Would you like some gamification with your french fries? Well, one San Diego-based startup is willing to bet you just might. Mogl, which describes itself as not only "a party in your wallet" but also a "four letter word you can say in front of your grandma," wants to turn you into a loyal customer at your local restaurants. Said another way, Mogl is using gamification and a bit of charity to increase engagement and the enjoyability of customer loyalty program for restaurants -- all while on the go.
Aeras leverages US government clinical trial networks designed for HIV research to support TB vaccine development
Rockville, MD, USA Aeras announces today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), has joined as a partner for a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial of a tuberculosis vaccine candidate jointly developed by Aeras and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell.
NIH has a long history of supporting TB vaccine development. However, this is the first time that NIH is leveraging its HIV/AIDS clinical trial networks to advance a tuberculosis vaccine candidate. Along with the recent announcement of NIAID's new partnership in a Phase III TB drug trial, this collaboration follows the NIAID plan to leverage infrastructure originally intended for HIV-related clinical trials to also advance tuberculosis vaccine and therapeutic research for both HIV uninfected and infected populations.
One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis. Infants and people who are immune compromised, including those with HIV infection, are at higher risk of developing active TB. Safe and effective vaccines hold promise for protecting these at-risk populations.
"NIAID's involvement in this important clinical trial will maximize return on U.S. government investment in clinical research infrastructure while accelerating progress against the world's deadliest infectious disease after HIV/AIDS," said Mary Woolley, CEO and President of Research!America, the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to research.
The clinical trial, which began in October 2010, has already enrolled infants at three sites in Kenya, South Africa and Mozambique. The goal of the trial is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccine candidate AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35 in HIV-uninfected infants. Significant support for the trial is also provided by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and European Member States.
The first NIAID-supported site to join the clinical trial is the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) located in Soweto, South Africa at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. The research site is a member of NIAID-funded clinical trial networks including the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT).
"Our novel collaboration with NIAID comes as multiple TB vaccine candidates are poised to enter efficacy trials requiring thousands of participants and significant investment, as well as complex infrastructure and sophisticated expertise," said Jim Connolly, President and CEO of Aeras.
"We are grateful for the partnership of one of the most well-respected biomedical research institutes in the world, and the opportunity to utilize well-established clinical sites," he added.
###
About AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35
In 2004, Aeras and Crucell began joint development of this vaccine candidate. AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35 has been tested in 13 completed or ongoing early-stage clinical trials. These trials include healthy adults and infants as well as adults with HIV infection and adults with recently treated pulmonary tuberculosis. The vaccine candidate has been shown to be immunogenic and to have an acceptable safety profile in these studies.
About Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is the world's second deadliest infectious disease, with 8.8 million new cases diagnosed in 2010. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.4 million people died from TB in 2010. An estimated one-third of the world's population has been infected with the TB bacillus. Current guidelines require a minimum of six to nine months of treatment. The current TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Gurin (BCG), developed 90 years ago and given to newborn infants, reduces the risk of severe forms of TB in early childhood but is not very effective in preventing pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults the populations with the highest rates of TB disease. TB is changing and evolving, making new vaccines more crucial for controlling the pandemic. Tuberculosis is now the leading cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are hampering treatment and control efforts.
About Aeras
Aeras (http://www.aeras.org) is a non-profit product development organization dedicated to the development of effective vaccines and biologics to prevent TB across all age groups in an affordable and sustainable manner. Aeras has invented or supported the development of six TB vaccine candidates, which are undergoing Phase I and Phase II clinical testing in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. Aeras receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, other private foundations, and governments. Aeras is based in Rockville, Maryland, USA where it operates a state-of-the-art manufacturing and laboratory facility, and Cape Town, South Africa.
About the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
NIAID conducts and supports researchat the US National Institutes of Health, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. For more information about NIAID visit http://www.niaid.nih.gov/.
For further information please contact:
Jamie Rosen
Media & Communications Manager
Tel: 301-547-2853
jrosen@aeras.org
http://www.aeras.org
[ | E-mail | 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.
NIH to join multi-center clinical trial of new tuberculosis vaccinePublic release date: 31-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Aeras leverages US government clinical trial networks designed for HIV research to support TB vaccine development
Rockville, MD, USA Aeras announces today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), has joined as a partner for a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial of a tuberculosis vaccine candidate jointly developed by Aeras and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell.
NIH has a long history of supporting TB vaccine development. However, this is the first time that NIH is leveraging its HIV/AIDS clinical trial networks to advance a tuberculosis vaccine candidate. Along with the recent announcement of NIAID's new partnership in a Phase III TB drug trial, this collaboration follows the NIAID plan to leverage infrastructure originally intended for HIV-related clinical trials to also advance tuberculosis vaccine and therapeutic research for both HIV uninfected and infected populations.
