Who knew an artificial neural network could be so pretty? The winners of Princeton's annual science photography contest, Art of Science, were announced a few days ago. And boy, are some of these images beautiful.
     |
boston Cnn Live Logan airport Miranda rights Police Scanner boston herald mit
Several dozen tea party activists and other concerned citizens, wave signs and small American flags as they march outside the main Internal Revenue Service office on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Phoenix. The rally was one of many around the country after IRS officials acknowledged that some conservative groups received inappropriate attention and questioning. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Several dozen tea party activists and other concerned citizens, wave signs and small American flags as they march outside the main Internal Revenue Service office on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Phoenix. The rally was one of many around the country after IRS officials acknowledged that some conservative groups received inappropriate attention and questioning. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Tea Party supporters gather for a rally outside the IRS headquarter in Washington, May 21, 2013. A few dozen tea party activists and their supporters have gathered outside the IRS headquarters in Washington to protest extra scrutiny of their organizations. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Treasury Department's No. 2 official told Congress on Wednesday that his agency played no role in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups.
Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin made the statement in testimony he prepared to deliver to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. At the same hearing, the star witness ? IRS official Lois Lerner ? was ready to invoke her constitutional right to not answer questions.
In his prepared remarks, Wolin said it was "absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable" that the IRS subjected tea party and other conservative groups seeking non-profit status to extra scrutiny from 2010 to 2012.
He said J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general who focuses on taxes, told him last year that he was investigating IRS's targeting of the groups.
"I told him that he should follow the facts wherever they lead. I told him that our job is to stay out of the way and let him do his work," Wolin said.
"There is no indication that Treasury was involved in the inexcusable behavior at the IRS," he added.
Lawmakers are trying to learn whether the IRS targeting was politically motivated. The inspector general and IRS officials have said there is no evidence of that.
As the hearing began, Oversight panel Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., repeated a frequent complaint from lawmakers in the IRS episode ? that IRS officials who knew earlier about the tartgeting didn't tell Congress about it.
"Congress was misled. The American people were misled," Issa said.
Lerner triggered the recent IRS uproar at a legal conference nearly two weeks ago, when she revealed that the agency's targeting of conservative groups and apologized for the actions.
Lerner, 62, an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001, heads the unit that decides whether groups qualify for the status. She has come under fire from members of both parties, including Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, who said in an interview Tuesday that she should lose her job.
George, the Treasury inspector general, has said he told Wolin in mid-2012 that he was investigating the IRS' targeting of conservative groups, a report that was released last week. That means Wolin was the highest-ranking Treasury official to have known about the probe during last year's elections, making him a focus of interest for lawmakers.
"What did you know and when? Who did you tell?" Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a senior member of the Oversight Committee, said Tuesday of what he hopes to learn from Wolin.
Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, has requested that she be excused from Wednesday's hearing, writing in the letter that forcing her to appear "would have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her." But the committee has subpoenaed her and panel members say they expect her to attend.
"She better be there. We're planning on it," Chaffetz said.
In writing that Lerner would use her Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate herself, Taylor noted that the Justice Department has started an investigation into the IRS controversy. He also referred to a letter she received last week from Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., saying she "provided false or misleading information on four separate occasions last year" to committee queries.
Staff of the Oversight Committee questioned Lerner and other IRS officials last year after receiving complaints from Ohio tea party groups that they were being mistreated by the IRS, said Meghan Snyder, spokesman for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a member of the committee.
In responses to the committee, Lerner didn't mention that tea party groups had ever been targeted, according to documents. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Issa and Jordan.
Lerner also met twice in early 2012 with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. The timeline said she didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted.
Lerner's revelation and apology at the May 10 legal conference came in response to a question that IRS officials later acknowledged they had planted with an audience member. Lerner's disclosure came days before George, the inspector general, released his report detailing the IRS' actions.
George's report found that in June 2011, Lerner discovered that her unit was searching for organizations with words like "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications and subjecting them to tougher questions. She ordered the initial tea party criteria to be scrapped, but it later evolved to include groups that promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the report said. Lawmakers are curious about why the practice didn't stop entirely.
A career civil servant who has run the division since late 2005, Lerner has not been disciplined for her role, IRS officials said. But with President Barack Obama demanding that IRS officials be held accountable for the problem, Acting Commissioner Steven Miller and another top agency official have announced their departures in recent days and many lawmakers believe more heads should roll.
George and Douglas Shulman, the former IRS commissioner who headed the agency while it was targeting conservative groups, are also scheduled to testify Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Shulman told the Senate Finance Committee that he learned in the spring of 2012 about his agency's targeting of conservatives and George's probe. He said he didn't tell lawmakers or officials at Treasury ? of which the IRS is part ? because he only had sketchy information about the situation, was told it was being handled and believed it proper to let George's office conduct its investigation.
