Why Ergonomics Matter ? Wellpepper: Gives your health a kick

Posted by Amar Brar on May 30, 2013

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I have just wrapped up my 3^rd year as a kinesiology student with shooting pain radiating from my wrists up to my shoulders. By self-assessment, I believe that I was experiencing carpal tunnel-like symptoms. The carpal tunnel protects the median nerve, which innervates the hand, thumb, and fingers. Carpal tunnel? symptoms include radiating and shooting pain from your shoulders down to your fingertips, weakness in the affected hand or wrist, and numbness.

Being a student, I have hunched over my laptop for countless hours at a time, studying or typing up assignments. As a result of trying to eradicate this pain and prevent future issues, I have now become highly interested in ergonomically assessing all of my work places, and it has helped immensely.

Why should you care? Well, we are all sitting in front of a computer, laptop, or work station for longer and longer periods, and honestly you don?t realize the effects it has on your body until it tells you through pain and discomfort. Why not prevent the problem before it even has a chance to cause discomfort? Being a curious Kinesiology major I began to investigate my problems and found some things that can hopefully help you as well.

Core 77 put out a good article comparing good and bad posture when using a laptop. ?Since laptops are compact, it is almost impossible to maintain correct ergonomics as you use them, the screen and keyboard are too close together to enable proper posture. Below are what bad and good ergonomics look like in general, but the latter is improved by the help of a lowered keyboard and a raised laptop.

Bad and Good Working Posture

From what I learned, the way to avoid wrist pain is to maintain a 90 degree angle with your forearms and your keyboard or mouse. There are plenty of resources that show you ergonomically correct keyboard use, but here it is in a nutshell:

The Right Way to Keyboard

Even a small deviation from the norm (correct ergonomic hand and wrist position) can cause pain. Imagine typing a 5000 word essay. Each time you type a letter, a force is generated and transferred through your fingers, to your wrists, and all the way up to your shoulders. Although these forces are small, they eventually add up and can cause discomfort if you are using awkward typing methods. Honestly, I never really thought of correcting my typing mechanics as well as my hand and wrist posture until I experienced the extreme discomfort of typing incorrectly. Making this change was not easy, as I had developed many bad habits while I typed. I had to constantly remind myself to check my posture and if I was following the correct typing posture. Although it seems like it would be a difficult adjustment, the benefits of not experiencing shooting pain radiating up to my shoulders are well worth it.

Ergonomically correct backpack

After inspection, I also realized that my backpack had been contributing to my shoulder pain. Being a student, I sometimes have to lug around multiple textbooks.? I soon began to see that I was carrying a lot of weight on my back for long periods at a time, which would lead me to having sore shoulders at the end of a long school day. Of course, me being the curious Kinesiology student, I looked into it. The way my backpack was set up, the weight all went down to the bottom of the bag, causing me to roll my shoulders forward and walk around with a rounded back to offset the weight. This caused me to have to bear all of the weight of the backpack on my shoulders, thus leading to sore shoulders at the end of the day.

Looking online, I stumbled upon a company called Airpacks who design ergonomic backpacks. Their backpacks are designed with cushioned straps and many other features that help in distributing weight throughout the bag.? The main selling point that got me, was that they included a small air bladder which rests on your lower back that helps maintain correct, upright posture. By doing this, not all of the weight of the bag is born by your shoulders, but instead transferred throughout your entire upper body and core.? In the picture, the Airpacks ergonomic backpack is on the left, and a regular backpack is on the right.

Amar with his ergonomic backpack

The difference for me was immediate, and I could visually see my posture change as I changed from my old backpack to my new one in the mirror, and as you can see in this picture of me and my new pack.

Ergonomics is very important and I learned that the hard way. Don?t be like me and wait until you experience discomfort to ergonomically assess your workplace. Be proactive and make sure you are not damaging your body at work or school, and prevent the irritation of your nerves and muscles.

Source: http://wellpepper.com/why-ergonomics-matter

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Windows 8.1: Little Fixes, Same Big Ideas (Oh, and a Start Button)

The good news: If you liked Windows 8, its first major update is going fix a ton of the little things that bothered you. The bad news: You might not like Windows 8. And there's nothing here that will change that. At least there's a Start button!

Microsoft today is giving a sneak peak at Windows 8.1, previously known as Windows Blue. And while it may not be the drastic walkback of the Metro design theory you were hoping for, there's plenty here to like. Starting with:

The Start Button

Yes, the rumors are true. It's back. It'll be there by default, in both desktop mode and in your lovely tiled rubric. See? There it is, right there in the lower lefthand corner:

Missed you, friend! It won't always be immediately visible in whatever app you're using, but you're never more than a mouse-over away from the Start screen. It's not quite the robust Start menu people were clamoring for, but it's... uh... a start.

Another win for die-hards: You can boot directly into desktop mode now. So long, flat design! Or, if you prefer a best-of-both-worlds approach, you can display your tiles over the traditional desktop background. Baby steps.

All About You

The Start button (rightly) is going to garner the most attention, but Windows 8.1 also features a bevy of smaller tweaks that let you better configure your PC to your needs. Much of this is aesthetic; you've got more control over your Start screen background, make your Lock screen a slideshow of pictures if you want to turn Surface into the world's most expensive digital picture frame, and uninstall, resize, or move apps in groups instead of one at a time.

