Friday, June 8, 2012

Facebook's mobile App Center launches with 600 apps

NEWS

Facebook's mobile App Center, the company's first big announcement since its IPO, went live on Thursday with more than 600 apps, including Nike+ GPS, Ubisoft Ghost Recon Commander, Stitcher Radio, Draw Something and Pinterest.

The Facebook App Center will link to other app stores as well as selling apps directly. Image credit: Facebook

"The App Center represents a new way for users to discover social applications," said Douglas Purdy, Facebook's director of developer products, who showed off the App Center at a launch party in San Francisco. Plus, he says, it gives developers a way to reach Facebook's more than 900 million users. Facebook was responsible for 83 million visits to the Apple App Store in May, Facebook said.

The App Center is designed to offer an experience personalised for each user, with app recommendations based on the apps they and their friends use. So if you're a person who likes word games ? something Facebook would know from your Facebook behaviour ? the App Center will surface those sorts of apps for you. Then, when you select an app you like, you'll be sent to the Apple's App Store or Google's, depending on your device.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Facebook officially launches mobile 'App Center' on CNET News.


Get the latest technology news and analysis, blogs and reviews delivered directly to your inbox with ZDNet UK's newsletters.

boston globe google maps 8 bit mirror mirror robyn texas relays meniscus the colony

Why Britain has a moral duty to bring Israel in line.


Zionism was not created in Britian. It was created in mainland Europe, by a group of atheist Jews. That said, while Britain may not have founded Zionism, it certainly has to take some responsibility for accomodating and faciltating it, by way of the Balfour agreement.

Contrary to popular belief, Lord Balfour did not agree to do this, because he was empathetic about Jews. On the contrary, Lord Balfour hated Jews, or more accurately, he did not like what he saw as typical behaviour in large gatherings of Jews in Britain.

Don't believe me about Lord Balfour and Jews, go look yourself. I am going to offer you no link, people will only say it is not a 'good' source, so find a link that suits you, about it.

Truth be told, he was relieved, he thought that Jews in Britain would leave. For this new 'homeland'. They didn't. Maybe some did.

For the British, they also believed it would be handy to have an outpost there, in the Middle East, populated by immigrant Jews they believed would be loyal to them, in some sense.

Big mistake, the Zionist does not know the meaning of loyalty, and in his world of anti virtues, loyalty is merely something to be exploited.

There is evidence of that all around.

Britain's pay back for making it possible for this 'Jewish state' to locate to where it did, was to be targets of Jew terror groups, like Irgun and the Stern Gang, who bombed buldings, and killed civilians. They were the blueprint for all modern terrorism.

In all truth, what they did to the King David Hotel should have been seen as an act of war in itself, and the experiment aborted right there and then.

But no, for whatever reason, we did not squash the seeds of terrorism when we could, and now look what we have?

On one side of a wall, we have a state that have killed more civilians that Hamas. One that has routinely ignored the Geneva Convention, the UN and International Law. And on the other side? Naturally, you have the inevitable violent opposition.

Israeli operatives have done a good job convincing Americans that American interests are Israeli interests.

Believe me, do some reading, and you will see yourself that they are NOT.

However, I consider Israel to be such a rogue state, so far removed from anything approaching trustworthy enough to hold nukes, and so much of a problem to peace, that they must be made to abide by international laws, remove the blockades, remove all the illegal settlements, end the aburd permit system and check points, and give full co-operation to have what nukes it has inspected.

When the German Reich grew so heady on power, that IT disregarded human rights, and international treaties, many nations did roll over, and accept their new masters.

No resistance in Belgium to speak of, or Holland, and the so called 'French Resistance' comprised mainly of some people buying the newspaper of the 'resistance', but really that was about it, many French had accepted their new masters, and were okay about it.

Leaving the German/Russia thing aside for now, it was always Britain that Hitler knew would be the tough nut to crack.

Why do you think Hitler wanted peace with Britian? He had only respect for our heritage, our spirit, and, to be honest, the fact that we are an island nation with a good military.

While other nations in Europe meekly lay down, Britain did not, and toward the end, they were joined by America, which was enough to tilt any last hopes of a Reich victory.

Since this was partly Britians doing, how things have played out in Israel, I believe that Britian has a special responsibility to demand that Israel comply with all international law, Geneva convetion, etc.

Take the lead, and lobby the other nations in the EU to support the morally correct stance.

If Israel is the civlised state that it tells us, then they will negotitate and follow the demand for international law compliance, and nuke weapon inspection.

