that are so prevalent among faculty at the school. Programs like Summer Fellows and the History Department’s Honors are not only about students achieving academic excellence. They are about fostering relationships on campus that will help them in its pursuit. Scholarship is often viewed as a solitary endeavor done at tables or carrels in labs or libraries. But as Todd attests, at PC it is done in the context of supportive and sustaining collaboration.

Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Occidental Students Win Academic, Community-Service and Leadership Fellowships

Three new Occidental College graduates and one student have been awarded national academic, community-service and public affairs fellowships or grants.

Gold River native Jennifer Griffin '12 has received a prestigious National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship. Another recent graduate, Joseph Michael Statwick '10, received an honorable mention in NSF's 2012 graduate research fellowship program. Griffin is the 27th Occidental student to receive an NSF fellowship.

The fellowship includes a three-year annual stipend of $30,000, a $10,500 allowance for graduate school tuition and fees, and opportunities for international research and professional development. Griffin, who just graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a Ph.D in organic chemistry.

"I am incredibly honored and appreciative to be awarded such a prestigious and generous fellowship so early in my career," Griffin said. "I am most looking forward to working with the faculty at UIUC, who are committed to encouraging creative intellect and truly appreciate a genuine work ethic."

Juan German '12 has won a yearlong fellowship for study and work in Germany. The diplomacy and world affairs graduate from Providence, R.I., is one of 75 participants from throughout the United States who were invited to take part in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals. German has also been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Turkey [link to Fulbright news release]. He must now decide between the two.

In the Congress-Bundestag program, he would attend a two-month intensive German language course, study at a German university or professional school for four months, and complete a five-month internship with a German company. The U.S. State Department funds the Congress-Bundestag program, which is supported by Congress and the German Parliament, or Bundestag.

The fellowship would expose him to skills such as community organizing, canvassing, and policy analysis, German said. "A particular interest of mine is Turkish integration into German society, so I will hopefully work for an organization that analyzes integration policy," he added. "This fellowship will bring me one step closer to achieving my goal of becoming an ambassador."

The Newport Beach-based Donald A. Strauss Foundation has awarded Shelby King '13 a $10,000 grant to fund Tucson Summer Music, her nonprofit organization that gives low-income children free music lessons and provides instruments. The lessons are taught by students from the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. King, an economics major and Tucson resident, started the program in 2009 with 13 students. This year, she hopes to double the number of music students in the program.

The Strauss Foundation grant will help pay for instrument repairs and purchases, advertising, sheet music, and a $1,500 scholarship to the program's most promising musician, she said.

"I am absolutely thrilled and honored," King added. "This funding will enable Tucson Summer Music to be a sustained program within the community. The students are simply wonderful and have a passion and enthusiasm for music that I have not seen anywhere else."

Nolan Borgman '12 has been named a Los Angeles Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Coro is a leadership-training organization based in San Francisco, and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs is a rigorous nine-month, graduate-level experiential program that prepares talented and committed individuals for leadership in the public affairs arena. Borgman, from Philadelphia, graduated with a bachelor's degree in urban and environmental policy. He is one of 64 Coro fellows who were chosen this year through a highly competitive selection process.

Battlefield America (2012)

Battlefield America is a 2012 dance-drama film by Cinedigm. It will be directed by Chris Stokes from You Got Served. The film stars Gary Anthony Sturgis, Tristen M. Carter, Marques Houston, Kida Burns, Zach Balandres, Camren Bicondova, Edward Mandell, and Kyle Brooks. It is slated for a June 1, 2012 release in American theaters.

Synopsis:

Battlefield America takes a steady look at the underbelly of the youth battle dance culture in Long Beach, California. Sean Lewis, a young, charismatic, successful businessman finds himself in the mix with a bunch of disheveled misfits Bad Boys, who have virtually no dance talent. Realizing his dilemma, Sean brings aboard a professional dance instructor to ease his responsibilities to these kids. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling for Sara, who runs the community center where the kids hangout and practice their moves. With Sean motivating them, The Bad Boys find the confidence to be contenders...