There's less presumption in Windows 8.1, too. New apps don't automatically wind up on your Start screen; they instead get shimmied off to an apps view, from which you can choose where and how to pin it. Likewise, you can now open photos from Mail, SkyDrive, or the Camera app to edit them.

Eye on the SkyDrive

Microsoft's also using Windows 8.1 to give SkyDrive a major boost; it's more deeply integrated than ever before, storing all of your settings and apps automatically to make switching from PC to PC a seamless experience.

You can also save individual files directly to SkyDrive from Windows 8.1, while accessing any of your cloud-based docs from the SkyDrive app, even when offline.

SkyDrive may not get as much hype as the iClouds and Google Drives of the world, but it's a terrific service that deserves the spotlight. It's also, incidentally, Microsoft's key to being a fully integrated?and standalone?ecosystem.

Betting on Bing

Bing is not perfect. In fact, by many measures, it's not even particularly good. But it's going to be everywhere in Windows 8.1, and that may not be the worst thing. By default, the Search charm will provide a global search that spans both the web and your SkyDrive files, apps, and suggested courses of action, all powered by the anti-Google.

Sounds great in theory, and Bing can only get better as more people use it to feed its algorithms. But for much of the Windows 8.1 search experience, you won't have Google as an option. That's going to be problematic for some.

A Fresh Start

The most exciting thing about Windows 8.1 is that it's a clear indication that Microsoft is pushing forward with Metro, not pulling away. Yes, the Start button is a (probably necessary) concession. But it's the only one. None of the rest of these changes give even the slightest whiff of retreat. Good for them.

We'll be able to get a closer look at Windows 8.1's features starting on June 26th; it'll be available as a free update later this year for existing Windows users. Which gives you plenty of time to get comfy with the idea that those tiles aren't going anywhere any time soon. Nor should they.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/windows-8-1-first-look-little-fixes-same-big-ideas-510444639

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Facebook's Sandberg Says Ad Network And Maps Would Be Nice, But Not A Priority

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that the recent launch of Facebook Home is just the first version of the company's effort to make the smartphone more social. Today at the D11 Conference, she said that the company will continue to update the platform monthly, as it seeks to improve the user experience.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CKBacDjTMBk/

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Artificial sweeteners may be do more than sweeten: It can affect how the body reacts to glucose

May 29, 2013 ? Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a popular artificial sweetener can modify how the body handles sugar.

In a small study, the researchers analyzed the sweetener sucralose (Splenda?) in 17 severely obese people who do not have diabetes and don't use artificial sweeteners regularly.

"Our results indicate that this artificial sweetener is not inert -- it does have an effect," said first author M. Yanina Pepino, PhD, research assistant professor of medicine. "And we need to do more studies to determine whether this observation means long-term use could be harmful."

The study is available online in the journal Diabetes Care.

Pepino's team studied people with an average body mass index (BMI) of just over 42; a person is considered obese when BMI reaches 30. The researchers gave subjects either water or sucralose to drink before they consumed a glucose challenge test. The glucose dosage is very similar to what a person might receive as part of a glucose-tolerance test. The researchers wanted to learn whether the combination of sucralose and glucose would affect insulin and blood sugar levels.

"We wanted to study this population because these sweeteners frequently are recommended to them as a way to make their diets healthier by limiting calorie intake," Pepino said.

Every participant was tested twice. Those who drank water followed by glucose in one visit drank sucralose followed by glucose in the next. In this way, each subject served as his or her own control group.

"When study participants drank sucralose, their blood sugar peaked at a higher level than when they drank only water before consuming glucose," Pepino explained. "Insulin levels also rose about 20 percent higher. So the artificial sweetener was related to an enhanced blood insulin and glucose response."

The elevated insulin response could be a good thing, she pointed out, because it shows the person is able to make enough insulin to deal with spiking glucose levels. But it also might be bad because when people routinely secrete more insulin, they can become resistant to its effects, a path that leads to type 2 diabetes.

It has been thought that artificial sweeteners, such as sucralose, don't have an effect on metabolism. They are used in such small quantities that they don't increase calorie intake. Rather, the sweeteners react with receptors on the tongue to give people the sensation of tasting something sweet without the calories associated with natural sweeteners, such as table sugar.

But recent findings in animal studies suggest that some sweeteners may be doing more than just making foods and drinks taste sweeter. One finding indicates that the gastrointestinal tract and the pancreas can detect sweet foods and drinks with receptors that are virtually identical to those in the mouth. That causes an increased release of hormones, such as insulin. Some animal studies also have found that when receptors in the gut are activated by artificial sweeteners, the absorption of glucose also increases.

Pepino, who is part of Washington University's Center for Human Nutrition, said those studies could help explain how sweeteners may affect metabolism, even at very low doses. But most human studies involving artificial sweeteners haven't found comparable changes.

"Most of the studies of artificial sweeteners have been conducted in healthy, lean individuals," Pepino said. "In many of these studies, the artificial sweetener is given by itself. But in real life, people rarely consume a sweetener by itself. They use it in their coffee or on breakfast cereal or when they want to sweeten some other food they are eating or drinking."

Just how sucralose influences glucose and insulin levels in people who are obese is still somewhat of a mystery.

"Although we found that sucralose affects the glucose and insulin response to glucose ingestion, we don't know the mechanism responsible," said Pepino. "We have shown that sucralose is having an effect. In obese people without diabetes, we have shown sucralose is more than just something sweet that you put into your mouth with no other consequences."

