Facebook And The Sudden Wake Up About The API Economy

What a two weeks it’s been. Something happened that has been simmering for a while. The API market exploded. Intel bought Mashery for more than $180 million and CA acquired Layer 7. 3Scale received a new $4.5 million round of funding from Javelin Ventures. Programmable Web acquired Mulesoft. And then Facebook jumped in and bought Parse. The acquisitions and funding point to a maturing market that is reflected in the ubiquity of APIs across the application landscape. It’s not a new market by any means. The space is filled with companies that have leveraged the API build out that has happened over the past several years. Instead this is an inflection point. There are more than 30,000 APIs, according to Programmable Web, the leading API directory and blog. Javelin Ventures Managing Director Noah Doyle said to me in an interview that analysts see the API market growing five to ten times over the next five years. With that scaling in number of APIs comes a virtuous circle for the developers that build compelling apps and APIs. The APIs extend the apps reach as they become part of distributed data network. As more people use the APIs so the app developer generates more data. As the data increases in scope, often the service will become an API. Facebook needs new streams of data to keep rolling out new digital products. Back end as a service providers like Parse provide SDKs and APIs that give developers access to infrastructure for storing basic data types, locations and photos. How Facebook uses this data is a question mark. But regardless, Pare serves as a constant replenishing source, nourished by the apps on the Parse platform that use APIs. Facebook now will decide how to package and segment that data to push more relevant advertising to its 1 billion users. APIs Are Like Glue APIs will be the glue to the Internet, said Programmable Web Founder John Musser. Musser, like Doyle, sees a new generation of APIs emerging that are fueled by demand, triggered by mobile devices, which serve in many respects as the new client/servers. Apps are hosted on cloud services and distributed across mobile devices that read and write data, sending and receiving information, connecting via APIs. In the first generation, Mashery and companies like Apigee pioneered the API management space. Twitter and other web companies emerged in the second generation. In the

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Zambia Daily Mail ? Overcome unforgiveness in your marriage

WORDS OF FAITH with PASTOR KATAI
DOES your flesh seem to scuttle when you come into contact with certain people? When you hear the sound of their voice, does every fibre of your being recoil? Does your chest tighten when you think of them?
Are you embarrassed to admit this is the way you feel about the person you share your life with? There is a possibility Satan has you in his grip through unforgiveness.
Recently, at our local church, we had a hot service; the main service came with a sermon theme, ?Overcoming the spirit of unforgiveness in our lives?, which I wish to share with you. This theme got its main text from I Samuel 24, where King Saul made a decision to kill David. Reason? King Saul became envious and jealous of young David?s achievements (I Samuel 18:7-8). From that day King Saul declared war against the innocent, weaker and defenseless mortal answering to the name of David son of Jesse.
In the quest to restore any relationship, the first step is to identify your enemy. Too often in marriage when there is offense and conflict, we identify our partners as the enemy. I strongly feel that our partners are never the enemy. If we learn who our enemies really are, we can effectively fight the battles in our marriages and rise to victory. Our real enemies are the powers of darkness and our own flesh. These enemies often go unnoticed in the heat of battle. Our flesh seeks to please itself and cannot please God. The apostle Paul warns us about our flesh, in Romans 8:8, ?Those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.?
The powers of darkness intend for all marriages to be destroyed. If you commit to God and your partner, you will wrestle with the forces of darkness. Ephesians 6:12 declares, ?For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.? When we recognise our enemies, we are more effective in loosening Satan?s grip of un-forgiveness.
We often equate forgiveness with something warm and fuzzy. Truthfully, forgiveness is quite the opposite. Forgiveness can be quite painful when it involves someone you are madly in love with. In marriage, forgiveness is not ?Don?t worry about what you did, I?m fine with it and we all make mistakes.? It sounds spiritual and great coming out of our mouths, but inside we are struggling with hypocrisy. We are plagued by an abyss of pain, anger, bitterness, and resentment. Forgiveness is not lip service.
These unchecked feelings can potentially become emotionally, mentally, verbally, or physically murderous. Remember King Saul?s behaviour toward the young David. Forgiveness is not being so numb to pain that we are oblivious to reality. In marriage, when we embrace numbness our hearts transform into ice. Forgiveness is not forgetting the offense. Forgiveness is not choosing to inflict the price for the offense. We should all learn to honour God with our hearts and not just our mouth. We are being hypocritical or lying when we say we have forgiven but unforgiveness still rots our souls. Satan grips and weakens us through unforgiveness. He tightens his grip through a religious spirit that says the right thing while refusing to confront the offense and heal.
Are you struggling to forgive your partner? Read on please! How do you forgive someone who was never supposed to hurt you in the first place? Why forgive them? What about all the damage to your marriage and family? The best answer is you must; forgiveness was extended to you. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, ?If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.? If you refuse to forgive, you operate in sin and in covenant with Satan.
These questions and declarations are hard to swallow. You may have battled with them in your marriage, but today I urge you to come out victorious. We battle so much with unforgiveness because we cannot see our own sin. I cannot see that my unwillingness to forgive is just as ugly to God as the things I blame my spouse for. The reason we battle unforgiveness is because we can only see the depravity in the souls of others, ignoring the beams in our own eyes.
We can only win the battle of unforgiveness when we realise that we?re in need of forgiveness from God and our sweet partners. Furthermore, we can only win the battle when we?re willing to face the ugliness of our own heart and surrender our heart to God. We should realise our enemies are our own flesh and Satan, who loves to work in our flesh. Unforgiveness is a work of the flesh, and it will remain until you crucify it on the altar of forgiveness.
We struggle to forgive because we justify our rights and inappropriately apply God?s Word. Many of us have declared inwardly or outwardly, ?The Bible says, ?Be ye angry.? ? We forget the rest of the Scripture verse: ? ? and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath? (Ephesians 4:26, KJV). If we are honest, many of us are angry and sin for days, weeks, months, years. Many of us will carry the sin of unforgiveness to our grave.
Forgiveness becomes a struggle when we seek to please our flesh. We struggle because God demands that we be like Christ. God is as displeased with unforgiveness as he is with sexual sins, deception, lying, and envy. We must remember that any sin either of us could commit, Jesus paid for at Calvary. Who gave us the right to make our spouses pay for sin when we did not?
Due to the gravity of their offenses, we believe we have the authority to execute judgment on our partners. But God would never entrust vengeance into our hands (Romans 12:17-19). Why? Our sin-stricken souls will never view our spouses purely through the eyes of God?s grace. We should be concerned for ourselves when we seek revenge on the people we promised to love, honour, and cherish. Unforgiveness unequivocally implicates the wickedness hidden in our hearts and the depravity of our own souls.
Through many offenses, trials, betrayal, and calamity, I have learned real forgiveness. I have learned that the world?s standards for marriage are a slap in the face to God. When we decide not to forgive, we call it ?irreconcilable differences? or irreparable marriage?.? God calls it unforgiveness. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only biblical sin for which there is no forgiveness. In most divorce cases, blasphemy is never mentioned.
Real forgiveness is threefold. Forgiveness means excusing the penalty for an offense, offering pardon. Forgiveness means renouncing anger and resentment. Finally, forgiveness is a choice. God gave all of us the power to choose. These definitions are simplistic, but they pack enough power to loosen the stronghold of unforgiveness.
We hinder the move of God because of too much pride to forgive. I learned that forgiveness is a choice. We make the decision to forgive, even if our emotions, feelings, and desires have not surrendered in obedience to God. As children of God, we live and walk by faith, not feelings. When we make decisions based upon feelings, we give Satan the rope to hang us with. Real forgiveness is demonstrating what Christ did for us on the cross.
The devil understands the power of forgiveness. He had the opportunity to behold the glory of God and the kingdom of heaven. He has been doomed to hell and is mad and desires us to share his fate. Satan knows that forgiveness redeems and restores relationships. Satan is self-employed to steal, kill, and destroy (John10:10). Unforgiveness opens the door for him to hold us back. Each day we incite harsh words because of offense and inflict the silent treatment, we strengthen Satan?s rope of entanglement. As the sun sets and we nurse anger, bitterness, and resentment, the devil smiles. We have embraced the power of darkness.
Satan is selfish and proud; when we are unforgiving we act like him. Unforgiveness is laced with pride, which cost the devil the kingdom of heaven. Loosen Satan?s grip and forgive. God?s forgiveness propels us into salvation and restoration. When we let go of wrongs, we loosen Satan?s grasp on our relationships. Your marriage can be restored and bring glory to God again. Blessings! Comments email:pkatai@yahoo.com or thabokatai@gmail.com or sms 0955/0967-778068.

