Thursday, February 28, 2013

Countries With More Sugar in Food Supply Have More Diabetes ...

sugar OS61855 Countries With More Sugar in Food Supply Have More Diabetes

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) ? It?s a common belief that type 2 diabetes is caused by eating too much sugar. While it?s not nearly that simple, a new study bolsters the connection between the disorder and sugar consumption.

The study found that even when researchers factored obesity out, an association still remained between the amount of sugar in the food supply and a country?s rate of diabetes.

?The old mantra that ?a calorie is a calorie? is probably naive,? said study lead author Dr. Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University. ?Some calories may be more metabolically harmful than others, and sugar calories appear to have remarkably potent properties that make us concerned about their long-term metabolic effects. This study also suggests that obesity alone may not be the only issue in [the development of] diabetes.?

Results of the study are published Feb. 27 in the journal PLoS One.

The prevalence of diabetes in the world has more than doubled over the last 30 years, according to study background information. That means nearly one in 10 adults in the world has diabetes, and most of those have type 2 diabetes. (The less-common type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that?s not related to food intake.)

Although the development of type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity and sedentary lifestyles, not everyone with type 2 diabetes is overweight, according to the American Diabetes Association. A genetic susceptibility to the disease is also believed to play a role.

Previous research has suggested that obesity isn?t the only driver in the development of type 2 disease, and some studies have pinpointed excessive sugar intake, particularly sugars added to processed foods.

To get an idea of whether sugar plays an independent role in type 2 diabetes, Basu and his colleagues reviewed data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization on the availability of foods in 175 countries. They also obtained data on the prevalence of diabetes in adults from the International Diabetes Federation.

Using statistical methods to tease out certain factors, such as obesity, the researchers found that the availability of sugar in the diet was linked to diabetes. For every additional 150 calories of sugar ? about the amount in a 12-ounce can of sweetened soda ? that were available per person daily, the prevalence of diabetes rose 1 percent in the population.

And, this rise was independent of obesity, physical activity and other factors that might contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes, the investigators found.

But, when the researchers looked at 150 additional calories per person a day from other sources, they found only a 0.1 percent rise in the rate of diabetes.

Basu said there are likely a number of ways that sugar might contribute directly to the development of diabetes, such as increasing insulin resistance and inflammation.

However, it?s important to note that this study doesn?t prove that sugar causes diabetes, it only found an association between them. Basu also noted that the study was done on a population level, so it doesn?t predict an individual?s risk of type 2 diabetes based on the amount of sugar consumed.

The study also wasn?t able to distinguish between types of sugar, such as high-fructose corn syrup or natural sugar. Other research has suggested that high-fructose corn syrup, in particular, may be linked to higher rates of diabetes. A recent study in the journal Global Public Health found that the rates of type 2 diabetes were 20 percent greater in countries where the use of high-fructose corn syrup was higher.

For its part, a sugar industry group agreed that the inability to differentiate between sugars was a significant limitation of the study.

?The correlation discussed in this paper relies on lumping together natural sugar with the man-made replacement, high-fructose corn syrup,? the Washington, D.C.-based Sugar Association said in a prepared statement. ?It is difficult to reconcile the correlation drawn between sugar and diabetes [in this study] given the fact that Americans are consuming far less natural sugar today than we were for most of the last 100 years,? they noted.

Meanwhile, Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said that type 2 diabetes is a complex disease, and that its development is multi-factorial. ?Eating a lot of sugar is not good, especially the sugar substitutes like fructose and sucrose. But, I wouldn?t underplay the importance of exercise and caloric intake,? Zonszein said.

?And, you have to have individuals who have a genetic abnormality first before you can have type 2 diabetes,? he added.

But, if you?ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, Zonszein said one of the most dramatic changes someone can make is to stop drinking sweetened drinks. ?When patients can stop drinking sugary drinks, their diabetes improves. It?s simple, and it makes a big difference,? he said.

More information

Learn more about type 2 diabetes from the American Diabetes Association.

HEALTHDAY Web XSmall Countries With More Sugar in Food Supply Have More Diabetes

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/02/27/countries-with-more-sugar-in-food-supply-have-more-diabetes/

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White House, Republicans dig in ahead of budget talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Positions hardened on Wednesday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders over the budget crisis even as they arranged to hold last-ditch talks to prevent harsh automatic spending cuts beginning this week.

Looking resigned to the $85 billion in "sequestration" cuts starting on Friday, government agencies began reducing costs and spelling out to employees how furloughs will work.

Expectations were low that a White House meeting on Friday between Obama and congressional leaders, including Republican foes, would produce any deal to avoid the cuts.

Speaking to a business group, Obama said the cuts could shave 0.6 percentage points or more from already anemic growth and urged executives to pressure Congress into compromising on a broad deficit reduction package.

"Whether that can be done in the next two days - I haven't seen things done in two days in Washington in quite some time," Obama told the Business Council, which is composed of chief executives of major U.S. corporations. "The good news is that the public is beginning to pay attention to this."

Public services across the country - from air traffic control to food safety inspections and education - might be disrupted if the cuts go ahead.

Put into law in 2011 as part of an earlier fiscal crisis, sequestration is unloved by both parties because of the economic pain it will cause, but the politicians cannot agree how to stop it.

A deal in Congress on less drastic spending cuts, perhaps with tax increases too, is needed by Friday to halt the sequestration reductions, which are split between social programs cherished by Democrats and defense spending championed by Republicans.

Obama stuck by his demand that Republicans accept tax increases in the form of eliminating tax loopholes enjoyed mostly by the wealthy as part of a balanced approach to avoiding sequestration.

"There is no alternative in the president's mind to balance," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Obama wants to end tax breaks for oil and gas companies and the lower "carried interest" tax rate enjoyed by hedge funds.

But Republicans who reluctantly agreed to raise income tax rates on the rich to avert the "fiscal cliff" crisis in December are in no mood for that.

"One thing Americans simply will not accept is another tax increase to replace spending reductions we already agreed to," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

In one of the first concrete effects of the cuts, the administration took the unusual step of freeing several hundred detained illegal immigrants because of the cost of holding them.