She said further studies are needed to learn more about the mechanism through which sucralose may influence glucose and insulin levels, as well as whether those changes are harmful. A 20 percent increase in insulin may or may not be clinically significant, she added.

"What these all mean for daily life scenarios is still unknown, but our findings are stressing the need for more studies," she said. "Whether these acute effects of sucralose will influence how our bodies handle sugar in the long term is something we need to know."

Funding for this research comes from a National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Sciences Award and subaward and from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Tate & Lyle provided the sucralose. NIH grant numbers: UL1 R000448, KL2 TR000450, DK0088126, DK37948 and DK56341.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/esKCorSaTQU/130529190728.htm

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From trauma to tau: Researchers tie brain injury to toxic form of protein

May 29, 2013 ? University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have uncovered what may be a key molecular mechanism behind the lasting damage done by traumatic brain injury.

The discovery centers on a particular form of a protein that neuroscientists call tau, which has also been associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Under ordinary conditions, tau is essential to neuron health, but in Alzheimer's the protein aggregates into two abnormal forms: so-called "neurofibrillary tangles," and collections of two, three, or four or more tau units known as "oligomers."

Neurofibrillary tangles are not believed to be harmful, but tau oligomers are toxic to nerve cells. They also are thought to have an additional damaging property -- when they come into contact with healthy tau proteins, they cause them to also clump together into oligomers, and so spread toxic tau oligomers to other parts of the brain.

Now, in experiments with laboratory rats, using novel antibodies developed at UTMB, scientists have found that traumatic brain injuries also generate tau oligomers. The destructive protein assemblages formed within four hours after injury and persisted for at least two weeks -- long enough to suggest that they might contribute to lasting brain damage.

Significantly, the rats used in the experiments were normal, unlike the genetically modified animals used in most tau research. The findings are thus likely to be more relevant to human traumatic brain injuries.

"Although people have given some attention to the formation of neurofibrillary tangles after traumatic brain injury, we were the first to look at tau oligomers, because we have an antibody that allows us to separate them out and see how much of the total tau is the toxic species," said Bridget Hawkins, lead author of a paper on the research now online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "We saw that it's a substantial amount -- enough to play an important role in the effects of traumatic brain injury."

Those effects can include memory deficits, which have been recently shown by UTMB researchers to be induced by tau oligomers. Other long-term ramifications of TBI include seizures, and disruptions in the sleep-wake cycle. The UTMB scientists hypothesize that these problems could be avoided if physicians had a way to stop the process of tau oligomerization.

One possibility is a treatment based on the antibodies used to label tau oligomers in this project, which were developed as part of an effort to develop a vaccine against different neurodegenerative disorders.

"We have antibodies that can specifically target these tau oligomers without interfering with the function of healthy tau," said UTMB associate professor Rakez Kayed, the senior author on the paper. "This is a new approach -- we're starting by targeting them in animals -- but we hope to eventually humanize these antibodies for clinical trials."

Other authors of the paper include research associates Shashirekha Krishnamurthy and Urmi Sengupta, postdoctoral fellow Diana Castillo-Carranza, Dr. Donald Prough, Dr. George Jackson and Dr. Douglas DeWitt. Support for this research was provided by the Cullen Family Trust for Health Care, the Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Moody Center for Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research/Mission Connect.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/J8iaDLF1xf8/130529191045.htm

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Obama picks Furman as chief economist, Krueger steps down: source

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to appoint longtime adviser Jason Furman to be his new chief White House economist, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Furman, who will replace economist Alan Krueger as chair of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and has advised Obama since his 2008 election campaign.

Furman has been instrumental in formulating administration policies on taxes, the response to the U.S. recession, and efforts to avoid a "fiscal cliff" at the end of last year.

Krueger, who was confirmed as CEA chair in November 2011, is returning to his professor post at Princeton University, from which he has been on leave, the White House confirmed.

"Alan was the driving force behind many of the economic policies that I have proposed that will grow our economy and create middle-class jobs," Obama said in a statement.

"And while we have more work to do, today our economy is improving - thanks, in no small part, to Alan's efforts," he said.

Krueger had to return to the school by this fall in order to maintain his tenure, according to one source.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on Furman.

Furman is currently assistant to the president for economic policy and principal deputy director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), which is run by Gene Sperling, and was an economist in the Clinton administration.

When former NEC head Larry Summers left the administration at the end of 2010, Furman was considered a possible replacement, but the post went to Sperling instead.

"He's as bright and able as any economist I've worked with," Summers said of Furman in an interview. "I think he'll be terrific."

The CEA advises the president on domestic and international economic policy based on data and economic research. The chairman is a cabinet member and requires Senate confirmation.

Former colleagues said Furman would be effective because of his good relationship with the president and White House staff.

"Jason has got analytical chops plus extensive economic experience. The president listens to him," said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor and former CEA chair under Obama.

"It's hard to find someone with his combination of policy experience and pragmatism along with serious economic and analytic rigor," said Jason Bordoff, a professor at Columbia University and a former White House adviser on energy issues.

"He's strategic. He understands how the White House policy process works, all of which will allow the CEA to be incredibly relevant," he said.