One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis. Infants and people who are immune compromised, including those with HIV infection, are at higher risk of developing active TB. Safe and effective vaccines hold promise for protecting these at-risk populations.
"NIAID's involvement in this important clinical trial will maximize return on U.S. government investment in clinical research infrastructure while accelerating progress against the world's deadliest infectious disease after HIV/AIDS," said Mary Woolley, CEO and President of Research!America, the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to research.
The clinical trial, which began in October 2010, has already enrolled infants at three sites in Kenya, South Africa and Mozambique. The goal of the trial is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccine candidate AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35 in HIV-uninfected infants. Significant support for the trial is also provided by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and European Member States.
The first NIAID-supported site to join the clinical trial is the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) located in Soweto, South Africa at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. The research site is a member of NIAID-funded clinical trial networks including the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT).
"Our novel collaboration with NIAID comes as multiple TB vaccine candidates are poised to enter efficacy trials requiring thousands of participants and significant investment, as well as complex infrastructure and sophisticated expertise," said Jim Connolly, President and CEO of Aeras.
"We are grateful for the partnership of one of the most well-respected biomedical research institutes in the world, and the opportunity to utilize well-established clinical sites," he added.
###
About AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35
In 2004, Aeras and Crucell began joint development of this vaccine candidate. AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35 has been tested in 13 completed or ongoing early-stage clinical trials. These trials include healthy adults and infants as well as adults with HIV infection and adults with recently treated pulmonary tuberculosis. The vaccine candidate has been shown to be immunogenic and to have an acceptable safety profile in these studies.
About Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is the world's second deadliest infectious disease, with 8.8 million new cases diagnosed in 2010. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.4 million people died from TB in 2010. An estimated one-third of the world's population has been infected with the TB bacillus. Current guidelines require a minimum of six to nine months of treatment. The current TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Gurin (BCG), developed 90 years ago and given to newborn infants, reduces the risk of severe forms of TB in early childhood but is not very effective in preventing pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults the populations with the highest rates of TB disease. TB is changing and evolving, making new vaccines more crucial for controlling the pandemic. Tuberculosis is now the leading cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are hampering treatment and control efforts.
About Aeras
Aeras (http://www.aeras.org) is a non-profit product development organization dedicated to the development of effective vaccines and biologics to prevent TB across all age groups in an affordable and sustainable manner. Aeras has invented or supported the development of six TB vaccine candidates, which are undergoing Phase I and Phase II clinical testing in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. Aeras receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, other private foundations, and governments. Aeras is based in Rockville, Maryland, USA where it operates a state-of-the-art manufacturing and laboratory facility, and Cape Town, South Africa.
About the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
NIAID conducts and supports researchat the US National Institutes of Health, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. For more information about NIAID visit http://www.niaid.nih.gov/.
For further information please contact:
Jamie Rosen
Media & Communications Manager
Tel: 301-547-2853
jrosen@aeras.org
http://www.aeras.org
[ | E-mail | 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.
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Critics of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin drove in their hundreds around central Moscow on Sunday in cars trailing white ribbons, a symbol of Russia's protest movement, staging a mobile demonstration to demand fair elections.
Opposition leaders are trying to maintain momentum after tens of thousands of people angry over alleged election fraud and Putin's plan to return to the Kremlin in a March vote turned out last month for the biggest protests of his 12-year rule.
"This has an important symbolic meaning. We have arrived at the stage when we don't want to be vassals any more," said opposition activist Ilya Ponomaryov, who picked up hitchhikers with white ribbons in his purple sedan.
Organizers said the demonstration also aimed to advertise protest marches planned for next Saturday, exactly one month before the March 4 presidential election.
"We want to show our unity. This is very visible. This is preparatory work for February 4, when there will be even more people than on Sakharov Avenue," Ponomaryov said, referring to the site of a December 24 rally that drew tens of thousands.
Polls indicated Putin will regain the presidency, extending his rule for at least six more years. He was president from 2000-2008 and is widely believed to have been holding Russia's reins for his prot?g?, President Dmitry Medvedev.
Some drivers resorted to white construction tape, printer paper, grocery bags and even white lace as they cruised around Moscow's Garden Ring road. Organizers said more than 3,000 motorists took part, while police put the number at about 300.
In the minus 15 C (5 F) chill, many pedestrians applauded or waved white handkerchiefs from the sidewalks in solidarity. One vehicle had a life-sized straw figure with a picture of Putin's face strapped to its hood.
