shiny cant: May 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

National Partnership for Women & Families: PREGNANCY ...

ActionSpeak

PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION

Thirty-five years ago, we worked hard to pass the Pregnancy Discrimination Act ? a groundbreaking law that made pregnancy discrimination illegal in this country. Unfortunately, too many employers have found ways to flout the law, and expecting mothers are being denied reasonable job accommodations or forced out of their jobs as a result. That?s why we need the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which was re-introduced in Congress last week.
Take action today ?

Stop Pregnancy Discrimination

Maryland took a big step toward being more fair and supportive to working families last week when Governor Martin O'Malley signed the Reasonable Accommodations for Pregnant Workers Act. This new law will help stop discrimination against pregnant workers and promote the health and economic security of the state's pregnant women, their babies and their families.
More ?

Sarah Crawford MD Pregnant Workers Bill Signing 2013
The National Partnership's Sarah Crawford (back row, second from right) attends the bill signing on May 16, 2013.

Source: http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=39918

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Lisa Bonchek Adams: In Sickness and in Health: What Is It Like for a Mother to Read Her Daughter's Blogs About Stage IV Cancer?

My mother, Dr. Rita Bonchek, is a psychologist who specializes in grief and loss. A career discussing death and dying, however, was insufficient preparation for hearing the words, "Mom, I have metastatic breast cancer."

Mom and I have reacted very differently to the news of my stage IV cancer. I was online within days writing posts about the steps I was taking. I wrote immediately about how to help children in the days following a diagnosis like mine. As my readers know, I'm very open about this part of my life.

My mother, on the other hand, is much more private. She would never write a blog the way I do. She didn't want to share this news with people; she wasn't ready to talk about it. I respect her decision but that approach doesn't work for me. Sometimes our different ways of thinking lead to disagreements. Despite our differences we always support each other.

I thought it might be helpful for readers to hear what she has to say about reading my posts. Some of us with cancer choose to be very public with our daily lives but our parents are often forgotten in the discussion.

I am Lisa's proud mother and I have followed her blog from its first day. As her mother, I read her blog from a unique point of view, and I want to share my perspective with you.

Those of you who are reading this blog follow Lisa and her incredible writing. It is her understanding of human behavior, her expression of feelings of her heart and thoughts of her mind that make so many people want another blog from her as soon as the one being read is finished.

Yet, as the mother of this outstanding-in-all-aspects daughter, my reading of Lisa's blog posts is complicated because each piece contains an extra layer of heart-wrenching pain for me. Lisa's blog is a precious sharing of her everyday life, of medical explanation and analysis of each and every test result, of measured consideration of her hopes, fears, etc. Parents rarely get the opportunity to get "up close and personal" to this extent with a child. As Lisa's mother, knowing her innermost thoughts is a gift and a curse.

If you (or anyone else but Lisa) were writing about a life journey with a cancer diagnosis, I could handle reading about the physical assaults on your body and the emotional assaults on your psyche because I would be more objective and not involved in your everyday life. I could read your blog, feel empathy and sorrow for the diagnosis, but step away from it. However, I am enmeshed in Lisa's writing.

Lisa's father stopped having the blog posts sent directly to his e-mail because he was often caught unaware with heavy emotional subject matter arriving at inappropriate times. He now accesses the blog posts only when he feels emotionally prepared for whatever he may find.

While this would also be a very reasonable decision for me to make, I have the ambivalent feelings of wanting to be close and share every moment of what Lisa thinks and feels at that moment versus retreating from the declarations of how her life is now and her fears for the future for her and the family -- her family and my family.

Lisa and I share the personality trait of always wanting to know the truth so we are as well prepared for the worst as we can be. Lisa and I promised each other that we would never withhold any information to protect each other. The honesty Lisa promised me is the honesty she has promised to all of you, her readers.

On one level, her blog reveals to me everything I want to know, but on another level what I unconsciously don't want to know. This emotional see-saw of wanting to read it but not wanting to read it is a decision that I must make each time a new blog-post appears in my inbox.

Why is this "to know or not to know" decision so difficult for me? When I read Lisa's writings, I imagine the sub-text that she does not reveal: how she is managing to keep her family's lives as "normal" (whatever that means) as possible.

Lisa is, as most mothers are, the hub of her family's life. When Lisa writes in a blog-post that she was very tired and rested for hours, I know that her closed bedroom door makes every family member who sees that closed door go into overdrive with founded or unfounded concern and fear.

Lisa and I share the goals to make the most of each day and to cherish and to love one another. These are life affirmations within our control when so much of life is out of our control. Share our goals as you and I, Lisa's readers, benefit from Lisa's greatest gift to us: who she is and how she lives her life, in sickness and in health.

