AGAIN! Storm brings tornadoes, dumps heavy rain on Oklahoma, Missouri
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Friday, 31 May 2013
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Woolly mammoth found with blood in veins boosts chance of cloning beast
THE carcass of a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth had been found with blood still in its veins - boosting the chances of a Jurassic Park style clone of the beast.
The ancient beast was found in the Novosibirsk archipelago off the northern coast of Siberia.
When stunned researchers from the top Yakutsk University poked the remains with an ice pick incredibly, blood flowed out.
A deal has been signed to give South Korean scientists exclusive rights to clone the mammoth.
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Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Can you land a job with 140 characters?
(CNN) -- The hottest way to present your resume currently involves just 140 characters and a lot of hype. Twitter resumes -- or "twesumes" -- have been touted as the best way for social media-savvy types to snag a dream job.
But before you post your own abbreviated CV, it is worth considering its limitations and what tweeting your employment history really says about you.
"I cannot imagine someone explaining their breadth of experience in 140 characters," says Sai Pradhan, a headhunter and managing director for Trufflepig Search, based in Hong Kong. "I know people are calling it an elevator pitch these days, but my goodness, even that's a bit longer. At most it could be an introduction with a link to your CV."
The term twesume (a contraction of "Twitter" and "resume") began gaining traction in 2011 after it appeared in an article by Sean Weinberg on social media news site, Mashable. Weinberg co-founded the website RezScore, which allows users to upload their resumes and receive an algorithmic-based grading on it.
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Sunday, 26 May 2013
Do these 20 things and you'll always be poor
Staying solvent is tough enough without throwing money away by making silly financial mistakes. If you do the following, you will always be poor.
(This article implies for UK residents, but I feel that this should also apply to US residents as well............)
1) Spend now, pay later
2) Fail to save
3) Only pay the minimum on your credit card
4) Miss a monthly payment
5) Fall for get-rich-quick schemes
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2-child limit for Muslims in parts of Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar — Authorities in Myanmar's western Rakhine state have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian violence.
Local officials said Saturday that the new measure would be applied to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the state. The townships, Buthidaung and Maundaw, are about 95 percent Muslim.
The unusual order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to impose such a restriction on a religious group, and is likely to fuel further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country.
China has a one-child policy, but it is not based on religion and exceptions apply to minority ethnic groups. India briefly practiced forced sterilization of men in a bid to control the population in the mid-1970s when civil liberties were suspended during a period of emergency rule, but a nationwide outcry quickly shut down the program.
Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said the new program was meant to stem rapid population growth in the Muslim community, which a government-appointed commission identified as one of the causes of the sectarian violence.
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Friday, 24 May 2013
Why Everyone Is an Entrepreneur Now
Millennials have disrupted the labor market, making it acceptable to job hop and complete "tours of duty" until a better offer comes along.
In the process, company loyalty has become a thing of the past, and everyone needs to accept it, say Chris Yeh and Ben Casnocha in the Harvard Business Review.
We can no longer believe in "this idea that people would go to college, study hard, get a degree, land an entry-level job at a big, stable company." Nor can we believe in the old 20th century compact of employees slowly working their way up the ladder.
The modern compact is based on alliance.
"The employer is saying, 'Hey, make my company more valuable, and I'll make you more valuable,'" say the authors. "Even if this is not a relationship that's going to last for an entire lifetime, this is a relationship that is going to be beneficial to both of us during the time it exists and even afterwards."
With loyalty no longer a part of the equation, being an employee in the modern workplace isn't all that different from being an entrepreneur. Uncertainty and volatility is part of the game. There's no guarantee of a promotion or pay raise.
In a way, that's a good thing.
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Thursday, 23 May 2013
TIME Exclusive: President Obama’s 1979 Prom Photos
Tucked away in someone else’s shoe box of adolescent artifacts, there might be a picture of you in garish clothes and with an outdated ‘do, your arm around a high school squeeze. The President of the United States is no different. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obama’s schoolmate Kelli Allman (née McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom.
Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obama’s constant companion. “They were like brothers,” says Allman. On prom night, the pair double-dated. Obama and his date Megan Hughes, a student at the Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, joined Orme at Allman’s house, where the two couples sipped champagne before going to the dance and then an after-party. “It was a really fun, happy time. We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling,” says Allman. “It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.”
Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. Their photos are more likely to be stored on Facebook than in a shoe box. But it’s fun to imagine that in one of those pictures, there’s a girl in a pastel dress or a lanky guy in a white sport coat who will end up becoming the leader of the free world.
