President Barack Obama has drafted a corps of media people into his latest attack video against Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP?s vice presidential candidate.
CNN?s Wolf Blitzer and John King, National Journal?s Ron Fournier and Fox?s Mike Wallace are pressed into service in the Aug. 30 video that bombards Ryan?s speech with adjectives, such as ?false? misleading? wrong? wrong.?
The 129-second video also deploys regular GOP critics such as MSNBC?s Chris Matthews, CNN?s Gloria Borger and talk show host Michael Smerconish.
David Gergen plays a supporting role, even though the video does not include any of his statements.
The involuntary enlistment of the media people in the anti-Ryan attack video comes after CBS? Bob Schieffer complained in July about his inclusion in a ?very tough ad? run by Mitt Romney.
?Obviously, I have no connected with the Romney campaign. This was done without our permission. It comes as a total surprise to me? that?s where we are in politics,? Schieffer said, shortly he lobbed a softball question to progressive columnist Frank Rich on his Sunday talk show.
Obama?s new video doesn?t parse Ryan?s nuanced statements, but instead juxtaposes his speech with media statements that may or may not be related to Ryan?s statements.
For example, the video shows Ryan declaring that ?candidate Obama said, ?I believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another 100 years.? As it tuned out, that plant didn?t last another year.?
The plant was an auto factory operated by General Motors, which had been slated in 2008 for closure in 2009.
The video declares the statement ?misleading,? and then shows a quote from CNN?s King saying, ?that plant was shut down under the [George W.] Bush administration.?
The video did not address Ryan?s argument that Obama over-promised and failed to deliver an economic recovery.
?When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory,? Ryan told his convention audience.
?A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: ?I believe that if our government is there to support you ? this plant will be here for another hundred years.? That?s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn?t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day,? said Ryan.
?That?s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.?
Similarly, the video shows Ryan blasting Obama?s $831 billion 2009 stimulus ?as case of policy patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst.?
The video labels Ryan?s statement as ?wrong,? and then appends a non sequitur from Smerconish, who correctly said that Ryan?s office asked for some of the stimulus money to be sent to two companies in his district, which also includes the closed GM factory.
The short video ends with a kicker volunteered by MSNBC?s Matthews, which declared that Ryan?s peroration ?was a very constricted, a very negative, a very nasty speech.?
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Published: 02:41 AM EST (11:41 PM PST)A pair of unknown iPad models bearing the designations "iPad2,5" and "iPad2,6" were found in Instapaper's developer logs, and the app's creator believes the two devices could be Apple's much-rumored 7-inch tablet.
In a post to his blog (via MacRumors), Marco Arment he noticed the two "curious entries" in Instapaper's device stats on Friday, positing the device identifiers could offer clues to the supposed tablets' internal hardware.
As a side note, Arment said, "There were also a few iPhone5,1 devices, but that?s not a surprise ? that?s almost certainly next month?s new GSM iPhone," but didn't give specifics.
While the developer concedes the unknown "iPad2,5" and "iPad2,6" identifiers can conceivably be spoofed, he has "never had a device show up [on the logs] that didn?t end up being a real, about-to-be-released Apple device."
Arment goes on to explain that when Apple first launched the iPad 2 in 2011, the Wi-Fi, GSM and CDMA versions were tagged with the internal designations iPad2,1, iPad2,2 and iPad2,3, respectively. Alongside the release of the New iPad in March, Apple unveiled a quietly updated iPad 2 Wi-Fi model with a new A5 processor manufactured on the 32nm process, identifying it as "iPad2,4."
It is possible that the new "iPad2,5" and "iPad2,6" devices discovered by Arment could simply be GSM and CDMA versions of the iPad 2 carrying the 32nm A5 chip, but the developer believes such a move would be unusual so late in the product's lifecycle.
If the unknown devices turn out to be a smaller iPad, Arment said, the Apple-assigned identifiers suggest "the iPad Mini is, effectively, an iPad 2" with an A5 processor and 512MB of RAM.
"This is all speculation, of course," Arment writes, "but I?m convinced: like the leaked Dock connector, this move is so ingenius that it?s most likely to be what Apple has really done.
Apple is rumored to debut the so-called "iPad mini" at a special event in October. Many expect the tablet to sport a 7.85-inch screen and boast a design resembling an iPod touch.