Cars are a strong symbol not only of status but of personal freedom in Russia and the right to choice in a country where even ownership of a tiny Soviet-made Lada was a luxury in the communist era and foreign cars were virtually non-existent.
The protests, provoked by widespread suspicions of fraud favouring Putin's ruling party in a December 4 parliamentary election, have revealed dismay among Russians.
Middle-class city dwellers in particular feel they have no say in politics and that Putin's decision to return to the Kremlin was thrust upon them.
"We have to fight for our rights... We have to show our strength so that maybe people will see us and come to the February 4th protest," said Nadezhda, 26, who works for a state TV station. Nadezhda, who declined to give her last name, said her station had told employees not to take part in Sunday's protest.
"I feel cheated by the vote," Yevgeny Starshov, 23, a student at a state school of public administration, said of the parliamentary election.
"We have to do something to change the country for the better, not through riots or some kind of revolution but through such peaceful demonstrations to fight for more fair elections."
Thousands of Putin's supporters rallied on Saturday in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, to back his election bid.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by David Stamp)
That douche The Unit from Jersey Shore claims there is no way he was in possession of a powerful horse tranquilizer when he was arrested in N.J. last year.
Yes, Unit got popped with horse tranquilizer in Seaside Heights.
The Situation's boy, whose real name is John (or Jonny) Manfre, entered a not guilty plea to possession of a controlled substance stemming from the July bust.
The substance was determined to be Ketamine, a horse tranq.
The Unit from Jersey Shore does his thing. The girl's face sums it up.
After the hearing, Unit's lawyer Raymond Raya offered TMZ a classic non-explanation: "There were some issues regarding my client's constitutional rights."
"We entered the not guilty plea NOT because that's the normal thing to do ... we've actually entered the not guilty plea because we believe John is not guilty."
He added, "We expect a very favorable outcome." Good to know. We don't expect Snooki's girl Ryder can say the same after she gets tested, however.
LOS ANGELES ? A 911 recording revealed frantic efforts by friends of Demi Moore to get help for the actress who was convulsing as they gathered around her and tried to comfort her.
Moore was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a female caller on the recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and that she had been "having issues lately."
"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.
"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.
Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.
"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."
When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.
Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.
"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.
The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.
"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."
Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.
The past few months have been rocky for Moore.
She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.
Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.
Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.
During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.
"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."
The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.
There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.
As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"
"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.
Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
By the end of the call, Moore has improved.
"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.
Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.
Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.
Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."
Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan?a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula?found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.
But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.
Situated in shallow clear water, most coral reefs are visible to satellites that use passive remote sensing to observe Earth's surface. But coral reefs are complex ecosystems with coincident coral species, sand, and water all reflecting light. Dustan found that currently orbiting satellites do not offer the spatial or spectral resolution needed to distinguish between them and specifically classify coral reef composition. So instead of attempting to classify the inherently complex coral ecosystem to monitor their health, Dustan has instead started to look for change?how overall reflectance for a geographic location varies over time.
Dustan uses a time series of Landsat data to calculate something called temporal texture??basically a map showing where change has occurred based on statistical analysis of reflectance information. While Dustan cannot diagnosis the type of change with temporal texture he can establish where serious changes have occurred. Coral communities have seasonal rhythms and periodicities, but larger, significant changes show up as statistical outliers in temporal texture maps and often correlate with reef decline.
A Case Study
Carysfort reef?named for the HMS Carysfort, an eighteenth century British warship that ran aground on the reef in 1770?is considered the most ecologically diverse on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's northern seaward edge, but today it is in a state of ecological collapse.
Dustan and colleagues conducted the first quantitative field study of coral health at Carysfort in 1974. After a quarter century their studies showed that coral had declined 92 percent. The coral had succumbed to an array of stressors culminating with deadly diseases.
Using the well-characterized Carysfort reef as his control, Dustan calculated the temporal texture for the reef using a series of 20 Landsat images collected between 1982 and 1996. The resulting temporal texture maps correlated with the known areas of significant coral loss (where coral communities have turned into algal-dominated substrates) and they correctly showed that the seaward shallow regions have had the most detrimental change.
This novel approach to change detection is only possible because the long-term calibration of Landsat data assures that data from year-to-year is consistent. Dustin needs at least 6 to 8 Landsat images to create a reliable temporal texture map, but the more data that is available, the finer the results.
Dustan tested this work in the U.S. because he had a robust study site and because prior to 1999 coverage of reefs outside of the U.S. was spotty. With the Landsat 7 launch in 1999 a new global data acquisition strategy was established and for the first time the planet's coral reefs were systematically and regularly imaged, greatly increasing our knowledge of reefs. The Landsat archive enabled the completing of the first exhaustive global survey of reefs (Millennium Global Coral Reef Mapping Project, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/news-archive/news_0031.html). Efforts are currently underway to receive and ingest Landsat data collected and housed by international ground-receiving stations. International partners often downlink Landsat scenes of their countries that the U.S. does not, so it is very likely that historic reef images will be added the U.S. Landsat archive during this process.