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London Attack: British Mother Confronted Hostile Hacking Suspects
Anyone looking for a sign of British bravery in the face of terror should look no further than Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.
A British soldier had been hacked to death on the streets of southeast London Wednesday afternoon. His alleged killers carried butcher knives dripping with blood, stalking the scene, police nowhere in sight.
Loyau-Kennett's bus had just stopped in front of the killing. Some people might have shielded their eyes and fled. Instead, the mother of two and Cub Scout leader got off the bus and walked straight for the man whose hands were stained a deep red. He carried weapons. She carried only resolve.
"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact, [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told Daybreak, a morning news program on the British channel ITV. "He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me... I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"
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BOY SCOUTS APPROVE PLAN TO ACCEPT OPENLY GAY BOYS
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — In one of their most dramatic choices in a century, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to ease a divisive ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted into the nation's leading youth organization.
Gay adults will remain barred from serving as Scout leaders. Of the local Scout leaders voting at their annual meeting in Texas, more than 60 percent supported the proposal.
Casting ballots were about 1,400 voting members of BSA's National Council who were attending their annual meeting at a conference center not far from BSA headquarters in suburban Dallas.
The vote will not end the wrenching debate over the Scouts' membership policy, and it could trigger defections among those on the losing side. Some conservative churches that sponsor Scout units wanted to continue excluding gay youths, and in some cases threatened to leave the BSA if the ban were lifted. More liberal Scout leaders — while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth — wanted the ban on gay adults lifted as well.
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Wednesday, 22 May 2013
1 dead, 2 injured in possible terrorist attack in London
British Prime Minister David Cameron says there are indications that the attack in the London neighborhood of Woolwich is a terrorist incident.
LONDON — A brutal attack in broad daylight near a military barracks in London left one man dead and two suspects hospitalized Wednesday after a shootout with police. British Prime Minister David Cameron said the attack appeared to be terror related.
Two U.K. government officials who had been briefed said the attack seemed to have been ideologically motivated by radical Islam. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
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Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Chinese Bloggers Mourn Big Yellow Duck Demise
On Wednesday morning, one passionate question united China’s microbloggers: What happened to the big yellow duck?
This month, a 54-foot yellow inflated duck sailed into Victoria Harbor, triggering a jubilant response from tourists and locals and wall-to-wall media coverage, as well as a tidal wave of waterfowl-inspired products. On Wednesday, though, pictures showing the giant duck had evidently melted into a yellow puddle prompted an anguished outcry across social media around the world. “#DEVASTATED,” ran one hashtag on Twitter. “Is @#%! nothing sacred,” another user mourned.
Microbloggers in mainland China, though, seemed particularly affected. By Wednesday noon, the hashtag “Big Yellow Duck” had shot up to the No. 1 position as the most blogged-about topic on Sina Weibo. (The hashtag “Little Yellow Duck,” another term of endearment for the oversize toy, meanwhile occupied the No. 3 position.)
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Are Beats by Dr. Dre headphones worth the price tag?
Do you care whether your headphones look as good as they sound? If so, you might be considering a model in the Beats by Dr. Dre line. Developed in conjunction with Monster Cable, Beats helped usher in the era of higher-priced, logo-embossed headphones bearing a celebrity endorsement. Certainly, based on the number of people you now see wearing Beats models (with the distinctive lower-case "b" on the earcups) around their necks, they have an obvious appeal.
If you don't really care what your headphones look like, my advice for the past dozen or so years or so has been to buy a pair of Grado SR60i ($80) or SR80i ($100) on-ear models. Despite their somewhat stodgy appearance, they'll give you a taste of what high-end audio sounds like for about the cost of an average dinner for two in New York City. But based on the growing popularity of celebrity and fashion-oriented headphone models—including the Beats by Dr. Dre series—it seems that an awful lot of us do care about the look of what we're wearing in, on, or around our ears.
Last year, despite nearly a half-billion dollars in sales, something surprising happened: The highly successful Beats/Monster deal unraveled. The story of how Monster lost its deal with Beats is fascinating. You can get the back story on what transpired in this great Gizmodo article, but the key element to the split is that Beats, not Monster, retained the design, engineering, and branding rights the the Beats product line. (Following the split with Monster, Beats signed a deal that gave phone giant HTC a 51 percent stake in the company.)
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ABC to Test Expanding Nielsen Ratings to Mobile
ABC will begin measuring advertising in videos viewed with mobile and tablet apps during a trial run with Nielsen, the network said at its upfront presentation to ad buyers Tuesday afternoon.
