BERLIN (AP) ? The Huffington Post is expanding further with a German language edition, putting new pressure on media companies in Europe's largest economy as they struggle with newspaper closures and try to introduce online pay walls.
The online news portal said Monday it is partnering with Tomorrow Focus AG, a division of Germany's Burda Media group, to launch the site this fall, featuring its "signature mix of news, blogging, community, and social engagement."
A core editorial staff in Munich will produce the site, catering to readers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ? a market of about 100 million people ? while offering free content and relying solely on advertisement revenue.
The Huffington Post already has international editions in Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Spain. A Japanese version is due to launch in May. The U.S. version of the site was founded by Arianna Huffington in 2005 and bought by AOL Inc. for $315 million in 2011, though it has not turned a profit since.
Experts say the Huffington Post's arrival in Germany could prove disruptive for the established players in Europe's biggest news market.
"This is a big thing," said media studies professor Jo Groebel. "The leading German news websites still look and read like the extension of their printed parent media, but the Huffington Post's style is different. We have seen in the U.S. how fast it rose to prominence," he added.
Groebel said the Huffington Post's style will be a breach with German media tradition, which grants great prominence to political news coverage and seeks to distance opinion from factual reporting.
"Judging by the U.S. site, the Huffington Post's reporting will be more emotional, more personality-driven, strongly focusing on cliffhangers and short news episodes," Groebel said.
While other German online media might eventually follow that trend, experts say the bigger challenge might be Huffington Post's insistence on offering content for free. That could dent other media companies' hopes of erecting pay walls to make up for lost advertisement revenue in their core print business.
German publisher Axel Springer AG seeks to make users pay for content from its newspapers websites ? which include the online offerings of daily Die Welt and that of mass-selling tabloid Bild ? following a pay wall model championed by the New York Times.
Other German media groups are pursuing similar plans ? but none has yet introduced a pay wall with commercial success.
Germany's leading news website, Spiegel Online, has so far rejected the idea of a pay wall. But that may change after a leadership shake-up on Monday that will see the head of German news agency dpa, Wolfgang Buechner, take over news weekly Der Spiegel and its Website.
Germany's media industry is experiencing its most serious crisis since World War II, according to the DJV journalists' union.
The country's second-largest business daily, Financial Times Deutschland, was shut late last year and newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau filed for insolvency and laid off all but a core staff. German new agency dapd went bankrupt this year and most newspapers are currently seeking to cut costs amid falling advertisement revenues.
Newspaper readership in Germany has been falling constantly over the past few years. From 2000 to 2011 the daily circulation of all newspapers fell by about 22 percent, from 24 million to 18.9 million copies, according to the BDZV lobby group of newspaper publishers.
Trends in the European newspaper industry appear to follow those set by their U.S. peers, with falling revenues leading to paper closures as readers switch to read their news online or on tablet computers.
The Huffington Post's German cooperation partner sees a silver lining in the changing media landscape, saying its approach to giving readers more possibilities to contribute their own ideas will benefit the news segment.
"It offers our public a new way of experiencing journalism and enriches the German media landscape with fresh, unconsumed voices," said Tomorrow Focus managing director Oliver Eckert.
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Follow Juergen Baetz at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz
Study compares effectiveness of 2 vs. 3 doses of HPV vaccine for girls and young womenPublic release date: 30-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Lin brian.lin@ubc.ca 604-822-2234 The JAMA Network Journals
With the number of doses and cost of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines a barrier to global implementation, researchers have found that girls who received two doses of HPV vaccine had immune responses to HPV-16 and HPV-18 infection that were noninferior to (not worse than) the responses for young women who received three doses, according to a study in the May 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. The authors note that more data on the duration of protection are needed before reduced-dose schedules can be recommended.
Simon R. M. Dobson, M.D., of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing.
"Globally, cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in women. Human papillomavirus infection has been identified as a necessary cause for the development of cervical cancer, with HPV genotypes 16 and 18 accounting for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancer cases," according to background information in the article. "Global use of HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer is impeded by cost. A 2-dose schedule for girls may be possible."
Dr. Dobson and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether average antibody levels to HPV-16 and HPV-18 among girls receiving 2 doses were noninferior to women receiving 3 doses. The authors also looked at antibody levels to HPV-6 and HPV-11, and compared girls given 2 or 3 doses. The randomized, phase 3, multicenter study included 830 Canadian females from August 2007 through February 2011. Follow-up blood samples were provided by 675 participants (81 percent). Girls (9-13 years of age) were randomized 1:1 to receive 3 doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine at 0, 2, and 6 months (n=261) or 2 doses at 0 and 6 months (n=259). Young women (16-26 years of age) received 3 doses at 0, 2, and 6 months (n=310). Antibody levels were measured at 0, 7, 18, 24, and 36 months.
The researchers found that the geometric mean titer (GMT) antibody levels in girls receiving 2 doses were noninferior to the respective GMTs in women receiving 3 doses for all 4 genotypes, with GMT ratios of 2.07 for HPV-16 and 1.76 for HPV-18. "Girls given 2 doses vs. 3 doses had a noninferior antibody response for all 4 vaccine genotypes," with GMT ratios of 0.95 for HPV-16 and 0.68 for HPV-18.
"The GMT ratios for girls (2 doses) to women (3 doses) remained noninferior for all genotypes to 36 months. Antibody responses in girls were noninferior after 2 doses vs. 3 doses for all 4 vaccine genotypes at month 7, but not for HPV-18 by month 24 or HPV-6 by month 36."
