Vodien Internet Solutions Escalates Their ... - My Best Web Hosting

Singapore ? (SBWIRE) ? 06/25/2012 ? New startups in the online business can now scale up their business with the support of Vodien. This web hosting company has dedicated its services in helping online entrepreneurs in growing their website and to help attain their peak of success.Consequently, there are online businesses that are still striving hard because they are unable to maintain their website well. This is the reason why when it comes to website maintenance and performance, Vodien is always there. Vodien provides their services to online businesses that have a hard time making their site perform well and provide fast access to their website visitors.With their wide range of hosting services, customers can choose from dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, cloud hosting and even email hosting. That?s why according to Jervis Lee, sales manager of Vodien, ?The company is escalating the level of our services using the latest technology in web hosting. We are also able to provide affordable hosting services for new startups in the field of online business. We do not compromise on the technology we use, simply because this is what Vodien is all about ? to help others attain online success?.Moreover, the reputation of the hosting company has already been established internationally. That?s why customers are assured that their websites will be well maintained and with high level of performance in the online world. For new startups in this kind of businesses online, the hosting company will provide all the details and the necessary actions just to aid customers in achieving the kind of website they want. With these benefits provided by the Singapore web hosting company, website owners will have the easy time in making their site successful.In addition to the hosting services, Vodien also provide 24/7 support for clients who need assistance for their web hosting. With the additional support, clients can reach out to Vodien for any problems should their websites. About VodienVodien Internet Solutions is considered as one of the premiere web hosting company not only in Asia but in other countries such as the United States, UK, Malaysia and in other countries around the world.

Superb Internet Celebrates 16th Anniversary

Honolulu, Hawaii (PRWEB) June 19, 2012 A leader in managed and dedicated servers, virtual private servers, web hosting and domains, Superb Internet Corp celebrates its 16th anniversary providing high-quality services. Established in 1996, the company has been managing between 100,000 and 500,000 websites for its clients. The anniversary also celebrates the companys achievement of no debt status and its huge customer base, spread all across the US, Europe and Asia. Superb ensures high-quality services via continual upkeep and uptime of their clients' websites. Superb also has multiple data centers for storing customer data, along with a coast-to-coast IP backbone...

Tags: website visitors, web hosting company, necessary actions, startups

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Political uncertainty abounds as ruling looms

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at Electronic Instrumentation and Technology in Sterling, Va., Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at Electronic Instrumentation and Technology in Sterling, Va., Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama waves as he arrives to speak at a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court ruling on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, now just hours away, marks a key pivot point in the presidential race. But neither side knows which direction the high court's decision will turn the contest.

"My guess is they're not sleeping real well at the White House tonight," presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told supporters Wednesday in northern Virginia.

Anticipation of Thursday's decision could be equally unnerving for Romney, whose opposition to the law has become a central pillar of his campaign.

Neither candidate has any direct influence over the ruling. The court could uphold the health care law, strike it down or deem the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance unconstitutional while retaining other aspects of the law.

The announcement is expected to be followed almost immediately by a barrage of advertisements and fundraising appeals from Democrats and Republicans, all trying to cast the decision in the most advantageous light for their candidates.

The Obama campaign began trying to raise money off the ruling even before it was announced. In a Thursday morning fundraising email with the subject line "Today's Decision", Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told supporters "no matter what, today is an important day to have Barack Obama's back."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also issued a fundraising appeal for a "health care rapid response fund," telling supporters in an email Wednesday that however the court rules, "Democrats are in for a tough fight."

Secrecy has marked each campaign's planning for the critical moment.

Obama will be in Washington and is expected to respond, but his specific plans to do so were unclear. Romney's campaign has refused to disclose the location of a Capitol Hill venue where he will face reporters shortly after the announcement.

It is clear, however, that the Supreme Court's ruling on Obama's sweeping federal health care law will shape the contours of the presidential campaign through the summer and fall. Both Obama and his Republican rival are primed to use the outcome ? whatever it is ? for political gain.

Obama has expressed confidence the court will uphold his signature legislative initiative. But he won't be shocked if a conservative majority overturns the most controversial provision, those familiar with his thinking say. Romney aides say the Republican candidate will get a political boost if the court strikes down the measure. But they don't want celebrations that could alienate voters who could lose health care benefits through the decision.

The court's ruling could have a far-reaching impact on the nation's health care system. If the law is upheld, about 30 million of the 50 million uninsured Americans would get coverage in 2014 when a big expansion begins.

Overturning all or part of the law could leave as uninsured the more than 3 million young adults who gained coverage through a provision allowing them to stay on their parents' insurance up to age 26, according to the Health and Human Services Department. Another 60,000 people who gained coverage through a plan for those with pre-existing conditions may not be able to get coverage elsewhere if the entire law is struck down.

Obama recently has avoided mentioning the impending court ruling directly, but he has vigorously defended the health care overhaul as critical to the public's health and well-being in campaign events this week.

"I think it was the right thing to do. I know it was the right thing to do," he told supporters in Boston.

Romney, who as Massachusetts governor signed a health care law on which the Obama's federal law was modeled, has focused more than usual on the Supreme Court ruling this week. In campaign appearances in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, he offered supporters and donors a preview of his likely response to the decision and said Obama's first term would be essentially wasted if the law is overturned.

If the court upholds the law, Romney told supporters at a northern Virginia electronics manufacturer Wednesday, it's still bad policy. "And that'll mean if I'm elected president we're going to repeal it and replace it," he said.

And if the court strikes down the law, Romney said, "They're going to be doing some of my work for me. "

Obama advisers say the Supreme Court showed reasonableness earlier this week in a ruling on an Arizona immigration case, and they see it as a hopeful sign for how the court might rule on health care.

If the court upholds the law, Obama could get an election-year gust of wind at his back, with his vision and leadership validated. If the court strikes down the overhaul, the White House would seek to cast the decision as detrimental to millions of Americans by highlighting popular elements of the law that would disappear, such as preventive care and coverage for young adults on parents' plans.

The Romney campaign has coordinated its response directly with the Republican National Committee and House Republicans, who have agreed not to "spike the ball" ? as one Republican put it ? should the law be struck down. His campaign worries that an over-celebratory tone may turn off voters affected by the decision.

Indeed, the stakes are high for both candidates. Polling suggests that most Americans oppose the law, but an overwhelming majority want Congress and the president to find a new remedy if it's struck down.