It will be the first test expanding Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings to mobile, allowing ABC to measure audience demographics and understand the reach and frequency of online campaigns within apps, according to executives. Nielsen's online ratings currently include video viewed on computer and tablet browsers.
The move comes as ABC introduces a Watch ABC app that will allow cable and satellite TV subscribers to stream ABC's live signal to mobile devices, in addition to the sort of on-demand video that has been the mainstay of network TV Everywhere apps until now.
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Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Low costs lure U.S. college students abroad
Patrick Finger, a high school senior from Southern California, did just that. He applied to a dozen or so colleges this year, including several state schools. In the end, he chose a less conventional path, opting to perfect his German language skills over the next year and then enroll at the University of Cologne. Tuition at German universities proved irresistible - it's free.
"State campuses here can cost as much as $35,000 per year and private colleges more," Finger says. Even with the extra year of study plus living and travel expenses, the 18-year-old recognizes a bargain when he sees one. He estimates his total expenses in Germany will amount to what he would spend in less than one year in the United States. "My family doesn't believe in graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt."
Finger isn't alone. Shaving thousands of dollars off their tuition bills is a prime motivation for a growing number of American students to study abroad.
About 46,000 U.S. scholars — or 4 percent more than in 2011 — are enrolled in full-degree programs outside the country, according to a report that will be released in May by the Institute of International Education's Project Atlas.
Nearly three-quarters are studying in English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Germany and France are also popular destinations, but countries such as China, India, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates are increasingly on students' radar.
"The world is getting smaller, and going abroad just isn't as daunting for students and their families," says Gavin Bradley, head college counselor at Atlanta's Pace Academy, which currently has four students enrolled at Scotland's St. Andrew's University. Plus, he adds, "You can often attend a higher-quality school at a lower price."
Foreign universities are also wooing American recruits. For example, Bradley says, college fairs now often host booths for schools from across Europe, Asia, and Canada, many of which have recruiters visit top high schools or have set up U.S.-based offices. Other nations, such as Denmark, Spain or Japan, have dedicated staff for easing the transition for American students, including financial aid workshops.
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Monday, 13 May 2013
Geography of Hate
The Geography of Hate is part of a larger project by Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University (HSU) identifying the geographic origins of online hate speech. Undergraduate students Amelia Egle, Matthew Eiben and Miles Ross, worked to produce the data and this map as part of Dr. Stephens' Advanced Cartography course at Humboldt State University.
The data behind this map is based on every geocoded tweet in the United States from June 2012 - April 2013 containing one of the 'hate words'. This equated to over 150,000 tweets and was drawn from the DOLLY project based at the University of Kentucky. Because algorithmic sentiment analysis would automatically classify any tweet containing 'hate words' as "negative," this project relied upon the HSU students to read the entirety of tweet and classify it as positive, neutral or negative based on a predefined rubric. Only those tweets that were identified by human readers as negative were used in this analysis.
See the map:
29 Rules for College Graduates
1. Relax. Nobody expects anything from you for the first 80 to 90 years.
2. Good news: It totally doesn't matter that you barely cracked "The Grapes of Wrath" or "Light in August" sophomore year. It's never going to come up. Ever. You're safe now.
3. You're going to buy a bad bed. You can't help it. You just graduated college. You don't know
anything about beds. You're going to sleep on the worst bed for at least seven years. It might even be a horrible futon. This will be funny later.
4. No matter how hard you try to stop it, you're going to end up watching "Jerry Maguire" and "Con Air" at least 1,300 times on cable.
5. You can mispronounce "nadir" and "banal" for the rest of your life, and it's OK, because nobody really knows how to pronounce "nadir" or "banal."
6. You can under-Karaoke, but definitely don't over-Karaoke.
7. While you're still young, stay up to watch the end of "Monday Night Football." After the age of 35,
it's physically impossible.
8. Never enter an IKEA without your game face on.
9. Life is too short to be a Miami Marlin.
10. The job market is fierce right now, but if you're lucky to get an interview, you can set yourself apart from the crowd by wearing shorts and flip-flops to the interview. Trust me on this. Everyone loves shorts and flip-flops—especially if you start the interview by kicking the flip-flops up on top of the interviewer's desk, then yawning loudly before opening a tin of Pringles.
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Sunday, 12 May 2013
Ah, Millennials.
Are we politically engaged and civic-minded Twitter addicts? Or narcissists with a penchant for Instagramming our food? We’re either the most socially-connected generation thus far with hundreds of Facebook friends, or we’re an anti-social bunch who would rather tap away at our smartphones than strike up a conversation.