If they did that, good stuff, one huge stride made.

One that would actually improve Israel's image, and the peace in the region.

Failure to comply would lead on a Gov led boycott of all Israel goods, investements, etc, in the European nations of the willing.

If sanctions are good enough for other countries, then they are good enough for Israel.

Germany woud get up off it's knees, stop it's taught self hating, and cease to plough any more cash into Israel.

Discussion, demand to obey law, demand to undo that which is illegal, threat of sanctions, all of those things are perfectly legit, to pressure a rogue state into better observance.

There would be no question of it getting to a military option.

Look, forget the myth about the IDF, and how powerful the Israeli army are.

They really aren't. Why do you think they need Americans and Brits to do the real fighting?

I grant you, they are good at shooting dead unarmed civilians, and they are pretty hot at dropping chemical onto kids to burn them, but when it comes to troops on the ground fighting, no, they avoid this at all costs, because they cannot fight real armies.

Or even crap one's, as Hezbollah were to demonstrate, just a few years ago. Israel put troops on the ground. They got pumped.

So, please, let us not hear that Israel could stand up to Britian let alone a Britain supported, in a military sense!

Even if cuts have scaled our investment back, it would still be MORE than enough, WAY more, to flick Israel and the IDF into space.

And for all that some fake Americans may come on here and claim that the US would 'help Israel'....are you sure?

Israel costs the US money, and many Americans are smart enough to realise that Britain and Europe make better allies and trading partners, now and in the future.

Do you REALLY think that the US would save you this time?

It is boldness and honest that we need back in our politics.

And there would be no more bold an action or more honest a gesture, than to demand Israel behave within the boundaries of law.

Jack

actuary elon musk anderson cooper al sharpton fox mole manson bubba watson

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

All about Pets and Animals: Dipper | Wildlife of birds - Dippers ...

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

occupy dc ufc 143 fight card my fair lady conversion disorder the chronicle spinal stenosis the forgotten man

The Campaign Trail: A Look At Five Brands' Retail Marketing ...

After all the work it takes to get the product to the sales floor, here?s a look at how some brands found success with special retail partnerships and marketing campaigns last season.

Micro and Macro Community Geo-Targeting at Vans

Design, marketing and sales at Vans all combined forces to push its Vans Boardshort Blitz partnership program. ?With key retailers it is complete with geo-targeted advertising, POP, GWP, and an increased retail footprint in these stores. So far we have had great results with increased sell through that will probably result in continuing this program in a larger capacity in SP13,? says Luciano Mor, of Vans Apparel and Accessories.

Vans? Rit Dye Era Classic collaboration with Thalia St. was a sequel of department teamwork. ?On a micro level, the execution at our Thalia St. partnership store looks rad, resulting in sell through to the piece. Our rep had to personally drive over to our distribution center in Santa Fe Springs to pick up the reorder to have enough on the shelf in time for our launch party a few weeks back.?

Follow the jump for Ambig, Herschel, Lifetime, and Billabong?

new smyrna beach st. joseph walking dead puerto rico primary manning peyton florida state

Wisconsin recall battle finally goes to voters

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? The battle over Gov. Scott Walker's agenda has attracted millions of dollars from out of state, campaign volunteers from across the country and months of concentrated attention from the two major political parties.

But on Tuesday, the only voices that matter will be those of Wisconsin voters deciding whether to keep Walker or fire him and hand his job to the Milwaukee mayor. After more than a year in the national spotlight, both sides are preparing for a razor-thin margin.

Polls show Walker, a Republican just 17 months into his term, with a small lead over Democrat Tom Barrett.

"You know what distresses me?" state Sen. Mark Miller said to a group of Democratic volunteers last week in Madison. "It's close. It's so darn close."

During Monday's first campaign stop, Walker said he expects a close race, too, and he's focused on turning out voters who supported his efforts to take on public-employee unions.

"We want to move on and move forward," Walker said at a plastics plant near Madison. He was joined by his wife, Tonette, who wore a button that read "Luv My Gov."

Walker planned other campaign stops at a brewery in Stevens Point and a distillery in Green Bay before wrapping up with a nighttime rally in Milwaukee.

Barrett was spending most of Monday in western and northern Wisconsin before ending his day with a rally at a United Auto Workers union hall in Kenosha.

Walker is only the third governor in U.S. history to face a recall vote. The other two lost, most recently California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. Wisconsin's recall election is a rematch of the 2010 governor's race in which Walker defeated Barrett by 5 percentage points.

