Kids SciFi: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

Parents with young children can tell you that the most precious thing on the planet isn't gold or diamonds. It's the animated family film that kids can enjoy and grown-ups can endure. For reasons no adult really understands, kids love to watch their favorite animated movies over and over. And over. That means when the movies cycle to home video, parents watch them over and over, too.
As such, quality kids movies are a genuine commodity for the whole family. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2," opening today in theaters, is the kind of film that can keep both parents and kids enjoyably occupied. The film chronicles the continuing adventures of stalwart scientist and inventor Flint Lockwood, creator of the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR for short).

Science Movies to Avoid on Date Night

The movie is a lot of fun, with plenty of laughs and some genuinely inventive use of 3D visuals. It's also a film with decidedly pro-science subtexts for kids. Flint is a pure scientist at heart, and his gang of ragtag pals have a simple goal: to establish their own start-up laboratory and make gadgets to help all of mankind.
After a recent advance screening of the film in Los Angeles, co-directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn sat down with Discovery News to talk about pop culture, presenting science to kids, and the art of naming foodimals.

SOURCE : http://news.discovery.com/earth/kids-science-and-meatballs-130927.htm

Pirate Bay Founder's Hacking, Fraud Sentence Reduced

A Swedish court dismissed some charges against the founder of the file-sharing website.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish court has dismissed part of the hacking and fraud charges against the founder of the popular file-sharing website Pirate Bay and reduced his prison sentence from two years to one.

The Svea Court of Appeal on Wednesday dismissed cases against Gottfrid Svartholm Warg relating to the hacking of Nordea Bank AB, saying it could not be ruled out that others may have remotely accessed his computer as he has claimed. It upheld the conviction of hacking into the servers of two other companies, Applicate and Logica, which handle sensitive information for Sweden's police force and tax authority.
The court, which heard two IT experts in the case, noted that Svartholm Warg had not disputed his computer was used in several hacking cases between January 2010 and August 2012.
In 2009, a Swedish court gave him and three Pirate Bay colleagues one-year sentences for copyright violation. They also were ordered to pay 46 million kronor ($6.5 million) in damages to the entertainment industry.
Svartholm Warg appealed that ruling, but left the country. He was arrested in Cambodia in 2012 and deported back to Sweden after an international arrest warrant was issued against him. He has served out his sentence for his first conviction while under detention over his hacking charges.
Known by his Internet alias "Anakata," the 28-year-old Svartholm Warg also is wanted in Denmark, where he is suspected of hacking to access sensitive information.
The Pirate Bay is one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, offering millions of users a forum for downloading music, movies and computer games.

SOURCE : http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pirate-bay-founders-hacking-fraud-638237

 

Bill Gates admits CTRL-ALT-DEL was mistake, as was dropping out of Harvard

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates acknowledged that the “CTRL-ALT-DEL” means of logging into your Windows PC was a mistake, although done with the best of intentions.
Gates, interviewed at Harvard University last week, said that the awkward three-finger combination was actually implemented for security purposes.
”Basically because when you turn your computer on, you’re going to see some screens and eventually type your password in, you want to have something you do with the keyboard that is signalling to a very low level of the software—actually hard-coded in the hardware—that it really is bringing in the operating system you expect,” Gates said. “Instead of just a funny piece of software that puts up a screen that looks like your login screen and listens to your password and is able to do that.
”So we could have had a single button, but the guy that wanted to do the IBM keyboard design didn’t want to give us our single button.,and so we programmed at a low level... it was a mistake.” Gates also said that it was able to take the IBM character set and do some “interesting things” with it.
Of course, the three-key combination—still a part of Windows through Windows 8—has become part of Windows lore, much in the same way that that the “open Apple” key, for example, was well known among Apple users.
The hour-long interview touched on a number of topics, including Gates’ early days at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Gates formed with his wife, Melinda, after stepping down as Microsoft’s chief executive in 2000. Gates has recently appeared more publicly—appearing at a Microsoft academic forum, for example—to answer questions about Google and other topics.

