SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Chinese hacking group tied to the breach of security company RSA two years ago has targeted a maker of audio-visual conference equipment in a likely attempt to tap into boardroom and other high-level remote meetings.
Security researchers at Dell Inc's SecureWorks unit were able to monitor the computers used by the group to process communications from machines infected with stealthy software for stealing data, according to a paper they are releasing today.
Although the researchers could not tell what information was being extracted, they were able to discover many of the companies and offices unknowingly transmitting information. The compromised computers were in five different offices of a global maker of conferencing equipment, said SecureWorks researchers Joe Stewart and Don Jackson.
"I think they were looking for the source code," Stewart told Reuters, because that would help them find flaws they could use to eavesdrop in further attacks.
"If your final target is this vendor's customers of the conferencing product, you would want to be able to connect on their premises."
Stewart declined to identify the manufacturer, but he has notified both the company and law enforcement. Researchers had previously found security flaws in high-end conferencing gear and the new findings suggest they are a prime target.
As a hacking strategy, such a multi-step effort would track with other major attacks, including the one on RSA, a unit of EMC Corp.
In that case, the hackers took information that helped them duplicate the rapidly changing passwords on SecurID tokens used by defense contractors and others to authenticate users when they log in remotely. The contractors were the real targets in that case, researcher said.
Stewart attributed the new round of attacks to a prolific group based in Beijing that he and others have studied for years. Stewart's paper with Jackson tracks only one of the three dozen sophisticated malicious software programs that group favors.
That one family of code has hundreds of variants and has been used in at least 64 campaigns, including the penetration of the audio-visual equipment company, Stewart said. The same program has been used against government offices and 10 industries, including mining, media and communications.
Of the infections the researchers were able to identify, the greatest number were in Japan, followed by India, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
Stewart said the Beijing group is probably as big as the Shanghai-based crew that drew wide attention in February after security firm Mandiant said it was a specific unit within China's People's Liberation Army. China disputed the report and said it does not hack Western companies.
Although characteristics of both the Beijing and Shanghai groups sometimes show up inside the same compromised company, the Beijing group tends to focus more on activists, including those involved with Tibetan issues, Stewart said.
He has cataloged about 275 families of malicious software to date.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn. Editing by Andre Grenon)
The WB250 Smart camera, Samsung's $179 WiFi-enabled point-and-shoot, just scored a major sharing boost. The pocketable cam can now boot images directly to Evernote. After downloading a software update, WB250 owners will be able to sync their images with the service seamlessly -- shots can then appear on connected smartphones, computers and tablets simultaneously. Users will also be able to tap into a 3-month Evernote Premium trial, bringing a 1GB monthly upload allowance and additional sharing options. Update your software to get started.
Dr. Paul Spector, certified Health Fitness Specialist and director of Pantheon Medicine, wrote a fascinating article which appeared in the Huffington Post earlier this month (Women in Pain). ?In the article, he challenges the way that women with chronic pain are treated in the health field.
It?s the same old debate, in a way.??We all want to see men and women treated ?the same?, in the sense that they both get quality health care. ?On the other hand, getting ?the same? treatment must mean that men and women are treated differently, simply because they?re physically different.
Some of those differences are, of course, partly cultural. ?For example, men may be more reluctant to show weakness. ?Which means women are more open and more likely to tell their doctors about pain. ?Which could mean that women are perceived as ?over-reacting? or ?emotional?, when in reality they may just be coping better. ?Which means they may not be taken seriously.
Dr. Spector suggests four ways in which women are different:
Women are more sensitive to pain than men
Women have a higher prevalence of painful conditions than men
Women seek medical help more often than men
Women have received less pain medication than men and have had their condition discounted as psychogenic or emotional and therefore not worthy of treatment
Dr. Spector is actually responding to a discussion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC Telebriefing on Deaths from Prescription Painkiller Overdoses Rise Sharply Among Women. ?In the discussion, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden (director of the CDC) suggests that, although men are more likely to die from an opioid overdose, the gap is narrowing.
What seems to be happening is that women are being prescribed more and more opioids (think methadone, codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and meperidine).
Most of these deaths are not intentional ? we?re not talking about an increase in suicides. ?Sometimes it would be an intentional overdose, or a mix of drugs or drugs and alcohol, etc, that would end in a death. ?There could also be situations when someone is sharing drugs with someone else.
From the standpoint of headache disorders, in the widespread problem of migraine disease women are more likely to have migraine. ?Both men and women can be stigmatized, there?s no doubt. ?But from a strictly anecdotal standpoint, it certainly seems like many women are written off and ignored in a way that I never have been.
Because of the prevalence of migraine in women, it does tend to be studied more than migraine in men. ?And that?s only natural.
But maybe there are problems with treatment for both genders ? for different reasons and in different ways.
Do you feel that you?ve received poorer treatment because of your gender? ?How do you think doctors could do better? ?If you?re a doctor, what have you seen? ?What have you done to ensure that a woman or man with a headache disorder gets the treatment they need?
These other posts might relate:
Tagged as: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic pain, gender, migraine, opioid, Paul Spector, Thomas R. Frieden
Quip is billed as "a modern word processor that enables you to create beautiful documents on any device." From what we've experienced in our testing, it doesn't quite live up to that lofty statement. The free iPad?app does let users create collaborative, editable documents on Apple's slate (or via an iPhone or web browser), but it lacks numerous features that one associates with a word processor, as well as basic saving and sharing abilities.