Carrying on Outside of Carysfort
Temporal texture gives scientists an entirely new way to look at coral reefs. A worldwide study could help managers locate change 'hotspots' and could better inform conservation efforts.
Ideally, after more testing, Dustan would like to see an automatic change detection system implemented to follow major worldwide reef systems. "There is no reason that a form of temporal texture monitoring could not be implemented with current satellites in orbit," Dustan says.
Because reefs are underwater it is difficult to grasp the extensive devastation being exacted upon them. Global temporal texture mapping could bring the ravages into focus.
###
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard
Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.
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(Reuters) ? Political convulsions in the euro zone have only just begun. Six prime ministers have been kicked out of office, protesters have occupied public spaces, nationalist parties have grown in popularity, and two countries have appointed technocratic leaders. And that was just 2011. The coming year is likely to prove even tougher on the economic front as the crisis continues to rage, austerity bites, and unemployment mounts. Euro zone countries are being forced to choose between fiscal discipline or the disintegration of their shared currency. Under pressure from Germany, governments have agreed to sign up for treaty changes that will require them to balance their budgets, pay down their debts, and give the European Commission in Brussels more power to interfere with national budgets. Such loss of sovereignty could provoke a backlash from the people - and boost the support of right-wing euro-skeptic parties such as France's National Front. It's possible that the treaty changes may not even get ratified.
The euro zone could start coming apart at the seams, not just economically but politically. Populist parties in northern Europe - such as the True Finns and Holland's PVV - could gain traction by arguing that their citizens shouldn't have to bail out the Greeks, the Italians, and the Portuguese. Meanwhile, pretty much everybody could grow unhappy with the Germans for dictating how to run their countries. Anti-foreigner sentiment could rise across the board. In a nightmare scenario, protectionism would return while border checks and capital controls would be reimposed.
The conventional view is that economic crises are the breeding grounds of extremists, particularly right-wing ones. Such worries are legitimate, but the economic and political strains of the present do not have to play out like a repeat of the 1930s. Everything depends on the actions of political elites and the general population.
For politicians, the most important challenge will be to contain the crisis without getting too far ahead of what the people are prepared to tolerate - both in terms of austerity and loss of sovereignty. The best bet is probably for the southern countries to emphasize structural reforms to boost long-term growth - such as pushing up pension ages, freeing up labor markets, and fighting corruption - rather than passing yet more short-term spending cuts and tax hikes that will drive their economies deeper into recession. For this strategy to be possible, the northern countries will have to cut the southerners some slack, which would require a significant change of mindset, especially from Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor.
Whatever is done on the policy front, there will be political upheavals. In some respects - the defenestration of incumbent prime ministers or presidents - the politics will be "normal." This year may not be quite as dramatic as 2011, when half a dozen leaders, including Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, Greece's George Papandreou, and Spain's Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero, bit the dust. But we will probably witness the biggest fall yet: that of France's Nicholas Sarkozy, who is fighting off a stiff challenge from Fran?ois Hollande, the socialist candidate. Some countries could also see big shifts in the political landscape as old parties collapse and new ones take their place. This outcome is most likely in Italy and Greece, where corrupt political elites, known in each country as "castes," have for decades fed off the state rather than serving the public interest. Disaffection with traditional politics in both countries is high. When Berlusconi and Papandreou fell, it was telling that the opposition parties were not in a position to replace them. Instead, both countries turned to technocrats - Mario Monti, an economist and former European Commissioner, and Lucas Papademos, formerly vice president of the European Central Bank.
The crisis has created an opportunity for a break with the past. In Italy, Berlusconi's center-right PDL party could easily fall apart. That might open the way for a stronger centrist group to emerge around the so-called Terzo Polo (or Third Pole) led by Pier Ferdinando Casini. There's even a possibility that the new technocrats will develop a taste and aptitude for politics and create a new centrist political force of their own. In Greece, both Papandreou's left-wing Pasok party and the right-wing New Democracy party are beset with internal rivalries. In each party, there are traditionalists, who tend to be euro-skeptics, as well as more centrist, pro-European modernizers. In one scenario, the modernizers on left and right could break away from their current colleagues and join with each other as well as some small center parties to create a new force.
But it won't just be the politicians who determine how the political landscape changes. How the people behave will also be critical. Last year saw the birth of a new phenomenon: the Indignados. Hundreds of thousands of mostly young, largely apolitical nonviolent Spaniards occupied city centers in Madrid and Barcelona. They were objecting to austerity, greedy bankers, and incompetent politicians.