• Gates was asked, in retrospect, if he actually needed to drop out of Harvard and form the venture that eventually became Microsoft. Gates responded by noting that at the time, software was something that hardware companies did as an aside, because they were forced to. “In fact, though we felt like we had to do it [launch Microsoft] that day, an extra year or two wouldn’t have made a difference,” Gates said. He also jokingly took credit for persuading Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to drop out as well.
• On never attending classes in his original major, mathematics: “I’m probably not going to be the best at this... so I decided I would be the guy who never attended any class he signed up for. So within my first  month, I figured out that was my unique positioning. I hoped that the 80 other people [in his class] wouldn’t steal that positioning. It turned out that no one else imitated me.”
• On pulling away from Microsoft: “Certainly in my twenties Microsoft was everything, every minute, every sense of I’m doing good work. I knew everybody’s license plate, I could tell you when they drove into the parking lot, when they left, so it was kinda extreme... You’re going from that to having a wife, having kids, having vacations. That felt really good, really appropriate.”

Unfortunately, Gates did not acknowledge Clippy as a mistake.
 

 

SOURCE : http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049623/bill-gates-admits-ctrl-alt-del-was-mistake-as-was-dropping-out-of-harvard.html

Google unveils major upgrade to search algorithm

Google has unveiled an upgrade to the way it interprets users' search requests.

The new algorithm, codenamed Hummingbird, is the first major upgrade for three years.
It has already been in use for about a month, and affects about 90% of Google searches.
At a presentation on Thursday, the search giant was short on specifics but said Hummingbird is especially useful for longer and more complex queries.
Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine - for example, using their voice to speak requests into mobile phones, smart watches and other wearable technology.
Hummingbird is focused more on ranking information based on a more intelligent understanding of search requests, unlike its predecessor, Caffeine, which was targeted at better indexing of websites.

It is more capable of understanding concepts and the relationships between them rather than simply words, which leads to more fluid interactions. In that sense, it is an extension of Google's "Knowledge Graph" concept introduced last year aimed at making interactions more human.

In one example, shown at the presentation, a Google executive showed off a voice search through her mobile phone, asking for pictures of the Eiffel Tower. After the pictures appeared, she then asked how tall it was. After Google correctly spoke back the correct answer, she then asked "show me pictures of the construction" - at which point a list of images appeared.
Big payoffs? However, one search expert cautioned that it was too early to determine Hummingbird's impact. "For me this is more of a coming out party, rather than making me think 'wow', said Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land.
"If you've been watching this space, you'd have already seen how they've integrated it into the [predictive search app] Google Now and conversational search.
"To know that they've put this technology further into their index may have some big payoffs but we'll just have to see how it plays out," Mr Sullivan said.
The news was announced at an intimate press event at the Silicon Valley garage where founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page worked on the launch of the search engine, which is fifteen years old on Friday.
At the event, the search behemoth also announced an updated search app on Apple's iOS, as well as a more visible presence for voice search on its home page.

SOURCE  : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24292897

George H.W. Bush witness at Maine same-sex wedding

KENNEBUNK, Maine (AP) - Former President George H.W. Bush has served as an official witness at the same-sex wedding of two longtime friends in Maine.
Spokesman Jim McGrath says Bush and his wife, Barbara, attended the ceremony Saturday joining Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen. He says they were there as private citizens and friends.
A photo posted Sunday on Thorgalsen's Facebook page shows Bush signing the marriage license as a witness. She captioned the photo: "Getting our marriage license witnessed!"
The 41st president has deep ties to the area and owns a compound in Kennebunkport.
Thorgalsen and Clement own a general store in neighboring Kennebunk. They were honeymooning overseas and did not immediately respond to emails Wednesday.

SOURCE : http://www.ksdk.com/news/watercooler/article/399637/71/George-HW-Bush-witness-at-Maine-same-sex-wedding