Fashion plaudits for Queen Elizabeth's impeccable style

For a fashion designer it is a unique task: dressing a woman who must be immediately recognisable from Antigua to Zimbabwe, visible from a distance, bright, dignified and immune to wardrobe malfunctions.

But the series of dressers who have worked with Queen Elizabeth II have helped her evolve a personal style that wins praise from unlikely quarters, including from a young French designer who worked for a decade with Jean Paul Gaultier.

"She has her own style and it works extremely well for her," Alexandre Vauthier told AFP. "It's really her DNA.

"She is the only person to dress this way, which makes her instantly recognisable."

The 86-year-old monarch's diamond jubilee this weekend marks 60 years of travelling, handshaking, and meeting global leaders as Britain's head of state.

On the biggest ceremonial occasions she appears in state dresses, jewels and even a crown, but humbler public engagements are no less challenging on the wardrobe front.

Her stylists, always British, must ensure that no garment is transparent, too tight or too short, and consider possible weather conditions -- including weighting her skirt hemlines to avoid embarrassment in a gust of wind.

For most of the hundreds of public engagements she carries out every year, the queen appears in a brightly-coloured outfit with a matching hat, neat handbag and sensible, yet elegant shoes.

Before any state or Commonwealth visit, her designers study meanings attached to colours, sleeve lengths and symbols in the country, both to avoid accidental offence and to be gracious to her hosts.

For her historic visit to Ireland in May 2011, the queen wore emerald green, the country's emblematic colour, and for a reception at Dublin Castle she sported a dress embroidered with no fewer than 2,000 tiny shamrocks.

On the first visit by a British monarch since the republic gained independence, her dress was a signal as powerful as the few words of Irish with which she began her keynote speech.

But those who have grown up seeing the queen as a distinguished older lady may be unaware of the glamour of her youth.

"Elizabeth in her youth was fun, vibrant, exciting and spontaneous," royal historian Kate Williams told AFP.

"And now we see a very different queen: she often is quite unsmiling; she's very fond of duty; she is very dignified."

In a photograph from 1954, the year after her coronation, the queen appears in a seductive tight-fitting white lace dress by Hardy Amies, her designer for some 40 years.

During the 1950s she wore a series of romantic evening gowns with ample silk and satin skirts, many of them by Norman Hartnell, who also created dresses for her wedding in 1947 and coronation in 1953.

In the 1960s, her dresses became closer-fitting and bolder; in 1969, meeting US president Richard Nixon, she wore hot-pink silk.

"The task of making clothes for the queen is not an easy one... not that the queen has been anything other than co-operative and professional in every respect," Amies, who died in 2003, said in a rare interview.

Amies "understood, as have other designers working for Her Majesty, that the wardrobe can make political statements," observed Country Life magazine, the bible of affluent rural Britons, in a special issue to mark the jubilee.

The queen's wardrobe is now the responsibility of designer Angela Kelly, the daughter of a humble dock-worker from the northwestern city of Liverpool, who joined her team of dressers in 1993 and became her personal stylist in 2002.

Kelly was behind the immaculate primrose-yellow ensemble the queen wore to Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton last year.

She also created the white silk, satin and lace state dress with silver sequins the sovereign wears in her official diamond jubilee photographs.

Queenly fashion has inspired a raft of clothes and accessories issued for the jubilee, with corgis and tiaras in abundance as well as more subtle references to the queen's favourite colours.

Fashion iconoclast Vivienne Westwood has created a limited edition jubilee collection of dresses blending Britain's Union Jack flag with elements from the queen's own wardrobe.

The queen's grandson Prince Harry, along with many other commentators, called her outfits "impeccable".

Vauthier said: "She has her own look, and it wins her respect.

"She shouldn't change a thing."

