Uncle Sam To Lease 10,000 New Hybrids - HybridCars.com

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The General Services Administration ? the fleet purchasing arm of the U.S. government ? said this week it will acquire 10,000 hybrids to nearly double the number of these alternative powertrain vehicles in an effort to save fuel and cut emissions.

In May 2011, President Obama gave orders to government employees to cease driving full-sized sedans and SUVs unless necessary. The order does have a loophole allowing for E85 vehicles to count as ?alternative fueled? even if they are never filled with E85, but overall it appears the rule is taking positive effect.

Presently the GSA?s leased fleet consists of 5.3 percent hybrids, or 10,672 according to the Detroit News which relayed the info from GSA spokesperson Jackeline Yvette Stewart-Johnson.

The GSA estimates the 10,000 new hybrids will save 1 million gallons of gasoline annually for as long as they are in operation.

?Providing a hybrid federal fleet is an essential part of the GSA?s commitment to making government agencies as efficient and effective as possible,? said GSA acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini. ?At a time when government needs to make every tax dollar count, GSA is committed to creating more energy efficiency and cost-saving opportunities like the fleet consolidation program that make government smarter and reduce our environmental footprint.?

Far above the average in going green is, not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of the Interior which administrates national parks. Its fleet is already close to one-third hybrid and it will be in for 300 more alternative fueled vehicles. The park service also operates electric vehicles in limited cases, including small neighborhood electric vehicles for running around facilities and grounds.

?This is a simply a good business decision that will benefit not only our bottom line, but reduce our carbon emissions as well,? said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

Detroit News?>Detroit News

Source: http://www.hybridcars.com/uncle-sam-to-lease-10000-new-hybrids/

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Gwyneth Paltrow Talks Most Beautiful Woman Honor, Excessive Pubic Hair

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Cost-effectiveness of helicopter transport of trauma victims examined

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time determined how often emergency medical helicopters need to help save the lives of seriously injured people to be considered cost-effective compared with ground ambulances.

The researchers found that if an additional 1.6 percent of seriously injured patients survive after being transported by helicopter from the scene of injury to a level-1 or level-2 trauma center, then such transport should be considered cost-effective. In other words, if 90 percent of seriously injured trauma victims survive with the help of ground transport, 91.6 need to survive with the help of helicopter transport for it to be considered cost-effective.

The study, published online this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, does not address whether most helicopter transport actually meets the additional 1.6 percent survivorship threshold.

"What we aimed to do is reduce the uncertainty about the factors that drive the cost-effective use of this important critical care resource," said the study's lead author, M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, an instructor in the Division of Emergency Medicine. "The goal is to continue to save the lives of those who need air transport, but spare flight personnel the additional risks of flying -- and patients with minor injuries the additional cost -- when helicopter transport is not likely to be cost-effective." (Helicopter medical services generally bill patients' insurance providers directly, but patients may have to pay some of the bill out of pocket, or, if they're uninsured, possibly all of it.)

The study comes at a time when finding ways to cut medical costs has become a national priority, and the overuse of helicopter transport has come under scrutiny. Previous studies have shown that, on average, over half of patients transported by helicopter have only minor, non-life threatening injuries. For these patients, transport by helicopter instead of ground ambulance is not likely to make a difference in outcomes, and the additional risk and cost of helicopter transport outweighs the benefit, Delgado said.

In 2010, there were an estimated 44,700 U.S. helicopter transports from injury scenes to level-1 and level-2 trauma centers, with an average cost of about $6,500 per transport. The total annual cost is around $290 million. (Level-1 and -2 trauma centers are hospitals equipped and staffed to provide the highest levels of surgical care to trauma patients; level-1 centers offer a broader array of readily available specialty care, and also are committed to research and teaching efforts.)

Yet emergency helicopter transport sits in a cost-efficiency conundrum: It is most needed in remote, rural areas where transport by ground can take far longer than by air. These areas also tend to have sparser populations and therefore fewer calls for aid, making it difficult to recoup the overhead costs of maintaining helicopter services, Delgado said.

In some areas of the country, however, helicopters are automatically launched based on the 911 call. "Once ground responders and the helicopter arrive, sometimes they may find patients who are awake, talking and have stable vital signs," Delgado said. "The challenge is getting helicopters to patients who need them in a rapid fashion so the flight team can intervene and make a difference, but also know based on certain criteria who isn't sick enough to require air transport."

Most health economists consider medical interventions that yield a year of healthy life -- a measure known as a quality-adjusted life-year -- at a cost of between $50,000 and $100,000 to be cost-effective in high-income countries, such as the United States, Delgado said. If society is willing to pay as much as $100,000 toward helicopter transport for each QALY gained by the seriously injured patients, then helicopter transport needs to reduce the mortality rate of these patients by a modest 1.6 percent compared with ground transport to meet this threshold, the study says. Or it needs to improve long-term disability outcomes, the study says.

"If future studies find helicopter transport leads to improved long-term quality of life and disability outcomes, then helicopter transport would be considered cost-effective, even if no additional lives were saved," Delgado said. "Only a handful of studies have examined outcomes other than death, without definitive results."

For severely injured patients, helicopter evacuation to a trauma center is preferable if it is faster than ground transport. However, helicopter transport is more expensive and poses rare, but often fatal, safety risks -- specifically, the risk of crashing. Plus, it is often difficult for emergency responders to discern which patients would actually benefit from being flown in a helicopter rather than driven in an ambulance to a high-level trauma center. Until this study, the survival benefit needed to offset these potential drawbacks hasn't been clear.

