hologram technology: May 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Officials: More attacks in Iraq; 7 killed

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Officials say new attacks in Iraq have killed seven people and wounded dozens.

A police officer says a suicide blast at a checkpoint, followed by militants who opened fire at Iraqi troops, has killed three soldiers in Tarmiyah. The town is 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad.

A medical official confirmed the causality figure. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media.

Mayor Shalal Abdool says two parked car bombs went off simultaneously in the northern city of Tuz Khormato, killing three civilians and wounding 38 people there.

And in Kirkuk, police Col. Taha Salaheddin says three bombs exploded back-to-back at a sheep market, killing one person and wounding 25. Kirkuk is 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-more-attacks-iraq-7-killed-083858476.html

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The World's End Posters: Cheers!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/the-worlds-end-posters-cheers/

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Drought makes Borneo's trees flower at the same time

May 22, 2013 ? Tropical plants flower at supra-annual irregular intervals. In addition, mass flowering is typical for the tropical forests in Borneo and elsewhere, where hundreds of different plant timber species from the Dipterocarpaceae family flower synchronously. This phenomenon is all the more puzzling because both temperature and day length are relatively constant all year round due to geographical proximity to the equator.

Up to now it was supposed that several weeks of drought may trigger mass flowering in Borneo's forests. However, no empirical data and genetic analyses were available. An international research team headed up by evolutionary biologists at the University of Zurich has now identified two genes responsible for the flowering of a tropical deciduous tree species Shorea beccariana. After drought periods, the two genes SbFT and SbSVP undergo dramatic transcriptional changes directly before flowering. The researchers can also confirm the flowering functions of these two genes using transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants.

85-meter canopy crane necessary for sample collection

The PhD student Masaki Kobayashi, his supervisor Professor Kentaro Shimizu and their Malaysian, Taiwanese and Japanese colleagues collected multiple buds from a single Shorea beccariana tree shortly before the start of flowering. "Given the fact that Shorea is a giant tree, having its crown at 40 meters ofheight, this sample collection was not easy at all," says Shimizu. Only with the help of an 85m high canopy crane were they able to collect samples at six different time points over a two-year period. Next, they analyzed the sample material using a next-generation sequencing procedure, which was initially developed for human genome and disease research. In this way, Kobayashi and Shimizu identified 98 genes that are associated with the flowering of the plant ?- including the genes SbFT and SbSVP, which showed transcriptional changes after a drought period and directly before flowering. The scientists then combined their genetic results with the meteorological data of the region. Kobayashi concludes that "Flowering in Shorea beccariana is triggered by a four-week drought in combination with elevated sucrose levels."

Toward prediction of mass flowering

Climate change will affect the frequency of drought periods and is thus predicted to affect also the frequency of mass flowering. Environmental protection and restoration of the forests have so far been severely hindered by the irregularity of the mass flowering intervals, which are thus difficult to predict. It was never possible to know when the seeds needed could be collected. The genes that have been identified now indicate when mass flowering is about to happen. "Successively monitoring of gene activity can help predict when mass flowering will take place," explains Kobayashi. This will make it possible to coordinate the collection of seeds and improve biodiversity and conservation programs substantially.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Zurich.

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

Journal Reference:

Masaki J. Kobayashi, Yayoi Takeuchi, Tanaka Kenta, Tomonori Kume, Bibian Diway, Kentaro K. Shimizu. Mass flowering of the tropical treeShorea beccarianawas preceded by expression changes in flowering and drought-responsive genes. Molecular Ecology, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/mec.12344

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/3vXZlTX6hM4/130522085341.htm

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Victory Ace the Best Investment According to Property Consultants in ...

Victory belongs to the leaders and those who seek to attain zenith in their respective field of work. With this concept, Victory Group has launched its flagship housing project, namely, Victory Ace Noida to establish a high class living society in the midst of most exquisite location of Noida Sector 143. This housing project redefines the way of living through its pleasant environment and high end facilities that are exclusively brought to you by the real estate honcho, Victory Group. Well connected to Delhi through Noida Expressway, Victory Ace Noida has emerged as one of the prime residential centre in the NCR region. Apartments here are especially designed under the consultancy of real estate experts so as to provide ultimate form of luxury with the sense of satisfaction. Proximity to Buddha International Circuit, the one and only F1 Race circuit of India, adds the quality quotient in the persona of Victory Ace Noida housing project.

Residences in Victory Ace are available in two forms, 3 BHK and 4 BHK. Furthermore, the 3 BHK apartments in this housing project are available in three forms and are classified as follows: 3 BHK + 2 Toilets, 3 BHK + 3 Toilets and 3 BHK + 3 Toilets + Servant Room with Toilet + Dressing Room. Land area for the 3 BHK + 2Toilets residences is between 1475 to 1495 square feet, however, the 3 BHK residence + 3 Toilets covers the land area of 1695 square feet. The third and last form of apartments i.e. 3 BHK + 3 Toilets + Servant Room with Toilet + Dressing Room covers the land area of 1895 square feet. The 4 BHK residences are offered in only single form with 4 BHK + 4 Toilets + Servant Room with Toilet + Dressing Room and cover the land area of 2295 square feet. Vaastu rules have been taken care while planning the residences in Victory Ace Noida.

Similarly to the world class design, the residences here are well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities which offers holistic ambience. Each room of the apartments at the Victory Ace Noida is embellished with word class interiors designed by the experts. Lights, fans and other electric arrangements have been made in such a splendid way so that you get proper comfort. Moreover, 24 X 7 power backup, continuous water supply, kids play area, lush green parks, wide spread roads covered by bushy trees and other requisite facilities make it the best place to reside in the Delhi NCR region.

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Source: http://realestateindianews.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/victory-ace-the-best-investment-according-to-property-consultants-in-noida/

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MLS deal with billionaire oil sheikh could be bigger than Beckham

Two of the most deep-pocketed teams in world sport ? Manchester City of the English Premier League and the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball ? have agreed to pay $100 million to own and operate a new professional soccer team in New York City starting in 2015.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber could probably read that sentence all day.

The news is potentially so significant for the still-fledgling league that it's hard not to see it as an announcement of David Beckhamian proportions.

