Apr. 2, 2013 ? A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Jonckheere 900 or J 900, a planetary nebula -- glowing shells of ionized gas pushed out by a dying star. Discovered in the early 1900s by astronomer Robert Jonckheere, the dusty nebula is small but fairly bright, with a relatively evenly spread central region surrounded by soft wispy edges.
Despite the clarity of this Hubble image, the two objects in the picture above can be confusing for observers. J 900's nearby companion, a faint star in the constellation of Gemini, often causes problems for observers because it is so close to the nebula -- when observation conditions are bad, this star seems to merge into J 900, giving it an elongated appearance. Hubble's position above the Earth's atmosphere means that this is not an issue for the space telescope.
Astronomers have also mistakenly reported observations of a double star in place of these two objects, as the planetary nebula is quite small and compact.
J 900's central star is only just visible in this image, and is very faint -- fainter than the nebula's neighbor. The nebula appears to display a bipolar structure, where there are two distinct lobes of material emanating from its center, enclosed by a bright oval disk.
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The term 'living fossil' has a controversial history. For decades, scientists have argued about its usefulness as it appears to suggest that some organisms have stopped evolving. New research has now investigated the origin of tadpole shrimps, a group commonly regarded as 'living fossils' which includes the familiar Triops. The research reveals that living species of tadpole shrimp are much younger than the fossils they so much resemble, calling into question the term 'living fossil'.
Darwin informally introduced the term 'living fossil' in On the Origin of Species when talking about the platypus and lungfish, groups that appear to have diversified little and appear not to have changed over millions of years. For him living fossils were odd remnants of formerly more diverse groups, and suggestive of a connection between different extant groups. Ever since, the term has been widely used to describe organisms such as the coelacanth, the horseshoe crab and the ginkgo tree. The term has been controversial, as it appears to suggest that evolution has stopped altogether for these organisms, and some scientists have argued that it should be abandoned.
Tadpole shrimps are a small group of ancient crustaceans (a group which includes the familiar Triops) that are often called 'living fossils', because the living species look virtually identical to fossils older than the dinosaurs. Analysing DNA sequences of all known tadpole shrimps, and using fossils from related crustacean groups ? such as the water flea and the brine shrimp ? the team of researchers, from the University of Hull, University of Leicester and the Natural History Museum in London, showed that tadpole shrimps have in fact undergone several periods of radiation and extinction.
Different species of tadpole shrimp often look very similar (they are called 'cryptic species'), and so it is only with the advent of DNA sequencing that scientists have realized that they are a surprisingly diverse group. The team's results uncovered a total of 38 species, many of them still undescribed. This abundance of 'cryptic species' makes it very difficult for fossils to be assigned to any particular species as they all look remarkably similar. For example, 250-million-year-old fossils have been assigned to the living European species Triops cancriformis whereas the team's results indicate that the living T. cancriformis evolved less than 25 million years ago. First author Tom Mathers says "In groups like tadpole shrimps where cryptic speciation is common, the fossil record says very little about patterns of evolution and diversification and so the term 'living fossil' can be quite misleading. For this reason, we used fossils from related groups to gain an understanding about the evolution of tadpole shrimps".
The lead author Africa G?mez said, "Living fossils evolve like any other organism, they just happen to have a good body plan that has survived the test of time. A good analogy could be made with cars. For example the Mini has an old design that is still selling, but newly made Minis have electronic windows, GPS and airbags: in that sense, they are still 'evolving', they are not unchanged but most of the change has been 'under the hood' rather than external. By comparison, organisms labeled as 'living fossils' such as tadpole shrimps, are constantly fine-tuning their adaptation to their environment. Although outwardly they look very similar to tadpole shrimp fossils from the age of the dinosaurs, their DNA and reproductive strategies are relatively hidden features that are constantly evolving. The flexibility of their reproductive strategies, which our research has revealed, could be the evolutionary trick that has allowed them to persist as a morphologically conservative group for so long"
###
The new study is published today in PeerJ, a new peer reviewed open access journal in which all articles are freely available to everyone (https://PeerJ.com).
PeerJ: http://https://peerj.com
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House, busy with its annual Easter Egg Roll, also managed to pull off an April Fools' prank.
The White House Twitter account announced earlier Monday to be on the lookout for a "special video message from the president."
Instead, viewers got a surprise visitor to the press briefing room.
The piece began with a shot of the familiar lectern regularly used by press secretary Jay Carney. It was empty as the presidential entrance march played. Then a small head peeked over the edge of the stand.
