Thursday, April 11, 2013

Data storage: Shingled tracks stack up

Apr. 10, 2013 ? Simply changing the pattern by which data is recorded may lead to increased hard drive capacities.

Modern hard drive technology is reaching its limits. Engineers have increased data-storage capacities by reducing the widths of the narrow tracks of magnetic material that record data inside a hard drive. Narrowing these tracks has required a concordant reduction in the size of the magnetic write head -- the device used to create them. However, it is physically difficult to reduce the size of write heads any further. Kim Keng Teo and co-workers at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute, Singapore, and the Niigata Institute of Technology, Japan, have recently performed an analysis that highlights the promise of an alternative approach, which may sidestep this problem completely.

In a conventional hard drive, a write head stores data by applying a magnetic field to a series of parallel, non-overlapping tracks. Halving the width of the track effectively doubles the data-storage capacity, but also requires the size of the write head to be halved. The head therefore produces less magnetic field than is needed to enable stable data storage. This is because the small magnetic grains that are characteristic of modern hard drive media need to be thermally stable at room temperature.

Shingled magnetic recording represents a step towards solving this problem as it allows for narrower track widths without smaller write heads. Rather than writing to non-overlapping tracks, the approach overlaps tracks just as shingles on a roof overlap (see image). Tracks are written in a so-called 'raster' pattern, with new data written to one side only of the last-written track.

Teo and co-workers analyzed the scaling behavior of this approach by using both numerical analysis and experimental verification. Their results showed that the size of the data track is not limited by the size of the write head, as in conventional hard drives. Instead, the track size is limited by the size of the magnetic read head, and by the 'erase bandwidth', which represents the portion of the track edge that is affected by adjacent tracks.

"This is a paradigm shift for the industry," says Teo. "A relatively small difference in the way that writing occurs calls for a completely new approach to head design." Teo expects the shingled approach to be a useful stop-gap measure prior to the arrival of more advanced, next-generation technologies in the next decade or so that will apply more radical modifications to the hard drive such as the use of heat to assist the write head.

The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Data Storage Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Kim Keng Teo, Moulay Rachid Elidrissi, Kheong Sann Chan, Yasushi Kanai. Analysis and design of shingled magnetic recording systems. Journal of Applied Physics, 2012; 111 (7): 07B716 DOI: 10.1063/1.3679383

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/top_technology/~3/k5ruVCxXZOM/130410114113.htm

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Great Gatsby Trailer: Watch Now!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/the-great-gatsby-trailer-watch-now/

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Nanotechnology: Color printing reaches new highs

Apr. 10, 2013 ? Color printing at the highest resolution possible is enabled by the use of arrays of metal-coated nanostructures.

Commercial laser printers typically produce pin-sharp images with spots of ink about 20 micrometers apart, resulting in a resolution of 1,200 dots per inch (dpi). By shrinking the separation to just 250 nanometers -- roughly 100 times smaller -- a research team at A*STAR can now print images at an incredible 100,000 dpi, the highest possible resolution for a color image1. These images could be used as minuscule anti-counterfeit tags or to encode high-density data.

To print the image, the team coated a silicon wafer with insulating hydrogen silsesquioxane and then removed part of that layer to leave behind a series of upright posts of about 95 nanometers high. They capped these nanoposts with layers of chromium, silver and gold (1, 15 and 5 nanometers thick, respectively), and also coated the wafer with metal to act as a backreflector.

Each color pixel in the image contained four posts at most, arranged in a square. The researchers were able to produce a rainbow of colors simply by varying the spacing and diameter of the posts to between 50 nanometers and 140 nanometers.

When light hits the thin metal layer that caps the posts, it sends ripples -- known as plasmons -- running through the electrons in the metal. The size of the post determines which wavelengths of light are absorbed, and which are reflected (see image).

The plasmons in the metal caps also cause electrons in the backreflector to oscillate. "This coupling channels energy from the disks into the backreflector plane, thus creating strong absorption that results in certain colors being subtracted from the visible spectrum," says Joel Yang, who led the team of researchers at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing.

Printing images in this way makes them potentially more durable than those created with conventional dyes. In addition, color images cannot be any more detailed: two adjacent dots blur into one if they are closer than half the wavelength of the light reflecting from them. Since the wavelength of visible light ranges about 380-780 nanometers, the nanoposts are as close as is physically possible to produce a reasonable range of colors.

Although the process takes several hours, Yang suggests that a template for the nanoposts could rapidly stamp many copies of the image. "We are also exploring novel methods to control the polarization of light with these nanostructures and approaches to improve the color purity of the pixels," he adds.

The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Karthik Kumar, Huigao Duan, Ravi S. Hegde, Samuel C. W. Koh, Jennifer N. Wei, Joel K. W. Yang. Printing colour at the optical diffraction limit. Nature Nanotechnology, 2012; 7 (9): 557 DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.128

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/~3/YPbsdckj_kM/130410114115.htm

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Video: PFT: RGIII makes Redskins elite organization

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/51472982#51472982

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Florida couple spotted in Cuba with abducted children? - U.S. News

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

Joshua Hakken and his wife Sharyn stand inside a building with their two children at the Marina Hemingway complex in Havana on Tuesday.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

A couple accused of abducting their two young sons from their grandmother in Florida sailed with them to Cuba, which announced Tuesday that it will return the family to the United States.

Cuban authorities confirmed that?Joshua Hakken, 35, and Sharyn Hakken, 34, arrived in the island nation in their sailboat the Salty Paw on Sunday. They notified the U.S. the next day and decided on Tuesday morning to turn over the couple and the kids, a government statement said.

Security agents escorted the family from the marina later in the day, but it was not clear when the handover would take place.

The boys, 2 and 4, had been living with their grandmother in Tampa after their parents lost custody of them.?Police say Joshua Hakken entered the grandmother's house in the early morning of April 3, tied her up and took the children.?

After evading Amber alerts in Florida and Tennessee and Coast Guard boats searching the Gulf of Mexico, the Hakkens made their way to Cuba in the 25-foot blue-and-white sailboat, arriving in bad weather, authorities said.