Follow Lisa Bonchek Adams on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AdamsLisa

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-b-adams/mother-daughter-cancer_b_3306482.html

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New method for tailoring optical processors

May 21, 2013 ? Rice University scientists have unveiled a robust new method for arranging metal nanoparticles in geometric patterns that can act as optical processors that transform incoming light signals into output of a different color. The breakthrough by a team of theoretical and applied physicists and engineers at Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) is described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rice's team used the method to create an optical device in which incoming light could be directly controlled with light via a process known as "four-wave mixing." Four-wave mixing has been widely studied, but Rice's disc-patterning method is the first that can produce materials that are tailored to perform four-wave mixing with a wide range of colored inputs and outputs.

"Versatility is one of the advantages of this process," said study co-author Naomi Halas, director of LANP and Rice's Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering, chemistry, physics and astronomy. "It allows us to mix colors in a very general way. That means not only can we send in beams of two different colors and get out a third color, but we can fine-tune the arrangements to create devices that are tailored to accept or produce a broad spectrum of colors."

The information processing that takes place inside today's computers, smartphones and tablets is electronic. Each of the billions of transistors in a computer chip uses electrical inputs to act upon and modify the electrical signals passing through it. Processing information with light instead of electricity could allow for computers that are both faster and more energy-efficient, but building an optical computer is complicated by the quantum rules that light obeys.

"In most circumstances, one beam of light won't interact with another," said LANP theoretical physicist Peter Nordlander, a co-author of the new study. "For instance, if you shine a flashlight at a wall and you cross that beam with the beam from a second flashlight, it won't matter. The light that comes out of the first flashlight will pass through, independent of the light from the second.

"This changes if the light is traveling in a 'nonlinear medium,'" he said. "The electromagnetic properties of a nonlinear medium are such that the light from one beam will interact with another. So, if you shine the two flashlights through a nonlinear medium, the intensity of the beam from the first flashlight will be reduced proportionally to the intensity of the second beam."

The patterns of metal discs LANP scientists created for the PNAS study are a type of nonlinear media. The team used electron-beam lithography to etch puck-shaped gold discs that were placed on a transparent surface for optical testing. The diameter of each disc was about one-thousandth the width of a human hair. Each was designed to harvest the energy from a particular frequency of light; by arranging a dozen of the discs in a closely spaced pattern, the team was able to enhance the nonlinear properties of the system by creating intense electrical fields.

"Our system exploits a particular plasmonic effect called a Fano resonance to boost the efficiency of the relatively weak nonlinear effect that underlies four-wave mixing," Nordlander said. "The result is a boost in the intensity of the third color of light that the device produces."

Graduate student and co-author Yu-Rong Zhen calculated the precise arrangement of 12 discs that would be required to produce two coherent Fano resonances in a single device, and graduate student and lead co-author Yu Zhang created the device that produced the four-wave mixing -- the first such material ever created.

"The device Zhang created for four-wave mixing is the most efficient yet produced for that purpose, but the value of this research goes beyond the design for this particular device," said Halas, who was recently named a member of the National Academy of Sciences for her pioneering research in nanophotonics. "The methods used to create this device can be applied to the production of a wide range of nonlinear media, each with tailored optical properties."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/NXwTwOcHafs/130521121603.htm

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

IRS Scandal: Treasury Consulted On Multiple Occasions, Report Claims

More details emerged Monday suggesting that the Treasury Department was involved in the IRS mulling over a public admission of its activities targeting conservative groups.

The Washington Post reports that according to a Treasury Department official, there was communication between both federal government wings on three occasions to discuss how a disclosure should be handled. Deference to the IRS was chosen by the Treasury in each case, the Post noted.

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, said Friday that senior Treasury officials were first made aware in June 2012 of complaints from Tea Party groups. The results of George's investigation were known by the Treasury in March 2013, upon standard receipt of a draft of his report, the AP reported.

The Washington Post report itemizing the IRS-Treasury discussions surfaces on the same day that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged senior staffers failed to inform President Barack Obama about a forthcoming audit revealing the targeted activities. That decision was made partly because of it being inappropriate for the administration to intervene.

"The suggestion of alerting him is that he would do something," Carney said. "And if he were to do something, imagine what that story would look like ... It is absolutely the cardinal rule, as we see it, that we do not intervene in ongoing investigations."

Coupled with Carney's comments was a Monday batch of 41 questions from the Senate Finance Committee, demanding answers on issues that included whether anyone in the White house knew of the IRS scrutinizing Tea Party groups. A hearing will be held later Tuesday by the same committee on the scandal.

Related on HuffPost:

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/irs-scandal-treasury_n_3310139.html

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More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told

FILE - In this May 15, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. It might have seemed a no-win situation to the White House: either keep President Barack Obama in the dark about a looming investigation into political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service or blur legal lines by telling him about an independent audit. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - In this May 10, 2006 file photo, then-federal prosecutor, now White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler is seen in Houston. It might have seemed a no-win situation to the White House: either keep President Barack Obama in the dark about a looming investigation into political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service or blur legal lines by telling him about an independent audit. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gestures as he speaks during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, May, 20, 2013. Carney spoke on various subjects including the recent scandals involving the IRS and Justice Department. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

FILE - In this May 9, 2013 file photo, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. It might have seemed a no-win situation to the White House: either keep President Barack Obama in the dark about a looming investigation into political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service or blur legal lines by telling him about an independent audit. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2010 file photo White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. It might have seemed a no-win situation to the White House: either keep President Barack Obama in the dark about a looming investigation into political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service or blur legal lines by telling him about an independent audit. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama's spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier.