Here's an example of a North American company buying up some European tech: WhatRunsWhere, the service that enables ad agencies and advertisers to track competitors? online ad campaigns, has acquired UK-based Mobile Ad Spy to expand its offering to mobile. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed. WhatRunsWhere offers a "competitive intelligence" service for online media buying which lets users look up what advertisers are doing online in terms of where they are running ads, who they are buying inventory from, down to exactly what ads they are running. This also extends to the ability to scrutinise individual online publishers, looking at things like who is advertising there, who is selling the inventory, and what ads are on display. The premise is that if you can better understand what is working for your competitors then you have a greater chance of trumping them -- and boosting the all important ROI.
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential contender Paul Ryan promised on Wednesday that he and running mate Mitt Romney would lead America out of the economic doldrums by making tough choices that would generate jobs and strengthen the middle class.
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, will accept his assignment as Romney's No. 2 at the Republican convention with the biggest speech of his political career - one designed to fire up conservatives while reaching out to independents still uncertain about the Republican team.
"We will not duck the tough issues - we will lead. We will not spend four years blaming others - we will take responsibility," Ryan will say later on Wednesday, according to excerpts of his speech released by Romney's campaign.
Ryan will join many of his fellow Republicans in criticizing President Barack Obama, promising he and Romney will repeal Obama's healthcare overhaul if elected.
"Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country," he said in the excerpts.
Republicans hope to use the convention in Tampa, Florida, to show a softer side of Romney, who has had trouble connecting with voters, while focusing on his plans for an economic turnaround and criticizing Obama for lingering high unemployment and exploding deficits.
A Reuters/Ipsos online survey on Wednesday showed Romney already gaining a boost from the gathering. In the four-day rolling poll, Romney and Obama were deadlocked among likely voters at 43 percent each. That was an improvement for Romney from Obama's two-point lead on Tuesday and four-point lead on Monday.
"The convention is being seen and heard," said Julia Clark of Ipsos. "We can credibly say the slight change in the numbers can be attributed to the convention."
Romney's selection of Ryan, chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, energized the party's core conservative supporters. They love his plan to rein in government spending and shift portions of Medicare, the popular health program for seniors, to a voucher system.
"I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old - and I know that we are ready," Ryan said in the excerpts. "Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment - to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words."
Ryan helps make a battleground of Wisconsin, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. A Romney victory there could alter the electoral map in a way that could hurt Obama's hopes for re-election.
'CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGUE?'
Democrats have attacked Ryan as a conservative ideologue whose budget proposal would spell the end of Medicare. The Obama campaign released an online video accusing him of harboring "out-of-step views from a bygone era" that would hurt the middle class, threaten Medicare and undercut women's abortion rights.
They hope to turn the Ryan plan against Romney in states like Florida, which has a large senior population, and Virginia, where thousands of government employees populate the suburbs outside the nation's capital.
The second day of the convention opened with a video tribute to Ron Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman whose disgruntled supporters caused a disruption at the convention on Tuesday in protest of new rules that could hurt similar grassroots movements.
Paul's son Rand, a Kentucky senator, also addressed the convention on Wednesday. Arizona Senator John McCain, the losing 2008 presidential nominee, and Condoleezza Rice, who served as secretary of state under former Republican President George W. Bush, were due to speak.
McCain and Rice are expected to take aim at Obama on foreign policy, which has taken a back seat to economic concerns at the convention and in the overall election campaign.
Romney waded into foreign policy on Wednesday at an American Legion gathering in Indianapolis, Indiana, trying to counter Democratic criticism of his inexperience abroad and accusing Obama of weakening America's place in the world.
"For the past four years President Obama has allowed our leadership to diminish," Romney said. "In dealings with other nations, he has given trust where it's not earned, insult where it's not deserved and apology where it's not due."
Romney denounced Obama's handling of both friends and foes of America.
"We used to nurture our alliances and stand up for our common values," he said. "But when it comes to friends and allies like Poland, the Czech Republic and Israel - and with nations that oppose us like Iran and Cuba - President Obama has moved in the opposite direction."
Foreign policy and military matters are points of vulnerability for Romney. A trip abroad last month aimed at burnishing his credentials was plagued by gaffes and stumbles.
Obama, whose own foreign policy inexperience was widely viewed as a weakness four years ago, now generally gets high marks in polls on the topic - particularly since the killing of Osama bin Laden last year.