Republicans described that move by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a political stunt aimed at scaring them into agreeing to end the sequestration on Obama's terms.

The issue looked like it might become more controversial on Wednesday when the Associated Press reported that the Homeland Security Department official in charge of immigration enforcement and removal had announced his resignation on Tuesday just after news of the immigrants' releases came out.

But ICE said the report was "misleading." The official, Gary Mead, told ICE weeks ago of his retirement in April after 40 years of federal service, a spokeswoman said. Earlier, Carney denied the White House had ordered the immigrants' release.

Friday's White House meeting will include McConnell and the other key congressional leaders: Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and House Speaker John Boehner, the top U.S. Republican.

'BELATED FARCE'?

The chances of success were not high.

One congressional Republican aide criticized the White House for calling the meeting for the day the cuts were coming into effect. "Either someone needs to buy the White House a calendar, or this is just a - belated - farce. They ought to at least pretend to try."

Unlike during other fiscal fights in Congress, the stock market is taking the sequestration impasse calmly.

U.S. stocks rose, with major indexes posting their best daily gains since early January, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remained steadfast in supporting the Fed's stimulus policy and data pointed to economic improvement.

On Thursday, the Senate is expected to vote on competing Democratic and Republican ideas for replacing the sequestration. Both measures are expected to be defeated.

The Republican plan unveiled late on Wednesday would let the sequestration go into effect on Friday, but require Obama to submit an alternative $85 billion spending reduction plan to Congress by March 15, thus allowing more flexibility on how the cuts would be carried out.

Congress would have until March 22 to reject the proposal, in which case the original sequestration would remain in place. Democrats were still studying it. But on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said new revenues needed to be part of any substitute plan.

The Democratic proposal would replace the across-the-board cuts mainly with tax increases on the rich coupled with spending cuts. Some of those would be achieved by eliminating crop subsidies for large agricultural companies. More savings would be through minor defense cuts in later years.

Republicans have vowed to block any tax increases for deficit reduction.

Bernanke said sequestration was too drastic an approach for reducing the budget deficit.

"What I am advising is a more gradual approach. I'm not saying we should ignore the deficit. I am not saying we shouldn't deal with long-term fiscal issues, but I think that from the perspective of our recovery, a more gradual approach would be constructive," he told a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

Among many warnings from the Obama administration of possible damage to public services, the Air Force said its Thunderbirds exhibition flying team is expected to be grounded if sequestration happens.

The Pentagon will put most of its 800,000 civilian employees on unpaid leave for 22 days, slash ship and aircraft maintenance and curtail training.

But the full weight of sequestration will take place over seven months, allowing Obama and the Republicans time to work out a deal after the cuts begin this week.

White House spokesman Carney said sequestration would officially start just before midnight on Friday night if no deal were reached.

Government agencies began to tell employees how sequestration will force them to take furloughs. The Environmental Protection Agency acting head, Bob Perciasepe, told employees in an email that the agency did not know how much of its budget will be cut but it was working on an estimate of 5 percent.

"What might that mean for our employees? If the sequester order requires a 5.0% cut, the impact could be up to 13 furlough days," he said. That would likely mean four furlough days by June 1, he said.

(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal, Rick Cowan and Valerie Volcovici; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Lisa Shumaker and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-republicans-dig-ahead-budget-talks-004031612--business.html

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Adobe outs Photoshop Touch for phones, ready to outfit pockets for $4.99

Adobe outs Photoshop Touch for phones, ready to outfit pockets for $4.99

Jealous about your mates' ability to edit photos and whatnot via their mid-sized slates? Well, Adobe has just announced a solution that's ready to equip your handset of choice. That's right, the pro design software outfit added Photoshop Touch for phones that wields "core" Photoshop capabilities, Scribble Selection and supports those high-res snapshots. The app also sports Camera Fill and other special effects alongside the option to share creations via Facebook, Twitter, email and other applications. Creative Cloud access is here as well, with auto syncing across a device arsenal and a free 2GB storage account to boot. For iOS, you'll need an iPhone 4S, 5th-gen iPod touch or later to get in on the action while the Android version requires Ice Cream Sandwich. Ready to take the leap? A $5 purchase from iTunes or Google Play stands between you and slice of Adobe on that GS III or iPhone 5.

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Comments

Source: Adobe

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/adobe-photoshop-touch-for-phones/

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1 of 2 missing State Police dogs is found safe | NOLA.com

missing-state-police-dogs

State Police dogs Bruno, left and Luke. Luke has been found, but Bruno was still missing Tuesday night. (Photo by State Police)

State Police were searching for two missing police dogs Tuesday night, but one was found unharmed a short time after the missing report went out. The dogs were missing from the Bent Tree area in Marrero, said Trooper Melissa Matey, a spokeswoman for State Police.

Both dogs are Belgian Malinois with reddish-brown fur. One, named Bruno, is about 75 pounds, while the other, named Luke, is about 55 pounds. Luke was found at a nearby SPCA shelter, safe and sound. Hoever, Bruno is still missing, Matey said.

Police ask anyone with information on the whereabouts of the police dog to call State Police Troop B at 504.471.2775.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/02/1_of_2_missing_state_police_do.html

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Naming Pluto's moon 'Vulcan' only logical, says William Shatner

William Shatner proposed 'Vulcan' as the name of one of Pluto's recently discovered moons, and more than 100,000 'Star Trek' fans seem to concur.

By Miriam Kramer,?SPACE.com / February 25, 2013

A pair of small moons orbiting Pluto named Nix and Hydra were discovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. The two moons are roughly 5,000 times fainter than Pluto and are about two to three times farther from Pluto than its large moon,

NASA

Enlarge

For William Shatner, the actor who portrayed "Star Trek" captain James T. Kirk, naming one of Pluto's moons "Vulcan" is the only logical choice, and more than 100,000 apparent Trek fans agree.?

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Shatner proposed "Vulcan" as a potential?name for one of Pluto's moons, the recently discovered P4 and P5, as part of the Pluto Rocks contest launched by the SETI Institute on Feb. 11. Now, Vulcan?? which on Star Trek is the home planet of Kirk's pointy-eared first officer Spock?? has a commanding lead worthy of Kirk, it seems.