Walker's lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, and three Republican state senators also face recall votes Tuesday. In addition, voters will fill a fourth state Senate seat after the Republican incumbent resigned rather than face the recall.

Anger over Walker and his conservative agenda began building almost as soon as he took office in January 2011. Just a month into his term, Walker took the state by surprise with a proposal to effectively end collective bargaining rights for most state workers. The recall idea emerged soon thereafter.

But the recall petition drive couldn't officially start until November, months after Walker signed the union changes into law. Organizers hit the streets a week before Thanksgiving and spent two months gathering more than 900,000 signatures ? about 360,000 more than were needed to trigger the election.

Retired teacher Jan Stebbins cast her ballot early for Barrett, just as she did two years ago. She said she's been offended by Walker, not by what he's done but "how he's done it."

Stebbins can't stand the division that's emerged in the past two years.

By Wednesday morning, she hopes the state "gets back to a little bit more unity," she said. "I don't know what will happen."

Todd Schober, a financial planner from Racine, voted for Walker in 2010 and plans to do so again on Tuesday.

"When is this going to end?" he asked after shaking his head and sighing. "I'm just going to be so glad when it's all over."

Walker, the 44-year-old son of a minister, has remained unflappable throughout the campaign just as he was during the massive protests that raged at the Statehouse for weeks as lawmakers debated his proposal.

Along the way, he's become a star among Republicans and the most successful fundraiser in Wisconsin politics, collecting at least $31 million from around the country since taking office. That obliterated his fundraising record of $11 million from 2010.

About $63 million has been spent on the race so far, including $16 million from conservative groups such as the Republican Governors Association, Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association.

Democratic groups ? including those funded by unions, the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic National Committee ? have poured in about $14 million, based on a tally from the government watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

The majority of Walker's donations have come from people outside Wisconsin. Most of Barrett's $4.2 million came from inside the state.

The race has implications for national labor unions. It's also seen as a proxy fight for the presidential election, especially given the importance of Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes.

President Barack Obama has kept his distance, just as he did during the unrest last year. Other prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, campaigned for Barrett in the week leading up to the vote.

White House press secretary Jeff Carney was asked during a briefing Monday why Obama wasn't campaigning for Barrett.

"The president supports him, stands by him," Carney said, adding that Obama hopes Barrett prevails.

Walker enlisted the support of several prominent national Republicans, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, an unabashed union hater.

A Marquette University Law School poll released last week showed Walker with a narrow 7-percentage point lead over Barrett, 52 percent to 45 percent. The poll's margin of error was 4.1 percentage points. In the same poll two weeks earlier, Walker held a 6-point lead, 50 percent to 44 percent.

The poll also showed the deep division in Wisconsin, where 39 percent of respondents said they liked the job Walker has done and 38 percent said they did not like it. Twenty-one percent said they like what he's done, just not how he did it.

In the days leading up to the election, they expressed a mixture of anticipation and fatigue with the political turmoil.

In the working-class city of Janesville, signs on both sides of the election were scattered across the community, some just a few feet apart.

Retired businessman Dave Flury plans to support Walker. And he's worried about what will happen if Barrett wins.

"If Walker loses, shouldn't Republicans turn right around and recall Barrett?" Flury asked.

For months, voters have been inundated with telephone calls, campaign mail and television advertising. Barrett supporter John Oehrke is ready for all of it to end.

"It doesn't really matter who wins I guess," Oehrke said. "It's all crazy.

___

Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Fitchburg, Dinesh Ramde in Racine and Brian Bakst in Janesville contributed to this report.

menorah chanukah chanukah david archuleta david archuleta hobbit trailer greenhill

Monday, June 4, 2012

Legal Schnauzer: What Is the Fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court's ...


The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) today ruled that citizens can be convicted of "crimes" that do not exist, based on jury instructions that do not mirror actual law. The Supreme Court also overturned the case that had served as precedent for more than 20 years in cases that allege bribery in the context of a campaign contribution. For good measure, the high court also provided overwhelming evidence that Barack Obama does not deserve a second term as president.

And, by the way, criminal cases no longer have to be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt."

SCOTUS did not make any of those decisions in the form of actual rulings. But those are essentially the take-home lessons from the court's decision this morning not to hear an appeal in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.

Perhaps the most important lesson is this: The nation's highest court proved beyond any doubt--and there really was no doubt in light of the 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling--that it is corrupt and our entire "justice system" needs a thorough cleansing from top to bottom.