Even though the U.S. does not have formal relations with Cuba, Havana officials communicated with the U.S. Interests Section and the State Department "to try to guarantee the integrity and well-being of those minors," the statement said.

The boys had been placed in foster care after Joshua Hakken was arrested in a Louisiana hotel room in 2012 on charges including drug possession, according to police in Slidell, La. Sharyn and Joshua Hakken told officers that they planned to ?take a journey to the Armageddon? at the time of the arrest, Slidell police said.

The children were there when the parents were arrested, police said, and several weapons were taken from the room

Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman at the Florida Department of Children and Families, told the Associated Press it's not clear where the children will be placed when they return to American soil.

"Louisiana is the ultimate decision maker on where these children will reside. It's likely they will be placed back in Florida with the grandmother," she said.

?

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

"Salty," a boat believed to belong to Joshua and Sharyn Hakken, sits at the Marina Hemingway complex in Havana, Cuba, on Tuesday.

NBC News' Craig Giammona contributed to this report.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17670436-florida-couple-spotted-in-cuba-with-abducted-children

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Blackmagic's Production Camera 4K gets full size cinema sensor, $3,995 pricetag

Image

No matter how hard companies try and keep secrets, when it comes to trade show floors there's always the risk that someone will snap a picture and steal their thunder. The latest casualty is Blackmagic, which will be announcing both a Pocket Cinema Camera and this, its Production Camera 4K. We're fairly sure that this will sit above its Cinema Camera, offering a bigger Super 35 sensor, global shutter and Thunderbolt connector alongside the SSD recorder, touchscreen LCD and EF lens mount we found on last year's model. When the company gets around to announcing the hardware properly, it'll be available for $3,995 -- low enough to make even the most ardent of DSLR fans think twice.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9WySBq1eMTA/

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Monday, April 8, 2013

'Game Of Thrones' Preview: Sansa And Margaery's Unlikely Friendship

'I think it's probably one of the most interesting dynamics on the show,' Sophie Turner tells MTV News.
By Amy Wilkinson


Sophie Turner
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705121/game-of-thrones-sansa-margaery-friendship.jhtml

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Tsai wins innovator award for plan to map molecular path to skin cancer

Tsai wins innovator award for plan to map molecular path to skin cancer [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Scott Merville
smerville@mdanderson.org
713-516-4855
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Sixth annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A proposal to examine the cellular journey from normal skin, to precancerous lesion to skin cancer earned Kenneth Tsai, M.D., Ph.D., the Sixth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C., April 6-10.

An assistant professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Departments of Dermatology and Immunology, Tsai says the project will provide rare insight into the process that starts with normal skin and progresses to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

The award is one of six earned by MD Anderson faculty at this year's AACR meeting.

"Skin is ideally suited for this type of analysis because it's easily accessible for sampling. Furthermore, squamous cell carcinoma and its precancerous lesions are relatively common and well-defined clinically and histologically," Tsai said. "We don't have a good understanding of the genetic events that occur along the way."

"By identifying important genetic differences, we hope to find biomarkers of risk for the precancerous lesions, called actinic keratosis, and for skin cancer progression," Tsai said. "We ultimately aim to identify targets for chemoprevention at all stages and develop therapies for them."

In addition to identifying and effectively treating those at the greatest risk, another benefit would be identification of those who don't need intensive treatment or surveillance.

Normal skin, actinic keratosis and cancer samples from each patient

Skin cancer is the most common type of human cancer and is highly preventable. In the United States, there are more than 3 million cases annually. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is caused by ultraviolet light exposure, mainly from the sun, and comprises 15 to 20 percent of skin cancer cases.

Working with fellow dermatologists at MD Anderson and several other Houston practices, Tsai collects samples of all three types of tissue from each patient. This is a key advantage, because comparing different tissue types among different people would introduce greater variability into his results.

The award, for $100,000 spread over two years, is one of three Landon awards given annually. MD Anderson scientist Guang Peng, Ph.D. assistant professor in the Department of Cancer Prevention, won the 2012 award for cancer prevention research.

Duncan Family Institute seed grant paved way

"I thought of this project almost two years but had no resources to begin," Tsai said "Then I received a seed grant from the Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment, which enabled me to get going and provided the data we needed to compete for the Landon award."

The Duncan Family Institute is part of MD Anderson's Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences. The project is a collaboration among basic scientists, bioinformatics and gene sequencing experts and dermatologists.

The AACR will honor the award recipients at a grants reception and dinner Tuesday night in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

In addition to the cancer prevention award, there are also the Sixth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research and the Fourth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Research in Personalized Cancer Medicine.

The Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Awards, established in 2008, are designed to foster innovation and collaboration in cancer research and support independent investigators early in their careers. The awards provide recognition and data to use to apply for additional funding.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Tsai wins innovator award for plan to map molecular path to skin cancer [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Scott Merville
smerville@mdanderson.org
713-516-4855
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Sixth annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A proposal to examine the cellular journey from normal skin, to precancerous lesion to skin cancer earned Kenneth Tsai, M.D., Ph.D., the Sixth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C., April 6-10.

An assistant professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Departments of Dermatology and Immunology, Tsai says the project will provide rare insight into the process that starts with normal skin and progresses to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

The award is one of six earned by MD Anderson faculty at this year's AACR meeting.

"Skin is ideally suited for this type of analysis because it's easily accessible for sampling. Furthermore, squamous cell carcinoma and its precancerous lesions are relatively common and well-defined clinically and histologically," Tsai said. "We don't have a good understanding of the genetic events that occur along the way."

"By identifying important genetic differences, we hope to find biomarkers of risk for the precancerous lesions, called actinic keratosis, and for skin cancer progression," Tsai said. "We ultimately aim to identify targets for chemoprevention at all stages and develop therapies for them."

In addition to identifying and effectively treating those at the greatest risk, another benefit would be identification of those who don't need intensive treatment or surveillance.

Normal skin, actinic keratosis and cancer samples from each patient

Skin cancer is the most common type of human cancer and is highly preventable. In the United States, there are more than 3 million cases annually. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma is caused by ultraviolet light exposure, mainly from the sun, and comprises 15 to 20 percent of skin cancer cases.