The Indignados were copied in Greece and in Italy, where they were called the Aganaktismenoi and the Indignati respectively. They were partly inspired by the mass rallies in Egypt during the Arab Spring, and they shared some ideas with the Occupy movements in the United States and Britain. But despite creating a lot of noise, the Indignados have not coalesced into a political force. That's partly because they are diffuse, and partly because they haven't developed positive programs. Their name gives it away: they are indignant about what is happening but tend not to have constructive ideas about what can be done better. In some cases, moreover, their protests were also hijacked by violent extremists. Such violence was mostly avoided in Spain, but in Athens protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the police, and in Rome the Black Bloc, an anarchist group, attacked banks, smashed windows, and set cars on fire. Although the Aganaktismenoi and the Indignati were not responsible, their cause suffered.
The slightly older educated middle classes, meanwhile, were largely silent in these southern countries. Sure, they were indignant, too, but they didn't take to the streets in large numbers. Instead, they fumed in the privacy of their homes. They blamed their politicians for mismanaging their economies and destroying their wealth, but they have been largely passive. Admittedly, there have been a few attempts by this demographic to organize themselves. In Milan, for example, citizens campaigned via social media for Giuliano Pisapia, a non-traditional politician. He went on to defeat Berlusconi's candidate, Letizia Moratti, in the mayoral race in May. And in Greece a group mainly composed of intellectuals set up an organization called Koinonikos Syndesmos, a pro-European pressure group campaigning for a new type of politics to serve the national interest rather than vested interests.
What euro zone countries now need is the engagement of their liberal-minded middle classes on a much wider scale. These groups need to slough off their natural passivity and organize themselves as a counterweight to the potential growth of extremism in the years ahead. However the financial side of the crisis plays out, the active involvement of constructive citizens could be an important element in stopping European politics from taking a very nasty turn.
(Hugo Dixon is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. Any opinions expressed are his own.)
Forum rules This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Night Of The Vampire?. Anything posted here will also show up there.
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup. Lol ikr. Rikku is like *holds arms to heart and sighs all fan girl like* He's jus amazing. *says in a smitten voice* ^^ and yeah I know where going fast. I'm trying to slow down but it's like really difficult >
Exp: how I had Zach take Aika to the store and waited for the reply to it.
I'm gonna do that now in a attempt to make things easier for you two..><
>< Lol not to mention playin Alice in madness while I Rp as 8 charrs is totally impossible... -.-
*sighs* not that I'm actually playing anyways..I'm more of trying to figure out where to flippin go from the place I'm at without dying..><
>.> flipping annoyin son of a biscuit eating bulldog game it is atm. lol
~AngelFromMyNightmare~
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One of Tumblr's most beloved memes, reads from his own Ryan Gosling-dedicated Tumblr. That's just how huge Tumblr is now!
Within two weeks of its 2007 launch, plucky microblogging platform Tumblr hit 750,000 users, becoming the?go-to point for single service blogs?(often with NSFW titles) such as "Look at this F---ing Hipster," "STFU, Parents," "Animals with Casts," countless "F--- Yeah"?Tumblogs,??and a collection of infinitely reblogged photo memes such as "Selleck Waterfall Sandwich" and "Jumping Rob Pattinson.
Five years later, the?New York City-based tech company has grown from a content-generating platform to curation central, serving?120 million users and getting 15 billion unique page views every month. These are the numbers CEO David Karp cited from Internet traffic-tracking outfit Quantcast, while discussing Tumblr's evolution Monday at the Digital Life Design Conference in Munich, Germany.
"The early growth that we saw was around creators," Karp told the audience. "Our first community was those creators. We didn?t set out to build a network ... all we wanted to do was make novel tools."
Those novel ? and easy-to-use ? tools took off quickly?however, even though Tumblr originally eschewed the standard social network tools common on similar sites?? such as commenting and tagging ? that more than a few people find annoying.
Nonetheless, Tumblr is now a major influencer in how the distribution of mainstream media is changing. For example, the average Tumblr post is re-blogged on the site nine times, and now features apps for direct posts to Facebook and Twitter.
The content "therefore reaches vastly more people than if it just sat on its original site waiting to be discovered by people visiting it directly," Felix Salmon writes on the Tumblr reblogging phenomenon in his Reuters post, "How sharing disrupts media." "In the future, the most viral stories are going to have a life of their own, being shared across many different platforms and being read by people who will never visit the original site on which they were published."