"More accurately determining which patients have serious injuries and need to be flown is the most promising way to ensure you are getting a good value by using helicopter transport," Delgado said. "To do this, we should promote diligent use of the Centers for Disease Control's field triage guidelines among EMS responders. This would help ensure that injured victims who are transported by helicopter to a trauma center actually require trauma care. Secondly, we need to figure out whether the practice of autolaunching helicopters based on a 911 call makes sense. If the benefit of the faster response time outweighs the expenditure of resources on those patients who may not actually need helicopter transport, then autolaunching makes sense. If not, the practice should be reconsidered."

There is mixed evidence in the literature about the degree to which helicopter transport reduces mortality. It is therefore uncertain whether the routine use of helicopter transport is cost-effective for most patients in the United States when ground transport is also feasible. The study found that the cost-effectiveness also depends on regional variation in the costs of air and ground transport and the percentage of patients who are flown that have minor injuries.

"Of course, this study only applies to situations in which both ground and helicopter transport to a trauma center are feasible," Delgado added. "In situations where the only alternative is being taken by ground to a local nontrauma-center hospital or being flown to a trauma center, then clearly we want any patient with a suspicion of a serious injury flown to that trauma center."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. M. Kit Delgado, Kristan L. Staudenmayer, N. Ewen Wang, David A. Spain, Sharada Weir, Douglas K. Owens, Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert. Cost-Effectiveness of Helicopter Versus Ground Emergency Medical Services for Trauma Scene Transport in the United States. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2013.02.025

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/RUBDo2zsyzY/130425164502.htm

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Biofilm helps Salmonella survive hostile conditions

Apr. 10, 2013 ? Virginia Tech scientists have provided new evidence that biofilms -- bacteria that adhere to surfaces and build protective coatings -- are at work in the survival of the human pathogen Salmonella.

One out of every six Americans becomes ill from eating contaminated food each year, with over a million illnesses caused by Salmonella bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finding out what makes Salmonella resistant to antibacterial measures could help curb outbreaks.

Researchers affiliated with the Fralin Life Science Institute discovered that in addition to protecting Salmonella from heat-processing and sanitizers such as bleach, biofilms preserve the bacteria in extremely dry conditions, and again when the bacteria are subjected to normal digestive processes. The study is now online in the International Journal of Food Microbiology and will appear in the April issue.

"Biofilms are an increasing problem in food processing plants serving as a potential source of contamination," said Monica Ponder, an assistant professor of Food Science and Technology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "We have discovered that Salmonella in biofilms survive on dried foods much better than previously thought, and because of this are more likely to cause disease," said Ponder.

Outbreaks of Salmonella associated with dried foods such as nuts, cereals, spices, powdered milk and pet foods have been associated with over 900 illnesses in the last five years. These foods were previously thought to be safe because the dry nature of the product stops microbial growth.

"Most people expect to find Salmonella on raw meats but don't consider that it can survive on fruits, vegetables or dry products, which are not always cooked," said Ponder.

In moist conditions, Salmonella thrive and reproduce abundantly. If thrust into a dry environment, they cease to reproduce, but turn on genes which produce a biofilm, protecting them from the detrimental environment.

Researchers tested the resilience of the Salmonella biofilm by drying it and storing it in dry milk powder for up to 30 days. At various points it was tested in a simulated gastrointestinal system. Salmonella survived this long- term storage in large numbers but the biofilm Salmonella were more resilient than the free-floating cells treated to the same conditions.

The bacteria's stress response to the dry conditions also made it more likely to cause disease. Biofilms allowed the Salmonella to survive the harsh, acidic environment of the stomach, increasing its chances of reaching the intestines, where infection results in the symptoms associated with food poisoning.

This research may help shape Food and Drug Administration's regulations by highlighting the need for better sanitation and new strategies to reduce biofilm formation on equipment, thus hopefully decreasing the likelihood of another outbreak.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Bryan Aviles, Courtney Klotz, Joseph Eifert, Robert Williams, Monica Ponder. Biofilms promote survival and virulence of Salmonella enterica sv. Tennessee during prolonged dry storage and after passage through an in vitro digestion system. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2013; 162 (3): 252 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2013.01.026

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/X6ZZHvPpI2M/130410154918.htm

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EU countries to allow reuse of public data, including from libraries and museums

Believe it or not, the European Union's public data hasn't been very public: despite a 2003 directive, there wasn't a clear right to reuse weather or other vital data, whether it's for an app or a service. Logic is taking hold now that 27 countries on an EU Council committee have endorsed a European Commission revision opening the floodgates. The new rules would require that EU countries explicitly permit citizens and companies to reuse public information, either for free or no more than the basic cost of sending it out. The revamp would also push availability in open formats, along with expanding the directive's coverage to archives, libraries and museums -- you know, repositories of nothing but public knowledge. Both the European Parliament and individual governments will have to sign the changes into law sometime in the (likely not-so-near) future, but the shift could lead to a sudden wealth of data for Euro-centric hardware and software.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: GigaOM

Source: European Commission (1), (2)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1YiN2S4lJuc/

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China's Xi offers to reduce friction over hotspots

BOAO, China (AP) ? With pressure growing on Beijing to get North Korea to step back from its war-like footing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that no one country should be allowed to upset world peace and added China would work to reduce tensions over regional hotspots.

In a speech to a regional business forum with political leaders from Australia to Zambia present, Xi did not offer any concrete plans for how to deal with China's neighbor, North Korea, which has elevated regional tensions through war-like rhetoric and missile deployments in recent weeks. Nor did Xi offer concessions to other neighbors locked in fraught disputes with Beijing over outlying islands: Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

It isn't clear whether Xi was taking a swipe at North Korea or at the United States, a frequent target of Chinese criticism, when he criticized unilateral acts that threaten stability.

"The international community should advocate the vision of comprehensive security and cooperative security, so as to turn the global village into a big stage for common development rather than an arena where gladiators fight each other. And no one should be allowed to throw the region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," Xi said Sunday at the Boao Forum for Asia, a China-sponsored talk shop for the global elite.