The authors write that these are the first data, to their knowledge, "on the duration of the immune response of young adolescent girls to a reduced-dose schedule of quadrivalent HPV vaccine out to 3 years." However, "The clinically meaningful difference between the 2- and 3-dose schedules cannot yet be determined."
"Reducing the number of doses affects vaccine and administration costs as well as potentially improving uptake rates. Evidence-based decision making in public health has led to reduced-dose schedules for hepatitis B, pneumococcal, and meningococcal serogroup C vaccine programs. There is a balance to be found between the incremental value of an additional dose on population effectiveness and the opportunity costs of using the resources required for the extra dose in other public health programs. This is especially the case for HPV vaccines at their present cost."
(JAMA. 2013;309(17):1793-1802; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
There will also be a digital news release available for this study, including the JAMA Report video, embedded and downloadable video, audio files, text, documents, and related links. This content will be available at 3 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 30 at this link.
Editorial: HPV Vaccination - Too Soon for 2 Doses?
" the study by Dobson et al provides encouraging preliminary evidence that a 2-dose quadrivalent HPV vaccine series in girls may be as immunogenic as a 3-dose series in women, although the duration of protection may be less," writes Jessica A. Kahn, M.D., M.P.H., and David I. Bernstein, M.D., M.A., of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, in an accompanying editorial.
"If future studies establish that a 2-dose series leads to a durable immune response and effectively prevents HPV-related cancers in both women and men, the benefits would be substantial for reducing the global burden of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases. The potential to further reduce morbidity and mortality due to HPV-related cancers would be especially significant in less developed regions of the world, where the cost of vaccination and implementation of adolescent vaccination programs present significant barriers, but where primary prevention strategies are most urgently needed."
(JAMA. 2013;309(17):1832-1833; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Study compares effectiveness of 2 vs. 3 doses of HPV vaccine for girls and young womenPublic release date: 30-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Lin brian.lin@ubc.ca 604-822-2234 The JAMA Network Journals
With the number of doses and cost of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines a barrier to global implementation, researchers have found that girls who received two doses of HPV vaccine had immune responses to HPV-16 and HPV-18 infection that were noninferior to (not worse than) the responses for young women who received three doses, according to a study in the May 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health. The authors note that more data on the duration of protection are needed before reduced-dose schedules can be recommended.
Simon R. M. Dobson, M.D., of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing.
"Globally, cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in women. Human papillomavirus infection has been identified as a necessary cause for the development of cervical cancer, with HPV genotypes 16 and 18 accounting for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancer cases," according to background information in the article. "Global use of HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer is impeded by cost. A 2-dose schedule for girls may be possible."
Dr. Dobson and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether average antibody levels to HPV-16 and HPV-18 among girls receiving 2 doses were noninferior to women receiving 3 doses. The authors also looked at antibody levels to HPV-6 and HPV-11, and compared girls given 2 or 3 doses. The randomized, phase 3, multicenter study included 830 Canadian females from August 2007 through February 2011. Follow-up blood samples were provided by 675 participants (81 percent). Girls (9-13 years of age) were randomized 1:1 to receive 3 doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine at 0, 2, and 6 months (n=261) or 2 doses at 0 and 6 months (n=259). Young women (16-26 years of age) received 3 doses at 0, 2, and 6 months (n=310). Antibody levels were measured at 0, 7, 18, 24, and 36 months.
The researchers found that the geometric mean titer (GMT) antibody levels in girls receiving 2 doses were noninferior to the respective GMTs in women receiving 3 doses for all 4 genotypes, with GMT ratios of 2.07 for HPV-16 and 1.76 for HPV-18. "Girls given 2 doses vs. 3 doses had a noninferior antibody response for all 4 vaccine genotypes," with GMT ratios of 0.95 for HPV-16 and 0.68 for HPV-18.
"The GMT ratios for girls (2 doses) to women (3 doses) remained noninferior for all genotypes to 36 months. Antibody responses in girls were noninferior after 2 doses vs. 3 doses for all 4 vaccine genotypes at month 7, but not for HPV-18 by month 24 or HPV-6 by month 36."
The authors write that these are the first data, to their knowledge, "on the duration of the immune response of young adolescent girls to a reduced-dose schedule of quadrivalent HPV vaccine out to 3 years." However, "The clinically meaningful difference between the 2- and 3-dose schedules cannot yet be determined."
"Reducing the number of doses affects vaccine and administration costs as well as potentially improving uptake rates. Evidence-based decision making in public health has led to reduced-dose schedules for hepatitis B, pneumococcal, and meningococcal serogroup C vaccine programs. There is a balance to be found between the incremental value of an additional dose on population effectiveness and the opportunity costs of using the resources required for the extra dose in other public health programs. This is especially the case for HPV vaccines at their present cost."
(JAMA. 2013;309(17):1793-1802; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
There will also be a digital news release available for this study, including the JAMA Report video, embedded and downloadable video, audio files, text, documents, and related links. This content will be available at 3 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 30 at this link.
Editorial: HPV Vaccination - Too Soon for 2 Doses?
" the study by Dobson et al provides encouraging preliminary evidence that a 2-dose quadrivalent HPV vaccine series in girls may be as immunogenic as a 3-dose series in women, although the duration of protection may be less," writes Jessica A. Kahn, M.D., M.P.H., and David I. Bernstein, M.D., M.A., of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, in an accompanying editorial.
"If future studies establish that a 2-dose series leads to a durable immune response and effectively prevents HPV-related cancers in both women and men, the benefits would be substantial for reducing the global burden of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases. The potential to further reduce morbidity and mortality due to HPV-related cancers would be especially significant in less developed regions of the world, where the cost of vaccination and implementation of adolescent vaccination programs present significant barriers, but where primary prevention strategies are most urgently needed."