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Saturday, 11 May 2013
Brain, Interrupted
Technology has given us many gifts, among them dozens of new ways to grab our attention. It’s hard to talk to a friend without your phone buzzing at least once. Odds are high you will check your Twitter feed or Facebook wall while reading this article. Just try to type a memo at work without having an e-mail pop up that ruins your train of thought.
But what constitutes distraction? Does the mere possibility that a phone call or e-mail will soon arrive drain your brain power? And does distraction matter — do interruptions make us dumber? Quite a bit, according to new research by Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.
There’s a lot of debate among brain researchers about the impact of gadgets on our brains. Most discussion has focused on the deleterious effect of multitasking. Early results show what most of us know implicitly: if you do two things at once, both efforts suffer.
[More from The New York Times: New Motto for Silicon Valley: First Security, Then Innovation]
In fact, multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person juggling e-mail, text messaging, Facebook and a meeting is really doing something called “rapid toggling between tasks,” and is engaged in constant context switching.
As economics students know, switching involves costs. But how much? When a consumer switches banks, or a company switches suppliers, it’s relatively easy to count the added expense of the hassle of change. When your brain is switching tasks, the cost is harder to quantify.
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April budget surplus is U.S.’s biggest in 5 years
Federal deficit is down 32% so far this fiscal year
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. government ran a budget surplus of $113 billion in April, the Treasury Department reported Friday, $54 billion more than in the same month a year ago.
It was the first monthly surplus since January and the biggest monthly surplus since the $159 billion budget surplus of April 2008.
Tax receipts were $407 billion, up 28% versus April 2012, while spending was $294 billion, 13% more than in the year-earlier month.
April is typically a surplus month because of income-tax payments.
Through the first seven months of the 2013 fiscal year, the deficit is $488 billion, 32% lower than the same period last year.
The monthly number was about in line with a projection earlier this week from the Congressional Budget Office.
Some see the government’s improving finances as affecting a potential debt deal between President Barack Obama and Republicans. “With the deficit plunging, support for entitlement reform — which looked so promising in early April — has clearly faded,” wrote Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group in a note on Friday.
The U.S. is due to hit its borrowing limit on May 18, but Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Friday said the government will be able to keep paying its bills through Labor Day.
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Friday, 10 May 2013
NKorea calls US-SKorea summit prelude to war
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahead of a nuclear-powered U.S. carrier's visit to South Korea, North Korea on Friday called this week's summit between the U.S. and South Korean presidents a prelude to war against Pyongyang. Yet it also said it was waiting "with patience" to see if Seoul changes its policies.
The North described South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to Washington as a "despicable sycophantic trip to please her master."
The summit between the two allies is "a curtain-raiser to a dangerous war to invade" the North, an unnamed spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea told the official Korean Central News Agency. The committee deals with cross-border relations, which are at a low point.
At the same time, the North Korean spokesman said Pyongyang is "following the present authorities in South Korea with patience," arguing that it is not Pyongyang but Seoul that should change its stance.
North Korea unleashed a flurry of war threats last month, but there has been a lull of late. There are some tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, though Pyongyang has also kept up its criticism of both Seoul and Pyongyang.
North Korea previously criticized the impending visit of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. It and three other ships will arrive Saturday in the southeastern port city of Busan in a show of U.S. commitment in the region, the U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command said in a statement.
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Boomers, retirees keep restaurants alive
The crash and recession and their aftermath have been tough for the restaurant business, as cash-strapped customers cut back on discretionary expenses wherever they can. Overall, Americans still eat out less often than they did in 2007. But according to a recent, broad analysis of the industry that’s getting some coverage this week from the New York Times’s Eric Nagourney, there’s a bigger demographic shift afoot. While people under 55 are still ratcheting back their spending and choosing leftovers at home over the Macaroni Grill, older baby boomers and retirees are going out more often, not less.
The survey, by the market research company NPD Group, came out earlier this year. It found the biggest uptick in restaurant visits among those over 65. They now make an average of 195 restaurant visits per person per year, up about 8% since 2008; that number grew steadily through the recession years. Diners age 55 to 64 make 220 visits a year, up slightly from 2008. But visits are down about 7% among younger boomers, and down 12% among adults under 47.
It’s worth noting that these statistics include breakfasts and lunches as well as dinners across all restaurant categories, encompassing the morning bagel-and-coffee at Panera and the sullen workday lunch with the crossword puzzle at the deli. So the study doesn’t imply that older baby boomers are necessarily sustaining a white-tablecloth-and-pinot-grigio lifestyle.
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