Probably not that far in the future, either. As Tumblr's "about" page notes, the site now hosts more than 16 billion posts and 42 million blogs. On Monday alone, Tumblr racked up up more than 61 million posts.
via Venturebeat
More on the annoying way we live now:
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet ? at least until the Stop Online Piracy Act becomes a law, making snark a libelous felony. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
The former?Massachusetts?governor accused Gingrich of being an "influence peddler," while the ex-Speaker in turn called Romney a liar.
Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich clashed repeatedly in heated, personal terms Monday night in a crackling campaign debate, the former Massachusetts governor tagging his rival as an "influence peddler" in Washington, only to be accused in turn of spreading falsehoods over many years in politics.
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"You've been walking around the state saying things that are untrue," Gingrich said to his rival in a two-hour debate marked by interruptions and finger pointing.
The debate marked the first encounter among the four remaining GOP contenders ? former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul shared the stage ? since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary in an upset last weekend, a double-digit victory that reset the race to pick a rival to challenge President Barack Obama this fall.
Romney was the aggressor from the opening moments Monday night, saying Gingrich had "resigned in disgrace" from Congress after four years as speaker and then had spent the next 15 years "working as an influence peddler" in Washington.
In particular, he referred to the contract Gingrich's consulting firm had with Freddie Mac, a government-backed mortgage giant that he said "did a lot of bad for a lot of people and you were working there."
Romney also said Gingrich had lobbied lawmakers to approve legislation creating a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
"I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying," Gingrich said emphatically, adding that his firm had hired an expert to explain to employees "the bright line between what you can do as a citizen and what you do as a lobbyist."
Romney counterpunched quickly, referring to what he said was more than $1 million that Gingrich's consulting firm received from Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage giant.
And when Gingrich sought to turn the tables by inquiring about the private equity firm that Romney founded, the former Massachusetts governor replied: "We didn't do any work with the government. ...I wasn't a lobbyist"
As for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Gingrich said that while he never lobbied lawmakers, as Romney charged, he was proud of having supported it. "It has saved lives. It's run on a free enterprise model," he said.
At times, the other two contenders on stage were reduced to supporting roles.
Asked if he could envision a path to the nomination for himself, Santorum said the race has so far been defined by its unpredictability. He conceded he had been defeated for re-election in 2006 in Pennsylvania but said the party lost the governorship by an even bigger margin than his own defeat.
"There's one thing worse than losing an election and that's not standing for the principles that you hold," he said, a comment he frequently makes while campaigning in an attempt to question Romney's commitment to conservatism.
Paul sidestepped when moderator Brian Williams of NBC asked if he would run as a third-party candidate in the fall if he doesn't win the nomination. "I have no intention," he said, but he didn't rule it out.
The polls post-South Carolina show Gingrich and Romney leading in the Florida primary. That and the former speaker's weekend victory explained why the two were squabbling even before the debate began, and why they tangled almost instantly once it had begun.
Video networking firm Polycom shares surge after hours after reporting revenue and EPS of $0.41 cents a share-- 12 cents above consensus, with CNBC's Courtney Reagan.
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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. ? Ashley Tatum was three months behind on utility payments after leaving her job at a coffee shop because of pregnancy complications. The mother of two owed $648, and the tough economy did not offer many options.
The Milwaukee resident had one small reason to hope: The winter has been mild and her heating bills low, offering an unexpected chance to catch up on overdue payments.
"It was helpful because then I wouldn't have to stress about getting all this extra money," she said.
Although there have been some cold snaps and storms, the moderate weather has been a boon to millions of Americans, allowing them to save money on snow removal and permitting outdoor activities to continue well beyond autumn. But few have been more grateful than low-income families, who are getting a break from high heating costs.
Tatum first noticed the lower charges in November. Her bill covering most of December was $164, less than half the price from a year earlier.
"I was surprised," Tatum said. "I called my sister and said, `Girl, is your bill cheaper, too?' I'm happy that we had those nice warm days."
Initially, forecasters made grim predictions that this winter could rival or exceed the cold, snowy assault of 2010-11. But average temperatures have been well above normal across the Upper Midwest and Northeast. Combined with a lack of snow and ice, the unseasonable conditions have been a blessing for many families who normally devote much of their budgets to natural gas, propane or heating oil.
In Michigan, temperatures have been 15 percent above normal since October, and plentiful fuel supplies are driving down natural gas prices.
"It's helping all customers," said Judy Palnau, spokeswoman for the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Utility company Consumers Energy says its 1.7 million natural gas customers in Michigan are paying about 20 percent less than a year ago. The average residential bill for January will be $112, down from about $140.
Marc Ryan of Traverse City is living in a friend's trailer for the winter. His latest utility bill was for $90 ? about $25 less than last year.