(JAMA. 2013;309(17):1832-1833; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world's largest brewer, says that its profits rose in the first quarter in spite of falling sale volumes in important markets.
The company behind Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Becks said Tuesday that even though revenues grew by 1.5 percent in the first quarter, volumes declined by 4.1 percent.
Beer volumes in Brazil, one of its key markets, had declined by 8.2 percent while there was a fall of 5 percent in North America.
Shares in the company fell nearly 3 percent in early trading to 17.50 euros after the company revised its outlook for volume growth in Brazil.
AB InBev said that it now expects beer volume in 2013 "will be either flat or down low single-digits" compared to 2012.
"Consumers continue to be under short-term pressure in Brazil and so we have adjusted our commercial plans," a company statement said. It said the poor results of the quarter were due to an early Carnival, high food inflation and bad weather.
The company also blamed the weather in the United States for its volume slump there. Tight purses because of the economy and higher gas prices also contributed to the problems, it said.
Much of Europe also suffered through an unusually rough late winter and timid spring and beer volumes declined by 7 percent, and by as much as 9.1 percent in its home market of Belgium.
Things were even worse in Russia where the beer volume decline stood at 17 percent. One piece of good news was China, where volumes grew by 15.5 percent. The company expects strong growth there for the rest of 2013.
Net profit for the company rose to $2.05 billion compared to $1.67 billion the year earlier.
Linus Torvalds has pulled the big red lever marked Version 3.9, unleashing the latest Linux kernel onto the world and at the same time bringing some good news for Chromebook tinkerers. The update builds on the Chromebook Pixeltweak we saw back in February by adding support for components in "Chrome laptops sold by many companies" -- with the changelog specifically mentioning the x86-powered Samsung Series 5, Acer C7, HP Pavilion 14 as well as support for the Pixel's touchscreen, all of which should make it easier to run your preferred distro in place of Chrome OS on those machines. Other general improvements include better support for Intel power-saving features, the ability to use an SSD as a hard drive cache as well as KVM visualization for users with ARM-powered gear. Just make sure there's no NVIDIA hardware inside any of those boxes -- you know it makes Linus cranky.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says the U.S. could lose years of scientific research as a result of automatic spending cuts that have hit federal agencies.
He says instead of racing ahead to the next cutting edge, American scientists are wondering whether they'll be able to develop any new products at all.
He says the U.S. can't afford to stand still for two or three years.
With Obama's blessing, Congress has already acted to fix flight delays that emerged when air traffic controllers were furloughed due to the cuts. But Obama is still pushing a broader plan to replace all the cuts.
Obama spoke at the 150th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences. He says as long as he's president, the U.S. will continue to invest in science and innovation.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? Police say a 24-year-old man stabbed four people at a Catholic church in Albuquerque as a Sunday mass was nearing its end.
Police spokesman Robert Gibbs says Lawrence Capener jumped over several pews at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church around noon Sunday and walked up to the choir area where he began his attack.
The injuries to the four church-goers weren't life-threatening. All four were being treated at hospitals.
An off-duty police officer and others at the church subdued Capener and held him down until police arrived.
Some of those who were stabbed were members of the choir.
The choir's pianist, Brenda Baca King, told KRQE-TV that the attacker was looking at the lead soloist. "I just remember seeing him hurdle over the pews, hurdle over people and run towards us and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not good,'" Baca King said.
Police described the stabbing scene as chaotic as parishioners screamed as the attack unfolded.
Gibbs says Capener was interviewed by police and was expected to face felony charges. It's not yet known whether Capener has an attorney.
Gibbs says investigators don't yet know the motive for the stabbings, whether Capener had ties to the victims or whether he regularly attended the church.
The stabbings occurred as the choir had just begun its closing hymns.
Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement saying he was saddened by the attack.
"I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again," Sheehan said.
The church didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on Sunday afternoon.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? State funding for pre-kindergarten programs had its largest drop ever last year and states are now spending less per child than they did a decade ago, according to a report released Monday.
The report also found that more than a half million of those preschool students are in programs that don't even meet standards suggested by industry experts that would qualify for federal dollars.
Those findings ? combined with Congress' reluctance to spend new dollars ? complicate President Barack Obama's effort to expand pre-K programs across the country. While Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continue to promote the president's proposal, researchers say existing programs are inadequate, and until their shortcomings are fixed there is little desire by lawmakers to get behind Obama's call for more preschool.
"The state of preschool was a state of emergency," said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, which produced the report.
During his State of the Union speech, Obama proposed a federal-state partnership that would dramatically expand options for families with young children. Obama's plan would fund public preschool for any 4-year-old whose family income was below twice the federal poverty rate.
If it were in place this year, the plan would allow a family of four with two children to enroll students in a pre-K program if the family earned less than $46,566.
Students from families who earn more could participate in the program, but their parents would have to pay tuition based on their income. Eventually, 3-year-old students would be part of the program, too.
As part of his budget request, Obama proposed spending $75 billion over 10 years to help states get these new programs up and running. During the first years, Washington would pick up the majority of the cost before shifting costs to states.
"It's the most significant opportunity to expand access to pre-K that this nation has ever seen," Barnett said of the president's proposal.
Obama proposed paying for this expansion by almost doubling the federal tax on cigarettes, to $1.95 per pack.
Obama's pre-K plan faces a tough uphill climb, though, with the tobacco industry opposing the tax that would pay for it and lawmakers from tobacco-producing states also skeptical. Conservative lawmakers have balked at starting another government program, as well. Obama's Democratic allies are clamoring to make it a priority.