But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports more than two weeks later, officials said.

The Treasury Department also told the White House twice in the weeks leading up to the IRS disclosure that the tax agency planned to make the targeting public, a Treasury official said.

The apparent decision to keep the president in the dark about the matter underscores the White House's cautious legal approach to controversies and reflects a desire by top advisers to distance Obama from troubles threatening his administration.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney defended keeping the president out of the loop on the Internal Revenue Service audit, saying Obama was comfortable with the fact that "some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them."

"It is absolutely a cardinal rule as we see it that we do not intervene in ongoing investigations," Carney said.

Republicans, however, are accusing the president of being unaware of important happenings in the government he oversees.

"It seems to be the answer of the administration whenever they're caught doing something they shouldn't be doing is, 'I didn't know about it'," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CBS News. "And it causes me to wonder whether they believe willful ignorance is a defense when it's your job to know."

Obama advisers argue that the outcry from Republicans would be far worse had McDonough or White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler told the president about the IRS audit before it became public, thereby raising questions about White House interference.

Still, the White House's own shifting information about who knew what and when is keeping the focus of the IRS controversy on the West Wing.

When Carney first addressed the matter last week, he said only that Ruemmler had been told around April 22 that an inspector general audit was being concluded at a Cincinnati IRS office that screens applications for organizations' tax-exempt status. He said the audit was described to the counsel's office "very broadly."

But on Monday, Carney said lower-ranking staffers in the White House counsel's office first learned of the report one week earlier, on April 16. When Ruemmler was later alerted, she was told specifically that the audit was likely to conclude that IRS employees improperly scrutinized organizations by looking for words like "tea party" and "patriot." Ruemmler then told McDonough, deputy chief of staff Mark Childress, and other senior advisers, but not Obama.

The Treasury official said Monday that the department twice passed on information to the White House about the IRS' plans to disclose the political targeting. Childress and Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson were in communication on the matter, as were lawyers at both the White House and Treasury.

In the first instance, Treasury officials told the White House that Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, was considering making a public apology in a speech.

Around the same time, Treasury relayed to the White House that Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller expected to be asked about the matter in congressional testimony on April 25, but the issue was not raised.

However, the Treasury official said the department did not tell the White House about the IRS' final decision for Lerner to apologize for the targeting during a conference on May 10. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity.

The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department. Because of that independent status, the official said Treasury deferred to the IRS in its decision about how to make the targeting public.

Despite the notifications from the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, the White House insists it did not know the conclusions of the inspector general report until it was made public.

Members of Congress sent the IRS at least eight letters since 2011 asking about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS. Many of those lawmakers are livid that the IRS chose to reveal that conservative groups were being targeted at a legal conference instead of telling Congress.

A new Pew Research Center poll shows 42 percent of Americans think the Obama administration was "involved" in the IRS targeting of conservative groups, while 31 percent say it was a decision made solely by employees at the IRS.

The IRS matter is one of three controversies that have consumed the White House over the past week. In each instance, officials have tried to put distance between the president and questionable actions by people within his administration.

As with the IRS investigation, the White House says Obama learned only from news reporters that the Justice Department had subpoenaed phone records from journalists at The Associated Press as part of a leaks investigation. And faced with new questions about the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Obama's advisers have pinned responsibility on the CIA for crafting talking points that downplayed the potential of terrorism, despite the fact that the White House was a part of the process.

Former White House officials say a president has little choice but to distance himself from investigations and then endure accusations of being out of touch, or worse.

"It's a tough balance," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who was White House political director for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007.

"With a scandal, there's no way to win," said Fagen, whom the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed and sharply questioned in a probe of dismissed U.S. attorneys. "There may never have been any wrongdoing by anyone in the White House, on any of these issues," she said, "but once the allegations are made, you can't win."

A White House peeking into an ongoing investigations can trigger a political uproar. A well-known case involved President Richard Nixon trying to hinder the FBI's probe of the Watergate break-in.

In a less far-reaching case in 2004, the Bush White House acknowledged that its counsel's office learned of a Justice Department investigation into whether Sandy Berger - the national security adviser under President Bill Clinton - had removed classified documents from the National Archives. Democrats said the White House hoped to use the information to help Bush's re-election campaign.

In the current IRS matter, two congressional committees are stepping up their investigations this week with hearings during which IRS and Treasury officials will be questioned closely about what they knew and when.