Source: http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=5800

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Germany charges 4 with sending Iran reactor parts

BERLIN (AP) -- Federal prosecutors say they have charged three German-Iranian dual nationals and a German man with breaking export laws for allegedly supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor in violation of the country's trade embargo.

Prosecutors said in a statement Monday suspect Hamid Kh., 80, set up contact for Gholamali Ka., 70, and his son Kianzad Ka., 25, with German businessman Rudolf M., 78, whose Thuringia firm produced valves needed for a nuclear reactor's construction. Their last names were not released in accordance with German privacy laws.

The group is accused of supplying Iran with 92 German-made valves, and another 856 Indian-made valves, in 2010 and 2011.

They're accused of supplying the parts through front companies in other countries in deals worth millions of euros in total.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germany-charges-4-sending-iran-135141074.html

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Hospitals see surge of superbug-fighting products

Using ultraviolet light, a machine disinfects a hospital room at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Using ultraviolet light, a machine disinfects a hospital room at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Michael Claes, 62, who contracted a superbug while in the hospital, poses for a photograph while recovering at home in New York, Monday, April 8, 2013. Claes caught a bad case of a diarrheal illness caused by Clostridium dificile, while he was a kidney patient last fall at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Michael Claes, 62, who contracted a superbug while in the hospital, shows a bottle of one of his daily medications on Monday, April 8, 2013 as he recovers at home in New York. Claes caught a bad case of a diarrheal illness caused by Clostridium dificile, while he was a kidney patient at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital in fall 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Using ultraviolet light, a machine disinfects a hospital room at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Using ultraviolet light, a machine disinfects a hospital room at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) ? They sweep. They swab. They sterilize. And still the germs persist.

In U.S. hospitals, an estimated 1 in 20 patients pick up infections they didn't have when they arrived, some caused by dangerous 'superbugs' that are hard to treat.

The rise of these superbugs, along with increased pressure from the government and insurers, is driving hospitals to try all sorts of new approaches to stop their spread:

Machines that resemble "Star Wars" robots and emit ultraviolet light or hydrogen peroxide vapors. Germ-resistant copper bed rails, call buttons and IV poles. Antimicrobial linens, curtains and wall paint.

While these products can help get a room clean, their true impact is still debatable. There is no widely-accepted evidence that these inventions have prevented infections or deaths.

Meanwhile, insurers are pushing hospitals to do a better job and the government's Medicare program has moved to stop paying bills for certain infections caught in the hospital.

"We're seeing a culture change" in hospitals, said Jennie Mayfield, who tracks infections at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Those hospital infections are tied to an estimated 100,000 deaths each year and add as much as $30 billion a year in medical costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency last month sounded an alarm about a "nightmare bacteria" resistant to one class of antibiotics. That kind is still rare but it showed up last year in at least 200 hospitals.

Hospitals started paying attention to infection control in the late 1880s, when mounting evidence showed unsanitary conditions were hurting patients. Hospital hygiene has been a concern in cycles ever since, with the latest spike triggered by the emergence a decade ago of a nasty strain of intestinal bug called Clostridium difficile, or C-diff.

The diarrhea-causing C-diff is now linked to 14,000 U.S. deaths annually. That's been the catalyst for the growing focus on infection control, said Mayfield, who is also president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

C-diff is easier to treat than some other hospital superbugs, like methicillin-resistant staph, or MRSA, but it's particularly difficult to clean away. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers don't work and C-diff can persist on hospital room surfaces for days. The CDC recommends hospital staff clean their hands rigorously with soap and water ? or better yet, wear gloves. And rooms should be cleaned intensively with bleach, the CDC says.

Michael Claes developed a bad case of C-diff while he was a kidney patient last fall at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital. He and his doctor believe he caught it at the hospital. Claes praised his overall care, but felt the hospital's room cleaning and infection control was less than perfect.

"I would use the word 'perfunctory,'" he said.

Lenox Hill spokeswoman Ann Silverman disputed that characterization, noting hospital workers are making efforts that patients often can't see, like using hand cleansers dispensers in hallways. She ticked off a list of measure used to prevent the spread of germs, ranging from educating patients' family members to isolation and other protective steps with each C-diff patient.

The hospital's C-diff infection rate is lower than the state average, she said.

Westchester Medical Center, a 643-bed hospital in the suburbs of New York City has also been hit by cases of C-diff and the other superbugs.

Complicating matters is the fact that larger proportions of hospital patients today are sicker and more susceptible to the ravages of infections, said Dr. Marisa Montecalvo, a contagious diseases specialist at Westchester.

There's a growing recognition that it's not only surgical knives and operating rooms that need a thorough cleaning but also spots like bed rails and even television remote controls, she said. Now there's more attention to making sure "that all the nooks and crannies are clean, and that it's done in perfect a manner as can be done," Montecalvo said.

Enter companies like Xenex Healthcare Services, a Texas company that makes a portable, $125,000 machine that's rolled into rooms to zap C-diff and other bacteria and viruses dead with ultraviolet light. Xenex has sold or leased devices to more than 100 U.S. hospitals, including Westchester Medical Center.