To help it along, Duncan and Sebelius planned to join the report's researchers on Monday at a news conference to introduce the report, along with administration allies. They planned events later in the week to reiterate their support.
Yet those public events were unlikely to sway lawmakers who are already fighting among themselves over spending cuts that are forcing students to be dropped from existing preschool programs, the levying of higher fees for student loans and deep cuts for aid to military schools.
States spent about $5.1 billion on pre-K programs in 2011-12, the most recent school year, researchers wrote in the report.
Per-student funding for existing programs during that year dropped to an average of $3,841 for each student. It was the first time average spending per student dropped below $4,000 in today's dollars since researchers started tracking it during the 2001-02 academic year.
Adjusted for inflation, per-student funding has been cut by more than $1,000 during the last decade.
Yet nationwide, the amounts were widely varied. The District of Columbia spent almost $14,000 on every child in its program while the states of Colorado, South Carolina and Nebraska spent less than $2,000 per child.
"Whether you get a quality preschool program does depend on what ZIP code you are in," Barnett said.
Among the 40 states that offer state-funded pre-K programs, 27 cut per-student spending last year. In total, that meant $548 million in cuts.
Money, of course, is not a guarantee for students' success. But students from poor schools generally lag students from better-funded counterparts and those students from impoverished families arrive in kindergarten less prepared than others.
In all, only 15 states and the District of Columbia spent enough money to provide quality programs, the researchers concluded. Those programs serve about 20 percent of the 1.3 million enrolled in state-funded prekindergarten programs.
"In far too many states, funding levels have fallen so low as to bring into question the effectiveness of their programs by any reasonable standard," researchers wrote.
Part of the reason for the decreased spending are the lingering effects of the economic downturn in 2008, coupled with the end of federal stimulus dollars to plug state budgets.
"Although the recession is technically over, the recovery in state revenues has lagged the recovery of the general economy and has been slower and weaker than following prior recessions. This does not bode well for digging back out of the hole created by years of cuts," the researchers wrote in their report.
Nationally, 42 percent of students ? or more than a half million students ? were in programs that met fewer than half of the benchmarks researchers identified as important to gauging a program's effectiveness, such as classrooms with fewer than 20 students and teachers with bachelor's degrees.
That, too, suggests problems for Obama's plan to expand pre-K programs, especially if Washington insists its partners meet quality benchmarks to win federal dollars.
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's center-right parties prepared for coalition talks on Sunday after defeating the ruling Social Democrats in elections with promises of ending austerity measures five years after a financial collapse.
With nearly all the ballots counted, the Independence Party took 26.7 percent of the vote and the Progressive Party 24.4 percent, both gaining 19 seats in the Althing, or parliament.
The Social Democrats were a distant third with 12.9 percent.
"Independence and Progressives teaming up in a coalition is the likely outcome," Olafur Hardarson, a political science professor at the University of Iceland said. "Other outcomes are of course possible but very unlikely."
Once a European financial center, the windswept north Atlantic island of glaciers, geysers and volcanoes has struggled along for years after a crash that brought it to its knees in just a matter of days.
The election brings back the same parties that presided over the rise and fall. Tired by years of belt tightening, high mortgages, capital controls and unrealized promises of recovery, households lost patience with the Social Democrats.
"We are offering a different road, a road to growth, protecting social security, better welfare and job creation," said Independence leader Bjarni Benediktsson, the favorite to become the next prime minister.
"What we won't compromise about is cutting taxes and lifting the living standards of people," Benediktsson, a 43-year-old former professional soccer player, told Reuters.
The Independence party won the popular vote but earned as many seats in parliament as Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson's Progressive Party, setting the stage for a tussle between the two.
"We've seen all sorts of different forms of governments here in the past decades," Gunnlaugsson, 38, told Reuters. "Sometimes the biggest party delegates the prime minister, sometimes not."
Coalitions in Iceland are traditionally agreed in a matter of days.
"The choice seems to be clear," Benediktsson said. "We'll go into coalition with whoever we can govern with."
SHORT MEMORIES
The two parties ruled Iceland, often in coalition, between 1980 and 2009, setting in motion an economic revolution that made Iceland rich
"People seem to have a very short memory," Halldor Gudmundsson, 44, said after casting his ballot on Reykjavik's outskirts. "These are the parties that got us into the mess in the first place."
Iceland's liberalized banks borrowed heavily on cheap overseas markets and lured British and Dutch savers with high returns.
But after amassing assets worth more than 10 times Iceland's GDP, Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir collapsed in quick succession, dragging the entire country into a financial abyss in October 2008.
Property prices tumbled, unemployment soared and the currency was only saved by capital controls that locked in foreign investors indefinitely.
The Social Democrats stabilized the economy with a bailout package hailed as exemplary by the IMF. But a series of policy blunders, tax hikes, leniency toward foreign creditors and their inability to deal with household debt cost them popularity.
"Household debt is the main issue, we have very strong opinions on that and can't compromise on that," Gunnlaugsson said. "We'll work with whoever shares this passion."
Both center right parties campaigned on offering relief to households and both said the failed bank's foreign creditors will have to accept a write-off, perhaps as much as 75 percent.
They also argued against EU membership, so the vote was also a referendum on breaking off stalled accession negotiations.
Turnout, the lowest since independence from Denmark, also reflected the sour mood among Iceland's 320,000 people.
"There's so little room to maneuver and they promised so much, their popularity will be gone in three months," said Egill Helgason, a political commentator for national broadcaster RUV.
The victory caps a comeback for Benediktsson.