RECOMMENDED: David Beckham: What did he do, really, for American soccer? (+video)

The owner of Manchester City is Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, a sheikh who, in his first four years of owning the club, spent more than $1.5 billion of his petro-fortune to turn City from bumbling underachievers into Premier League champions for the first time in 44 years. And there are whispers that that was just a warmup act for an American adventure.

Manchester City, after all, are not Manchester United ? their cross-town rivals who have won a record 20 league championships and are the most profitable sports franchise in the world. They are not Real Madrid or Barcelona or even Bayern Munich ? pillars of European soccer whose success is measured over generations. European soccer, Wall Street would say, is already a mature market, and City are for now still just scheming upstarts.

Yet in New York City Football Club, Mansour has an opportunity to do something altogether more momentous: to make soccer relevant in America.

To be sure, Beckham played his part. But his six-year sojourn was never likely to be enough. Though MLS has come a long way since his arrival in 2007 ? it now draws more fans to each game, on average, than do the National Basketball Association or National Hockey League ? it still has a long way to go. It's televised games, for example, draw a 0.2 rating ? less than a recent broadcast of US Grand Prix skiing.

To truly make soccer relevant in the US means making it one of the top leagues in the world. That will take time and money, lots of it. Enter Mansour. In other words, when Mansour made City one of the top soccer clubs in the world, one half of Manchester was overjoyed. If he could do the same with his new City, he will have pried open one of the great untapped sporting markets in the world.

"When it comes to propelling Abu Dhabi?s image onto a global scale, the United States is where it?s at for Sheikh Mansour and his advisors," writes Mark Ogden of The Telegraph, a British newspaper.

And who better to help his team of soccer cognoscenti navigate the world of US sports than the Yankees, who have built an American empire of their own. News reports suggest a deal is already in the works to secure a site in Queens for a new $340 million soccer stadium for New York FC, despite local opposition.

The address is key. MLS has had a New York area team since its inception in 1996, but never one in New York City. The New York Red Bulls play in Harrison, N.J. New York City FC clearly will not end up at the Meadowlands or on Long Island.

Yet in landing an investor of the sort that MLS has long sought, the league faces a potentially decisive moment.

Even now, only one-third of MLS teams make a profit. That might not be the most accurate measure of league health, since many clubs play in venues built just for them and control the revenues from those facilities. Yet the league is hardly rolling in cash.

The league has survived only by going slowly ? by reining in the spending excesses that doomed its predecessor, the North American Soccer League. Yet in the aftermath of the Beckham experiment, pressure is mounting to loosen the pursestrings a bit.

One might guess where an oil sheikh with a reported personal net worth of $30 billion might come down on that question.

RECOMMENDED: David Beckham: What did he do, really, for American soccer? (+video)

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Syrian Army fires across border into Israel to retaliate for airstrikes

? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Israel and Syria traded fire across their border today in the third such incident in a week. Although Israel has not taken sides in Syria's civil war, it has been explicit that it is willing to take drastic measures to ensure that, amid Syria's chaos, advanced weapons do not drift unnoticed into the hands of the anti-Israel militant group and Damascus-ally Hezbollah.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was "preparing for every scenario" and that "we will act to ensure the security interest of Israel's citizens in the future as well," Reuters reports. The Israeli military confirmed today that their soldiers "returned precise fire" after Syria fired on Israeli troops in the Golan Heights, former Syrian territory that Israel annexed after the 1967 war.

The Times of Israel reports that the Syrian Army stated that its troops "destroyed" an Israeli military vehicle, along with those in it, but that the Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office reported that a vehicle was "hit by light weapons fire, causing slight damage to the vehicle." It was the first time that the Syrian Army acknowledged firing across the border into Israel since the outbreak of civil war.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Israel? Take the quiz

The Times of Israel posits that the acknowledgement was "an attempt by President Bashar [al-Assad]'s regime to project toughness following three Israeli airstrikes near Damascus" in the last month to which it did not retaliate.

Until civil war erupted in Syria, the border had been relatively quiet since 1973, the last time Israel and Syria fought a war. Even now, Israel's involvement has little to do with the Syrian government itself, but with the possibility of an uptick in the number of weapons bound for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a client of Iran, and one of the greatest threats to Israel.

Michael Herzog, a former Israeli defense ministry chief of staff and current fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote following an Israeli airstrike near Damascus earlier this month that Israel's "actions were driven not by ambitions to shape Syria's future, but by concerns about the strategic balance between itself and the Hezbollah-Iran axis."

Israeli decision-makers are under no illusion that they can elicit a desirable outcome in Syria. Instead, Israel prefers to keep a low profile and focus on other pressing challenges, paramount among them Iran's drive towards nuclear weapons. Israeli actions in Syria are therefore focused on addressing direct threats to its security, particularly the transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah.

The war in Syria has escalated this problem since it presented Hezbollah with the opportunity to upgrade its already formidable arsenal of over 60,000 rockets by acquiring more sophisticated weapons from Syria's stocks. Syria's huge arsenal includes hundreds of tonnes of chemical agents, tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, radars and more. Assad, deeply indebted to Iran and Hezbollah for their support, now feels obligated to allow the transfer of such weapons.

While the world is rightly focused on Syria's chemical weapons, Israel is no less concerned about conventional ones, which in the hands of Hezbollah could be game-changers. Israel believes that while other countries might intervene to prevent proliferation of chemical weapons, in stopping the transfer of conventional weapons, it is on its own. It expects only tacit political support for its actions from the US and Europe, which so far it has received.

Herzog notes that Hezbollah is not Israel's chief foe ? that would be Hezbollah's chief sponsor, Iran. But Hezbollah, with whom Israel fought a war in 2006, runs a solid second, and Israelis "see a high chance of another round with Hezbollah in the future."

Hezbollah is deeply involved in the fight in Syria, as The Christian Science Monitor's Nicholas Blanford illustrated yesterday in a dispatch from Lebanon's border region, where residents were holding funerals for Hezbollah fighters killed in battle in Syria.

With the number of fighters killed or wounded in Syria becoming too large to keep quiet, Hezbollah has finally come out into the open about its presence in Syria. It is currently fighting alongside the Syrian Army in a high-profile offensive to retake the Syrian rebel-held town of Qusayr, a few miles north of the Lebanese border.