With the convention shifting into high gear, delegates kept a wary eye on Hurricane Isaac as it pounded the Louisiana coast. There was concern that televised images of political revelry in Tampa could provide a jarring contrast to the storm's onslaught, although by Wednesday afternoon Isaac had been downgraded to a tropical storm.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Sam Youngman; Editing by Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler)
A study published in Icarus highlights new perspective on how the moon was formed
Oxford, August 29, 2012 - The Moon is believed to have formed from a collision, 4.5 billion years ago, between Earth and an impactor the size of Mars, known as "Theia." Over the past decades scientists have simulated this process and reproduced many of the properties of the Earth-Moon system; however, these simulations have also given rise to a problem known as the Lunar Paradox: the Moon appears to be made up of material that would not be expected if the current collision theory is correct. A recent study published in Icarus proposes a new perspective on the theory in answer to the paradox.
If current theories are to be believed, analyses of the various simulations of the Earth-Theia collision predict that the Moon is mostly made up of material from Theia. However, studying materials from both Earth and the Moon, shows remarkable similarities. In fact, elements found on the Moon show identical isotopic properties to those found on Earth.
Given it is very unlikely that both Theia and Earth had identical isotopic compositions (as all other known solar system bodies, except the Moon, appear to be different) this paradox casts doubt over the dominant theory for the Moon formation. Moreover, for some elements, like Silicon, the isotopic composition is the result of internal processes, related to the size of the parent body. Given Theia was smaller than Earth, its Silicon isotope composition should have definitely been different from that of Earth's mantle.
A group of researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland, have now made a significant breakthrough in the story of the formation of the Moon, suggesting an answer to this Lunar Paradox. They explored a different geometry of collisions than previously simulated, also considering new impacts configurations such as the so-called, "hit-and-run collisions," where a significant amount of material is lost into space on orbits unbound to the Earth.
"Our model considers new impact parameters, which were never tested before. Besides the implications for the Earth-Moon system itself, the considerably higher impact velocity opens up new possibilities for the origin of the impactor and therefore also for models of terrestrial planet formation," explains lead author of the study, Andreas Reufer.
"While none of the simulations presented in their research provides a perfect match for the constraints from the actual Earth-Moon-system, several do come close," adds Alessandro Morbidelli, one of the Icarus' Editors. "This work, therefore, suggests that a future exhaustive exploration of the vast collisional parameter space may finally lead to the long-searched solution of the lunar paradox."
###
The article "A hit-and-run Giant Impact scenario" by Andreas Reufer, Matthias M.M. Meier, Willy Benz, Rainer Wieler (doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.07), appears in Icarus, published by Elsevier. To view the article online, click here, or contact newsroom@elsevier.com for the full text.
Notes for editors
To view the article online, click here, or contact newsroom@elsevier.com; journalists wishing to interview the authors, please contact Clare Lehane at +44 1865 843466 c.lehane@elsevier.com.
About Icarus
Icarus is devoted to the publication of original contributions in the field of Solar System studies. Manuscripts reporting the results of new research - observational, experimental, or theoretical - concerning the astronomy, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific aspects of our Solar System or extra solar systems are welcome. Icarus is the official publication of American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences and follows the APB publishing process.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close
to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of
science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Media contact
Clare Lehane
Elsevier
+44 1865 843466
c.lehane@elsevier.com
[ | 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.
New research eclipses existing theories on moon formationPublic release date: 29-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
A study published in Icarus highlights new perspective on how the moon was formed
Oxford, August 29, 2012 - The Moon is believed to have formed from a collision, 4.5 billion years ago, between Earth and an impactor the size of Mars, known as "Theia." Over the past decades scientists have simulated this process and reproduced many of the properties of the Earth-Moon system; however, these simulations have also given rise to a problem known as the Lunar Paradox: the Moon appears to be made up of material that would not be expected if the current collision theory is correct. A recent study published in Icarus proposes a new perspective on the theory in answer to the paradox.
If current theories are to be believed, analyses of the various simulations of the Earth-Theia collision predict that the Moon is mostly made up of material from Theia. However, studying materials from both Earth and the Moon, shows remarkable similarities. In fact, elements found on the Moon show identical isotopic properties to those found on Earth.
Given it is very unlikely that both Theia and Earth had identical isotopic compositions (as all other known solar system bodies, except the Moon, appear to be different) this paradox casts doubt over the dominant theory for the Moon formation. Moreover, for some elements, like Silicon, the isotopic composition is the result of internal processes, related to the size of the parent body. Given Theia was smaller than Earth, its Silicon isotope composition should have definitely been different from that of Earth's mantle.
