Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/16/gary-oldman-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Gary Oldman Calls 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' Role 'Colossal'
Taking on the role of John le Carré's master spy, George Smiley, involves navigating two enormous obstacles. First, the legendary Alec Guinness claimed the character for himself in the beloved BBC miniseries of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" from 1979. Second, outside the more descriptive world of the novels, Smiley is a mystery, a silent, poker-faced [...]
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Mexican city to begin countdown for Dec. 21, 2012
MEXICO CITY?? A city in southern Mexico wants to live each moment as if it were the last.
-
Only on msnbc.com
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- Chinese hail Bale's 'Pandaman vs. Batman!'
Tourism officials in Tapachula have installed a digital clock to count down the time left before the Dec. 21, 2012, solstice, when some believe the Mayan long-count calendar "runs out."
The clock will be started this Dec. 21, a year before what many see as an apocalyptic event.
Chiapas state tourism regional director Manolo Alfonso Pinot said Friday that Mayan priests will perform a ceremony at the nearby archaeological site of Izapa.
Maya experts say the apocalypse fears are a misreading of Maya texts that mention the date, saying the Mayan considered it the end of one calendar cycle and the beginning of another.
Pinot said he does not believe the world will end, but looks at it as a sort of beginning, in the business sense at least.
"I look at this as an opportunity for rebirth. A lot of people know they can fill their body with energy if they come to these exceptional sites," he said. "If people are interested, we have to take advantage of this."
Tapachula, best known as a gritty border town crossed by Central American migrants en route to the United States, is not a popular Mayan tourism destination. But nearby Izapa is a place where many stelae have been found, including the "Tree of Life" stone.
But at Izapa, close to the Tajumulco volcano, Pinot says a Mesoamerican ball court, a carved stone and the throne of the Izapa ruler face a straight line that on Dec. 21, 2012 is expected to align with the planets.
"It is hard to say what you will be able to see that day," he said.
The doomsday theories stem from a pair of tablets with inscriptions that describe the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period of 400 years, which falls on Dec. 21, 2012.
Experts say the date is the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C., and the start of another.
___
Follow Adriana Gomez Licon on Twitter at http://twitter.com/agomezlicon
Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this story.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45700577/ns/travel-destination_travel/
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Meizu's Hong Kong store opens today, teases mainland Chinese fans with lower MX price
As per Meizu's usual elusive ways, this morning the company quietly opened its Hong Kong flagship store -- the first-ever official Meizu shop outside mainland China. And like its mainland counterparts, we're told that the new shop will be offering the MX Android handset on January 1st as well but with one significant difference: due to the lower local tax, the 16GB MX will be priced at just HK$3,099 (US$398), which is much lower than the CN¥2,999 (US$470) price in mainland. Great, looks like we'll be expecting some lines in the heart of Mongkok in about two weeks' time.
Meizu's Hong Kong store opens today, teases mainland Chinese fans with lower MX price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Engadget Chinese | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/15/meizus-hong-kong-store-opens-today-teases-mainland-chinese-fan/
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In third-degree burn treatment, hydrogel helps grow new, scar-free skin
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue.
In the Dec. 12-16 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reported their promising results from mouse tissue tests. The new treatment has not yet been tested on human patients. But the researchers say the procedure, which promotes the formation of new blood vessels and skin, including hair follicles, could lead to greatly improved healing for injured soldiers, home fire victims and other people with third-degree burns.
The treatment involved a simple wound dressing that included a specially designed hydrogel -- a water-based, three-dimensional framework of polymers. This material was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering, working with clinicians at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Burn Center and the Department of Pathology at the university's School of Medicine.
Third-degree burns typically destroy the top layers of skin down to the muscle. They require complex medical care and leave behind ugly scarring. But in the journal article, the Johns Hopkins team reported that their hydrogel method yielded better results. "This treatment promoted the development of new blood vessels and the regeneration of complex layers of skin, including hair follicles and the glands that produce skin oil," said Sharon Gerecht, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who was principal investigator on the study.
Gerecht said the hydrogel could form the basis of an inexpensive burn wound treatment that works better than currently available clinical therapies, adding that it would be easy to manufacture on a large scale. Gerecht suggested that because the hydrogel contains no drugs or biological components to make it work, the Food and Drug Administration would most likely to classify it as a device. Further animal testing is planned before trials on human patients begin. But Gerecht said, "It could be approved for clinical use after just a few years of testing."