The battle in Qusayr is Hezbollah's first major combat action since the end of the month-long war against Israel in 2006. Although the organization is dedicated to the confrontation against Israel, its cadres are now in Syria battling fellow Arab Muslims, albeit Sunnis. Meanwhile, Israeli jets penetrate Lebanese airspace on a daily basis. Two weeks ago they bombed suspected Hezbollah arms stockpiles outside Damascus in two separate sorties. Neither Hezbollah nor regime forces retaliated.

Syria is the linchpin connecting Hezbollah by land to its patron Iran, serving as a conduit for the flow of arms and granting the Shiite group strategic depth. The collapse of the Assad regime would represent a serious blow to Iran and Hezbollah, leaving them isolated on opposite ends of the Middle East.

Hezbollah's rapidly expanding role in Syria is regarded as part of a strategic decision undertaken by the party, Damascus, and Tehran to safeguard the Assad regime at all costs. To soothe any misgivings among Hezbollah's rank and file, the party's leadership has crafted a narrative that the West and Israel are using militant Sunni jihadists to oust the Assad regime and weaken the "resistance front" of Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah for the benefit of the Jewish state.

That narrative seems to have been absorbed. "No, we are fighting Israelis in Syria," one Hezbollah fighter told Mr. Blanford. "Only they are wearing a dishdash and carrying the Quran. But it is the same Western and Israeli project that wants to weaken the resistance."

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Israel? Take the quiz

Twister season starts late, but starts nonetheless

This frame grab courtesy of KFOR TV shows the aftermath of a massive tornado as much as a mile wide with winds up to 200 mph roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, May 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy KFOR TV)

This photo provided by KFOR-TV shows a house fire outside Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20, 2013. A monstrous tornado as much as a mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (AP Photo/KFOR-TV)

TULSA, Okla. (AP) ? Deadly tornadoes that have raked communities in Middle America over the past week, including Monday's massive twister that carved a path of destruction through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, belie what had been a relatively quiet start of the 2013 tornado season.

In fact, this is the longest the U.S. has gone into May without registering an EF1 or stronger tornado, which are the types that can cause damage. That's according to Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

An unusually cool spring kept the funnel clouds at bay until mid-May, or about a month after they'd typically begin their deadly dance in this part of the country. But that calm melted away with the recent rise in temperatures and humidity in the Plains and Midwest that produced ideal temperatures for the tornadoes that have killed people in Oklahoma and Texas since last Wednesday.

"What had happened over the last week, and for quite a while there, was a ridge in the atmosphere that stayed over the western United States, and that is a pretty unfavorable pattern for tornadoes," said Brooks. "But, over the last few days, the ridge has moved east and the trough flow came over central United States. On Saturday, we got a lot of moisture that returned from Gulf of Mexico, and when you bring those ingredients together, something's going to happen."

Tornado strikes have fallen markedly in the U.S. since the 2011 season, when the country was hit over and over by killer twisters. April 2011 had 497 EF1 or stronger tornadoes, which are the types that can cause damage. That's not only a record, but it's more than the next two highest months combined, Brooks said.

From June 2010 through May 2011, there were 1,050 EF1 or stronger tornadoes, which was a record high for a 12-month period. Then just a year later, a record tornado drought began. From May 2011 through April 2013, there were only 217 tornadoes, 30 fewer than the old record.

This spring's unusually late start to the season was caused by unseasonably cool weather marked by unusual upper air patterns that suppressed storm development for much of the early tornado season, Brooks said.

As Monday's devastating touch down in Moore shows, a slow start of the season says nothing about how it how it could eventually shape up.

"It was quiet in February through April; that doesn't tell us anything that will happen in May," Brooks said.

As Moore residents frantically searched the wreckage of schools and homes destroyed by Monday's strike, communities elsewhere in Oklahoma and the region were bracing for the possibility of new funnel clouds or huge hail stones.

Hours before the Moore strike, National Weather Service meteorologist Peter Snyder predicted that twisters could touch down in the region and other areas to the east.

"There's a good environment for super cell development and it could develop a squall line that produces 70 mph wind and clusters of thunderstorms," Snyder said. "It's a similar situation (as Sunday) but it will affect points east today."

The deadly tornado strikes began Wednesday, when a twister outbreak in North Texas killed six people and injured dozens of others, many in the community of Granbury. A massive storm system that moved through the Plains and Midwest on Sunday produced tornadoes in Kansas and Iowa, but it was Oklahoma that bore the brunt of the destruction, with at least 39 injured throughout the state and two deaths from a tornado strike near Shawnee, 30 miles east of Moore.

___

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-20-Severe%20Weather-Forecast/id-01def2a1bf7e4c6d84202c28a1825769

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IBM's Watson Has a Boring New Job Answering Phones

After you've used your crazy robot intellect to crush puny meatbags definitively in a game of Jeopardy, it would seem like the world is your oyster. But Watson's not taking trying to take over the world or anything, no. After a trying out medicine and inventing a pastry, he's settling for a boring job in customer service.

Companies including Australia?s ANZ Bank, Nielsen, and Royal Bank of Canada plan to put this supercomputer to work answering questions by SMS, online chat, email, or through a compatible app. Watson will not only be saving humans from having to answer hundreds upon hundreds of inane questions about insurance plans and loan interested, but also help provide better information, since he doesn't zone out when reading fine print.

Watson doesn't have any voice recognition capability yet, but that could come later this year, putting him toe-to-toe with things like Siri and Google Now. IBM's likely to continue pimping out Watson's noggin to more companies as down the line, and really, we could all benefit from having more, smarter computers answering our questions for us. But it just seems like he's settling. We just hope he's happy, happy as a lifeless machine brain can be.

Update: IBM has contacted us to clarify that Siri and Watson are not competitors because Watson has conversations and actually learns from them, whereas Siri just does Q&A. It's a fair distinction.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/ibms-watson-has-a-boring-new-job-answering-phones-509034580

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Report: Obama admin. spied on reporter

President Barack Obama crosses the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, May 19, 2013. (Jonathan Ernst/??The Justice Department spied extensively on Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, tracking his movements in and out of the State Department and seizing two days of Rosen?s personal emails, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

In a chilling move sure to rile defenders of civil liberties, an FBI agent also accused Rosen of breaking anti-espionage law with behavior that?as described in the agent's own affidavit?falls well inside the bounds of traditional news reporting. (Disclosure: This reporter counts Rosen among his friends.)