New technology allows better mammograms

Two medical centers in Suffolk will soon begin scheduling patients for a new type of mammography that should enhance the ability of doctors to detect cancers, experts say.
Known as 3D mammography or breast tomosynthesis, the new procedure will be offered at the Advanced Imaging Center at BelleHarbour and Sentara Obici Comprehensive Breast Center. The services will be offered starting in December, but scheduling will start Oct. 1.
A study in the June 2013 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology found the use of the new technology increased cancer detection by 35 percent, increased invasive cancer detection by 53 percent and reduced callbacks — when women had to come back for more tests — by 38 percent.
“It’s very significant,” said Dr. Stafford Brown, a radiologist at Obici and BelleHarbour. “The key is early detection, and any tool we can get our hands on to detect breast cancer early without increasing risk to the patient is a good thing.”
Conventional mammography creates a two-dimensional image of the breast, much like an X-ray, making it difficult to find small cancers hidden among layers of breast tissue, according to a press release from Sentara. The new technology creates 3D breast reconstructions so radiologists can view the breast in paper-thin layers.
Brown agreed with another doctor’s assessment that the old mammography technology was similar to looking at a deck of cards, while the new technology allows the radiologist to look at each individual card.
“Now we’re getting multiple thin slices of breast tissue and being able to look at it,” he said.
The new technology will be especially useful for women with dense breast tissue, which can hinder the detection of some cancers.
“With dense breasts, we couldn’t really see through the breasts, but now we can do that,” Brown said.
It also will help women with risk factors for the disease, such as a family history.
While Brown said the new technology will not improve uncomfortable procedure, it will allow more images to be taken approximately the same amount of time and reduce the number of times some patients have to go through the procedure.
“With 3D, since we’ll be able to see more, we’ll be able to diagnose more accurately at that particular time,” Brown said.
Patient confidence, however, will definitely improve, he believes.
“They know they’re getting the latest and greatest,” he said. “This is a great advancement. I’m happy Sentara is at the forefront of getting this out to the community in Hampton Roads.”

SOURCE : http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/09/25/new-technology-allows-better-mammograms

Attempt to right Costa Concordia cruise ship begins

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AP) — A complex system of pulleys and counterweights on Monday began pulling upright the Costa Concordia cruise ship from its side on a Tuscan reef where it capsized in 2012, an anxiously awaited operation of a kind that has never been attempted on such a huge liner.
Engineer Sergio Girotto said the operation began at about 9 a.m. local time on Monday, three hours late.
The delay was due to an early morning storm that pushed back a floating command room center from its position close to the wreckage. There, engineers using remote controls were guiding a synchronized leverage system of pulleys, counterweights and huge chains looped under the Concordia's carcass to delicately nudge the ship free from its rocky seabed perch just outside Giglio Island's harbor.
The goal is to raise it from its side by 65 degrees to vertical, as a ship would normally be, for eventual towing.
The operation, known in nautical parlance as parbuckling, is a proven method to raise capsized vessels.
The USS Oklahoma was parbuckled by the U.S. military in 1943 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But the 1,000-foot, 115,000-ton Concordia has been described as the largest cruise ship ever to capsize and subsequently require the complex rotation.
The Concordia crashed into a reef on a winter's night Jan. 13, 2012. Thirty-two people were killed after the captain steered the luxury liner too close to the rocky coastline of Giglio, part of a chain of islands in pristine waters.
The reef sliced a 230-foot gash into what is now the exposed side off the hull, letting seawater rush in. The resulting tilt was so drastic that many lifeboats couldn't be launched. Dozens of the 4,200 passengers and crew were plucked to safety by helicopters or jumped into the sea and swam to shore. Bodies of many of the dead were retrieved inside the ship, although two bodies were never found and might lie beneath the hulk.
The Concordia's captain is on trial on the mainland for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship during the chaotic and delayed evacuation. Capt. Francesco Schettino claims the reef wasn't on the nautical charts for the liner's weeklong Mediterranean cruise.
Asked how long it would take for people on shore to see the ship making significant movement toward the vertical, Girotto said that "after a couple of hours, you should be able to see something visible from a distance."
The first couple of hours will be critical, engineers predicted. Pieces of the granite seabed are embedded in the submerged side of the hull, which divers haven't been able to fully inspect.
The entire operation should take between 10-12 hours.
Parbuckling was supposed to begin before dawn, but daylight broke even before the barge carrying the engineers close to the ship could leave shore. After the storm blew away, seas were calm.
Engineers have dismissed as a "remote" possibility the chance that the Concordia might break apart during rotation and no longer be sound enough to be towed to the mainland to be turned into scrap.
Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., is picking up the tab for the parbuckling and its intricate preparation. The company puts the costs so far at $800 million, though much of that will be passed onto its insurers.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/16/operation-to-raise-capsized-cruise-ship-underway/2819185

Three Scottish universities climb up world rankings

A table of the world's top 100 universities showed that three in Scotland had climbed up the rankings.