John Harmon, a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of surgical research at Bayview, described the mouse study results as "absolutely remarkable. We got complete skin regeneration, which never happens in typical burn wound treatment."
If the treatment succeeds in human patients, it could address a serious form of injury. Harmon, a coauthor of the PNAS journal article, pointed out that 100,000 third-degree burns are treated every year in U. S. burn centers like Bayview's. A burn wound dressing using the new hydrogel could have enormous potential for use in applications beyond common burns, including treatment of diabetic patients with foot ulcers, Harmon said.
Guoming Sun, a Maryland Stem Cell Research Postdoctoral Fellow in Gerecht's lab and lead author on the paper, has been working with these hydrogels for the past three years, developing ways to improve the growth of blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. "Our goal was to induce the growth of functional new blood vessels within the hydrogel to treat wounds and ischemic disease, which reduces blood flow to organs like the heart," Sun said. "These tests on burn injuries just proved its potential."
Gerecht says the hydrogel is constructed in such a way that it allows tissue regeneration and blood vessel formation to occur very quickly. "Inflammatory cells are able to easily penetrate and degrade the hydrogel, enabling blood vessels to fill in and support wound healing and the growth of new tissue," she said. For burns, the faster this process occurs, Gerecht added, the less there is a chance for scarring.
Originally, her team intended to load the gel with stem cells and infuse it with growth factors to trigger and direct the tissue development. Instead, they tested the gel alone. "We were surprised to see such complete regeneration in the absence of any added biological signals," Gerecht said.
Sun added, "Complete skin regeneration is desired for various wound injuries. With further fine-tuning of these kinds of biomaterial frameworks, we may restore normal skin structures for other injuries such as skin ulcers."
Gerecht and Harmon say they don't fully understand how the hydrogel dressing is working. After it is applied, the tissue progresses through the various stages of wound repair, Gerecht said. After 21 days, the gel has been harmlessly absorbed, and the tissue continues to return to the appearance of normal skin.
The hydrogel is mainly made of water with dissolved dextran, a polysaccharide (sugar molecule chains). "It also could be that the physical structure of the hydrogel guides the repair," Gerecht said. Harmon speculates that the hydrogel may recruit circulating bone marrow stem cells in the bloodstream. Stem cells are special cells that can grow into practically any sort of tissue if provided with the right chemical cue. "It's possible the gel is somehow signaling the stem cells to become new skin and blood vessels," Harmon said.
###
Johns Hopkins University: http://www.jhu.edu
Thanks to Johns Hopkins University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Jumping right in...
Hi Everyone,
I'm AmphiSoap, or just Amp for short. I have a bit of experience roleplaying here and there, but I have to say that I've never seen the complex system they seem to have here! I'm really excited (and a little intimidated to tell you the truth) to get to know everyone and start writing. :D
So... Jumping right in after my short introduction, here is my first question:
How exactly does this all work really? Er, well, I did read the general rules and guidelines but what I was more confused about was how you submit a character in for roleplaying.
I see a section where you can submit a character in, but I also see that all the roleplays I've looked at have their own character skeletons. So how exactly do you submit a character in? Do you copy the skeleton and fill it out, then paste it all into just the description section?
Hello, thank you, and your help (if applicable) is greatly appreciated!
-AmphiSoap-
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/LHmcPF7d6ZQ/viewtopic.php
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Johnny Depp sparks pre-Christmas outrage with Jesus song (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? If some Christian groups get their way, Johnny Depp will end up with a lump of coal in his stocking this Christmas.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star has enraged at least two religious organizations by contributing vocals to the song "Jesus Stag Night Club" by the British band Babybird.
The song, which recasts the Son of God as a booze-chugging party animal who revels in driving stolen cars and facilitating bachelor parties, begins with the lyrics, "Saw a man in a bar with his hair like a lady/ Bloody thorns round his ear like he was a crazy/ He had holes in his hands and a cross for a spine/ Crushed a berry in his Perrier and called it wine."
For some reason, this has raised the hackles of some religious folk.