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to question the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups. The Senate Finance Committee wants to know why Shulman didn't tell Congress - even after he was briefed in 2012 - that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Also testifying will be Miller, who took over as acting commissioner in November, when Shulman's five-year term expired. Last week, Obama forced Miller to resign.

On Wednesday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin will testify before the House oversight committee.

Treasury inspector general J. Russell George says he told Wolin about the subject of the IRS inquiry last summer.

In a related matter, the IRS acknowledged Monday that an official testified to Congress about tax-exempt matters long after her duties supposedly had shifted to the rollout of Obama's health care law.

Republicans point to Sarah Hall Ingram's history at IRS as they question the agency's ability to properly oversee aspects of Obama's health care overhaul. The IRS will play a major role in determining benefits and penalties under the new law.

The IRS had said last week that Ingram shifted to overseeing the health care law rollout in December 2010, well before alarm bells went off at headquarters that a unit of the tax exempt division was targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny.

But records show she testified to Congress in her capacity as head of the tax-exempt office as recently as last year.

Monday the IRS said in a statement that Ingram "was in a unique position to testify" about tax-exempt policies in May 2012. It said Ingram "still formally held" the title of IRS commissioner of tax exempt and government entities, even though "she was assigned full-time to (health care law) activities since December 2010."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says Congress needs to find out what Ingram and other officials knew, and when they knew it.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Jim Kuhnhenn and researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Charles Babington at http://twitter.com/cbabington

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-20-US-IRS-Political-Groups/id-3368ffcb9a65456ebe8dbfc727e3dcde

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Websense to go private for $907 million

(Reuters) - Websense Inc said it had agreed to be taken private by Vista Equity Partners in a deal that values the online security firm at about $907 million, a move that should come as a relief to investors after years of weak sales from its legacy business.

The offer of $24.75 per share represents a roughly 29 percent premium to Websense's Friday close. Websense shares rose to just above the offer price to a near two-year high in morning trading on the Nasdaq.

"After years of speculation, investors will be rubbing their eyes this morning that Websense finally got acquired and will go the route of other security software vendors that got the private equity bid," FBR Capital analyst Daniel Ives said.

The company joins a list of security software vendors, including Blue Coat that was bought by Thoma Bravo in 2011, to get private equity bids.

The company's growth rate has slowed in the past few years as its core web filtering business weakened and it reported a slight revenue decline last year.

Websense stock, which peaked at $34.87 in 2005, has since fallen 22 percent until Friday's close.

"This morning's acquisition speaks to the value of security software ... a surge of M&A activity is poised to hit the sector over the next six to 12 months as larger technology players and private equity look to get a larger piece of the security pie," he said.

Ives added that the acquisition would allow Websense to focus on its promising Triton business that makes web security gateway and e-mail security products.

Websense, which said it expected the deal to close before the end of the third quarter, said its senior management was expected to continue with the company and its headquarters would remain in San Diego.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the financial adviser to Websense and Cooley LLP its legal adviser.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is Vista's legal adviser and J.P. Morgan Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Guggenheim Partners have agreed to provide debt financing for the deal.

Vista Equity is a private equity firm that invests primarily in software companies and has about $6 billion in assets.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon and Don Sebastian)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/websense-private-907-million-124705624.html

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Minister: France in talks with U.S., Israel to buy drones

PARIS (Reuters) - France is in talks with the United States and Israel to buy intelligence-gathering drones to build up a modern fleet, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday.

France's existing hardware is outdated and its military intervention in Mali this year has exposed its shortage of surveillance drones suitable for modern warfare. The United States provided French commanders with intelligence from its drones based in Niger.

"We need this capacity in the short term. There are currently two countries in the world that build drones, the United States and Israel," Le Drian said on TV channel iTele.

"We are in discussions with each to buy some straight away," he said.

Le Monde newspaper reported on Saturday that France had received approval from the U.S. Pentagon to buy two Reaper drones, and that the deal only needed backing from Congress.

The newspaper said France was looking at eventually buying a total of five or seven Reapers, built by privately held General Atomics, for 300 million euros ($384.72 million).

The aim was to deploy the two U.S.-made drones in Mali before the end of the year, Le Monde said.

Buying hardware abroad is a sensitive subject in France, a country that strives to rely on allies as little as possible to meet its defense needs.

Le Drian said France had fallen behind other countries and that in the long-term it, and the rest of Europe, had to build up their capacities to make such unmanned aircraft. ($1 = 0.7798 euros)

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-talks-u-israel-buy-drones-minister-104809993.html

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Cannes helps actors Bejo and Rahim cross borders

CANNES, France (AP) ? The magic and glamour of Cannes can be hard to spot on a day when rain is lashing the palm trees, roiling the gray Mediterranean and pooling in puddles along the Croisette.

But the world's leading film festival can transform careers ? something no one knows that better than actors Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, stars of director Asghar Farhadi's festival entry "The Past."