Working with fellow dermatologists at MD Anderson and several other Houston practices, Tsai collects samples of all three types of tissue from each patient. This is a key advantage, because comparing different tissue types among different people would introduce greater variability into his results.

The award, for $100,000 spread over two years, is one of three Landon awards given annually. MD Anderson scientist Guang Peng, Ph.D. assistant professor in the Department of Cancer Prevention, won the 2012 award for cancer prevention research.

Duncan Family Institute seed grant paved way

"I thought of this project almost two years but had no resources to begin," Tsai said "Then I received a seed grant from the Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment, which enabled me to get going and provided the data we needed to compete for the Landon award."

The Duncan Family Institute is part of MD Anderson's Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences. The project is a collaboration among basic scientists, bioinformatics and gene sequencing experts and dermatologists.

The AACR will honor the award recipients at a grants reception and dinner Tuesday night in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

In addition to the cancer prevention award, there are also the Sixth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research and the Fourth Annual Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Research in Personalized Cancer Medicine.

The Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Awards, established in 2008, are designed to foster innovation and collaboration in cancer research and support independent investigators early in their careers. The awards provide recognition and data to use to apply for additional funding.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uotm-twi040813.php

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US, Russia vie for largest natural gas reserves

The United States, currently one of the world's largest sources of natural gas, may find itself fending off increasingly stiff competition in the resource's development, as the move to tap natural gas supplies goes global.

Considered by energy watchers to be one of the most promising avenues of energy development, natural gas is cleaner, more abundant and relatively less expensive than regular gas. The resource is being used in an ever-increasing array of activity, from generating electricity to powering locomotives and public transport ? which is putting upward pressure on market prices.

(Read more: Natural Gas Prices on the Rise, Challenging 'Cheap' Label)

Fewer regions have moved to harness natural gas as aggressively as the U.S., which accounts for more than a fifth of global natural gas consumption, according to data from the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental think-tank.

Still, global interest in the fossil fuel is on the rise as countries like Russia and Qatar move aggressively to tap their natural gas resources, with others like Israel following suit. The global interest poses a challenge to the U.S.'s growing clout in the sector.

(Read more: Israel to Invest in Navy to Protect Huge NatGas Fields)

In addition to international oil giants like Norway's Statoil and Chevron exploiting natural gas, Australia and countries in Africa and South America "are discovering gigantic fields all over the planet," said Richard Hastings, senior macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. Development is "very robust and competitive," he added.

America's energy revolution has been in part hampered by a reluctance to ship its natural gas bounty to other countries. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Russia and the U.S. are running neck and neck for the title of the world's largest natural gas reserves.

Yet unlike the U.S. ? which is currently embroiled in a contentious debate about selling its natural gas stocks abroad ? other countries harbor little compunction about exporting the fuel to other resource-hungry nations.

Although the U.S. is one of the largest producers of natural gas, data from the CIA World Factbook lists the U.S as a distant challenger to natural gas export powerhouses like Russia, Qatar and Canada. Should the world's largest economy fail to sell more to other countries, analysts say it could put the U.S. at a disadvantage.

Global natural gas markets are highly competitive "except for captive markets like Russian sales to Europe," said John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute in Washington. "The U.S. being the largest producer of natural gas, it has the ability to be able to make some money off it."

The reluctance to export natural resources undercuts what analysts say is one of the U.S.'s major competitive advantages: generous mineral rights that make it relatively easy for companies and private citizens to drill with little interference from the government.

U.S. policy differs from other countries, where governments tightly control surface and mineral ownership, therefore restricting drilling and exploration. In Europe, a patchwork of European Union and local regulations are a barrier to natural gas exploitation.

"In terms of the development of the natural gas industry, what the U.S. policy make up does is allows the individual to benefit," said Matt Lucky, a sustainable energy fellow at Worldwatch Institute. That allows major energy companies and private landowners to exploit valuable mineral rights beneath their land, he said.

That distinction "has helped to drive exploration in the natural gas sector in the United States. A lot of people have become very wealthy in the U.S. by mineral rights," Lucky said. "That's not the case in in much of the rest of the world."

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Final chapter to 60-year-old blood group mystery

Apr. 7, 2013 ? Researchers have solved a 60-year-old mystery by identifying a gene that can cause rejection, kidney failure and even death in some blood transfusion patients. In this study, published in Nature Genetics online 07 April, they identified the gene that underlies the Vel blood group and will lead to the development of more reliable blood tests and reduce the risk for transfusion patients who lack this blood group.

Researchers have uncovered the gene at the root of a human blood group that has remained a mystery for the past 60 years. They showed that a genetic deletion on this gene is responsible for the lack of this blood group in some people.

With the discovery of the gene behind the Vel blood group, medical scientists can now develop a more reliable DNA test to identify people who lack this group. This will reduce the risk of severe, and sometimes life threatening, destruction of the Vel-positive donor red blood cells in patients with antibodies against Vel.

The genetic basis of nearly all 34 blood group systems has been resolved over the past century, but identification of the underlying gene of the Vel blood group has withstood persistent attempts since it was first identified 60 years ago. It is estimated that one in 5000 people are Vel-negative, and routine blood transfusions for patients with antibodies against Vel can lead to kidney failure and even death.

The discovery by the team would not have been possible without the colleagues from the blood transfusion services of Denmark, England and the Netherlands who undertook the Herculean effort of identifying the 65 individuals that lacked the Vel blood group by testing the red blood cells from nearly 350,000 donors with antibodies against Vel.

They then sequenced the coding fraction of the genomes of five donors who lack the Vel group to identify the underlying gene.

The team showed that the gene SMIM1 malfunctions in Vel-negative people. SMIM1 is found on chromosome 1 and specifies a small protein, five times smaller than the average human protein. This provides a direct explanation why a discovery by other routes has proven so challenging.

"It has been a remarkable feat to go from gene discovery to function in less than two months," continues Professor Ouwehand.