The market niche is expected to grow from $30 million to $80 million in the next three years, according to Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm.

Mark Stibich, Xenex's chief scientific officer, said client hospitals sometimes call them robots and report improved satisfaction scores from patients who seem impressed that the medical center is trotting out that kind of technology.

At Westchester, they still clean rooms, but the staff appreciates the high-tech backup, said housekeeping manager Carolyn Bevans.

"We all like it," she said of the Xenex.

At Cooley Dickinson Hospital, a 140-bed facility in Northampton, Mass., the staff calls their machines Thing One, Thing Two, Thing Three and Thing Four, borrowing from the children's book "The Cat in the Hat."

But while the things in the Dr. Seuss tale were house-wrecking imps, Cooley Dickinson officials said the ultraviolet has done a terrific job at cleaning their hospital of the difficult C-diff.

"We did all the recommended things. We used bleach. We monitored the quality of cleaning," but C-diff rates wouldn't budge, said nurse Linda Riley, who's in charge of infection prevention at Cooley Dickinson.

A small observational study at the hospital showed C-diff infection rates fell by half and C-diff deaths fell from 14 to 2 during the last two years, compared to the two years before the machines.

Some experts say there's not enough evidence to show the machines are worth it. No national study has shown that these products have led to reduced deaths or infection rates, noted Dr. L. Clifford McDonald of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His point: It only takes a minute for a nurse or visitor with dirty hands to walk into a room, touch a vulnerable patient with germy hands, and undo the benefits of a recent space-age cleaning.

"Environments get dirty again," McDonald said, and thorough cleaning with conventional disinfectants ought to do the job.

Beyond products to disinfect a room, there are tools to make sure doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are properly cleaning their hands when they come into a patient's room. Among them are scanners that monitor how many times a health care worker uses a sink or hand sanitizer dispenser.

Still, "technology only takes us so far," said Christian Lillis, who runs a small foundation named after his mother who died from a C-diff infection.

Lillis said the hospitals he is most impressed with include Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, where thorough cleanings are confirmed with spot checks. Fluorescent powder is dabbed around a room before it's cleaned and a special light shows if the powder was removed. That strategy was followed by a 28 percent decline in C-diff, he said.

He also cites Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., where the focus is on elbow grease and bleach wipes. What's different, he said, is the merger of the housekeeping and infection prevention staff. That emphasizes that cleaning is less about being a maid's service than about saving patients from superbugs.

"If your hospital's not clean, you're creating more problems than you're solving," Lillis said.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/hai/

Associated Press

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Fight against terror takes pals to the White House (The Arizona Republic)

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Syrian premier escapes bomb attack in Damascus

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. The TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian man reacts after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says the country's prime minister has escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack. (AP Photo/SANA)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT -- This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians carrying a charred body after a car bomb exploded in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 29, 2013. State-run Syrian TV says Prime Minister Wael al-Halqir has escaped unhurt in an assassination attempt when a bomb went off near his convoy. (AP Photo/SANA)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syria's prime minister escaped an assassination attempt Monday when a bomb went off near his convoy in Damascus, state media reported, the latest attack targeting a top official in President Bashar Assad's regime.

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the bombing in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, state TV said. The TV showed footage of heavily damaged cars and debris in the area as firefighters fought to extinguish a large blaze set off by the explosion.

The state SANA news agency said one person was killed and several were wounded in the blast.

The daring attack in the upscale neighborhood, which is home to many embassies and government officials, was another blow to the regime, exposing its vulnerability in the very seat of Assad's powerbase.

Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war that has so far killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.

A Syrian government official told The Associated Press that an improvised explosive device was placed under a car that was parked in the area and was detonated as al-Halqi's car drove by. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The state-run Al-Ikhbariya station said al-Halqi went into a regular weekly meeting with an economic committee straight after the bombing and showed him sitting around a table in a room with several other officials.

The TV said it was showing the video as a proof that al-Halqi was not hurt. But the prime minister's comments after the meeting did not refer to Monday's blast and he was not asked about it by reporters, leaving doubts as to whether the footage was filmed before or after the bombing.

Al-Halqi condemned the blast, SANA said, adding that the attempt exposes how armed groups "are bankrupt" after the latest advances made by Syrian troops around the country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's bombing killed al-Halqi's bodyguard and that one of his drivers was in critical condition. The group relies on a network of activist around the country.

The brazen attack in the highly secure Mazzeh neighborhood took place only about 100 meters (yards) from the residence of the Swiss ambassador. The posh area is also home to a major military air base, and security forces sealed it off shortly after the blast, allowing only pedestrians to come close.

At the scene of the bombing, damaged cars were surrounded by debris, their seats soaked with blood. A blackened shell of a school bus was left standing. A man told state TV that none of the students on board were hurt because the explosion went off shortly after they had left the bus and headed into the school.

The attack was not the first targeting a high official in the Syrian capital over the past year.

On July 18, a blast at the Syrian national security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers killed top four officials, including the defense minister and his deputy, who was Assad's brother-in-law. That attack also wounded the interior minister.

In December, a car bomb targeted the Interior Ministry in Damascus, killing several people and wounding more than 20, including Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar. Initially, Syrian state media said al-Shaar was not hurt in the Dec. 12 blast. News of his wounds emerged a week later, after he was brought to neighboring Lebanon for medical treatment for a serious back injury.

Earlier in April, Ali Ballan, head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, was shot dead while dinning in a restaurant in Mazzeh.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's attack.

Massive bombings like the one that struck the prime minister's convoy have been a trademark of Islamic radicals fighting alongside the Syrian rebels, raising concerns about the extremists' role in Syria's civil war.

Al-Halqi, a senior member of Assad's ruling Baath party, took office last year after his predecessor, Riad Hijab, defected to Jordan. Al-Halqi was Syria's health minister before taking the post. He is a member of Assad's ruling Baath party and hails from the southern city of Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian uprising.

Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory reported fighting Monday near the Damascus International Airport to the south of the capital. The group said there were also clashes in the northern neighborhood of Barzeh and shelling of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damacus.

The Observatory and another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, reported clashes and air raids around the military helicopter base of Mannagh near the border with Turkey in the northern province of Aleppo. On Sunday, the Aleppo Media Center said that the rebels have seized 60 percent of the Mannagh air base.

Both groups also reported clashes and shelling Monday in the northwestern province of Idlib and the central region of Homs.

___

Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-29-Syria/id-ef082db9a6c449c0b65c2cadd10092de

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Officials: No sign 'Misha' tied to Boston bombing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. officials say investigators have found no evidence that a conservative Muslim friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev had any connection to the Boston Marathon bombing.

Tsarnaev is one of two suspects in the bombing. He died in a shootout with police.

