Late-night Scenes From The Beijing Hackathon
With all chips in, see what our hackers are up to in the wee hours of the night at the TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing hackathon!Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mNSNYhVA16o/
With all chips in, see what our hackers are up to in the wee hours of the night at the TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing hackathon!Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mNSNYhVA16o/
Fright night just got a little bit spookier. Pregnant women have their own little trick on Halloween ? they seem able to time the delivery of their baby to avoid giving birth on this day.
Rebecca Levy at Yale School of Public Health and colleagues examined 1.8 million US birth records from 1996 to 2006, and found that birth rates dropped by 11.3 per cent on 31 October, when compared with the two-week window surrounding the date. The significant declines in deliveries on Halloween applied to natural births as well as scheduled caesarean and induced births.
"The study raises the possibility that the assumption underlying the term 'spontaneous birth', namely, that births are outside the control of pregnant women, is erroneous," says Levy. She says a psychological influence over hormonal activity may be at work.
"We know that hormones control birth timing, and mothers do often express a desire to give birth on a certain day," she says. "But the process that allows those thoughts to potentially impact the timing, we don't know." More research is needed, she says, to determine the precise ways that thoughts or desires may affect birthing hormones.
Levy suggests that Halloween's associations with death and evil are in direct contrast with the idea of creating life and may subconsciously affect a woman's desire to give birth.
"Halloween can have pretty scary imagery of skeletons, death, devils, monsters," she says. "It's possible that death imagery is particularly salient as people are thinking about birth. [Perhaps] it evokes fear on some level."
The team also examined birth rates around Valentine's day, traditionally associated with the positive feelings of love. On 14 February, they saw an overall spike of 5?per cent in births compared with the two-week window either side.
These findings mimic a 2003 study in Taiwan that showed increases in scheduled births on auspicious days and decreases on inauspicious days, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
Journal reference: Social Science & Medicine, DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.07.008
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I visited a science writing class recently at a Nameless University, where the conversation turned to the changing landscape of 21st century media and the vital role of blogs and social networking within it. Naturally, I asked how many of these aspiring science journalists had blogs . They?re young, they?re hip, but they?re also in grad school, with limited leisure time, so I wasn?t surprised when more than half of them had never tried blogging. But I was chagrined at the response of one student in particular: he shrugged, with that ?meh? body language so common to a Certain Demographic, and drawled, ?Well, I write online. But I don?t BLOG.?
That sound you hear is my head hitting the desk. Over. And. Over. Again.
Are we honestly still having this conversation? Clearly this young man has absorbed, by intellectual osmosis, the attitude that ?blogging? is somehow distinct ? with a faint whiff of illegitimacy, even ? from ?real? science writing, even as said ?legitimate? science writing moves increasingly online, and as every major science magazine, it seems, is building up its own stable of bloggers. Blogging has emerged as an essential activity for professional science writers, as I predicted back in 2008 when I spoke at Science Online that year ? and it was not an especially prescient insight, frankly. The trend was clear, even then, and it?s only gotten stronger, as more and more science writers also find themselves with a professional presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To see such a display of ignorance from an aspiring journalist (science-oriented or otherwise) about the power and importance of the blogging format was sobering, to say the least.
He?s young. We?ll cut him some slack, cross our fingers, and hope he learns the error of his ways. Because I?ve just spent the last week reading every single submission (720 total) for this year?s edition of The Open Laboratory anthology, showcasing the best in science blogging, and I am struck yet again by the sheer diversity in voice, style, subject matter, and creativity that one finds across the science blogosphere.
There is poetry. Art. Fiction. Critical analysis of new scientific papers. Personal reflections. Humor. Thoughtful commentary on science and social issues. Careful explication of complex scientific concepts written in accessible language. Meta musings on the craft of science writing. And yes, there are long-form features and investigative journalism. Above all, there are stories ? drawn from history, popular culture, the laboratory, and/or the blogger?s personal experiences. How to choose from such a rich selection and winnow down the field to just 50 published entries?