Current testing for Vel-negative people can be inaccurate but identifying this new role for the gene will make it easier to identify people who lack Vel. The Sanquin Blood Supply research laboratories in Amsterdam and the NHS Blood and Transplant Centre in Cambridge are currently working together to develop a new and affordable DNA test to efficiently identify people who lack the Vel group.

"We already knew of 75 genomic regions that are associated with the haemoglobin levels and other red blood cell traits, but we quickly realised that the SMIM1 gene identified in our study is the same as one of these associated regions," said Dr Pim van der Harst from Groningen University in the Netherlands who led the GWAS analysis for red cell traits in nearly 100,000 individuals. "We had already assumed that a gene in this region of chromosome 1 played a role in the life of red blood cells, but we now have conclusive evidence that it is SMIM1.

"We have shown that this gene controls a protein in the membrane of red blood cells. Switching off the SMIM1 gene in zebrafish showed a remarkable reduction in the number of red cells formed and caused anemia in the fish."

The team observed that the common variant identified by the red blood cell study has a strong effect on how well the SMIM1 gene functions. This not only explains why the level of the Vel blood group varies so extensively in the population, but is also makes it extremely plausible that the Smim1 protein influences haemoglobin levels of red blood cells.

A low haemoglobin level confers a risk of anemia, which is one of the most frequent reasons for an individual to visit their doctor. The team are pursuing further research to deduce how Smim1 protein regulates red blood cell formation.

"As the molecular machinery underlying red blood cell formation has been researched for decades in fish, mice and man, our discovery that a gene which was considered hypothetical until recently actually controls a red blood cell membrane protein with an important role in the regulation of haemoglobin levels is astonishing," says Professor Ellen van der Schoot from the Sanquin research laboratories in Amsterdam. "A better understanding of how the SMIM1 gene is regulated is important and this effort will greatly benefit from the Blueprint project which will be releasing its results on the biology of blood cells and their precursors this year"

"We have worked for nearly a decade to identify the donors across England that lack the Vel blood group so that we can provide matched and safe blood to patients with antibodies against Vel" says Mr Malcolm Needs from NHS Blood and Transplant in Tooting, London. "The discovery of the SMIM1 gene was achieved so quickly and it is truly amazing to see how medical genomics is changing the care landscape for NHS patients."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Ana Cvejic, Lonneke Haer-Wigman, Jonathan C Stephens, Myrto Kostadima, Peter A Smethurst, Mattia Frontini, Emile van den Akker, Paul Bertone, Ewa Bielczyk-Maczy?ska, Samantha Farrow, Rudolf S N Fehrmann, Alan Gray, Masja de Haas, Vincent G Haver, Gregory Jordan, Juha Karjalainen, Hindrik H D Kerstens, Graham Kiddle, Heather Lloyd-Jones, Malcolm Needs, Joyce Poole, Aicha Ait Soussan, Augusto Rendon, Klaus Rieneck, Jennifer G Sambrook, Hein Schepers, Herman H W Sillj?, Botond Sipos, Dorine Swinkels, Asif U Tamuri, Niek Verweij, Nicholas A Watkins, Harm-Jan Westra, Derek Stemple, Lude Franke, Nicole Soranzo, Hendrik G Stunnenberg, Nick Goldman, Pim van der Harst, C Ellen van der Schoot, Willem H Ouwehand, Cornelis A Albers. SMIM1 underlies the Vel blood group and influences red blood cell traits. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2603

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/health_medicine/genes/~3/mEf2XNqwUJc/130407133318.htm

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'She was doing what she loved': Young diplomat among 6 Americans killed in Afghanistan

Diplomat Anne Smedinghoff was among the six Americans killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday -- the deadliest day for Americans in that country since August. NBC's Ron Mott reports.

By Marian Smith, NBC News

Family, friends and State Department colleagues on Sunday were mourning the first death of an American diplomat on duty since Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11 last year.

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of five Americans killed in a car bomb attack on Saturday in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. Three of the dead were U.S. service members and the fifth a civilian employee of the Defense Department, Kerry said.

They had not been named as of Sunday morning.

Several Afghans and four other State Department employees were injured, one critically.

A sixth American civilian working with the U.S. government was killed in a separate attack in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, ISAF said in a statement.

"It's a grim reminder to all of us, though we didn't need any reminders, of how important and also how risky carrying the future is with people who want to resist," Kerry told State Department employees on Sunday during a visit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Smedinghoff and the other Americans were traveling in a convoy to southern Afghanistan to deliver textbooks to children in Qalat, Kerry said.?

Buzkashi Boys is an intense, gritty film made in Afghanistan about two street children. After numerous international awards, the movie is now eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award. ITN's Emma Murphy reports.

He met the Illinois-native several weeks ago when she worked as his control officer during his recent trip to Afghanistan.?He described her as "vivacious, smart, capable."

"There are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

He described Smedinghoff as "a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to school children, to bring them knowledge."

Smedinghoff previously served in Venezuela.

In an email to the Washington Post, Smedinghoff's parents said their daughter "was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war."

The two Afghan teens who starred in the short critically acclaimed film 'Buzkashi Boys' landed at LAX this week to attend the Oscars. It was a far cry from their home country, where one of the boys ? Fawad ? sold maps on the streets to help support his family. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.

They added: "We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world."

Smedinghoff recently helped NBC News coordinate a report on "Buzkashi Boys," the short film nominated for an Oscar starring an Afghan boy who was discovered on the streets of Kabul.

Local Afghan producer Khyber Shinwari described her as "a lovely lady, charming ? smiling on her face."

"She was very open and so helpful. So kind," he said. "She was here to help Afghans."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Zabul attack in a text message Saturday. The assault came just three days after 54 people were killed in another Taliban attack on a courtroom in the western Farah province of Afghanistan.

The United Nations has said civilians are increasingly being targeted this year.

On his first day in office, Kerry said the safety of State Department employees was a top priority, in the wake of the attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi. No one has been convicted as of yet.