The appointment is likely a sign that budget and tax fights with Congress will continue to play a high profile role in White House economic policy. It could also raise the profile of the CEA within the White House itself.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/economist-krueger-leaving-white-house-replaced-furman-source-170107827.html

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Asteroid miners ponder who'll want a piece of a rock

Deep Space Industries / Bryan Versteeg

An artist's concept of a commercial spacecraft collecting a sample rock off the surface of an asteroid.

By Robert Z. Pearlman
Space.com

Commercial asteroid miners may find an initial market among meteorite collectors but the long-haul customers for returning space rock samples to Earth are more likely to be scientists, deep-space entrepreneurs say.

The suggestion that public interest can drive advances in science and profits in space was a running theme at this year's Spacefest, an annual meeting for all types of space and astronomy enthusiasts. The event brought together private space companies, government space explorers, academia and the public. Organized for the fifth year by Novaspace Galleries, a space art and astronaut autograph dealer based in Tucson, Spacefest was held May 24 to 27 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Arizona.

"The process of getting involved in a financial enterprise, a commercial enterprise, can often further the technology, further the science, and that has happened so widely in meteorites," said Geoffrey Notkin, a meteorite hunter, host of the Science Channel TV series "Meteorite Men," and an adviser to Deep Space Industries, one of the two private companies now looking to mine asteroids for space-based resources and maybe provide sample return services. "It's a beautiful demonstration of how commercial companies and collectors and academia can work together, as happy as can be, because everyone benefits." [Mars Meteorites: Red Planet on Earth (Photos)]

"I hope and expect the same to occur with commercial space exploration," Notkin said during a panel devoted to asteroids.

Supply and demand
Notkin explained that the number of meteorites cataloged for science has increased exponentially over the past few decades from fewer than 10,000 in all of history to more than 50,000, in part because of the incentive for collectors to cooperate with the academic community.

Meteorite Men / Geoffrey Notkin

Meteorite hunter Geoff Notkin (right) shows a lunar meteorite to Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 astronaut, at Spacefest in Tucson, Ariz., on Sunday.

"People find meteorites and they could just keep them or try to sell them discreetly, (but) that's not the right way to do it," Notkin said. "The right way is to contact someone in academia and say 'Look, I found a meteorite, can you classify it for me?' A piece (of the rock) is then donated to science permanently and the meteorite then has a name." [Most Famous Meteorites of All Time (Photos)]

"So academia benefits and the finder benefits because the meteorite that he or she found is now worth more money," Notkin said.

The value of asteroid samples may have more appeal to the scientific community than to collectors over the long term, the panelists said, in part due to the relative cost of returning the rocks to the ground.

"If you look at the cost that is being expended per gram for [NASA's asteroid sample return mission] OSIRIS-REx, if you want to use that metric, it's a wildly large amount of money for a relatively small amount of mass," said Chris Lewicki, president of the space mining company Planetary Resources. "I don't know how that necessarily scales that well."

"I would imagine that there would be part interest, whether it is for science or some aspect of collector," he added. "I often joke that there is probably some company, a vodka company, that would like to make vodka exclusively from asteroid water. I don't know how much they could sell it for per liter, but there's probably some who would buy it."

Lewicki cited the moon rocks and dust?that were returned to Earth in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Apollo astronauts as a lesson in supply and demand. Four of the 12 men who collected those lunar samples attended Spacefest to sign autographs and meet with their fans.

"In many ways, those samples are so precious because as time marched on, we knew that we were probably not going to get any more any time soon," Lewicki said. "From a commercial standpoint, from the asteroids, if you go up and get it commercially, you probably know that there will be more soon. Who knows what kind of strange demand that would create in terms of the material."

Lewicki's counterpart at Deep Space Industries agreed.

"One of the things that is kind of important to remember is the business plans and the creative marketing ideas and things like that that we're dealing with, people in our field have been playing with since Apollo, whether it's the moon or asteroids," said Rick Tumlinson, DSI's chairman. "For example, there was a plan for a commercial lunar mission and they looked at what would be the value of moon dust, and what will happen on the commercial side."

"Whether you're going to have the Rolex asteroid watch, the hands will have a little asteroid material in them, that is mainly an early revenue stream that is going to diminish because the less rare (the material) is, the less value it is going to have," he added.

"There's a slightly different curve in scientific use because there's going to be a lot of demand and it's probably going to be more steady because there are all kinds of research that can be done,' Tumlinson said.

Provenance and population
Lewicki said the metrics of supply and demand are why it makes more sense for his company to go to a number of different asteroids than retrieve a single large space rock.

"There is a lot more value in getting 500 different samples then there is a monstrous amount from one sample," he said. "And this is in the area of what we're looking at to make this stuff available; going out over the next decade and increasing the amount of asteroids we've been to by a factor of five."

"It would be of just tremendous scientific value for our understanding the diversity of these 50,000 (meteorites) we have gotten in laboratories to what they mean to the hundreds of thousands of objects that we have discovered so far in the solar system," Lewicki said.

Dan Durda, a space artist and planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., drew a comparison between what is important to collectors and what is important to scientists.

"Making an analogy with the collector market, the whole idea of provenance, part of bringing a sample back from an asteroid is the whole point of context," Durda stated. "Context means everything. If you know the parent body that it specifically came from it's of much more value then just a random sample delivered from a parent body that you don't know."

"I think from that perspective, just bringing a sample back from a known source, beyond even the collector market, just from a scientific market, would be valuable," he said.

Along those same lines, Notkin pointed out that the value of asteroid samples can differ based on whether they pass through Earth's atmosphere or not.