"It looks like you were expecting somebody else."
Indeed. It was Robbie Novak, who plays "Kid President" in a series of popular YouTube videos. "April Fools on all of you all," he said.
New instrument will quickly detect botulinum, ricin, other biothreat agentsPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mike Janes mejanes@sandia.gov 925-294-2447 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
LIVERMORE, Calif. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are developing a medical instrument that will be able to quickly detect a suite of biothreat agents, including anthrax, ricin, botulinum, shiga and SEB toxin.
The device, once developed, approved by the Food and Drug Administration and commercialized, would most likely be used in emergency rooms in the event of a bioterrorism incident.
"This is an unmet need for the nation's biodefense program," said Anup Singh, senior manager for Sandia's biological science and technology group. "A point-of-care device does not exist."
Sandia's work is funded by a recent grant nearly $4 million over four years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. NIH has funded a number of recent projects at Sandia.
Sandia's biosciences and microfluidics program areas have continued to evolve with a string of notable projects, including:
MicroChemLab, a trailblazer in lab-on-a-chip technology, developed in the early 1990s
The "saliva device" and a follow-up technology, RapiDx, developed in the early-to-mid 2000s
SpinDx, the latest medical diagnostic tool developed at Sandia
"This will take things to the next level," said Singh. In addition to the broader suite of toxins and bacterial agents that the device would test for, the project includes comprehensive testing with animal (mouse) samples.
This is an important step, Singh said, since toxins may behave differently in live animals and humans than in laboratory blood samples. "We are getting closer and closer to translational elements of research, which involves testing in animal and clinical facilities. This is part of the maturation of our bioresearch activities at Sandia."
The project also will increase what SpinDx can do, he added.
"When you look for bacterial agents, you don't want to rely solely on proteins because you won't get the detection sensitivity you need," explained Singh. "So we are also using other methods that may lead to better detection limits and additional confirmation."
The new NIH project includes collaborators with expertise in animal modeling as well as device manufacturing.
The University of Texas Medical Branch, with whom Sandia enjoys a years-long partnership, together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., are providing Sandia with expert insight into toxins and diseases at animal lab facilities. Bio-Rad, a manufacturer and distributor of a variety of devices and laboratory technologies, is serving as a consultant on the project to evaluate plans for product development, assist with manufacturers' criteria on the device that is developed, and provide important feedback when a prototype is built.
Although the latest NIH award represents a continuing success story for Sandia's microfluidics/bioresearch work, Singh stresses that it was part of a thoughtful multi-year strategy.
"You've got to keep innovating and coming up with the next thing," he said. "Every technology has its lifecycle. As good as SpinDx is, we know there will be other technologies, better technologies that come along in the next few years. We have to continue to innovate to meet the needs of our customers, understand what other competing technologies are being designed to solve the problems and develop technologies that provide an improvement."
The need for diagnostic devices for biodefense is not going away, Singh said, since there are always new diseases springing up that lack good diagnostic assays.
"Plus, we want dual-use devices that combat both man-made and nature-made problems," he added. "We're not just going to wait for the next anthrax letter incident to happen for our devices to be used and tested; we want them to be useful for other things as well, like infectious diseases."
Expanding into those areas, he said, will keep Sandia's bioresearch efforts engaged for years to come.
"That's where the value of the national labs really comes in," Singh said. "Our capabilities and culture are a very good fit for tackling long-term problems that require a sustained effort."
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
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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.
New instrument will quickly detect botulinum, ricin, other biothreat agentsPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mike Janes mejanes@sandia.gov 925-294-2447 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
LIVERMORE, Calif. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are developing a medical instrument that will be able to quickly detect a suite of biothreat agents, including anthrax, ricin, botulinum, shiga and SEB toxin.
The device, once developed, approved by the Food and Drug Administration and commercialized, would most likely be used in emergency rooms in the event of a bioterrorism incident.
"This is an unmet need for the nation's biodefense program," said Anup Singh, senior manager for Sandia's biological science and technology group. "A point-of-care device does not exist."
Sandia's work is funded by a recent grant nearly $4 million over four years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. NIH has funded a number of recent projects at Sandia.
Sandia's biosciences and microfluidics program areas have continued to evolve with a string of notable projects, including:
MicroChemLab, a trailblazer in lab-on-a-chip technology, developed in the early 1990s
The "saliva device" and a follow-up technology, RapiDx, developed in the early-to-mid 2000s
SpinDx, the latest medical diagnostic tool developed at Sandia
"This will take things to the next level," said Singh. In addition to the broader suite of toxins and bacterial agents that the device would test for, the project includes comprehensive testing with animal (mouse) samples.