Romney so far has spent little time crafting a comprehensive plan to replace the overhaul. And the Obama campaign already has seized on Romney's opposition to the most popular provisions in the law. For example, Romney would not prevent health care companies from denying coverage to new customers with medical conditions. Nor would he force them to cover young adults on their parents' plans through age 26.

Still, both sides will use it to raise money and motivate supporters. And outside groups are ready to unleash a flood of advertisements following the ruling, including a 16-state, $7 million ad buy from the conservative political action group Americans for Prosperity.

___

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Steve Peoples at http://twitter.com/sppeoples

Associated Press

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Top 5 Cakes in Video Games - Explosion.com

Cakes are one of the most proliferous foods in gaming, appearing in more than a few games, and always in a positive light (even if they do end up being a lie). These are just a few recognizable cakes that stand out from the other baked goods in games and quite a few of them are recognizable icons in the gaming world.

5. Maple Story Cakes

Long-time players of Maple Story should be familiar with the several different cake enemies in the game. During birthday events, cake monsters?and sometimes cake bosses?will generate in certain anniversary areas of the game, along with a few other types of edible monsters. The cake monsters all have different stats and they drop several rare items. Some are powerful versions of equipment, and others are necessary for timed quests during the events. There were also Cake vs Pie events that had factions defending different cities from these two desserts.

4. Fat Princess?s Cake

With Playstation All-stars featuring Fat Princess, it?s hard to find a screenshot of her or commercial of the game without her stuffing her face with this trademark slice of cake. In her own games, feeding her cake would cause her to be harder to carry for both teams. Over time, this effect would wear off and Fat Princess would resume her normal weight. Eating cake in the game would also cause most classes to restore their health when it?s low.

3. Mario?s Cake

Mario has a huge penchant for cakes, and it?s no surprise that the dessert is a reoccurring item in most of the series. Its more memorable appearances involve Peach cooking a cake for Mario and inviting him over at the start of the games?and of course, that doesn?t turn out too well. Once the princess is rescued, he finally gets his cake in an end scene or shot. Cake occasionally appears as a healing in-game item, although Mario?s had at least one of his cake items sabotaged in the series. It appears cake is his main weakness!

2. Minecraft Cake

As one of the most recognizable cakes of the video game world, this cake has spawned a plethora of physical recipes and recreations. The ingredients in-game are difficult to collect, and unless you?re lucky, you?ll have to have several different farms founded to have a consistent supply of cake. However, the work is worth it, as the item greatly fills up your hunger meter, and in older versions refills nine hearts. Along with that, you can have six different servings of each cake, and this can be split between multiple people. Its only disadvantage is that once you place it, you can?t move or remove the cake.

1. Portal Cake

One of the most infamous characters of Portal, this cake spawned several memes recognizable by gamers across the world. Although attempting to get the cake will inevitably kill you, the cake is not a lie, as the previous test subject would have you believe. If you explore around with noclip, you can find the cake without burning up, surrounded by incinerators yet completely unharmed. Its name drop in the ending credits and references in the game?s sequel certainly kept this meme alive.

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Moderate exercise tied to lower breast cancer risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who exercise moderately may be less likely than their inactive peers to develop breast cancer after menopause, a study published Monday suggests.

Researchers found that of more than 3,000 women with and without breast cancer, those who'd exercised during their childbearing years were less likely to develop the cancer after menopause.

The same was true when women took up exercise after menopause.

And it did not take a vigorous workout; regular exercise at any intensity level was linked to a lower breast cancer risk, the researchers say.

The findings, reported in the journal Cancer, add to a number of past studies tying regular exercise to lower breast cancer odds.

But like those past studies, this latest one can only point to a correlation: It does not prove that exercise, itself, is what cut women's breast cancer risk.

Still, there are reasons to believe it can, said lead researcher Lauren McCullough, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

One possible way is indirectly, by reducing body fat, McCullough said in an interview. Excess body fat is related to higher levels of certain hormones, including estrogen, as well as substances known as growth factors, which can feed tumor development.

But exercise might also have direct effects, McCullough said -- by boosting the immune system or the body's ability to clear cell-damaging "free radicals."

That is all speculation for now.

But, McCullough said, the findings do support the general health recommendation that adults stay active throughout their lives.

"What we can say is, exercise is good for you," she told Reuters Health. "We don't know what it's going to do for any one woman."

DIFFERENCE SEEN AFTER MENOPAUSE

The study included 1,500 Long Island women with breast cancer and 1,550 cancer-free women the same age. All were interviewed about their lifetime exercise habits and other lifestyle factors, like smoking and drinking.

The researchers found a connection between exercise and breast cancer risk only among women who'd already gone through menopause.

Those who'd exercised for 10 to 19 hours a week in their "reproductive years" -- the years between having their first child and going through menopause -- were one-third less likely to have breast cancer than women who'd been sedentary during that time.

Women who'd started exercising after menopause also had a lower risk. If they averaged 9 to 17 hours a week, they were 30 percent less likely to have breast cancer than their inactive peers.

Of course, women who exercise can be different from sedentary women in many ways. So McCullough's team accounted for differences in education, income, smoking and certain other factors. Exercise was still linked to lower breast cancer risk.

Then the researchers took a closer look at body weight.

They found among relatively lighter women, exercise was linked to lower breast cancer. And for obese women, it may have mitigated the increased breast cancer risk tied to their excess pounds.

The study has a number of limitations. It relied on women's memories of their exercise habits over a lifetime, for one.

And any study like this can only look at broad patterns, McCullough said.

Exercisers as a whole were less likely than sedentary women to develop breast cancer. But no one can say what effect exercise might have on any one woman's risk of breast cancer -- if it does have an effect at all.

In the U.S., the average woman has about a 1-in-8 chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, and a 1-in-36 chance of dying from it, according to the American Cancer Society.

For now, McCullough said her findings support what's already recommended for good health. And they suggest that women might benefit even if they start exercising after menopause.

"It's never too late to start," she said "Our evidence suggests that if you start after menopause, you can still help yourself."

There was no link seen between exercise and breast cancer for the nearly 1,000 women in the study who developed breast cancer before menopause.

According to McCullough, that may be because breast cancer earlier in life has different causes compared with after menopause -- when most breast cancers occur.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Mv5I72 Cancer, online June 25, 2012.