Two weeks ago he considered resigning after low poll ratings prompted calls for him to step down as party leader.
Hailing from a rich family with many business interests, he was considered out of touch and tainted by the collapse.
He fought back with a television interview which gave voters a glimpse of his human side and propped up his party's ratings.
Brian Kerr admits that when it comes to ideas for funding his children's college educations, "unfortunately, I don't have a great plan."
Which is why the father of quadruplets ? all juniors at Heritage High School in Littleton ? recently reached out to an unlikely source for assistance.
"I contacted Dr. Drew," Kerr said, referring to Drew Pinsky, who, besides being an internist, and radio and television host, is also the father of triplets.
"He's got more cheese than I do, but he sent back some reference materials," said Kerr, who added that he's taking an upcoming week off from his job to immerse himself in applications and financial-aid forms. "I was surprised, but right now, I'm looking at any angles that I can."
All across the state, there are families in similar pursuits, whether it's trying to get money for a future student or coming up with ways for current ones to fund their educations in the wake
The Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon has kicked off and here's one of the new hack team pairings hoping to claim tomorrow's prize after a long night of coding. Michal Shaffer, left, from New York and Peter Ma, right from San Francisco -- met at the event and are now collaborating on a proximity art app that will be using Samsung's API and the Galaxy Note plus S Pen to power random collaborative doodling.
The Tribeca Film Festival has ended on a royal note with Jerry Lewis showing up at the 30th anniversary screening of "The King of Comedy."
The 87-year-old comedian-actor walked out to thunderous applause after the screening Saturday, joining co-star Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese.
Lewis answered questions about the making of the film and he brought the audience to laughter with a tale about a guy he met on a subway train.
In the movie, Lewis plays a talk show host kidnapped by a deranged comedian played by De Niro.
De Niro founded the festival with producers Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff as a way to rebuild the neighborhood where the World Trade Center fell in the 9-11 attacks.
___
Follow John Carucci on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jacarucci
Finally, the flash of newness is wearing off. It's taken a few days, but the initial novelty of Glass, enjoying wearing it simply because I could wear it, is running thin. The haze of new gadget excitement is clearing and we can truly get down to brass tacks -- but that doesn't mean I'm not having fun. In fact I've had the opportunity to take Glass with me to do something very fun indeed: ride a Ducati 848 Streetfighter on some of the most amazing roads in the world.
Even as I did this, a jaunt more focused on gathering some exciting footage than truly evaluating the device, I learned some things -- including the fact that a Google Glass headset doesn't really fit underneath a full-face helmet. Not comfortably, anyway.
MILWAUKEE (AP) ? LeBron James worked Ray Allen hard for two years, urging the veteran guard to come to Miami any time he saw him.
It's easy to see why.
Allen already has been a major factor in his first playoff appearance with the Miami Heat, who are one win from closing out their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. He led the Heat with 23 points in Thursday's 104-91 victory, setting the NBA's career playoff record for 3-pointers in the process. He was their second-highest scorer in Game 1, when he had 20 points, and is averaging almost 17 despite playing less than 30 minutes a game.
"He's a big boost for our team," James said. "I knew what he was able to do against me in the past, and I knew that threat could add another dimension to our team that we haven't had."
Game 4 is Sunday afternoon at the Bradley Center.
Allen is one of the purest shooters in NBA history, and few teams knew that better than the Heat. No one has made more 3s against Miami than Allen, and he played a big role in the Heat's epic playoff battles with the Boston Celtics. So it was natural that the Heat would want Allen when he was a free agent last summer.
Why Allen would want the Heat was a different story, however.
A charter member of Boston's "Big Three," Allen would have to be part the supporting cast in Miami, which has its own Big Three in James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. His playing time would be cut by at least 10 minutes, and coach Erik Spoelstra made it clear during his recruitment that he'd be coming off the bench in his 17th season, a role some say hastened his departure from Boston.
"If it was easy, more veteran players would do it. More veteran players would sign up and sacrifice to be part of something special," Spoelstra said Friday. "Most players of his resume are not willing to take on a lesser role and it's a significantly different role than he's accustomed to."
Yet the 37-year-old Allen signed up willingly. He even turned down more money from the Celtics to sign with the Heat.
"I said, 'If that's not something you can accept at this point, we understand,'" Spoelstra recalled. "He said, 'I just want to have an opportunity to have an impact on the team and in the fourth quarter. That's when I looked at him and said, 'Ray, we still have pain from the fourth-quarter 3s you hit.'"
Despite having only casual relationships with most of his teammates when he arrived in Miami, Allen settled in with the Heat easily and quickly.
For all of the big names on their roster ? in addition to James, Wade and Bosh, the Heat have Chris Andersen, Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller and Rashard Lewis ? the Heat are a tight-knit bunch. They've all put individual goals aside in pursuit of a championship, and that's helped put everyone, from James to Norris Cole on somewhat equal footing.
"These guys, truly love each other," Allen said. "There's so much banter taking place and everybody's a victim, whether it's good or bad stuff. When we go play it translates. There's no animosity, no ego. We can go out there and play the best basketball that we can.
"It's been great," he added. "In 17 years, it's probably the one year that went by the quickest. I had so many fun moments from off-the-court things ... to traveling on the road. It was incredible that it went so fast, and that's a testament to how much fun I had personally."
But Allen was looking for more than a good time when he went to Miami. He has one ring from the NBA Championship he and the Celtics won in 2008, and he wants another before his career ends.
He's certainly doing his part in this first series.
Milwaukee had raced out to a 10-point lead early Thursday night, only to watch Allen whittle it back to 2 with three straight 3s. After the Heat turned a six-point deficit into a 10-point lead with a 23-7 run at the end of the third quarter, Allen finished the Bucks off with a 3 from deep in the corner.