NBC News' Jamieson Lesko, Kiko Itsaka and Catherine Chomiak, and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

'We have to go': Afghans ready to flee country as foreign troops withdraw

54 killed, 90 wounded in attack on Afghan compound

Tears of joy: The moment an Afghan teen learned of Oscar nomination

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a6dc143/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A70C17640A3110Eshe0Ewas0Edoing0Ewhat0Eshe0Eloved0Eyoung0Ediplomat0Eamong0E60Eamericans0Ekilled0Ein0Eafghanistan0Dlite/story01.htm

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Peter 'Drunklage' steals the show on 'SNL'

NBC

Peter Dinklage and Bobby Moynihan on Weekend Update.

By Anna Chan, TODAY

Cheers! "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage made an appearance on "Saturday Night Live's" Weekend Update to chat taxes alongside Drunk Uncle (played by Bobby Moynihan) and Seth Meyers.

Drunk Uncle introduced his brother-in-law, Peter "Drunklage," about halfway through the segment when he admitted to watching the hit HBO drama and poked fun at the show, saying, "So I'm not King Joffrey, OK?! ... 'I'm a little jerk king!' Pfft. That's not me."

That's when "Drunklage" boozily rolled onto the set. After mumbling about 99 tumblers of scotch in his mouth and today's kids not wearing garters, the man behind Tyrion Lannister slurred, "You know what's in my tumbler? REGRET." He then went on to talk taxes and let fly a joke that left the audience "oooooh-ing": "I wish the IRS stood for Immigration Return Services." Check it out:

In other guest appearances, former NBA star Dennis Rodman poked a little fun at his friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the show's cold open.

As Moynihan's supreme leader finished talking about how he nailed his NCAA brackets, the athlete came out to give his pal a fist bump. When asked if he had anything to add, Rodman slightly botched the show's famous intro and yelled, "Live in New York, it's 'Saturday Night'!" The line is "Live from New York, it's 'Saturday Night'!"

Actress Melissa McCarthy hosted the show once again, and this time took on the recent scandal surrounding Rutgers coach Mike Rice, a ham-cooking contest, "The Voice" and wearing high heels.

Vince Vaughn is set to host next week.?

Which was your favorite skit this week? Tell us on our Facebook page!

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/07/17641519-peter-drunklage-steals-the-show-on-saturday-night-live?lite

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

On spirituality at Harvard - Harvard News Office - Harvard University

In 2012, the year she came to look upon as ?the year of religion,? Harvard President Drew Faust faced some challenges. She was seeking a new Pusey Minister in Memorial Church and a new dean for the Harvard Divinity School (HDS), and she was seeking a way to integrate religious studies throughout Harvard and address the ?growing appetite for a discussion of values, a discussion of ethics ? those vexing questions of how to live a life.?

So, following an intensive HDS search process, she named Jonathan L. Walton, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and professor of religion and society, to be the Pusey Minister, and David N. Hempton, the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, as well as the John Lord O?Brian Professor of Divinity, to lead the Divinity faculty.

And on Friday, as part of HDS?s Leadership Day, an annual meeting of leadership-level supporters and volunteers as well as members of the Emerson Circle and the Dean?s, Leadership, and Alumni/Alumnae councils, she and Hempton sat down in Loeb House to discuss the role of religious studies and spiritual life in the 21st century ? at Harvard and beyond.

For Hempton, the key is working with other Schools so that religious understanding informs law, business, public health, medicine, and, especially, conflict resolution.

As part of the Divinity faculty, he said, ?It?s easy to feel that history is not moving your way,? that the West is rapidly secularizing, ?and religion is yesterday?s news.?

But as a young man in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, ?many of us thought we were living through Europe?s last war of religion,? and that gave him a sharper focus. ?We were forced to think hard. However bad those years were, there was a deep intellectual engagement. Things mattered.

?In my years in Northern Ireland, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of religion; it?s all there,? he said. ?I have some understanding of how these things work now, and they?re very complicated and have many layers of complexity. We need to really have a stronger sense of the deep roots of these conflicts that can?t be quickly fixed or naively fixed, but have to be engaged in a serious way.?

Bereavement can move people toward greater faith or greater doubt, and Faust, the Lincoln Professor of History, pointed out that during and after the U.S. Civil War, many people turned to the consolation of religion, situating their losses ?in the context of the infinite.?

Religion, she said, helps one ?understand how values enable people to get together and think through what the terrorist moments mean in a larger framework.?

Moderator Thomas Chappell, M.T.S. ?91, the president and founder of Ramblers Way Farm, quoted the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:1, which says, ?Knowledge puffs up ? love builds up.? How, he asked, does studying religion at Harvard build humility?

?I say this to students in the first week they?re here as freshmen: Learning requires humility,? Faust answered. ?You need to bring to the project of wanting to know the knowledge that you don?t yet know, and an openness to know. That involves a certain awe, a willingness to revise. I would hope that knowledge would do the opposite of puffing up, if I may disagree with Paul. I would hope that people come with humility, and by the time they leave here they see even more reason for it, that they understand the kind of complexity David was just talking about.?

?Paul is really talking about a certain kind of knowledge,? said Hempton. ?I actually have seen the kind of knowledge that puffs up, people who claim certainty or a certain pride in their achievements ? but I think that historians with a deep sense of the complexities come to the conclusion that knowledge breeds humility. The past is such a cavernous place, historians are deeply aware just how difficult it is to know anything.?

Education, he said, can foster tolerance, and encourage ?goodness, high ethical standards, decency.?

?The past decade has been a tough decade for religion. Islam associated in many people?s minds with militancy, Catholicism with corruption, evangelicalism with intellectual disengagement,? he said. ?There is a generation of people who are not much interested in institutional religion, even if they have wonderful ideas about what to do with their lives. I do think it?s incumbent on all of us who work around religion to take religious disenchantment seriously. ? We have a responsibility to speak to our students about integrity, about the kind of faith that results in 1 Corinthians 13.?

And at Harvard, he said, he has found a humanitarian reach that is ?extraordinary.?

?There?s an enormous goodness that is being done that our students absorb, and feel part of,? he said.

Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/04/on-spirituality-at-harvard/

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Best Bulbs ? The Health Journal: Fitness, Nutrition, Wellness

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars Loading ...?Loading ...