Headline June02,2012/$16 billion bonus babies

$16 BILLION BONUS BABIES

OF
WALL STREET

Respectful dedication Economist Gregory Mankiw/Harvard - Philosopher Albert Camus -
Author William Safire

Prof Gregory Mankiw  Harvard

Albert Camus

William Saphire

Let me delight you with a soft note while I warm up. In 2007, Ex Merril Lynch CEO John Thain received a $15million signing bonus!! While predecessor E Slanley O Neil received $87million as compensation in 5 years !! But hold, let me rework all this into a delightful content. On December 8, 2008, the Wall Street journal reported that John Thain, the 53 year old chairman and CEO of Merril Lynch had let it be known he wanted a $10 Million Bonus. But then why not? After all, Thain had made the brutally pragmatic decision , over the mid-September weekend that changed Wall Street forever, to sell the 94 years old firm to Bank of America for $50 billion, averting the bankruptcy that awaited LEHMAN BROTHERS that Monday and saving Merrill's shareholders billion of dollars. Surely, even in a bad year he was entitled to the equivalent to a 25 cent tip on the deal !!! Was he not?!! Haha! But the directors balked. Wouldn’t that send the wrong signal after Merill’s net losses for three quarters of $11.67 billion !! Specially after Bank of America had taken $15billion of Federal bale out

money and was due to take the $10billion ear marked for Merill as well ? When as many as 30,000 jobs may be lost from this acquisition? The same day came a scathing letter to the board from New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. Soon after, a grim Thain walked into Merrill’s board room and apparently told the directors he’d had a change of mind : No bonus for him, thank you. Thain had gotten the message at last: bonus season would be different this year. At least, it would have to look different. Only a year before, Wall Street’s financial firms had passed out $33.2 billion in bonuses – down a mere rounding error from $33.9 billion bestowed in 2006 – even as the credit crisis had spread and $74 billion in shareholders equity went POOF !!! But now one firm after another had teetered or collapsed Thanks to !WOW!. Don't miss morrow's post as the drama unfolds. Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

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Google blasts Microsoft, Nokia for hiding behind patent trolls

Google today filed a complaint with the Europe Commission and sent a report to the Federal Trade Commission complaining that Microsoft and Nokia are funding patent trolls in order to discourage device makers from using the Android mobile operating system.

The documents are not suits, but rather informational reports sent to regulators to make them aware of actions that Google believes are anti-competitive. Google submitted the documents to preempt Microsoft and Nokia from using proxies to wage patent wars against companies that might otherwise use Android.

"Nokia and Microsoft are colluding to raise the costs of mobile devices for consumers, creating patent trolls that side-step promises both companies have made," Google said in a statement. "They should be held accountable, and we hope our complaint spurs others to look into these practices."

The company declined to comment beyond the statement, and would not provide copies of the documents sent to the two regulatory agencies, which were submitted privately. Nokia declined to comment on the documents. Microsoft, though, accused Google of abusing its own market position.

"Google is complaining about patents when it won't respond to growing concerns by regulators, elected officials and judges about its abuse of standard-essential patents, and it is complaining about antitrust in the smartphone industry when it controls more than 95 percent of mobile search and advertising," Microsoft said in a statement. "This seems like a desperate tactic on their part."

Google is clearly concerned about Mosaid, a Canadian patent firm that acquired 2,000 wireless patents and patent applications from Nokia last September. Mosaid, which makes its money licensing patents and collecting royalties, sometimes via lawsuit, agreed to share that revenue with Nokia and Microsoft. Google worries that the essential patents held by Mosaid will be used as a bludgeon to blunt Android, rather than being shared on reasonable terms.

And while Mosaid sued Apple over patent infringement last March, it's unclear if the company has targeted any companies that use Android. Microsoft, though, has sued some Android device makers, such as Google-owned Motorola, and reached licensing deals with others, most recently with Pegatron last month.