"It's not a lot, but 25 bucks is 25 bucks," Ryan said. "It's half a tank of gas in my pickup truck. I'll take that."
Advocacy groups and government agencies agree the weather has been helpful ? to a point. Demand for heating assistance remains high, they say, partly because so many Americans are unemployed or working at low-paying jobs.
Congress in December slashed the federal program that provides low-income heating and utility subsidies from $4.7 billion to $3.5 billion for this year. But because of the moderate weather, assistance agencies that had been turning people away now have money to give.
Still, many recipients will be getting less. Minnesota's average grant is now $400, down from $500 to $600 a year ago. The state is helping 190,000 households with heating expenses ? more than last year, despite a 23 percent drop in federal payments.
"There are households that are calling. They're wondering, `What are we going to do? The grant I was provided will barely get me one fill of my propane tank,'" said Judd Schultz, housing director for Minnesota Valley Action Council, one of 28 nonprofit agencies through which the money is distributed.
In Indianapolis, employment coach Janice Duffey of Southeast Community Services said she's been flooded with calls for heating help and expects no letup anytime soon.
"The weather could go berserk in a week," Duffey said.
The owner of an oil company in Scarborough, Maine, said heating oil usage among his customers dropped about 25 percent in November and 18 to 20 percent in December.
Les Thomas, who runs Cash Energy, has two tanks in his house. "I've usually filled them up again around Christmastime," he said. This year, he didn't need to.
One couple's oil supply lasted so long that they stopped checking it regularly.
"I got home last night and realized my tank was just about empty. It's been so warm, I forgot about our oil," said Angie Tapper, a waitress who lives with her husband in Lewiston, Maine.
She also got used to having some extra money. "It's been a welcome break for our bank account," she said.
Still, Tapper knows there's still plenty of winter ahead.
"I've got to get into a January-February mindset," she said, "until I see flowers."
___
Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee; Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich.; Corey Williams in Detroit; Carrie Schedler in Indianapolis; Alexandra Tempus in Minneapolis; and Glenn Adams in Augusta, Maine, contributed to this report.
Hey, Skjor here! As the titles states, would anyone be interested in a Warcraft-themed RP? I got a story worked out and I am open for more ideas on it, but the basics is this (And bare with me, This is more or less a non-canon story, but will try to stay canon as much as possible):
The Second war; The Kingdom of Lordaeron, the Dwarves and the Elves have all allied themselves together under Sir Lothar and is now know as "The Alliance". This new alliance is now fighting a great war against the chaotic Horde in the Eastern Kingdom ruled by the orc Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer. The war is bloody and both sides are losing much and gaining little on it but retribution for their fallen brothers and sisters.
Our story is about two human brothers (or a brother and a sister or two sisters, works either way) who have just recently enlisted in the military against their parents permission. In this war they will be tossed into battle after battle against the ruthless Horde as they try to free the Eastern Kingdoms from the orcs once and for all. Along the way they will meet allies and friends just as they will face great enemies and maybe even acquire a nemesis or two.
---
I'm thinking about trying to make this a long Rp with maybe a sequel or two that will bring the siblings into the Third war as well and then we'll see what happens along the way. Anyone interested and if you are, do you have any ideas to build upon this idea or maybe even a brand new idea?
[brightcove video="1395374162001" /] One of the co-founders of Apple has some love for Android, it turns out. ?My primary phone is the iPhone,? Steve Wozniak says. ?I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.?
[More from Mashable: Birds and Mice Come to Life on Your Plate With Augmented Reality App [VIDEO]]
Check out the video above to learn more.
via The Daily Beast
[More from Mashable: New Tech Could Protect Your Phone From Death by Toilet Bowl [VIDEO]]
In a viewpoint the author admits is "extremist," an industry analyst believes that if iOS and Android devices are considered to be substitutes for personal computers, then not only is the latter's market share going to dip below 50 percent, but collapse is also imminent.
Finland-based?Horace Dediu, who runs Asymco, which on LinkedIn is self-described as "a company selling software development and consulting services for companies interested in deploying mobile applications," published a blog post today?that might make some people's heads explode?? particularly those of us without a penchant for numbers. In that post, he charts "The rise and fall of personal computing," which compares PCs to Macs, iOS and Android devices in shipped units and market share.
In his last graph, Dediu talks about the integration of smartphones into the personal computing space.
I will concede that this last view is extremist. It does not reflect a competition that exists in real life. However, I put this data together to show a historic pattern. Sometimes extremism is a better point of view than conservatism. Ignoring this view is very harmful as these not-good-enough computers will surely get better. A competitor that has no strategy to deal with this shift is likely to suffer the fate of those companies in the left side of the chart. Treating the first share chart as reality is surely much more dangerous than contemplating the third.