I?ve compiled a ?not-so-short-list? of 125 entries, and I have my trusty band of volunteer reviewers on hand to make sure my bleary editor?s eyes haven?t missed anything. Next month, we?ll move to the second round of review, after which Bora and I will start the painful process of choosing the final posts for inclusion. What are we looking for? Well, here?s the a sampling of the criteria we?ve given the reviewers:
*Is the post substantive enough for inclusion in an anthology of science blogging literature?
*Is the post scientifically and/or factually accurate?
*Does the post have an interesting and unique perspective?
*Is the writing of high quality?
*Is the ?voice? unique and compelling?
As this year?s anthology editor, I?m also looking for other qualities. Does the post surprise me, delight me, or just plain move me? Does the post take risks, move out of the writer?s comfort zone,? or push the boundaries of the blogging format?? Ultimately I?m looking for good storytelling and posts that showcase the human element shining through the science ? because that personal touch is what makes blogging such a powerful communication medium. (One day, perhaps, we?ll have the technology to really do justice to the blogging format, with digital books or iPad apps that allow us to incorporate multimedia in the selected posts.)
As Bora has said (repeatedly): ?Blog is software.? Nothing more. What you do with that software is entirely up to you. And based on this year?s round of entries, I, for one, see great things ahead in the future of the science blogosphere.
?
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They?re coming. The Holidays will be here soon and getting your business ready is a major undertaking. But with a little planning and some creativity you can get your team, your marketing and your productivity on track and start focusing on flourishing this Holiday season instead of just surviving. Are you ready? Let?s get started.
It?s that time again. The Holiday?s are on the way and you?ll need some time to get your small business ready. Do you have a plan to get you through?or better yet to get you started. Here are some tips and ideas to firm up your Holiday preparedness. Marketing Blog
Creating your online Holiday review strategy. With the Holiday season about to arrive, it is so important that your business is ready on every level to take advantage of what?s heading your way. And, of course, this should include a strategy for your online presence. What have you got planned? Small Business Trends
Is your team ready for the Holiday season? It?s just around the corner and, depending on your business, the?Holiday season can be a particularly busy and stressful time for your staff. Don?t make the mistake of believing?that your people and business can handle it without a better plan.?Marketing Blog
When the Holiday IS your business. While many businesses see an uptick during the Holiday season, for some the Holiday really is their business. Take this gallery of photos from a Spring City, PA,?haunted house that makes all its money during the?Halloween season. WSJ
Holiday mailing deadlines you must remember. The Holidays can change everything? for your business, especially when it comes to shipping. Other businesses are trying to fill orders and?send out packages at the same time you are. Enough problems will already arise with shipping during the Holiday season. Don?t make matters worse by ignoring?Holiday deadlines.?Marketing Blog
More shipping and online sales. FedEx is anticipating a 12 percent bump in shipping this Holiday season. Why should you care? Well, the increase may be largely attributable to customers shopping more e-commerce sites and other online stores. If you have an online business, get ready for the increase. WSJ
Remember seniors this Holiday season. It?s great advice for small retailers but probably for plenty of other small businesses too. A report suggests seniors are one customer group not to be ignored this year. And small businesses can use all the customers they can get. Small Business Trends
?Tis the season to be prepared. Amongst the problems faced by small business owners, especially startup entrepreneurs, when the Holiday season rolls around, is being unprepared by the increase in demand the Holiday season brings. Here are some of the ways the Holiday rush can take an entrepreneur?completely by surprise.?WSJ
Tips for Holiday marketing. It?s not too soon to start putting the finishing touches on plans for your Holiday marketing campaign. Proper execution can be one of the most important factors in its success. Here are some tips that can make a difference. Entrepreneur
Top Christmas tips for small biz Websites. As we mentioned earlier, some predict that this Holiday season could be a good one for e-commerce and Webstores, even in a challenging economy. If you have a store or any kind of business online, don?t blow it. Some simple steps will at least get you ready for Christmas. Power Retail
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/10/getting-your-small-business-ready-for-the-holidays.html
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All Critics (49) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (3)
It's a definitive example of naturalistic moviemaking -- you feel you're breathing the air that the characters are breathing.