Ambiguity aside, Xi's speech stands in contrast to more strident remarks he has made in recent months and marks an effort to strike an active, cooperative posture to calm regional tensions. This year's Boao meeting ? an annual event billed as Asia's version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ? is being watched for signs of whether Xi, installed in power five months ago, is ready to stake out new directions in a foreign policy that has been bullying toward some neighbors and passive on many international security issues.

The new Xi government is being especially challenged over North Korea. Pyongyang's ratcheting up of tensions in recent months ? from tests of a long-range missile and a nuclear device to threats of nuclear strikes ? have concerned South Korea and the United States, important economic partners for China which have looked to Beijing to rein in its longtime, if estranged communist ally.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia, whose economy has been booming due to Chinese demand, appealed to Beijing to use its leverage to get Pyongyang to climb down.

"All countries in the region share a deep interest in strategic stability. But the consequences of conflict are even more severe for us all. This is nowhere more clear than on the Korean Peninsula. There, any aggression is a threat to the interest of every country in the region. For this reason, I do welcome the growing cooperation of all regional governments to prevent conflict on the Korean Peninsula and to counter North Korean aggression," Gillard told the forum.

Outside of North Korea, expectations of any change in Chinese policy have been focused on Japan. Months of friction over East China Sea islands led to frosty political ties, tense cat-and-mouse games between their maritime forces and flagging trade between the world's second and third largest economies.

Xi didn't address any dispute by name but he promised a constructive approach to regional tensions.

"China will continue to properly handle differences and frictions with the relevant countries," Xi said in his speech. "On international and regional hotspot issues, China will continue to play a constructive role, adhere to peace and facilitating talks and make unremitting efforts to properly handle relevant issues through dialogue and negotiations."

Still, Xi did not present any compromise. He insisted that China would safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, language that makes it harder for Beijing to back away from territorial claims.

Xi also reminded countries that China represents a good business opportunity for neighbors and the world, saying over the next five years China's imports will reach $10 trillion while its companies plan to invest $500 billion overseas. "The more China develops, the more opportunities for development it brings the world and Asia," Xi said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-xi-offers-reduce-friction-over-hotspots-063402120--finance.html

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Christie's latest 4K projector sports 60 fps output, six-figure price tag (eyes-on)

When a 48 frames-per-second version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released, some viewers questioned whether high frame rates necessarily translate to a better viewing experience. Whether or not you embrace this trend, it's clearly not going away. Case in point: today, Christie Digital Systems introduced two new 4K projectors capable of 60 fps -- a "world's first," according to the manufacturer. Unveiled on the NAB show floor, the 35,000-lumen and 25,000-lumen models display extremely crisp and bright images -- big-budget car commercials and surfing footage basically pop off the screen.

The projectors are available for pre-order now, so it'll likely be quite some time before they begin showing up in your neighborhood cineplex. Their price tags ($125,000 for the 25,000-lumen model and $161,000 for the 35,000-lumen D4K3560), not to mention their bulky 250+ pound bodies, make them destined for state-of-the-art cinemas rather than home theaters. If you do manage to squeeze one of these giants into your den, we'd be more than willing to drop in to catch a flick or two. Take a look at the 25,000-lumen D4K2560 in action in our eyes-on video after the break -- it looks incredibly sharp and vibrant, despite the reduced brightness output.

Gallery: Christie 60Hz 4K projector eyes-on

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Calif. hiker: 4 days missing felt like a dream

This image provided by the Orange County Sheriff?s Department shows hiker, Kyndall Jack who has been missing along with companion, Nicholas Cendoya, since the weekend. Southern California authorities are resuming the search for Jack, 18, and Cendoya, 19, who vanished during a weekend hike in Cleveland National Forest.(AP Photo/Orange County Sheriff?s Department)

This image provided by the Orange County Sheriff?s Department shows hiker, Kyndall Jack who has been missing along with companion, Nicholas Cendoya, since the weekend. Southern California authorities are resuming the search for Jack, 18, and Cendoya, 19, who vanished during a weekend hike in Cleveland National Forest.(AP Photo/Orange County Sheriff?s Department)

This image provided by the Orange County Sheriff?s Department shows hiker, Nicholas Cendoya, who has been missing along with companion, Kyndall Jack, since the weekend. Southern California authorities are resuming the search for Cendoya, 19, and Jack, 18, who vanished during a weekend hike in Cleveland National Forest.(AP Photo/Orange County Sheriff?s Department)

This photo provided by Los Angeles County Search and Rescue Reserve Deputy Doug Cramoline shows the helicopter rescue of Kyndall Jack, 18, by an L.A. County deputy after being missing for five days in rugged country near Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. A rescue team followed the sounds of a screaming female voice to an almost vertical canyon wall where they found Jack clinging to a rocky outcropping after going missing during a last Sunday. (AP Photo/L.A. County Search and Rescue Reserve, Deputy Doug Cramoline)

ORANGE, Calif. (AP) ? One of two hikers who got lost in the Southern California wilderness last week said Monday she remembers little about her four-day ordeal because she began hallucinating on the first night after the pair finished the three bottles of water they had and darkness fell.

Kyndall Jack, 18, and her friend, Nicolas Cendoya, went missing on March 31 in Cleveland National Forest after wandering off a trail during what they thought would be a short day hike. The pair had picked the hike on the popular Holy Jim Trail almost at random after deciding they wanted to climb to a mountaintop to "touch the clouds," Jack said at a brief news conference.

She said the last thing she remembers is fighting off an animal with Cendoya after darkness fell, but she does not recall how the two got separated or what she did between then and her rescue. She hallucinated she was being eaten by a python, she tried to eat rocks and dirt, and thought that tree twigs were straws from which she could suck water.