Start Me Up Quip takes you to its home screen?ironically referred to as the "desktop"?after logging in with your Google credentials. Despite tapping the Big G as a log in, Quip doesn't sync with Google Drive.
The desktop is divided into two sections: a left-aligned column that gives you fast access documents, and the main area that houses folders. A few sample documents and folders are included so that you may play with the app a bit before leaping in wholeheartedly. In fact, the "Introduction to Quip" document is one you should eyeball to learn about the app's feature set.
Tapping the "+" icon in the lower-right corner opens a blank page so that you may begin working. Quip's interface is clutter-free, but there's a reason for that?a dearth of features. The style menu (which is part of the virtual keyboard) lets you tweak the heading size, create bulleted lists, insert images, add a table, and create links to another document or folder. The default font is very legible, but you can't change its size or text color. Google Drive for iPad,?on the other hand, lets you change the font size, text color, and background color?features that Quip lacks. ?That's not all that Quip lacks; word count, grammar check, and other traditional word processing features are M.I.A.
Quip also lets you leave messages for others within the document using the "@" symbol, which assists in the collaboration process. And, frankly, collaboration is the one area where the app truly shines.
It Takes Two (or more) to Tango As you add messages, words, tables, and images to your document, Quip's excellent Inbox?and saving grace?becomes populated with your changes, too. Think of Inbox as one part instant messenger and one part track changes. When fellow PCMag analysts Max Eddy and Will Greenwald tweaked my Terminator/The Matrix fan fiction by adding transforming robots and magical ponies via the browser-based Quip, I could see their text (represented in a boxes remembering torn of bits of paper called "diffs") added in real time. Very cool. Quip even posts the time when the text was added, the platform (Web, tablet), and highlights new text (green) and deleted text (red). Quip does a good job of letting users when and where changes occurred.
Keeping an eye on Inbox instead of the actual document page yields another advantage: Inbox sometimes updates faster than the document itself. On more than one occasion I would see Max and Will's changes in Inbox several seconds before they appeared on the page. That's not a huge issue, but it should be noted. You can also leave Inbox messages for the other document editors (such as my "needs more ninjas" suggestion) that make collaboration a breeze. Documents and folders, thankfully, are set to private by default.
You cannot, however, save document to the iPad or iCloud. If you want to do that, you must fire up the browser-based Quip that lets users print documents or save them to their PCs' hard drives as PDF files. Yup, it lacks Word support. It's very disappointing that users can't do that from within the app itself.
Extra, Extra Like Google Drive, Quip has an offline mode that lets you continue working in a document even when a cellular or Wi-Fi connection isn't. That said, offline modes negates Inbox's ability to broadcast messages and edits, but they sync when you connect to the Web again.
Quip lacks a major feature that Google Drive possesses?the ability to upload files for general use. Quip, however, lets you snap a photo (or pull one from your iPad's Camera Roll) and use it as an Inbox message or document insert.
Quip Can Wait Quip, oddly enough, recalls the late, great Google Wave?a real-time collaboration tool with some head-scratching feature selections (or in this case, lack thereof). Whether or not you should use Quip instead of Google Drive depends how entrenched you are in the Google ecosystem (and whether you're willing to part with the font/color tweaking that app delivers). Despite tapping your Google credentials as a login, Quip doesn't sync with Google products?or any others.
Quip is a decent first attempt at a cloud-based word processor. The collaboration tools are neat, but the overall app needs refining. If you have lightweight team-based word processing needs, Quip may be worth exploring. Otherwise, wait for version 2.0.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In the science fiction show, Star Trek, teleportation is a regular and significant feature. But how much time and power is required to send the data needed to teleport a human being?
Everyone cringes at the thought of tuning the big 4-0. But why does it have to be so scary? With the right amount confidence and exercise, anyone can look ten years younger.
, Canada's second-largest lender, said it will take a third-quarter charge after tax of C$418 million ($406 million) due to recent severe weather in Alberta and Ontario and to boost its reserves for auto insurance claims.
The weather-related hit on TD's insurance and mortgage lending business was largely shrugged off by investors and analysts as a widely expected one-time expense. But its move to strengthen reserves on auto insurance claims suggested the business may not be as profitable as the bank would like.
Competitors, including Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, are also expected to take an insurance hit in the third quarter due to flooding and storms, but TD has the largest home and auto insurance business of the big banks.
Shares in TD, which routinely notches up quarterly profit near the C$1.72 billion recorded in the second quarter, were down 1.6 percent in early afternoon trade at C$87.43, while the other Canadian bank shares were mixed.
TD said the charges, which hit both its insurance and its Canadian banking units, will result in an after-tax net loss of between C$240 million and C$290 million in its wealth and insurance business in the third quarter.
Excluding the charges, third-quarter insurance earnings are estimated to be in the range of C$130 million to C$180 million after tax, it said.
The third-quarter charges are broken down in three categories, two of which reflect estimated claims for evacuation and home and auto damage due to severe storms in southern Alberta on June 20 and in the Toronto area on July 8.
TD said it would take weather-related insurance charges of C$125 million after tax, which impact its insurance profits, and C$93 million for provisions in mortgage lending due to the Alberta flood, an indirect consequence of the weather which hits its Personal and Commercial banking profits.
Floods in the Western Canadian province of Alberta in June shut down the country's oil capital, Calgary, displaced more than 100,000 people and left many without power for days.
In Toronto, a severe rainstorm this month caused flooding, power cuts and transit chaos.