Associated PressNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 closing at new all-time highs as comments from Federal Reserve officials eased some concerns that the central bank could start reducing its stimulus program.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 52.30 points, or 0.35 percent, to end unofficially at a record 15,387.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 2.87 points, or 0.17 percent, to finish unofficially at a record 1,669.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 5.69 points, or 0.16 percent, to close unofficially at 3,502.12.
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-little-changed-market-drifts-near-record-115446486.html
gary johnson gary johnson where do i vote dixville notch Remember Remember The 5th Of November African painted dogs What Time Do Polls Open
Though deep drilling on reefs finally confirmed Darwin's model in 1953, the reality of reef-building may be more complex.?
A satellite image of Maupiti, one of the Society Islands, which is on its way to becoming an atoll. Submerged reef appears in pale blue.
NASA Earth Observatory
EnlargeCharles Darwin sparked more than one controversy over the natural progression of life. One such case involved the evolution of coral atolls, the ring-shaped coral reefs that surround submerged tropical islands.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Coral reefs are actually huge colonies of tiny animals that need sunlight to grow. After seeing a reef encircling Moorea, near Tahiti, Darwin came up with his theory that?coral atolls?grow as reefs stretch toward sunlight while ocean islands slowly sink beneath the sea surface. (Cooling ocean crust, combined with the weight of massive islands, causes the islands to sink.)
A century-long controversy ensued after Darwin published his theory in 1842, because some scientists thought the atolls were simply a thin veneer of coral, not many thousands of feet thick as Darwin proposed. Deep drilling on reefs finally confirmed Darwin's model in 1953.
But reef-building is more complex than?Darwin?thought, according to a new study published May 9 in the journal Geology. Although subsidence does play a role, a computer model found seesawing sea levels, which rise and fall with glacial cycles, are the primary driving force behind the striking patterns seen at islands today.
"Darwin actually got it mostly right, which is pretty amazing," said Taylor Perron, the study?s co-author and a geologist at MIT. However, there?s one part Darwin missed. "He didn't know about these glacially induced sea-level cycles," Perron told OurAmazingPlanet.
What happens when sea-level shifts get thrown into the mix? Consider?Hawaii?as an example. Coral grows slowly there, because the ocean is colder than waters closer to the equator. When sea level is at its lowest, the Big Island builds up a nice little reef terrace, like a fringe of hair on a balding pate. But the volcano ? one of the tallest mountains in the world, if measured from the seafloor ? is also quickly sinking. Add the speedy sea-level rise when glaciers melt, and Hawaii's corals just can't keep up. The reefs drown each time sea level rises.
The computer model accounts for the wide array of?coral reefs?seen at islands around the world ? a variety Darwin's model can't explain, the researchers said.
"You can explain a lot of the variety you see just by combining these various processes ? the sinking of islands, the growth of reefs, and the last few million years of sea level going up and down rather dramatically," Perron told OurAmazingPlanet.
For nearly 4 million years, Earth has cycled through global chills, when big glaciers suck up water from the oceans, and swings to sweltering temperatures that melt the ice, quickly raising sea level. This?cyclic growth of ice sheets?takes about 100,000 years.
The researchers also found that one of the few places in the world where sinking islands and sea-level rise create perfect atolls is the Society Islands, where Darwin made his historic observations.
Email?Becky Oskin?or follow her?@beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet,?Facebook?&?Google+.?Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
gsa scandal kelis dick clark dies ibogaine jamie moyer bone cancer hossa
Getty ImagesJets running back Mike Goodson faces gun and drug charges that could, under the weapons portion of the case, put him behind bars for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years.
For the Jets, the challenge becomes what to do with Goodson while the court process plays itself out.
On Monday, owner Woody Johnson tiptoed around the crux of the problem.? If they cut Goodson now, he walks away with a $1 million signing bonus that can?t be recovered.? They can get some of the money back, and in turn can obtain cap relief, only if they let the process play out.
The key date in the process comes on June 12, when Goodson will have a pre-trial hearing.? As pointed out by Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, that falls in the middle of the team?s mandatory minicamp.? If Goodson misses practice to attend the hearing, the Jets could penalize Goodson, at a minimum with a fine.
The problem for the Jets would be the plain language of Article 4, Section 9 of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement.? While the revised terms expand the situations in which all or a portion of a player?s signing bonus can be recovered, the provision makes no reference to partial reimbursement arising from a missed mandatory minicamp practice.? Instead, the forfeiture process begins in training camp, and applies more forcefully in the regular season.
But the Jets can?t recover money from Goodson unless he?s still on the roster.? That?s why the Falcons never released Mike Vick after he was incarcerated for dogfighting in 2007; to recover bonus money paid to Vick (and to get the cap credit that goes along with it), the Falcons had to hold their nose and refrain from cutting Vick.