Family members have said he grew up religiously apathetic but hardened his Islamic views in 2008 or 2009 under the influence of a Muslim convert, known to the family as Misha.

Two U.S. officials close to the investigation say the FBI has identified an individual believed to be Misha. The officials would not say whether the FBI has spoken to him but say they've found no ties to the attack or terrorism in general.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-27-Boston%20Marathon-Misha/id-4e709bfd8b964495b6444ba0a0d76678

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Amazon vs. Amazon: Should the .Amazon Domain Belong to Bezos or the River?

Amazon is busy trying to gobble up all kinds of top-level domains—.book, .read, you name it—but it also has its eye on .amazon, too. Turns out that the Brazilian and Peruvian governments have something to say about that though, and would rather snag it for the famous river. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Oj7nxlYzhHc/amazon-vs-amazon-should-the-amazon-domain-belong-to-bezos-or-the-river

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T-Mobile will carry the BlackBerry Q10, business registration begins April 29th

More details on the BlackBerry Q10's release in the US are starting to surface. T-Mobile confirmed in an email that its business customers will have the opportunity to register for the device starting next week on April 29th, with availability and pricing details to follow "at a later date." General consumers will likely have to wait a little longer, if T-Mobile follows the same launch strategy that it did with the Z10. Of course, registration doesn't actually equate to pre-orders or actually purchasing the phone yet -- all we've heard from official channels is that it'll be coming towards the end of May -- but it's still a solid confirmation that QWERTY fans will at least be able to get their BB10 on in the very near future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Blackberry, T-Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/24/tmobile-blackberry-q10/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Letta tries to form government to break Italy's political logjam

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister-designate Enrico Letta began tricky negotiations on Thursday to form Italy's new government and end a nearly two-month-old stalemate in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

Letta, the deputy head of the badly fractured center-left Democratic Party (PD), was the surprise choice tapped by President Giorgio Napolitano to head a broad-based coalition.

Markets have reacted favorably to the prospect of an end to the political deadlock, with bond yields and the spread with comparable 10-year German bonds falling.

"The market is positive overall, there's a degree of serenity. Letta is a new name and a good 'consensus man,' unlike (former Prime Minister Giuliano) Amato, who smacks of the old order and could have caused a few grimaces," a Milan trader said.

Amato, 75, had been tipped as Napolitano's first choice to form the government.

The government will include the PD's traditional arch-rivals, Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL), as well as caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti's centrist group, both of which have said they will support the government.

The bespectacled, balding Letta is an urbane moderate who speaks fluent English and at 46 would be one of Italy's youngest prime ministers, representing a generational change from the era of Berlusconi, Monti and Amato.

Berlusconi told an Italian television station it did not matter who headed the government as long as it enacted reforms.

"The important thing is that there is a government and that there is a parliament that can approve measures that we absolutely need to emerge from the crisis of recession and get back on the path of growth," he said.

5-STAR MOVEMENT CONFIRMS OPPOSITION

Letta began the consultations at parliament early on Thursday morning with smaller groupings, including the Left Ecology and Freedom party, which reiterated that it would remain in opposition.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, the largest group in the lower house Chamber of Deputies, has also said it would sit in the opposition, but would support specific reforms.

Thursday was expected to be dedicated to horse-trading over about 18 ministerial posts in the new government, expected to be made up of technocrats and politicians.

The economy ministry could go either to Fabrizio Saccomanni, the Bank of Italy's director general, or Carlo Padoan, chief economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to Italian media.

Angelino Alfano, the secretary of the PDL, has been tipped by some to become deputy prime minister, a choice that would placate Berlusconi but upset some in the left wing of the PD .

The industry and labor ministries could go to politicians and the foreign affairs portfolio to Monti or former Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema of the PD, local media speculated.

The PDL is pushing hard for a much-hated tax on primary residences to be abolished, which was a key plank in their campaign ahead of the inconclusive February elections, which gave the PD a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate.

Letta hopes to form the government before markets open on Monday and seek confidence votes from both houses of parliament early next week.

The PDL and PD had previously failed to reach a deal but Napolitano twisted their arms on Saturday when he was re-elected to an unprecedented second term and threatened to resign unless parties tried to find common ground to pull Italy out of its political rut and work on institutional reforms.

Rivalries between the parties as well as rifts within the PD, which fell short of a viable parliamentary majority in February's vote, could still block an accord. But formation of a government after such a long impasse would signal that Italy is finally ready to make a start on much-needed reforms.

Accepting his mandate on Wednesday, Letta said Italy faced an untenable situation and the government must provide answers on jobs, poverty and the crisis facing small businesses in a recession that now matches the longest since World War II.

He also said European Union economic policies had been too focused on austerity, rather than growth.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Stefano Bernabei; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-president-names-center-lefts-letta-premier-103545455--business.html

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Teen Pistol Whipped in Toluca Lake Home Invasion | KTLA 5

TOLUCA LAKE, Calif. (KTLA) ? A couple and their teenage son were terrorized by a trio of robbers at their home in Toluca Lake early Wednesday.

It happened around 2 a.m. on Toluca Estates Drive, right off Cahuenga and Lankershim.

Three male suspects entered through a second story window wearing ski masks and armed with guns.

They tied up the family with duct tape and pistol whipped a 16-year-old boy. He was taken to a local hosptial and is expected to be fine.

He has a 19-year-old brother who is away at college and was not home at the time of the robbery.

The suspects took an unknown amount of items, including some jewelry, police said.

When they fled from the home, they apparently tripped the alarm, prompting police to respond.

Investigators say it?s not clear if the home was specifically targeted. There is a golf course behind the home as well as a wash nearby.

The family didn?t get a good look at the suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call the LAPD.

Source: http://ktla.com/2013/04/24/family-tied-up-in-toluca-lake-home-invasion/

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Pope hints at possible changes to scandal-ridden Vatican bank

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has indicated for the first time that he may make changes to the Vatican's scandal-ridden bank as part of a broad review of the Holy See's troubled administration.

Before Francis was elected last month, many of the cardinals who went on to choose him expressed concern about the harm done to the Church's image by three decades of scandals at the bank, which Italian magistrates are now investigating for money laundering.

A report last year by Moneyval, a European anti-money laundering body, found that the bank, officially the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), had failed to meet some of its standards on fighting financial crimes, and called for increased oversight.

In an impromptu sermon at a Mass for Vatican employees including staff from the bank, the pope said they should concentrate on the true mission of the Church and that Vatican departments were needed "only up to a certain point".

"The Church is not an NGO (non-governmental organization). It is a story of love," he said, according to a transcript published by Vatican Radio.

"I know that people from the IOR are here, so excuse me. Offices are necessary but they are necessary only up to a certain point."

It was the first time Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, had mentioned the Vatican bank in public since his election.

The account of the sermon in the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, omitted the mention, however. Italian media said this was a sign of conflict within the Vatican on how to deal with the bank.