Christian Coalition spokesperson Lee Douglas told British newspaper the Daily Star that the song is "blasphemy," adding that Depp is "simply a disgrace" for taking part in the song.
"One day, Johnny Depp and his cronies will face the judgment of our Lord and they will burn in hell for this filth," Douglas predicted.
The Focus on the Family organization was similarly condemnatory, telling the paper, "We are sickened by Mr. Depp's behavior. Why did he need to record this song?"
The song, according to Focus on the Family, is "a slap in the face to Christians all over the world."
Apparently, the whole "turn the other cheek" philosophy is just sooooooooooo first century.
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Global warming changes balance between parasite and host in fish -- new study
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 4-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dr. Iain Barber
ib50@le.ac.uk
44-116-252-3462
University of Leicester
Worms infecting fish grow 4 times faster at higher temperatures and manipulate the behavior of fish
Parasitic worms that infect fish, and have a devastating effect on fish reproduction, grow four times faster at higher temperatures providing some of the first evidence that global warming affects the interactions between parasites and their hosts.
The study from the University of Leicester revealed that global warming had the potential to change the balance between parasite and host - with potentially serious implications for fish populations.
The researchers from the University of Leicester's Department of Biology also observed behavioural change in infected fish suggesting parasites may manipulate host behaviour to make them seek out warmer temperatures.
And they discovered that whilst parasites grew faster in higher temperatures, the host's growth rate slowed.
"What we witnessed was that fish infected with the largest worms showed a preference for warmer water, suggesting that these parasites also manipulate the behaviour of host fish in ways that benefit the parasites by maximizing their growth rates," said Dr Iain Barber of the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester, who carried out the study with doctoral student Vicki Macnab.
The research, supported by funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), has been published today in the influential journal Global Change Biology.
Vicki said: "The research shows a dramatic effect of increased environmental temperatures on the growth rates of parasites in fish hosts. The size these parasites attain in their fish hosts determines how severely fish reproduction is affected, so our results suggest that parasite will have a more serious effect on fish reproduction if temperatures rise. In addition, our paper documents behavioural changes in infected fish that suggests the parasites are manipulating host behaviour to make them seek out warmer temperatures, creating a positive feedback mechanism to exacerbate the effects of global warming.
"This research shows that global warming could shift the balance between parasites and their hosts with potentially serious implications for fish populations."
The scientists found that parasitic worms infecting stickleback fish grew four times faster in experimentally infected sticklebacks raised at 20C than when raised at 15C.
In contrast, the fish grew more slowly at the higher temperature, suggesting that fish parasites cope with higher temperatures much better than the fish they infect.
Dr Barber said: "The results are important because the size these parasites attain in their fish hosts also determines their infectivity to fish-eating birds like kingfishers and herons the next hosts in the parasite's life cycle and also the number of parasite eggs that they will go on to produce. Bigger larval parasites in the fish go on to become larger adult worms in birds, which produce more eggs.
"After the 8 weeks of the study, all of the worms infecting the fish held at 20C were ready to infect fish-eating birds, whereas none of those held at the lower temperature had reached a size at which they were ready to be transmitted."
In a follow up study, the authors also showed that fish infected with the largest worms showed a preference for warmer water, suggesting that these parasites also manipulate the behaviour of host fish in ways that benefit the parasites and maximize their growth rates.
The results provide some of the first evidence that increasing environmental temperatures can lead to a shift in the delicate balance that exists between co-evolved hosts and parasites, increasing the speed with which parasites complete their life cycles that could lead to an increase in the overall level of parasitism in natural animal populations.
###
Hi-res Jpeg images of infected fish available from pressoffice@le.ac.uk
For more information, please contact:
Dr Iain Barber
Head of Department
Department of Biology
College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology
University of Leicester
Tel: +44(0)116 252 3462
email: ib50@le.ac.uk
Reference: Macnab, V. & Barber, I. (2011) Some (worms) like it hot: fish parasites grow faster in warmer water, and alter host thermal preferences. Global Change Biology in press. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02595.x
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02595.x
Affiliations: Vicki Macnab is a PhD student funded by the BBSRC and Cefas; Dr. Iain Barber is senior lecturer and Head of the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester.
About the BBSRC
BBSRC invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond.