"I honestly didn't even know I was missing, I didn't know I was gone, I didn't know anything was going on," she said. "I just thought I was in a big dream."

Jack was plucked by helicopter from a tiny rocky outcropping on a near-vertical cliff Thursday, after searchers followed her cries for help across a canyon and up several dried-up waterfalls. She was severely dehydrated, could not move one arm and complained of shortness of breath and pain in her chest and legs, rescuers said at the time.

Her mouth was so full of dirt the first man to reach her was afraid she would choke if he gave her water.

Cendoya, 19, had been rescued the night before after a volunteer searcher heard him call out from chest-high brush not far from where Jack was found. He was released from the hospital Sunday and the two have since seen each other and tried to make sense of their hallucinations with little luck.

Jack, who was expected to be released late Monday, has frostbite in her left hand and swelling, cuts and bruises on her legs that still make walking difficult.

She sat in a wheelchair and appeared weak during a brief news conference outside the University of Irvine, California Medical Center. The ends of her fingernails were ragged and still coated with dirt and she wore a bandage on one arm, moccasins on her swollen feet and a neon yellow hospital bracelet that said "Fall Risk."

The hike started out well but things quickly went wrong when they left the trail, she recalled.

"We just saw a good place and we were like, 'Oh, we're just going to scale the mountain here," she said.

They realized as darkness fell that they were lost and nowhere near the mountaintop and Cendoya called 911 twice on his dying cellphone.

In the second call, he and Jack can be heard having a tense conversation as the operator tries to determine where exactly they are in the 720-square-mile national forest ? a vast wilderness that runs smack up against the suburban comforts of southeastern Orange County.

"Yeah, we wandered off the trail. We wandered off the trail," Cendoya told the operator. "I don't even know if we'll make it to the morning because we have no water."

At one point, Jack can be heard in the background telling Cendoya there is something moving in the wilderness and at another point, she cries out for help as the operator tells the pair deputies are on foot searching for them.

"We don't hear them, but we screamed and my echo went out for miles," Cendoya says during the nine-minute call.

Jack said Monday that she panicked as the darkness closed in around them. She tried to climb a tree and use her lighter to provide a signal for rescuers, but she dropped it. She thinks she remembers fighting off some type of animal with Cendoya before the two began to slip in and out of consciousness ? but that, too, could have been a dream.

"I started to get like an anxiety attack and I started throwing up and I just lost it. I just went in and out of consciousness after the 911 call," she said.

"We just kept telling each other, 'Don't close your eyes. Don't fall asleep,'" she said.

Jack vaguely remembers "scooting" down a steep embankment ? likely the cliff where she was found ? but she isn't sure when she did that and how she managed to cling to the rocks for so long.

The teen warned other hikers to pack more water and supplies and not stray off the trail.

She also said she'd like to thank two of her rescuers in person: The first reserve sheriff's deputy who reached her and the paramedic who airlifted her to safety in a harness.

Another Orange County reserve sheriff's deputy who participated in the rescue slipped and fell 10 feet, hitting his chest on a rock before falling another 50 feet and hitting his head. He suffered cuts to his head, a punctured lung, broken ribs and other injuries. He was released from intensive care over the weekend and upgraded to fair condition.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-08-US-Lost-Hikers/id-37a4f6151e084560b677c07756819cb1

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Suit Up, Ladies! The 15 Best Career Women in Movies

Throughout movie history, men had long been the focus when it came to strong film roles in the career world. But once the 1970s hit, women onscreen began to put down the apron and take on high-powered jobs of their own.

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O2 customers get free pass on Virgin Media's tube WiFi, last 12 stations go online this week

Unless you're a Virgin Media, EE or Vodafone customer, you've either been shelling out for subterranean internet, or bid the London Underground's WiFi network a solemn farewell when free access ended in January. If you're with O2, however, your free pass has now been reinstated, as the bubble-loving carrier has become the latest passenger riding on Virgin Media's tube hotspots -- O2 WiFi users will even find themselves automatically registered. Also, the underground network will shortly be meeting its 120-station target, as Virgin will be flipping switches at the final 12 locations throughout this week (the station list is available at the source link). So, should you start seeing more people in more places frantically hammering their smartphones during those 30-second pauses on the platform, you'll know why.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet, Mobile

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Source: Virgin Media

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/o2-virgin-media-tube-wifi/

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Red unveils the Motion mount with jello-killing global shutter for Epic, Scarlet

Red has just announced the Red Motion lens mounting system for Epic and Scarlet motion camera systems that'll eliminate one of their chief snags: the dreaded CMOS rolling shutter. Though details are scant, it seems it'll do that in a similar manner to the Tessive system (see More Coverage), where a second liquid crystal shutter is placed in front of the main sensor and timed to engage only when the camera's CMOS is fully "open." That'll help eliminate artifacts like skew / judder in pans, repeating motion artifacts (think distorted propellers) and flicker from lights or displays, among others. The mount also brings a built an 8x electronic ND filter adjustable to 1/100th of an f-stop, partially negating the need for a matte-box in bright lighting situations. The Red Motion's drawback is that it'll cost you a stop of speed even when the ND is off, meaning you may have to change to a classic mount in low-light situations. Red's showing it now at its NAB booth-cum-factory and it'll ship out this fall in PL-mount form (with a Canon mount arriving later) for $4,500. Check the source for more discussion.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/9J2ixNe42PM/

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10 reasons Louisville will cut down the NCAA nets

Fans picked their favorite team, moment, and players from the 75-year history of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino and players Russ Smith and Gorgui Dieng celebrate from the bench in the second half of the Midwest regional against the Duke Blue Devils at Lucas Oil Stadium.(Photo: Jamie Rhodes, USA TODAY Sports)

Story Highlights

• The Cardinals haven't lost a game in nearly a month
• Louisville has a future Hall of Fame coach in Rick Pitino
• Still, other favorites have floundered in Final Four

ATLANTA ? Louisville is the team to beat. But what if someone does?