Vatican sources have said the pope could restructure the IOR and has the power to close it if he wants to.

Italian media have reported that the bank, which currently answers to a commission of cardinals and enjoys great autonomy, could be placed under the control of another Vatican department to enable tighter control.

Famiglia Cristiana, Italy's leading Catholic weekly, has called for the funds in the IOR, which manages money mostly for dioceses and religious institutions, to be administered by an independent "ethical bank" external to the Vatican.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he was not aware of any imminent changes affecting the bank.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-hints-possible-changes-scandal-ridden-vatican-bank-143811123.html

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50 things you might not know about Nature Chemistry : The ...

On Monday I realized that our May 2013 issue is our 50th issue. To celebrate, we have compiled 50 (hopefully) interesting tidbits of information about the journal that you might not have been aware of. Apologies for the length of this post, but it seemed like cheating to do fewer than 50?

1. The first formal manuscript submission (i.e., made through our online submission system rather than being e-mailed to us before that went live) arrived on the 25th July 2008. It was sent out to three referees and was then, alas, declined for publication on the 5th September 2008.

2. The first Nature Chemistry research Article was published on February 22nd 2009. The corresponding author was Makoto Fujita and the paper was entitled: Minimal nucleotide duplex formation in water through enclathration in self-assembled hosts. According to Web of Science, as of today it has been cited 62 times.

3. We published 471 research Articles (not including review-type articles) in the first 50 issues of Nature Chemistry. On average, that?s just under 9-and-a-half papers per issue.

4. As of today, according to Web of Science our most cited research Article (in fact, our most-cited piece of content bar none) is this paper: New insights into the structure and reduction of graphite oxide by Pulickel Ajayan and co-workers. It has currently been cited 390 times. It was handled by Anne, who is very smug about this!

5. The first 50 issues piled on top of one another reaches the dizzying height of roughly 25 cm. This seems disappointingly small.

6. We spell ?sulfur? with an ?f? and here?s an Editorial explaining why.

7. While we are on the subject of spelling, I?m going to point out that we use Oxford English spelling. So, for all of you wondering why we put ?z?s in lots of words that you don?t think we should, hopefully that answers your question. Quite a few authors have pointed out what they think are spelling mistakes to us. We do occasionally make mistakes, but using ?ize? words is not one of them.

8. The f-word made its debut in Nature Chemistry in the August 2012 Blogroll column written by Paul Bracher. It?s all DrRubidium?s fault? Paul blogged about the experience here. The editorial team discussed if we should go ahead and use the word in all its glory and we decided we would (it wasn?t a unanimous decision). But it?s OK, it is in the Oxford English dictionary after all.

9. Every time Michelle Francl sends me a new Thesis article to edit, I have to look something up in the dictionary. Which is great! The two most recent examples were ?hermeneutic? and ?sequelae??

10. Four of the five original editorial team members are pretty big football fans (the one with the round ball for all you North Americans, you know, the one where a ?ball? is kicked with a ?foot? for the vast majority of the game? hence the name). Bearing that in mind, I was quite pleased that I was able to get a mention to Manchester United in the March 2011 Editorial.

11. In a similar vein, Gav, who is a massive Sunderland AFC fan, managed to get this phrase into the March 2012 Editorial: How dull would our existence be if everything was black and white ??that?s a subtle dig at Sunderland?s big rivals (arch nemeses might be a better description?), Newcastle United, who play in black-and-white stripes (Sunderland play in red-and-white stripes).

12. And speaking of Nature Chemistry Editorials, the one that appeared in the April 2013 issue was all about how the journal uses Twitter. What was a little unusual, however, was that it was written as a sequence of 42 tweets, complete with a Douglas Adams reference at the end. We live-tweeted the editorial the day that it was published in the journal.

13. After the expression ?rise of the internet? innocently made its way into the first two Editorials published in the journal (April 2009 and May 2009), it became a bit of a running joke to try and squeeze it into subsequent Editorials. It made into the June 2009, July 2009 and September 2009 Editorials. I think we then mostly forgot about it; but the phrase did make a comeback in the Editorials in the August 2011 and September 2011 issues.

Taken with Stu's trusty iPhone

14. Nature Chemistry editors are, for the most part, fuelled by tea. We even have our own tea cosy, knitted by our former editorial assistant, Hollie.

15. There must be something in the water that we use to make the tea ? 4 of the 5 original members of the editorial team got married (not to each other) while working on Nature Chemistry.

16. We?re quite particular about what goes on the cover of the journal; we even wrote an Editorial about cover images, outlining our disdain for arbitrary background images. Here?s a short quote: Shimmering oceans, rippling pools, starry skies, breathtaking sunsets and other equally romantic visions are lovely, but please refrain from putting this type of imagery in the background of your cover suggestion unless you have a really good reason to do so?

17. Hand-drawn chemical structures have appeared on four different Nature Chemistry covers (Oct 2009, July 2010, June 2011); including some structures drawn by yours truly (May 2012).

18. Anne has actually appeared on the cover of the journal. Along with many other female chemists, a picture of Anne was used to form the mosaic of Marie Curie that graced the cover of the September 2011 issue.

19. Pictures of all of the founding editors appeared in the Editorial in the very first issue. This turned out to be quite useful for Gav, who used a hardcopy of issue 1 as photo ID during his visit to Salt Lake City for the 2009 Spring ACS meeting. Yes, this is true.

20. We?re fussy about graphical abstracts too ? we covered that in an Editorial as well. We have made it on to tocrofl at least a couple of times (here and here) though?

21. We?re big fans of Twitter and currently the journal has just under 73k followers. All of the editors on the team have their own accounts too: me, Steve, Gav, Anne and Russell.

22. Our first tweet from the journal was made at 10:10 in the morning on the 10th March 2009 ? here it is.

23. After a lunch-time conversation in the canteen here at Nature Towers, we started to wonder who the greatest chemist of all time was. We held a completely unscientific poll on Twitter and here are the results (spoiler alert: Pauling won). We then wrote in more detail about the question itself in an Editorial.

24. We have (deliberately) printed some text upside down in the hardcopy of the journal. Bruce Gibb?s first Thesis article included a quiz and so it just seemed like a good idea to print the answers upside down at the end of the article. We didn?t do this in the online version?

25. We don?t do it as much as Angewandte Chemie, but we do occasionally come up with punny titles, especially for research highlights ? many of which are based on song titles. Two of my favourites are Ice ice maybe and Come on silene.

26. Each month we need to come up with four cover lines for the journal, based on the papers published in that issue. When all else fails, we turn to The Phrase Finder, RhymeZone and Google News.

27. We held a science writing competition based on the In Your Element feature in the journal as part of the activities associated with the International Year of Chemistry. The Editorial in the December 2011 issue summarizes the results of the competition.