This is an important step, Singh said, since toxins may behave differently in live animals and humans than in laboratory blood samples. "We are getting closer and closer to translational elements of research, which involves testing in animal and clinical facilities. This is part of the maturation of our bioresearch activities at Sandia."
The project also will increase what SpinDx can do, he added.
"When you look for bacterial agents, you don't want to rely solely on proteins because you won't get the detection sensitivity you need," explained Singh. "So we are also using other methods that may lead to better detection limits and additional confirmation."
The new NIH project includes collaborators with expertise in animal modeling as well as device manufacturing.
The University of Texas Medical Branch, with whom Sandia enjoys a years-long partnership, together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., are providing Sandia with expert insight into toxins and diseases at animal lab facilities. Bio-Rad, a manufacturer and distributor of a variety of devices and laboratory technologies, is serving as a consultant on the project to evaluate plans for product development, assist with manufacturers' criteria on the device that is developed, and provide important feedback when a prototype is built.
Although the latest NIH award represents a continuing success story for Sandia's microfluidics/bioresearch work, Singh stresses that it was part of a thoughtful multi-year strategy.
"You've got to keep innovating and coming up with the next thing," he said. "Every technology has its lifecycle. As good as SpinDx is, we know there will be other technologies, better technologies that come along in the next few years. We have to continue to innovate to meet the needs of our customers, understand what other competing technologies are being designed to solve the problems and develop technologies that provide an improvement."
The need for diagnostic devices for biodefense is not going away, Singh said, since there are always new diseases springing up that lack good diagnostic assays.
"Plus, we want dual-use devices that combat both man-made and nature-made problems," he added. "We're not just going to wait for the next anthrax letter incident to happen for our devices to be used and tested; we want them to be useful for other things as well, like infectious diseases."
Expanding into those areas, he said, will keep Sandia's bioresearch efforts engaged for years to come.
"That's where the value of the national labs really comes in," Singh said. "Our capabilities and culture are a very good fit for tackling long-term problems that require a sustained effort."
###
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
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FILE - In this March 15, 2013, file photo the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, points to a 7-foot stack of ?Obamacare? regulations to underscore his disdain during the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. McConnell said Democrats have been predicting for years that Americans would learn to love the health care overhaul and that has not happened. ?I agree that it will be a big issue in 2014,? he said. ?I think it will be an albatross around the neck of every Democrat who voted for it. They are going to be running away from it, not toward it.? (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - In this March 15, 2013, file photo the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, points to a 7-foot stack of ?Obamacare? regulations to underscore his disdain during the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. McConnell said Democrats have been predicting for years that Americans would learn to love the health care overhaul and that has not happened. ?I agree that it will be a big issue in 2014,? he said. ?I think it will be an albatross around the neck of every Democrat who voted for it. They are going to be running away from it, not toward it.? (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? How do you convince millions of average Americans that one of the most complex and controversial programs devised by government may actually be a good deal for them?
With the nation still split over President Barack Obama's health care law, the administration has turned to the science of mass marketing for help in understanding the lives of uninsured people, hoping to craft winning pitches for a surprisingly varied group in society.
The law's supporters will have to make the sale in the run-up to an election ? the 2014 midterms. Already Republicans are hoping for an "Obamacare" flop that helps them gain control of the Senate, while Democrats are eager for the public to finally embrace the Affordable Care Act, bringing political deliverance.
It turns out America's more than 48 million uninsured people are no monolithic mass. A marketing analysis posted online by the federal Health and Human Services Department reveals six distinct groups, three of which appear critical to the success or failure of the program.
They're the "Healthy & Young," comprising 48 percent of the uninsured, the "Sick, Active & Worried," (29 percent of the uninsured), and the "Passive & Unengaged" (15 percent).
The Healthy & Young take good health for granted, are tech-savvy, and have "low motivation to enroll." The Sick, Active & Worried are mostly Generation X and baby boomers, active seekers of health care information and worried about costs. The Passive & Unengaged group is mostly 49 and older, "lives for today," and doesn't understand much about health insurance.
The challenge for the administration is obvious: signing up lots of the Healthy & Young, as well as the Passive & Unengaged, to offset the higher costs of covering the sick and worried.