Bejo shimmered on-screen in Cannes two years ago in "The Artist," her director husband Michel Hazanavicius' vivacious silent homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture.

Rahim was the breakout star of the 2009 festival in Jacques Audiard's poetic and brutal prison drama "A Prophet," as a youth growing to manhood behind bars.

Cannes exposure helped boost both performers onto the international stage. While once most European actors could choose between stay at home and playing Hollywood villains, their paths suggest a more globalized movie world.

"It was quite a miracle for me," Bejo said Saturday, as rain drummed remorselessly on a Cannes rooftop lounge. "Two years ago my life changed a little bit in Cannes.

"I don't think Asghar Farhadi would have cast me in this movie if I hadn't done 'The Artist.'"

It's hard to think of two movie styles further apart than the flamboyant artifice of "The Artist" and the anatomically detailed domestic drama of "The Past"

Bejo plays Marie, a harried Frenchwoman with two children, a new boyfriend with a young son, and an Iranian ex who has returned after four years to finalize their divorce. Rahim is her boyfriend Samir, a man with complex family ties of his own.

All the characters are trying to move on ? but the past keeps dragging them back.

Bejo said she did a screen test for Farhadi, then didn't hear from him for a month, so initially thought she hadn't got the part.

"He said to me, I was looking into your face if I could see the doubt," she said. "I guess because he saw me in movies where I was quite positive, quite sunny, quite glamorous. He needed to see if I could show another part of myself ? and I guess he found it."

For Bejo, as for Rahim, working with the Iran director was a dream come true. "The Past" is the first film Farhadi has shot outside his homeland, and the actors say they loved his working methods ? two months of rehearsal to delve into character, break down barriers and forge bonds, followed by a four-month shoot.

With its Iranian director and largely French cast, it's one of several border-hopping movies at Cannes this year. French director Arnaud Desplechin's made-in-America "Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" stars France's Mathieu Amalric and Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. Another French filmmaker, Guillaume Canet, has a multinational cast including Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard in his New York crime drama "Blood Ties."

It's a trend Bejo is happy to embrace.

"In America you have Christoph Waltz, you have Marion Cotillard," she said. "In France we have Italian and Spanish actors. ... I think it's great. We are used to strangers and foreign accents, and it's great that we can see that in our movies now."

Both she and Rahim have been busy since their Cannes breakthroughs. Bejo recently made French heist movie "The Last Diamond" and soon starts filming Hazanavicius' next project, a war movie set in Chechnya.

Rahim's projects include the English-language Roman-era adventure "The Eagle" and another movie appearing at Cannes this year, the nuclear power plant romance "Grand Central."

Coming up, he plays a cop in the French movie "The Informant," and is currently shooting a globe-spanning 1920s-set drama with Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, another pillar of culture-crossing cinema.

Despite the busy international career ? and post-"Prophet" expressions of interest from the United States ? Rahim says Hollywood remains a hard nut to crack for non-Anglophone actors.

"It's not what you expect at first," Rahim said. "You'd like to be with Michael Mann or (directors) like this, but you don't have those parts that easily. Because first you have to speak English, you have to erase your accent."

For now, he's just happy to be back in Cannes, an experience that is easier the second time around.

"The difference is that now I'm not afraid when I come here," he said. "I'm (saying) 'OK I'm going to take every good vibe and keep it.'"

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-helps-actors-bejo-rahim-cross-borders-165726670.html

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Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/a-special-report-on-drug-rehabs-in-nevada-2/

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The good news ? and the bad news ? for Obama in scandal-tinged polls

Given the battering President Obama took this past week on a trio of political scandals, any public opinion survey results that aren?t dreadful probably are viewed with some relief at the White House.

That may be the clearest message from a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday morning.

According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45 percent saying they disapprove, CNN reports. That?s actually a tick better than the 51 percent approval rating Obama had in early April ? but not enough to break out the sparkling cider.

RECOMMENDED: Playing the IRS card: Six presidents who used the IRS to bash political foes

"That two-point difference is well within the poll's sampling error, so it is a mistake to characterize it as a gain for the president," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Nonetheless, an approval rating that has not dropped and remains over 50 percent will probably be taken as good news by Democrats after the events of the last week."

For those of you blissfully unaware, those events are the administration?s handling of the terrorist attack on the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, last November (where US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed); the IRS badgering of tea party and other conservative organizations; and the Justice Department snooping into the telephone records of Associated Press journalists as part of a crackdown on national security leaks.

(We would add to that trio a fourth item reported in recent days: losing track of a couple of terrorists in the federal witness protection program.)

Gallup?s latest numbers track closely with CNN?s ? a slight improvement for Obama to 51-42 approve/disapprove.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

For now, as the headline on an AP story puts it, ?Obama agenda seems to be weathering controversies.?