"I think we are over 100k votes for Vulcan on PlutoRocks.com that's wonderful!," Shatner wrote from his Twitter, @WilliamShatner yesterday (Feb. 19).

Vulcan is currently in the lead, taking more than 100,000 of the 325,800 votes cast. Cerberus and Styx are running in second and third with about 75,000 and 70,000 votes respectively, but officials at SETI will take other factors into consideration when deciding what to name the moons.??[See photos of Pluto and its moons]

Shatner also suggested that SETI add Romulus ? the Roman god of fire and the twin brother of Remus in the Roman foundation myth ? to the list of possibilities, but?SETI officials nixed that name because it was also the name of an asteroid's moon elsewhere in the solar system. In Star Trek lore, Romulus is the home planet of the Romulan alien race.?

Pluto has five moons?that astronomers currently know of. Scientists first caught sight of Pluto's largest moon Charon in 1978, but it was not until 2005 that astronomers discovered two other moons (Nix and Hydra) using the Hubble Space Telescope.

The moon P5 was discovered in 2012, also using the Hubble telescope. The moon P4 was discovered in 2011.

Once?voting on the Pluto Rocks website?closes on Feb. 25, SETI will review the contest and make recommendations for naming P4 and P5. Ultimately, the International Astronomical Union is responsible for naming the moons. While the IAU will take the contest results into consideration, the organization still has final say over what the tiny moons are named.

A new batch of written-in names was also added to the list on Feb. 14, two days after Vulcan was accepted on Feb. 12.

"By the way, if you are a fan of one of our eight most recent additions to the ballot, please don't give up!" Mark Showalter of SETI wrote in a blog on Feb. 18. "They may be way behind in the voting, but we realize that they had a big disadvantage by not appearing till Thursday. A late surge of support is something we would surely notice."

SETI's Pluto moon name voting polls will remain open on?plutorocks.com?until 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on Feb. 25.

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?

Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/O_0RR8TSHSI/Naming-Pluto-s-moon-Vulcan-only-logical-says-William-Shatner

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Watch Jessie Ware Perform In A Flower Shop For Yours Truly

We?ve seen quite a few of our favorite females singing in odd places in the past couple months ? there was Sky Ferreira on a boat and Solange in the back of a cab ? and now comes another Idolator favorite,?Jessie Ware. The British singer linked up with?Yours Truly?in San Francisco for stripped-down performance?of her cover of ?What You Won?t Do For Love? in a flower shop.

Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, Ware?impressed us once again?with the sneaky power of her vocals. Since they were in a flower shop (or maybe that?s why they were in a flower shop?), Ware talked about past loves ? namely, that she often found herself in the friend zone with all her good-looking male friends, a victim of unrequited love. Ware said bittersweet songs are her favorite, so you can see why she covered this one on her EP?If You?re Never Gonna Move.

Source: http://idolator.com/7443428/jessie-ware-flower-shop-yours-truly-video

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Rethinking wind power

Monday, February 25, 2013

"People have often thought there's no upper bound for wind power?that it's one of the most scalable power sources," says Harvard applied physicist David Keith. After all, gusts and breezes don't seem likely to "run out" on a global scale in the way oil wells might run dry.

Yet the latest research in mesoscale atmospheric modeling, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, suggests that the generating capacity of large-scale wind farms has been overestimated.

Each wind turbine creates behind it a "wind shadow" in which the air has been slowed down by drag on the turbine's blades. The ideal wind farm strikes a balance, packing as many turbines onto the land as possible, while also spacing them enough to reduce the impact of these wind shadows. But as wind farms grow larger, they start to interact, and the regional-scale wind patterns matter more.

Keith's research has shown that the generating capacity of very large wind power installations (larger than 100 square kilometers) may peak at between 0.5 and 1 watts per square meter. Previous estimates, which ignored the turbines' slowing effect on the wind, had put that figure at between 2 and 7 watts per square meter.

In short, we may not have access to as much wind power as scientists thought.

An internationally renowned expert on climate science and technology policy, Keith holds appointments as Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and as Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Coauthor Amanda S. Adams was formerly a postdoctoral fellow with Keith and is now assistant professor of geography and Earth sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

"One of the inherent challenges of wind energy is that as soon as you start to develop wind farms and harvest the resource, you change the resource, making it difficult to assess what's really available," says Adams.

But having a truly accurate estimate matters, of course, in the pursuit of carbon-neutral energy sources. Solar, wind, and hydro power, for example, could all play roles in fulfilling energy needs that are currently met by coal or oil.

"If wind power's going to make a contribution to global energy requirements that's serious, 10 or 20 percent or more, then it really has to contribute on the scale of terawatts in the next half-century or less," says Keith.

If we were to cover the entire Earth with wind farms, he notes, "the system could potentially generate enormous amounts of power, well in excess of 100 terawatts, but at that point my guess, based on our climate modeling, is that the effect of that on global winds, and therefore on climate, would be severe?perhaps bigger than the impact of doubling CO2."

"Our findings don't mean that we shouldn't pursue wind power?wind is much better for the environment than conventional coal?but these geophysical limits may be meaningful if we really want to scale wind power up to supply a third, let's say, of our primary energy," Keith adds.

And the climatic effect of turbine drag is not the only constraint; geography and economics matter too.

"It's clear the theoretical upper limit to wind power is huge, if you don't care about the impacts of covering the whole world with wind turbines," says Keith. "What's not clear?and this is a topic for future research?is what the practical limit to wind power would be if you consider all of the real-world constraints. You'd have to assume that wind turbines need to be located relatively close to where people actually live and where there's a fairly constant wind supply, and that they have to deal with environmental constraints. You can't just put them everywhere."

"The real punch line," he adds, "is that if you can't get much more than half a watt out, and you accept that you can't put them everywhere, then you may start to reach a limit that matters."

In order to stabilize the Earth's climate, Keith estimates, the world will need to identify sources for several tens of terawatts of carbon-free power within a human lifetime. In the meantime, policymakers must also decide how to allocate resources to develop new technologies to harness that energy.