Uninsured middle-class Americans will be able to sign up for subsidized private health plans through new insurance markets in their states starting Oct.1. Low-income uninsured people will be steered to safety net programs like Medicaid.
"The goal here is to get as many people enrolled as possible," Gary Cohen, the HHS official overseeing the rollout of the law, told insurers at a recent industry conference. Partly for that reason the first open enrollment period will continue until March 31, 2014.
Coverage under the law takes effect Jan. 1. That's also when the legal requirement that most Americans carry health insurance goes into force. Insurance companies will be barred from turning the sick away or charging them more.
The new law is mainly geared to the uninsured and to people who buy coverage directly from insurance companies. Most Americans in employer plans are not expected to see major changes.
Administration officials say they see an opportunity to change the national debate about health care. They want to get away from shouting matches about the role of government and start millions of practical conversations about new benefits that can help families and individuals.
The HHS marketing materials reveal some barriers to getting the uninsured to embrace the law.
The Healthy & Young lead busy lives and tend to be procrastinators. Plus, why would they need health insurance if they're full of vigor? The Passive & Unengaged fear the unknown and have difficulty navigating the health care system. The Sick, Active & Worried dread making wrong decisions.
Marketing for the new system will start this summer, going into high gear during the fall after premiums and other plan information becomes public.
There's already widespread concern that the new coverage costs too much, because of a combination of sicker people joining the pool and federal requirements that insurers offer more robust benefits. A recent study by the Society of Actuaries forecast sticker shock, estimating that insurers will have to pay an average of 32 percent more for medical claims on individual health policies.
The administration says such studies are misleading because they don't take into account parts of the law that offset costs to individuals and insurance companies, along with other provisions that promote competition and increase oversight of insurance rates.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who has long supported coverage for the uninsured, is predicting vindication for Obama once people see how the program really works.
"It's harder to sell what is a pretty new idea for Americans while it is still in the abstract," said Schakowsky, who represents Chicago. "I think as people experience it, they're going to love it, much like Medicare."
That will put wind in the sails of Democratic candidates. "I think it's going to be a very popular feature as far as the American way of life before too long," Schakowsky added.
But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says Democrats have been predicting for years that Americans would learn to love the health care overhaul and that has not happened. McConnell had his picture taken next to a 7-foot stack of "Obamacare" regulations recently to underscore his disdain.
"I agree that it will be a big issue in 2014," said McConnell. "I think it will be an albatross around the neck of every Democrat who voted for it. They are going to be running away from it, not toward it."
Apr. 1, 2013 ? Move over dancing bears, Ronan the sea lion really does know how to boogie to the beat.
A California sea lion who bobs her head in time with music has given scientists the first empirical evidence of an animal that is not capable of vocal mimicry but can keep the beat, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
The study's authors suggest that their findings challenge current scientific theories that an animal's ability to synchronize its movements with sound are associated with the same brain mechanisms that allow for vocal mimicry in humans and some birds such as cockatoos, parrots, and budgerigars. The findings were published online April 1 in APA's Journal of Comparative Psychology.
"Understanding the cognitive capabilities of animals requires carefully controlled, well-designed experiments," said study co-author Colleen Reichmuth, PhD, with the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "This study is particularly rigorous because it examines, step-by-step, the learning conditions that supported the emergence of this complex behavior."
Ronan, a 3-year-old sea lion, demonstrated her ability to bob to the beat in six experiments led by doctoral candidate Peter Cook at the Long Marine Lab at UCSC.
"Dancing is universal among humans, and until recently, it was thought to be unique to humans as well," said Cook. "When some species of birds were found to have a similar capability for rhythmic movement, it was linked to their ability to mimic sound. Now we're seeing that even mammals with limited vocal ability can move in time with a beat over a broad range of sounds and tempos."
Ronan's first musical "dance" lesson was to the tune of a simplified section of John Fogerty's "Down on the Corner," the study said. Once Ronan was trained to bob her head to music, the researchers tested her with two pop songs, "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys, and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire. Without any prior exposure to the songs, Ronan was able to bob to the beat of both songs over the course of multiple trials, according to the study. She then showed that she could follow along to five different tempos of "Boogie Wonderland."
Ronan's bobbing skills markedly improved over the course of the trials and apparently endured, the study found. The researchers gave her a follow-up test a few weeks after the final session and she was successful in keeping the beat with each of the sounds previously used, maintaining a minimum of 60 consecutive bobs to each of the various beats.