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Black Keys Sue Pizza Hut, Home Depot Over Copyright Infringement ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Black Keys are not shilling power tools or pizza, the band said in copyright infringement lawsuits against The Home Depot and Pizza Hut.

The "Lonely Boy" band filed the federal lawsuits Thursday, claiming Home Depot did not have permission to use elements of the hit song in an ad promoting power tools and that Pizza Hut misused "Gold on the Ceiling" in a recent ad.

Black Keys Withold New 'El Camino' LP From Spotify, Other Streaming Services

Both songs appeared on the rock group's seventh album, "El Camino," which was released last year and has sold nearly 840,000 copies. The Black Keys are comprised of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. Musician-producer Brian Burton, who is known as Danger Mouse, is also suing the companies.

"The experts confirmed that this was copyright infringement," band spokeswoman Mary Moyer said in a statement.

The cases seek unspecified damages of more than $75,000 apiece and an order preventing the continued use of the songs in the commercials.

MTV Movie Awards Bring Sales Bumps For Black Keys, fun., Martin Solveig, Wiz Khalifa

"We haven't seen the complaint yet, but respect for intellectual property rights is a matter we take very seriously," said Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes.

Pizza Hut spokesman Christopher Fuller said the company also hasn't seen the case, but fully respects artists' rights. He directed inquiries to the ad's creators, The Martin Agency and The Interpublic Group of Companies.

A Martin Agency spokesman said the company doesn't respond to pending lawsuits, and a spokesman for the Interpublic Group of Companies was not immediately available.

The suits claim both companies were given written notices that the ads misused The Black Keys' music. The Home Depot ad touts Ryobi power tools, while the Pizza Hut ad touts its new "Cheesy Bites Pizza."

Neither company received permission to use musical elements from the songs. The ads do not include any vocals.

"Lonely Boy" and "Gold on the Ceiling" both topped the Billboard alternative music chart after their release.

The Black Keys won two Grammy Awards in 2010 for music from their album "Brothers," which won the Best Alternative Music Album award that year.

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Firefighters struggle with major blazes in Western U.S. states

SALT LAKE CITY/DENVER (Reuters) - Firefighters in Western U.S. states struggled to contain out-of-control wind-stoked wildfires on Saturday as summer temperatures mounted, and a fresh blaze consumed more homes in Colorado even as Utah allowed 2,500 evacuees back for the night.

Colorado firefighters remained unable to halt the spread of the High Park Fire, a growing 81,190-acre (32,856-hectare) blaze in steep canyons west of Fort Collins. The fire jumped containment lines on Friday and roared through a subdivision, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

"The fire continues to spread west into steep, inaccessible areas with beetle-killed timber on the west and northwest portions of the fire," a statement from the federal fire incident command center said.

As firefighters focused on that monster blaze, a fire that erupted 18 miles away in a cabin near the Rocky Mountain National Park ripped through 21 vacation dwellings and full-time residences in Estes Park, the area's fire chief said.

Reid Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said that resources had to be diverted from the High Park fire to battle the destructive 20-acre (8 hectare) blaze. But officials said the small fire was nearly under control.

The losses in Estes Park were on top of 200 other homes destroyed by the High Park fire in the two weeks since the lightning-sparked blaze was first spotted in Colorado, where temperatures hit the triple digits in many areas on Saturday.

In Denver, a dense canopy of gray smoke could be seen drifting east from the fire zone over Colorado's high plains, at times blocking the view of the mountains, and the smell of burning timber wafted through the city.

The High Park fire is blamed for the death of a 62-year-old grandmother who perished in her mountain cabin. It is already the state's most destructive and the second-largest on record in Colorado.

As of Friday, there were 15 large, uncontained wildfires being fought across the country, most in six Western states - Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona - the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.

EVACUATION ORDERS LIFTED

Fanned by winds, Utah's so-called Dump Fire about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City grew to 6,023 acres on Saturday from 4,000 late Friday, and was only about 30 percent contained, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Cami Lee said.

The fire was burning primarily south and west of Saratoga Springs, where wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour were expected to confound firefighting efforts, Lee said.

But Utah officials lifted evacuation orders on Saturday evening that had kept residents out of homes in Saratoga Springs and nearby Eagle Mountain, although residents were urged to stay on alert.

"We hope you're there for the night, but you need to be prepared," Eagle Mountain Mayor Heather Jackson said. "The winds are still blowing, the fire can still flare back up."

Officials said target shooters triggered the blaze near a city landfill on Thursday. It is the 20th fire in Utah started by target shooting this year, they said.

As fire managers predicted, winds with gusts of more than 20 miles per hour pushed the flames westward toward homes on Saturday afternoon, Curry said. But containment lines held, persuading officials that residents could safely return.

On Saturday, officials revised down substantially the number of people evacuated from the two communities. Some 588 homes were evacuated in the towns on Friday, affecting up to 2,500 residents, according to Jason Curry of Utah's office of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

On Friday, officials had said up to 8,000 were evacuated. The change followed a more accurate count, Curry said.

Some 450 firefighters were on the ground Saturday in Utah, with support from two air tankers and several helicopters. One firefighter had suffered minor burns, but no other injuries had been reported.

Although federal authorities say the fire season got off to an early start this summer in parts of the Northern Rockies, the acreage burned nationwide is about on a par with the 10-year average for this time of year, according to fire agency records.

The biggest by far was the Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire in New Mexico, that state's largest on record, which has charred almost 300,000 acres. That blaze is nearly 90 percent contained.

(Additional reporting by Keith Coffman; editing by Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)

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76ers work out six PF/Cs prospects on Sat. - Andrew Nicholson (F) College Player

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Rise of the robots: The man versus machine advisor debate

When it comes to investing, a new article written by Nick Shalek?claims that software is better than 99 percent of humans when it comes to financial advising. His post has spread around the industry like wildfire, with wildly mixed reviews.

By Joshua M. Brown,?Guest blogger / June 22, 2012

Trader Stephen Guilfoyle, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 22, 2012. A new article suggests that when it comes to investing, computers are better than a real live analyst. The Reformed Broker's not so sure.

Richard Drew/AP

Enlarge

In 1998, the prevailing wisdom was that e-retailing made sense for every vertical and that all entrenched businesses would eventually fall to a new category-killer, brick-and-mortar was finished forever.? Which turned out to be true for some industries (books, music), half true for others (apparel, autos) and not true at all for a few (supermarkets - anyone seen Peapod lately? Webvan?)