?Despite Democratic fears, predictions of the demise of President Barack Obama's agenda appear exaggerated after a week of cascading controversies, political triage by the administration and party leaders in Congress and lack of evidence to date of wrongdoing close to the Oval Office,? writes AP special correspondent David Espo.

That could change, of course, given the possibility of new revelations, Republican intransigence, or both. GOP leaders certainly spun it in that direction on the TV news shows Sunday.

On NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the IRS scandal ? singling out tea party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax status ? was part of a broader "culture of intimidation" within the Obama administration.

To what extent are Americans paying attention to all of this?

?Slim majorities of Americans are very or somewhat closely following the situations involving the Internal Revenue Service (54 percent) and the congressional hearings on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath (53 percent) ? well below the average for news stories Gallup has tracked over the years,? writes Frank Newport, Gallup?s editor-in-chief.

CNN?s numbers here seem more troubling for the White House.

More than 70 percent of those surveyed say IRS targeting of conservative groups was unacceptable; a majority (52 percent) say the Justice Department's actions regarding the AP phone records were unacceptable; 59 percent say the US government could have prevented the attack in Benghazi; and a large minority (44 percent) say statements made by the Obama administration soon after the attack ?were an attempt to intentionally mislead the public.?

At this point, according to CNN, most Americans do not think Republicans have overplayed their hand on either the Benghazi or IRS controversies. Gallup finds that 74 percent on the IRS and 69 percent on Benghazi find these situations ?serious enough to warrant continuing investigation.?

"More Republicans than Democrats or Independents say these three issues are very important to the nation, but even among Democrats, nearly half say the matters are very serious," says CNN polling director Keating Holland.

RECOMMENDED: Playing the IRS card: Six presidents who used the IRS to bash political foes

How to Make Your Own Anti-Venom without Poisoning a Horse

The Iocane Powder trick really does work! As this slick educational short from the SciShow explains, you've got two choices when it comes to treating deadly, deadly snake bites: you can either hopefully make it to a hospital in time to counter the toxins with dozens of expensive vials of delicate anti-venom, or you can slowly inoculate yourself against their effects?effectively turning yourself into a poison-immune mobile anti-venom factory. Where do I sign up? [SciShow]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-make-your-own-anti-venom-without-poisoning-a-hor-508287684

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Hey, you're a robot in Mexico looking for a good time, so there's gonna be danci...

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

Source: http://www.facebook.com/adultswim/posts/10151610727296745

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Britney Spears Back In Shape. Or Isn't She? | Stuff.co.nz

0?of?0 ? Previous? PreviousNext ?Next ?

She's smoking hot in a white bikini on the June cover of Shape magazine, but just last month Britney Spears was snapped with a thigh full of cellulite.

World media are speculating that the latest cover photo has highlighted the power of the airbrushing pen.

But Spears, who in recent years has brought her life and career back from the brink of ruin, said in an interview with Shape she works hard every day to keep her butt in shape.

Spears, now 31, said her butt was her main problem area.

"I like it, then again, I hate it," she said.

"I'm in my 30s now, so I have to work harder to keep it 'up'."

The star's cover shot highlights her flat stomach with a belly button piercing - showing very little difference from her famed body of 10 years ago.

The mother-of-two credits yoga and Nutrisystem weight loss programs for helping her maintain her figure.

But she said she found it hard to stick to a diet, because the best dishes she cooked tended not to be the most healthy.

"Dieting is tough . . . because my specialties are spaghetti, brownies and chocolate chip cookies," she said.

But the Daily Mail has brought attention to a photo of Spears leaving the Gym, reporting: "there was no mistaking Britney's orange peel thighs in the harsh sunshine".

Meanwhile, Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am, who is on a flying visiting to New Zealand, will serve as executive producer on Britney's forthcoming album.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Will.i.am said he needed months to sit down and talk with her about her issues before they even stepped into a studio.

"We need to talk about what she's excited about in life," he said.

"I gotta talk about the things that hurt her. I gotta talk about the things that make her concerned - she's a mother.

"I gotta talk to her about all the things that her fans want to talk to her about. I gotta be the vehicle between her and her fans. We can't do another song about going on the dance floor.

"Really? Didn't we see a bunch of Britney doing that already? Don't we want to see something that comes from her heart?"

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/8651507/Britneys-back-in-shape-Or-isn-t-she

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Tesla profits beat estimates; demand predicted to grow

The electric car manufacturer's increased first quarter profits were fueled in part by zero-emission vehicle credit sales to other car makers. They were also boosted by more efficient manufacturing. With the right financing, the company predicts its Model S electric car could now be accessible to 10 million American households.?

By Deepa Seetharaman,?Reuters / May 8, 2013

Tesla Chief Executive Office Elon Musk speaks at his company's factory in Fremont, California, in this file photo. Tesla's first quarter earnings beat Wall Street's predictions. Further growth is predicted.

REUTERS/Noah Berger/Files

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Tesla?Motors Inc reported its first-ever profit that trounced Wall Street estimates on Wednesday and forecast global demand for its Model S electric car could surpass 30,000 vehicles a year.