At the beginning of the experiments, Ronan was first trained to move in time to a hand signal, which was replaced by a simple non-musical sound signal. When she successfully completed tests by bobbing her head to various rhythmic sounds, she was rewarded with a fish, the study said.
The researchers varied the types and speed of the sounds to verify that she was actually following the rhythm by bobbing her head. To rule out that she wasn't simply bobbing her head in response to the previous beat, they tested her using two computer-generated, metronome-like ticks -- one that did not miss a beat and the other that did. Ronan kept the beat going even when the metronome missed a beat, according to the study.
A video of Ronan can be watched at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yS6qU_w3JQ
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Psychological Association (APA), via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Peter Cook, Andrew Rouse, Margaret Wilson, Colleen Reichmuth. A California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) Can Keep the Beat: Motor Entrainment to Rhythmic Auditory Stimuli in a Non Vocal Mimic.. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2013; DOI: 10.1037/a0032345
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
In the popular TV
series "The Walking Dead," humans struggle to escape from a pack of
zombies hungry for flesh. Prank alerts have warned of a zombie
apocalypse on radio stations in a handful of states. And across the
country, zombie wannabes in tattered clothes occasionally fill local
parks, gurgling moans of the undead.
Are these just unhealthy
obsessions with death and decay? To Clemson University professor Sarah
Lauro, the phenomenon isn't harmful or a random fad, but part of a
historical trend that mirrors a level of cultural dissatisfaction and
economic upheaval.
Lauro, who teaches English at Clemson, studied
zombies while working on her doctoral degree at the University of
California at Davis. Lauro said she keeps track of zombie movies,
television shows and video games, but her research focuses primarily on
the concept of the "zombie walk," a mass gathering of people who,
dressed in the clothes and makeup of the undead, stagger about and
dance.
It's a fascination that, for Lauro, a self-described "chicken," seems unnatural. Disinterested in violent movies
or games, Lauro said she finds herself now taking part in both in an
attempt to further understand what makes zombie-lovers tick.
"I hate violence," she said. "I can't stand gore. So it's a labor, but I do it."
The
zombie mob originated in 2003 in Toronto, Lauro said, and popularity
escalated dramatically in the United States in 2005, alongside a rise in
dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq.
"It was a way that the
population was getting to exercise the fact that they felt like they
hadn't been listened to by the Bush administration," Lauro said. "Nobody
really wanted that war, and yet we were going to war anyway."
The
mid- to late 2000s also saw an uptick in overall zombie popularity,
perhaps prompted in part by the release of post-apocalyptic movies including "Dawn of the Dead" and "28 Days Later."
As
of last year, Lauro said, zombie walks had been documented in 20
countries. The largest gathering drew more than 4,000 participants at
the New Jersey Zombie Walk in Asbury Park, N.J., in October 2010,
according to Guinness World Records.
"We are more interested in
the zombie at times when as a culture we feel disempowered," Lauro said.
"And the facts are there that, when we are experiencing economic
crises, the vast population is feeling disempowered. ... Either playing
dead themselves ... or watching a show like 'Walking Dead' provides a
great variety of outlets for people."
But, Lauro pointed out, the display of dissatisfaction isn't always a conscious expression of that feeling of frustration.
If you were to ask the participants, I don't think that all of them are
very cognizant of what they're saying when they put on the zombie makeup
and participate," she said. "To me, it's such an obvious allegory. We
feel like, in one way, we're dead."
Everyone has been trying to figure out why the missing persons rates have gone up roughly 10%, but nobody knows that the answer is right over their heads, or rather, in outer space.
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MegaKooala12
Member for 1 years
Wooooo ~ This RP sounds amazing ! [ and loving the Brian Yam concept art on the Intro 8DDDD ermehgerd he's so good. ] I'll be back with a character soon. I'll pm you about a question i have on that topic C:
Speaking of aliens and being captured: THIS. OH MY GOD, THIS.
Vinn
Member for 1 years
Post a reply
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(EMAILWIRE.COM, January 12, 2013 ) Bogor, West Java -- According to Blackberry, iPhone and smartphone news portal BBiPhones.com, Apple plans on countering competition?s control on the smartphone market and appeal directly to budget-conscious users by releasing the iPhone Mini set for 2014.
?There is still no clear evidence that Apple has started working on the iPhone Mini but, if you come to think of it, there wasn?t much evidence when the company started work on iPad Mini either. So there?s a strong possibility to see the iPhone mini in stores in a couple of years ? a phone addressing the budget conscious smartphone users who want their own iPhones, but find the existing devices way too expensive?, says Marketing Director for BBiPhones.com.