"A lot of the most scientifically interesting material cannot be collected as meteorites as all," he explained. "It is just too frail, just too fragile to survive the journey through the atmosphere."

"(But) one of the reasons that meteorites are interesting to collectors is because they've been altered by their journey through the atmosphere. They have often been melted into fantastic shapes. So if we get source material and bring it back to Earth, it has not gone through that process. It is different," Notkin said.

Continue reading at collectSpace.com about the Spacefest V convention held May 24 to 27, 2013 in Tucson, Ariz.

Follow collectSpace.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSpace. Copyright 2013 collectSpace.com. All rights reserved.

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

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2c9698d0/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C290C185913680Easteroid0Eminers0Eponder0Ewholl0Ewant0Ea0Epiece0Eof0Ea0Erock0Dlite/story01.htm

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Apps are the new salespeople in U.S. stores

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shoppers walking into a clothing store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood should not be surprised if a smartphone app, rather than a salesperson, greets them at the door.

Some retailers in the United States are starting to communicate with shoppers via a smartphone app called Swirl that uses in-store sensors to track their location in the shop to send them personalized offers and recommendations.

It's just one of the ways that brick-and-mortar shops are using apps to appeal to younger, more tech-savvy consumers.

"Retailers want to give consumers something that's value-added and does what an expert salesperson might do -- for example, tell them ?Here's some great new products,' or ?Here's a special offer because we know you've been looking at handbags'" said Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Boston-based Swirl Networks, creators of the Swirl iPhone app.

Retailers in New York City and Boston are among the first to adopt the technology, which uses bluetooth sensors placed on store walls and shelves to communicate with the Swirl app.

Although Swirl's use of sensors to detect shoppers in stores is among the first of its kind, several other apps provide deals or tips when entering a shop.

Shopkick, available in the United States for iPhone and Android, tells consumers about offers and points when they walk into select stores, and allows them to redeem points for rewards such as gift cards.

The Swirl app can also help shoppers across the United States find products and deals available at major retailers nearby. Several other apps, including Clutch, released for Android last week and also available for iPhone, and a new app called Sudo, also on both platforms, help consumers find deals nearby.

A new iPhone app called Shopcaster is designed for shoppers looking for products at independent retailers across North America. Users can browse goods available in a particular neighborhood before heading out shopping, or order items directly through the app.

"For (our users) shopping is a sport in many cases," said Judy Sims, the CEO of Toronto-based company Shopcaster, adding that the appeal for consumers is often the story behind the product and where they bought it.

Ozguc said for major retailers the main driver behind the in-store apps is to provide stores with web-like analytics and marketing tools.

"They want the benefits of e-commerce but in their brick-and-mortar stores," he said, adding that Swirl helps retailers track when the shopper came back and where they spent their time.

The app also learns the consumer's style preferences over time and uses the information to customize offers in the app.

"We know form years and years of advertising that the more relevant and contextual the offer, the better the response rate," Ozguc said.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apps-salespeople-u-stores-155958029.html

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McCain Meets With Rebels in Syria (ABC News)

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Heatsink Coasters Cool Hot Beverages While Protecting Your Furniture

If they're good enough to keep temperatures under control inside your electronics, it only makes sense that a simple aluminum heatsink would be just as effective at taming a piping hot cup of coffee. Not to mention providing plenty of tiny channels for condensation to collect instead of dripping onto your furniture and leaving unsightly rings.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/igFEsiO_0eI/heatsink-coasters-cool-hot-beverages-while-protecting-y-510120253

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Colombia, FARC rebels reach agreement on agrarian reform

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia and the Marxist-led FARC rebels have reached agreement on the critical issue of agrarian reform, the two sides said on Sunday in a major step forward for the peace process aimed at ending their long war.

They said the accord called for the economic and social development of rural areas and providing land to the people living there, which addresses one of the main issues that led the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to form in 1964 as a communist agrarian reform movement and launch its insurgency.

Lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle reminded that the agreement would take effect only if an overall peace accord is achieved, which has been the guiding principal of the talks since the beginning.

"Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed," he said.

De la Calle said it would represent "a historic change, a rebirth of the Colombian countryside."

The government promised to build up services and infrastructure in rural areas as it tries to end the country's long history of social and economic inequality.

"What we have agreed to in this accord will be the beginning of radical transformations in the rural and agrarian reality of Colombia, with equity and democracy," said the joint statement, which was read at the end of the ninth round of the talks, which began November 19 in Havana.

The rebels warned that "certain points" in the agrarian reform accord "necessarily will have to be retaken before the completion of the final agreement," but said a path was being opened for "the people to act, to mobilize themselves in defense of their rights."

It was not disclosed how much land would be given out. De la Calle said there would be "an ambitious program of restitution and adjudication of lands" to the rural poor, but that private landowners would not lose their property.

"Legal landowners have nothing to fear," he said.

The agreement drew praise at the United Nations in New York, where a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it "a significant achievement and important step forward."

Ban "wishes both delegations further success in their efforts to reach agreement on the remaining issues and to put an end to Colombia's long conflict," the spokesperson said.

Adam Isacson, senior associate for security policy at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, told Reuters the agrarian reform agreement was a "genuine big deal" for Colombia's peace hopes.

"To have arrived at an agreement on land and rural development with a peasant-based guerrilla group for the first time in nearly 50 years is a step whose importance is hard to overestimate," he said.