For the Jets, the far better approach to the Goodson conundrum would be to stop channeling Clark Kent and explain in blunt, candid terms that there?s only one way to make a player answer financially for off-field misconduct ? by keeping him on the roster while the legal process unfolds.
Of course, that kind of candor could open the Jets up to criticism that they?re more concerned about money than doing the right thing.? But if the plan will be to keep Goodson around in order to eventually recover money from him, why not remove the confusion regarding the reason for not cutting him loose?
rachel maddow gia utah jazz lawrence of arabia denver nuggets new jersey devils torn acl
Jolla's heavily teased launch day in Finland has already spilled some major news: pricing and specs for the first Sailfish OS handset. The phone seems to be called "The Other Half" -- or at least that's the working title for now -- and judging from Jolla's Facebook page it consists of a colorful plastic case, available in various shades including orange or green, which hooks onto the main chassis containing a 4.5-inch display (of unknown resolution), dual-core processor, microSD expansion with 16GB onboard, a "4G" modem, user replaceable battery and an 8MP rear camera. The chassis recognizes which case is attached and adapts the visual theme of the OS to match, creating "your other half, exactly as you want it to be."
Perhaps more usefully, the Sailfish operating system will also be Android app compliant out of the box, and we're currently on the ground in Helsinki trying to discover exactly how developers and users will be able to put that feature to work (while also chasing down the rest of the specs). Meanwhile, there's an emphatic video message from Jolla co-founder Marc Dillon after the break, seeking the world's assistance in taking the heritage of MeeGo into a new era.
Update: We now hear that the phone will simply be called the "Jolla."
Update #2: Jolla has just clarified that 4G means LTE. The display resolution has been vaguely described as "HD," which to our minds suggests 720p. Furthermore, it sounds like the way the "other half" interfaces with the main body of the device allows for much deeper functionality beyond just personalization. We've just added our own video tour with more information.
[Thanks, Toni]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Jolla
doobie brothers jennie garth peter facinelli marques colston free agents nfl 2012 milwaukee bucks bear grylls us news law school rankings
issa Much has been made of the fact that senior Treasury Department officials were told about the investigation into the treatment of tea party groups in June 2012 - months before last year's the Presidential election. Republicans who requested the investigation were also told about it at approximately the same time.
In a letter dated July 11, 2012, the man who conducted the investigation - IRS inspector general J. Russell George - wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, telling him that he was investigating the issue and offering to keep him updated as the investigation progressed.
"The Oversight Committee knew about the audit because it requested it," an Issa aide told ABC News. Issa released the letter, along with his own letter dated June 28, 2012 requesting the investigation, last week.
RELATED: Congress Grills IRS Commissioner
"We would be happy to provide a status update to the Subcommittee staff and provide a copy of our interim and final reports on the matter when they are issued," George wrote in the letter to Issa. An identical letter was also sent the Rep. Jim Jordan, who, like Issa had raised the issue with the IRS.
The letter notes that it was Issa who had written him about "questionnaires that the IRS has issued which may exceed appropriate scrutiny and a potential lack of balance in the use of criteria for reviewing organizations that are applying for tax-exempt status." George offers no confusions but says, "our Office of Audit recently began work on this issue."
According the Issa aide, the committee received an email update from George in December saying, "We are leaving no stone unturned as part of our due diligence. As such, we won't be able to provide a detailed, substantive briefing until late April/early May."
RELATED: Acting IRS Chief Resigns, Obama Condemns 'Inexcusable' Targeting of Tea Party Groups
On Friday, in his testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, George said he had notified top Treasury officials - including Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin - about his investigation in June 2012, part of a routine briefing on the issues he was looking into.
Republicans pounced on that revelation as evidence top Administration officials knew about the targeting of conservative groups well before the 2012 election. It is now clear that at least some key Republicans knew about the investigation as well.
While George informed Treasury officials about the fact he was conducting the investigation in 2012, the Treasury Department says he did not go into detail about his investigation or tell them about his conclusion that IRS had improperly targeted conservative groups. Similarly, the letter to Issa says the investigation had begun but does not say that it had uncovered any wrongdoing.
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-informed-irs-investigation-last-125615676--abc-news-politics.html
prince johan friso windows 8 logo anguilla gone with the wind checkers imbibe msg network
BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? A central Idaho couple is suing the Sun Valley Co. and the Twitter Inc. social media site seeking to bar the resort from using the handle "SunValley."
Leonard Barshack and Erin Smith, the husband and wife, also said the San Francisco-based company should return the Internet handle to them because they had been using it for about three years and weren't impersonating the Idaho resort.
The Idaho Mountain Express reports the resort sought to use the handle in October. That's when Twitter sent Barshack an email, saying he was in violation of the Twitter's rules.
"At that time, Twitter gave the following reason for the suspension, 'We have received a valid report and determined that your account, (at)sunvalley, is engaged in non-parody impersonation,'" according to the Barshack's complaint, filed earlier this month in Idaho's 5th District Court in Blaine County.