How is this for irony? The Supreme Court almost certainly refused to hear the Siegelman appeal not because his case was weak, but because it was so strong. If the court had heard the case, it would have had to overturn the Siegelman/Scrushy convictions. It's about as close to an open-and-shut case as is ever likely to land before the Supremes.

But we suspect the high court could not countenance such an outcome. It would have shown that our justice system is riddled with politics, that judges at all levels routinely make rulings that are contrary to law, that our courts simply cannot be trusted--and, most importantly, that the Bush family and their surrogates (Karl Rove) have rigged our "justice system" into what amounts to a criminal enterprise.

We wrote months ago that one problem with overturning the Siegelman convictions is that it might open up a path for Siegelman and Scrushy to file civil cases against individuals and entities responsible for their prosecutions--and genuine discovery in such lawsuits almost certainly would lead to the doorsteps of powerful, wealthy, and loyal Bushies. That, in a postmodern America that has badly lost its way, could not be allowed to happen.

Today's ruling is further evidence that our "legal-industrial complex" wants no part of lawsuits that might grow from the gross abuses in the Siegelman case. By punting on an appeal, the Supremes found that it is more important to protect corrupt elites than to administer justice.

Documents filed in the Siegelman case, seeking certiorari review with the high court, make all of this painfully obvious. For the millions of words that have been written on the Siegelman case--quite a few of them?on this blog--it all boils down to a few simple questions at this point. They are clearly stated in a docket entry, as reported last week by Matthew Bush at scotusblog.com:

Siegelman v. United States?
Docket: 11-955?
Issue(s): Whether the McCormick v. United States standard -- under which a connection between a campaign contribution and an official action is a crime ?only if the payments are made in return for an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform an official act? -- requires proof of an ?explicit? quid pro quo in the sense of actually being communicated expressly, or whether there can be a conviction based instead only on the inference that there was an unstated and implied agreement connecting a campaign contribution and an official action; (2) whether 18 U.S.C. ? 666 and ?honest services? law (under 18 U.S.C. ? 1346) cover campaign or referendum contributions as alleged bribes at all; and (3) whether the ?intent? clause of 18 U.S.C. ? 1512(b)(3) requires proof of the specific intent to interfere with communications to law enforcement, or whether it is satisfied by proof of an intent to engage in a ?coverup? more generically.

Issue No. 1 is at the crux of both the Siegelman and Scrushy appeals. And the following facts are undisputed on that issue:

?* McCormick v. United States, 500 U.S. 257 (1991) is controlling law on bribery in the context of a campaign contribution;

?* McCormick does, in fact, require an "explicit" quid pro quo?("something for something") agreement in order to constitute the crime of bribery on a campaign contribution;

* Jury instructions from U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller did not include the "explicit promise" language required by McCormick;

* Fuller allowed the jury to "infer" that a crime took place, and the U.S. Eleventh Circuit upheld this outcome, which clearly is contrary to McCormick.

The bottom line? By refusing to hear the Siegelman appeal, the nation's highest court essentially is saying: (1) It's fine for a trial judge to give incorrect jury instructions; (2) It's fine for a jury to more or less guess at whether a crime occurred or not; (3) And McCormick no longer is good law.

For that matter, the notion that a crime must be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" also appears to no longer be good law. The "inference of a crime" now is sufficient.

As for President Obama and what today's news means for him, we will address that in an upcoming post.?But this much can be said with certainty: The Siegelman fiasco started off as a production of the George W. Bush Department of Justice, but it fully rests with the Obama administration now. His DOJ argued against certiorari review, and it got its wish--and that means the president supports everything that has transpired in a case that deserves its billing as the most blatant political prosecution in American history.

The Democratic Party, which has consistently took brave stands for civil rights over the past 45-plus years, now is led by a president who has shown utter disregard for the concepts of due process and equal protection under the law. The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly means nothing to Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and their minions in the DOJ.

Obama articulated a stance of cowardice on justice issues before he even took office, and now we see the natural outcome of that philosophy--a grotesque injustice lies at the feet of a Democratic president.

I'm not sure what that says to you. But it tells me that Barack Obama is not fit to be president.

ipad accessories port charlotte florida kit homes boxing day radio shack bethany hamilton bethany hamilton

Teaching tree-thinking through touch

ScienceDaily (June 4, 2012) ? A pair of new studies by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggest that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond just play.

Two games, developed with the goal of teaching important evolutionary concepts, were tested on families in a busy museum environment and on pairs of college students. In both cases, the educational games succeeded at making the process of learning difficult material engaging and collaborative.