28. We use a real periodic table to keep track of which elements have been (or are in the process of being) covered for the In Your Element section of the journal. Having said that, we haven?t updated it for a while?

29. Talking of periodic tables, the one we published in only the second issue of Nature Chemistry contained two entries for thorium (Th). Oops. Here?s the erratum.

30. That?s probably not our most embarrassing error, however. In the very first issue, we said that the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen in water (you know, that stuff H₂O) was 1:2. Erm, no. Here?s the erratum.

31. Another embarrassing error is that we have published a stock image of left-handed DNA. No, not Z-DNA, just a normal DNA helix that happens to be left- rather than right-handed. Oops again. It was in this Thesis article ($).

32. We?ve published a picture of Kate Moss in the journal; albeit her likeness cast in gold. Here?s the statue as it appeared in the The Telegraph ? we cropped it somewhat more tastefully for this book review ($) by Andrea Sella?

33. Members of the extended editorial team donned Nature Chemistry labcoats and took part in a photoshoot for Dennis Curran?s Thesis article ($) in the December 2012 issue.

34. We?ve probably given away hundreds of those Nature Chemistry-branded labcoats at conferences over the past few years. We have a handful left in the office (good for photoshoots ??see point 33!).

35. We?ve even branded a bus with the Nature Chemistry logo!

36. After Neil left us to join the Chemistry World crew, we?ve invited bloggers out there in the wild to write the Blogroll column that appears in the journal each month. So far, we have had: Chemjobber, Paul Bracher, See Arr Oh, BRSM, Ashutosh Jogalekar, Karl D. Collins, Adam Azman, DrFreddy, JessTheChemist, DrRubidium, and Mark Lorch pen the column for us.

37. We?ve been featured on Thomson Reuters? Science Watch site.

38. We?ve also featured in two April Fools? blog posts by See Arr Oh at Just like Cooking ??here and here.

39. When it turned out that a stock photo of bismuth was going to be far more expensive than simply buying a lump of bismuth and photographing it ? we bought a lump of bismuth. And took a photo. And published it in this In Your Element article ($). I still have the bismuth on my desk in the office, but it?s had an accident since we first bought it?

40. So when we needed to illustrate the In Your Element article on selenium, we obviously went out and bought some? brazil nuts. That In Your Element essay can be found here ($).

41. In the name of SCIENCE, the editorial team took a trip to our local liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour. We?ve been back since.

42. While talking about tasty treats, the current Physical Sciences Bake Off Champion (for biscuits ??cookies for North Americans) is yours truly ? I?m still a synthetic chemist at heart! Find out more about my progress through the competition rounds here.

43. The journal has even published a recipe to make a curry! (From this Thesis article ($) by Bruce Gibb).

44. We celebrated the International Year of Chemistry by publishing a collection of seven Commentary articles about broader issues in chemistry beyond just the science itself. It was meant to be eight Commentaries, but one author dropped out.

45. We?ve published a handful of what we call ?focus issues? where we bring together a small number of pieces of content on a similar topic. These include prebiotic chemistry, site-selective reactions, small DNA binders, and protein dynamics.

46. Hannah, who spent a week doing some work experience at Nature Chemistry and other divisions in the company, wrote up her experiences for our blog in (awesome) poem form.

47. When an author has sent us a really good piece for the journal that is just too long for the section it is intended for, we have used our blog to publish the additional material. This includes a fascinating essay by Dan O?Leary on deuterium (and related issues) and a great piece by R. J. Dwayne Miller on molecular motors.

48. Two PHD Comics have appeared in Nature Chemistry, one in this Editorial on posters and the other in this Thesis article ($) by Michelle Francl (which included this comic).

49. So far we have received two impact factors ??here are blog posts analysing them.

50. And we?ve even published a cartoon of a chemistry yeti/bigfoot/sasquatch (whatever you want to call it?) in this Thesis article ($) by Michelle Francl on urban legends of chemistry.

Source: http://blogs.nature.com/thescepticalchymist/2013/04/50-things-you-might-not-know-about-nature-chemistry.html

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Are you as well read as a college sophmore?

Based on the pre-college reading lists, freshmen syllabi, and core programs of more than 100 US colleges and universities, here are 60 books the experts believe that you should have read by sophomore year of college. How does your own literary experience stack up? Take our quiz and find out!

(This list was taken from: "Reading Lists For College-Bound Students, 3rd Edition" by Doug Estell, Michele L. Satchwell and Patricia?S. Wright)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QZzn0I6WlvE/Are-you-as-well-read-as-a-college-sophmore

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PFT: GM calls 2013 NFL draft class 'historically bad'

Getty Images

As this year?s crop of incoming players, especially those taken in the first two rounds, celebrate their new circumstances, they need to keep one thing in mind.

Several months from now, there?s a chance they will think those circumstances stink.

Rams running back Isaiah Pead fell right into that category last season, despite being the 50th overall pick in the 2012 draft.? Presumed to be the heir apparent to Steven Jackson, Pead became largely forgotten last year, sliding behind seventh-rounder Daryl Richardson.

?Honestly, I would call it miserable,? Pead said of his rookie season, via the University of Cincinnati official website. ?Miserable life.? Miserable four-five months.?

When the season finally ended, Pead packed up and left.

?I took off and I didn?t come back until it was time to,? Pead said.? ?I just wanted to stay out of this area, I came back for a couple days to pack up then all the memories and walking back into my house by myself, had a couple days by myself, I just needed to get out of that area.?

Pead is partially responsible for his misery.? He didn?t deal well with being demoted behind a guy taken 202 spots later, showing up late for a pair of meetings.

?I was literally fed up with football,? Pead said.? ?Not a quitter, not quitting, I was just tired of football.? Tired of practice for the day and I would just lay there play video games and whatnot because it was so miserable, so stressful.?

With a fresh opportunity coming from the departure of Jackson, Pead is ready to turn the page.

?Whole new era, whole new attitude, whole new team, whole new Pead,? Pead said. ??I?m not going to sit and linger on something, but I am one to not forget about a situation.? I am moving on from last year, last year is last year, but I have not forgot about last year.? I wouldn?t call it revenge, but the chip that I put on my shoulder is just a little bigger.?

He needs to perform more than a little better to erase the head start that Richardson earned in 2012.? While Pead finished with 10 carries for 54 yards, Richardson had 98 carries for 475 yards.

Pead also needs to hope the Rams don?t use one of their high draft picks on a rookie who?ll get a chance to in 2013 that which Pead couldn?t in 2012.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/23/one-gm-says-this-draft-is-historically-bad/related/

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Thermo Fisher profit tops Street view as Life deal awaits

(Reuters) - Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, which this month agreed to acquire Life Technologies Inc, on Wednesday reported a higher-than-expected first-quarter profit, helped by a 10 percent rise in specialty diagnostics sales.