Twitter's policy ? meant to curb unwanted or inappropriate Internet impersonation ? mandates that an account's profile information "should make it clear that the creator of the account is not actually the same person or entity" as the subject of the impersonation.
But Barshack contends he never impersonated Sun Valley and only periodically sent messages, or tweets, since registering for the handle around April 2010.
He said his tweets covered a variety of subjects, including Apple products like the iPhone, local weather, including ski conditions, a pig roast and skiing.
He told The Associated Press on Monday that he wasn't trying to undermine the resort's operation or reputation.
"My long-term plan was to promote local business," Barshack said. "One day I woke up, and Twitter had taken my handle away."
He contends that Twitter has provided him a "boiler plate" response to multiple emails he sent seeking to have the handle returned to his control.
"I never could get anywhere," he said.
Jack Sibbach, Sun Valley's spokesman, didn't return a phone call. Twitter also didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
The complaint acknowledges Barshack used an image of a sun to accompany his tweets, but he contends it was sufficiently different from the resort's trademark so as not to cause confusion.
The resort's logo consists of a sun, positioned above and to the right side of the words "Sun Valley," according to the complaint, which adds that the resort allowed its registration for a stand-alone sun to lapse.
Barshack contends he used only a stand-alone sun to accompany his tweets.
In the lawsuit, he wants attorney's fees and any other compensation the court deems appropriate.
___
Information from: Idaho Mountain Express, http://www.mtexpress.com
the talented mr ripley weather new orleans orcl the hartford illinois primary 2012 michael bay zsa zsa gabor
With its All Access subcription service, the updated Google Play Music has come of age. The inclusion of this subscription service trumps Apple's iTunes, and Google delivers an excellent, well-designed system, with a large catalog of any music most people are likely to crave, and a beautiful, full-function interface similar to Rdio's. Equalling iTunes Match is Google Play's scan and match feature, which saves you from having to upload all your music files to your Google digital locker. Unless you're tied to your iPhone or iPad, Google Play Music, and in particular, its new All Access option, at $9.99 a month, is worth a very close look. But Play Music still falls slightly short of the best streaming services in some ways, and if you use Apple's mobile devices, you're out of luck.
Google Play Music All Access
We've complained about Apple's not offering and all-you-can-eat music subscription in the iTunes Music Store for years, so maybe Google's move here will finally force Apple to reconsider its policy on music subscription. Facebook users already have easy access to Spotify app, which over 10 million users have used. Another strong contender and Editors' Choice is Slacker Radio ($9.99 a month), which offers fine-tuning of your custom internet radio stream. Google's All Access costs the same $9.99 a month as Spotify, but only $7.99 if you sign up before June 30. Google, however, surprisingly doesn't offer a free ad-supported account type. If you want an excellent free music player, you're well served by Songza, our Editors' Choice for free streaming music services. The also excellent Rdio also costs $9.99 a month for full access.
As mentioned, Apple has no equivalent to All Access, but you do get some pretty great stuff with the iTunes ecosystem that you don't get with Google Play Music?AirPlay, podcast playing, access to public internet radio stations, and the ability to play easily to a home theater system through Apple TV. This last is important to me, since when I'm serious about listening to something, I want to be able to do so on my hi-fi system. Microsoft offers subscription with its Xbox Music Pass, also $9.99 a month, but it only works Windows 8, Windows Phones, and Xboxes. The Xbox part, however, solves the problem of getting your music to you home theater sound system, to which Google Play Music has no simple answer.
Setting up Google Play Music All Access couldn't be easier. It's far less of a process than you have to go through to get up and running with Spotify, which you can't even use unless you specify some contacts whose music choices you want to follow. This brings up the point of social integration: if you really need the input of your friends' music ideas, you're better off with Spotify or Rdio, but if you just want to discover on your own All Access serves you well. All Access does of course require your entering a payment method, and if you have a Google Wallet account, you'll simply have to okay the transaction.
The service worked fine in all browsers?even Internet Explorer 10! Remember, competitor iTunes doesn't run in a web browser at all, but it does have the advantage of an unobtrusive mini player window.
Sound quality was excellent. The service detects your internet connection speed and serves up an appropriate bitrate. Fast connections get a very fine 320Kbps bitrate. While listening, you can click the full-screen icon to show the album art moving around the browser window.
Creating a Station
Once you're in your Google Play Music All Access account, you just search for a musician, and a grid of tiles with artist images shows up. Click on one, and you've got a playlist of related tunage. Google only claims "millions" of songs in its catalog, where competitors like Spotify boast 15 million, so you may not find what you want. I didn't have much problem with the selection.