A group of researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland, have now made a significant breakthrough in the story of the formation of the Moon, suggesting an answer to this Lunar Paradox. They explored a different geometry of collisions than previously simulated, also considering new impacts configurations such as the so-called, "hit-and-run collisions," where a significant amount of material is lost into space on orbits unbound to the Earth.
"Our model considers new impact parameters, which were never tested before. Besides the implications for the Earth-Moon system itself, the considerably higher impact velocity opens up new possibilities for the origin of the impactor and therefore also for models of terrestrial planet formation," explains lead author of the study, Andreas Reufer.
"While none of the simulations presented in their research provides a perfect match for the constraints from the actual Earth-Moon-system, several do come close," adds Alessandro Morbidelli, one of the Icarus' Editors. "This work, therefore, suggests that a future exhaustive exploration of the vast collisional parameter space may finally lead to the long-searched solution of the lunar paradox."
###
The article "A hit-and-run Giant Impact scenario" by Andreas Reufer, Matthias M.M. Meier, Willy Benz, Rainer Wieler (doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.07), appears in Icarus, published by Elsevier. To view the article online, click here, or contact newsroom@elsevier.com for the full text.
Notes for editors
To view the article online, click here, or contact newsroom@elsevier.com; journalists wishing to interview the authors, please contact Clare Lehane at +44 1865 843466 c.lehane@elsevier.com.
About Icarus
Icarus is devoted to the publication of original contributions in the field of Solar System studies. Manuscripts reporting the results of new research - observational, experimental, or theoretical - concerning the astronomy, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific aspects of our Solar System or extra solar systems are welcome. Icarus is the official publication of American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences and follows the APB publishing process.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close
to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of
science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Media contact
Clare Lehane
Elsevier
+44 1865 843466
c.lehane@elsevier.com
[ | 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.
The 2012 London Olympics captivated much of the world?s attention, and Seminoles were no exception.
Chairman James E. Billie was among many Tribal members who tuned in to catch the action from July 27 to Aug. 12. About 10,500 athletes from 204 countries competed for 2,100 medals on the world?s biggest stage ? including several Native Americans.
Chairman Billie told assistant Norman Bowers that he enjoyed watching the games with son Eecho Billie. The Chairman was impressed to see U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps break the world record for most Olympic medals earned, Bowers said.
Bowers, who participates in several sports around the reservation, said he kept his TV on the games throughout the day and night to cheer for the U.S.
?For the Olympics, regardless of race, color or whatever, you can come together and be happy for your team,? he said. ?Hopefully our kids will watch it and that they draw some inspiration from that.?
Bowers was happy to learn that several Native Americans competed in this year?s games, including Mary Killman, of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma; Mary Spencer, a First Nation Ojibway; Tumuaialii Anae, a Native Hawaiian; and Adrienne Lyle, of the Cherokee Nation. Spencer competed for Canada and the rest represented the U.S.
?I wish one of them was one of our own Tribal members,? he said, ?but as long as it?s a Native American?I?d definitely hope they would place.?
Killman placed 11th in the synchronized swimming finals with partner Mariya Koroleva; Spencer made it to the quarterfinals in the inaugural year of women?s middleweight boxing; Anae was the goalie of the gold-winning water polo team; and Lyle placed 35th in her individual event as one of the youngest American dressage riders in equestrian.
While they competed admirably this year, only three Native Americans have medaled in individual events in the past 100 years: Jim Thorpe, Billy Mills and Duke Kahanamoku.
Tribal member Moses Jumper Jr. couldn?t help but think of Thorpe as he watched this year?s Olympics. ?[The Olympics] reminds me of the great athletes, especially like Jim Thorpe,? he said. ?You could probably compare him now today to Michael Phelps because of the magnitude of all the events he did in one sport.?
Thorpe, of the Sac and Fox Tribe, won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, making him one of the greatest Native American athletes of all time. This July, the medals were showcased at the Smithsonian?s National Museum of the American Indian in honor of the 100th anniversary of those games as part of the ?Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics? exhibit. The medals were then brought to London and displayed.
In addition to Thorpe, swimmer Kahanamoku gained international attention for his stellar performances in the Olympics. The Native Hawaiian won an individual gold and a silver in a relay for the U.S. at the 1912 Olympics. He also earned golds in an individual and a relay event in 1920 in Antwerp and a silver in 1924 in Paris.
Forty years later, Mills, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, won the U.S. a gold medal in the 10,000-meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
The first recorded Native American participation was in the 1904 St. Louis, Mo. Games, where athletes like Black Eagle, Spotted Tail, Snake Eater and Rain in Face competed on the gold-winning Canadian and silver-winning American lacrosse teams.