Mosaid is not the only company on Google's radar. Nokia sold 450 patents and patent applications to Sisvel in January. And Rockstar, a consortium that includes Microsoft and Apple, won 6,000 patents and patent applications from Nortel, the bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker, and received permission from regulators in March to close the deal.

Source

RIM wins court ruling over BBM trademark

While other parts of its business appear to be on the ropes, Research In Motion learned today that it is free to use the BBM acronym to describe its popular BlackBerry Messenger software.

A Canada Federal Court found that the BlackBerry maker's use of BBM did not infringe on the trademark of broadcast measurement firm BBM Canada, which has owned the trademark for more than 50 years, because the two companies operated in different industries.

"We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM's use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged," RIM said in a statement.

BBM Canada, which formerly went by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement until a name shortening in the 1960s, sent a cease-and-desist letter to RIM in 2010 over use of the acronym on software that lets BlackBerry users communicate with one another and comes pre-installed on many of the company's devices. After those letters were allegedly ignored, a lawsuit between the two companies ensued.

The beleaguered handset maker has had a mixed record with trademark disputes lately. RIM opted for new name for its new operating system -- formerly called BBX -- after a small New Mexico software provider was granted an injunction last December that barred RIM from using the acronym at a trade conference.

The recent ruling comes as the handset maker grapples with declining market share and sales of its once-popular BlackBerry devices. Fourth-quarter reports show a company loss of $125 million and a 25 percent drop in revenue. The company has also experienced a parade of departing executive and is widely expected to announce a global workforce reduction of more than 2,000 jobs.

Source

Facebook appears to choose Opera over Chrome

It looks like Google's Chrome is out and Opera is in, fueling further speculation of a possible Opera takeover by Facebook.

Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Facebook has apparently booted Google's Chrome browser off its supported recommended browser list, instead highlighting Opera, according to Favbrowser, which managed to cache a page with the note.

It's uncertain how official the page is, as it no longer accessible. Under Facebook's support page, all four major browsers are listed.

The switch is particularly noteworthy because of speculation that Facebook is interested in acquiring Opera. Facebook, meanwhile, has long considered Google a competitor in the social arena.

Sitting alongside Opera in the cached supported browser page is Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.

It's unclear whether the move has any meaning, or what that meaning may be. Regardless of the switch, Facebook still runs normally using the Chrome browser.

Facebook and Opera both declined to comment.

Source

How to make money on mobile, in three easy steps

Earlier this week, I wrote about how Facebook is in danger from a new kind of social network, one that's born mobile and figures out how to make money on that mobile usage.

I figured, in response to many questions and comments, it was only fair to get a little wonky for a moment about who actually is making money on mobile, or how a site or startup might try a mix of potentially successful strategies in the future. Here are my guesses.

First, the only apps and companies making significant money on mobile right now are making most of that money off in-app purchases. The apps are free, and if you want upgrades like extra jewels, more levels, additional features and so on, you pay small amounts of money over time. Research house IHS speculates that in-app purchasing would generate $5.6 billion in revenue in 2012, up from $970 million in 2011. That number would equal fully 64 percent of app revenue.

And in-app purchases can take all kinds of forms: it doesn't just have to be buying extra jewels in Bejeweled 2 or the Mighty Eagle to get you out of your Angry Birds jam. It's a popular option inphoto filter apps, fitness apps like Skimble are trying it for additional workouts, and the model works fine for subscriptions, as well.

Amazon just started testing in-app purchasing, and while it appears that only 2 percent of Android apps offer in-app buying, that really just means it's kind of an untapped market. It's a proven winner, too: 72 percent of revenue from App Store titles on iOS come from apps with in-app purchasing.

So, that's one obvious mixer in the money-making cocktail we're creating here.

The next is retail and leads: a company gets paid because users click on coupons, take advantage of a local deal, or buy things that are aggregated on a mobile site or app. I know Groupon's current stock price would seem to indicate that local deals are a dead end, but I've never seen a busier cul-de-sac. There's still something to the idea of local offers -- maybe not local deals that feel a little off, somehow, but to the concept of letting you know what's around you when you've got your nose glued to your smartphone while you're walking.