I first tested with Ulrich Schnauss, an otherworldly German electronica artist, and then with a lesser known artist, Leggo Beast, and neither tripped up the service. Switching musical gears drastically, the service did find Stile Antico, a top-notch vocal early music ensemble, but the group's latest album wasn't available?but it wasn't on Spotify, either, but Rdio did! It did find an impressive 88 albums sung by Kings College Choir.
I like how the All Access radio's music affinity engine finds not just a very limited genre of nearly identical songs with the same "musical DNA," the way Pandora does. Instead, it pushes the edges of the style of the musicians you select. This lets you create playlists including everything you like, not just a narrow band of musical style. I also found Google Play Music's interface easier on the eyes than the busy iTunes-like Spotify, though Rdio's slick web interface is its equal.
But there was one major problem with Google Play Music All Access's radio stations: After an hour, its browser window told me, "The queue is currently empty." This would never happen in Pandora or any other of its ilk. It could be a sign that Google doesn't have as large a music library or that its algorithm still needs tuning.
Another downside was that there was a sometimes a significant pause before the next song in the playlist started playing. I couldn't find any setting to omit this gap. Another problem is one shared with most digital music is that you don't get all the performance information you would on a CD booklet?soloists for choral performances and other credits.
You can thumbs up or down any tune in the playlist at any time, and switch to any song to play immediately. In the browser, no matter what you've got going on in the main window area?settings, library, whatever?you'll see the play controls with the album thumbnail, repeat, skip back, pause, skip ahead, and shuffle. The volume slider, thumbs up and down, and playlist buttons are to the right of these. A nice touch is that the song you're playing becomes the browser tab title?this means, that in Windows 7, you can hover the mouse cursor over the browser's taskbar button to see the track name. The same goes for when you're working in another browser tab and you hover the cursor over the Google Play tab.
At any time while you're playing the radio stream, you can add the current song to your library, create a new playlist, or share the song. The sharing option at first looks like it's limited to acquaintances with Google accounts, but you can also type an email address in the To box. Unlike a lot of streaming radio services, you can see several songs ahead, and nix those you don't want to hear or play those you do immediately.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/9J1aS6WoKDs/0,2817,2385570,00.asp
Google Glass Cecil Hotel Cressida Bonas Kenny Clutch Edward Gorey amber rose nba trade deadline
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tata Sons Ltd, the promoter of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd
Tata Sons had planned to sell 51.6 million shares or a 2.7 percent stake in the phone company and increase the public holding to 25 percent in line with rules issued by the stock market regulator.
It did not directly give a reason for cancelling the auction in its stock exchange filing later on Friday, but cited a rule that allows such cancellations on grounds of lack of sufficient demand.
Data from the stock exchange showed that the auction of shares in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) received bids for just under 85 percent of the shares on offer. The average price of the bids was 5.67 rupees a share compared with a floor price of 8.90 rupees set by Tata Sons.
Money-losing Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) is a unit of Tata Teleservices Ltd, India's. No. 6 mobile phone carrier by customers and 26 percent owned by Japan's NTT DoCoMo .
Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) shares fell 9 percent on Friday to close at 8.05 rupees.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tata-tele-maharashtra-share-sale-cancelled-070631378.html
bachelor pad bachelor pad Green Coffee Bean Extract september 11 9/11 Memorial 911 masterchef
Small amount of lime zest
Small amount of orange zest
Fresh squeezed orange juice from one orange
Fresh squeezed lemon juice from one lemon
Fresh squeezed lime juice from one lime
8 frozen strawberries
1 whole banana
1/3 cup orange juice
Blend for about a minute ( depends on how long the strawberries take to liquefy. )
Makes a lemony, tasty drink that's high in fiber, vitamin C, potassium, etc. 
Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt231284.html
sherri shepherd sherri shepherd arkansas razorbacks trisomy 18 ozzie guillen ozzie guillen buster posey
So, Google's new Hangouts app
| |
megamillions ncaa basketball tournament 2012 megamillions winning numbers lotto winner jerry lee lewis winning lotto numbers lottery tickets
MALMO, Sweden (AP) ? Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, hippie-chic 20-year-old for the catchy love song that is driven by her deep, Shakira-like voice. She received a total of 281 points in the glitzy music battle, which also featured a bizarre opera pop number from Romania, the comeback of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" star Bonnie Tyler and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.
"It was overwhelming and I could really feel the fans and the audience and the people in the arena," de Forest told reporters after the winners were announced early Sunday.
"Of course I believed in the song and I thought we had a great song, but that's the exciting thing with Eurovision, you never know what's going to happen," she added.
De Forest grew up in northern Denmark and has been singing since she was 14, touring around Denmark with the Scottish musician Fraser Neill. She said it is important to be persistent to succeed as a young musician.
"I just called and emailed like a lot of festivals, music places and a lot of times I got no, but you just have to believe in yourself and keep trying, trying, trying ? be outgoing and talk to new people, just call them and don't be afraid," she said.