The revelations surfaced with President Barack Obama?s administration already under fire for seizing two months of telephone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press. Obama last week said he makes ?no apologies? for investigations into national security-related leaks. The AP's CEO, Gray Pruitt, said Sunday that the seizure was "unconstitutional."

The Obama administration has prosecuted twice as many leakers as all previous administrations combined.

?The president is a strong defender of the First Amendment and a firm believer in the need for the press to be unfettered in its ability to conduct investigative reporting and facilitate a free flow of information,? White House press secretary Jay Carney insisted last week. ?He also, of course, recognizes the need for the Justice Department to investigate alleged criminal activity without undue influence.?

The details of the government's strategy against Rosen sound like something out of a spy novel.

Investigators looking into disclosures of sensitive information about North Korea got Rosen?s telephone records and a warrant for his personal emails but also used his State Department security badge to track his movements in and out of that building, the Post reported, citing court documents.

The case began when Rosen reported on June 11, 2009, that U.S. intelligence believed North Korea might respond to tighter United Nations sanctions with new nuclear tests. Rosen reported that the information came from CIA sources inside the hermetic Stalinist state.

Investigators zeroed in on State Department arms expert Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, who was among a small group of intelligence officials to receive a top-secret report on the issue the same day that Rosen's piece ran online.

But FBI agent Reginald Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ?at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator,? the Post said.

And just what did Rosen do? Here's Reyes in an affidavit to support his request for a search warrant:

?From the beginning of their relationship, the Reporter asked, solicited and encouraged Mr. Kim to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information about the Foreign Country," the FBI agent wrote. "The Reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim?s vanity and ego.?

"Much like an intelligence officer would run an clandestine intelligence source, the Reporter instructed Mr. Kim on a covert communications plan," Reyes said, explicitly comparing reportorial tactics to espionage.

Here is how the Post described another section of Reyes' report:

Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a ?covert communications plan? and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information.

In the exchange, Rosen used the alias ?Leo? to address Kim and called himself ?Alex,? an apparent reference to Alexander Butterfield, the man best known for running the secret recording system in the Nixon White House, according to the affidavit.

Rosen instructed Kim to send him coded signals on his Google account, according to a quote from his e-mail in the affidavit: ?One asterisk means to contact them, or that previously suggested plans for communication are to proceed as agreed; two asterisks means the opposite.?

He also wrote, according to the affidavit: ?What I am interested in, as you might expect, is breaking news ahead of my competitors? including ?what intelligence is picking up.? And: ?I?d love to see some internal State Department analyses.?

The communications system is a bit cloak-and-dagger, but it's not clear from the Post report or the affidavit that Rosen did anything outside the bounds of traditional reporting. People who know Rosen will smile at the Butterfield reference: The tenacious Fox News reporter is known as a Beatles fanatic, Tom Wolfe devotee and Watergate obsessive.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-admin-spied-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-134204299.html

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Monday, May 20, 2013

What's Yahoo Announcing at Its Event Tonight?

This morning Yahoo announced it bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, along with a GIF and a promise "not to screw it up." The Mayer-ship is hosting a "product-related" event in New York City tonight. We'll be there covering it live. But just what's the company talking about? Here's what we've heard so far:

Disruptions: Robots as Home Health Care Aides for the Elderly ...

In the opening scene of the movie ?Robot & Frank,? which takes place in the near future, Frank, an elderly man who lives alone, is arguing with his son about going to a medical center for Alzheimer?s treatment when the son interrupts him. ?I brought you something,? he says to Frank. Then the son pulls a large, white humanoid robot from the trunk of his car.

Frank watches in disbelief. ?You have got to be kidding me,? he says as a robot helper, called the VGC-60L, stands in front of him. ?I?m not this pathetic!?

But as Frank soon learns, he doesn?t have much of a choice. His new robot helper is there to cook, clean, garden and keep him company. His son, mired in family and work life, is too busy to care for his ailing father.

Just like Frank, as the baby boomer generation grows old and if the number of elderly care workers fails to grow with it, many people might end up being cared for by robots. According to the Health and Human Services Department, there will be 72.1 million Americans over the age of 65 by 2030, which is nearly double the number today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country will need 70 percent more home aide jobs by 2020, long before that bubble of retirees. But filling those jobs is proving to be difficult because the salaries are low. In many states, in-home aides make an average of $20,820 annually.

?There are two trends that are going in opposite directions. One is the increasing number of elderly people, and the other is the decline in the number of people to take care of them,? said Jim Osborn, a roboticist and executive director of the Robotics Institute?s Quality of Life Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. ?Part of the view we?ve already espoused is that robots will start to fill in those gaps.?

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed Cody, a robotic nurse the university says is ?gentle enough to bathe elderly patients.? There is also HERB, which is short for Home Exploring Robot Butler. Made by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, it is designed to fetch household objects like cups and can even clean a kitchen. Hector, a robot that is being developed by the University of Reading in England, can remind patients to take their medicine, keep track of their eyeglasses and assist in the event of a fall.

The technology is nearly there. But some researchers worry that we are not asking a fundamental question: Should we entrust the care of people in their 70s and older to artificial assistants rather than doing it ourselves?

Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the book ?Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,? did a series of studies with Paro, a therapeutic robot that looks like a baby harp seal and is meant to have a calming effect on patients with dementia, Alzheimer?s and in health care facilities. The professor said she was troubled when she saw a 76-year-old woman share stories about her life with the robot.

?I felt like this isn?t amazing; this is sad. We have been reduced to spectators of a conversation that has no meaning,? she said. ?Giving old people robots to talk to is a dystopian view that is being classified as utopian.? Professor Turkle said robots did not have a capacity to listen or understand something personal, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical.

That?s the catch. Leaving the questions of ethics aside for a moment, building robots is not simply about creating smart machines; it is about making something that is not human still appear, somehow, trustworthy.

A recent Georgia Tech study found that older people were intrigued by the idea of robotic assistants in the home, but a robot?s appearance played a large role in what they will trust the machines to do. Older people want robots that look human for tasks that involve intelligence, like recommending which medicine they need to take. But they want a more sterile-looking machine for manual labor tasks, like cleaning and cooking, so they do not feel guilty bossing it about.

Wendy A. Rogers, a professor at Georgia Tech and director of the university?s Human Factors and Aging Laboratory, said concerns about older people developing relationships with their in-home helper robots were no different than the bond we develop with other inanimate objects.