Its final moments offer a vision of what a contemporary romance can achieve: an appreciative gasp of truth, a wet-eyed hope for more.
One of the truest, most beautiful movies ever made about two strangers.
If you've ever met someone who changed your life in the space of days, you'll relate to something in this movie.
The organ that "Weekend" is most concerned with isn't the one you might think, but the human heart.
In just a short period of time, a weekend hookup tests the boundaries each man has set for himself.
Cullen and New are British stage actors with little background in film. Haigh's only previous film was a documentary. Perhaps because they don't feel bound by a set of rules, they've created one of the year's most enjoyable surprises.
Weekend is the year's wittiest hymn to romance.
Weekend might be a small film recounting an intimate relationship, but it speaks to the grandest of ideas.
By the end of their weekend together, it feels like you know these guys and, even better, like you're rooting for them.
A heartfelt romantic comedy, a touching rumination on sexual identity and a striking look at what it is to be gay in 21st Century Britain.
Like Before Sunrise, the real joy of writer/director Andrew Haigh's film is in watching two people make bedrooms, overpasses, kitchenettes, and couches feel alive with potent conversation and pregnant silences.
While you might appreciate its goal, the writing and execution aren't strong enough to reach it.
It's a thrill to watch, just as it's thrilling to be in the hands of such a gifted new filmmaking talent.
This appealing gay-themed drama, written and directed with intelligence by Andrew Haigh, is a British cousin to the American mumblecore movement...
The story is simply told with a lot of talking, some loving and much philosophizing over the meaning of life. The good thing is that [writer-director-editor] Andrew Haigh wears all his hats well and shows a deft hand at all his chores.
The results are gently sincere but maybe a little misguided, a far cry from the note-perfect, transcendently adorable 1999 gay love story "Trick," which this one reminds of?and pales in comparison to.
It's equally as chatty as [Before Sunrise and Before Sunset], but the dialogue is more to the point, less cerebral, and below the belt.
More Critic ReviewsNo quotes approved yet for Weekend. Logged in users can submit quotes.
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The head of the Small Business Administration said her agency had a record year last year, backing some $30 billion dollars worth of loans. Karen Mills appeared before the House Small Business Committee.
She was followed by a panel of small business lenders who generally thought the SBA has improved its operations, but also expressed concerns about uncertainty created by the recent debt ceiling debate and the possibility of future tax increases.
Updated: 4 hr., 31 min. ago
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Thousands of ingredients that go into food have been classified as safe by private industry alone, without any U.S. government oversight, according to a new report published Wednesday.
Since the early 1960's, private companies and industry trade associations have determined at least 3,000 ingredients are safe, with no federal scrutiny, the study found. The ingredients include everything from artificially synthesized chemicals used in chewing gum to grape seed extract used in cheese and instant coffee.
The peer-reviewed report published in the Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety journal draws on research funded by the Pew Health Group, the health and consumer safety arm of the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.
"We don't know the names of a lot of these chemicals because the companies have never told FDA or the public about them," said Erik Olson, Pew Health Group's director of food and consumer safety programs and one of the study's authors. "Often there is not publicly available data on the potential health impacts because FDA has never evaluated them."
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says the industry only classifies ingredients as safe after a battery of rigorous biological tests but agrees that more transparency would help build consumer confidence.
"The system is less transparent than it should be so we're looking to open that dialogue," said Leon Bruner, the association's chief science officer, who agreed the study's estimates were reasonable. "We are completely comfortable with increasing the transparency or the visibility of ingredients that go through the process."