Plus, there are in-app commerce opportunities galore. Apps like Karma, which we profiled at South by Southwest, have a simple premise: aggregate products, make it super easy and social for you to buy gifts for people, and then get paid every time you buy one of said gifts. (Why Facebook, for example, doesn't have gift-giving integrated all on its own is just beyond me.)

Start imagining a fun, easy-to-use app that's social, offers in-app upgrades, and lets you buy really great curated items either as gifts or based on your interest and location...and you start feeling like you've got a winner on your hands.

Then, of course, you've got the booze in the shaker: ads. Advertising is still the biggest moneymaker in mobile -- it's just had a slow takeoff. You can't blame Facebook entirely for not making any money on mobile (although they should have seen the mobile shift coming and made some alternate plans). Mobile advertising accounts for just 29 percent of mobile revenues because advertisers have been slow to jump in the pool. That means, as Mary Meeker pointed out this week at All Things D, that there is massive growth potential in mobile advertising.

Right now, advertisers are concerned that maybe mobile ad tracking isn't as detailed as Web tracking; publishers are figuring out how one ad in an app or on a mobile Web site can make up for five or 10 ads on a full-sized Web page; everyone is trying to figure out mobile CPMs andtargeting that isn't too creepy and how to work with ad networks that can sometimes be more trouble than they're worth.

But as I said earlier this week, these issues will sort themselves out, especially as advertisers and publishers start to see how much money is really on the table. Maybe that money will come in smaller increments, and it will take a creative combination of money-making strategies. But it'll happen; only question is who will get the proportions right first.(CNET)

Vacationing abroad this summer? Keep iPhone charges in check

Summer is here. And for lots of people that means it's time for a vacation abroad. So what should you do about your smartphone to ensure you don't get surprised with a massive phone bill upon your return?

You could rent or borrow a phone for your trip with local service in the country or countries where you'll be traveling. Or you can pop in a local SIM card if you have an unlocked GSM phone for similar savings. This will save you money by allowing you to use local prepaid services while traveling. But it's not always the most convenient solution, especially if you're visiting multiple countries or you want the added convenience of using your own phone with your own phone number.If you're planning to leave the U.S., you might want to consider taking a few precautions before you leave to make sure you don't end up spending more on your phone bill than you spent on your plane ticket.

In this edition of Ask Maggie I offer some advice to iPhone subscribers who are planning international trips and want to avoid surprises on their monthly bills.(CNET)

Windows 8 Release Preview vs. Windows 7: Benchmarked

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | June 1, 2012, 4:12am PDT

Summary: Can Microsoft’s upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?

It’s time to see how Microsoft’s newly released Windows 8 Release Preview stacks up against Windows 7. Can the upcoming operating system keep up with — or even beat — Windows 7, or does Microsoft still have work to do?

Unlike the time where I benchmarked the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, where I ran into troubles with graphics card drivers issues and problems getting consistent results from a couple of the benchmark tools I was using, everything went smoothly with the benchmarking of the Windows 8 Release Preview.

The hardware

The following hardware platform was used for benchmarking the two operating systems. The system was purpose-built for the job of benchmarking:

• Intel Core i7-2600K processor
• Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM
• EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560
• GIGABYTE GA-Z77MX-D3H motherboard
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drive
• CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W power supply unit

Everything on the system was set to stock speeds, with no component overclocked.

For the tests I used a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drive with the Windows 8 Release Preview 64-bit installed on it. All drivers and updates were installed, along with all the software that would be needed for the tests. The drive was then defragmented using the Windows tool before the benchmarking was carried out.

Data related to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows 7 was collected from the last benchmark test of Windows 8 I carried out a little over a month ago.

The benchmark tests

Here’s a rundown of the tests that were run on the three operating systems. I’ve chosen a mixture of real world and synthetic benchmark tests.