Skip to next paragraph Joshua M. Brown

Joshua has been managing money for high net worth clients, charitable foundations, corporations and retirement plans for more than a decade.

Recent posts

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So is financial advice like selling CDs?? Or is it, in fact, about relationships and confidence more than anything else?

I firmly believe that wealthy people will always prefer to get financial advice from living, breathing, thinking people rather than software.? They are happy to pay so as to have real relationships with their estate planners, financial advisors, CPAs and private bankers.? This seems obvious to me and probably to you.? But it is not obvious to many others.

I don't know Nick Shalek but he seems really smart and well-intentioned in what he's trying to say here:

Thankfully, Software Is Eating The Personal Investing?World (TechCrunch)

The gist of his article, which is very good, is that software is better than 99% of humans who attempt to invest money.? His post has spread around my industry like wildfire and the reactions to it are all over the map.

I've been asked three times about what I think of his spiel, so I'll give you some bullet points of my reaction to this argument in its entirety, not just Shalek's rendition:

1.? I agree with him that simple is better, all new investors should begin with low cost index funds and set up their accounts to automatically add the same dollar amount to them on a regular schedule - regardless of price or market conditions.? They should certainly not begin by following stock picks from gurus or rodeo clowns on TV.

2.? I agree with him that machines remove the fear-and-greed cognitive foibles from the equation - but what Shalek doesn't get is that investors actually have to learn these foibles firsthand by messing up.? They also need to learn their own risk tolerance by making mistakes with fear and greed and dealing with the consequences.? Otherwise, they'll never improve and be confident in how their money is invested.

3.? Shalek has a great premise but then he completely screws it up by bringing the online investment advisor sites into the discussion as some kind of solution.? He casually mentions them like "these guys are fine, whatever" but the truth is that they are not a solution for anyone in need of real financial advice and they will be pivoting to a more human approach very soon anyway.??I cover this?here.? My friend Leigh Drogen smashes them for an entirely different reason - their reliance on MPT and EMH in the strategies they run.? I won't digress here on that,?read Leigh's piece?for the final word. I'm going to go ahead and assume that Shalek is a VC backer of one of these online advisor sites or some entity he is affiliated with is or his friends are.? I could be wrong, don't feel like looking it up.? His post appears on TechCrunch and they love having authors post "articles" about companies they're invested in, it's practically become an art form over there.? The bottom line is that one or two of them will be successful but most won't and will disappear.? Also, they will never truly compete with financial advisors to the HNW channel who have real account minimums.? They will compete more with the Fidelitys of the world.

4.? He also trots out the whole "market-timing is dangerous" trope that Merrill Lynch and Charles Schwab have been sending you postcards about every month for the past 20 years to justify a buy-and-hold mindset.? And that stupid "if you missed the best 5 days your performance would have only been...".? We've actually done the homework on that ol' chestnut - turns out if you missed the?worst?5 days or months or whatever, you were even better off.? And just so you know - those "best 5 days" are usually bear market rallies that occur as corrective counter-trends in the context of vicious bear markets in which they're enveloped.? The Dow doesn't go up 400 points in a day unless it's down 900 over the prior few weeks.? Go look those "best days" up and when they've occurred - usually very nearby the worst days.? Nick, some of us can "time markets" even though we don't necessarily use that term; some of us have the tools or the products or the platforms that allow us to get more heavily or lightly exposed at different points in time.? In a secular bull market this kind of risk modulation is not necessary, but is that what this last 12 years in the market has been?

5.? This is perhaps the heart of the matter: Financial advisory is only partially about running the money and most advisors outsource at least a portion of that particular aspect anyway.? Shalek has never served as a personal financial advisor (I don't believe he has based on his available bio) so I'm not sure he understands how much more is involved than simply the asset management part.? I don't run every penny I manage and software does most of the heavy lifting in terms of posture, stock selection, research, implementation, rebalancing etc.? If only the whole job consisted of simply running the money!? I'd be on a chaise lounge all year!? He seems almost clueless about what clients come to advisors for in the first place.? Can you imagine a wide swathe of wealthy people going through a year like 2008 with their money entrusted to a fucking website?? Emailing some knwo-nothing helpdesk kid in Bangalore who's pretending his name is Ralph while the world and its markets are imploding?? GTFO.

6.? Last thing - at turning points, the machines will miss the most important things.? Many humans will too, don't get me wrong. I spent an hour and half on the phone with a team running tens of billions of dollars for State Street Global Advisors about a new product we may bring on to our platform.? Their offering is quantitatively based but run by guys with hardcore fundamentalist chops and tendencies.? "Why?" is the question we asked.? The answer, which they've likely been delivering to every sovereign wealth fund and pension fund and endowment who've asked them, is that you can't trust machines implicitly in a world where policy and politics have replaced economics - a perfect summation of this era we find ourselves mired in now.? The machines cannot read policy.? It is also crucial to understand that at inflection points, the algo or software is going to probably do the exact wrong thing, because that is the essence of an inflection point - a point at which the way forward is totally obvious to almost all market participants.? At a certain point someone needs to think differently and by definition, the machine can't do it.

Anyway, that's where I stand on Nick Shalek's piece and the Man vs Investing Machine debate in general.? I'd love to be proved wrong and be able to entrust 100% of my clients assets and needs to a software program, but I live in the real world, not?Disruption Hippie?Land where every single industry can, should and will be broken just for the sake of breaking it.

Software is good, smart people employing software is better.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thereformedbroker.com.

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South Africa, England draw in final three-Test match

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AFP) - Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer is worried about the poor form of fly-half Morne Steyn before the August kick-off of the new Rugby Championship.

Leading 2011 Rugby World Cup points scorer Steyn missed 12 of 22 kicks at goal and several drop goal attempts during a 2-0 series victory over England with the third Test drawn 14-14 Saturday in Port Elizabeth.

Usually the darling of South African crowds, the 29-year-old Northern Bulls player was booed by some spectators at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after a second-half drop goal effort drifted wide.

Steyn gave a virtuoso performance at the same ground last year before the World Cup, kicking all 18 points in a Tri-Nations win against the All Blacks.

In the endless public and media debate about who among Steyn, Patrick Lambie, Peter Grant, Johan Goosen and Elton Jantjies should wear the No 10 green and gold shirt, the superb goal kicking of the Bulls star has settled many arguments.