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act makes food manufacturers responsible for ensuring food ingredients are safe. Companies can classify an ingredient as "generally recognized as safe" for use in a specific product but aren't required to tell the Food and Drug Administration about what they find.
Some do, through a voluntary notification program that gives the FDA a chance to review the findings.
Officials have said that if a company markets a food or beverage the agency believes is unsafe, the government can always issue warning letters or seize the product.
FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor said Wednesday the study raised important issues.
"Transparency in decision-making is a high priority for FDA, and FDA considers it timely to explore whether the statutory and regulatory framework for food additives adequately addresses today's need for transparency," Taylor said.
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An early ironclad warship makes an appearance (in a slightly fanciful etching): CSS Virginia, also called the Merrimac, 1861
Image: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, VOL. V, NO. 19; NOVEMBER 9, 1861
NOVEMBER 1961
Teaching Machines
?Like all useful machines, the teaching machines developed slowly from the need to do a job more effectively than it could be done otherwise. They have evoked all the reactions, including the hostile ones, that we have learned to expect from a new kind of machine. Some people see the machines as a threat to the teacher, which they are not. Some fancy that they will make education a cold, mechanical process. Others fear that they will turn students into regimented and mindless robots. Such fears are groundless. The purpose of a teaching machine can be simply stated: to teach rapidly, thoroughly and expeditiously a large part of what we now teach slowly, incompletely and with wasted effort on the part of both student and teacher. ?B. F. Skinner?
NOVEMBER 1911
Got a Match?
?It has been estimated that, for each minute of time, the civilized nations of the world strike three million matches. The importance of the industry which turns out the little splinters of wood tipped with sulphur is only rec?ognized when the average smoker tries to contemplate his predicament if he had to go back to the time when he had to coax a spark from a tinder-box.?
Edison on City Lights
?I noted that the lighting of the leading European cities does not compare with that of New York. Berlin and Paris are about equally well lighted; but Berlin is continually putting in more light, and before long she will greatly surpass Paris in this regard. Night life in Berlin is increasing very rapidly. It was observable that throughout Europe the night life is on the increase in those cities which have cheap water power, and there seems to be a correlation between the night life and the industrial activity of the people. In towns where the people have cheap and plenti?-ful light, they keep later hours, and this seems to have the effect of mitigating the phlegmatic character of their temperament. ?Thomas A. Edison?
Marie Sklodowska Curie
?Only a few days ago we heard the news that Mme. Curie has been honored with the Nobel prize a second time, on this occasion in the division of chemistry. The list of medals and prizes which have been awarded to Mme. Curie in foreign countries is too long to quote. In addition to the numerous researches in radio-activity which she made in collaboration with her husband, Mme. Curie has pub?lished a great may independent papers, and a volume, ?Investigations of Radio-Active Substances,? in which the results of their co-operative researches, includ?ing the epoch-making discovery of radium, are set forth.?
The complete article on Curie is at www.ScientificAmerican.com/nov2011/curie
NOVEMBER 1861
The Mighty Merrimac
?The accompanying engraving of the Merrimac is from a sketch furnished by a mechanic who came from Norfolk under a flag of truce. He says that he worked on her and is of course familiar with her appearance. The Merrimac was partially burned and then sunk at the time of the destruction of the Gosport Navy Yard last spring. We have had accounts from time to time that the secessionists had suc?ceeded in raising the Merrimac and were repairing her. The mechanic who fur?nishes the sketch says that her hull has been cut down to within three feet of her light-water mark, and a bomb-proof house built on her gun deck. Her bow and stern have been steel clad with a projecting angle of iron for the purpose of piercing a vessel.?
Four months later this warship, renamed the CSS Virginia, battled the Union ship Monitor in the world?s first duel between armor-clad vessels.

Ghost Photo
?The London Review, in an article on the tendency in modern literature to the re?vival of ghost stories, suggests to the wri?ters that as a veri?fication they obtain photographs of their spectral visitors. It says: ?Now, if the specter can ask the favor let science do it a good turn. Let optics and chemistry catch this modern ghost and photograph it! It can fix the tails of comets and the atmosphere of the sun; a ghost can hardly be less material. The photographer?s plate is liable to no de?lusions, has no brains to be diseased, and is exact in its testimony.??