The website has already published several articles indicating the reasons behind Apple?s intentions of launching an iPhone mini and the features the potential device might have. According to spokesperson for BBiPhones.com, the device would enjoy huge popularity in countries like China and India where hundreds of millions of smartphone users don?t have the financial possibility of acquiring the pricey Apple devices currently on sale. Apple is expected to also gain traction in the US and other developed countries, where Apple fans might consider switching to a smaller and cost-effective handset.
BBiPhones.com has many years of experience in providing smartphone users with the professional assistance they need in selecting the right portable computing devices and handsets that match both their preferences and budget. BBiPhones.com has recently made the transition to a full-service iPhone and BlackBerry Nevada news website once the two devices started gaining more and more popularity among users. Currently, the news portal offers updated information, resources such as free music downloads for iPods, latest reviews and info spanning all aspects of the smartphone market.
For more information surrounding the potential launch of the iPhone Mini in 2014, please visit the BBiPhones Fanpage at http://www.bbiphones.com.
About BBiPhones.com:
BBiPhones.com delivers the latest BlackBerry and iPhone news and latest information across the globe. They provide comprehensive and up-to date coverage of everything smartphone related in order to provide readers with the top exclusive Blackberry and iPhone news stories from around the
The Gillmor Gang ? John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor ? go beyond the usual scenarios in examining the symbiotic relationships between Apple's more proprietary model and Android's open heritage. CES may have been presiding over the collapse of the PC, as the mobile device wave overwhelmed Wintel. But the speed with which the two silent partners have captured our attention and spawned a new generation of muscle memory continues to startle.
We heard from our friends over at TechCrunch (thanks, John Biggs!) that a company called Zivix has been showing off a cool little MIDI guitar at CES, so here it is! Dubbed the JamStik, this digital instrument serves the same purpose as the already-available You Rock, except this one comes with real guitar strings, works wirelessly over WiFi, features a lower latency (under 10ms instead of about 20ms, according to Zivix's lab test), and it also has a shorter neck plus a much smaller body for the sake of portability -- even for some casual plucking on the plane. The JamStik also supports string bending thanks to the way it detects finger movement on the neck -- the rows of infrared lights and sensors under the strings make the magic happen.
Of course, you'd need a PC or an iOS device (with CoreMIDI-compatible apps like GarageBand and Animoog) to get the audio, and for the latter, Zivix will be offering three apps: JamTutor guitar teaching suite, JamHero game (very much like Guitar Hero and Rock Band) and Jam Live music remixer. We had a go using a wired prototype JamStik, and apart from the slight delay between our strumming and the audio output (which will be further fine-tuned before going retail), we had a lot of fun with it. Check out the demo videos after the break, and expect to see the JamStik hit the market this summer for somewhere around $249 to $299.
This is the ninth post of "30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days," a series designed to give a voice to people with widely varying experiences, including birthparents, adoptees, adoptive parents, foster parents, waiting adoptive parents and others touched by adoption.
I Couldn't Understand Why They Got to Go Home and I Didn't Written by Amy Guimond for Portrait of an Adoption
My name is Amy. I just celebrated my 32nd birthday, I am married to a wonderful man, we own our own house, and I am in a doctoral program for conflict analysis and resolution. My professional goal is working towards solving conflict on a national and global scale, yet I have an enormous amount of unresolved conflict within myself.
When I was a baby, I was removed from my biological mother's care and placed into a foster home. That foster home placement was short-lived and I was relocated to another foster home until I was about 4-and-a-half. My biological mother didn't want to relinquish her rights, and refused to attend many of the court proceedings. My adoptive parents were both in human services and were really interested in trying an open adoption, as they felt this would be the least disruptive to my emotional well-being. With the possibility of open adoption, my bio-mom finally (grudgingly) agreed to sign the paperwork. My adoption was finalized just after my 5th birthday.
Open adoptions in the early 80's were not the same as they are now, and this was entirely new ground. We had a lot of contact between my forever parents and my bio-family, and over time, this became disruptive. As a child, this disruption manifested in behavioral outbursts, irrational fears and melt-downs. As an adult (when I have attempted communication), disruption manifests as chronic insomnia, a few lingering irrational fears and nightmares. I am 32, and for this reason, I have slept with a baby doll since before I can remember. It helps keep the monsters away.