But as the ability to constantly plant the ball between the posts from all angles and distances deserts Steyn, Meyer is hoping a return to Super 15 action from next weekend will help the first-choice pivot recover his form.

"Morne is a worry at the moment as we know he is not playing well," admitted Meyer, "but I thought he played well in the previous two games, it was just his kicking that was off.

"He has high standards and will come back stronger with at least three Super games to get himself right and he knows we need him in the Rugby Championship. I have a lot of confidence in him although he is not striking the ball well now."

Meyer, who coached the Pretoria-based Bulls to Super 14 and Currie Cup glory before succeeding Peter de Villiers as Springboks coach this year, said he opted not to replace Steyn with Jantjies in Port Elizabeth because of inexperience.

"I did not make that move because there was a lack of experience on the field as the match approached the closing stages," he said of his decision to leave the young Golden Lions fly-half on the bench.

Meyer admitted England were the better team in the dead rubber as they ended a run of nine consecutive losses against South Africa, including defeats in Durban (22-17) and Johannesburg (36-27) this month.

"All credit to England as they were the better team on the night. They adapted much better than us to the wet, windy conditions and probed once or twice behind us and defended for their lives."

England coach Stuart Lancaster, another post-World Cup appointment as Martin Johnson quit after a disappointing campaign, said he was "gutted" not to win in Port Elizabeth.

"We wanted to win the game and the series. We failed, but there are plenty of positives to take as well. When you look at where we were and where we are now, I think we are in a good place," he stressed.

"Go back six months and we lost a huge amount of experience out of this England side. When you take out Jonny Wilkinson, Simon Shaw, Mike Tindall and Lewis Moody -- it takes time to rebuild.

"When Owen Farrell came on for Toby Flood we had under-21 players wearing the No 10, 12 and 13 shirts. We have young lads making debuts and I thought Alex Goode was outstanding at full-back."

Formerly known as the Tri- Nations, the Rugby Championship features world champions New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and debutants Argentina with the six-round series running from mid-August to early October.

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Libya 'committed to cooperate with ICC on Seif'

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Emma Stone In Bottega Veneta ? ?The Amazing Spider-Man? Rome Premiere

Emma Stone looked stunning on the red carpet at the Adriano Cinema in Italy for ?The Amazing Spider-Man? Rome premiere this evening.

Dressed in Bottega Veneta Fall 2012 gown, I?m blown away by how amazing she looks.

Her black halter gown with a peplum waist was decorated with a bejewelled waistband and shimmering gold-and-green glittery wave patterns.

I had pictured this look on someone like Julianna Margulies or Mariska Hargitay, but Emma more than does the look justice.

With her hair swept back into a quiffed updo, she completed her look with Christian Louboutin ?Pigalle? pumps, an emerald ring and wing-tip eyes.

I need to reassess at the end of the tour, but this look is currently in my top 3.

Where does it rank for you?
Credit: Style.com & Getty

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Breivik ends massacre trial by defending attacks

OSLO, Norway (AP) ? With a rambling monologue depicting Norway's worst peacetime massacre as a necessary evil, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik got the last word as his 10-week trial ended Friday amid conflicting claims about his sanity.

Relatives of his 77 victims said they hope it's the last they hear of him.

"For me this is not about whether he's mentally competent or not," said Unni Espeland, whose 16-year-old daughter Andrine was killed in Breivik's shooting massacre on a political youth camp. "For me this is about him never being let out again."

Since the self-styled anti-Muslim fanatic admitted to the twin attacks on July 22 ? a car bomb in downtown Oslo followed by the shooting spree at the governing Labor Party's youth camp ? his sanity was the key issue to be resolved in the trial.

Breivik, 33, rejected prosecutors' assertion that he is insane, but it was unclear whether he helped his case with a closing statement that included complaints against the TV show "Sex and the City" and the Eurovision Song contest.

He demanded to be set free, saying his actions "were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people" and vowed that he would be exonerated by history.

But it was the relatives of victims who left the strongest impression on the court on the final day as they tried to put their loss in words.

Lara Rashid, 17, told the court she was consumed with feelings of guilt for having survived the Utoya massacre, while her two years older sister Bano was killed.

"It should have been me," Rashid said, her voice cracking.

Their Kurdish family fled from Saddam Hussein's Iraq to build a new life in safe and peaceful Norway. Despite the grief and emptiness, Rashid said she had begun to feel hope.

"Bano fought for a multicultural Norway, and at her funeral she showed that a priest and an imam could go side by side," Rashid said.

Kristi Loevlie, whose 30-year-old daughter Hanne was killed in the bombing, moved the courtroom to tears as she described the shock of finding out her daughter was dead, the grief of cleaning out her room and the first Christmas without her.

Still, Loevlie said she felt a need to attend the trial, seeing Breivik in a position where he couldn't hurt anyone anymore.

"I am not going to be afraid of this man," Loevlie said. "I decided I would go to court. I felt I owed it to Hanne."

The court room burst out in applause and audible sobs as she finished her statement.

Breivik remained motionless, his face blank.

Earlier Friday, defense lawyer Geir Lippestad had tried to prove to the court that Breivik's claims of being a resistance fighter in a struggle to protect Norway and Europe from being colonized by Muslims are not delusional, but part of a political view shared by other right-wing extremists.

"He realized that it is wrong to kill, but he chose to kill. That's what terrorists do," Lippestad said. "The ends justify the means. You don't understand this if you don't understand the culture of right-wing extremists."

Lippestad also formally entered a plea for acquittal, but it was made out of principle, without any realistic chance of success.

When Breivik addressed the court, he lashed out at everything he finds wrong with the world, from the Labor Party's immigration policies, to non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters "Carrie" and "Samantha" in "Sex and the City."

"These are the ideals that are presented to our sisters and daughters today," he said. "They should be censored and removed from our society."

Incorporating current events into his statement, he claimed that fellow right-wing extremists were behind a small amount of explosives found outside a Swedish nuclear plant this week. Swedish police spokesman Tommy Nyman said he had no comment, "especially not if he says it."

Two teams of psychiatrists reached opposite conclusions about Breivik's mental health. The first team diagnosed him with "paranoid schizophrenia," a serious mental illness. The second team found him legally sane, saying he suffers from a dissocial and narcissistic personality disorder, but is not psychotic.

Prosecutors on Thursday called for an insanity ruling, saying there was enough doubt about Breivik's mental state to preclude a prison sentence.

The five-judge panel will announce its ruling on Aug. 24, chief judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen said.