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2abe89570e23bb6f47a4c303b2783025
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. ? A South Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday to gunning down four relatives during a 2009 Thanksgiving massacre in a deal that will spare him the death penalty in exchange for seven consecutive life sentences.
Family members wept in court, calling Paul Merhige a monster and describing daily life that became unbearable after he killed their loved ones in a rampage that sparked a massive manhunt. Merhige was found about a month later at a motel in the Florida Keys.
Jim Sitton, whose 6-year-old daughter Makayla was killed in the rampage, fell to his knees, begging Judge Joseph Marx not to accept a deal. Deputies surrounded Sitton and ordered him off the ground. Later, the father held locks of his daughter's hair and tearfully shared the void in his life. His wife, Muriel Sitton, said she would never forget seeing Makayla's body on the stretcher, never to hear her daughter's voice again.
"If the death penalty isn't for this guy, who's the death penalty for?" Jim Sitton said after the hearing, standing by family members including his wife, who is five months pregnant with a girl.
The victims were Merhige's twin sisters, one of whom was pregnant; his aunt, who was Muriel Sitton's mother; and Makayla, who had been tucked into bed not long before. Others were hurt, including one relative who spent three months in a coma.
"This killer you see in the courtroom today is not the man that was in our home that night. (He) was a cold blooded killer without remorse without mercy just gunned down of our family members and would have killed more of us had we not escaped out of the house," Muriel Sitton said.
Some 16 people were at the home Nov. 26, 2009, including a last-minute guest, Muriel Sitton's cousin Paul Merhige. They enjoyed a traditional dinner and then gathered in a horseshoe around their brown Baldwin piano to sing and dance, mostly church songs. As the night wore on, police say Merhige left the house and returned with a gun.
Court documents show Merhige considered killing himself after the shootings. He ordered an assisted suicide handbook in the days after the killings. He also began loading up on supplies needed to kill himself, including helium, plastic bags, scissors, duct tape and tubing. He never followed through, and was arrested about a month later in the Keys.
Jim Sitton said the deal was hastily thrown together and that he only learned about it two days ago.
The plea agreement comes after Merhige's attorneys filed a notice signaling they may use an insanity defense. As part of the deal, the defense withdrew that notice.
State Attorney Michael McAuliffe said the decision was difficult as he considered victims who wanted a resolution so they could rebuild their lives, and other victims who felt anything short of an execution was injustice. His office was seeking the death penalty for Merhige, but withdrew that and accepted the plea deal after Merhige's attorneys recently approached them with an offer. McAuliffe said the majority of victims and relatives agreed with the decision.
"I have taken all these deeply held beliefs and sometimes conflicting wishes and sentiment into account in agreeing to this resolution," McAuliffe said.
He said cost was not a factor, but said he did consider the prolonged litigation that often accompanies death penalty cases.
During the hearing, Merhige's parents said they supported the deal, but Carole Merhige said her life was ruined after losing her two daughters and a son who is now in jail.
The judge said the life sentences were the strongest he could impose after the death penalty was taken off the table.
Patrick Knight, whose wife was killed, said he agreed with the plea, but called Merhige a fat loser who was jealous and angry.
Sitton said he dropped to his knees before the judge because "they listened to the murderer's plea. I thought maybe if I dropped to my knees someone would listen to me."
Marx said postponing the hearing wouldn't change his analysis and acknowledged the victims' sufferings.
After the hearing, the Sittons said they look forward to the birth of their new baby and will continue to honor Makayla's memory. They started a foundation bearing her name to carry on her love of dance and music. An annual concert has been started in her honor.
"We're having a girl but it's very bittersweet ... there will always be someone missing," Muriel Sitton said.
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