In doing so, Keith says, "It's worth asking about the scalability of each potential energy source?whether it can supply, say, 3 terawatts, which would be 10 percent of our global energy need, or whether it's more like 0.3 terawatts and 1 percent."

"Wind power is in a middle ground," he says. "It is still one of the most scalable renewables, but our research suggests that we will need to pay attention to its limits and climatic impacts if we try to scale it beyond a few terawatts."

###

Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard 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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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127006/Rethinking_wind_power

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Microsoft Office 2013 - caveat emptor on licensing issues!

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational software corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.

Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.

As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer.

In the 1990s, critics began to contend that Microsoft used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws.

History

1975?83: Founding and company beginnings

Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC. They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, "ASCII Microsoft". The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.

Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix. However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC-DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin's disease.

1984?94: Windows and Office

While jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20. Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public; the ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Due to the partnership with IBM, in 1990 the Federal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion; it marked the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the U.S. Government. Microsoft announced the release of its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987; meanwhile, the company was at work on a 32-bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993 with a new modular kernel and the Win32 application programming interface (API), making porting from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated.

In 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. On May 22 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 with a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor. Both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas. Novell, a Word competitor from 1984?1986, filed a lawsuit years later claiming that Microsoft left part of its APIs undocumented in order to gain a competitive advantage.

On July 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part: "Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced many OEMs to execute anti-competitive "per processor" licenses. Under a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor, whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1988, Microsoft's use of per processor licenses has increased."

1995?2005: Internet and the 32-bit era

1993 took over from the Federal Trade Commission, a protracted legal wrangling between Microsoft and the department ensued, resulting in various settlements and possible blocked mergers. Microsoft would point to companies such as AOL-Time Warner in its defense.]]

Following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995, Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. The company released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, featuring pre-emptive multitasking, a completely new user interface with a novel start button, and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it provided the Win32 API. Windows 95 came bundled with the online service MSN, and for OEMs Internet Explorer, a web browser. Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail Windows 95 boxes because the boxes were printed before the team finished the web browser, and instead was included in the Windows 95 Plus! pack. Branching out into new markets in 1996, Microsoft and NBC Universal created a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC. Microsoft created Windows CE 1.0, a new OS designed for devices with low memory and other constraints, such as personal digital assistants. In October 1997, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court, stating that Microsoft violated an agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

Bill Gates handed over the CEO position on January 13, 2000 to Steve Ballmer, an old college friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, creating a new position for himself as Chief Software Architect. Various companies including Microsoft formed the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance in October 1999 to, among other things, increase security and protect intellectual property through identifying changes in hardware and software. Critics decry the alliance as a way to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and over how computers behave, a form of digital rights management; for example the scenario where a computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well. On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft, calling the company an "abusive monopoly"; it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004. On October 25, 2001 Microsoft released Windows XP, unifying the mainstream and NT lines under the NT codebase. The company released the Xbox later that year, entering the game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo. In March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of ?497million ($613million) and to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media Player, Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.

2006?10: Windows Vista, mobile, and Windows 7

Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, focused on features, security, and a redesigned user interface dubbed Aero. Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time, featured a "Ribbon" user interface which was a significant departure from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007. The European Union imposed another fine of ?899million ($1.4billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved".

Bill Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008 while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on key projects. Azure Services Platform, the company's entry into the cloud computing market for Windows, launched on October 27, 2008. On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October 22, 2009 the first retail Microsoft Store opened in Scottsdale, Arizona; the same day the first store opened Windows 7 was officially released to the public. Windows 7's focus was on refining Vista with ease of use features and performance enhancements, rather than a large reworking of Windows.

As the smartphone industry boomed beginning in 2007, Microsoft struggled to keep up with its rivals Apple and Google in providing a modern smartphone operating system. As a result, in 2010, Microsoft revamped their aging flagship mobile operating system, Windows Mobile, replacing it with the new Windows Phone OS; along with a new strategy in the smartphone industry that has Microsoft working more closely with smartphone manufactures, such as Nokia, and to provide a consistent user experience across all smartphones using Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. It used a new user interface design language, codenamed "Metro", which prominently used simple shapes, typography and iconography, and the concept of minimalism.

Microsoft is a founding member of the Open Networking Foundation started on March 23, 2011. Other founding companies include Google, HP Networking, Yahoo, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and 17 other companies. The nonprofit organization is focused on providing support for a new cloud computing initiative called Software-Defined Networking. The initiative is meant to speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless networks, data centers and other networking areas.

2011?present: Rebranding, Windows 8, and Surface

Following the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft underwent a gradual rebranding of its product range throughout 2011 and 2012. Its logos, products, services, and websites adopted the principles and concepts of the Metro design language. Microsoft previewed Windows 8 in Taipei in June 2011. The operating system was designed to power both personal computers and tablet computers. A developer preview was released on September 13, and was replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012. On May 31, 2012, the release preview version was released. On June 18, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Surface, the first computer in the company's history to have its hardware made by Microsoft themselves. On June 25, Microsoft announced that it was paying $1.2 billion to buy the social network Yammer. On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service to compete with Gmail. On September 4, Microsoft released Windows Server 2012. On October 1, Microsoft announced it is launching a news operation when Windows 8 launches later in the month. It is part of a new-look MSN. On October 26, Microsoft launched Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface. Three days later, it launched Windows Phone 8. To cope with the potential increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the US to complement the ever-growing increase of bricks and mortar Microsoft Stores that have been sprouting up in 2012.

Product divisions

For the 2010 fiscal year, Microsoft had five product divisions: Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division.

Windows Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division

The company's Client division produces the flagship Windows OS line such as Windows 7; it also produces the Windows Live family of products and services. Server and Tools produces the server versions of Windows, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a set of development tools called Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, a web application framework, and System Center Configuration Manager, a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include: Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system, Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features, Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management.

Microsoft provides IT consulting ("Microsoft Consulting Services") and produces a set of certification programs handled by the Server and Tools division designed to recognize individuals who have a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator"). Microsoft Press, which publishes books, is also managed by the division. The Online Services Business division handles the online service MSN and the search engine Bing. As of December 2009, the company also possesses an 18% ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC without any editorial control; however, the division develops the channel's website, msnbc.com, in a joint venture with the channel's co-owner, NBC Universal.