If deemed mentally competent, Breivik would likely be given Norway's maximum prison term of 21 years. A sentence can be extended beyond that if a prisoner is considered a menace to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to a mental institution for as long as he's considered sick and dangerous to others. Prosecutors suggested Thursday that could mean he would be held for the rest of his life.

Either way, the discussion about what prompted Breivik to commit an atrocity that Norway had never imagined is likely to continue.

"Whether or not he will be declared sane there are political ideas political motives behind this attack," said Eskil Pedersen, the head of the Labor Party's youth wing and an Utoya survivor.

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A CUP OF JO: Would you wait to kiss until your wedding day?

When Andrew and Carissa fell in love, they decided to wait to have their first kiss until their wedding ceremony...

I was really curious about their experience--can you imagine the willpower?!--so the adorable couple agreed to answer my five questions...

Why did you choose to wait until your wedding day to have your first kiss?
Andrew: It was something we both thought would be special to save until the day we officially became one. Plus, I'm Italian and didn't want to get in temptation's way of having a pre-mature Andrew, Jr.
Carissa: We met when we were 17, and neither of us had ever kissed anyone before. So, maybe we didn't even know what we were missing! I don't actually remember talking about it--it was just something we both knew we wanted to save for that moment when the minister says, 'You may kiss your bride.'

How long did you wait? Was it tough?
Andrew: I waited three years. I wanted to kiss her the day I met her. Yes, there were times it was very tough, but I'd settle for her eyes.
Carissa: I remember the first time I really wanted to kiss him. He had been in Ethiopia for a month, and had gotten terribly sick. I was flying out to see him when he got home, and I remember thinking there would be no way I would be able to not kiss him when I saw him...Yeah. It was sometimes quite hard.
When you finally kissed, were you nervous?
Andrew: I wasn't nervous. But I definitely wasn't prepared. When my dad (who was marrying us) said we could kiss, I was like, oh man, I totally forgot we got to do this! Then I got all serious, but Carissa wouldn't have any of it and exploded as I landed upon her lips. And that was it. Our first kiss was really a first laughing while our lips were touching.
Carissa: I remember standing up there, hearing Andrew being told to kiss his bride, and thinking, 'We have no idea how to do this...' Which made me laugh, right as our 'kiss' began. We took the next few weeks to perfect the skill on our honeymoon.

What did your friends and family think?
Andrew: I have a feeling a lot of people thought we were crazy.
Carissa: I dont think most people even knew, or if they did, they probably didn't believe us--until they saw our failure on the wedding day! But I know my sweet Gramps thought it was quite questionable. 'If you love a girl, you kiss her!'

Anything surprising about the overall experience?
Carissa: Well, as silly as it may sound, that kind of tension was actually quite romantic! It's sweet to me, when I recall how utterly in love we were and convinced of each other's hearts, that it hardly mattered what each other's mouths tasted like. That love has only gotten sweeter with time--but so does the kissing!

Thanks so much for sharing your story, Andrew and Carissa!
What do you think? Would you consider saving your first kiss for your wedding day? Could you? Or would you rather kiss beforehand?

P.S. How old were you when you had your first kiss? And how long do you wait to sleep with someone?

(Photos by Lydia Jane Photography, courtesy of Andrew and Carissa)
Pin It Now!

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Taliban storm Afghan hotel, killing 18 people

Afghan special forces are seen outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight on Thursday, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Afghan special forces are seen outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight on Thursday, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Afghan special forces are seen outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight on Thursday, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Afghan special forces are seen outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight on Thursday, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Afghan special forces patrol outside the Spozhmai hotel at Lake Qargha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed at least 17 people, most of them civilians, in an attack that began before midnight on Thursday, just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Fuerzas especiales afganas emplazadas frente al hotel Spozhmai a orillas del Lago Qargha donde las autoridades dicen que por lo menos 17 personas, entre ellos 12 civiles,murieron en un ataque de los insurgentes talibanes fuertemente armados el viernes 22 de junio del 2012. (Foto AP/Ahmad Jamshid)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Heavily armed Taliban insurgents stormed into a lakeside hotel north of Kabul and opened fire on guests inside, killing 18 people ? most civilians ? before the 12-hour long rampage ended Friday morning, Afghan officials said.

The brazen attack on a resort where many Afghans go to try to forget about the war was a dramatic reminder of the Taliban's resiliency as insurgents push hard with their summer offensive in a show of strength as U.S.-led forces prepared to withdraw by the end of 2014.

Insurgents first killed the security guards at the hotel, then pushed their way inside and began firing at guests who were having a late-night meal. Some of the guests escaped while others were held hostage as the attackers battled Afghan security forces who rushed to the scene for the next 12 hours.

Kabul police said five attackers had been shot and killed by midday Friday, ending the standoff. The Taliban claimed only four of their fighters were involved in the attack on the Spozhmai hotel at Qargha Lake, a popular weekend retreat about a half-hour drive from the capital.

U.S. Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the attack was likely carried out by fighters loyal to the Haqqani network. The al-Qaida linked group is based in Pakistan and regularly targets Afghan and coalition forces in Afghanistan, and conducts deadly attacks in Kabul.

"This attack bears the signature of the Haqqani network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violate Afghan sovereignty from the safety of Pakistan," Allen said, adding that some victims were killed in their sleep.

He added that the coalition provided "minimal support" at the Afghans' request.

Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police, said the hotel was crowded when the attackers entered and opened fire on families having a late dinner.

"Some of the guests jumped from the window into the hotel yard. They were hiding under trees or any safe place they could find," he said. "Three of the guests jumped into the lake and hid in the water."

Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi said the attackers ? armed with machines guns, rocket-propelled grenades and vests laden with explosives ? stormed the Spozhmai hotel at Qargha Lake before midnight on Thursday. By midmorning Friday, militants were still fighting Afghan forces, supported by international troops, and gunfire pierced the quiet surroundings of the lake area. Black smoke rose from the two-story hotel surrounded by trees as NATO helicopters circled overhead.

Mohammad Qasim, who survived the attack, said he went to the reception desk to tell the manager that he suspected that militants had entered the hotel.

"Before I finished talking with the manager, they fired on us," Qasim said. "(The manager) hid himself behind his desk, but around three to four other guys who were guards and waiters were killed by the attackers."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the assault, the latest in a string of attacks this week.