Each test was run three times and the results averaged.

• Boot time
  Measured using a handy tool called BootRacer. This measures both the time it takes to get to the logon screen and the time to boot to the desktop.
• Audio transcode time
  Transcoding an audio test file from WAV to MP3 format using iTunes. A measure of the operating system’s ability to handle multimedia.
• Video transcode time
  Transcoding video test file from DVD to MP4 format using Handbrake. A measure of the operating system’s ability to handle multimedia.
• PCMark 7
  A benchmark run with PCMark 7. The industry standard PC test for CPU, HDD, SSD, memory, and graphics performance.
• 3DMark 11
  A benchmark run with 3DMark 11. This is a set of six demanding benchmark test measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs.
• FurMark
  A benchmark run with FurMark. This is a VGA stress test, GPU burn-in test and an excellent OpenGL benchmark. This is a very stressful benchmark and can damage or even destroy hardware if used incorrectly, and therefore I do not recommend running this tool on a system unless you know exactly what you are doing and fully understand the risks associated with it.
• Cinebench 11.5
  A benchmark run with Cinebench 11.5. This is a real world cross, platform test suite that evaluates a computer’s CPU and GPU performance capabilities.
• Heaven 3.0
  A benchmark run with Heaven 3.0. This is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on the advanced UNIGINE engine. Not only does this tool give us the maximum frames per second (FPS), it also records minimum frames per second, which is handy observing dips in performance during heavy load.
• Alien vs. Predator
  A benchmark run using the in-built benchmark tool available in Alien vs. Predator. The benchmark is run at 1920×1080 screen resolution with DirectX 11 enabled. This is a real world gaming test.

Tourism is one of the most important facets of a country

The tourism sector is one of the most important facets of a country's economy. Whether or not that system is dying, investments must be made to boost its overall performance. Russia seems to be in a good place right now, with investors flocking in to get a piece of the pie. The revitalized hotel industry in Russia is proving to be one good investment, since the country aims to build a total of 159 hotels. Among many investors, hotel giants are keen on taking Russia by storm.

Russia is not one to have many tourists all year round, compared to other pristine destinations in the west. However, with the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2014, the city of Sochi is putting all its eggs in one basket with the erection of 25 new hotels.

This boom in the hotel industry dawns from the added attention Russia is getting. Putin is making the effort to boost tourism with added infrastructure for tourists, with 28 new hotels in Moscow. The latest of which is the Hyatt Regency, an ideal hotel for business class personnel which includes 297 lifestyle rooms for comfort and maximum service. Plans for upcoming locations include in Sochi, and 2 in Wladiwostok. Not only that, the Hyatt Regency also plans to build 30 new properties in China, Mongolia, and India.

Investors from hotel giant Kempinski also eye the Russian hotel industry. Kempinski plans to construct 8 high class hotels with 2 of them situated in Moscow. The largest one, Kempinksi Chernomoritz Park Spa Hotel, will be constructed at Sochi and should be completed by the year 2014. The hotel is to have 664 rooms in total.

Inter-Continental Hotels Group will also look to have a share of Russian land. The hotel plans to complete the construction of 7 hotels in Russian soil by the year 2014; with IHG having its major project with the Holiday Inn inside Crocus City.

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is a fast growing hotel business which is paving the way with 23 hotel projects in Russia. The hotel giant is initiating three major projects in the name of Radisson and Park Inn, which is situated in Sochi.

Not to be forgotten, the Starwood Hotel Corporation is also looking to build 6 hotels inside the country. Among major plans on building the Sheraton, which has 333 rooms, will be situated near the Sheretmetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

Russia looks ready for a big splash in tourist activity. The Winter Olympics will have a lot to do with how the projected plans for tourist infrastructure will pan out. 2014 is a big year for Russia. The Sochi area, where the event will happen is a major competition ground for investors in the hotel industry. Everyone is looking to take advantage of the major income 2014 will bear.(TR.com)