Canadian Pacific Railway's second-quarter also suffered due to the floods and insurer Intact Financial warned last week that quarterly results would be hurt by weather-related claims.
TD's remaining C$292 million after-tax charge is for increased reserves against claims in its auto insurance business, which is the area analysts focused on.
The Toronto-based bank had already increased its auto insurance reserves in the fourth quarter of 2012 in response to auto insurance reforms in Ontario, Canada's most populous province. But it said it needs to further strengthen reserves to deal with rising third-party bodily injury claims and fraud.
"The Ontario auto insurance market has presented a significant challenge to our business," Chief Executive Officer Ed Clark said in a statement.
The business earned C$360 million a year earlier.
"(The charge) raises questions about Ontario pricing adequacy, what changes TD may make in how it serves the Ontario auto insurance market and whether there could be further strengthening of reserves," Desjardins analyst Michael Goldberg wrote in a research note.
Ontario's Liberal government has proposed at 15-percent cut to average auto insurance rates in Canada's most populous province, a move considered widely popular with voters, but which has angered auto insurers.
(Additional reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; editing by Don Sebastian, Janet Guttsman and G Crosse)
Quarterback Connor Brewer is transferring to the University of Arizona, his mom Deborah texted Monday night, adding to what is becoming a Scottsdale Chaparral football reunion in Tucson.
Brewer, who withdrew this summer from Texas, where he was expected to be the backup after a redshirt season, reunites with his former high school coach, Charlie Ragle, who was the head coach at Chaparral from 2009-11 when Brewer was the starting quarterback. They lost only two games and Brewer? led the Firebirds to three consecutive Division II championships, the only big-schools quarterback in Arizona ever to do that. Ragle is now an assistant coach under Rich Rodriguez at UA.
Brewer also will get reacquainted with his favorite target his last two seasons at Chaparral. Receiver Davonte? Neal left Notre Dame and is enrolled at UA, where he is expected to sit out this year.
Brewer, who threw 100 touchdown passes in his three-year varsity? career, will not be eligible this season because of the NCAA transfer rule.
He will be competing for the position in 2014 with former Henderson (Nev.) Bishop Gorman star Anu Solomon, who is more of a dual-threat.
Rodriguez could tweak the offense to fit Brewer, more of a pro-style passer, depending on how the competition goes.
Brewer has said he wants to come into a program where he won?t have to sit behind a quarterback. It will be two years removed from game competition for Brewer, who was going to battle just for the backup spot at Texas with freshman Tyrone Swoopes this year.
Over the weekend, UA got a commitment from Chaparral senior tight end Trevor Wood, who will reunite with his brother, Carter, an offensive lineman, who played at Chaparral.
Ex-Chaparral linebacker Cody Ippolito, who will be a sophomore at UA, played with Brewer their last? three years together at Chaparral.
Former Chaparral player Brendan Murphy is a senior defensive back and special teams player this year at UA.
The strongest single factor in prosperity consciousness is self-esteem: believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it. ? Jerry Gillies
Self-esteem refers to how you think and feel about yourself. These are thoughts and feelings a person may have, may it be positive, negative, or mixed ? about one?s self. The more positive these thoughts and feelings are, the higher your self-esteem will be and conversely the more negative these thoughts and feelings are, the lower your self-esteem will become.
Feeling good about yourself is important as it gives you a sense of control over your life. It can also help make a person feel satisfied in a relationship. With a positive self-identity, a person is able to set realistic expectations for oneself and pursue goals. Having a negative self-perception, on the other hand, results in a distorted view of one?s self, which leads to further lack of self-confidence, poor performance, and depression.
In recent times, low self-esteem has been one of the most popular and frequently invoked psychological explanations for behavioral and social problems. Taking their cue from social commentators and media opinion leaders, people have been willing to accept that a limited sense of self-worth lies behind just about every social and personal ill from drug abuse and delinquency to poverty and business failures. The result has been a huge market for self-help manuals and educational programs.
People who have a low self esteem rely heavily on their day-to-day performances. The positive external experience and encouragements help them to battle the negative feelings that they have about themselves. These negative feelings very often trouble the people with low self-esteem. In some situations, feelings of inadequacy torture those who do not have enough confidence about themselves and about what they can do.
There are many known ways to improve one?s self-esteem. To boost one?s confidence, it may be helpful to practice the following self-improvement techniques and strategies:
Rebutting the inner critic that keeps on sending self-defeating messages;
Practicing the art of self nurturing; and
Getting much-needed help and support from people who are close to you.
The first and the most important step to increase self esteem is to tell the inner voice to shut up. The inner voice might say negatively about you. In such a situation you must praise yourself. Rebutting the inner voice that keeps on criticizing you should be done on a regular basis. However this step is not enough to develop self-esteem.
The second step that one must initiate on a way to a healthy self-esteem is that a person should nurture himself. The most important part of this step is start treating yourself as a person who is worth while.
Seek out people who make you feel good. Remember that you get to choose your friends so why not choose people who think you?re great?
Moreover, both individual and group counseling can help improve self-esteem. Such therapy might include assertiveness training, communication skills, and learning to recognize and understand own emotional responses in relation to others. Therapy may also explore early and later experiences that contributed to your low self-esteem. Group therapy is particularly effective that it helps to foster trust and build relationships, and encourages a sense of belonging-components that are important for building self esteem.