Funded by Government, and with an annual budget of around 445M, we support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about BBSRC, our science and our impact see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
About Cefas
Cefas is an internationally renowned scientific research and advisory establishment. Operating as an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), it has been investigating marine and aquatic environments since 1902. It has two main laboratories, in Lowestoft and Weymouth, and works out of a number of port offices around the English coastline.
Cefas works alongside government and other agencies, both in the UK and internationally, to play a vital role in securing healthy marine and freshwater environments for everyone's well-being, health and prosperity. For more about its work and range of applied marine science, visit: www.cefas.defra.gov.uk
About the Journal
Global Change Biology exists to promote understanding of the interface between all aspects of current environmental change that affects a substantial part of the globe and biological systems. Studies must concern biological systems, regardless of whether they are aquatic or terrestrial, and managed or natural environments. Both biological responses and feedbacks to change are included, and may be considered at any level of organization from molecular to biome. Studies may employ theoretical, modeling, analytical, experimental, observational, and historical approaches and should be exploratory rather than confirmatory. GCB publishes primary research articles, technical advances, research reviews, commentaries and letters.
Journal URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2486
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 4-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dr. Iain Barber
ib50@le.ac.uk
44-116-252-3462
University of Leicester
Worms infecting fish grow 4 times faster at higher temperatures and manipulate the behavior of fish
Parasitic worms that infect fish, and have a devastating effect on fish reproduction, grow four times faster at higher temperatures providing some of the first evidence that global warming affects the interactions between parasites and their hosts.
The study from the University of Leicester revealed that global warming had the potential to change the balance between parasite and host - with potentially serious implications for fish populations.
The researchers from the University of Leicester's Department of Biology also observed behavioural change in infected fish suggesting parasites may manipulate host behaviour to make them seek out warmer temperatures.
And they discovered that whilst parasites grew faster in higher temperatures, the host's growth rate slowed.
"What we witnessed was that fish infected with the largest worms showed a preference for warmer water, suggesting that these parasites also manipulate the behaviour of host fish in ways that benefit the parasites by maximizing their growth rates," said Dr Iain Barber of the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester, who carried out the study with doctoral student Vicki Macnab.
The research, supported by funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), has been published today in the influential journal Global Change Biology.
Vicki said: "The research shows a dramatic effect of increased environmental temperatures on the growth rates of parasites in fish hosts. The size these parasites attain in their fish hosts determines how severely fish reproduction is affected, so our results suggest that parasite will have a more serious effect on fish reproduction if temperatures rise. In addition, our paper documents behavioural changes in infected fish that suggests the parasites are manipulating host behaviour to make them seek out warmer temperatures, creating a positive feedback mechanism to exacerbate the effects of global warming.
"This research shows that global warming could shift the balance between parasites and their hosts with potentially serious implications for fish populations."
The scientists found that parasitic worms infecting stickleback fish grew four times faster in experimentally infected sticklebacks raised at 20C than when raised at 15C.
In contrast, the fish grew more slowly at the higher temperature, suggesting that fish parasites cope with higher temperatures much better than the fish they infect.
Dr Barber said: "The results are important because the size these parasites attain in their fish hosts also determines their infectivity to fish-eating birds like kingfishers and herons the next hosts in the parasite's life cycle and also the number of parasite eggs that they will go on to produce. Bigger larval parasites in the fish go on to become larger adult worms in birds, which produce more eggs.
"After the 8 weeks of the study, all of the worms infecting the fish held at 20C were ready to infect fish-eating birds, whereas none of those held at the lower temperature had reached a size at which they were ready to be transmitted."
In a follow up study, the authors also showed that fish infected with the largest worms showed a preference for warmer water, suggesting that these parasites also manipulate the behaviour of host fish in ways that benefit the parasites and maximize their growth rates.
The results provide some of the first evidence that increasing environmental temperatures can lead to a shift in the delicate balance that exists between co-evolved hosts and parasites, increasing the speed with which parasites complete their life cycles that could lead to an increase in the overall level of parasitism in natural animal populations.