Business Division

The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010, the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a relational database program), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), Publisher (desktop publishing software) and Sharepoint. A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote. The division also develops enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for companies under the Microsoft Dynamics brand. These include: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. They are targeted at varying company types and countries, and limited to organizations with under 7,500 employees. Also included under the Dynamics brand is the customer relationship management software Microsoft Dynamics CRM, part of the Azure Services Platform.

Entertainment and Devices Division

The Entertainment and Devices Division produces the Windows CE OS for embedded systems and Windows Phone for smartphones. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, eventually developing into the Windows Mobile OS and now, Windows Phone. Windows CE is designed for devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The division also produces computer games that run on Windows PCs and other systems including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, and houses the Macintosh Business Unit which produces Mac OS software including Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division designs, markets, and manufactures consumer electronics including the Xbox 360 game console, the handheld Zune media player, and the television-based Internet appliance MSN TV. Microsoft also markets personal computer hardware including mice, keyboards, and various game controllers such as joysticks and gamepads.

Culture

Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software. In April 2004 Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, titled Channel9, that provides a wiki and an Internet forum. Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006. Free technical support is traditionally provided through online Usenet newsgroups, and CompuServe in the past, monitored by Microsoft employees; there can be several newsgroups for a single product. Helpful people can be elected by peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles them to a sort of special social status and possibilities for awards and other benefits.

Noted for its internal lexicon, the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using prerelease and beta versions of products inside Microsoft in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. Another bit of jargon, FYIFV or FYIV ("Fuck You, I'm [Fully] Vested"), is used by an employee to indicate they are financially independent and can avoid work anytime they wish. The company is also known for its hiring process, mimicked in other organizations and dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?".

Microsoft is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the U.S. to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap" in 2005. Critics of H1B visas argue that relaxing the limits would result in increased unemployment for U.S. citizens due to H1B workers working for lower salaries. The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees, rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 after they allowed gender expression.

Criticism

Criticism of Microsoft has followed the company's existence because of various aspects of its products and business practices. Ease of use, stability, and security of the company's software are common targets for critics. More recently, Trojan horses and other exploits have plagued numerous users due to faults in the security of Microsoft Windows and other programs. Microsoft is also accused of locking vendors into their products, and not following and complying with existing standards in its software. Total cost of ownership comparisons of Linux as well as Mac OS X to Windows are a continuous point of debate.

The company has been in numerous lawsuits by several governments and other companies for unlawful monopolistic practices. In 2004, the European Union found Microsoft guilty in a highly publicized anti-trust case. Additionally, Microsoft's EULA for some of its programs is often criticized as being too restrictive as well as being against open source software.

Microsoft has been criticized (along with Yahoo, AOL, and other companies) for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China. Microsoft has also come under criticism for outsourcing jobs to China and India. There were reports of poor working conditions at a factory in southern China that makes some of Microsoft's products.

Corporate affairs

The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of June 2010 are: Steve Ballmer, Dina Dublon, Bill Gates (chairman), Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, Maria Klawe, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, and Helmut Panke. Board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting using a majority vote system. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.

When Microsoft went public and launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 1986, the opening stock price was $21; after the trading day, the price closed at $27.75. As of July 2010, with the company's nine stock splits, any IPO shares would be multiplied by 288; if one was to buy the IPO today given the splits and other factors, it would cost about 9cents. The stock price peaked in 1999 at around $119 ($60.928 adjusting for splits). The company began to offer a dividend on January 16, 2003, starting at eight cents per share for the fiscal year followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year, switching from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005 with eight cents a share per quarter and a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year. Though the company had subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock remained steady for years.

One of Microsoft's business tactics, described by an executive as "embrace, extend and extinguish," initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version. Various companies and governments sue Microsoft over this set of tactics, resulting in billions of dollars in rulings against the company. Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it believes customers want.

Financial

Standard and Poor's and Moody's have both given a AAA rating to Microsoft, whose assets were valued at $41?billion as compared to only $8.5?billion in unsecured debt. Consequently, in February 2011 Microsoft released a corporate bond amounting to $2.25?billion with relatively low borrowing rates compared to government bonds.

For the first time in 20 years Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in Q1 2011 quarterly profits and revenues due to a slowdown in PC sales and continuing huge losses in Microsoft's Online Services Division (which contains its search engine Bing). Microsoft profits were $5.2 billion, while Apple Inc. profits were $6 billion, on revenues of $14.5 billion and $24.7 billion respectively.

Microsoft's Online Services Division has been continuously loss-making since 2006 and in Q1 2011 it lost $726 million. This follows a loss of $2.5 billion for the year 2010.

On July 20, 2012, Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss ever, despite earning record revenues for the quarter and fiscal year. Microsoft reported a net loss of $492 million; the 2007 acquisition of advertising company aQuantive for $6.2 billion and problems associated with it have been cited as the cause.

Environment

Microsoft is ranked on the 17th place in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics (16th Edition) that ranks 18 electronics manufacturers according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Microsoft's timeline for phasing out BFRs and phthalates in all products is 2012 but its commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. As yet (January 2011) it has no products that are completely free from PVC and BFRs.

Microsoft's main U.S. campus received a silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2008, and it installed over 2,000 solar panels on top of its buildings in its Silicon Valley campus, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy needed by the facilities in April 2005.

Microsoft makes use of alternative forms of transit. It created one of the worlds largest private bus systems, the "Connector", to transport people from outside the company; for on-campus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a large fleet of hybrid cars to save fuel. The company also subsidises regional public transport as an incentive. In February 2010 however, Microsoft took a stance against adding additional public transport and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to a bridge connecting Redmond to Seattle; the company did not want to delay the construction any further.

Microsoft was ranked number 1 in the list of the World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great Place to Work Institute in 2011.

Marketing

In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do independent studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found Windows easier to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO). This spurred a wave of related studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs a fraction of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, although companies surveyed noted the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about being locked into using Microsoft products. Another study, released by the Open Source Development Labs, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply outdated and one-sided" and their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux was lower due to Linux administrators managing more servers on average and other reasons.