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Tesla reported adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share, triple the 4 cents per share expected by analysts, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The first-quarter results sent shares up 17 percent in after-hours trading.

Tesla now expects to deliver 21,000?Model S?cars worldwide, up 5 percent from its earlier target of 20,000. But Tesla?said it was already receiving orders for the?Model S?at a rate of more than 20,000 per year.

""There's potential for next year a fairly significant increase in volume as we really test the depth of the demand that's out there," Chief Executive Elon Musk said. "It's probably quite a bit higher than we had originally thought."

More than one million people visit Tesla's stores every quarter, executives said.

The?Model S, Tesla's second model after the more expensive Roadster, is Tesla's effort to reach a broader group of buyers. A?Model S?equipped with a 60 kilowatt battery starts at around $70,000 before a $7,500 tax credit.

Tesla has offered a financing deal that the company hopes will make electric cars more affordable, which Musk said has already spurred a "meaningful improvement in demand" for the?Model S.

"If our car was chiefly available for purchase and not by financing, I think that's maybe accessible to roughly 1 million US households," Musk told analysts during a conference call.

"As financed product with the right financing, fully optimized financing, I think it's probably accessible to the top 10 million households," Musk added.

Getting the hang of things?

During the first quarter, Tesla?reported higher-than-expected revenue of $562 million. About 12 percent of its revenue, or $68 million, came from selling its zero-emission vehicle credits to other automakers.

Revenue from credits was about two times what Morgan Stanley analyst?Adam Jonas?predicted. Jonas said Tesla?may be on track to get $150 million in revenue or more from this market.

Tesla said revenue from credit sales would tumble over the course of the year. Even so, the car maker reiterated that it expects to make gross margins of 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Over the last few months, Tesla?has become more efficient at building the?Model S. During the first quarter, Tesla?built 400 or more cars a week.

The number of hours required to build a car fell by nearly 40 percent from December to March. Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja said there was more room for improvement.

Better inventory management contributed more than $30 million to Tesla's cash and reduced its logistics costs during the quarter. Premium freight costs have also fallen.

"Increasing production by over 3000% from Roadster to Model S was extremely difficult and many mistakes were made, but now we are starting to get the hang of things," Tesla?said in a statement.

Tesla said it expected operating expenses to increase moderately in the second quarter. Research and development expenses are also expected to increase as the pace of product development picks up speed.

Tesla will spend about $200 million on capital expenditures in 2013. The company expects cash flow to be breakeven in the second quarter.

Tesla shares rose to $65.50 in after-hours trading, compared with a close of $55.79. Wall Street has been split on the automaker's prospects, with many investors betting that shares will tumble even as the stock has risen more than two-thirds this year.

(Editing by Dale Hudson, Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/FnI_6jBAE_s/Tesla-profits-beat-estimates-demand-predicted-to-grow

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NBA Live 14 Headed to Next-Gen, Along with the Madden and FIFA Series

As mentioned earlier by Kotaku's Owen Good, NBA Live 14 looks to be a next-gen title. Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels let the cat out of the bag during the EA quarterly earnings call today.

Gibeau told investors the company plans "a full reveal at E3 including more next generation titles in development," for the coming year. "This will include breakthroughs in graphics and gameplay for some of our biggest franchises including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, and Need for Speed."

Source - NBA Live Will Be a Next-Generation Title (Kotaku)

Source: http://slumz.boxden.com/f13/nba-live-14-headed-next-gen-along-madden-fifa-series-1922489/

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Street View comes to Android in Google Earth

Google Earth, the 3D mapping application from the search giant has been updated to version 7.1 for Android with the excellent Street View feature. Until now, Street View was only available as a standalone app.

Street View integration with Google Earth makes it a much more complete experience. For the first time, we can explore the planet from a distance, and dive right down to the detailed street view photography.

The update also improved signposting, making Google Earth a good alternative to GPS apps like TomTom, thanks to the 3D navigation on foot, by car or public transportation. The panel on the left of the app means you can easily add or remove layers to Google Earth, such as location, routes, photos and Wikipedia entries.

The iOS app has not been updated with these features yet, but we expect that to happen soon.

Download Google Earth for Android.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Insidetonic/~3/p2HVZeBnnXo/street-view-comes-to-android-in-google-earth

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Risk of death has decreased substantially for children initially treated with dialysis for end-stage kidney disease

May 4, 2013 ? In a study that included more than 20,000 patients, there was a significant decrease in the United States in mortality rates over time among children and adolescents initiating end-stage kidney disease treatment with dialysis between 1990 and 2010, according to a study in the May 8 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.