###
Hi-res Jpeg images of infected fish available from pressoffice@le.ac.uk
For more information, please contact:
Dr Iain Barber
Head of Department
Department of Biology
College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology
University of Leicester
Tel: +44(0)116 252 3462
email: ib50@le.ac.uk
Reference: Macnab, V. & Barber, I. (2011) Some (worms) like it hot: fish parasites grow faster in warmer water, and alter host thermal preferences. Global Change Biology in press. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02595.x
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02595.x
Affiliations: Vicki Macnab is a PhD student funded by the BBSRC and Cefas; Dr. Iain Barber is senior lecturer and Head of the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester.
About the BBSRC
BBSRC invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond.
Funded by Government, and with an annual budget of around 445M, we support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about BBSRC, our science and our impact see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
About Cefas
Cefas is an internationally renowned scientific research and advisory establishment. Operating as an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), it has been investigating marine and aquatic environments since 1902. It has two main laboratories, in Lowestoft and Weymouth, and works out of a number of port offices around the English coastline.
Cefas works alongside government and other agencies, both in the UK and internationally, to play a vital role in securing healthy marine and freshwater environments for everyone's well-being, health and prosperity. For more about its work and range of applied marine science, visit: www.cefas.defra.gov.uk
About the Journal
Global Change Biology exists to promote understanding of the interface between all aspects of current environmental change that affects a substantial part of the globe and biological systems. Studies must concern biological systems, regardless of whether they are aquatic or terrestrial, and managed or natural environments. Both biological responses and feedbacks to change are included, and may be considered at any level of organization from molecular to biome. Studies may employ theoretical, modeling, analytical, experimental, observational, and historical approaches and should be exploratory rather than confirmatory. GCB publishes primary research articles, technical advances, research reviews, commentaries and letters.
Journal URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2486
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uol-gwc120111.php
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Yoshikazu Tanaka On How Mobile Social Gaming Will Make GREE ...
One of the fastest growing companies in Japan right now is GREE, a publicly-traded mobile social gaming network with 900 employees and on track to generate $1.7 billion in annual revenues. I interviewed GREE founder and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka through an interpreter earlier this week at the TechCrunch Tokyo conference. Here are two videos from that interview. (You can watch a third video in my post today comparing GREE?s financials to Zynga?s).
In the video above, Tanaka talks about why he bought OpenFeint in the U.S. last April and how he wants to follow Nintendo in getting to 80 percent of revenues from outside Japan. But more than just follow Nintendo, he wants to displace it. Smartphones are replacing traditional gaming hardware and the games are different in that social features (playing with and against other people over the network) can trump graphics. ?Our goal is to make our brand just as successful, if not better, than Nintendo,? says Tanaka.
Tanaka tells me how he started GREE o a server in his apartment in 2004 in the longer video below. Originally, it was a PC-based social network (the Friendster of Japan), but he shifted to a mobile social network for games a few years later. Now 99 percent of GREE?s users are mobile. ?We believe the PC will get erased at some point,? he says matter-of-factly.
GREE is a Tokyo-based web services company that was founded in 2004 by then 26-year old Yoshikazu Tanaka. Before, Tanaka was responsible for operating the auctions operations for Rakuten, Japan?s biggest online shopping mall. The name GREE is derived from a sociological concept called ?Six Degrees of Separation?. The company?s flagship product is called GREE Mobile, a mix of social network and free casual gaming platform. GREE started social network services on the fixed Internet but ultimately lost to Mixi,...
Learn moreSource: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/02/tanaka-gree-next-nintendo/
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Goldilocks tablet: Why Amazon???s 7-inch Kindle Fire is 'just right' (Digital Trends)
The Kindle Fire is reported to be the top tablet at Best Buy this year, and Amazon is expected to sell 5 million in the fourth quarter against an estimated 13 million for the iPad. While Apple???s iPad remains the clear winner, if these projections hold up, the Kindle Fire will be the first tablet to come this close to challenging it.
The Fire has two clear differences to the iPad. The first is a dramatically lower price; you can effectively buy 2.5 Kindle Fires for the price of an iPad. The second is screen size; the Fire has a 7-inch screen, a size that most thought was a non-starter before it shipped. I?ve been using the Fire for two weeks now, exclusively on a three-day trip for entertainment, and I?m coming to love the 7-inch size. Let me explain.