Dr. Rogers has been experimenting with a large robot called the PR2, made by Willow Garage, a robotics company in Palo Alto, Calif., which can fetch and administer medicine, a seemingly simple act that demands a great deal of trust between man and machine.

?We are social beings, and we do develop social types of relationships with lots of things,? she said. ?Think about the GPS in your car, you talk to it and it talks to you.? Dr. Rogers noted that people developed connections with their Roomba, the vacuum robot, by giving the machines names and buying costumes for them. ?This isn?t a bad thing, it?s just what we do,? she said.

In fact, Mr. Osborn?s laboratory at Carnegie Mellon has designed a robot to work with therapists and people with autism. The machine can develop a personality and blinks and giggles as people interact with it. ?Those we tested it with love it and hugged it,? he said. ?You begin to think of it as something that is more than a machine with a computer.?

In the movie ?Robot & Frank,? technologists have raced ahead of society?s collective conscience with their robot caregivers. But the movie still leaves its audience with a question: Will it one day be morally acceptable to unload your parents? care to a machine?

As the actor Frank Langella, who plays Frank in the movie, told NPR last year: ?Every one of us is going to go through aging and all sorts of processes, many people suffering from dementia,? he said. ?And if you put a machine in there to help, the notion of making it about love and buddy-ness and warmth is kind of scary in a way, because that?s what you should be doing with other human beings.?

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/disruptions-helper-robots-are-steered-tentatively-to-elder-care/

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Yahoo confirms acquisition of Tumblr, but will run it as a 'separate business'

Hot on the heels of yesterday's rumors, Yahoo and Tumblr have jointly announced a "definitive agreement" for the former to acquire the latter for $1.1 billion. The agreement makes it clear that Tumblr will be "independently operated as a separate business" with its own branding and line of development. A frankly worded press release says that this arms-length arrangement will help Yahoo "not to screw it up" and promises that the 300 million monthly visitors to the blogging site will continue to experience Tumblr's "irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators." Those who have allegedly fled to WordPress already, for fear of Tumblr being shut down, may have slightly jumped the gun.

Filed under: Internet, Mobile

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Source: BusinessWire ( via Yahoo)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/20/yahoo-confirms-tumblr-acquisition/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Biotechnology ETF Investing 101 - May 20, 2013 - Zacks.com

With ever-increasing health care spending and insatiable demand for new drugs, the biotechnology sector looks poised for good growth going forward. Furthermore, the U.S. biotech sector represents an attractive investment opportunity thanks to increased M&A activity, helping the sector to be one of the top performers in 2012.

The sector maintained its strong performance in 2013 as generic competition is forcing many Pharma companies to engage in merger and acquisition deals. The sector has succeeded in providing long-term stable growth to investors (Is the Biotech Sector Still a Market Leader?).

Further, fuelled by an invention of more drugs specifically designed to treat conditions like hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis, biotechnology stocks and ETFs have been good performers in 2013.

In fact, it seems that this share strength is expected to surround the sector for the next few years given the efforts of biotech companies to launch more and more drugs to cure Alzheimer?s, hepatitis C virus, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, dyslipidemia, cystic fibrosis, cancer and orphan diseases.

It should also be noted that the growth in the sector would also be maintained by drug approval and label expansion of the existing portfolio of launched drugs and data from late stage pipeline candidates.

Moreover, with more health care reforms, the industry will encounter both advantages and disadvantages. With Medicaid covering more people in 2014, the sector is sure to benefit from volume expansion. However, higher rebates for Medicaid patients could negatively impact the net price for biotech drugs (Two Sector ETFs to Buy in 2013).

Mergers & Acquisition

Small biotech companies are open to in-licensing activities and collaborations. Most of these companies find it challenging to raise cash, thereby making it difficult for them to survive and continue with the development of promising pipeline candidates. Therefore, it makes sense for them to seek deals with other pharma companies that have a high cash balance.

We would recommend investors put their money in biotech stocks that have attractive pipeline candidates or technology that can be used for the development of novel therapeutics.

Therapeutic areas which could see a lot of in-licensing activity include oncology, central nervous system disorders, diabetes and immunology/inflammation. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) market is also attracting a lot of attention (Forget Big Pharma, It Is Time For A Biotech ETF).

Emerging Market Gaining In Importance

Another trend seen in the biotech sector is a focus on the emerging markets. Big companies are looking to expand their presence in India, China, Brazil and other developing markets. Emerging markets are slowly and steadily gaining more importance and several companies are now shifting their focus to these areas.

ETFs to Tap the Sector

With this in mind, it could be time to give this segment a closer look. For investors looking to play the biotech sector, an ETF approach can be a solid idea (Four ETFs Up More Than 30% YTD).

This technique can help to spread out assets among a wide variety of companies and reduce company specific risk for a very low cost. Below, we highlight the ETFs in this sector in greater detail for those seeking to make a biotech ETF play at this time:

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB)

IBB is one of the more popular biotech ETFs on the market today with asset under management of $3.2 billion and a trading volume of roughly 400,000 shares a day. The fund charges an expense ratio of 48 basis points a year.

The fund holds 119 stocks in total in its basket, with just over 50% of the assets going to firms that are smaller than large caps. The fund has a concentrated approach in the top ten holdings with 60.59% of the asset base invested in them.

Among individual holdings, top stocks in the ETF include Regeneron Pharma, Gilead and Amgen with asset allocation of 11.25%, 8.52% and 7.52%, respectively (3 Sector ETFs Surviving This Slump).

PDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI)

Another popular choice in the biotech ETF market is XBI, a fund tracking the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. The product has $832.2 in assets and does more than a quarter million in volume a day, while its cost is just 35 basis points a year.

The fund has a smaller basket of stocks with just 53 stocks in its basket, and only 18% in large cap securities. Despite the smaller holding pattern, the fund does not appear to be concentrated in the top ten holdings.

The fund has just 25.6% in the top ten holdings with NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc, Sarepta Therapeutics Inc and Seattle Genetics, Inc. occupying the top three positions in the fund with asset allocation of 2.86%, 2.80% and 2.64%, respectively (Top 3 Best Performing Healthcare ETFs).