As part of the "Get the Facts" campaign Microsoft highlighted the .NET trading platform that it had developed in partnership with Accenture for the London Stock Exchange, claiming that it provided "five nines" reliability. After suffering extended downtime and unreliability the LSE announced in 2009 that it was planning to drop its Microsoft solution and switch to a Linux based one in 2010.

Logo

Microsoft adopted the so-called "Pac-Man Logo", designed by Scott Baker, in 1987. Baker stated "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s? to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded. Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?". During the private MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) conference in 2010, Microsoft unveiled the company's next tagline, "Be What's Next.".

On August 23, 2012, Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo at the opening of its 23rd Microsoft store in Boston indicating the company's shift of focus from the classic style to the tile-centric modern interface which it uses/will use on the Windows Phone platform, Xbox 360, Windows 8 and the upcoming Office Suites. The new logo also includes four squares with the colors of the then-current Windows logo. This logo is, however, not completely new - it was featured in Windows 95 commercials from the mid-90s. Moreover it resembles the new logo of DVDVideoSoft, which was introduced several months prior the new Microsoft's logo.

File:Microsoft - Where do you want to go today.svg|Microsoft "Pac-Man" logo, designed by Scott Baker and used from 1987 to 2012 with the 1994?2002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?". File:Microsoft logo & slogan.svg|Microsoft logo as of 2006?2011, with the slogan "Your potential. Our passion." File:The Microsoft logo & slogan.png|Logo by Microsoft with the slogan"Be What's Next." 2011?2012. File:Microsoft.svg|Introduced on August 23, 2012 to symbolize the "world of digital motion" and Microsoft's "diverse portfolio of products." 2012-present .

See also

  • List of Microsoft topics
  • References

    External links

    Category:1975 establishments in the United States Category:Cloud computing providers Category:Companies based in Redmond, Washington Category:Companies established in 1975 Category:Software companies of the United States Category:Software companies based in Washington (state) Category:Companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Category:Companies in the NASDAQ-100 Index Category:Multinational companies headquartered in the United States

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    Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/02/24/Microsoft_Office_2013_caveat_emptor_on_licensing_issues/

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    Sunday, February 24, 2013

    NCAA Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34

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    Young fans cheer in hopes of snagging a T-shirt (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Nathalie Fontaine #4 fights to keep the ball away from an Eastern opponent (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Katie Murphy #33 attempts to block the shot taken by Sara Stone #14 (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Shanee' Jackson #10 gets jostled out of position by Sara Stone #14 (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Desyree Thomas #11 attempts two (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Iesha Collins #5 (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Iesha Collins #5 gets cut off by Brandy Woody #11 (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Chelsea Hite #52 struggles to maintain control of the ball as Shelbie Justice #3 and Katie Murphy #33 attempt to either strip the ball or create a jump ball situation (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Shanee' Jackson #10 takes a hit from Taylor Bird #1 (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Nathalie Fontaine #4 led all scorers with 16 points and added 12 boards to her line for the game (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Brandy Woody #11 gets a bear hug from India Hairston #34, which was ruled an intentional foul (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Nathalie Fontaine #4 tries to find a path to the basket (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

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    Katie Murphy #33 grabbed 15 rebounds (NCAA Women's Basketball: Ball State 56 v. Eastern Michigan 34, Worthen Arena, Muncie IN, February 20, 2013)

  • Source: http://www.sportspagemagazine.com/content/bb/wc-bb/gal-wc-bb/ncaa-basketball-ball-state-56-v-eastern-michigan-3.shtml?55819

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    How To Leverage Search Queries Data Within Google Webmaster Tools

    Google Webmaster ToolsAbout three years ago, Google launched search query data within Google Webmaster Tools.

    The reporting in the search queries data is one of the more value areas within Webmaster Tools, especially since Google defaulted SSL search years ago.

    Maile Ohye from Google posted a 12 minute video going through all the ways SEOs and webmasters can use the search queries data to benefit their sites and conversions. Here is that video:

    I recommend you watch it when you are not distracted. I think for most people, it will be a good 12 minutes spent.

    Forum discussion at Google+.

    Source: http://feeds.seroundtable.com/~r/SearchEngineRoundtable1/~3/MhfMToQn4-I/search-queries-google-webmaster-tools-16405.html

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    BBC: Microsoft investiga un ciberataque en su contra

    Microsoft se ha convertido en la ?ltima empresa tecnol?gica en confirmar que ha sido v?ctima de hackers inform?ticos.

    En un blog, Microsoft anunci? que un peque?o n?mero de sus computadoras fue recientemente infectado de forma deliberada con software malicioso.

    La empresa dijo que no encontr? pruebas de que los hackers hubieran tenido acceso a los datos de los clientes.

    Apple y Facebook tambi?n han dicho haber sido objeto de ataques cibern?ticos.

    Un portavoz de Microsoft, Matt Thomlinson, se?al? que el ataque no fue ninguna sorpresa para una compa??a que tiene que lidiar con lo que calific? de adversarios determinados y persistentes.

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    " + tplFile.getEvalTpl(data); } if(mod == 2 || mod == 3){ html += tplFile.getEvalTpl(data); } }); }); div = html; if(div.length > 0) { var tplBox = new Canela.FileControl({fileUrl: "/content/tpl/suggestedTplBox.html"}); var data = { suggested: div }; jQ("#lastContents").append(tplBox.getEvalTpl(data)); } } });

    Source: http://www.latercera.com/noticia/mundo/bbc-mundo/2013/02/1433-510454-9-bbc-microsoft-investiga-un-ciberataque-en-su-contra.shtml

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    Grief besets family of Pistorius' slain girlfriend

    JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Far from the courtroom drama that has gripped South Africa, the family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend has struggled with its own private deluge of grief, frustration and bewilderment.

    The victim's relatives also harbor misgivings about efforts by the Olympian's family to reach out to them with condolences.