Written by Brandy Centolanza

?

The three main types of bulb onions?yellow, red and white?are typically harvested March through August. These three onions can also be harvested in the fall.

At a glance

  • Serving Size :?1/2 cup cooked, yellow onion, chopped
  • Calories: 45
  • Fat: 0 g
  • Carbs: 1 g
  • Protein: 1 g?
  • Sodium: 0 mg

?

Nutritional Notes

?Onions have vitamin C, fiber, and no sodium, fat or cholesterol,? says Pam Dannon, a registered dietician with the Williamsburg-James City County School Division?s School Health Initiative Program (SHIP). ?Onions offer flavor, texture and color to recipes. The benefits of onions are not just what they add to a recipe, but also what they allow you to leave out. With their strong flavor, they can be a healthy substitution for salt.?

How to choose

Look for firm bulb onions with dry outer skins without bruises or cuts, and no scent.

How to prepare

The most widely used bulb onion is the yellow onion, which can be used with any type of cooking, and is what gives French Onion Soup its sweet flavor. Grilling or roasting best prepares red onions, while white onions are best saut?ed and used most often in salads and Mexican dishes. ?You can add them to green salads and pasta salads for color and crunch,? says Dannon. ?Sweet onions, wedged and sliced, can be spread with cheese or peanut butter as a snack, just like celery, or used as dippers, just like carrots.?

Did you know?

In Egypt, onions were once considered to be an object of worship. The onion symbolized eternity to the Egyptians who buried onions along with their Pharaohs. The Egyptians saw eternal life in the anatomy of the onion because of its circle-within-a-circle structure.

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Source: http://www.thehealthjournals.com/2013/04/onions/

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Apple Patents A Convertible MacBook Design, And Street View Navigation That Can Go Inside Buildings

macbook-convertibleA couple of new Apple patent applications published today show how the company might be thinking about competing with recent innovations from other big tech companies with similar, but different designs. The first is a filing that describes a convertible MacBook design, with a touch-sensitive screen that separates from the base. The second is a method for navigating a Street View-style view of virtual maps, complete with a twist that allows it to go inside buildings, too.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PuVlsTd8DEU/

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Perfect Game

Hanging above the dresser in my bedroom, encased in Plexiglas, is a baseball. A birthday gift from my wife, the ball bears the 1982 World Series logo and was signed, at some point between then and now, by Robin Yount, the Milwaukee Brewers? star shortstop and that season?s AL Most Valuable Player. The T in his signature resembles a star.

I?ve got a patchy memory that some weeks after the Brewers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 series, my grandfather took me to a breakfast sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, or maybe the Lions Club. I don?t remember whether my grandfather cared all that much about baseball, but I think we went because my father?his son?had died as the season was just getting underway and my family was trying to treat us kids to special events when they could. This qualified. The Brewers were all there?Molitor, Cooper, Gantner, Oglivie, Fingers, Yount, of course?and I left with a baseball signed by the whole team. ?

One summer day some years later, a neighbor and I were playing a game we called ?Kirby Puckett,? which had us leaping up against an imaginary centerfield wall to make miracle catches, just the way the Minnesota Twins? centerfielder did. (Playing ?Robin Yount? involved laying out to save a no-hitter.) The ball we were using got away, as the ball we were using often did?only this time it rolled across my front lawn and into a drain. When I emerged from the house with my autographed ball, we each promised the other it would never hit the ground. We?d catch every toss.

In his new book, Baseball as a Road to God, John Sexton, president of New York University (where, full disclosure, he and I both teach), includes a similar story by essayist Leonard Kriegel. Stricken with polio as a child, Kriegel was once presented, while in the hospital, with a ball signed by the 1945 Detroit Tigers. In his own writing Kriegel recalls, ?That ball simply embodied the idea of physical grace?a grace that had been ripped from my life by the virus.?

Time passed. And one day, Sexton recounts, while playing catch ?the ancient ball they were using simply fell apart,? and Kriegel and a friend had reason to fetch that Tigers ball from the house. I imagine them making promises to catch every toss. And yet: ?One by one, the names on the ball disappeared, chalked and cut and scuffed into oblivion by granite and brick and creosote.?

That is what happened to my Brewers ball too, of course. No one catches every toss. Fathers die. So do sons. Children are afflicted. Still, Kriegel can say about that ball: ?For one last time, it had rescued me from a bad day.?

This is baseball to John Sexton. Grace and affliction. Miracles and doubt. Belief and joy and ecstasy, too. In his book Sexton argues that there are moments in the game that lift us out of our regular existence: rescuing us, say, from another bad day; granting us an experience, in the words of one theologian, of ??standing outside of oneself??without ceasing to be oneself? (the textbook definition of ecstasy).

Now, it needn?t be baseball, Sexton is clear to point out, that takes us out of ourselves. Organized religion can sometimes work. So might music or art. But Sexton?s hope, in chapters that follow the innings 1 through 9?with room set aside, as well, for a pregame show, a seventh-inning stretch, and a return to the clubhouse?is to reveal that this game can evoke the very ?essence of religion,? that ?inside the game the formative material of spirituality can be found.??

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=1d18d1ca914cbd7b3ff808714753d7c2

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U.S. official puts onus on Iran in upcoming nuclear talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Progress in this week's nuclear talks between Iran and six major powers depends on how Tehran responds to a proposal offered by the six in February, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

"How far we get ... depends on what the Iranians come back with in terms of a response on the substance to our proposal," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There has been a very positive line out of Tehran on the talks so far. We hope that that positive talk will now be matched with some concrete responses and actions on the Iranian side," the official added.

The United States and its allies suspect Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons. Iran denies this, saying its program is entirely peaceful.

At February 26-27 talks with Iran in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - offered modest sanctions relief in return for Iran curbing its most sensitive nuclear work.

The senior U.S. official put the onus on Iran to put forward a substantive response at Friday's talks in Kazakhstan, known informally as "Almaty II," but also played down the idea that this week's discussions constituted a last chance for Iran.