The findings were presented at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) conference in May.

The games take advantage of the multi-touch-screen tabletop, which is essentially a desk-sized tablet computer. In a classroom or a museum, several users can gather around the table and use it simultaneously, either working on independent problems in the same space, or collaborating on a single project. The table accommodates multiple users and can also interact with physical objects like cards or blocks that are placed onto its surface.

The new research moves beyond the novelty of the system, however, and investigates the actual learning outcomes of educational games in both formal and informal settings.

"Do we know what the users are actually learning from this? That question is a step beyond the research of the past 10 years, where we've been seeing research publications that assess how well the system is performing, but not addressing how well it's accomplishing what it's really designed for," says principal investigator Chia Shen, a Senior Research Fellow in Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Director of the Scientists' Discovery Room Lab.

The two collaborative games that have been developed for the system, Phylo-Genie and Build-a-Tree, are designed to help people understand phylogeny -- specifically, the tree diagrams that evolutionary biologists use to indicate the evolutionary history of related species. Learners new to the discipline sometimes think of evolution as a linear progression, from the simple to the complex, with humans as the end point.

"What people are used to typically is geospatial data, like a map," explains Shen. "In phylogeny, however, the students need to understand that the relationship between species really depends on when they diverged. That's represented by the position of the internal nodes of the tree, not by counting across the top of the tree, which is how many people intuitively do it."

The Phylo-Genie game, developed by researchers at Harvard, Wellesley, and Tufts, attempts to address the misconceptions that students hold even at the college level. Designed for a formal classroom setting, the game walks students through a scenario in which they have been bitten by an unusual species of snake and must identify its closest relatives in order to choose the correct anti-venom.

The researchers tested Phylo-Genie on pairs of undergraduate students who had not yet taken a course in evolutionary biology. Other pairs of students were given the same exercise, but in a pen-and-paper format. In comparison to the paper version, the electronic game produced statistically significantly higher scores on a post-test (an exam borrowed from a Harvard course), as well as higher participant ratings for engagement and collaboration.

Both of the phylogeny games were designed and evaluated in accordance with accepted principles of cognitive psychology and learning sciences.

The Build-a-Tree game was designed with an informal museum environment in mind. Researchers on this project, directed by lead author Michael S. Horn at Northwestern University and Shen at Harvard, observed 80 families and other social groups interacting with the Build-a-Tree game at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The game asks users to construct phylogenetic trees by dragging icons -- for example, a bat, a bird, and a butterfly -- toward one another in the correct order. As the user progresses through several levels, the problems become more challenging.

The idea, Shen says, is to encourage what museum science educators call "active prolonged engagement," as opposed to "planned discovery." The former allows learners to explore information independently and to interact with it in an open-ended manner; the latter approach, common in natural history museums, guides the user toward a particular set of facts.

"Natural history museums have always been a place where the exhibits are behind glass in the gallery," explains Shen. "You come here to see things that you just don't see anywhere else -- fossils millions of years old -- and you come here to learn. You see school groups and parents coming in with a serious mind, and we're breaking into that culture."

The Build-a-Tree game performed well against established measures of active prolonged engagement and social learning.

Even in the most high-tech exhibit hall, where visitors are engaged at every turn, it takes a great deal of creative thinking to demonstrate a phenomenon that is essentially imperceptible in real time.

"Evolution is a process that takes millions of years, whereas in chemistry or physics there are all sorts of phenomena that you can experiment with, like the tornado exhibit where you can go in and interrupt the air," says Shen. "This is our experiment: can we build something that is not as phenomenon-driven but can still engage them? I think we've succeeded in that."

The work on Build-a-Tree was supported by the National Science Foundation, with research evaluation conducted in the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Horn (lead author) and Shen worked with Zeina Atrash Leong (Northwestern University), Florian Block (a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS), Judy Diamond (University of Nebraska State Museum), E. Margaret Evans (University of Michigan), and Brenda Phillips (a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS).

The work on Phylo-Genie was supported by the Encyclopedia of Life Learning and Education group and by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Shen's collaborators were lead author Bertrand Schneider (a graduate student at Stanford University, who completed the work as a visiting student at Harvard), Megan Strait (Tufts University), Laurence Muller (a visiting student at Harvard), Sarah Elfenbein (a recent Wellesley graduate, now at Yale University), and Orit Shaer (Wellesley College).

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

mash alec baldwin kicked off plane alec baldwin kicked off plane mumia mumia uss arizona memorial uss arizona memorial