There is a Final Four junkyard crammed with favorites who hit the wall on the last turn. So here we have the Cardinals. They have the experience, the talent, the statistics, the coach, and for inspiration, a teammate on the sideline with the most famous broken leg in the Commonwealth of Kentucky since Barbaro.

Kevin Ware ? one week a largely unknown reserve guard, the next a spot on David Letterman.

KEVIN WARE: How Louisville teammate touched his heart

RICK PITINO: Coach gets Hall of Fame nod

In honor of his appearance, the top 10 reasons why the Cardinals won't be stopped.

10. Last time they lost a game, you were reminding yourself not to forget ordering flowers for Valentine's Day. That was Feb. 9. The other three teams in town have lost 13 times since Feb. 9.

9. Twelve teams were seeded No. 3 or higher in this tournament. Louisville is the only one still standing.

X-FACTOR: Louisville's quiet giant

8. Neither Michigan nor Syracuse nor Wichita State have a player who has ever seen the inside of a Final Four. All five Louisville starters scored in last year's Final Four, combining for 46 points.

7. The Cardinals have not been behind in the second half in this NCAA Tournament.

6. Rick Pitino has been busy talking his players into thinking they're playing the Miami Heat on Saturday. "What they have done to Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Gonzaga and La Salle is truly amazing," he was saying of Wichita State.

MORE: How Louisville turns tragedy into victory

"He's a great motivational speaker," guard Peyton Siva said. "He sells books on it."

5. There have only been 12 lead changes in their four tournament games ? 10 of them the first half against Duke.

4. Michigan might be too young. Syracuse might not have the offense. Wichita State is a dangerous team, but does the following conversation sound like it should come from the locker room of a future national champion?

DEPTH ISSUE: Kevin Ware leaves void

"I had a couple of guys that work on the concourse ask me where Wichita is, which isn't that out of the ordinary for us,'' Shockers reserve guard Ron Baker said Friday. "I answered them and told them it is in the middle of Kansas, kind of in the middle of nowhere. Everybody knows where Kansas is."

3. They're not running away from the role of favorite, as if it was a skunk. "We feel the bulls-eye," Wayne Blackshear mentioned Friday.

"It's a lot of pressure, but pressure brings diamonds," Chane Behanan said. "We're the team they're talking about. Everybody is expecting us to cut down the nets Monday night. We're hoping that, too."

2. Pitino can't get upset the same week he might be elected to the basketball Hall of Fame. That'd be like fate handing him an exploding cigar and lighting it for him.

And the No. 1 reason the Cardinals can't be stopped: They're not playing Kentucky's 2012 team in this Final Four.

Then again, it can't be that much of a lock, can it? That would run contrary to all that this season has been about. It seems rather odd to think of Louisville as a giant, with five defeats. In late February, the Cardinals were ranked ninth in the USA Today Sports poll.

Still, a roll is a roll, and they're on it. Should something bad happen to Louisville, this would be some of the recent company the Cardinals would keep.

It was supposedly their Final Four to lose, too ? and they did.

Duke, 1999.

The Blue Devils were 37-1 and the last obstacle was Connecticut. The only players from that school to go to the Final Four had been women. But not anymore.

UNLV, 1991.

The 34-0 Rebels were the last team to take an unbeaten record into the Final Four. Where Duke was waiting. Ooops.

Georgetown, 1985.

Everyone understood Villanova would have to be nearly perfect to beat the mighty Hoyas. The Wildcats missed one shot the second half.

Houston, 1983.

The Cougars were so powerful, they had their own nickname. Phi Slamma Jamma. Just one last team to thrash; North Carolina State with 10 defeats and a plucky coach named Jim Valvano.

You know the rest.

This would be the season something messy. Or does the Year of Parity have a dominant steamroller at the end?

"I go back a long, long time ago, when you could pencil in Coach Wooden, Coach Smith, pencil in Kansas, Kentucky, whoever that might be," Pitino said. "And now you can't do that.

"It's a lot of fun for all of us."

We'll see how much fun he's having if Wichita State is going to the championship game.

PHOTOS: LOUISVILLE'S EMOTIONAL REACTION TO KEVIN WARE'S INJURY

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeMensBasketball-TopStories/~3/M_WevNE2aCM/

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Hubble sees light and dust in a nearby starburst galaxy

Apr. 5, 2013 ? The Hubble Space Telescope has taken an image of a small, sparkling hook in the dark sky -- a beautiful object is known as J082354.96+280621.6, or J082354.96 for short. It is a starburst galaxy, so named because of the incredibly (and unusually) high rate of star formation occurring within it.

One way in which astronomers probe the nature and structure of galaxies like this is by observing the behavior of their dust and gas components; in particular, the Lyman-alpha emission. This occurs when electrons within a hydrogen atom fall from a higher energy level to a lower one, emitting light as they do so. This emission is interesting because this light leaves its host galaxy only after extensive scattering in the nearby gas -- meaning that this light can be used as a pretty direct probe of what a galaxy is made up of.

The study of this Lyman-alpha emission is common in very distant galaxies, but now a study named LARS (Lyman Alpha Reference Sample) is investigating the same effect in galaxies that are closer by. Astronomers chose fourteen galaxies, including this one, and used spectroscopy and imaging to see what was happening within them. They found that these Lyman-alpha photons can travel much further if a galaxy has less dust -- meaning that we can use this emission to infer how dusty the source galaxy is.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/cJ5Uy9VaDSU/130405143911.htm

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Meg Wolitzer and Sarah McGrath

Meg Wolitzer with her editor Sarah McGrath

Photo courtesy of Riverhead Books

Sarah McGrath has been editing Meg Wolitzer since The Wife, in 2003. The editor and novelist emailed recently about Wolitzer?s new novel The Interestings, out this month from Riverhead.