Jumper, who recently retired from 38 years as the Tribe?s Recreation director, has seen a lot of Tribal athletes in his lifetime, and he hopes they will watch the Olympics and get inspired.
?They?ve got the training and they?ve got the finances to take it beyond what they can do now,? he said. ?We?ve got the facilities today?We?ve got the instructors?The parents need to get them out there.?
Particularly, Jumper thought of the potential of young Tribal gymnasts as he watched the U.S. team take home a gold in the Olympics this year.
?We got a bunch of our little girls who are involved in gymnastics,? he said. ?I hope they can take it further.?
Although Seminoles haven?t yet made names for themselves in the Olympics, Jumper acknowledged that a lot of Tribal members have achieved greatness in their sports, like his cousin David Jumper, who was inducted into the Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Another successful Seminole athlete, 2011 EIRA Regional Champion Leanna Billie brought home gold buckles in the first and third rounds of the Ladies Breakaway. Billie, a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, said she watched some of this year?s Olympic diving and volleyball and felt inspired.
?When you watch some of the background stories of what they?ve done to get there, it makes me want to strive more in my events as an athlete,? she said. ?I?m really aiming to be world champion someday, so it?s all going toward that.?
Forrester Research Inc. has recently announced Polycom, the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) as the top-ranked company in both ?current offerings? and ?strategy? in a report on video collaboration solutions.
The report, known as ?The Forrester Wave?: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012,? uses 39 criteria to assess the top vendors in the industry to find video collaboration solutions for work environments ranging from mobile and desktops to room systems and telepresence. According to the report, Polycom has topped the scores in ?current offerings? based on conferencing experience, quality of experience, management platform, recording and streaming, and security and compliance.
On the other hand, under the ?strategy? category, Polycom leads based on its product roadmap and strengths in ?UC Integration? and ?interoperability?. Not only that, Polycom also tops the ranks in the ?partners? category.
According to Forrester, video collaboration is becoming pervasive with more interest in face-to-face video collaboration which increases work productivity, improves employee engagement and trust and lowers costs. The Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions delivers secure, high-quality video to companies which can mimic actual face-to-face meetings. This is vital for work productivity alongside lowering cost for better work output. By providing state of the art video quality, it gives an impression of life-size and eye-to-eye conference. Available on mobile devices, desktops and PCs, Polycom provides the opportunity for employers and employees alike to hold meetings anytime, anywhere.
About Polycom
Polycom is a global leader for open standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for telepresence, video and voice, with its Polycom RealPresence Platform. This platform works well with a wide array of business, mobile and social applications, and devices.
Read the full press release below.
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****
PRESS RELEASE
SINGAPORE ? August 22, 2012 ? Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that Forrester Research Inc. named Polycom a leader and top-ranked Company in both ?current offerings? and ?strategy? in a new report on video collaboration solutions.
The report, titled ?The Forrester Wave?: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012,? uses 39 criteria to evaluate the top vendors in the industry, looking at video collaboration solutions for every work environment ? from mobile and desktops to room systems and immersive telepresence ? along with the services that support them. Forrester found that Polycom has taken the top scores in ?current offerings? based on such factors as conferencing experience, quality of experience, management platform, recording and streaming and security and compliance, all for which Polycom was also top-ranked. In the ?strategy? category, Forrester named Polycom a leader largely because of its product roadmap and particular strengths in ?UC integration? and ?interoperability??a key focus of and competitive advantage for Polycom and its global ecosystem of over 7,000 partners. In addition, Polycom was top ranked in the ?partners? category.
?As Forrester notes in its new ?Wave? report, Polycom is now top-ranked in ?current offerings? for video collaboration. Polycom today is delivering the most useful innovations, best user experiences and broadest interoperability of any video collaboration company,? said Polycom CEO Andy Miller.? ?Importantly, Forrester also named Polycom the top-ranked company in ?strategy?? which we see as validation from an important thought leader that Polycom is on the right track with our vision to make video collaboration ubiquitous through an innovative roadmap and by offering the industry?s best user experience. Polycom will also continue to offer the industry?s broadest multi-vendor integration and lowest TCO. For our more than 415,000 customers globally, Polycom is delivering innovations in video collaboration that are changing the way people work, collaborate, learn, govern, create and even help save lives.?