Low and poor self-esteem is often the result of bad or a wrong treatment that was experienced in the past. Hence you must start regarding yourself as a worthy person. You must be able to challenge negative experiences in the past and you should start loving yourself. Try to change yourself and show to the outside world that you are valuable, competent, and a loveable person. Learn to develop high self-esteem and believe you can do it, you deserve it, and you will get it.
http://www.powerplaysocial.com from my on ups and down with try to stay focused and teach other how to the same!
INDIANAPOLIS ? An Indianapolis congregation on Sunday mourned the deaths of their youth pastor, his pregnant wife and another member who were killed when a church bus overturned with just a mile to go in a return trip from a Michigan summer camp.
Saturday's accident devastated members of Colonial Hills Baptist Church, who had been anticipating a joyful homecoming with the 37 people who were aboard the bus. Youth pastor Chad Phelps, his pregnant piano-teacher wife, Courtney Phelps, and chaperone Tonya Weindorf were killed, said deacon Jeff Leffew.
Dozens of people were injured in the crash, which happened near Interstate 465. On Sunday, six teenagers remained hospitalized, including one who was in critical condition.
Dennis Maurer, a 68-year-old congregation member who was driving the church-owned bus, told authorities that its brakes failed before it struck a raised concrete median and flipped on its side, Indianapolis police said.
The Phelpses, who were in their mid-20s, were expecting their second child, Leffew said. Chad Phelps was the son of the church's senior pastor and became its youth pastor late last year, he said.
"We're going to have a long road, but God is good," Leffew said at a Sunday news conference.
The couple's nearly 2-year-old child, Chase, was injured in the crash. He was treated and released from a hospital Saturday, IU Health spokeswoman Sally Winter said.
The bus had nearly completed its 365-mile journey from Camp CoBeAc, near Prudenville, Mich., when it overturned about a mile from the church, where parents were waiting to pick up their children who had just spent a week praying, zip-lining and playing basketball.
Weindorf, the 51-year-old chaperone who was killed, had five children, Leffew said.
"Tonya was at camp because she has a special-needs child who wanted to go, and she wanted to go and make it a good week, and according to her husband, it was a great week, and that's who Tonya was," said Leffew, who sent four of his own daughter to the camp.
Leffew, of Fishers, said only one of his daughters was on a second bus that pulled into the parking lot, and that he raced to the northern Indianapolis crash site. What he found was surreal ? clothing and other items strewn about and windows missing from the bus.
"You're just praying that it's not as bad as it looks," he said Saturday. His daughters escaped with bumps and bruises.
Troy Riggs, Indianapolis' public safety director, called the crash a "great tragedy."
"They were not that far from home. ... That only adds to the tragedy," Riggs said Saturday.
Duane Lloyd, who witnessed the crash, told WTHR that he saw the crash happen at about 4:15 p.m., which was about the time Chad Phelps tweeted that the group would arrive at the church.
"I heard a skid. I looked back. I see this bus in the air and people falling out of the bus," Lloyd said. "I could have gone my whole life without seeing that."
He said people approached and tried to help.
"People were literally trying to lift the bus," Lloyd said. "You just try to do what you can do."
Three of the six hospitalized teens, including the one in critical condition, were at IU Health Methodist Hospital, Winter said Sunday. The other three were at the Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. Many of the patients had head, arm and leg injuries, fire officials said.
Leffew thanked rescue workers and good Samaritans who tried to help after the crash, as well as local churches and businesses that have offered their support.
"We are so grateful for that outpouring of love and care," he said Sunday.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
July 26, 2013 German president says whistleblowers like Snowden merit respect Germany's president, who helped expose the workings of East Germany's dreaded Stasi secret police, said whistleblowers like U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden deserved respect for defending freedom. Weighing in on a debate that could influence September's federal election, President Joachim Gauck struck a very different tone from that of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has assured Washington that Berlin would not shelter Snowden.
Gauck, who has little power but great moral authority, said people who work for the state were entitled to act according to their conscience, as institutions sometimes depart from the law.
"This will normally only be put right if information is made public. Whoever draws the public's attention to it and acts out of conscience deserves respect," he told Friday's Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
After the fall of communism, Gauck, a dissident Lutheran pastor, headed a commission in charge of the Stasi's vast archive of files on people it had spied on, using them to root out former Stasi members and collaborators.
His unusual decision to speak out on a hot political issue comes as the fallout from the Snowden affair is dominating headlines in the run-up to the September 22 election where Merkel - who, like Gauck, comes from what was communist East Germany - hopes to win a third term.
"The fear that our telephones or mails are recorded and stored by foreign intelligence services is a constraint on the feeling of freedom and then the danger grows that freedom itself is damaged," he said.
"We are a democratic state with the rule of law with basic rights. Freedom is one of these basic rights."
Merkel has been at pains to maintain friendly relations with Washington at the same time as showing voters she understands their anger about reports of intrusive surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA), where Snowden worked as a contractor.
She has repeatedly said the state has a duty to protect its citizens from the threat of terrorism, but that the response must be proportionate.
Opposition parties have accused Merkel of failing to press Washington for answers about the scale of NSA activity.
Reports that German spies cooperated with U.S. agents caused an outcry and one crucial question is how much she or her chief of staff knew. So far she has offered few answers.
The issue has potential to damage Merkel in the election, although opinion polls show little impact so far on a double-digit lead for her conservatives over the main opposition Social Democrats (SPD).
Referring to communism and Nazism, Gauck said Germany had painful experiences of living in a security state where no one was safe to speak out:
"We Germans have had to experience the abuse of state power with secret services twice in our history. And therefore we are sensitive (to this) and our American friends must accept that."