Breaking Android?s user interface curse
Now before we talk about the size, one other aspect I haven?t yet mentioned causes the Fire to be a strong player. The user interface is arguably more advanced than either Apple?s or Amazon?s icon-based interfaces. Now, recognize that once you?ve learned any interface (from Windows to iOS) it becomes natural, but Amazon?s is one of the easiest out of the box. Apple?s iOS interface was the clearly a step up when it launched from what Apple had previously, and Apple historically set the bar with regard to ease of use. Most Android offerings seem to go down a path of imitating Apple, but with more flexibility. This flexibility tended to translate into complexity. Vendors tried different ways to overcome this, but most just seemed to make their products more unique, and therefore even more difficult to use. Given that Apple set the bar high with tablets, these products would generally be pounded for anything that was different and particularly inferior. On top of that, Apple did such a great job of buying parts and locking up production that competitors couldn?t even get close to Apple?s hardware cost. Most products just couldn?t compete.
It became clear that someone had to reset the bar (be massively different in a good way) and try to outdo Apple in user experience. Amazon is the first vendor to do both, and while the Kindle Fire did make some painful tradeoffs, it appears to be doing better than any other Android product in this space as a result.
I think what Android vendors didn?t initially understand was that first they had to stand out from Android rabble, because all the products were increasingly being painted with the same brush of disappointment. Amazon did that well.
The 7-inch tablet
The best part of a 7-inch tablet is that it will fit in an inside jacket pocket or in a woman?s purse. No, I don?t carry a man purse, but this is why my wife will carry the Kindle Fire out of the house, but generally leaves her iPad at home. In my case, this frees up my hands for the other crap I have to carry, and makes it less likely I leave it behind once I get used the weight of the device in the pocket. (It seems much easier to leave behind something you are carrying and tend to put down all the time). In watching movies, the lightness of the product is handy when you don?t have a table to set the thing down on, and a case that has a kickstand is helpful (and generally available) for both sizes of product when you do. 
When it comes to glare and outdoor viewing, which is pretty much a problem with all current-generation tablets (at least until the Panasonic Toughpad ships), I found it is easier to find an angle where I can continue to use the tablet with the smaller size. This is largely because it fits in smaller shadows, and it?s light enough that I can hold it at odd angles in order to see the screen. On a plane, it actually fits in the shadow under the window, which is generally too small for a 10-inch product.
Now, for anything to do with productivity (including email), this product is at a disadvantage, but a better alternative to a smartphone. Still, I found that when it came to getting work done, I went back to my smartphone or laptop virtually all of the time. The Kindle fire was relegated to reading books, watching videos, and some Web browsing (where it is dramatically better than a smartphone, but nowhere near as good as a laptop).
The perfect third device
If you are like me and carry three devices (a smartphone, laptop, and then something for entertainment), the 7-inch form factor is better third device. Its size and weight allow it to drop in the gap between your other devices. 10-inch tablets are too similar to notebooks, which make them better if you want to leave the notebook behind, but too big and heavy if you, like me, have to carry a notebook anyway. They still don?t do all I need to comfortably leave my notebook behind. One thing I have noticed (which will be a long-term issue with ever leaving my notebook behind) is that 10-inch screens are just too small for me. I struggled with 11.3-inch and 12-inch laptops as well (currently I?m using a 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1), which suggests I?ll never be able to live on a tablet, and the 13-inch tablets I?ve tried over the years are just not practical. This suggests, at least for the next three to five years, I?ll be a three-device user, and that 7 inches may be the ideal tablet size for me.?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
More from Digital Trends
Opinion: Is the Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire or Apple iPad right for you?
Our Kindle Fire impressions and why Amazon is destined to dominate
Amazon?s tablet will be named the Kindle Fire
WSJ: Amazon tablet due in October
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US official: Taiwan has role in international aid (AP)
TAIPEI, Taiwan ? The visiting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development says Taiwan has a role to play in helping Washington and other governments help disaster victims and the poor around the world.
USAID administrator Rajiv Shah met Friday with President Ma Ying-jeou. He also spoke with representatives from the foreign, health and defense ministries on finding ways to work together on issues including disaster response, health care, and global food security.
While the U.S. transferred recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, it maintains close ties with the democratic island and is its main source of foreign military assistance.