"It greatly increases the probability - now to well over 50 percent - that a final accord will be reached as a result of these talks," Isacson said.

Many potential obstacles remain, starting with the next agenda item - the delicate subject of political participation for the FARC.

FACING JUSTICE

More than 100,000 people have died and millions have been displaced in the war that is now Latin America's longest-running insurgency and goes on at a low intensity even as the peace discussions continue.

Many Colombians feel the FARC must face justice for war casualties, the use of kidnappings to extort money and involvement in the illicit drug trade, the latter a charge the group has denied.

But criminal charges and jail time could exclude many FARC leaders from taking part in politics.

The rebels have said they are willing to "review" any "error" committed during the war but have ruled out prosecution by a state they say they legitimately rose up against for persecuting and neglecting its own people.

Other remaining agenda points include the logistics of ending the conflict, the drug trade, compensation for victims and the implementation of the final accord.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who recently hinted that he plans to run for re-election in 2014, has said he wants the talks ended this year.

Santos initiated the peace talks last year on a bet the FARC had been so weakened by the government's 10-year, U.S.-backed offensive against the group that its leaders were ready to negotiate an end to the fighting.

Three previous peace attempts - the last ending in 2002 - had failed.

The rebels have been pushed into remote corners of the country but still are able to attack oil and mining operations that are fueling Colombia's economic growth.

The war has diverted billions of dollars from the economy as industry is unable to function at full capacity and the government is forced to spend heavily on troops and weapons.

Even if peace with the FARC is achieved, the government still must deal with a smaller rebel force, the ELN or National Liberation Army, and criminal gangs running drug-trafficking operations.

The ELN, with an estimated 3,000 fighters, has expressed interest in seeking a peace accord similar to the one being pursued with the FARC, but Santos has said it must first release captives who include a Canadian citizen.

Norway and Cuba are serving as guarantors for the Colombia-FARC talks, with Chile and Venezuela as observers.

The discussions are set to resume in Havana on June 11, a government spokesman said.

(Reporting By Jeff Franks, Nelson Acosta and Rosa Tania Valdes; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colombia-farc-rebels-reach-agreement-agrarian-reform-010708366.html

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A Minute With: Indian actor Irrfan on his new film 'Lunchbox'

By Shashank Chouhan

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Irrfan is no stranger to Hollywood. The Indian actor, who uses only his first name, has played roles in acclaimed films such as "Life of Pi", "Slumdog Millionaire" and "A Mighty Heart".

His new film "The Lunchbox", an Indian-French-German co-production, won the Grand Rail d'Or at Critics' Week at the 66th Cannes film festival and the North American movie rights were acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.

Director Ritesh Batra's debut feature film is about a wrongly delivered lunchbox that connects a young Hindu housewife to a Catholic man played by Irrfan.

Irrfan, 46, told Reuters about his latest film and how he sees Indian cinema changing to become more international:

Q: Tell us about "The Lunchbox".

A: It's a sweet love story, it's a feel-good film, it makes you feel nice but the narrative is very simple. The strength of the film is that it says so much without talking. It is the things which the characters are not saying that are the most powerful in the film. That's the uniqueness of the film.

Q: "The Lunchbox" is directed by a first timer director, Ritesh Batra. What were your expectations and why did you agree to be part of it?

A: The story, the writing, it was special. The story was unique. I saw he hadn't made full-length features but he had made some short films and that gave me a clue. He is one of the directors who capture actors, their performances, and that is a great combination. I had full faith in him. There was an international team around him. The editing happened in America then there was the music which I think happened in France. I knew the producers involved in the film ... were experienced producers and they know how to arrange a team.

Q: Since most big studios are averse to making films like "The Lunchbox", do you think that collaboration with international studios is the way forward?

A: It is. I think it's a new thing which will erupt in the Indian market and I have been telling this to producers for many years - collaborate with other countries, collaborate with producers from other countries and we will have our international product. Somehow this has started happening and this will keep going on and this will help our directors and our producers to find new markets, to find new languages of cinema, to find an Indian universal language of cinema.

Q: At Cannes was Indian cinema being taken more seriously?

A: We still need to come up with strong films to really make our mark. Although people know about India, we still need to make films one after the other to be talked about as a filmmaking country. We make films for our audience, we are not making films for international audience.

Q: What is the general view of Indian filmmakers?

A: Indian cinema has to come of age. They are still waiting. There are elements in Indian commercial cinema which are excellent, which are original, but we need to find a story telling language which is relatable to anybody, everybody. That's the language "The Lunchbox" could strike.

Q: Are we only making films for our own audiences?

A: We have a diverse generation of filmmakers coming up and they should diversify our filmmaking. If we go on making similar kinds of films they will have a limited appeal. We need to experiment, we need to come out with a different language, we need to come out with different cinema.

Q: India is celebrating 100 years of cinema this year. How do you see things changing in the next 100?

A: I can't see 100 years ahead but I can definitely tell you that in five years the industry is going to change. You will have great cinema coming up. The pattern of cinema is such that every 10-15 years it changes because of the generation of filmmakers, the generation of the audience. I believe cinema will evolve very drastically and very quickly.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/minute-indian-actor-irrfan-film-lunchbox-102304929.html

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Great Tips For Buying Real Estate In Today's Market ? Hot Article ...