    Pistorius, meanwhile, spent Saturday at his uncle's home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria, the South African capital, after a judge released him on bail following days of testimony that transfixed South Africa and much of the world. He was charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day, but the athlete says he killed her accidentally, opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.

    "We are extremely thankful that Oscar is now home," his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said in a statement that also acknowledged the law must run its course. "What happened has changed our lives irrevocably."

    Mike Steenkamp, Reeva's uncle, told The Associated Press that the family of the double-amputee athlete initially did not send condolences or try to contact the bereaved parents, but had since sought to reach out in what he described as a poorly timed way. After Pistorius was released on bail in what amounted to a victory for the defense, Arnold Pistorius said the athlete's family was relieved but also in mourning "with the family" of Reeva Steenkamp.

    "Everybody wants to jump up with joy," Mike Steenkamp said, speculating on the mood of Pistorius' family after the judge's decision. "I think it was just done in the wrong context, completely."

    A South African newspaper, the Afrikaans-language Beeld, quoted the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, law school graduate and participant in a television reality show, as saying the family had received a bouquet of flowers and a card from the Pistorius family.

    "Yes, but what does it mean? Nothing," June Steenkamp said, according to the Saturday edition of Beeld. She also said Pistorius' family, including sister Aimee, a somber presence on the bench behind the Olympian during his court hearings in the past week, must be "devastated" and had done nothing wrong.

    "They are not to blame," June Steenkamp said. According to Beeld, she said she had hoped to plan a wedding for her daughter one day.

    In an affidavit, 26-year-old Oscar Pistorius said he was "absolutely mortified" by the death of "my beloved Reeva," and he frequently sobbed in court during the several days during which his bail application was considered. However, prosecutor Gerrie Nel, suggested in a scathing criticism that Pistorius was actually distraught because his vaunted career was now in peril and he was in grave trouble with the law.

    "It doesn't matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to lie for him," Barry Steenkamp, Reeva's father, told Beeld .

    "But if he is telling the truth, then perhaps I can forgive him one day," the father said. "If it didn't happen the way he said it did, he must suffer, and he will suffer ... only he knows."

    Barry Steenkamp suffered "heavy trauma" at the loss of his daughter and his remarks to the newspaper partly reflect how he is working through it, said his brother, Mike Steenkamp.

    Steenkamp was cremated in a funeral ceremony on Feb. 19 in her family's hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast. Mike Steenkamp delivered a statement about the family's grief to television cameras, at one point breaking down in tears.

    The three-story house where Pistorius is staying with his aunt and uncle lies on a hill with a view of Pretoria. It has a large swimming pool and an immaculate garden.

    Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect and had his legs amputated at 11 months. He has run on carbon-fiber blades and was originally banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage. He was later cleared to compete. He is multiple Paralympic medalist, but he failed to win a medal at the London Olympics, where he ran in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/grief-besets-family-pistorius-slain-girlfriend-143751649--oly.html

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    Saturday, February 23, 2013

    Paid Gumtree.com links any good? - UK Business Forums

    Hi
    Edinburgh Gumtree have only just started charging ?5 for you to add a live link to your ad. I cannot comment whether this is the case in other regions or not?

    From an seo point of view, is this link worth a fiver? I know there is the value in the link of making it easier for the potential customers to reach your website from Gumtree.

    It occured to me that with them now charging, there are now a lot fewer links coming from the Gumtree site. I have limited seo knowledge, but would that not increase the potency of any links that do come from Gumtree? Are the links DoFollow? Are they worth a fiver as a stand alone link?
    Cheers
    James

    Source: http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=288845

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    Underlying mechanisms behind chronic inflammation-associated diseases revealed

    Feb. 22, 2013 ? Inflammatory response plays a major role in both health protection and disease generation. While the symptoms of disease-related inflammatory response have been know, scientists have not understood the mechanisms that underlie it.

    In a paper published Feb. 21 in Cell Reports, a team lead by Xian Chen, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, mapped the complex interactions of proteins that control inflammation at the molecular level.

    The inflammatory response acts as a first line of defense for the immune system. Cytokines are generated to contain infection, preventing the occurrence or spread of diseases, including cancerous tumors. An overproduction or underproduction of these cytokines during disease-related inflammatory responses can lead to a variety of disease such as arthritis, asthma and some kinds of cancer.

    The team found that chronic inflammatory response is mediated by the interaction of the protein phosphatase PP2Ac and an adaptor protein of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) MyD88 in a type of the immune cells (macrophages) showing tolerance to persistent stimulation of endotoxin (LPS).

    Within endotoxin-tolerized macrophages, "PP2Ac is constitutively activated and operates on a switch that exists to convert pro-inflammatory MyD88 to immunosuppressant MyD88," said Chen.

    Studying interactions of the protein network that underlies inflammation, the research team found that PP2Ac disrupts the pro-inflammatory signaling pathway mediated by the complex of MyD88 and TLR4. As a result of this disruption, both constitutively active PP2Ac and MyD88 move within the cellular nucleus, where they bound with the epigenetic machinery and alter the chromatin structure of a class of pro-inflammatory genes that leads to the silencing of this class of the genes.

    "In the nucleus, in a MyD88-dependent way constitutively active PP2Ac reprograms the epigenetic machinery," said Chen.

    With the discovery of PP2Ac behavior, Chen's research establishes a previously unknown link between cellular signaling and epigenetic regulation, which affects the genetic blueprint of inflammation. By mapping out the signaling pathway, as well the epigenetic machinery targeted by abnormally activated PP2Ac within the cells under chronic inflammation, the research identifies potential targets of immunomodulation for future therapies for inflammation-related disorders and cancers.

    "Not only did we identify individual targets, but we also identified those interconnected targets in networks of dynamic protein interactions. That will set up the base for future network medicine, as targets on single genes and targets can have off-target side effects. To increase the precision of the drug targets, we reveal individual proteins but also their interactions as targets," said Chen.

    This work is supported by NIH grants to Dr. Chen(NIH R01AI064806 and NIH 1U24CA160035).