"Ray's amazing," Larry Sanders marveled. "He's moving fast, he's scoring, he's shooting the ball. He's probably the best shooter to play the game and he's still out there doing it. It's amazing to see."
And it's exactly what James imagined when he was making all those sales pitches.
"We don't take him for granted," said Spoelstra, who refers to Allen as "Everyday Ray." ''We've been on the other end of it too many times. That's why we recruited him so hard because we've been on the other side of those fourth quarters where he made two, three or four to put you away."
Notes: Sanders said his right ankle, which he tweaked in a collision with Shane Battier in Game 2, was fine after playing almost 35 minutes Thursday night. ... Bucks coach Jim Boylan wasn't planning to use Samuel Dalembert during the playoffs, but he played nine minutes Thursday because Ekpe Udoh is struggling with an Achilles injury and Milwaukee needed someone on Chris Andersen. Asked if Dalembert would play again Sunday, Boylan said he'd have to see how Udoh is. "When he's right, he's really good for us. But in the situation we're in now, we have to throw everything out there."
Hope Hawkins is seen in a Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo provided by the Darlington County, S.C. Jail. Hawkins, the mother of four children killed in an accidental mobile home fire,was charged Friday, April 26, 2013 in their deaths, authorities said.Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, for leaving her children home alone when an accidental fire started in the kitchen on Wednesday, April 24. (AP Photo/Darlington County (SC) Jail)
Hope Hawkins is seen in a Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo provided by the Darlington County, S.C. Jail. Hawkins, the mother of four children killed in an accidental mobile home fire,was charged Friday, April 26, 2013 in their deaths, authorities said.Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, for leaving her children home alone when an accidental fire started in the kitchen on Wednesday, April 24. (AP Photo/Darlington County (SC) Jail)
Jessica Long brings balloons to leave in front of a mobile home where four children were killed in a fire the day before in Hartsville, S.C., Thursday, April 25, 2013. Authorities say smoke inhalation killed 10-month-old twin sisters Myasia and Kynasia Hawkins and their brothers, 2-year-old Camaron Mason and 4-year-old Delonta Dixon. Hawkins daughter is the children's mother. (AP Photo/The Morning News, Gavin Jackson) LOCAL TV OUT
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? The mother of four South Carolina children killed in an accidental mobile home fire was charged Friday in their deaths, authorities said.
Hope Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, Darlington County Sheriff's Capt. Andy Locklair said. State and local authorities found no signs of arson and think the fire started Wednesday by accident in the kitchen, though exactly what sparked the blaze had not been determined.
Hawkins was not home when firefighters arrived, and showed up moments later, Locklair said. The woman has given conflicting stories about where she was. No one else was in the home at the time.
"It's almost like she may have arrived at the same time as the fire apparatus," Locklair said.
Locklair didn't know if Hawkins had an attorney. She is scheduled to have a bond hearing later Friday.
It took firefighters less than 10 minutes to put out the fire in Hartsville, a city of some 8,000 people that's about 60 miles east of the state capital of Columbia.
Authorities said 10-month-old sisters Myasia and Kynasia Hawkins and their brothers, 2-year-old Camaron Mason and 4-year-old Delonta Dixon, died of smoke inhalation. All four children were found in a bedroom next to the kitchen, Locklair said.
Hawkins could face life in prison if she's convicted of homicide by child abuse, a charge that stems from leaving the children at home alone. The unlawful conduct toward a child charges carry possible sentences of up to 10 years each.
Authorities were still going through records to determine if either law enforcement or social services officials had been called to the home before, Locklair said.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. intelligence agencies added the mother of the Boston bombing suspects to a government terrorism database 18 months before the bombings, two officials told The Associated Press. She called it "lies and hypocrisy" and said she has never been linked to crimes or terrorism.
The CIA asked for the Boston terror suspect and his mother to be added to a terrorist database in the fall of 2011, after the Russian government contacted the agency with concerns that both had become religious militants, according to officials briefed on the investigation. About six months earlier, the FBI investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, also at Russia's request, one of the officials said. The FBI found no ties to terrorism.
The revelation that the FBI had also investigated Tsarnaeva and the CIA arranged for her to be added to the terrorism database deepened the mystery around the family. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who immigrated to the Boston area in the past 11 years. Tsarnaeva, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has appeared on television interviews since the attacks and reversed her decision to return to the U.S. after the bombings, has said her sons could never have been behind the deadly attacks and believes they were framed.
The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the ongoing case.
Tsarnaev, who died in a gun battle with police last week, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, are accused of carrying out the bombings. Officials said that before he was advised of his constitutional rights to remain silent or consult a lawyer, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev admitted to FBI interrogators that the brothers committed the bombings and that he was recruited by his brother to participate only a week or two before the attacks.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was taken overnight from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during a getaway attempt, and transferred to the Federal Medical Center Devens, about 40 miles from Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said. The facility at the former Fort Devens Army post treats federal prisoners.
Also, FBI agents Friday picked through a landfill near the campus of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. FBI spokesman Jim Martin would not say what investigators were looking for.
Previously U.S. officials have said only that the FBI investigated Tamerlan. But in March 2011, the Russians asked the FBI to look into his mother as well because of concerns they were religious militants who planned to travel back to Russia, the official said.
The FBI found nothing to link either person to terrorism, and the FBI closed the investigations in June 2011. Then, the Russians in the fall sent the same warning to the CIA. The CIA asked the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center to add the mother's and son's names to its huge, classified database of people known to be terrorists and those who are suspected of having terror ties, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE.