Excluding one-time items, Thermo Fisher posted earnings of $1.37 per share. Analysts on average expected $1.29 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The world's largest maker of laboratory equipment and scientific instruments reported a net profit from continuing operations of $340.8 million, or 94 cents per share, compared with a profit of $280.8 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company raised the low end of its full-year revenue view and lowered its 2013 earnings per share forecast to reflect its decision to suspend share buybacks as it prepares to pay for Life Tech.

Thermo Fisher now expects adjusted earnings of $5.27 to $5.39 per share, down from its prior view of $5.32 to $5.46 per share. It expects 2013 revenue of $12.84 billion to $13 billion. The low end of the previously announced range was $12.80 billion.

Analysts were looking for earnings of $5.40 per share and revenue of $12.96 billion.

Revenue for the quarter rose 4 percent to $3.19 billion, roughly in line with Wall Street estimates of $3.17 billion.

The $13.6 billion Life Tech acquisition, which will give Thermo Fisher a major presence in advanced genetic testing, is expected to close in early 2014.

Sales from the Analytical Technologies unit fell to $978 million from $980 million a year ago, possibly reflecting the impact of automatic U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration, which hurts academic and government research customers.

Specialty Diagnostics saw sales rise 10 percent to $806 million, while sales from the Laboratory Products and Services unit rose 5 percent to $1.54 billion.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thermo-fisher-profit-tops-street-view-life-deal-102845528--finance.html

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Tax-free Internet shopping jeopardized by bill

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package is prepared for shipment by a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver in Palo Alto, Calif. States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Tax-free shopping on the Internet could be in jeopardy under a bill making its way through the Senate.

The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

The Senate voted 74 to 20 Monday to take up the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

"While local, community-based stores and shops compete for customers on many levels, including service and selection, they cannot compete on sales tax," said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. "Congress needs to address this disparity."

And, he added, "Despite what the opponents say this is not a new tax."

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few people comply.

"I do know about three people that comply with that," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor.

President Barack Obama supports the bill. His administration says it would help restore needed funding for education, police and firefighters, roads and bridges and health care.

But the bill's fate is uncertain in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, opposes the bill and will count the vote in its legislative scorecard.

"It is going to make online businesses the tax collectors for the nation," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. "It really tramples on the decision New Hampshire has made not to have a sales tax."

Many of the nation's governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales, said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. Those efforts intensified when state tax revenues took a hit from the recession and the slow economic recovery.

"It's a matter of equity for businesses," Crippen said. "It's a matter of revenue for states."

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it too. Amazon and Best Buy have joined a group of retailers called the Marketplace Fairness Coalition to lobby on behalf of the bill.

"Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest-volume sellers," Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, said in a recent letter to senators.

On the other side, eBay has been rallying customers to oppose the bill.

"I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea," eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to customers. "Join us in letting your members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business."

The bill is also opposed by senators from states that have no sales tax, including Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Baucus said the bill would require relatively small Internet retailers to comply with sales tax laws in thousands of jurisdictions.

"This legislation doesn't help businesses expand and grow and hire more employees," Baucus said. "Instead, it forces small businesses to hire expensive lawyers and accountants to deal with the burdensome paperwork and added complexity of tax rules and filings across multiple states."

But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill requires participating states to make it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.

"We're way beyond the quill pen and ledger days," Durbin said. "Thanks to computers and thanks to software it is not that complex."

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-23-Internet%20Sales%20Tax/id-910c303850d94027920a2312b40bc823

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Insurance Loss Hampers Young People With Asthma - Drugs.com ...

MONDAY April 22, 2013 -- The loss of health insurance is the main reason asthma care for young people deteriorates after age 18, according to a new study.

Certain social factors -- such as leaving school and no longer having adult supervision -- also contribute to the decline in care, according to Harvard Medical School researchers.

"This study suggests that expanding insurance coverage will help many young adults with asthma receive the care they need," study leader Kao-Ping Chua, a staff physician in the division of emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, said in a Harvard news release. "But it also points to the importance of addressing other socially mediated factors in this population."

"Aside from the lack of financial protection, uninsurance poses fewer health risks to young adults than for older adults because they are generally healthy," study senior author J. Michael McWilliams, an assistant professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in the news release.

"But for young people with asthma -- or other conditions amenable to medical care -- it's important to understand and address the barriers to care," he added.

The researchers looked at data from nearly 2,500 asthma patients, aged 14 to 25, in order to determine if they had a regular care provider, if they visited that provider at least once a year, if they used asthma medications and if they made emergency-room visits.

Patients under age 18 were more likely to use primary care and asthma medications, while those over 18 were more likely to make emergency-room visits and have problems getting care and medications due to cost.

The loss of health insurance explained 32 percent of the decline in the use of primary care by patients over age 18 and between 47 percent and 61 percent of the increase in their cost-related problems getting care and medications, according to the study, which was published recently in the journal Pediatrics.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, young adults whose parents have private insurance will be eligible to continue receiving coverage on their parents' policies until they are 26. But, the researchers said, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states do not have to extend similar coverage to people on Medicaid, low-income young adults will be left out.

Health insurance, however, is not the only problem, they added.

"Young people with asthma need to work with their care providers to create transition plans from pediatric to adult care that take into account their medical and social history," Chua said.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about asthma.

Posted: April 2013

View comments

Source: http://www.drugs.com/news/insurance-loss-hampers-young-asthma-44217.html

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Photographer's loss offers hope for Boston wounded

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? In the first horrific moments after the Boston bombing, with smoke still billowing around the wounded, I know what is going through the minds of the maimed victims.

They are at once conscious and unconscious. They want to scream, but they cannot scream. They want to wake up from a nightmare, but they are awake.

Overcome with a sense of deja vu, I feel my past converge with the future of those wounded spectators.

I lost my leg in a bomb blast. I know the violent shock of a day that begins well and ends with an amputation, the fog of drugs and surgery, the months of painful rehabilitation.

I know the suffering that lies ahead for these people in Boston. And I know the possibilities, too.

For those who lost a limb or more in the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2013, was the day their world changed forever.

Mine changed on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. I had been embedded with the U.S. military for two weeks in southern Afghanistan as a photographer for The Associated Press, and this was to have been my last patrol before going home. It had been a long day in the open desert of Kandahar province and I was whipped, barely awake, in fact, when our eight-wheel armored Stryker vehicle hit a roadside bomb and flipped over, knocking me unconscious.

When I came to, I tried to get up but couldn't; my left foot was hanging by a few tendons. I felt brutal pain, like an electric shock, that began in my leg and swept through the rest of my body. Lying inside the vehicle, I thought of my wife, and willed myself to stay alive.

Eventually, a soldier found me and tied on a tourniquet.