"I would hope that we're not at any last chance," said the official. "If we are not sure about how much we've gotten and whether we have gotten enough, we'll go back and consult with capitals before we reach any ultimate conclusion here.

"So I think we have time and space to consider what we hear," the official added. "We hope that they make concrete, substantive and specific responses so that we can go to work."

In February, Western officials said the offer presented then by the six powers included an easing of a ban on trade in gold and other precious metals, and a relaxation of an import embargo on Iranian petrochemical products. They offered no details.

In exchange, a senior U.S. official said, Iran would among other things have to suspend uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent at its Fordow underground facility and "constrain the ability to quickly resume operations there."

This appeared to be a softening of a previous demand that Iran ship out its entire stockpile of higher-grade enriched uranium, which it says it needs to produce medical isotopes.

Iran says it has a sovereign right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and wants to fuel nuclear power plants so it can export more oil.

But 20-percent purity is far higher than that needed for nuclear power, and rings alarm bells abroad because it is only a short technical step away from weapons-grade uranium.

Asked whether the United States wanted an absolute shut-down of Fordow, the U.S. official declined to provide details but suggested some flexibility.

"I won't be able to give you specifics on Fordow, except to say that our objective to deal with Fordow remains the same objective," said the official. "There are many ways to get there and our proposal is one vehicle for doing that, but our desire to make sure that Fordow does not remain the concern that it is very much part of the proposal ... we have put on the table."

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-official-puts-onus-iran-upcoming-nuclear-talks-094504446.html

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Musings on project management: Vexing change


In a recent discussion about the difficulties of effecting change, I wrote this: There are these vexing issues about change management generally:
????????? The business is not stationary while the change is ongoing; thus it?s difficult to fix cause and effect. Sometimes only a loose correlation is possible.
????????? Project success?in the sense of change project?and business success?in the sense of the impact of change on the business?are often confused; the success (or not) of the former may be evaluated quite differently than the success (or not) of the latter, all the more so because the latter takes much longer to evaluate? so which success/failure are we really addressing?
????????? Success/failure is too often measured by evaluating consumption of input according to plan?as in cash flow?without regard to earned value of outcomes.? (Debate: If the outcomes are acceptable/successful, but the input consumption is over plan, is the project successful or not? Some say there must be success of both input and output; others only evaluate the output)
????????? Leaders and managers are largely trained in process mechanics, less so in the psychology of change, whereas the issues that dog large scale change are weighted the other way around: more psychological than process mechanics
????????? Leaders and managers fail to grasp that change and opportunity are nearly synonyms, and that opportunity is the flip side of risk (See Chapter 11 of PMI PMBOK). Thus, when addressing the opportunity offered by change, they are also taking on the risk attendant to the opportunity. They fail to grasp that the body of knowledge re risk management has a lot to offer to the manager addressing change?like for example game theory and options management.
????????? And, finally, when has the business reached post-change steady-state such that we can say: the change has occurred and is fully internalized in both culture and operations?

Dilbert is a creation of Scott Adams.
?

Check out these books in the library at Square Peg Consulting

Source: http://www.johngoodpasture.com/2013/04/vexing-change.html

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GrouPlay Lets Everyone Contribute to Your Party Playlist

GrouPlay Lets Everyone Contribute to Your Party PlaylistUnless you're a professional DJ, chances are at some point you've had party guests over that get on your case for your taste in music. Everyone has their own preferences and no one wants to be left off the playlist. GrouPlay for iOS ensure they never have to by letting everyone on a WiFi connection contribute.

Setup is simple. One person in a group hosts a playlist and everyone else contributes to it. Users can add songs from their iTunes libraries and the entire group can vote on individual tracks to move them up or down the list. It's a little annoying that you have to add one song at a time (even the hoster can't start off with a pre-created playlist), and it takes a minute or two to add a song to the playlist, but overall it's a good idea that only needs a few improvements.

This does mean that all participants will need to have the app downloaded, so keep that in mind. For small, recurring gatherings, though, it'd be worth having all your friends download the app.

GrouPlay Social Playlists (Free) | iTunes App Store

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YB2maX-cWnQ/grouplay-lets-everyone-contribute-to-your-party-playlist

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Can Modem Lights Warn of Danger?

Your modem and router lights are blinking all the time ? even when you know that no one is using the Internet. Is that a warning that something?s wrong?

Mostly, the lights on your modem or router indicate perfectly normal activity. Even when you aren?t actively browsing the web or downloading a video, your computer busily monitors all its network connections ? to your Internet Service Provider, to your Wi-Fi-connected phones, and to other connected devices, like your cable box, AppleTV, or Xbox. And all of this communication shows up as activity on your modem or router.

Real Threats

While most blinking lights are nothing to worry about, there are some real threats that you should know how to protect yourself from.

Botnets: Botnets are software programs that scan through the Internet looking for unsecured computers they can take over and turn into zombie spam machines. But no need to panic here; any computer that has even a basic firewall or is behind a router is perfectly safe.

Wi-Fi Thieves: Wi-Fi thieves are most likely your neighbors who don?t feel like paying for their own service. This isn?t a big threat, except that it may slow down your own connection ? plus, it isn?t really fair. If you suspect you have a Wi-Fi thief, log into your router and look at the list of devices connected. You should mostly see devices you recognize. If a neighbor is using your network, it?s likely their device will be simply labeled. These Wi-Fi thieves are generally thwarted pretty easily; just change the name of your router and your Wi-Fi password.

Viruses: if you have a virus on your computer, it could be sending traffic through your router too. Or worse, if someone has installed monitoring software, that could be sending out a log of all your Internet activity. To check, first run a virus scan and then try a network traffic monitor like Little Snitch for Mac or the Comodo Firewall for Windows machines.

For more on checking for and removing viruses, please see ?Does Your PC Have a Virus ? or Is it Just Slow?? and ?Computer Virus: How to Remove It.?

[Related: Are You Being Monitored at Work?]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upgrade-your-life/can-modem-lights-warn-of-danger--193449330.html

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Collapsing ?Hamlet?: hiSTORYstage Spins William Shakespeare's ...