De Forest was followed by second-place winner Farid Mammadov of Azerbaijan, who got 234 points for the song "Hold Me," which he performed on top of a glass cubicle containing a male dancer. The Ukraine's Zlata Ognevich and her song "Gravity" finished third with 214 points.
Ognevich was carried onstage in Saturday night's finals by the tallest man in the U.S. ? Ukrainian-born Igor Vovkovinskiy. Vovkovinskiy ? who stands 7 feet, 8 inches (234 centimeters) ? wobbled onstage in a fur and feathers, placing the fairy-like Ognevich on a rock where she stood for the rest of the performance.
The televised extravaganza, with an audience of 125 million worldwide, is now in its 58th year. Once again without fail, it produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions.
In an opening video, soccer great Zlatan Ibrahimovic welcomed the viewers to the competition in his hometown Malmo, in southern Sweden. The Nordic country hosted the event because its contestant Loreen won last year with "Euphoria."
This year's event also saw the return to the international stage of two seasoned European stars. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" singer Bonnie Tyler represented Britain with the sleepy love ballad "Believe In Me," while Anouk, whose song "Nobody's Wife" was a big hit in Europe in the 1990s, performed the song "Birds" for The Netherlands. Tyler ended in 19th place, while Anouk finished in the 9th spot.
Finland's Krista Siegfrid provided this year's controversy, ending her bouncy pop number "Marry Me" with a girl-on-girl kiss that some interpreted as a stance promoting gay marriage. While it did not raise eyebrows in most parts of Western Europe ? where Eurovision has long been a bastion of gay culture ? the act jarred sensitivities in parts of eastern and southern Europe. Her cheesy tune didn't win the hearts of Europeans, however, and she ended up third to last with only 13 points.
Romanian opera singer Cezar gave one of the more remarkable performances. He resembled a Dracula reborn as a high-pitched vocalist, attempting a crossover opera pop number with techno beats and pyrotechnics that landed him in 13th place. Three muscular male dancers in red body paint were delivered out of a large red cape.
Two semifinals this week had whittled down the contestants from 40 to 26. The voting is shared equally between professional juries in all participating countries and viewers using their telephones to pick their favorites.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who watched the competition in Malmo Saturday, called it a unique event that unites Europe.
"We see the old Yugoslavia, now independent states, after a decade of war they always vote for each other in Eurovision, " Bildt told The Associated Press. "That I think is fun."
Having won five times, most famously with ABBA's Waterloo in 1974, Sweden is a veteran of Eurovision. It took the opportunity on Saturday to showcase some of its big music acts. At the opening of the competition, contestants marched into the stadium with flags, Olympics-style, accompanied by a choir singing a song especially composed by Swedish super DJ Avicii and ABBA members Bjorn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson. While contestants waited for the votes to come through, Swedish singer Sarah Dawn Finer sang ABBA's hit tune "The Winner Takes It All."
Yet the event ? with a price tag of around 153.5 million Swedish kronor ($23 million) ? didn't measure up to last year's lavish competition hosted by oil-rich Azerbaijan in its capital, Baku.
"We have attempted to host Eurovision with less money to show that it is possible to do this without it being too painful for the host country," said Jan-Erik Westman, a spokesman for host broadcaster SVT.
The festive atmosphere was visible throughout the city of Malmo on Saturday, where residents and visitors blended on the sunny streets waving the flags of their favorite countries.
___
Associated Press television producer David MacDougall and Associated Press reporter Jan Olsen contributed to this report.
___
Follow Malin Rising on Twitter: https://twitter.com/malinrising
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/denmarks-forest-wins-eurovision-song-contest-224527962.html
seattle seahawks new uniforms wisconsin recall wisconsin recall doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey
It's been a brutal week at work, you've spent what? Maybe 15 seconds of it without your phone on your ear and your computer on your lap? At this point, your electronics are just as drained as your are. Give them a jump start on your drive home with this 180W car charger.
A five-port, 180W power inverter/mobile gadget charger.
People with gadgets and cars.
Cup-ish in shape, about the size of a large McDonald's soda, with a side-mounted adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Four USB ports, a three-prong plug, and a power indicator are situated on the unit's flat top.
Do you know how to plug stuff into a USB port or wall socket? You're all set.
This thing has more ports than I have devices, and by leaving both a 30-pin and microUSB cable in my center console, I can charge every device that my family owns. It doesn't actually charge my devices faster in the car, just more of them.
You lose a valuable cup holder space while using it. You can, of course, mitigate the loss of the cup holder by placing the charger on the passenger-side floor and running the USB cable up to the seat beside you.
If you need to charge your gadgets but don't want to leave them in a baking hot car, the unit also includes terminal clamps for drawing power from directly under the hood.