The mayor of Feodosiya, a Black Sea port on Ukraine?s Crimean Peninsula, died Saturday hours after an unidentified assailant shot and robbed him, Ukrainian media reported.
The assailant used a shotgun to shoot Oleksandr Bartenev in the back, but the mayor fought back and wrestled with the attacker, who then managed to run away with his handbag, Crimean police chief Mikhailo Slepanyov told the UNIAN news agency.
Small tablets are back in the news this week with Google's new, 1080p capable Nexus 7, prompting many folk to question why Apple can't do the same with the iPad mini. It isn't quite as simple as slapping on a 1080p display, and there are many things to consider in a theoretical Retina equipped iPad mini. One big one is battery life; Apple won't ship until they've managed to get the battery life to their liking, so we're asking you guys. What's more important to you for the next iPad mini, battery life or a Retina Display.
No doubts, the Retina Display on the full sized iPad is stunning, and a total joy to look at. Indeed, speaking personally, the display on the iPad mini is my only disappointment with the device in an otherwise Retina filled world. But, the full sized iPad still experiences great battery life with that Retina Display, so in trading up to it you haven't had to suffer any additional inconvenience. On the other side of the argument, we use tablets differently to our smartphones, so would losing a couple of hours of battery life really be that noticeable?
We want to hear your opinions, so drop us a vote up top and head into the comments to give us your detailed thoughts. Would you trade off battery life for that gorgeous Retina Display, or is it more important that you get more life between charges? Perhaps, you're happy holding off until you can have both? Let us know!
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Increased use of digital communication is causing consumers to lose their inhibitions and "overshare" online, according to a new study.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Brands do not necessarily need to present a clear, well-defined image in order to appeal to consumers, according to a new study. Consider the case of the Titanic.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In events that could exacerbate sea level rise over the coming decades, stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean, according to new iceberg calving simulations.
You know the drill. Rihanna stays out late before a show drinking and partying, sending outrageous tweets, and enjoying being a major star. But, oh wait, she has a show to do the next day! This has happened at least half a dozen times in the last month or so. Rihanna is simply not prioritizing her shows. This isn’t some spammy hater trying to pass judgement off on her. This is the truth. But one fan apparently decided they had enough of the waiting and took it upon themselves to teach her a lesson — elementary school style! RadarOnline reports that a fan chucked some food at RiRi after she made them wait an ungodly amount of time for the show to start. Multiple tweets have been sent out this summer complaining about how she is not really putting her all into her shows and that she is always late. People are pretty pissed about it. Different things started to fly onstage at a recent concert in Manchester, including a bag of chips. When she saw it, Rihanna said: “There?s a good crazy and there?s a bad crazy. When you throw sh*t up here, that?s an epic fail?I swear to [...]
Leaving Las Vegas ? for Utah ? and then Colorado. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
The Guardian is launching the fourth of its crowd-sourced, interactive road trips through the US on Monday 22?July.
I'll be covering my 1,000-odd mile route between Las Vegas, Nevada and Denver, Colorado in a rented car, sharing the driving with my friend Andy, and will be guided by your tips on accommodation, food, routes, sights to see and things to do ? in fact, in virtually every respect other than personal hygiene, I shall submit my will to yours, dear readers.
In return, I will be tweeting updates from along the route, asking for advice, and sharing reflections on this magnificent stretch of the US. I hope that together we'll be able to unlock some unusual experiences, barrel down empty?desert highways, have dreams of riches on slot machines, visit ghost towns, and conjure up the spirits of the?west.
Virtually none of the trip is pre-planned. We have a starting-point ? Las Vegas ? and an end-point ? Denver. Everything else is up for grabs. So please send along any suggestions you have for the itinerary, our objectives, music, snacks, and even the name of our?expedition.
As things stand, we'll be starting and spending a good chunk of the first day in Las Vegas. I've visited the city once before and stayed a couple of nights in a hotel that looked like a Lego castle. Where should I go this time? What are the must-sees? Should we be revelling in kitsch and gambling, or challenging our preconceptions about the city?
We'll be travelling with a photographer, the very talented Jacob Kepler, who is based in Las Vegas. Can you surprise him in his own backyard?
View Guardian TwiTrip: Las Vegas to Denver in a larger map
The next stretch will lead us north-east out of Nevada and into Utah. How do we take in the diversity of this great state? Should we go to the?Shakespeare festival in St George, or plunge into its national parks, or both, or neither? And, of course, Utah is the spiritual and cultural centre of Mormonism. Where do we go, how do we begin to understand that?
We'll be crossing into Colorado for the final leg of our journey. I'm American ? my dad is from Medford, Massachusetts ? but this part of the US is terra incognita to me. Both Utah and Colorado have a reputation for epic landscapes. What are the best places to see them? Help?free us from the blandness of the interstate and peer into the nooks and corners of the?country.
Our crew is brave and game for anything. We will accept any reasonable challenge, we are happy to drive long and far, but it may help to know that we especially love spicy food, outdoor swimming, friendly people, good coffee, independent bookshops, wide open landscapes, unspoilt nature, roadside Americana, tumbleweed, iconic motels, giant balls of string, pre-Columbian history, and pleasant surprises.
Tweet me ? if I'm not there, try @GuardianTravel or @GuardianUS, or GuardianWitness ? or leave your tip in the comments below ? We await our orders.