Sarah McGrath: Meg, having known you as long as I have, and all the conversations we?ve had in that time about books and writing and careers and also life and friendship and aging, I have the sense that many of the ideas behind?The Interestings?are things you?ve done a great deal of thinking about. Do you have the same sense that I do, that this is a book that you?ve been building for a long time?

Meg Wolitzer: That?s certainly true, though I don't think I realized it until I was well into it. What I knew initially was that I wanted to write about what happens to talent over time?and do it by following a group of friends who know each other from adolescence through middle age, having met at a summer camp for talented teenagers.?But once the essential premise got underway, I saw that maybe it wasn?t an accident that I?d chosen a book that required a big sweep of time. And in fact that choice was related to the way I'd been thinking about life more and more.

McGrath: And what exactly was that way?

Wolitzer: Well, I suppose I?d been focusing on changes that people undergo over years and decades. I?d been thinking a lot about who'd dropped away, who?d become well-known, who?d become lonely, who was dead. There were a lot of obsessive thoughts about who was dead. I?m still shocked at the deaths of friends, even years and years later.

McGrath: The fact that you let more of the city and the world in, along with all the people in this book?and there?s a pretty substantial cast of characters?makes me feel that your whole conception of a novel was changing.

Wolitzer: You know, I started publishing novels very young. I sold my first book, Sleepwalking, when I was a senior at Brown. And it came out the year after I graduated. But I have the sense that even though I started young, I began to mature late.

McGrath: I think your early work is pretty sophisticated.

Wolitzer: Well, I was more intuitive than anything else. I wanted the sentences to be fine, and I cared about style. Those things still do matter to me, of course. But the overarching sense of what a novel could be wasn?t something I thought much about. And it kind of stayed this way for a long time. Pretty much until I started my novel The Wife, at which point I woke up a little, and wanted to challenge myself more in my work, and write a novel that was tighter and, I guess, bolder.

McGrath: This was conscious? That you should write in a different way?

Wolitzer: It was more like, the books I liked reading felt both freer and more focused than the ones I was writing. And I didn?t know why that was. I started thinking that what makes novels work is an imperative that propels them forward, and I hadn?t always had that. And as I?ve gotten ?mature??which makes it sound like I?m talking about going through puberty here in delightful middle age?I guess I mean that I now feel compelled to try and make my books more urgent.

McGrath: What do you mean by urgency?

Wolitzer: I?ve had moments, quite a few pages into reading a book, when I?ll think, irritably, Who the hell are Susan and Jeff, and why am I supposed to care about their marriage? Maybe the writer hasn?t found the imperative. Which isn?t to say that good writing can?t be both good and leisurely.

Wolitzer: Exactly. Leisurely and beautiful is maybe my dream. But you need to give the reader a sense of why you are ?telling them this.? Why they need to become absorbed in your story and your language. It?s really difficult to do; I worry about it whenever I look over new pages I?ve written.

McGrath: As your editor, naturally I?m biased. I feel that The Interestings totally has what you call imperative. Some of the writing is beautiful, too. I wouldn?t call it leisurely, though it?s pretty long, for you.

Wolitzer: My new nickname is William T. Vollmann.

McGrath: But your book is really a ?big? novel in all senses of the word. Big in size, broader in its coverage of time, and the changes in people?s lives, and it?s ambitious in scope, and it?s also accompanied by ?big book buzz.?

Wolitzer: Oh God ? ?And all her hopes for the novel were dashed on the rocks below.?

McGrath: Of course, this topic of how fiction is perceived, big or small, is something you wrote about in a now famous essay in?the New York Times Book Review?almost exactly a year ago. Which came first, the ambition and vision for the book, or the insights that went into the essay?

Wolitzer: I have a chicken and egg answer, I think. I've been absorbed for a long time in questions about men and women and fiction; I tried to address them?or impale them?in The Wife 10 years ago. Since that time, these ideas have sometimes found their way sort of obliquely into my fiction, and other times they've simply made for a passionate conversation.

I knew I wanted to write an essay about this, because it was what I thought about all the time. As I kept playing with ideas about the different ways literature by men and women is often treated, I was also deep into The Interestings. But as I mapped out the essay, I may have also (coincidentally or not) allowed myself to try and put a little more unconflicted muscularity and energy in my novel. I mean, you may not be able to control how your book will be treated, but no matter who you are, you have to write what absorbs and preoccupies you. There's no point otherwise. Thinking directly about gender issues, which do absorb and preoccupy me, I guess?and also looking at the atrocious VIDA numbers?did light something up in me, and at least some of that light was applied directly to my fiction.

McGrath: ?Gender issues??I?m glad you brought that up.

Wolitzer: But I bet you?re not surprised I did.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=6b8aa10627831df0132ae5c778b526dd

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Majority Now Support Marijuana Legalization, Poll Finds

For years, supporters of marijuana legalization have pointed to polls trending their way, claiming the issue was about to tip as favorable to a majority of Americans.

Now, their prediction has finally come true.

For the first time, a major U.S. poll shows a majority of nationwide support for legalizing marijuana: 52 percent now back legalized pot, compared with 45 percent who oppose it, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Pew has been asking about marijuana since 1969, when only 12 percent thought it should be legal, and 84 percent said it shouldn't be.

In the last few years, national polls have shown marijuana flirting with overall popularity.

In 2011, 50 percent told Gallup that marijuana should be legal-a record in that firm's polling. (That support sank to 48 percent last year.) ABC and The Washington Post found 48 percent support in November, and CBS found 4 7 percent in favor of legalization in the same month. Gallup reported in December that 64 percent said the federal government should step aside when states clear the way for pot.