Being in that database does not mean the U.S. government has evidence that links someone to terrorism. About a year ago, there were some 745,000 names in the database. Intelligence analysts add names and partial names to TIDE when terror-related intelligence is shared with them.
Tsarnaeva said it would not surprise her if she was listed in a U.S. terror database.
"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she told the AP from Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."
A search of U.S. criminal records showed only that Tsarnaeva was arrested in June 2012 in Natick, Mass., on a shoplifting charge over the alleged theft of $1,624 worth of women's clothing from a Lord & Taylor department store. She was arrested and charged with larceny over $250 and two counts of malicious or wanton property damage. Tamerlan had traveled to Russia in January 2012 and returned in July.
Tsarnaeva accused U.S. law enforcement of killing her elder son.
"They are already talking about that we are terrorists, I am terrorist, they've told that I was doing something terroristic," Tsarnaeva said.
Some lawmakers in Washington have questioned whether the FBI adequately investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother in 2011. Over the course of that year, the FBI reached out to Russia three times for more information, U.S. officials said. The first time was in March 2011, when they received the initial tip from the Russians. The second was in June 2011 when they were preparing to close the investigation. The third time was in the fall of 2011 after the CIA received the same tip from the Russians.
One of the officials said the FBI never found the type of derogatory information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother that would have elevated their profiles among counterterrorism investigators or would have formally placed them on a terror watch list.
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Associated Press reporters Pete Yost and Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Arsen Mollayev and Max Seddon in Dagestan contributed to this report.
Developers, makers, and hobbyists looking for a beefier alternative to Gizmag favorite the Raspberry Pi will be delighted to learn that BeagleBoard.org has taken the wraps off a 1 GHz ARM-based board named the BeagleBone Black. Though it may look like a slightly more expensive outlay, its manufacturer says that by providing everything needed for display, keyboard and network connectivity right out of the box, the Black provides "a lower total cost of ownership than the nearest competitor."
So what do you get for US$45? The 3.4 x 2.1 in (8.6 x 5.3 cm) BeagleBone Black open-source Linux computer comes pre-loaded with the ?ngstr?m distro (which is reported to boot in under 10 seconds) and Cloud9 IDE, freeing up the microSD slot for additional storage. It's based on the 1 GHz Sitara 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, including a 3D graphics accelerator. There's 2 GB of integrated eMMC flash storage and 512 MB of DDR3 RAM.
The 46-pin expansion headers sat at two of the unit's edges are currently compatible with over 30 so-called capes, which are plug-in boards that allow the Black to be integrated with 3D printers, a Geiger counter, LCD touchscreens, and a telerobotic submarine, to name but a few of the numerous possibilities. USB (host/client), Ethernet and micro HDMI interfaces also feature, though the reported resolution for the latter maxes out at 1280 x 1024 (compared to the RasPi's 1920 x 1200).
The credit-card-sized computer comes supplied with a USB cable for power, but can also be connected to an external 5-volt DC supply. BeagleBoard.org says that right out of the box, you'll be ready to rock 'n' roll in just over three minutes. There's support from an active online community, and free access to documentation, sample code and kernel support for the likes of Ubuntu, Android and Fedora.
Initial quantities are limited, but BeagleBoard expects volume shipping to begin by the end of May.
Have a look at the video below to see the BBB turning a phone dock into a "laptop" computer.
(Reuters) - Aurelius Capital, a big shareholder in U.S. wireless service provider Clearwire Corp, filed a lawsuit against Clearwire directors and Sprint Nextel Corp over Sprint's December agreement to buy out the portion of Clearwire it does not already own.
Aurelius, which says it owns 17 million Clearwire shares, said Sprint, as Clearwire's majority shareholder, had dictated "manifestly unfair" terms for its Clearwire deal, in a filing at the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware on Friday.
Aurelius is joining a chorus of Clearwire minority shareholders that are unhappy over the terms of the Sprint deal, which requires approval from a majority of the minority shareholders at a meeting scheduled for May 21.
The hedge fund said that both Sprint and Clearwire's directors violated their fiduciary duties to Clearwire's minority shareholders in reaching the deal under which Sprint would buy Clearwire's minority shares for $2.97 per share.
For example, it said Clearwire should not have had Chairman John Stanton lead negotiations with Sprint because Stanton was originally nominated by Sprint for Clearwire's board.
Clearwire and Sprint declined to comment. Stanton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another big Clearwire shareholder, Crest Financial Ltd, is leading a proxy battle aimed at the blocking the deal.
Aurelius filed its suit two weeks after Clearwire said it rejected an $80 million financing offer from Aurelius because Sprint did not give Clearwire its consent to take the financing.
Clearwire said in a regulatory filing on Friday that it will draw on an $80 million financing available from Sprint for May. (http://r.reuters.com/qaw67t)
Aurelius is known as an uncompromising hedge fund that involves itself in high-profile distressed debt cases. It was a major player in Tribune Co's protracted bankruptcy as lenders and junior creditors fought for four years before the newspaper and broadcasting company emerged from Chapter 11.
The fund has also taken on countries - Aurelius sued Argentina for $1.3 billion in payments on defaulted bonds.
Clearwire shares closed 3.9 percent higher at $3.44 on the Nasdaq on Friday. The stock trades well above Sprint's offer price as investors are betting that the company will attract an improved offer, especially since Dish Network Corp made a counter bid of $3.30 per share in January.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew in New York, additional reporting by Neha Alawadhi in Bangalore; editing by Matthew Lewis)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Safeway Inc. reported revenue for the first quarter that missed Wall Street expectations as it sacrificed profit to keep prices lower to hold onto customers.