Edinburgh is now in 17th place, Glasgow is 51st and St Andrews is 83rd on the QS World University list.
Eleven of the top 20 positions are taken by US institutions, but the producers of the table identified that Asian universities were on the rise.
Of the 18 UK universities that made it onto the 100 list, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial and Oxford were in the top 10.
Edinburgh was the only Scottish university in the top 20. However, this is an international survey - and there are some quite interesting international trends too.
Although just over half of the top 20 positions were taken by US universities, the country's dominance has eroded in recent years since the financial crisis.
Of the 83 United States universities in the top 400, 64 had a lower rank than they had five years ago.
The table's producers believe the reason for this may be that many of them have suffered successive government funding cuts.
Most of the 62 Asian institutions in the top 400 rank higher than five years ago, though none is in the top 20 yet.
But just what do these rankings actually tell us? And are they useful for would-be students?
There are several different factors used to calculate them. About 60,000 academics and 28,000 employers across the world contributed towards the results.
The biggest single factor in the calculations is a university's academic reputation. Others include its reputation with employers and international students.
Student experience But it is important to remember these rankings - or other similar listings - do not offer some objective, black and white list of just how good particular universities are. Rather they are mostly about how the institutions are perceived.
They are important because they help establish and maintain a university's international reputation - and that can be a factor attracting students, academics or research funding.
But what they do not do is say how good a particular course or degree is - or rate the student experience.
And while a high ranking is good for a university's reputation, it is over simplistic to say this just tells us one university is better than another.

In recent years, there have been concerns over whether Scottish universities would maintain their reputations - the fear was that universities in other parts of the UK, able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000, would have bigger budgets and attract the best students and staff.

Universities are likely to use figures like today's to offer reassurance that the international reputation of some Scottish universities is not merely being maintained - but is even being enhanced.
That is certainly the view of Sir Timothy O'Shea, principal of the University of Edinburgh. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that tuition fees was not an issue.
He believed the university had a growing reputation which was attracting millions in new research funding.
Sir Timothy said: "We have been recruiting lots of early career researchers, we recruited a cohort of 100 from round the world and more recently with the support of the Scottish government, who co-funded with us, we recruited another 100 early career academics and the work they do - and actually a lot of research our more senior students do - is having a tremendously positively affect on our reputation."
The government's supporters may well argue this shows universities are being properly funded without tuition fees.
But remember this is just one table and not the last word on the subject. And last year several Scottish universities slipped down another prestigious list of the world's best universities.
Explaining exactly why individual institutions have gone up or down the table is not a precise science.
But among the possible factors is research funding.
Sir Timothy explained Edinburgh University's situation: "Funding is doing tremendously well. Two years ago, we were delighted to secure in one year £200m competitive research grants.
"Last year we were amazed when we hit £250m, this year we are on such a very good curve we hit £300m in competitive research grants and that will support work in medicine, in science, in humanities."
Glasgow makes a similar point about funding awards provided to boost research. It also calculates that the university makes an impact of around £500 million on Scotland's gross domestic product - in other words 0.5% of Scotland's GDP.