Marcel Theroux is a travel writer and?author
? For more information on holidays in the USA, visit DiscoverAmerica.com
Social media, DNA typing help identify source of foodborne strep outbreakPublic release date: 18-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerica Pitts jpitts@pcipr.com 312-558-1770 Infectious Diseases Society of America
[EMBARGOED FOR JULY 18, 2013] Facebook posts helped alert public health officials to a strep throat outbreak among a high school dance team in 2012, and DNA fingerprinting led investigators to pasta prepared by a previously ill parent as the likely source. Although strep throat, or Group A Streptococcus (GAS) pharyngitis, usually spreads from person to person by droplets, foodborne transmission is possible, as a report published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases found. The most common form of GAS illness is strep throat, but some cases can have more severe consequences.
Among 63 people who consumed food at a Minnesota high school dance team banquet, 18 came down with strep throat less than three days later. When multiple posts soon appeared on the team's Facebook page about ill dance team members and relatives, a parent contacted the state health department.
After interviewing approximately 100 people by telephonethose who attended the banquet, household contacts of attendees, and those who did not attend but ate banquet leftoversand conducting DNA typing of bacterial strains isolated from those who became ill, lead report author Sarah Kemble, MD, and her team of investigators at the Minnesota Department of Health narrowed the possible source of the outbreak to cooked pasta served at the banquet.
The DNA fingerprints of the strep bacteria isolated from the throats of those who became ill matched those of the bacteria identified in the pasta. In addition, one person who became ill and did not attend the banquet, but who ate some of the leftover pasta brought home by family members who did attend, helped confirm how the bacteria was transmitted. This person had a laboratory-confirmed GAS infection that matched the same DNA fingerprint pattern. No one else in the household had symptoms of strep throat, and throat swabs on all the other household members were negative for the bacteria.
"We suspect cooked food was contaminated by respiratory droplets from a person who carried the strep bacteria in the throat when the food was cooling or reheating," Dr. Kemble said. "The food probably was not kept hot or cold enough to stop bacterial growth." Both the parent who prepared the pasta and a child in the same household reported having strep throat three weeks before the banquet."Foodborne illness is not limited to diseases that cause vomiting and diarrhea," Dr. Kemble noted.
The rapid communication possible within a large group using online social media played an important role in bringing this outbreak to the attention of a parent, who then contacted the health department, Dr. Kemble said. A more formalized use of social media for disease surveillance and outbreak investigations may have the potential to benefit public health in some circumstances, the authors noted.
Tips for Reducing the Spread of Foodborne Illness
Do not prepare food for others if you are ill, especially if you are experiencing diarrhea, vomiting, or have a respiratory infection and are coughing or sneezing. If you are receiving treatment for an illness, ask your doctor how long you should wait after treatment before preparing food for others.
When preparing food in large batches (e.g., for large groups of people), ensure the food is kept hot or cold. Disease-causing bacteria grow best in the "temperature danger zone" of 41 F to 140 F.
Use a thermometer to ensure that food items are meeting proper temperature requirements.
Educational materials for those cooking for large groups are available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/teach-others/download-materials
###
Clinical Infectious Diseases is a leading journal in the field of infectious disease with a broad international readership. The journal publishes articles on a variety of subjects of interest to practitioners and researchers. Topics range from clinical descriptions of infections, public health, microbiology, and immunology to the prevention of infection, the evaluation of current and novel treatments, and the promotion of optimal practices for diagnosis and treatment. The journal publishes original research, editorial commentaries, review articles, and practice guidelines and is among the most highly cited journals in the field of infectious diseases. Clinical Infectious Diseases is an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Based in Arlington, Va., IDSA is a professional society representing nearly 10,000 physicians and scientists who specialize in infectious diseases. For more information, visit http://www.idsociety.org.
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Social media, DNA typing help identify source of foodborne strep outbreakPublic release date: 18-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jerica Pitts jpitts@pcipr.com 312-558-1770 Infectious Diseases Society of America
[EMBARGOED FOR JULY 18, 2013] Facebook posts helped alert public health officials to a strep throat outbreak among a high school dance team in 2012, and DNA fingerprinting led investigators to pasta prepared by a previously ill parent as the likely source. Although strep throat, or Group A Streptococcus (GAS) pharyngitis, usually spreads from person to person by droplets, foodborne transmission is possible, as a report published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases found. The most common form of GAS illness is strep throat, but some cases can have more severe consequences.
Among 63 people who consumed food at a Minnesota high school dance team banquet, 18 came down with strep throat less than three days later. When multiple posts soon appeared on the team's Facebook page about ill dance team members and relatives, a parent contacted the state health department.
After interviewing approximately 100 people by telephonethose who attended the banquet, household contacts of attendees, and those who did not attend but ate banquet leftoversand conducting DNA typing of bacterial strains isolated from those who became ill, lead report author Sarah Kemble, MD, and her team of investigators at the Minnesota Department of Health narrowed the possible source of the outbreak to cooked pasta served at the banquet.
The DNA fingerprints of the strep bacteria isolated from the throats of those who became ill matched those of the bacteria identified in the pasta. In addition, one person who became ill and did not attend the banquet, but who ate some of the leftover pasta brought home by family members who did attend, helped confirm how the bacteria was transmitted. This person had a laboratory-confirmed GAS infection that matched the same DNA fingerprint pattern. No one else in the household had symptoms of strep throat, and throat swabs on all the other household members were negative for the bacteria.
"We suspect cooked food was contaminated by respiratory droplets from a person who carried the strep bacteria in the throat when the food was cooling or reheating," Dr. Kemble said. "The food probably was not kept hot or cold enough to stop bacterial growth." Both the parent who prepared the pasta and a child in the same household reported having strep throat three weeks before the banquet."Foodborne illness is not limited to diseases that cause vomiting and diarrhea," Dr. Kemble noted.