"Individuals with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) face a significantly shortened life expectancy. In no group of ESKD patients is the loss of potential years of life larger than in children and adolescents. Although transplant remains the treatment of choice to maximize survival, growth, and development, 75 percent of children with ESKD require treatment with dialysis prior to receiving a kidney transplant. Dialysis is therefore a life-saving therapy for children with ESKD while they await transplant. Nevertheless, all-cause mortality rates in children receiving maintenance dialysis are at least 30 times higher than the general pediatric population, with even higher relative risks in very young children," the authors write. "There have been substantial improvements in the care of children with ESKD between 1990 and 2010. However, to our knowledge, it is not known if mortality has changed over time in the United States, particularly in recent years."

Mark M. Mitsnefes, M.D., M.Sc., of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and colleagues conducted a study to determine if all-cause, cardiovascular, and infection-related mortality rates have changed between 1990 and 2010 among patients younger than 21 years of age with ESKD initially treated with dialysis and if changes in mortality rates over time differed by age at treatment initiation. The researchers used data from the United States Renal Data System. Children with a prior kidney transplant were excluded.

The researchers identified 23,401 children and adolescents who met study criteria. Crude mortality rates during dialysis treatment were higher among children younger than 5 years at the start of dialysis compared with those who were 5 years and older. The authors found that the all-cause mortality risk decreased progressively over calendar time for both those younger than 5 years and those 5 years and older at initiation. There was also a decrease over calendar time for cardiovascular and infection-related mortality risk among children younger than 5 years at initiation and among those 5 years and older.

"Numerous factors may have contributed to the observed reductions in mortality risk over time. Improved pre-dialysis care, advances in dialysis technology, and greater experience of clinicians may each have played a role," the authors write.

"Almost all children initiating ESKD treatment are considered eligible for transplant. However, most will require dialysis during their lifetime, either before transplant or after allograft loss. In the United States, there was a significant decrease in mortality rates over time among children and adolescents initiating ESKD treatment with dialysis between 1990 and 2010. Further research is needed to determine the specific factors responsible for this decrease."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Medical Association (AMA).

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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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/KWu_P-E1M8w/130504163122.htm

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Fire shuts down Labor Dept. building

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An overnight fire at the Labor Department's headquarters shut the building down for most employees early Friday, but the agency's monthly employment report was released as scheduled.

Department employees and members of the news media involved in the release of the report were allowed in the building as usual.

But all other Labor employees who were scheduled to work in the Frances Perkins building received administrative leave.

District of Columbia fire department spokesman Lon Walls said the fire was reported around 4:35 a.m., but the sprinkler system extinguished it before firefighters arrived. He said the cause is under investigation.

Fillichio did not immediately have information on how extensive the damage was. The building on Constitution Avenue opened in 1975.

The April jobs report showed unemployment hitting a four-year low, with employers adding 165,000 jobs in April and upwardly revised figures for the previous two months.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fire-shuts-down-labor-dept-building-115248633.html

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Recovery optimism grows, helped by services sector

By Christina Fincher

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economy may be finally gaining some ground, with stronger-than-expected growth in the dominant services sector capping a week of relatively upbeat economic news.

The services sector - which accounts for around three-quarters of Britain's economy - grew at its fastest pace in April since last summer's Olympics, boosted by the strongest increase in new orders in almost a year.

Along with recent forecast-beating gross domestic product data and manufacturing and construction surveys, Friday's services reading will ease pressure on the government to water down its austerity programme, even after a poor showing in local elections this week.

It also reinforces expectations the Bank will refrain from further stimulus next week, and possibly longer.

A Reuters poll this week showed almost half of economists now believe there will be no further government bond-buying this year.

Sterling rose against the dollar on Friday as the rise in the service sector survey further diminished expectations that the Bank might pump more money into the economy any time soon.

"Today's release marks a hat-trick of upside surprises for April," said Simon Hayes, UK economist at Barclays. "Recent activity indicators have had a more encouraging tone and add to the case for the Monetary Policy Committee holding policy when it meets next week."

The Conservative-led government coalition austerity programme has been under fire for stifling growth and the latest data may relieve political pressures reflected in poor poll showings.

The anti-European Union UK Independence Party made big gains in local elections on Thursday against the conservatives.

The Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.9 in April, its highest reading since August and the fourth consecutive monthly rise. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the index to stay at March's level of 52.4.

The improvement was broad-based, supported by the strongest rise in new orders since last May.

Markit's combined index of services, manufacturing and construction in Britain rose more than a full point to 52.1 in April, also the highest since last August.

The figures will be welcomed by the government which, until last week's GDP data, feared the country might be slipping into its third recession in five years. In the event, the data showed Britain's economy grew 0.3 percent in the first three months of this year.

Markit economist Chris Williamson said April's purchasing managers' surveys suggested the return to growth seen in the first quarter may have gained momentum at the start of the second.

That prospect should help the government avoid criticism from the International Monetary Fund draws up its annual health check of Britain's economy later this month.

(Writing by Christina Fincher; editing by William Schomberg, Hugh Lawson, Ron Askew)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-sector-grows-fastest-rate-8-months-april-083120736.html

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