Fourteen Afghan civilians, three security guards and an Afghan police officer died in the attack, said Mohammad Zahir, criminal director for Kabul police.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the Taliban attacked the hotel because foreigners there were drinking alcohol and participating in other activities banned by Islam, but that was disputed by the Kabul police.

"The Taliban propaganda is saying that there was immoral activity there and that people were drinking alcohol," said Zahir, the criminal director for the Kabul police. "That is totally wrong. These are people who had worked all week and had gone to the lake to have a restful dinner with their families. The view there is very good for relaxation. There is no alcohol."

The hotel, situated on a man-made lake, is a popular place for well-to-do Afghans to spend Thursday night ? the beginning of the Afghan weekend ? or for picnic excursions on a Friday when paddleboats and horseback riding are on offer. Though international workers do go to Qargha lake, Afghans make up the majority of the clientele at the hotels and kebab shops along its shore.

Security at the lake is light compared with targets inside the Afghan capital, which has been hit frequently as the Taliban show they can still strike very close to the seat of the Afghan government. While hotels at the lake have armed guards, there are no massive blast walls and security cordons that surround government and military buildings in Kabul. Zahir said only two of the three guards killed at the hotel were armed.

The hotel was a soft target compared with the attacks insurgents have launched inside the city in recent years, including taking over construction sites and firing down on embassies and storming the tightly secured Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul last summer.

The week has been particularly violent in Afghanistan, as insurgents stepped up attacks against international forces. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber attacked U.S. and Afghan forces at a checkpoint in a busy market in the east, killing 21 people, including three U.S. soldiers. The same day, seven Afghan civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

Those bombings came the day after two attacks in the south in which militants stormed a NATO military base and attacked a police checkpoint. U.S. troops were wounded in the attack on the NATO base, officials said. On Monday, three gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms killed one American service member and wounded nine others in Kandahar's Zhari district.

The fighting suggests that the Taliban are not planning to wait for international combat forces to complete their exit from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, has to withdraw 23,000 American troops by the end of September, leaving about 68,000 U.S. military personnel in the country.

Separately, the U.S.-led coalition said a NATO service member was killed Friday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan. No other details were released. So far this year, 202 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Nikki Haley HPV Bill Veto: Bakari Sellers' South Carolina Vaccination Measure For Middle Schoolers Falls

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has vetoed a Democratic-sponsored bill aimed at providing seventh-graders with a free HPV vaccine.

Lexington (S.C.) Patch reports that the measure picked up support across both sides of the partisan aisle, with a 63-40 House vote and 40-2 Senate vote in favor of passing the initiative.

Haley defended her Tuesday veto, calling the bill unnecessary and a "precursor to another taxpayer-funded healthcare mandate," the Charleston Post and Courier reports.

State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg, S.C.) sponsored the bill and blasted Haley's move, calling her decision one that "puts her own selfish political ambitions ahead of the people of South Carolina."

"This bill had bipartisan support and gives optional education and preventative vaccines to adolescents in an effort to thwart cervical cancer," said Sellers in a statement. "This is a common sense approach to a very serious problem. To call this measure unnecessary is demeaning and insulting to the heroic women who fight this cancer everyday. I am deeply disappointed that politics once again has prevailed over women's health.?

The governor's veto comes with its share controversy. The Anderson (S.C.) Independent Mail rewinds to Haley's 2007 tenure as a state representative, when she co-sponsored a bill authorizing mandatory HPV vaccination for seventh-grade girls. Haley eventually killed that bill on the grounds that it did not include an opt-out for parents, but Sellers' 2012 version would have given parents the ability to do so, Lexington (S.C.) Patch notes.

?It was a mistake then, I?ve said it?s a mistake now,? Haley said on Tuesday, according to the South Carolina Radio Network. ?Now that I have a 14-year-old daughter, it is something that is very close to my heart in terms of what I?m going to do as a parent and what I want for my child.?

Also on HuffPost:

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Facebook to guilt you into posting with notifiers

5 hrs.

Devin Coldewey

A new feature is being tested on Facebook that relays info about you and your friends' recent?activity, or lack thereof. Some users are already seeing a little message??below the status update field that lets them know either how many of their friends have logged on recently, or gently chides them for not posting anything.

Though the feature is only rolling out to a few users now,?captured by scattered users and first reported by the?Techie Buzz blog, but?chances are it will be live on your page?soon, perhaps alongside some other stats. How many new posts since you last logged in? What comments received the most likes among your friends? Facebook has an ocean of data like this, but exposes surprisingly little to users.

Another new feature is a bigger popup card that shows up when you hover your cursor over a friend or page. Seeing that cover photo might make you click through, and then maybe scroll down and like a few posts.

It may be just the thing to keep users either on the site, clicking and commenting and liking, doing all the things that generate the hits and statistics so important for Facebook's advertisers.

The new popups appear to be live right now, but the activity notifications are still working their way through the system. Log in and see if you're one of the lucky few to get these post-inducing reminders.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

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Arresting creations of biodiversity

Christopher Bentley, contributor

(Image: Lori Nix)

Whimsical and surreal works of art aim to explore interdependence in nature in the exhibition Nature's Toolbox, in Chicago

THE giant bat heads look like idols that might line the walls of a macabre cathedral. Yet at the same time, these dark, mottled sculptures by long-time collaborators Richard Selesnick and Nicholas Kahn are cute. The effect is simultaneously charming and troubling.

That's a fitting first impression of the Nature's Toolbox exhibition now showing at The Field Museum in Chicago. More than a year in the making, the show features works of art by 30 artists, each exploring the interdependence of nature - and in particular the way humans affect biodiversity. "There's an implicit call to action," says Alesha Martinez of Art Works for Change, the group, based in Oakland, California, that curated the exhibition.

Take Donna Ozawa's installation, part of her Waribashi Project. Since 1999, Ozawa has created several sculptures using a fraction of the hundreds of billions of single-use chopsticks, or waribashi, discarded every year. She works wonders with this waste, crafting striking sculptures held together by only gravity and friction.

Each new iteration employs some 90,000 chopsticks and takes shape in situ, evolving with each additional handful. Anemones and other organic forms are recurring motifs. "I'm sort of playing with that while I'm working on it," Ozawa says.

Ozawa's construction for Nature's Toolbox looks like a 2-metre-high tornado unravelling as it touches the ground, its swirl tapering off into the installation platform. In one sense the medium is the message: sushi enthusiasts might feel they have created a monster.