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24029080

Trudy Rubin: Obama’s strange strategy on Syria

If President Barack Obama ever does get around to targeting Syria, with congressional approval, it will be the strangest U.S. military strike in recent memory.
The administration has made a convincing case that the Syrian regime gassed 1,400 of its own people to death last month, including 426 children. And yes, the use of poison gas violates longstanding international norms.
Yet Obama can’t seem to make up his mind if he wants to punish Syria for using chemical weapons or not.
On Saturday, he made a strong case for using military action to deter anyone from deploying these terrible weapons again. He said he’d decided to strike Syria, then – in the very same speech – said he was postponing the mission until he gets authorization from Congress, which won’t return until Monday.
Obama and his spokesmen have already spent a week insisting, over and over, that any strike would be a “limited narrow act.” Missiles would be fired from ships in the Mediterranean for a short time, aimed only at sites linked to the delivery (not the storage depots) of chemical weapons.
Furthermore, the aim would not be to unseat President Bashar Assad, or to impact the wider Syrian conflict. Meantime, his aides have so clearly telegraphed the possible targets that, according to opposition sources, the regime has been trucking troops, files and equipment away from those sites.
The administration’s litany of limitations already had Syrian opposition leaders comparing a possible strike to “Operation Desert Fox,” the Clinton administration’s much derided four-day bombing campaign in 1998 that aimed to degrade Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
After Saturday’s speech, this latter-day Desert Fox is looking more like Operation Desert Farce.
Obama’s public dithering is confusing both his allies and his foes. “He seems unable to make difficult decisions,” says Hisham Melhem, the veteran Washington bureau chief of al-Arabiya news channel. “This will embolden Assad and the opposition jihadis and demoralize the secular, moderate Syrian opposition. Obama is gambling with his reputation at home and abroad.”
Why Obama is seeking congressional cover this late in the day is perplexing. He didn’t ask Congress for permission when he backed the NATO operation in Libya in 2011, but he may be feeling lonely after British lawmakers rebuffed their government’s plan to cooperate in the strike.
Now with U.S. ships at the ready in the Mediterranean, there will be days more of debate over should we, shouldn’t we. If Congress votes no – which is entirely possible – Obama will be humiliated at home and abroad.
What’s so depressing about this whole mess is that the real rationale for any strike on Syria was to rescue Obama’s credibility – especially with Tehran. The use of chemical weapons does violate a hard-won international taboo, and the president has said repeatedly over the past year that Syrian use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line.” Last month’s hideous gas attack came after several previous small ones had gone unpunished; this time the president had to react with more than rhetoric.
Secretary of State John Kerry made this clear, last week, when he said the U.S. response to the chemical strike “matters deeply to the credibility … of the United States of America. … It is directly related to … whether countries still believe the United States when it says something. They are watching to see if Syria can get away with it. It is about whether Iran … will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons.”
I sympathize. The president does have a real credibility problem in the Middle East, the result of an incoherent (or absent) Mideast strategy, especially on Syria. But the administration’s tactical plan for a one-off punitive strike – divorced from any larger strategy – never made sense.
Now Obama has to sell that limited concept to Congress. He will argue that Syria’s chemical weapons threaten us, which they do not.
The real danger to U.S. security interests lies elsewhere – in a Syria collapsing into chaos and providing new havens for jihadis who could threaten the region and beyond. Over the past two years the White house chose not to arm moderate, non-jihadi Syrian rebel commanders who had been vetted by the CIA. These commanders have been pushed aside by new al-Qaida affiliates and other radical Islamists. Flush with supplies from rich Gulf Arabs, they are now setting up a new Afghanistan in eastern Syria and western Iraq.
The administration says any strike will not address this bigger problem; it will not be aimed at breaking the current Syrian military stalemate between regime and rebels, or at scaring Assad into entering serious peace talks. Not is there any sign it will be accompanied by a new policy of seriously arming moderate rebels..
This kind of tactical strike, divorced from any larger strategy will leave Assad in power, crowing that he survived America’s aggression. Yet a failure to punish Assad – after threatening to do so for weeks – will be a terrific blow for Obama, and undercut America’s standing and influence abroad.
This is the Hobson’s choice to which the president’s indecision has led him. Operation Desert Farce is already heading our way.

SOURCE : http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/04/5704646/trudy-rubin-obamas-strange-strategy.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/04/5704646/trudy-rubin-obamas-strange-strategy.html#mi_rss=Viewpoints#storylink=cpy

 

'Most awesome rooftop garden' is latest bizarre structure in China

A man living in a run-down building in China has managed to fend off his angry landlord and fellow tenants for the past six years to maintain a private garden oasis that Internet users have dubbed "the most awesome rooftop garden".
Li Qin, who lives on the eighth floor of an eight-story building in Yibin, a city in southeastern Sichuan, enjoys relaxing by his large artificial pond and strolling through shaded pathways that weave through the densely planted crops of corn, bananas, rapeseed and other vegetation.
His landlord, Wu Chirui, discovered the additions when he noticed leaks coming from the roof in 2007. Wu told the Sichuan News Network that he is seeking compensation from Li Qin for the damaged roof and the case is still pending.
Li Qin claims that his landlord had actually hired him to make repairs on the roof, and because he hasn't been paid for his work yet, he said--to the amusement of Internet users--that his landlord is not allowed to use the garden.
It's the latest bizarre rooftop structure to emerge from China in what appears to be a growing trend.
First there was the audacious rooftop structure on top of a 26-storey building in Beijing which featured a greenhouse set in a giant rockery. In mid-August the owner was ordered to take it down.
Then came the Shenzhen homeowner who built an entire temple on the top of his apartment block, surrounded by shrubbery and ornate phoenix sculptures.
Less impressive is the giant steel and mesh “birdcage” that caps the uppermost level of a building in Guangzhou, complete with bizarre giant hook protruding from the top. The owner of this structure has also been ordered to remove it.
The one that started it: the Beijing rooftop structure
The rooftop temple
 