First Trust Amex Biotechnology Index Fund (FBT)

This product is home to 20 biotech companies and has its assets invested across all classes of the market spectrum. A look at the style pattern reveals that the fund has a preference for growth stocks.

This also implies that the fund prioritizes securities on the basis of earnings growth and tends to have little inclination for undervalued stocks or securities which trade below their intrinsic value.

The fund manages an asset base of $333.2 million and charges a fee of 60 basis points annually. With a small holding pattern, the fund invests most of its asset base in the top ten holdings (53.4%).

Biotech stocks seem well positioned in this type of market environment and we believe that FBT could be a solid choice for investors going further into 2013 (Top Ranked Biotech ETF: FBT).

Market Vectors Biotech ETF (BBH)

The least popular of the pure biotech bunch ? but still with a decent level of assets ? is BBH, a fund from Van Eck that tracks the Market Vectors US Listed Biotech 25 Index. The ETF has over $307.4 million in AUM and a daily volume of about 86,300 shares, while it is also a low-cost pick with expenses of 35 basis points a year.

This is one of the only large cap centric funds on the list as it has over 55% of assets in that level and just 14% in small caps or micro caps. Additionally, it is somewhat concentrated from an individual security perspective with Amgen Inc and Gilead Sciences Inc combining to take up about 30% of assets in this fund which only holds about 26 other stocks to begin with (Gilead Puts Biotech ETFs in Focus).

PowerShares Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Portfolio (PBE)

With a small asset base of just $156.6 million and a trading volume of just 17,900 shares a day, PBE has been designed to track the Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Intellidex Index.

This produces a fund with a total holding of 30 stocks while charging an expense ratio of 64 basis points on an annual basis. The fund is moderately concentrated in the top ten holdings with 49.38% asset invested in these stocks.

Among individual holdings, Regeneron Pharmaceutical, Biogen Idec and Life Technologies occupy the top three positions in the fund with asset share of 7.39%, 5.62% and 5.48%, respectively.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/99724/biotechnology-etf-investing-101

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John's Labour blog: "Feeding Cats": Motion to Branch Committee....

(this is a real motion to a South London trade union branch committee May 2013. Straight out of Monty Python)

?Feeding Cats?

Unfortunately a serious Health & Safety/Environmental Health situation has
arisen in the ***** ****** branch office whereby some Branch Officers are creating unnecessary risks to their colleagues and the local communities Environmental Health and Safety.

It came to my attention several weeks ago that Branch Officers had left cat food out for a cat which they spotted in the office back garden. Local cats, feral and domestic, occasionally come into the office back garden and are generally not a problem. However, I objected to the actual feeding of cats
(feral or domestic) in the back garden by users of the office as unnecessary and irresponsible on the following grounds:

? When someone leaves food out to feed a ?cat? in the back garden they are not just feeding one or more ?cats? they are feeding all manner of feral animals, pests and vermin, i.e. Rats, Mice, Ants, Cockroaches, Flies, Insects, Pigeons, Foxes etc. etc.

? These creatures, if their numbers are not controlled in city areas, can cause nuisance, spread diseases (toxoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, psittacosis to name but three) and therefore be a potential danger to humans, children and families in the local area as well as users of the branch office and garden (and be a danger to other animals as well).

? If cats and other feral animals are seen in cities and in the vicinity of humans it is generally because there is already an abundance of food available in the area to sustain them; so they don?t actually need an easily available source of food to be provided for them by humans. Otherwise they wouldn?t be there they would be somewhere else where there is food available.

? It is not the responsibility of Branch Officers/council employees to feed feral animals while at work or in the workplace (local domesticated cats should be fed by their owners).

? Leaving food out in the garden simply encourages not only cats but all the other feral animals and pests as mentioned above to move into the area in increasing numbers. It encourages the presence of these animals where they don?t need to be (workplace environments can also be hazardous to animals) and so creates a problem where there doesn?t need to be one, and where one did not previously exist.

? If people wish to take irresponsible risks with their own health that is their right, however they have no right to take irresponsible risks with the health of other people, colleagues, and children and families in the local community.

I have therefore been shocked and appalled by the reaction to my objections to ?feeding cats? by other Branch Officers and the Branch Secretaries and have been compelled to submit this motion in defence of a socially responsible position on H&S/Environmental Health issues. Not only were my above objections dismissed without any engagement of rational argument or discussion, other Branch Officers have seen fit to actually inflame the situation and make matters far worse.

One Branch Officer actually decided to go ahead with the idea (without permission or consultation) of continuing to put food out in the back garden indefinitely in order to deliberately lure the cat that was originally spotted (supposedly feral?) back into the garden so it can be ?Trapped? then taken to
a Vet and neutered! Then what?

Unfortunately this ludicrous idea has been endorsed by the Branch Secretaries as a ?sensible solution?! Again with no consultation. This ?sensible solution? to a problem that has not previously existed and still doesn?t need to exist (Branch Officers are creating the problem) addresses none of my concerns about the long term consequences and damage to the local environment and local peoples, including children?s, health and well being caused by encouraging feral animals, pests and vermin.

? I also believe that staff leaving food out for animals in workplaces, which encourages pests and therefore creates a health hazard, is against Council Policy and breaches H&S policy.

? I believe UNISON Branch Officers ?Trapping Animals? when not doing so in the capacity of their substantive post of a Council Officer/employee is illegal and breaches Council Policy.

I regret having to submit this motion when there should be more important issues to discuss but I believe it is now a matter of education on socially responsible attitudes towards Environmental Health and Health & Safety within the workers & Trade Union movement.

? I am simply calling for a socially responsible position where we do not encourage animals (feral or domesticated), pests and vermin in the workplace and community by leaving food out in the back garden. It is not necessary; it is a health risk and creates problems where they don?t need to exist.

Please vote to endorse this bullet point.

Source: http://grayee.blogspot.com/2013/05/feeding-cats-motion-to-branch-committee.html

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Measles surges in UK years after flawed research

LONDON (AP) ? More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.

This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.

Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.

"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," said Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that is widely rejected by scientists.

That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major U.K. medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal that published it.

Britain's top medical board stripped Wakefield of the right to practice medicine in the U.K., ruling that he and two of his colleagues showed a "callous disregard" for the children in the study, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests. As part of his research, Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them about 5 pounds each ($7.60), and later joked about the incident.

Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine ? from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent. Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son.

Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there's "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said.

The majority of those getting sick in the U.K. ? including a significant number of older children and teens ? had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it's unclear if it was the disease that killed him.

The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s, which dramatically cut cases of the rash-causing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case.

Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.

Across the U.K., about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions.

To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the U.K., the rate is still below 80 percent.

Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain's Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination.

Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United States, where the measles vaccination rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, there have been 22 cases, including three that were traced to Britain. In previous years, the U.K. has sometimes exported more cases of measles to the U.S. than some countries in Africa.

Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle to convince parents to get the MMR shot is being helped by the measles epidemic in Wales.

"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.

Clinic patient Ellen Christensen, mother of an infant son, acknowledged she had previously had some "irrational qualms" about the MMR vaccine.

"But after reading more about it, I know now that immunization is not only good for your own child, it's good for everyone," she said.

___

Online:

Public Health England's Measles website:

http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Measles/

___

AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/measles-surges-uk-years-flawed-research-143443769.html

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Six ways to save on moving day

Moving is a hassle, to the point where many people prefer a trip to the dentist. But these money-saving strategies can make moving a little cheaper.?

By Angela Colley,?Contributor / May 19, 2013

Greg Buster, left, of Franklin County, helps his son Robert Buster, move his belongings into a moving van.

Don Petersen/AP/File

Enlarge

May is National Moving Month! But despite the inherent excitement in setting up shop in a new, more suitable living space, 40% of Americans would rather go to the dentist than move, while 34% would rather do their own taxes.

Skip to next paragraph Dealnews.com

is devoted to finding the best deals on consumer goods, whether or not they're from an advertiser. For more great offers visit dealnews.com, which works with advertisers to craft offers for readers.

Tunisian police clash with Islamists over banned rally

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - Supporters of a hardline Islamist group clashed with Tunisian police in two cities on Sunday after the government banned its annual rally and the regional arm of al Qaeda urged it to stand firm against the authorities.

Violence broke out in the central city of Kairouan, venue of the planned rally, and in a district of Tunis, where a Reuters witness said a number of people were injured.

The Ansar al-Sharia group is the most radical to emerge in Tunisia since secular dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011, and poses a test to the authority of the moderate Islamist government.

In Kairouan, where tens of thousands of members of Ansar al-Sharia had been expected to attend the planned rally on Sunday, the group's supporters threw stones at police, who fired teargas in response.

Police also prevented the group, which openly supports al Qaeda, from holding a smaller religious meeting in the Ettadamen district of the capital Tunis. Clashes broke out with Islamists who chanted: "The rule of the tyrant should fall."

Police fired teargas and shots into the air to disperse some 500 stone-throwing protesters, some of whom set fire to cars, lowered the Tunisian flag and replaced it with a black al Qaeda banner.

Buses and the subway stopped working and shops in the neighborhood were closed, while military aircraft patrolled overhead. Clashes spread to two other areas of the capital.

Tunisia was the first country to stage an "Arab Spring" uprising, inspiring similar revolutions in Egypt and Libya. The new government is led by a moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, but hardline Islamist Salafists are seeking a broader role for religion, alarming a secular elite which fears this could undermine individual freedoms, women's rights and democracy.

"SECURITY THREAT"

The Interior Ministry said on Friday it had banned the gathering of Ansar al-Sharia, "which has shown disdain for state institutions, incited violence against them and poses a threat to public security".

Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said on Saturday the group was linked to terrorism. The same day, the regional arm of al Qaeda issued a statement urging Ansar al-Sharia to defy the government crackdown.

The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist statements, said al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb encouraged the Tunisian Islamists to continue their "good steps" and beware of provocations by the government.

Ansar al-Sharia said police had arrested its spokesman Saifeddine Rais, but it was not clear where or when. A security source confirmed he had been detained.

The group's leader Saifallah Benahssine, also known as Abu Iyadh, is a former al Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan and is wanted by police for allegedly inciting an attack on the U.S. embassy in September. Four people were killed in those disturbances, which began as a protest over a film that mocked the Prophet Mohammad.

In a separate development in Kairouan on Sunday, the interior ministry said a woman had been arrested for placing a feminist banner on the wall of a mosque and trying to expose her breasts.

The activist, named Amina, had sparked controversy in recent months by publishing nude images on Facebook and writing on her chest: "My body belongs to me and not the honor of others".

(Additional reporting by Mohamed Argoubi, Anis Mili and Zoubier Souissi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisian-police-fire-air-disperse-islamists-105135346.html

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AP PHOTOS: Palestinians in Egypt exiled, forgotten

GEZIRAT AL-FADEL, Egypt (AP) ? In 1948, Suleiman Mamoudi fled by foot with his parents and other families from their village of Bir el-Sabae in Palestine. The 28-year-old and his family walked west for several hundred miles, crossing the Sinai Peninsula before settling in an area around 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Cairo.

They had not planned to stay long in Egypt's Sharqiya province, until they found themselves unable to return home after the Jewish takeover of their city, renamed Beersheba.

Mamoudi, now 93 years old, is among some 3,000 Palestinians living in the impoverished village of Gezirat al-Fadel. He spends his days sitting on a cushion on the ground outside his sparsely furnished two-bedroom, mud brick home. The dirt roads make it difficult for him to walk with his cane.

He lives with his 13 children and 28 grandchildren. Like his neighbors, they sleep on mats spread in the corridors of the house.

His neighbor, Khadra Mohammed, 52, lives in a 540 sq. foot (50 sq. meter) mud brick house with 19 of her family members. Inside one of the rooms is a rickety bed and a fan hanging from a ceiling covered with spider webs.

Mamoudi has seen three generations of Palestinians from Bir el-Sabae born here without access to free education and health care, a right afforded to Egyptians. He says their plight is forgotten and the area they live in ignored.

As Palestinians around the world recently marked the 65th anniversary of their mass displacement during the war over Israel's 1948 creation, the refugees in Gezirat al-Fadel say they have it worse than others who fled to Jordan, Syria or Lebanon. Unlike the millions who live in refugee camps there, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) does not have offices in Egypt and so does not offer Palestinians in the country assistance.

For residents here, there is no foreseeable return from the "nakba" or "catastrophe" ? the term they use to describe when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes during the fighting.