Buying any real estate is both exciting and stressful at the same time. If you do not have the right advice and information, big mistakes could really haunt you for a long time to come. These mistakes can be avoided by carefully reading the tips in the following article.

Go for the home of your dreams. There are many investors who aren?t in agreement with the opinion that now is the time to sit tight on property purchases. Buying your dream property now may be your best bet, as housing prices are likely to continue to rise.

If you have found a home that you are considering buying, be sure to get online and research the registry for local sex offenders. Sex offender information is publicly available, but there is no guarantee that the seller nor their agent is going to feel an obligation to tell a potential home buyer of any offenders in the area. Protect yourself by researching on your own.

Be informed about the different types of houses located in the neighborhood which you?re interested in. This is particularly important, because you may not want to buy the best and biggest house on the block. The value of a home is affected by the type of homes surrounding it, so a large home would be somewhat devalued by smaller homes in the immediate area.

You will need to have a good down payment for your mortgage company. Otherwise you will be required to pay for private mortgage insurance. PMI protects the bank and shows that you will make your payments; however, the extra cost adds up and your monthly payments will increase because of it.

Find a good real estate agent if you want to purchase property. You will need to find someone you are able trust. An experienced agent can show you appropriate homes. Remember to research properly so your best interests are always at the agent?s heart.

When you are trying to work out a deal, you should first make a priority list on your goals. Think through the questions that will need to be settled and firmly set what you want in these. Concentrate your energy on getting those issues that are most important to you. Remember that you might not get everything you hope to get, so stay flexible.

If your employment isn?t steady, you may want to reconsider a home purchase until it becomes so. Once your signature is on a mortgage, you have made a commitment that you will make that monthly payment, regardless of what else happens. In case of an interruption in your job, you will need to have a few moths of payments saved up.

Make sure you stay connected with other investors like yourself. Properties are always available, so not every piece of land will be the best fit for any investor. Doing this can help to find the perfect match for your investment, before someone else snatches it away.

You can just go to any widely used search engine and enter new homes in denver if you need help with coming up with additional suggestions about real estate.

Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/great-tips-for-buying-real-estate-in-todays-market/

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Fans Created 3D-Printable Version Of Cyvasse, The Game Of Thrones Boardgame

Take off your silken cloak and get your dragon eggs ready because Cyvasse, the game that characters play in George R. R. Martin's Game Of Thrones series is now 3D-printable. Created by Arian Croft of IllGottenGames and his friend Nate Stephens, the game uses most of Martin's rules mentioned in the books as well as interpolations taken from period-specific game rules.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/u1eZlr7h9Oo/

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Yummy Detox Drink Recipe | Budget Savvy Diva

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Everyday at 1 pm PST/ 4pm EST Budget Savvy Diva posts a NEW RECIPE I might miss this time every now or then ? but I know you understand

Make sure to follow Budget Savvy Diva on Facebook

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Find Crock Pot Recipes HERE

Find Gluten Free Recipes HERE

What You Need

Water
Ice
Lime ( Lime are natural energizers plus it kick starts that metabolism )
Fresh Mint ( Helps your breath and helps you tummy work better)

Strawberries ? Adds a wonderful flavor to the water

Blueberries ? Adds flavor to the water ( sweetness)

What To Do

In a glass ? combine water and ice ( about 3/4th of the glass)
Add lime juice and mint and blueberries and sliced strawberries till the drink is full
For my mason jar I used 1/2 lime juice and 4 mint leaves, small handful of blueberries and 3 sliced strawberries

Stir and left sit for 5 minutes ? then enjoy!

Yummy Detox Drink Recipe

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• Water
• Ice
• Lime ( Lime are natural energizers plus it kick starts that metabolism )
• Fresh Mint ( Helps your breath and helps you tummy work better)
• Strawberries ? Adds a wonderful flavor to the water
• Blueberries ? Adds flavor to the water ( sweetness)

1. In a glass ? combine water and ice ( about ?th of the glass)
2. Add lime juice and mint and blueberries and sliced strawberries till the drink is full
3. For my mason jar I used ? lime juice and 4 mint leaves, small handful of blueberries and 3 sliced strawberries
4. Stir and left sit for 5 minutes ? then enjoy!

3.2.1753

Other recipes you'll love:

Source: http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2013/05/yummy-detox-drink-recipe/

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The Killing Of Raymond Herisse: 116 Shots That Shook South Beach

Miami Herald:

Nothing in Raymond Herisse's past prepared his family for the explosive way that his young life ended.

He was 22 when he was killed on a South Beach street, in a frightening war-like moment that his family likens to being executed by a police firing squad.

Read the whole story at Miami Herald

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Nothing in Raymond Herisse's past prepared his family for the explosive way that his young life ended. He was 22 when he was killed on a South Beach street, in a frightening war-like moment that hi...

Nothing in Raymond Herisse's past prepared his family for the explosive way that his young life ended. He was 22 when he was killed on a South Beach street, in a frightening war-like moment that hi...

Filed by Janie Campbell ?|?

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1. HuffPost
2. Miami

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/26/the-killing-of-raymond-he_n_3338790.html

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Syria targeted Israeli jeep going to rebel village

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Syria said it targeted an Israeli vehicle that crossed a ceasefire line into its territory earlier this week because it was heading toward a village with a large rebel presence.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country exercised its right to self-defense and would respond immediately to any other violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Syria accused Israel of violating the U.N. Charter and the separation of forces agreement that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war when it sent the vehicle into Syrian territory and launched two missiles on Tuesday. He said Syria expects the Security Council "to put an end to Israel's violations."