SOURCE : http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1304809/most-awesome-rooftop-garden-latest-bizarre-structure-china

Weird crime: 6-year-old has hand in compost caper

The skinny: A 6-year-old boy found himself in big trouble when he stuck his fingers in someone else's dirt.

What we know: State police in Corry said they were called in to investigate an incident Aug. 30 where the boy was accused of damaging three bags of garden potting soil/compost mix at Hanna's Hardware in Townville, Crawford County, by poking holes in the bags and tearing the bags open, scattering the contents onto the sidewalk. The damaged property was valued at $12.67.

Case update: Police said the case is being handled within the department because of the boy's age.

SOURCE : http://www.goerie.com/article/20130906/NEWS02/309069883/Weird-crime%3A-6-year-old-has-hand-in-compost-caper

Dallas Zoo welcomes 2 cheetah cubs

DALLAS—Two male cheetah cubs have joined the Dallas Zoo population. Zoo officials have marked the occasion by providing them with a puppy.
The 8-week-old feline brothers, Winspear and Kamau, were born July 8 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.
The zoo is providing them with an 8-week-old black Labrador retriever puppy named Amani. According to a zoo statement, Amani means "peace" in Swahili.
Since Labs are easygoing in public settings and since the pup will grow with the cubs, zoo experts believe he'll provide a calming influence for the cats.
Winspear and Kamau will join the zoo's Animal Adventures outreach program to help teach the public about their highly endangered species.

SOURCE : http://www.elpasotimes.com/weird/ci_24030297/dallas-zoo-welcomes-2-cheetah-cubs-and-puppy

Woman's Time-Lapse Weight Loss Video Goes Viral

A 26-year-old woman's 88-pound weight loss has gone viral after a Reddit user created a time-lapse GIF that shows the woman's body transformation in just five seconds.
Amanda, who asked that her last name not be used, began taking photos of herself in 2011 as a way to stay on track when she committed to losing weight.
"I knew that I had to start somewhere," Amanda told ABC News. "I figured if I did it [took pictures] at least once a month, at the end of however long it took, I would have this really cool end product."
Amanda started weighing 222 pounds. By eating a high-protein diet, controlling her portions and doing moderate exercise, Amanda lost the 88 pounds in one year and has kept it off.
"I don't think I was actually prepared for the amount of emotional investment," Amanda said. "People bare their souls when they want to take back their health."
Her gallery of weight-loss photos garnered nearly three million views online and inspired a fellow Reddit user to create the GIF that has everyone buzzing.
"The waist got smaller. The bustline got bigger. The neckline got smaller," Dr. Jen Ashton, ABC News' senior medical contributor, said of Amanda's physical changes.
"But the more significant changes actually occur inside our bodies," she said. "Changes to one's sense of self, to one's physiology [and] to one's internal metabolism."
Last year it was another woman, Julia Kozerski, who made headlines by photographing her dramatic weight loss.
Kozerski, a photographer in Milwaukee, documented each step of her weight-loss journey inside fitting rooms, starting with herself in her wedding gown.
She turned her photographs, taken using a smartphone, into an art project called " Changing Room," where she explored her changing identity as she lost 160 pounds in one year.
"It's unbelievable for me to think about where I am right now and then think about who I was at that time," Kozerski told ABC News last September.

Katie Couric is engaged!