The company, which operates more than 1,600 locations under names including Safeway and Vons, stood by its forecast for the year.
Safeway, based in Pleasanton, Calif., has been pushing its "Just For U" loyalty program as a way to fend off competitors including big-box retailers like Target and Wal-Mart and drug store chains. The program offers personalized discounts based on past purchases.
CEO Steve Burd noted in a statement that more customers are signing up for the program. But during the quarter, Safeway noted that it gross profit as a percentage of sales fell in large part because of "investments in price," or lower prices.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of health, rose 1.5 percent. Part of the increase was result of shift in the calendar, which moved New Year's holiday sales into the period.
For the quarter, Safeway's net income rose as a result of tax benefits.
The company earned $118.9 million, or 49 cents per share, for the three months ended March 23. That's up from $72.9 million, or 27 cents per share, a year ago. Tax benefits contributed 14 cents per share to the latest quarter.
Net sales dipped to $9.99 billion, from $10 billion a year ago, as the company sold its Genuardi's stores.
Analysts on average expect a profit of 35 cents per share on revenue of $10.15 billion.
Shares of Safeway fell $3.73, or 13 percent, to $24.53.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers at Wake Forest University's Organic Electronics group have come up with a novel solution to one of the biggest technological barriers facing the organic semiconductor industry today. Oana Jurchescu, an assistant professor of physics, and a team of researchers developed a high performance organic semiconductor 'spray paint' that can be applied to large surface areas without losing electric conductivity. This is a potentially game changing technology for a number of reasons.
Organic thin film transistors are currently deposited by one of three methods. Drop casting and spin coating conduct electricity well but are limited to small area applications. They could not be used to make a wall-sized, flexible video screen for instance. On the other hand, organic spray-on techniques can be applied to large areas but have poor performance when compared to their small-area counterparts.
Jurchescu's work provides the best of both worlds. The spray-deposition technology developed in her lab produced the highest performance organic thin film transistors for this method to date -- (April 2, 2013) -- comparable to those of drop casting and spin coating. Unlike drop casting and spin coating, her spray-deposition technology can be applied over large surfaces to any medium-from plastic and metal to human skin.
Her team's research, High Mobility Field-Effect Transistors with Versatile Processing from a Small-Molecule Organic Semiconductor was published April 2, 2013 in the journal Advanced Materials.
Because of its superb performance and the fact it can be applied over large areas quickly (it is also inexpensive to process compared to inorganic semiconducting materials like silicon), it has the potential to be produced in commercial quantities. The technology is a big step towards realizing futuristic devices such as transparent solar cells on building windows, car roof and bus stations, electronic displays in previously inaccessible spaces and wearable electronics due to the organic plastics' thin, lightweight and conformal nature.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Yaochuan Mei, Marsha A. Loth, Marcia Payne, Weimin Zhang, Jeremy Smith, Cynthia S. Day, Sean R. Parkin, Martin Heeney, Iain McCulloch, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, John E. Anthony, Oana D. Jurchescu. High Mobility Field-Effect Transistors with Versatile Processing from a Small-Molecule Organic Semiconductor. Advanced Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201205371
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
(Ends first round) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...
It's been four years since Michael Jackson died, but the legal wrangling following his death continues. A jury has now been empaneled in the lawsuit brought by Jackson's mother and children against AEG Live, the promoter of his final "This is It" tour, and one potential key figure at that trial will likely be Dr. Conrad Murray.
Murray, who served as Jackson's doctor, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death in 2011, and on Friday he phoned TODAY from his jail cell to talk with Savannah Guthrie, with his lawyer Valerie Wass in the studio.?
All along, Murray has denied being responsible for Jackson's death, and maintains that assertion today: "(I take) not any responsibility as it relates to his death," said Murray. "I am sorry that I lost Michael as a friend and as a patient. ... I have lost a very dear friend and a dear person to me, and it's going to remain with me for the rest of my life, but I'm not going to accept responsibility for anything I did not do."
At this new trial, lawyers for the Jackson family are likely to argue that AEG Live is liable because they hired Murray. In theory, the company would have had a financial interest in ensuring the singer was healthy and able to perform as contractually obligated, which may have created a conflict in their oversight of Dr. Murray.?
As Guthrie pointed out, there appeared to be clear negligence in that the drug that killed Jackson -- the singer died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication that brought on cardiac arrest -- was found in the room after Murray left Jackson unattended. "I met Michael Jackson with his own stash of medication," insisted Murray. "I tried to get rid of the propofol from Michael Jackson. He might not have liked the approach that I took, but nonetheless the circumstances were to actually get him away from that agent."
Wass spoke up to say that when Murray left Jackson alone in the room on the night he died, the singer was on a saline drip. "Jackson was not on a propofol drip," she said and added that however Jackson gained access to the propofol that killed him, it was never determined whether it came from "his own sources" or from Murray.
Murray says being in prison "has been one of my most horrendous experiences. ... I have only survived because of the loving hope and the support that I get from various individuals and I would especially like to say that my girlfriend Nicole Alvarez has been just tremendous."
Murray may be released in a few months due to prison overcrowding, and is appealing his conviction. Opening statements in the trial are set for Monday.
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Public release date: 30-Apr-2013
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The Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon has kicked off and here's one of the new hack team pairings hoping to claim tomorrow's prize after a long night of coding. Michal Shaffer, left, from New York and Peter Ma, right from San Francisco -- met at the event and are now collaborating on a proximity art app that will be using Samsung's API and the Galaxy Note plus S Pen to power random collaborative doodling.