The Palestinians of Gezirat al-Fadel have had to fend for themselves, and are not allowed to hold public sector jobs.

The vast majority of adults and children are illiterate, unable to afford even the low-cost of a nearby government-run school. Many of the children, barefoot with torn clothes, spend their days helping adults sift through garbage to find what can be recycled, one of the few ways to earn a meager living in this tiny village.

Others work in nearby farms and are paid in wheat grains for their work. The women then sift the wheat and grind it by hand to make bread.

A typical home has a roof made out of straw and palm leaves. Some families have old refrigerators, while others do not. The homes have no kitchens, so women cook on small, portable gas stove top burners. They rock toddlers to sleep in a blanket that is tied from all four corners by a rope slung over the shoulder.

They are a tightknit community and intermarriage between first cousins is common, leading to birth defects among many of the village's children. One family has two deaf children, but lacks the funds to offer the young girls the special care they require.

While many know nothing more of life beyond Gezirat al-Fadel, they say they have not lost their connection to Bir el-Sabae. They say they dream of returning to their land in hopes of living a more dignified life and leaving behind this almost forgotten corner of Egypt, a nation already burdened by a population boom and widespread poverty.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-palestinians-egypt-exiled-forgotten-174824563.html

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10 Things to Know about the Preakness _ and beyond

Steam rises from Kentucky Derby winner Orb as a groom washes him after a workout at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Preakness Stakes entrant Goldencents with jockey Kevin Krigger aboard, walks the track at Pimlico Race Course Friday, May 17, 2013 in Baltimore. At right on the pony is assistant trainer Jack Sisterson. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled for Saturday. (AP Photo/Garry Jones)

Arnold Velasquez walks Preakness Stakes favorite Orb in the shed row after a morning gallop at Pimlico Race Course Friday, May 17, 2013 in Baltimore. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled for Saturday. (AP Photo/Garry Jones)

Kentucky Derby winner Orb stands as he is cooled down after a workout at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Preakness Stakes horse race is scheduled to take place May 18. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

BALTIMORE (AP) ? There are only two outcomes when it comes to Saturday's Preakness Stakes ? either the Kentucky Derby winner Orb wins the race to set up a Triple Crown try in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks, or another horse pulls an upset and prevents a shot at history.

With that in mind, here are 10 things to know about the Preakness ? and beyond.

___

1. ELEVEN HAVE DONE IT. Starting in 1919 with Sir Barton, 11 horses have won the Triple Crown, sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Orb will be trying to become the 34th horse with a Triple Crown chance. Of the horses who failed, 19 didn't win the Belmont and three didn't make the race, including I'll Have Another in 2012. Last year's Derby and Preakness winner was scratched the day before the Belmont with a tendon injury and retired.

2. INSIDE SLOT. Orb leaves from the No. 1 post in the Preakness, not among the most popular places to start. Since 1961, only one horse ? Tabasco Cat in 1994 ? has won from the rail.

3. SECOND CHANCERS AND NEW SHOOTERS. Kentucky Derby winner Orb will be facing five familiar foes from the Derby and three new shooters. The Derby five are Mylute, Oxbow, Will Take Charge, Itsmyluckyday and Goldencents; the fresh faces are Departing, Govenor Charlie and Titletown Five.

4. SHORTER DISTANCE. The Preakness distance is 1 3-16 miles, a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby, and five sixteenths shorter than the 1?-mile Belmont Stakes, called the Test of the Champion. The longer distance is considered one of the major reasons why Triple tries are thwarted. In recent years, two horses who won the Preakness convincingly ? Funny Cide by 9? lengths in 2003 and Smarty Jones by a record 11? lengths in 2004 ? fell short in the Belmont. Funny Cide was a length off the lead with a quarter mile to go and finished third; Smarty Jones was passed in the final 70 yards by Birdstone.

5. A NICE REBOUND. Goldencents and Co. are looking for a little Preakness history. If the horse wins, he will top Louis Quatorze for the best rebound from the Derby. In 1996, Louis Quatorze finished 16th in the Derby and won the Preakness two weeks later. Goldencents was 17th in the Derby. A win would make Kevin Krigger the first black jockey to win the race since Willie Simms with Sly Fox in 1898, and it would make Doug O'Neill the first back-to-back Preakness winning trainer since Bob Baffert in 2001 and 2002.

6. THREE CHANCES. D. Wayne Lukas has one-third of the field in the nine-horse Preakness. The 77-year-old trainer is seeking his sixth Preakness win, which would break a second-place tie with Bob Baffert and Thomas J. Healey. The leader is Robert Wyndham Walden with seven, including five in a row starting in 1878. Lukas also is seeking a record 14th win in Triple Crown race win, which would put him one ahead of "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons. Lukas trains Oxbow, Will Take Charge and Titletown Five.

7. ROSIE'S RUN. Rosie Napravnik will be aboard 5-1 second choice Mylute. A win would make the rider who started her career in Maryland the first female to win the Preakness. She posted the best finish for a female rider in the Derby when Mylute ran fifth.

8. HOF LINEUP. There are a half-dozen Hall of Famers in the Preakness. The trainers are Shug McGaughey (Orb), D. Wayne Lukas (Oxbow, Will Take Charge and Titletown Five) and Bob Baffert (Govenor Charlie); the jockeys are Gary Stevens (Oxbow), Mike Smith (Will Take Charge) and John Velazquez (Itsmyluckyday).

9. THE GREATEST. The fastest Preakness was run by 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat. Big Red won in 1:53. By comparison, last year's winner I'll Have Another won in 1:55.94. For those looking ahead, Secretariat also has the record for the Belmont, covering the 1? miles in 2:24. The second-fastest time is 2:26 by Easy Goer in 1989 and A.P. Indy in 1992. Union Rags won last year in 2:30.42.

10. THE DISAPPOINTMENTS. If Orb wins the Preakness, he will become the ninth horse since Silver Charm in 1997 to have a chance at the Triple Crown. The others who missed after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness were (Real Quiet, 1998), Charismatic (1999), War Emblem (2002), Funny Cide (2003), Smarty Jones (2004), Big Brown (2008) and I'll Have Another (2012), who never made the race because of an injury.

___

Follow Richard Rosenblatt on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/rosenblattap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-18-Preakness-10%20Things%20to%20Know/id-2b531cf5248848c2be83c81e99117409

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