From real to imagined disaster; Lori Nix evokes a grim future in her gorgeous photographs depicting miniature dioramas that create scenes from post-apocalyptic cities. In one, shown above, a natural history museum's own showcases remain intact while the surrounding walls crumble. The exhibit is surreal, yet urgently relatable in its overall message.

(Image: Donna Ozawa)

Suzanne Anker's Biota has a similar haunting quality as Ozawa's and Nix's work. Anker dips sea sponges in porcelain, uses an air hose to refine details, and then burns off the organic material. She then adorns the resulting "ghost of sponge" casts with 3D printed silver-leaf figurines modelled on neurons and animal brains.

Anker's artistic interests follow her intellectual curiosity. "Science is in the databank of art," she says. "Ecology especially is no longer just in the textbook. It's in the public domain."

Biota, which debuted last year in Istanbul, Turkey, reflects on the relationship between sponges and neuroscience. It's a stroke of biological irony that organisms with no nervous system resemble that pinnacle of neurological evolution, the human brain.

Some artists take a different tack and use humour in their work. Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno films delve amusingly into the sex lives of insects, while Lucy and Jorge Orta capture our conflicting veneration and destruction of nature with brightly painted casts of dinosaur bones - a whimsical nod to evolution's morbid engines: extinction and death.

Our work "is a way of talking about our own fears and plagues" says Kahn, peering into a porthole in the back of one of his bat heads. Inside, moths dangle daintily from strings - a vignette of the animal's dreams. "It's beautiful and ugly at the same time."

The black humour in Kahn and Selesnick's works provides a bridge to the guilty admiration with which we approach the natural world. Their exhibit reminds us not only of our outsized environmental impact, but also our subservience to the world that sustains us.

Nature's Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art and Invention, The Field Museum, Chicago, until 2 December

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Chinese Sex Slaves in South Africa

This story was posted in January:

Twenty-year-old Kim was trafficked from China to Johannesburg, where she was forced to work in a brothel.
In the summer of 2011, she managed to escape and ended up in Cape Town. Local police found her wandering the streets in a haze and presumed she had been drugged.

She was brought to a safe house and police contacted Not For Sale South Africa in a bid to help Kim receive the best support available.

For some time Kim felt unable to speak, and although she eventually opened up about her circumstances, some of the information surrounding her life remains unknown.

Once Kim regained some sense of reality, she was shipped back to China.

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J.C. Penney president leaving

Pittsburgh Business Times by Louis A. Corsaro, Assistant Managing Editor

Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 7:18am EDT

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Microsoft tackles iPad with Surface tablet

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp introduced its own line of tablet computers on Monday at a much-hyped press event in Los Angeles, marking a major strategic shift for the software giant as it struggles to compete with Apple Inc and re-invent its aging Windows franchise.

The new tablet line, named Surface, includes a consumer device aimed directly at the Apple iPad, and another, larger machine designed to compete with lightweight laptops. Both include a keyboard that doubles as a cover, and both will be powered by versions of the new Windows 8 operating system.

The move breaks with Microsoft's operating model of the past 37 years, which has relied on computer manufacturers to make and market machines running Windows. It could throw the world's largest software company into direct competition with its closest hardware partners such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Co.

However, the success of Apple in recent years has underscored the benefits of an integrated approach to hardware and software, and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday that the company "didn't want to leave anything uncovered" as it rolled out Windows 8.

The new software is the biggest overhaul of Windows in years, and features a new touch-friendly interface dubbed "Metro". It is scheduled to be available for the Christmas shopping season.

The lighter, thinner version of the Surface tablet, built on an Nvidia Corp chip designed by ARM Holdings, will be the first to market at the same time as the general release of Windows 8, and will feature Microsoft's popular Office suite of applications.

It is comparable to Apple's new iPad, heavier but slightly thinner. It has a 10.6 inch screen and comes in 32GB and 64GB memory sizes.

A second, heavier tablet aimed at the new generation of lightweight laptops called "ultrabooks", running on traditional Intel Corp chips, will come in 64GB and 128GB models. That will be available about three months after the ARM version, Microsoft said.

The company gave no details on pricing, except that they would be competitive with comparable ARM tablets and Intel-powered Ultrabooks. They will be on sale online and in Microsoft's new brick-and-mortar stores in the United States.

Microsoft shares rose 0.8 percent in after-hours trading, making up for a 0.6 percent drop to $29.84 in the regular Nasdaq session.

Industry watchers were generally impressed by the devices' specifications, but doubted they were a sure-fire hit.

"I don't see this as an iPad killer, but it has a lot of potential," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. "This raises more questions than answers. The story that Microsoft told today was incomplete. They focused on the hardware innovation but didn't talk about the services, the unique Microsoft assets that could make this product amazing."

Contrary to expectations, Microsoft made no mention of integrating content and features from its top-selling Xbox game console, the Skype video calling service it bought last year, or Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader, its new partner in the electronic books market.

FOLLOWING APPLE

Sales of tablets are expected to triple in the next two years, topping 180 million a year in 2013, easily outpacing growth in traditional PCs. Apple has sold 67 million iPads in two years since launch.

Apple, which makes both hardware and software for greater control over the performance of the final product, has revolutionized mobile markets with its smooth, seamless phones and tablets. Rival Google Inc may experiment with a similar approach after buying phone maker Motorola Mobility this year.

Making its own hardware for such an important product is a departure for Microsoft, which based its success on licensing its software to other manufacturers, stressing the importance of "partners" and the Windows "ecosystem."

"The question is why is Microsoft doing it?," said Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "Lack of faith in the OEMs (computer makers)? There's definite risk here as Microsoft increasingly competes with its customers."

Microsoft stressed that "OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT," meaning that it would not hold back any features from other hardware makers' Windows tablets.

When it has ventured into hardware, the Redmond, Washington-based company has had a mixed record.

Apart from keyboards and mice, the Xbox game console was its first foray into major manufacturing. That is now a successful business, but only after billions of dollars of investment and overcoming problems with high rates of faulty units - a problem which was nicknamed the "red ring of death" by gamers.

The company's Microsoft-branded Zune music player, a late rival to Apple's iPod, was not a success and its unpopular Kin phone was taken off the market shortly after introduction.

The company killed off a two-screen, slate-style prototype of a tablet device called Courier later that year, saying the technology might emerge in another form later on.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Writing by Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Pullin)

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