The new Pew survey comes on the heels of two big victories for marijuana supporters in 2012, when Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Support has grown rapidly in the last three years. Since March 2010, when most opposed marijuana legalization and 41 percent backed it, support has grown by 11 percentage points in Pew's data. Since 2002, it's grown by 20 percent.

The legalization charge is being led by young people: Support ranked highest among 18-29-year-old respondents, 64 percent of whom think pot should be legal. Politically, liberal Democrats overwhelmingly think marijuana should be legal, at 73 percent.

But the idea of legalization has grown by making inroads among Republicans. Since 2010, the demographic that has shifted more support than any other-including groups broken down by age, political leaning, race, gender, and education-is liberal and moderate Republicans. Among them, support has jumped 17 percentage points in the last three years, from 36 percent in 2010 to 53 percent today.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/majority-now-support-marijuana-legalization-184407288.html

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Five Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Small Business

Small businesses are often operating on a shoestring budget. Luckily, there are a few methods you can use to help make your businesses a success without breaking the bank.

Collaborate with other small businesses

There are several ways that you can engage with other small businesses to create mutually beneficial relationships.

Join an online community. There are plenty of forums and blog sites that allow users to interact with one another to share various pieces of advice on everything from finance to writing a business plan. A great place to start is LinkedIn Groups, where you can find others in the same industry or with similar interests and share content, find answers, make business contacts and more.

Work together. Find businesses whose goods or services complement yours (read: not your competitors!) and figure out what you can share - you could get involved in a joint promotion, combine resources or buy something you both need in bulk to get a discount. If there's another organization sharing your office or right next door you could share the cost of purchasing or renting certain equipment ? just make sure that your needs are similar.

Share services. If you're thinking of purchasing from another company, see if you can offer them a discount on your service or product in exchange for theirs. The designer across the street may help with your bakery's business cards in return for a free muffin every day for a month. This is also a fantastic networking and relationship-building opportunity.

Enlist the help of your employees

The Huffington Post recently published an article that said ?American history is replete with examples of people with great potential who have been overlooked or under-challenged by their managers.?

It went on to list examples of highly successful people whose former employers failed to recognise what they had to offer, including talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Woolworth's department store founder W. H. Woolworth.

So how can you avoid making the same mistake? Recognise and embrace the fact that your employees are a treasure trove of helpful information. They see how the business runs day-to-day, and often come up with the best ideas. Who knows, you may all be experiencing a problem that they have figured out how to fix for themselves ? all they need is the encouragement to share it.

There's certainly a trend where companies are setting aside time specifically for their employees to innovate ? with some fantastic results. So unless you want to reject the next Stephen King, Steven Spielberg or Elvis Presley (seriously, this happened) ? make sure your business encourages, nurtures and taps your employees' creativity.

Move to the cloud

Plenty of people are now using cloud computing for both personal and business solutions. If you're not exactly sure what cloud computing is, check out Xero's quick guide to understanding the cloud.

The benefits of cloud computing are numerous ? not least of which is making financial savings, including:

• No expensive set-up fees. Because the service is hosted in the cloud, there's nothing to install ? all you need is an internet connection.?
• Upgrades are free. Your provider can automatically install free updates from their end, which also means you'll always have the most recent version of their software.
• Pay only for what you use. Cloud applications offer various basic packages for you to choose from depending on what your requirements are. You can also purchase add-ons to create a package tailored to your requirements, and scale up only if and when you need to.
• Get the most out of remote devices. Time = money. Because data stored in the cloud can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, you can work from home, from the airport, the bus ? anywhere you want!
• No wasted money. There are plenty of free services or free trials in the cloud ? so you can make sure software is the right fit for you before you subscribe. And, because cloud services are usually subscription-based, you'll pay on a monthly basis, so you don't have to commit forever.

Take advantage of free software

There's plenty of free and fantastic software available online that will save you spending on potentially costly services. A few resources worth checking out include:

Google Apps ? provides tools such as Gmail (email), Drive (storage), Docs, Sheets and Slides so you can create and collaborate on documents. The bonus is that it's all in the cloud, so you can access documents anytime, from anywhere.

Google Alerts ? receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc) so you can set up alerts to monitor your business, industry, name or any terms you want to track. It's a great way to monitor when people are talking about your business, so you can respond to criticism, questions or positive feedback.

Skype ? download Skype for a free account offering video and voice calls to any other Skype user. You also get free instant messaging and file sharing. There are several extra paid features you can choose to add if you decide you need them.

Hootsuite ? social media management for accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook and more, all from one dashboard.

MailChimp ? free for lists of up to 2,000 subscribers, this email marketing tool lets you to create, send, and track email newsletters.

WordPress or Tumblr ? WordPress is an open source blogging tool and content management system. Tumblr is a blogging platform and social networking site. More and more small businesses are creating blogs ? it's a great way to do things like promote your subject expertise, engage with your target audience, show your brand's personality and expand your network. Which brings us to:

Get the most out of your marketing

Small business often find their marketing budget is made up of whatever funds they have 'leftover'. Luckily, it is entirely possible to create a successful marketing campaign on a shoestring budget. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Actively engaging with social media is a great way of networking, connecting with customers, sharing information, promoting your business and following what's being said about you and your industry. Many customers ? existing or ?potential ? will seek out social media pages to get more information or ask a question. Although you will have to dedicate time to keeping your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and more up-to-date, they are all free to use with an invaluable return. If you're not sure how to get started, or want some helpful tips, there's a great list on Forbes.com.