Katie Couric, 56, has finally found love again.
The talk show host and mother of two, who lost husband Jay Monahan to colon cancer in 1998, got engaged to financier John Molner, 50, over the Labor Day weekend.
"Katie's calling it her labor of love," said People editor Larry Hackett on Good Morning America announcing the news.
Molner, head of mergers and acquisitions at Brown Brothers Harriman, popped the question with a diamond ring at sunset on the beach in East Hampton, N.Y., reports People.com.
Katie told me in May she and Molnar were "having a great time. He's really funny and very successful in his own right. In a different line of work. A little more age appropriate."
How old is he? "He's six younger than I am," said Couric, who has dated younger men in the past including trumpeter Chris Botti (5 years younger) and entrepreneur Brooks Perlin (17 years her junior). "But hey, I've got a lot of energy, you know. I need someone who can keep up with me!"
Maybe since daughter Ellie, 22, just graduated from college and daughter Carrie, 17, is a senior in high school, the timing seems right at home. In the February issue of More magazine, Katie admitted, "It's actually surprising to me that it has been almost 15 years and I haven't remarried. I think life is more fun when you have someone in your life."

Katie Couric hasn't always had it easy in the relationship department. After her first husband's death in 1998, the journalist and talk-show host dated myriad men before getting engaged to financier John Molner over Labor Day weekend. Let's take a trip down memory lane and take a look at Couric's relationship history.  

 

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/09/03/katie-couric-is-engaged/2756915/

Ariel Castro found hanged in prison cell

Ariel Castro, who was convicted last month on charges related to the capture and imprisonment of three women in Cleveland, has been found hanged in his prison cell, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in an email.
Castro, 53, was in a cell by himself in protective custody at the Correction Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, wrote JoEllen Smith with the state corrections agency.
Castro was found at 9:20 p.m. ET in the cell, where checks are required every 30 minutes, Smith wrote in the email.
After prison medical staff attempted lifesaving measures, Castro was transported to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. ET, Smith wrote.
"A thorough review of this incident is underway and more information can be provided as it becomes available pending the status of the investigation," she wrote.
Castro, a former Cleveland bus driver, was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years on Aug. 1 related to the kidnapping, abuse and imprisonment for more than a decade of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who were held in chains. The case elicited emotions from people across the country whose hearts went out to the young women Castro pleaded guilty to kidnapping and abusing. Castro said he was not mean to the women during their captivity.
The women were captured between 2002 and 2004 and held until May 6, when Berry managed to escape and alert others.
Social media users reacted with anger and happiness to the news. On Twitter, users used the hashtag or search term #deadgiveaway to indicate they were tweeting about Castro.
One Twitter customer using the hashtag wrote: "Ariel Castro is gonna rot in hell."
According to his Ohio prison record, Castro was serving time for — among other charges — 473 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape and one count of aggravated murder.
Amid cheers from onlookers, Castro's house was torn down last month by two demolition companies free of charge after Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said he wanted it razed so it would not become a macabre tourist attraction.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/04/ariel-castro-hung-prison/2761177/

Microsoft reaches $7.2B deal for Nokia handset business

Microsoft late Monday announced it is buying Nokia's smartphone and cellular handset business in a deal worth $7.2 billion.
The deal sent Finnish firm Nokia's Helsinki-listed shares zooming 31% in afternoon trading Tuesday and earlier were up close to 50%, a move reported by Bloomberg as a record advance. Microsoft shares were down about 5%.
As part of the deal, Microsoft will own the company which has been a leader in creating the Lumia line of smartphones that run Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. Microsoft is paying $5 billion to buy Nokia's Devices & Services unit and an additional $2.2 billion to license Nokia's patents.

The deal formally puts the two companies together after collaborating closely since Feb. 2011 to create handsets that compete with those from Apple and Samsung. The companies have made in-roads in many parts of the world, including Europe, but are still facing headwinds in the U.S. Windows Phone has already surpassed BlackBerry as the third largest smartphone platform according to some analysts.
PRESS RELEASE: Text of Microsoft's news release about the deal
LETTER FROM BALLMER, ELOP: Text of blog post from execs
The move is one of the boldest yet by CEO Steve Ballmer, who stated last month he plans to retire in 12 months. By buying Nokia's handset business, Microsoft is showing it's committed to turning itself into more of a devices company than a software company. The deal's total value makes it the second largest ever done by Microsoft, just behind the $9.3 billion buy of Internet phone service Skype in May 2011, says S&P Capital IQ.
"Nokia and Microsoft have always dreamed big," said Ballmer and Nokia chief Stephen Elop in an "open letter" blog post.
"We dreamed of putting a computer on every desk, and a mobile phone in every pocket, and we've come a long way toward realizing those dreams. Today marks a moment of reinvention."
Elop, a former Microsoft executive who took the helm of Nokia, will become Nokia Executive Vice President of Devices & Services.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014 subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

SOURCE : http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/03/microsoft-buys-nokia-handset/2756653/

Android KitKat unveiled in Google surprise move

Google is calling the next version of its mobile operating system Android KitKat.