Shah is one of the most senior American officials to visit Taiwan in recent years.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Republicans find no easy ways to protect military (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republicans are struggling to find ways to protect the U.S. military from spending cuts but there is no clear path to do so as the United States strains to rein in its massive budget deficits.
Democratic President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any attempts to undo the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts that go into effect in 2013 after the "super committee" of lawmakers failed to reach a deficit reduction deal this month.
Half of the cuts would hit defense, with the other half spread across the government's domestic programs.
Republicans anxious to safeguard the Pentagon are now looking for other ways of slowing the growth of the country's $15 trillion public debt.
But with no easy options, Republicans face the same problems that stymied the congressional debt panel: how to clear a path to fiscal prosperity without raising taxes and making cuts to programs for the elderly and disabled?
"The same dynamics that prevented a super committee deal - Republican intransigence on revenue and Democratic demands that revenue be used to balance further (spending) cuts - will be in play for any effort to selectively water down the sequester," said Ryan McConaghy, director of the economic program at centrist think tank Third Way.
Sequester refers to the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are due to begin in 2013 since the super committee could not find a better way to cut deficits.
Lawmakers such as Buck McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, have vowed to introduce legislation to kill the military cuts. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are working on a bill to undo at least some of them.
They have yet to introduce legislation, though, and it is unclear whether their proposals would try to offset the defense cuts with other deficit reduction measures.
Although bills to kill the automatic cuts would have a good chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Senate Republicans would have to convince 19 Democrats to join them in order to get the 66 votes required to override any veto by Obama.
Tossing out the automatic budget cuts would play badly with financial markets, which are keen to see a commitment on deficit reduction, and would raise the specter of another U.S. debt downgrade. The super committee's failure did not trigger a ratings cut, but one of the big agencies, Fitch Ratings, warned that the United States would have to find a plan to tackle its deficit before 2013 or risk a credit downgrade.
"We need to ensure that we are on a track that is fiscally sustainable. The sequester is to get the $1.2 trillion objective that was necessary to increase the debt limit so we could pay our bills," said Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
Hoyer was referring to congressional approval in August of an increase in U.S. borrowing authority that was coupled with assurances of significant spending cuts, including defense.
AMENDING BILLS, PLAYING TO THE PUBLIC
Republicans could try to protect the Pentagon by inserting such language into bills Democrats are keen to pass, such as an extension of the payroll tax cuts. But that strategy is rife with procedural and political problems, the least of which is an Obama veto.
Even if lawmakers were to try to shift cuts around through the budget appropriations process, Congress only appropriates funds one year at a time, leaving nine years of potential military budget cuts in play.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, focused on January 2013, as the best opportunity for changing the makeup of the automatic spending cuts.
He said that once the automatic spending cuts are triggered at the start of 2013, lawmakers can propose alternative ways of achieving the $1.2 trillion in savings and such legislation would not face procedural roadblocks in the Senate that otherwise can stop bills dead in their tracks.
"I'm not for turning the sequester off. I oppose that. I'm for replacing the savings in a way that's smarter," Ryan told Reuters on Wednesday. He added: "There's a very good case this goes too far in defense" spending cuts.
The Pentagon said it expects to cut more than $450 billion from its budget over 10 years as part of this summer's deal to raise the country's debt ceiling.
After the super committee's failure, the military will have to start working on an extra $600 billion in cuts over the same period. Analysts such as Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute said cuts would translate into job losses at weapons firms in swing states like Pennsylvania. That, he said, could hurt Obama's reelection bid.
Democrats have zeroed in on the defense budget, which has nearly doubled over the past decade to an estimated $671 billion for this fiscal year, dwarfing other departments and consuming a good chunk of the total U.S. budget.
Republicans and other military backers may have an ally in Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who has characterized the potential cuts as devastating, and in states with a large defense industry presence such as Florida and Virginia.
"If you want to look at the election pragmatically, there are a lot of states where the idea of gutting defense would be very unpopular," said Potomac Research policy analyst Greg Valliere.
Already, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and other Republican presidential hopefuls have lashed out against the defense cuts and called Obama as weak on national security. They're hoping to put a chink in what otherwise is a strong Obama record that includes the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden and aggressive pursuit of terrorists.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Tom Ferraro ; editing by Ros Krasny and Cynthia Osterman)
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