If you only really ever charge a single device in your car at a time, this might be a bit overkill. However even if you aren't a full-on gadget junkie having the ability to charge a device bigger than your phone is a worthwhile safety net, especially for $36.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/energizer-180w-cup-inverter-juice-your-gadgets-on-the-487791482
national inquirer knicks vs heat kate walsh cnn debate equatorial guinea marine helicopter crash chicago weather
Amazon is still determined to snag every TV exclusive possible, and it just scored one of its better deals -- or at least, one of the more forward-thinking. It now has the sole unlimited subscription streaming rights to the previous seasons of five NBCUniversal shows. The highlight could be Hannibal, which will reach the service later this year; gamers may also like the crossover SyFy series Defiance, which should be ready in early 2014. Those who just can't wait to stream something will get their fill through exclusives for Covert Affairs, Grimm and Suits, all of which are in the catalog today. Amazon isn't completely shutting out rivals like Netflix, however: its expanded NBCU deal includes regular deals for Alphas, Eureka, Smash, Warehouse 13 and a collection of children's shows destined for Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. While we'd prefer that there be as few exclusives as possible, there's no question that some Prime members will feel better about springing for that $79 yearly fee.
[Thanks, John]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Amazon
Source: Amazon
Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul packers Dancing With The Stars All Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt space shuttle
You can now upload your own ebooks?up to 1,000 EPUB or PDF files?for free to Google Play Books. Useful.
| |
earl scruggs wrestlemania 28 game of thrones season 2 dierks bentley kenny chesney academy of country music awards brad paisley
It apparently wasn't big enough to garner a mention earlier today, but Google has now followed up its slew of I/O keynote announcements with the news that it's moving Google TV to the latest versions of Android (that'd be 4.2.2) and Chrome. What's more, it also says that it's "refactored" Google TV so that its OEMs can update their devices to future versions of Android faster than they're currently able to -- in a "matter of weeks rather than months," according to Google. Likewise, Chrome for Google TV will now be on the same six week upgrade cycle as its desktop counterpart going forward, and it'll also now come with support for hardware-based content protection.
As for those with existing Google TV devices, though, the company's only saying that they can expect to see updates in the "coming months." We've yet to hear from most Google TV manufacturers themselves yet, but LG has chimed in to say that it will be updating its devices to Jelly Bean sometime in the third quarter of this year. You can get a look at what the update will bring in the video after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google
Source: Google TV Developers, LG
whitney houston funeral live pat buchanan slither slither naacp glen campbell jerusalem artichoke
May 15, 2013 ? Second sound is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which has been observed only in superfluid helium. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Trento, Italy, have now proven the propagation of such a temperature wave in a quantum gas.
The scientists have published their historic findings in the journal Nature.
Below a critical temperature, certain fluids become superfluid and lose internal friction. In addition, fluids in this state conduct heat extremely efficiently, with energy transport occurring in a distinct temperature wave. Because of the similarities to a sound wave, this temperature wave is also called second sound. To explain the nature of superfluids, the famous physicist Lev Landau developed the theory of two-fluid hydrodynamics in Moscow in 1941. He assumed that fluids at these low temperatures comprise a superfluid and a normal component, whereby the latter one gradually disappears with decreasing temperature. Until now superfluidity has experimentally been observed only in liquid helium and in ultracold quantum gases. Another example of a superfluid system is a neutron star, and evidence also been found in the atomic nucleus. Superfluidity is closely connected to the technologically important superconductivity, the phenomenon of zero electrical resistance at very low temperatures.
Observation of temperature waves
Ultracold quantum gases are ideal model systems to experimentally observe quantum mechanical phenomena such as superfluidity. In these experiments hundreds of thousands of atoms are cooled in a vacuum chamber to almost absolute zero (?273.15 ?C). By using lasers the particles in this state can be controlled and manipulated efficiently and with high accuracy. "Despite intensive research in this field for over ten years now, the phenomenon of second sound has proven elusive for detection in quantum gases," says Rudolf Grimm from the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. "However, in the end it was amazingly easy to prove." In the laboratory, Grimm's team of quantum physicists prepared a quantum gas consisting of about 300,000 lithium atoms. They heated the cigar-shaped particle cloud locally with a power-modulated laser beam and then observed the propagating temperature wave. "While in superfluid helium only one entropy wave is generated, our Fermi gas also exhibited some thermal expansion and, thus, a measurable density wave," explains Grimm the crucial difference. It was also the first time that the Innsbruck physicists were able to measure the superfluid fraction in the quantum gas. "Before us nobody had been able to achieve this, which closes a fundamental gap in the research of Fermi gases," says Rudolf Grimm.