Marowitz Hamlet

EDITOR?S NOTE: Dawn Reno Langley is a Durham, NC-based author who writes novels, poetry, children?s books, and nonfiction books on many subjects, as well as theater reviews. She is also Dean of General Education and Developmental Studies at Piedmont Community College in Roxboro, where she oversees the theater program at the Kirby Cultural Arts Complex, and a member of the Person County Arts Council. To read all of Dawn Langley?s Triangle Review reviews online at Triangle Arts & Entertainment, click http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/author/dawn-reno-langle/. To read more of her writings, click http://dawnrenolangley.blogspot.com/ and http://poetryandgardening.blogspot.com/.

Imagine Cirque de Soleil and Shakespeare and flash fiction and you have hiSTORYstage Theatre Company?s version of The Marowitz Hamlet, which ran March 27-30 at Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC. Strange combination, right? No stranger than Romeo and Juliet being re-composed as a gang war set in the boroughs of New York City, circa 1957. Everyone has a favorite way of re-envisioning Shakespeare?s classics and Charles Marowitz?s interpretation of the classic story of the young Hamlet dealing with his father?s murder and his mother?s infidelity, shortens the original five-act play, sometimes running it as a stream-of-consciousness story that somehow gives more depth to the underlying current of insanity the Shakespearean classic embodies.

The hiSTORYstage production of the play, set in a theater-in-the-round staging accented by a Cirque de Soleil hanging drapery, offers both a distinctive and unusual spin on the story. When the play opens, young Hamlet (Clint Lienau) lies on a pallet placed center stage, the hanging drapery wrapped around him like a bedspread. When he tosses it off at the first sight of the ghost of his father, the late King Hamlet of Denmark (Wayne Burtoft), the viewer think that the drapery might get in the way of the performance. Instead, it takes on its own life, becoming a pseudo-character, sometimes acting like a rope, sometimes acting like a curtain, and at still other times acting like a noose. After the initial introduction to the prop, the audience is instantly drawn into the tragedy studied by students for hundreds of years.

Director Rebecca C. Blum turns a unique performance of Marowitz?s version into a well-acted and cast performance with both seasoned actors and stage ?virgins? collaborating to create a play where the timing is as important as the soliloquies. Hamlet?s Ghost, played by Wayne Burtoft, is the conscience of the play; and it requires both a stately persona and a resonant voice in order to be believable. Burtoft provides both, as well as a substantial appearance that underscores the commands he utters to his son, especially when he demands that Hamlet seek revenge for his ?most foul and unnatural murder.?

Other characters are also well-cast, including the tenderly insane Ophelia, played with sensitivity (and a voice) by Stephanie Rinehart. Her portrayal is not only accurate but believable. Though the playbill states this is her first journey into Shakespeare?s world, it appears she has laid a strong foundation for her acting career prior to this performance.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played with a bumbling, joined-at-the-hip, and frantic nature by Diana McQueen and Ruth Berry, are Marowitz?s statement on the ?absurdity of life?; and it is that philosophy they embody throughout their disconnected statements on Hamlet?s life and actions. Both women are also new to the stage, yet their timing offers verve to the sycophantic duo responsible for transferring messages between kingdoms.

As the cheating Gertrude, Sarah Schmitt exercises her years of acting experience and gives credence to the confusion Gertrude feels. It is around this indiscretion that the play revolves, and Schmitt is a believable regal woman caught up in the all-too-human act of falling for another man while married to a powerful politician. When she looks up at R. Alex Davis?s Claudius, her passion for him is palpable. That complex passion is underscored by the casting of Davis, a character who appears to be the ?boy toy? to King Hamlet?s older statesman. As the preening and conceited Claudius, Davis is sufficiently dislikable, as he should be.

Laertes (John Minervino) struggles with his allegiance to Hamlet and his tendency to overprotect his sister, Ophelia; and though his time on stage is fairly short, Minervino meets the challenge of meandering into conversations and offering a moral high point to the fairly dysfunctional families.

The young Hamlet, bewildered and angered by his mother?s murderous intentions, is one of the most complex of all Shakespearean characters to play. The many soliloquies and subterfuge prescribed to Hamlet requires an intensity and a depth few actors can reach at a young age. This Hamlet, played by Clint Lienau, appears more nervous and confused than intent on gaining revenge for his father?s murder. At times, his slight frame appears to collapse in on itself rather than to puff up and strengthen. Though Lienau?s acting is adequate, this is the one character that may have benefited from a better casting decision.

The one character who is absolutely perfect in his role is the Clown, Seth Blum, a veteran of many Shakespearean roles and husband of the director. As Hamlet?s ?mirror,? the Clown gives voice to the young prince?s imagination and questionings. Blum blithely offers commentary on the actions of the other characters, as well as snippy advice to young Hamlet. He brightens the stage with his antics and evidences a strong capability of acting the wise fool that is a Shakespearean standard.

Though the strobe light sequence is not only unnecessary but, at times, disturbing, the set lighting worked to dramatize the play?s abridged scenes. By punctuating the scenes that often drifted in and out of one setting and one character to another, the lighting assisted the audience in understanding how swiftly the Marowitz version of the play moved throughout an otherwise interminable five acts. One supposes that one artifice (the Cirque de Soleil drapery) might have been enough for this nonlinear summary; however, the strobe did serve to remind the audience of the postmodern elements of Marowitz?s version of the tragic Hamlet.

THE MAROWITZ HAMLET (hiSTORY Stage, March 27-30 at Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC).

SHOW: http://www.historystage.org/The_Marowitz_Hamlet.html.

VIDEO PREVIEW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qX6P1gpYQsI.

SEASON: http://www.historystage.org/Season.html.

PRESENTER: http://www.historystage.org/Home.html.

VENUE: http://www.cgtheatre.com/.

OTHER LINKS:

The Marowitz Hamlet (play): http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=4474 (Dramatists Play Service, Inc.).

Charles Marowitz (playwright): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Marowitz (Wikipedia).

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Source: http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/2013/04/collapsing-hamlet-historystage-spins-william-shakespeares-classic-tragedy-literally/

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