?Polycom has a diverse portfolio of endpoints including a range of options that run the gamut from mobile and room-based systems to immersive telepresence,? wrote Phillip Karcher, the author of the Forrester Research report. ?Through technology partnerships, with Microsoft in particular, Polycom provides endpoints that work well in multi-vendor environments. Many of itsendpoints also interoperate natively with nonstandard protocols and codecs.?
Video Collaboration Is Becoming More Ubiquitous, Forrester Finds
The Forrester Wave report also discusses the growing interest in ?face to face? video collaboration, which is helping businesses increase productivity, improve employee engagement and trust and lower costs.
?In a work culture dominated by virtual meetings, more firms are looking to videoconferencing to replicate the in-person experience thatemployees prefer ? or at least make voice conversations more engaging by fostering the trust and improved communications that comes with being able to read the other person?s body language,? wrote Forrester in the report.? ?Mobile executives want video for better work-life balance, managers want it to see that their direct reports aren?t distracted and multicultural organisations want it to foster the trust and improved communication that comes with being able to read the body language of remote team members.?
Also, according to Forrester?s report: ?Videoconferencing innovation today is happening on smaller screens like PCs, smartphones and tablets that workers use in their everyday jobs.? In response to the growing interest, vendors not only have to show strategies that account for desktop and mobile applications ? they also have to make their traditional dedicated room-based systems easier to deploy at scale.?
Polycom RealPresence Video Collaboration Solutions
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RealPresence Immersive video theaters that provide the experience of being in the same room with other participants?life-sized and eye-to-eye. Polycom provides the industry?s best immersive video experience, withcinema-like video quality, crystal-clear HD audio with tailored acoustics and personal content monitors, creating a real-as-life remote group collaboration experience that makes the distance and technology invisible.
Room solutions that facilitate enterprise-grade video collaboration, regardless of room size or budget. Polycom? RealPresence? Room (HDX? Series) video solutions are secure, easy to operate and consistently deliver a flawless visual communications experience. Polycom RealPresence Room solutions make it simple for people to meet face-to-face and share HD-quality content with peers, partners and customers wherever they may be located.
Desktop systems that deliver HD video collaboration to the personal workspace, including to PCs and laptops.
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Innovative video and UC solutions such as Polycom? EagleEye Director, the most intelligent UC camera , which delivers breakthrough HD experiences by automatically zooming in on the active speaker in the room as they talk or walk; and Polycom? UC Board?, which transforms ordinary surfaces into virtual whiteboards.
These solutions are powered by the Polycom RealPresence Platform, the most comprehensive and interoperable infrastructure for universal videocollaboration. The RealPresence Platform provides the robust provisioning, management, scalability, reliability, flexibility and security required both for video enterprises and their private video clouds serving thousands of users, as well as for Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) delivered from the cloud potentially to tens of millions.? Because of Polycom?s focus on interoperability, the RealPresence Platform works with hundreds of UC and business apps, transforming islands of employees and fragmented communications systems into a seamless video enterprise where enterprise-grade video is easily and securely available to all authorised personnel whether they?re mobile, remote, or on-site.? Polycom recently announced a rich new suite of open APIs for developers, partners and service providers to integrate business apps such as billing, scheduling, directory, management and monitoring with the Platform, extending the value of RealPresence video solutions to new industries, new use cases and new users.
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Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for telepresence, video, and voice powered by the Polycom RealPresence Platform. The RealPresence Platform interoperates with the broadest range of business, mobile, and social applications and devices. More than 400,000 organisations trust Polycom solutions to collaborate and meet face-to-face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners, customers, specialists and prospects.?? Polycom, together with its broad partner ecosystem, provides customers with the best total cost of ownership, interoperability, scalability, and security for video collaboration ? whether on-premises, hosted, or cloud-delivered. Visit www.polycom.asia or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
The G7 industrial countries called Tuesday on oil producers to increase output, saying higher prices posed "substantial risks" to the global economy.
With growth weakening in key economies and tensions over Iran worrying major oil importers, finance ministers of the powerful group also hinted they were ready to push for the release of strategic oil reserves to prevent a tightening of the market.
"The current rise in oil prices reflects geopolitical concerns and certain supply disruptions," the Group of Seven finance ministers said in a statement.
"We encourage oil-producing countries to increase their output to meet demand, while drawing prudently on excess capacity."
"We remain vigilant of the risks to the global economy," the ministers said in the statement, which was released by the US Treasury.
"In this context and mindful of the substantial risks posed by elevated oil prices, we are monitoring the situation in oil markets closely."