One night about 15 years ago, I woke up in the middle of a cold sweat at about 3 a.m. I washed my face and caught a reflection of myself in the mirror. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. For most people, when they see themselves, they can make out which features they got from which parent. I've never been able to do this. I stood there, in my pajamas and had a complete meltdown. Who did I look like? Where did I get my gorgeous eyes from? My strong brow line? My awful nose? Having had a sporadic relationship with my biological mother, I could certainly see where I got some of my physical features, but what about the rest?
Over the years, I had tried to ask my bio-mom about my birth father, but each time, the story was different. This left me feeling frustrated, almost as if she didn't trust me with knowing something so important. I got to the point where it just didn't matter to me anymore, so I stopped asking, and started assuming the worst. I have a ?real? father anyway. He has been amazing, a true daddy by all definitions, so it's not like I was looking for someone to replace him. I just wanted to better understand where I came from, and the circumstances surrounding how I came into existence.
My husband and I are at a point in our lives where we are starting to think about having children. I am not a parent, but I imagine what it is like to be one. It makes my heart fill with love and joy. I picture myself waiting for the pink lines on the pregnancy test and squealing for joy at realizing that we are adding to our family. Growing up, my parents never spoke a bad word about my biological family and ALWAYS emphasized how much my bio-mom loved me. They told me how much she wanted to keep me, and said that she just wasn't capable. I heard that my whole life, but I am not sure I ever really believed it. It?s not that I don't trust my parents, but sometimes I wonder what made my bio-mom supposedly love me, what motivated her desire to keep me, and even whether she wanted to be pregnant with me in the first place. When I think about my own identity and focus on my own feelings, there is always an underpinning of shame. Why wasn't I good enough?
In terms of my relationship with my bio-mom, though we don't have open communication these days, I still oscillate over how I think of her. Some days it is with great sadness and empathy, because I can only imagine the type of pain that she experienced over the past three decades when she remembers carrying a child to term and having it taken away from her. Other days, I have anger and rage knowing the pain that it has caused me. I've spent years thinking that there was something wrong with me. If only I was a better child, she would have fought harder to make the changes needed to get me back.
I have early memories of foster care, being a young child attempting to process and understand what seemed like a revolving door of foster children who came to live with us, then returned home to their biological families. I couldn't understand why they got to go home and I couldn't. Why should a 4-year-old have to question why she isn't good enough? That 4-year-old still lives inside me.
When I was really young, I would introduce myself by saying ?My name is Amy, I'm Jewish, and I'm adopted.? Obviously I don't do that anymore. Because the truth is, I am NOT an adopted child. I WAS adopted when I was a child. Having been adopted is part of me, and will probably always have some kind of impact on me, but it doesn't need to define me. I am who I am. Does knowing I was adopted change that?
So don't be offended if, after meeting me a dozen times, you find out that I was adopted. I wasn't ?keeping secrets? on purpose. Perhaps I didn't tell you because I didn't want to be accused of lying about it, like I was by a college boyfriend who thought I looked too much like my parents to not share DNA with them.
...Or perhaps I didn't tell you because I didn't want to hear someone ask (for the millionth time) whether I know who my ?real parents? are. Of course I know who my ?real parents? are! They adopted me as a child, they kissed my boo-boos, they checked closets for monsters, they nursed my broken heart after my first break-up, they took late night phone calls in college, they walked me down the aisle when I got married, and I still talk to them almost every day. Isn't that the definition of ?real parents??
Or perhaps I didn't tell you because (this week) it is an issue for me.
Or perhaps I didn't tell you because (this week) it is a non-issue for me.
Or perhaps it never fit into the conversation. Or maybe I wasn't ready to expose myself, insecurities and all. Or maybe I didn't think it mattered.
Because I know who I really am. I'm Amy. I'm smart. I'm beautiful. I'm talented. I'm caring. I'm creative. I'm strong. I'm loving. I'm loved. I'm a daughter. I'm a wife. Someday, I will be a mother too. Sometimes I am sarcastic. I cry at old telephone commercials and sentimental greeting cards. Sometimes I laugh so hard that my stomach hurts. I'm ticklish. I sing along to every song on the radio although I am tone-deaf. My favorite food is strawberries with sour cream. My favorite color is blue. And yes... I was also adopted as a child.
Portrait of an Adoption is hosted by Carrie Goldman, author of Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear. If you have a story you would like to submit as a candidate for next year's series, please email it to her at portraitofanadoption@gmail.com.