The news comes as a surprise as the firm had previously indicated version 4.4 of the OS would be Key Lime Pie.
The decision to brand the software with the name of Nestle's chocolate bar is likely to be seen as a marketing coup for the Swiss food and beverage maker.
However, Google told the BBC that it had come up with the idea and that neither side was paying the other.
"This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal," John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC.
Instead, he said, the idea was to do something "fun and unexpected".
However, one branding expert warned there were potential pitfalls to such a deal.
"If your brand is hooked up with another, you inevitably become associated with that other brand, for good or ill," said Simon Myers, a partner at the consultancy Prophet.
"If that brand or business has some reputational issues that emerge, it would be naive to think as a brand owner that your good name, your brand equity, would not be affected."
Nestle has faced criticism in the past for the way it promoted powdered baby milk in the developing world. It has also had to recall numerous products, most recently bags of dog food following a salmonella scare in the US.

Google has also attracted controversy of its own, including a recent report from the US government suggesting that Android attracts more malware attacks than any other mobile OS.

Google also announced that it has now recorded the system being activated on a smartphone or other device more than one billion times.
Cold call Since 2009, Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance have codenamed each Android release after a type of treat, with major updates progressing a letter along the alphabet.
Previous versions have been called Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo (short for frozen yoghurt), Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.
Although the developers had referred to the forthcoming version as KLP in internal documents, Mr Lagerling said the team decided late last year to opt instead for the chocolate bar.
"We realised that very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie," he explained.
"One of the snacks that we keep in our kitchen for late-night coding are KitKats. And someone said: 'Hey, why don't we call the release KitKat?'
"We didn't even know which company controlled the name, and we thought that [the choice] would be difficult. But then we thought well why not, and we decided to reach out to the Nestle folks."
Mr Lagerling said he had made a "cold call" to the switchboard of Nestle's UK advertising agency at the end of November to propose the tie-up.
The next day, the Swiss firm invited him to take part in a conference call. Nestle confirmed the deal just 24 hours later.
"Very frankly, we decided within an hour to say let's do it," Patrice Bula, Nestle's marketing chief told the BBC.
Mr Bula acknowledges there were risks involved - for example, if the new OS proved to be crash-prone or particularly vulnerable to malware it could cause collateral damage to KitKat's brand.
"Maybe I'll be fired," he joked.
"When you try to lead a new way of communicating and profiling a brand you always have a higher risk than doing something much more traditional.
"You can go round the swimming pool 10 times wondering if the water is cold or hot or you say: 'Let's jump.'"
Secret story Executives from the two firms met face to face at a secret event held at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February to finalise the details.
To promote the alliance, Nestle now plans to deliver more than 50 million chocolate bars featuring the Android mascot to shops in 19 markets, including the UK, US, Brazil, India, Japan and Russia.
The packaging had to be produced in advance over the past two months. But despite the scale of the operation, the two firms managed to keep the story a secret,
"Keeping it confidential was paramount to Google's strategy," acknowledges Mr Bula. "Absolutely nothing leaked."
The Android team also took steps to preserve the element of surprise, notifying only a "tight team" about the decision.
"We kept calling the name Key Lime Pie internally and even when we referred to it with partners," revealed Mr Lagerling.
"If we had said, 'The K release is, by the way, secret', then people would have racked their minds trying to work out what it was going to be."
Most Google employees will have learned of the news only when a statue of the Android mascot made out of KitKats was unveiled at the firm's Mountain View, California, campus.
"A lot of things, especially in tech nowadays, become public before they are officially supposed to be," said Mr Lagerling.
"I think it's going to a big surprise for a lot of people, including Googlers."

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23926938