The statement applauded Saudi Arabia's commitment, made at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, in June, to mobilize spare capacity when necessary to ensure supplies to the market are adequate.
But it also suggested the leading industrial democracies were ready to tap into global strategic oil reserves to keep price pressure down.
"We stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied," the statement said.
"We remain committed to well-functioning and transparent energy markets."
The statement came four days after the Petroleum Economist magazine reported that the IEA, which represents oil-consuming nations, was reluctantly backing the idea of a release of strategic oil stockpiles by major importers in September.
The IEA came behind the idea after Washington signaled it would move alone on a release
"The loss of supplies from sanctions-hit Iran will be used to justify the move," the magazine said.
It added that the move could involve as much or more than last year's release of 60 million barrels from stockpiles.
Sanctions on large crude exporter Iran to pressure the government to curtail its nuclear activities -- accused by the West to be aimed at developing nuclear weapons -- have tightened oil markets and helped boost prices.
Many worry that a military attack on Iran by Israel and/or the United States to wreck its nuclear installations could result in sharp disruptions of the flow of supplies from the oil-rich Gulf on Iran's southwest coast.
Oil prices nevertheless remain around 13 percent below their peak of the past year.
The US benchmark WTI crude closed in regular New York trade Tuesday at $96.33 a barrel, and fell only slightly in after-market trade following the G7 announcement.
That price compared with the year's low in late June of around $77 a barrel, but still well beneath the 52-week high of $110.65 and far below the July 2008 all-time peak of $145 a barrel.
The London benchmark, Brent crude, was at $112.58, compared with its June low of around $89. In July 2008 Brent spiked to $147 a barrel.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2012) ? Researchers at RTI International have developed a new solar technology that could make solar energy more affordable, and thus speed-up its market adoption.
The RTI solar cells are formed from solutions of semiconductor particles, known as colloidal quantum dots, and can have a power conversion efficiency that is competitive to traditional cells at a fraction of the cost.
Solar energy has the potential to be a renewable, carbon-neutral source of electricity but the high cost of photovoltaics -- the devices that convert sunlight into electricity -- has slowed widespread adoption of this resource.
The RTI-developed solar cells were created using low-cost materials and processing techniques that reduce the primary costs of photovoltaic production, including materials, capital infrastructure and energy associated with manufacturing.
Preliminary analysis of the material costs of the technology show that it can be produced for less than $20 per square meter -- as much as 75 percent less than traditional solar cells.
"Solar energy currently represents less than 1 percent of percent of the global energy supply, and substantial reductions in material and production costs of photovoltaics are necessary to increase the use of solar power," said Ethan Klem, a research scientist at RTI and co-principal investigator of the project. "This technology addresses each of the major cost drivers of photovoltaics and could go a long way in helping achieve that goal."
The technology was recently featured in a paper published in Applied Physics Letters.
In demonstration tests, the cells consistently provided a power conversion efficiency more than 5 percent, which is comparable to other emerging photovoltaic technologies.
"The efficiency of these devices is primarily limited by the amount of sunlight that is absorbed," said Jay Lewis, a senior research scientist at RTI and the project's other principal investigator. "There are many well-known techniques to enhance absorption, which suggests that the performance can increase substantially."
The cells, which are composed of lightweight, flexible layers, have the potential to be manufactured using high volume roll-to-roll processing and inexpensive coating processes, which reduces capital costs and increases production. Unlike traditional solar cells, the RTI-developed cells can be processed at room temperature, further reducing input energy requirements and cost.
In addition to being low-cost, the new cells have several other key benefits, including higher infrared sensitivity, which allows the cells to utilize more of the available solar spectrum for power generation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RTI International.
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Journal Reference:
E. J. D. Klem, C. W. Gregory, G. B. Cunningham, S. Hall, D. S. Temple, J. S. Lewis. Planar PbS quantum dot/C60 heterojunction photovoltaic devices with 5.2% power conversion efficiency. Applied Physics Letters, 2012; 100 (17): 173109 DOI: 10.1063/1.4707377
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.
TAMPA -- Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was holding court at a private party before the Republican National Committee Sunday, where he called President Barack Obama "a one percenter," and urged a group of conservative bloggers to rally behind Mitt Romney even though he's "not perfect."