Israel said an Israeli jeep came under fire during an overnight patrol on its side of the cease-fire line in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed. Syria has demanded its return.

Syria claimed it destroyed the vehicle, but Israel said the jeep suffered only minor damage and no one was hurt. Israel said it returned fire at the source and scored a "direct hit."

Since the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011, there has been growing concern of spillover across the tense border with Israel. The incident Tuesday was the latest in which gunfire and mortar shells have struck the Israeli side of the Golan in recent months. Israel believes that most of the fire has been incidental spillover from the Syrian conflict, but that several cases, including Tuesday's, were intentional.

In his letter, Ja'afari said that at 1:10 a.m. on May 21, "an Israeli vehicle crossed the cease-fire line and proceeded towards the village of Bi'r Ajam, which is located in the liberated area of the Golan within the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic."

"The presence of armed terrorist groups in that village led the Syrian armed forces to target the above-mentioned Israeli vehicle," he said.

Syria refers to opposition fighters as "terrorists."

Ja'afari reiterated Syria's claim that Israel is interfering in Syria's internal affairs "through its provision of logistical support for armed terrorist groups in Syria, including those that are active in the area of separation of forces."

Israel's air force chief, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, warned Wednesday that tensions with Syria could escalate into a "surprise war" and that Israel needs to be ready. He said Russian S-300 air defense systems are "on their way" to Syria, though Israel asked Russia not to supply the advanced air defense system to Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-targeted-israeli-jeep-going-rebel-village-164208040.html

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Margaret Paul, Ph.D.: Why Do I Keep Attracting Unavailable People?

I hear it over and over: "Are there any available men?" "Why are all the women I attract unavailable?"

Laura asked me the following:

I find that I attract men who are unavailable. I meet nice men who are fun to be around, but when it comes to becoming serious they always say, "I'm not ready right now." What is it within me or that I need to seek out within myself to find out why I attract men who act like they want a relationship, but always say they are not ready? Could you give me insight on what I need to do to attract a loving mate and not unavailable men?

There are two issues that often contribute to this situation.

1. Often, when a person consistently attracts unavailable people, it is because there is some unconscious fear of rejection and/or fear of engulfment that may actually be causing you to be unavailable -- even though you believe you are available.

Since people attract each other at their common level of woundedness or their common level of health, an unavailable person's fear of commitment likely mirrors your fear of commitment. If you are a person who keeps meeting unavailable people, you might want to honestly look within to see if your fears of rejection or fears of engulfment (losing the other or losing yourself) may be causing you to be unavailable.

It's easy to believe you are open and available, and that others are unavailable, but this is often not the case at all. If you are afraid of commitment, then it might unconsciously feel safe to you to be in a relationship with someone who you know is unavailable. Often, people who fear commitment -- due to their fear of rejection/engulfment -- are attracted to married people. Being in a relationship with an unavailable married person might actually feel safe to them!

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who didn't want to commit, and then you broke up with him or her because of it, only to hear that he or she got married not long after your breakup? If so, it is easy to see that something else was going on there. What was going on may have to do with the second issue.

2. The second issue is that you may be abandoning yourself when you get into a relationship. If, when you really like someone, you make the other responsible for your feelings of lovability, security and worth, then the other's fear of engulfment and resulting resistance might get triggered.

Self-abandonment is a key issue in creating relationship problems. If you are abandoning yourself by not taking responsibility for your own feelings of safety and self-worth, and you then make the other responsible for making you feel okay, he or she will likely experience you as needy -- and this might scare them. Self-abandonment becomes a pull on the other person to make you okay, and many people get scared when they feel pulled on. Their fear of losing themselves and being controlled by your neediness might become a big issue. They might go into major resistance to being open with you.

Often, a person with a fear of rejection attracts a person with a fear of engulfment. If you have a fear of rejection -- because of rejecting and abandoning yourself -- then you may try to control in order to not be rejected when you are in a relationship. Your controlling behavior may trigger the other's fear of engulfment -- because he or she doesn't know how to not abandon themselves when being pulled at and demanded of. Because they have never learned how to take responsibility for themselves and their own feelings, and they may feel responsible for your feelings, they do the only thing they know to feel safe -- withdraw and resist.

If you really want a relationship and you keep attracting unavailable people, then you need to do your own inner work to heal your fear of rejection and/or your fear of engulfment.

The Inner Bonding process is a powerful process for healing these fears. I have worked with thousands of clients who met their partner and got married after doing their Inner Bonding work and healing their fears.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is a relationship expert, best-selling author, and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding? self-healing process, recommended by actress Lindsay Wagner and singer Alanis Morissette, and featured on Oprah. To begin learning how to love and connect with yourself so that you can connect with others, take advantage of our free Inner Bonding eCourse, receive Free Help, and take our 12-Week eCourse, "The Intimate Relationship Toolbox" - the first two weeks are free! Discover SelfQuest?, a transformational self-healing/conflict resolution computer program. Phone or Skype sessions with Dr. Margaret Paul.

Connect with Margaret on Facebook: Inner Bonding, and Facebook: SelfQuest.

For more by Margaret Paul, Ph.D., click here.

For more on relationships, click here.

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Follow Margaret Paul, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/innerbonding

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-paul-phd/relationship-help_b_3311816.html

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