The rapid communication possible within a large group using online social media played an important role in bringing this outbreak to the attention of a parent, who then contacted the health department, Dr. Kemble said. A more formalized use of social media for disease surveillance and outbreak investigations may have the potential to benefit public health in some circumstances, the authors noted.
Tips for Reducing the Spread of Foodborne Illness
Do not prepare food for others if you are ill, especially if you are experiencing diarrhea, vomiting, or have a respiratory infection and are coughing or sneezing. If you are receiving treatment for an illness, ask your doctor how long you should wait after treatment before preparing food for others.
When preparing food in large batches (e.g., for large groups of people), ensure the food is kept hot or cold. Disease-causing bacteria grow best in the "temperature danger zone" of 41 F to 140 F.
Use a thermometer to ensure that food items are meeting proper temperature requirements.
Educational materials for those cooking for large groups are available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/teach-others/download-materials
###
Clinical Infectious Diseases is a leading journal in the field of infectious disease with a broad international readership. The journal publishes articles on a variety of subjects of interest to practitioners and researchers. Topics range from clinical descriptions of infections, public health, microbiology, and immunology to the prevention of infection, the evaluation of current and novel treatments, and the promotion of optimal practices for diagnosis and treatment. The journal publishes original research, editorial commentaries, review articles, and practice guidelines and is among the most highly cited journals in the field of infectious diseases. Clinical Infectious Diseases is an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Based in Arlington, Va., IDSA is a professional society representing nearly 10,000 physicians and scientists who specialize in infectious diseases. For more information, visit http://www.idsociety.org.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
By Donna Cassata | Associated Press | 07/17/2013
Excerpts:
WASHINGTON (AP) ? ?House Republicans pressed ahead Wednesday on delaying key components of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, emboldened by the administration's concession that requiring companies to provide coverage for their workers next year may be too complicated.
The House has scheduled votes later Wednesday to delay the law's individual and employer mandates, the 38th time the GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund or scale back the program since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011.
The votes were a chance to score political points and highlight public skepticism over the law. The legislation is going nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate and the administration said emphatically Tuesday the president would veto the measures.
Republicans seized on the administration's abrupt decision earlier this month to delay for one year, until after the 2014 elections, the requirement that businesses with 50 or more employees provide health coverage for their workers or pay a penalty.
Democrats insisted it was all political theater and another attempt by the GOP to undermine the law.
Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., said Republicans weren't simply trying to delay the requirements. "It is their intention to destroy the Affordable Care Act ... to do away with it, to annihilate it entirely," Crowley said.
He said: "the definition of insanity ... is doing something 38 times and still getting the same results."
The goal of the health care law was to provide coverage to nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance in a massive overhaul of the current system. In a surprise move earlier this month, the Obama administration announced a one-year delay in the employer mandate.
"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. "We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action."
The White House said in a statement vowing a veto that "it's time for the Congress to stop fighting old political battles and join the president" in boosting the economy and helping the middle class.?
IMO: The House republicans are back to their old obstruction of anything that will benefit the middle class and poor in this country.
The old obstruction consists of the House consistently quarreling, using treasonous tactics in writing their own bills that are mainly additions to their own mandated agenda, working purely for their own ridiculous mantra of republican austerity that clearly isn?t working.
And using the public media to throw stupid press releases as if they really mean something is entirely useless as American citizens are now aware of the 38 times the republicans have tried to get Obamacare repealed and have failed in every instance. Only radical insanity moves the House activities these days.
Watch them fly like lemmings over the cliff yet another time, as they continue to take taxpayers funds for obstructing the workings of our government thru threats, obstruction, and active hostility toward the president and the nation?s people.
Don?t fall asleep folks, because you are witnessing the complete downfall of what was once a grand old political party that went the way of the dinosaur because they refuse to adapt to the majority of America that thinks we need to work together, not against each other.
Americans deserve as a birthright good medical plans that will alleviate the horrendous state of our health in a free Democracy, plus being the richest country in the world.
Our current health plans are riddled with all kinds of loopholes, greed, extravagant prices for medications, and wholesale corruption including Congress, doctors, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare organizations.
The Obamacare gives the harried American citizen a chance to get a financial 'fix' to our rapidly imploding medical services in this country. Obamacare is already law..now let's go and fight for it !!!
The government?s successful bid to win the right to appeal a ruling that its ?fitness for work? test discriminates against people with mental health conditions ?makes a mockery? of a new call for evidence on the assessment, say campaigners.
The call for evidence was made by Dr Paul Litchfield, BT?s chief medical officer, who has been appointed by the government to carry out the fourth independent review of the work capability assessment (WCA).
He wants to focus on how improvements suggested by his predecessor, Professor Malcolm Harrington, have been implemented by the government and Atos Healthcare, which carries out the tests which assess eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA).
He will also look at ?whether more can be done to ensure that the assessment process is both effective and perceived as being objective?, and is said to be ?particularly interested? in examining how the?WCA?works for people with mental health conditions.
The disabled activist and blogger Sue Marsh, a leading campaigner for WCA reform, said she believed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had ?intentionally held back progress? on improving the assessment.
She said: ?All the while there are reviews, we can hope for improvements. However, if Harrington wasn?t able to fix a system so tremendously broken, I would be surprised if Litchfield is allowed to do any better.?