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

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


    Journal Reference:

    1. Ling Xie, Cui Liu, Li Wang, Harsha?P. Gunawardena, Yanbao Yu, Ruyun Du, Debra?J. Taxman, Penggao Dai, Zhen Yan, Jing Yu, Stephen?P. Holly, Leslie?V. Parise, Yisong Y. Wan, Jenny?P. Ting, Xian Chen. Protein Phosphatase 2A Catalytic Subunit ? Plays a MyD88-Dependent, Central Role in the Gene-Specific Regulation of Endotoxin Tolerance. Cell Reports, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2013.01.029

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

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

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/fuRr8-XpXzU/130222143135.htm

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    Friday, February 22, 2013

    Egypt opposition warns elections will add tensions

    An Egyptian Ultras activist chants anti-President Mohammed Morsi slogans while leading a rally during the fifth day of a general strike, in Port Said, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

    An Egyptian Ultras activist chants anti-President Mohammed Morsi slogans while leading a rally during the fifth day of a general strike, in Port Said, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

    Female protesters chant anti-President Mohammed Morsi slogans in front of the main court house during the fifth day of a general strike, in Port Said, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

    FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 file photo, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi?s supporters, background, clash with opponents, foreground, outside the presidential palace, in Cairo, Egypt. For most of the 85 years since its inception, the Muslim Brotherhood operated secretively as an outlawed group, working underground and often repressed by governments. But even after its political success since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the group is still suspected of carrying on secretive operations. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

    Egyptian protesters block the road leading to the east port preventing loaded trucks from leaving the port, during the fifth day of a general strike, in Port Said, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. A banner with Arabic that reads "retribution for Port Said martyrs, they shot our brothers with bullets," and a poster with a picture of a slain man with his kids and reading in Arabic "the martyr of treachery, Mohammed Sami Sharan, may God count him as a martyr, January 26, 2013," are used to block the road. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

    (AP) ? Egypt's president called multi-stage parliamentary elections beginning in April but a key opposition leader warned Friday that the vote may only inflame tensions unless there are serious political talks first.

    President Mohammed Morsi set the start of a staggered, four-stage voting process for April 27 ending in June. The newly elected parliament would convene on July 6, a decree issued late Thursday night said.

    Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the main opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on his Twitter account Friday that Morsi's "decision to go for parliamentary elections amidst severe societal polarization and eroding state authority is a recipe for disaster."

    Egypt has been mired in political turmoil for the past two years. The current phase began when Morsi took over as president in June 2012.

    The opposition accuses Morsi and the Brotherhood of monopolizing power and going back on campaign promises to set up an inclusive government and introduce far-reaching reforms.

    Morsi's supporters say the new government cannot immediately fix years of neglect and poor administration from ousted Hosni Mubarak's 29-year rule, and say they have the legitimacy of the ballot box in their favor.

    Tensions deepened with the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising, when anger spilled out onto the streets and violence again engulfed the nation. About 70 people died in a wave of protests, clashes and riots that began with the anniversary and lasted for weeks.

    Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which emerged as the most powerful political faction since Egypt's uprising two years ago, has already been setting the stage for elections through outreach programs, including helping poor families receive subsidized bread that is often hard to find.

    The group has grassroots support partly through its vast network of charities that help the poor.

    The mostly secular and liberal opposition has trailed significantly at the polls, but Morsi's popularity has waned in recent months.

    Among the most pressing issue for Egypt is its economy, which has been badly hit by the nation's turmoil with foreign currency reserves falling below a critical level to less than $14 billion.

    The country is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a nearly $5 billion loan. Insiders say talks have been prolonged because of Morsi's reluctance to implement unpopular austerity measures ahead of elections.

    Abdullah Shehata, an economy expert with the Brotherhood, said the elections will help the country's ailing economy.

    "The elections will be positive because it will be the final institution to fall into place after the presidency and the constitution," he said. "The coming parliament will be elected by the people and will help build confidence in Egypt again. "

    ElBaradei's group, though, has warned it would boycott the vote unless there are talks with the president aimed at forming a national unity government with more participation by the various political groups. A national dialogue by Morsi failed so far failed to bridge differences or build confidence. The opposition has also said it will boycott if election laws written by the Islamist-led interim parliament favor the Brotherhood's party.

    The founder of the opposition April 6 movement said if the election law is not agreed upon, they will not support participation in elections.

    "The election laws have not been agreed upon and this is an essential problem," Ahmed Maher told The Associated Press.

    "Until now, the Brotherhood party is dealing in the Shura Council as if there is no opposition and they are forcing these laws on the rest," he said, referring to Egypt's interim parliament.

    The most recent show of unrest came in the restive city of Port Said, where a general strike entered its sixth day on Friday. Factory workers, activists and laborers have held street rallies that brought the coastal city on the northern tip of the Suez Canal to a halt, though shipping in the international waterway has not been affected.

    Thousands took the streets again on Friday, demanding Morsi's ouster and denouncing his call for April elections. More than 40 people died in violent protests there late last month.

    Meanwhile, rights groups have complained of widespread police abuse, saying in a joint statement Wednesday that brutality is on the rise in detention centers and at demonstrations.

    The groups said they hold Morsi responsible for failing to stop such practices.

    For its part, Egypt's powerful military has shown signs of growing impatience with Morsi, issuing thinly veiled threats that it might seize power again as it did after Mubarak stepped down and the army generals took over, remaining in control until Morsi's election.

    After several spasms of deadly violence on the streets, a decimated economy and depleted foreign reserves, many hold Morsi responsible for the turmoil.

    His critics say he is not much different from Mubarak, pointing to a highly controversial presidential decree from November in which Morsi gave himself near absolute powers.

    The decree has since been rescinded but Morsi and the Brotherhood in the meantime managed to push through a constitution ? drafted by an Islamist-dominated panel ? that was approved in a referendum late last year.

    According to Thursday's decree, Egypt's 27 provinces will be divided into four groups that will vote separately over two days over a period ending on June 27. This is allegedly to give the more than 50 million voters enough time to participate in the balloting.

    Egypt's previous, Islamist-dominated parliament was disbanded on June 14, after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on the grounds that a third of the chamber members were elected illegally.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-22-Egypt/id-7c73f6a9ad3d42958d6938a9ef64d76f

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