In my years as a photojournalist, I'd taken many pictures of wounded soldiers and victims of suicide bombers. I had covered medical evacuations from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories, and found it odd to suddenly be among those pulled from an inferno and carried on a stretcher ? along with two other soldiers and AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko.

They loaded me onto a helicopter next to a soldier who had lost both of his legs and we locked hands as the chopper took off for the provincial capital of Kandahar. The solidarity in that moment is the last thing I remember before waking up in a hospital tent to find my left leg had been amputated below the knee. There was no option to save it, doctors told me. Bone and tissue were destroyed by shrapnel. But fortunately my knee was intact, and that would make a substantial difference in my future mobility, they explained.

That offered little comfort as I lay alone and exhausted in a hospital bed in Afghanistan. I had so many questions about life with just one leg but I preferred sleep to thinking about my uncertain future.

The difference between those who lost limbs in Boston and me is that I knew I was taking a risk in a war zone and assumed it willingly, while they had merely gone out to cheer friends and relatives at a family sporting event.

They weren't supposed to be in danger.

I was a photographer documenting soldiers at war and everyday life for civilians under fire. But before violence grabs you, does anyone really believe he will become one of the dead or wounded? No. Nothing had happened to me on dozens of previous patrols with the military through hostile lands. And while I suspected I was playing a kind of Russian roulette, I also told myself that car accidents happen every day and most people don't stop driving because of that.

For months after the explosion I was tortured by so many "what ifs." What if I had stayed back to pack rather than going on patrol that day? What if I had sat a little bit to the right, would the shrapnel have missed my leg? Or if I had sat to the left, would I have lost both legs like the soldier next to me?

I imagine those in Boston whose bodies were torn up by nails or the blasts have similar thoughts: Why didn't I stand at mile 25, go for water, leave earlier, stay home? I would like to tell them that these questions fade as one begins to accept the reality of losing a limb.

The morphine they gave me to dim the pain of my amputation sapped my energy. I wanted off it so I could start my recuperation with all my strength and walk as soon as possible. I am a Spanish citizen, not American, and was lucky that the AP was able to work bureaucratic miracles to get me admitted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, one of the world's best rehab hospitals.

In Afghanistan, I had visited a rehabilitation center run by the Red Cross in Kabul that was considered one of the best in the country. The hospital was one of the few that provided prostheses to patients, including children, who had been blown up by forgotten mines in rural areas.

It's nonsense to compare Walter Reed with the Red Cross center; it is like comparing day and night. However I never stop thinking about those Afghan patients and how they were facing their rehabilitation process even in that calamitous center.

I appreciated even more my luck in Walter Reed and I realized that fate is marked by where you are born.

I was 40 years old, agile and in good shape from exercise and work as a photographer in rough terrain. I even used to jog in the Afghan capital of Kabul when I lived there. So just a month after the explosion, I threw myself into rehab. Although my wounds were still fresh, I put on my first prosthesis and took my first steps. I was determined.

And I was completely unprepared for the difficulty.

It took tremendous strength to learn to walk again. I needed practice, but practice rubbed my wounds raw. Exercise was essential and exercise produced blisters where the prosthesis was joined to my leg ? more hot pain.

I was frustrated and felt useless on the days I couldn't exercise, waiting for the blisters to drain and heal. Then I would put the prosthesis back on and push myself to my limit until the skin broke again.

In those first days, I could only take a few steps. In the first weeks, it took me an hour to walk a mile. I worked out on a bicycle, on a treadmill and with weights. And month by month, I increased my speed so that finally I could walk the 2 1/2 miles from my rented home to the hospital in 25 minutes.

If those maimed in Boston were to ask me what was harder, the physical or psychological recovery, I would say the two go hand-in-hand.

At first I thought it was enough to recover physically, and that learning to walk and work again would naturally produce a psychological recovery.

I was wrong.

The strength of the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed helped me a great deal. Even though many of their injuries were so much worse than mine, I never heard them complain about pain or withdraw in self-pity.

I lost only the lower half of my left leg and came to understand that important distinction alongside soldiers who had lost a leg up to the hip, both legs, or legs and arms. We shared our daily experiences and hardships, often with humor. When a soldier who had lost both arms and legs teasingly called me "Paper Cut" for my lesser wounds, I called him "Trunk" and we laughed.

The soldiers, and some of my Spanish friends with amputations, also taught me the difference between losing a leg and missing a leg. The missing leg can be replaced with a prosthetic, but a loss is permanent. If you don't confront the feelings of loss ? the fact that your world has changed ? you never fully recover from the amputation.

The support of my family and friends was crucial. My relationship with my wife after the accident changed to a deeper love. I could see that the patients who didn't have as many visitors, as much love and reassurance around them, did not respond to physical therapy as quickly.

And then there was my camera.

The very instrument that had gotten me into this mess, if you will, became my inspiration and part of my salvation. I carried it with me all the time to photograph the recovery of my hospital mates and to test my own. It took a lot of practice to be able to look through the lens and maintain my balance while walking, as I had done before the amputation.

With a prosthetic, you have to watch for bumps and dips in your path because you have no feeling in your false foot. If you take a wrong step, it is easy to fall, and I fell many times before learning to compensate. Running is much harder, as the body struggles to adjust to a prosthetic leg. When I was 15, I ran a marathon. Now, I am running three miles once a week and I am exhausted. My goal is to run again and recapture the runner's high, the feeling of strength that I used to experience.

The new amputees in Boston will discover, as I did, that there is a whole world of prosthetics to choose from. Who would know if you didn't need one? There are feet made for running, walking, climbing, cycling, even for swimming and golfing. But it turns out there's no such thing as an all-terrain prosthesis, so in the end, I accumulated several.

I normally wear a versatile, durable foot, but I also carry a couple of extras in a backpack, one spare foot and a special one for running. I even have one for roller skating, which, after multiple clashes with trees, parked cars and the pavement, is now one of my favorite sports.

In the same way I have always tended to my cameras, I now must care for my prosthetics, making sure they are always in perfect working condition.

Like the amputees in Boston today, 3 ? years ago I joined a community to which no one wishes to belong. I have changed over the years, as they will.

For better or worse, I am more vulnerable now. If I were to offer advice, it would be that it's possible to accept help without feeling dependent. I would tell them what I tell myself, "Emilio, you're missing a foot so don't be too hard on yourself, and when someone offers you a seat on the bus, take it."

I would tell them the greatest truth I have learned is that I am a man who had a leg amputated, not an amputee.

I am still a whole person.

I have returned to work as a photojournalist with the AP. I have tried to become a better person, sharing my small successes with all the people who have helped me in critical times. I appreciate that I live in a nice house in Barcelona with my wife, who is pregnant. I am looking forward to becoming a father for the first time.

I know they cannot imagine this in Boston now, but I want them to know that while certainly I miss my leg, I feel very fortunate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photographers-loss-offers-hope-boston-wounded-150058095.html

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