Marsh said that all the improvements the government had introduced so far had come from Harrington?s first report in 2010, while his next two reviews became ?less and less useful?.
She said: ?You can almost feel the ?independence? seeping away as the DWP refuse any and all suggestions.?
The day after Litchfield?s call for evidence, it emerged that the government had won the right to appeal against a tribunal ruling that the WCA discriminates against people with mental health conditions, learning difficulties and autism.
Three upper tribunal judges had ruled in May that the WCA puts these groups at a substantial disadvantage, because many of them have problems filling in forms, seeking additional evidence and answering questions.
This week, a spokeswoman for the Mental Health Resistance Network, the campaigning group behind the legal action, said: ?This is not the news we wanted but the Tories were never going to give up without a fight as they are desperate to destroy our welfare state. Needless to say we will be fighting back.?
It is not yet clear when the appeal will take place, as the three tribunal judges have yet to deliver their final ruling and are waiting for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to investigate how to ensure that the necessary medical evidence can be obtained.
Alisdair Cameron, team leader of the user-led organisation Launchpad, which is based in Newcastle, said the government?s ?disappointing, mean-spirited and harmful? decision to appeal ?makes a mockery? of the fourth call for evidence on the WCA.
Launchpad, working with the Mental Health Northeast consortium and False Economy, the union-funded, anti-cuts website, has been pushing Atos and DWP for information about the operation of Mental Function Champions (MFCs), which were supposed to improve the WCA experience for people with mental health conditions and learning difficulties.
The MFCs were introduced following a recommendation by Harrington in the first of his independent reviews, but the three organisations say they appear to have had little or no impact.
Cameron said: ?On the one hand we?ve had three previous reviews which made over 50 recommendations, and yet those recommendations that could make the most significant difference to people experiencing mental health problems, for example, the implementation of a robust and accountable MFC system, are simply being ignored.?
He said that, in the light of the government appeal, ?finding out how the MFC works and if it actually does work is more important than ever. At the very least, we want all reporting information about that role put into the public domain.?
A DWP spokesman said: ?We disagreed with the upper tribunal?s original ruling and are pleased that the court of appeal has given us permission to appeal.?
He said the court had found the grounds for appeal to be ?plainly arguable?, and added: ?We believe we have made ? and continue to make ? significant improvements to the work capability assessment process for people with mental health conditions.?
Meanwhile, new figures from the government?s courts and tribunals service show that the number of ESA appeals more than doubled between the fourth quarter of 2011-12 and the fourth quarter of 2012-13.
The latest figures also showed that 43 per cent of ESA appeals that were dealt with at a tribunal hearing were successful.
A DWP spokesman said that ?anyone who disagrees with the outcome of their WCA can appeal, so it isn?t surprising that a number of people do?, and that tribunals often overturn decisions because ?new evidence is produced at appeal which wasn?t available when the original decision was made?.
He suggested the rise could be due to a gradual increase in the number of people applying for ESA, and the ?cumulative effect? of the incapacity benefit reassessment programme, which began in full in April 2011, as well as more people reaching the date for a repeat assessment.
He added: ?To help ensure decisions are as accurate as possible at the earliest opportunity, from October 2013, anyone who disputes a decision will have it reconsidered first by the DWP rather than going immediately to a tribunal.
?Following this, if the claimant still disputes the outcome, they can appeal directly to the independent tribunal. However it is likely this process will cut the number of cases which need to go to the tribunal.?
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
Robby comes to the south upon his graduation from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He grew up playing basketball in the 'Heartland of Hoops' and dreaming of becoming a sports broadcaster. He lives out his dream today here in Mississippi at WCBI. You can follow Robby on Twitter @RobbyDonoho or contact him via e-mail at robbydonoho@wcbi.com.
? July 15, 2013Posted in: EndZone
FULTON, Miss. (WCBI) - Having two running backs rush for a combine 3,000 yards in one season certainly wasn?t a bad thing to rely on last season.
One problem now for Itawamba AHS: those 3,000 yards including 500 from quarterback Tyler Dossett have graduated and moved on from Fulton. The Indians must now find ways to gain that yardage back with the next man up philosophy.
?You aren?t prepared for it but you just have to step up and fill in and do what you can to help your team out and be a leader,? senior Tylon Ward said. ?With all those guys gone, there has to be someone to step up or there would be no team.?
Ward is one of those seniors who will step up and the Indians are also counting on sophomore Vijay Miller to take over under center. Miller has a bit of a good bloodline: his brother Mikhail played at IAHS and is now at Ole Miss.
?We?ve got some kids that are gonna step into those roles that we expect a lot out of,? head coach Toby Collums said. ?That hurts any team when you lose kids of the caliber we had.?
While the Indians will return a stout offensive line that includes 6?6? 300 lb. tackle Ethan Orr, Itawamba?s strong suit may be the defense. The Indians bring back a total of nine starters from last season.
?We?ve been so good offensively, this year we feel like the defense will be the strong point of the team,? defensive coordinator Clint Hoots said. ?It?s going to be a good season for us defensively.?
The question still remains though: how will the Indians follow up a 12-win season in 2013? Time will only tell, but the expectations have returned for the Indians after claiming their first division crown since 2009 this past season.
?This community expects it out of these guys and they expect it out of themselves,? Coots said. ?We?re quietly building a tradition here.?
?Any time you go through a season like last year, it?s going to generate some excitement,? Collums said. ?We want to continue to give that to the community.?
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Public release date: 18-Jul-2013
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