Confirming a theory after 50 years
The research work, published now in the journal Nature, is the result of a long-term close collaboration between the physicists in Innsbruck and the Italian scientists. The theoretical physicists from the Trento Bose-Einstein Condensation Center led by Sandro Stringari and Lev Pitaevskii adapted Lev Landau's theory of the description of second sound for the almost one-dimensional geometry of the Innsbruck experiments. Actually Lev Pitaevskii was one of Lev Landau's pupils. "With this model it became easy to interpret the results of our measurement," says Rudolf Grimm. "Moreover, our colleagues from Trento intensely supported our experiment conceptually. The results represent the pinnacle of the collaboration with our partner university in Trento and it is a vital indication for research cooperation within the European Region the Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino." In June the University of Innsbruck will award an Honorary Doctorate to Lev Pitaevskii for his close collaboration with the local scientists.
The scientists are supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the European Research Council (ERC).
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/GcKiFLVR44s/130515131508.htm
Sylvia Kristel st louis cardinals Steelers Schedule tory burch Al Smith Dinner Herman Melville Books Kyna Treacy
Scientists have developed the first map of the world's most unique and most endangered mammals and amphibians.
The map highlights the fact that only a fraction of the areas identified as critical for the conservation of these species are protected.
Among the species highlighted by the map are the Mexican salamander, the Sunda pangolin and the black and white ruffed Lemur.
The research is published in the journal Plos One.
Continue reading the main storyEnd Quote Prof Jonathan Baillie ZSLWe've tried to draw attention to a range of species that are on the verge of extinction, that most people haven't heard of or are doing anything about?
The Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) project has been developed by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to highlight species that are both distinctive and under severe threat.
The map highlights the regions of the world where the highest concentrations of these species occur and which should be priorities for conservation efforts.
"If you look at mammals, if you look at just evolutionary history, the species that are more different from all others, the deep rooted ones tend to be in South America," Prof Jonathan Baillie, Director of Conservation at ZSL told BBC News.
"But if you incorporate threat, then the focus changes to South East Asia and the reason is that land conversion has been so rapid there due to things like palm oil that a lot of these species are highly threatened - they come up to the top when you add threat as a variable."
As well as highlighting the fact that the priority areas for mammals and amphibians are different, the map also underlines how little of the areas that are identified as priorities for these distinct creatures are protected. Only 5% of the regions that are priorities for mammals are conserved, and just 15% for amphibians.
"We've tried to draw attention to a range of species that are on the verge of extinction, that most people haven't heard of or are doing anything about," said Prof Baillie.
"So something like a pangolin a beautiful creature the size of a small dog, it has scales all over its body and lives in trees - it's taken for the Chinese medicinal trade."
Other obscure creatures making it onto the map include Madagascar's black and white ruffed lemur, which is threatened by loss of its forest habitat due to logging and mining.
Amphibians are suffering a "terrifying" rate of extinction say the researchers, making them the most threatened vertebrates in the world. The Mexican salamander or axolotl is being threatened by expanding cities, pollution and invasive fish species which eat their young.
While many of the survival issues facing species highlighted on the map are extremely challenging, sometimes small changes can make a big difference.
Prof Baillie highlights the example of a small worm like amphibian from Kenya called the Sagalla caecilian.
"It was just losing its habitat because the native trees were taken, so we've started a programme of replanting the native trees and 6,000 have been replanted and the areas where they have their strongholds are now being protected."
"That kind of simple action can ensure that those species can be there hopefully for hundred of years to come."
Follow Matt on Twitter.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22540853#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Side Effects bob marley weather the walking dead the walking dead Walking Dead Season 3 smash
"I think it's the next big thing," agency Cornett-IMS's Whit Hiler told Business Insider. "Everybody loves beards."
Half joke, half genius, the scheme pays men with facial hair $5 a day to walk around with a mini ad in their beards.
And A&W has actually signed up as a business partner.
Considering that Green Day was one of many companies to buy ad space on Japanese girls' temporarily tattooed thighs?and many consumers sold body space for real tattoos of now-bust dot com businesses' URLS, beardvertising isn't that strange of a concept.
Hiler told us that the campaign isn't limited to Kentucky, but will be exported "anywhere that there were epic beards willing to host these little 'beardboards.'"
While this platform does serve a promotional piece, Hiler told BI, "We're getting a ton of emails from guys with epic beards that want to host beardboards and we're?actually in talks with some brands that want to be Beardvertisers. I think we'll probably be seeing some?beardboards in the wild before too long."
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/aw-is-putting-mini-ads-in-mens-beards-2013-5
lake vostok montgomery county public schools the river dr dog ke$ha earl csco
What has your calendar done for you lately? Just reminding you of the day isn't going to cut it anymore?that's why god gave us smartphones. So if traditional calendars want any hope of staying relevant, it's time to start pulling double-duty. Which is exactly why we love this ingenious?if perhaps mildly unsanitary?drinkable tea calendar from H?lssen & Lyon.
| |
Newton Shooting Newtown Shooting Gangnam Style Ryan Lanza Sandy Hook kanye west Univision