Horace Dediu/Asymco
Market share, with data from Gartner and IDC
As the commenters below the post note, there is no inclusion of Nokia's Symbian or Research in Motion's BlackBerry; but in a world that seems increasingly skewed toward Android and iOS, Dediu looks like he's already made the leap.?
As he puts it:
The ?entrants? into personal computing, the iPad, iPhone and Android, have a combined volume that is higher than the PCs sold in the same period (358 million estimated iOS+Android vs. 336 million PCs excluding Macs in 2011.) The growth rate and the scale itself combine to make the entrants impossible to ignore.
Live Poll
Do you spend more time on your smartphone or your personal computer?
173604
Smartphone. I can do everything on it, and it's with me all the time.
22%
173605
PC/Mac/other. I have a smartphone, but it won't be replacing my home/laptop anytime soon.
78%
VoteTotal Votes: 2590
We've seen the addition of iPhones supplementing Macs and PCs at home, and Chromebooks arriving after Android handsets. We've also seen the rapid rise of Android, how its handsets have overtaken the iPhone in the U.S., and how its apps in the Android Market will close in on Apple's, but have we arrived at that moment when smartphones replace the personal computer? Take our poll and let us know where you're at.
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Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.
Its showing wasn't as noteworthy as it was last year, but Motorola still at least brought a few new goodies to put on display. The latest major addition to Verizon's Droid Razr family, the Razr Maxx, was on hand, as were the white and purple variants of the original version. So what makes the $300 subsidized Maxx so different from its predecessor? Simply enough, the name is a direct reflection of the phone's battery life, as it sports a thicker (translating to a thickness of 8.99mm, a couple millimeters thicker than the original) 3,300 mAh juicepack that promises an out-of-this-world 21 hour talk time. Sadly, we didn't have 21 full hours to dedicate to testing this claim, but we did have enough time to get a few pictures and a video of the entire Droid Razr family together at last below the break.
People want to relax in the spa! You?ll be able to go and have absolutely a skin redness, a massage and perhaps even some sort of haircut. In the last, pet grooming supplies once was quite invasive and might at moments hurt your pet as clearly. Grooming dog grooming important portion of owning some sort of pet. This is needed to steer clear of accumulation connected with dead hair that will be itchy and will cause clutter within the carpet.
Besides reaching obvious many benefits from grooming the animal, you may also reaped the actual benefits pet grooming equipment bonding utilizing your pet over these pet grooming visits.
?Your veterinarian will most likely be familiar utilizing your pet?s health and wellbeing history, so should there be a challenge with disorders for the skin, that include rashes as well inflammations, the vet will in all probability suggest a program that isn?t going to make these types of conditions even more serious,? pointed out CEO Larry Ingram. This is incredibly beneficial pertaining to older canines tormented by joint situations and joint inflammation.
; A high grade supplier connected with pet grooming on Sarasota only blends with dog bathing grooming devices. Their shop needs to have well-maintained advanced equipment that provides convenience, besides for the animal, but also to suit your needs as the dog owner. The head and view are areas which have been easily disregarded and forgotten while in the grooming method. If you do not look after your devices and hair salon / spa, you can become spending extra money rather than necessary switching things. To the ears simply employ a gentle headsets cleaner to aid remove unnecessary wax put together ups. You?re surprised the best way dirty the inside your pet?s ears might get.
The answer for any for mating, each time a pet?s tresses becomes gravely matted, there is always simply no chance to erase it except to present the pet a really short haircut, also known as a ?smoothie?. Those two skills are end up being successful. You do not just shave the actual hair off of. The dogs you will come across each day are generally unpredictable along with quite tense.
As much just like you love the animal pet and notably appreciate their particular shiny balanced looking fur, there arrives a time collectors four-legged mate starts to help malt which could be challenging. Pets owners being used to struggling to continue items connected with dark shaded clothing hair-free You should not worry however, for help reaches hand. A lot of deshedding tools that may help. Pups are in no way bathed in any way. Family dog Grooming, though is definitely something which are done by just professionals, might be a real fine experience if you undertake it yourselves in your own home. It are generally cost-effective and will help on improving the actual bond approximately you plus your pet.
Would you like some gamification with your french fries? Well, one San Diego-based startup is willing to bet you just might. Mogl, which describes itself as not only "a party in your wallet" but also a "four letter word you can say in front of your grandma," wants to turn you into a loyal customer at your local restaurants. Said another way, Mogl is using gamification and a bit of charity to increase engagement and the enjoyability of customer loyalty program for restaurants -- all while on the go.
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Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
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