People like love free stuff. Generate positive attention by holding a prize draw, which you can promote via your website and social media pages ? just make sure you're familiar with any terms and conditions. Alternatively, you can hold a giveaway ? find a busy location and have employees spend an hour or so giving away free samples of your product. If your company sells a service, you could try partnering up with another business ? if you provide the staff, they may provide the samples, and you can both display your branding.

Write interesting content for your website or blog. A website is an essential tool for any small business and regularly posting articles that are original and valuable is a fantastic way to drive people to your site and establish yourself as a trustworthy source of expert information.

Get your finances organized?

Small business cashflow relies on prompt payment ? no matter how much you love your work, at the end of the day, you need to get paid.

Of course, it's not always as simple as sending off your invoices at the end of the month. Many small businesses are all too familiar with clients who are slow to make payments.

At Xero, we recognised this and spoke to the small business community to analyze their challenges and figure out the best ways to approach invoicing.

The result was a guide to getting paid faster, which aims to help reduce the stress of small businesses owners who don't have cash coming in on a regular basis.

The guide discusses how payment terms impact when people pay you, shares insights from accountants and business owners and provides tips for getting paid on time and invoicing efficiently.

What's your best tip for small businesses looking to cut costs?

Author Bio
Lucy Godwin lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and writes for Xero, a provider of online accounting software. She advises small businesses, entrepreneurs and startups on everything from marketing to technology to finance. Connect with her on Twitter @LucyJaneGodwin.

Source: http://www.e-junkie.info/2013/04/five-ways-to-get-most-out-of-your-small.html

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'Marriage' Is Not a Dirty Word for College Women - The Chronicle of ...

Susan Patton, a Princeton alumna, wrote a letter to the campus newspaper last week encouraging undergraduate women to take their personal lives seriously while at the elite university. The furor caused by this bit of motherly advice is absurd, and underscores the zero-sum game?career success or marital happiness?that older women want to impose on a new generation.

As educators, parents, and role models, we encourage college women to prioritize their education and careers because we know how important those accomplishments will be to their well-being. So why is it verboten to offer similar encouragement to prioritize their personal lives? The choice of a life partner is among the single biggest ways we affect our trajectory and ability to create a meaningful life. To suggest that career goals are worthy of discussion and effort, while the personal happiness should ?just happen,? sends an inaccurate message to young adults.

Elements of Patton?s letter miss the mark: College women should not feel pressured to marry right out of college for fear that they?ll never find anyone better than the men on campus. Census data clearly show that educated, successful women marry older, and wiser, than their less-educated peers. There are plenty of opportunities?in graduate school, through friends, and at work?to meet and marry a kind, supportive, and smart person.

But that?s not really what?s causing the kerfuffle here. The debate springs from the now-taboo M word. Try this: Read Patton?s letter and substitute the word ?career? for the word ?marriage.?

For most of you, the cornerstone of your future and happiness will be inextricably linked to the career you choose, and you will never again have this concentration of career options available to you.

Suddenly the argument becomes rather pedestrian, huh? To encourage a young woman to take her personal life seriously?and yes, to consider marriage, which remains a consistent goal for young adults, according to opinion data?just as we encourage her to prioritize her career shouldn?t cause such a stir.

The perception of norms has a significant influence on behavior. So when serious relationship formation isn?t something we?re even allowed to discuss with undergraduate women, why are we surprised when the default relationship patterns seem to be hookups and casual sex?

I teach a course on the sociology of marriage at the University of Pittsburgh. We explore the history of marriage, the debate over same-sex marriage, gender roles, and the varying salience of religion and popular culture in establishing norms for what a ?happy marriage? should be.

When we get to the section on relationship formation, we talk about old-fashioned courtship, dating, and the current hookup culture on college campuses. Students tell me tales of drunken encounters, text-messaging, ?Facebook stalking,? and little or no daytime or sober conversations. Is that the norm for most relationships on campus? I doubt it. But it is the perceived norm?because any admission that you seek a serious relationship that might lead to marriage would mark you as a social deviant.

In her new book, The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, Donna Freitas argues that college women?and men, too?crave more-substantial relationships, but since that?s too uncool to even speak of, they settle for casual sex as an unsatisfying alternative. Freitas?s book is a welcome counter to Hanna Rosin?s claim that young college women are driving the hookup culture because it helps them avoid the emotional entanglements that might get in the way of future educational and career success.

In his Atlantic review of the book, David Masciotra quotes the George Carlin line that ?language always gives us away.? The term ?hooking up? is emotionless and empty, just like the act itself. Freitas agrees, as do I. But the language is important here for another reason: Language helps to create norms for behavior as well, and unclear or inaccurate language can lead us astray. You might assume that you?and all college students?know the definition of a ?hookup.? It means sexual intercourse with no strings attached, right? Not exactly.

According to the research of the Stanford professor Paula England and my own online and anonymous class surveys, only about a third of students personally define a hookup as sex, but they believe that other people nearly always use the term to mean that level of sexual intimacy. So one student might say, ?I hooked up last night,? meaning that she kissed a guy at a bar, while the student listening hears that she had sex with the guy.

College students aren?t having nearly as much casual sex as we fear. But they also aren?t forming and focusing on the healthy long-term relationships we might hope they?d carry forward after graduation.

To bemoan the hookup culture and then criticize a discussion about the importance of young adults? establishing real relationships sends mixed messages that are frustrating for college students. Marriage is a worthwhile priority in life. So is an office in the C Suite. Today?s college woman is among that fortunate group with access to both. But let?s not limit her options by limiting the bounds of our conversation.

Christine B. Whelan is a visiting assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Generation WTF (Templeton Press, 2011) and Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women (Simon & Schuster, 2006). She is a Princeton alumna and married a Princeton man eight years after she graduated.

Source: http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/04/02/marriage-is-not-a-dirty-word-for-college-women/

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