Find the Portrait of an Adoption community on Facebook. Follow Carrie Goldman on Twitter.
Signing up for daily deal services can net you a lot of junk you'd never want, and signing up for every ding-dong newsletter for your favorite stores creates a lot of spam. Bync scans your credit card for your most visited stores, then sends you a daily email with coupons for only those stores.
Some of Bync's deals are exclusive to the service, but most of them are deals that are going on all the time. Imagine RetailMeNot, but it emails you whenever there's a deal at one of your favorite stores, and that's Bync. You just input your bank account or credit card using their secure system, it scans for your favorite stores, and then you just wait for the emails. You can turn off alerts for certain stores if you don't want coupons for them.
Bync's free service gives you up to 4 deals per day, but you can get more "deal credits" by referring friends or by signing up for their premium service, which allows for more deals and more connected accounts. Overall, it's a pretty cool service if you're looking to save a few bucks, especially when compared with alternative "daily coupon" sources. Hit the link to check it out.
Ray Lewis and his Ravens travel to Denver to face off with the Broncos in a divisional-round matchup Baltimore hopes is far more successful than its 34-17 loss to Peyton Manning and Co. back in Week 15.
Baltimore, the reigning AFC North champions, punched its ticket to the second round of the postseason with a 24-9 win over Indianapolis last Sunday behind Lewis and quarterback Joe Flacco, who threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns en route to becoming the only signal-caller in NFL history to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons.
"We're looking forward to this," said Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who had all of his 145 receiving yards against the Colts in the second half, the most after intermission in a postseason game since Jerry Rice collected 157 in Super Bowl XXIII. "I was hoping we'd get Denver again. This time we'll make it different."
To do that Lewis will have to extend his final season yet again, this time against one of his few peers in the legacy department, Manning.
As the Ravens' win over the Colts was winding down last weekend Lewis raced to the center of M&T Bank Stadium and the Baltimore crowd erupted. The seven-time All-Pro, who had announced his retirement at season's end in the week before the game, was part of the Ravens' victory formation and did his trademarked "Squirrel Dance" one last time for the hometown faithful after Baltimore wrapped up the emphatic win.
"There's no great reward than for me to take this last victory lap for me to see my team," Lewis told CBS after the game. "Because we have a vision. We're not trying to end here. This is just my last game at Ravens stadium, and it's the most awesome thing you could ever ask for in any professional career."
It's been a long and often surreal ride for Lewis -- once indicted for murder and now regarded as one of the faces of the NFL.
During the pregame festivities, Lewis was almost a one-man receiving line, accepting well-wishes from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, along with his teammates and children.
If you thought Lewis, who is bound for Canton as the heart and soul of the Ravens franchise as well as a leader of one of most consistent and ferocious defensive units of this generation, might be distracted, however, think again. In his first game since suffering a torn triceps in mid-October, the 17-year veteran was credited with 13 tackles in spearheading Baltimore's win.
"My only focus was to come in and get my team a win. Nothing else was planned," Lewis said. "It's one of those things, when you recap it all and try to say what is one of your greatest moments. I knew how it started, but I never knew how it would end here in Baltimore. I wouldn't change nothing."
Perhaps inspired by the return of Lewis, the Ravens defense, which has been pedestrian for most of the season, held the upstart Colts to three Adam Vinatieri field goals, and spoiled the playoff debut of potential NFL Rookie of the Year Andrew Luck and the return of Chuck Pagano to Baltimore. Pagano, of course, spent four years as an assistant under John Harbaugh before taking over the Colts last January.
"We definitely wanted to come out and put on a great performance for (Lewis') last time at M&T Bank Stadium," Boldin said.
Outside linebacker Paul Kruger proved to be a Philip Seymour-Hoffman-like co- star to Lewis, registering 2 1/2 of the Ravens' three sacks during the game and causing one of three takeaways with a forced fumble.
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Public release date: 2-Apr-2013
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The Gillmor Gang ? John Borthwick, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor ? go beyond the usual scenarios in examining the symbiotic relationships between Apple's more proprietary model and Android's open heritage. CES may have been presiding over the collapse of the PC, as the mobile device wave overwhelmed Wintel. But the speed with which the two silent partners have captured our attention and spawned a new generation of muscle memory continues to startle.
Signing up for daily deal services can net you a lot of junk you'd never want, and signing up for every ding-dong newsletter for your favorite stores creates a lot of spam. Bync scans your credit card for your most visited stores, then sends you a daily email with coupons for only those stores. 