"We've got two guys running for president, by the way, who are both very rich. Each one of them is in the top one percent in the United States." Barbour said during an event for the National Bloggers Club in Tampa. "Both of them are one percenters. And in fairness, both of them made their own money. Romney made his by winning the confidence of people who invested their money. ?Obama made his money writing two books about himself. He's a one percenter!...Which one do you figure is going to do a better job of getting our economy going in the right direction?"
Indeed, both men are in the "top one percent" of income earners, although Romney's net worth is about 20 times greater than Obama's. Romney and Obama are worth around $200 million and $12 million, respectively.
During his talk, Barbour also argued that conservatives need to look passed Romney's moderate record as governor of Massachusetts.
"Mitt Romney's not as conservative as I am. It's a fact," Barbour said. "But the difference between him and Obama in terms of their vision, their plan, their policies, their belief in the history and the fundamental principles of America are the greatest difference of any two presidential candidates in my lifetime. ?It behooves us to make sure Romney wins."
BANJUL, Gambia (AP) ? The government of Gambia has confirmed that it has executed nine inmates who were on death row, saying in a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior that the prisoners were killed by firing squad on Sunday.
President Yahya Jammeh announced during his end-of-Ramadan speech that his government would execute all the prisoners on death row in a move to curb crime . The statement issued by the ministry late Monday says, "Following the convictions and pronouncements of death sentences by the Gambian Courts of competent jurisdiction and further to the exhaustion of their appeals, the Ministry of Interior wishes to inform the general public that the following convicts were executed by firing squad on Sunday 26th August, 2012." Amnesty International says the nine prisoners were executed Friday.
Information provided by Elsevier Health Sciences - Published: 2012-08-28
Is long-term weight loss possible after menopause? Strategies for success discussed in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Many people can drop pounds quickly in the early phases of a diet, but studies have found that it is difficult to keep the weight off in the long term. For post-menopausal women, natural declines in energy expenditure could make long-term weight loss even more challenging.
A new study finds that in post-menopausal women, some behaviors that are related to weight loss in the short term are not effective or sustainable for the long term. Interventions targeting these behaviors could improve long-term obesity treatment outcomes. The research is published in the September issue of Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Lead investigator Bethany Barone Gibbs, PhD, University of Pittsburgh Department of Health and Physical Activity, explains that a number of factors work against long-term weight loss. "Not only does motivation decrease after you start losing weight, there are physiological changes, including a decreased resting metabolic rate. Appetite-related hormones increase. Researchers studying the brain are now finding that you have enhanced rewards and increased motivation to eat when you've lost weight." Combined with the natural energy expenditure decline in women following menopause, it is extremely difficult for older women to lose weight and maintain weight loss.
Traditional behavioral treatments for obesity, focused on caloric intake, have had poor long-term results.
The investigators sought to determine if changes in eating behaviors and selected foods were associated with weight loss at six and 48 months in a group of overweight post-menopausal women. A total of 508 women were randomized to either a Lifestyle Change group or a Health Education group. The Lifestyle Change group met regularly with nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and psychologists throughout the study. Their goals were to reduce fats and caloric intake, increase consumption of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, and participate in regular moderate exercise. The Health Education Group was offered seminars by health professionals on general women's health, but not specifically weight loss.
Investigators found that the eating behaviors associated with weight loss at six months were eating fewer desserts and fried foods, drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages, eating more fish, and eating at restaurants less. After four years, they found that eating fewer deserts and drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages continued to be associated with weight loss or maintenance. Eating fewer desserts and drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages were also related to long-term weight loss. However, eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat and cheese emerged as additional important predictors for long-term weight loss. Eating at restaurants declined at 48 months whether or not subjects lost weight. Dr. Barone Gibbs speculates that this may have been related to economic factors and not relevant to the study.
Dr. Barone Gibbs explains that strategies such as eating fewer fried foods may not be sustainable for the long term.
"People are so motivated when they start a weight loss program. You can say, 'I'm never going to eat another piece of pie,' and you see the pounds coming off. Eating fruits and vegetables may not make as big a difference in your caloric intake. But that small change can build up and give you a better long-term result, because it's not as hard to do as giving up French fries forever."
The results suggest that decreased consumption of desserts and sugar-sweetened beverages consistently associate with short- and long-term weight loss or maintenance, but increased fruits and vegetables and decreased meat and cheeses are additional factors that may improve long-term weight loss or control. "If the goal is to reduce the burden of obesity, the focus must be on long-term strategies because changes in eating behaviors only associated with short-term weight loss are likely to be ineffective and unsustainable," concludes Dr. Barone Gibbs.
In an audio podcast accompanying the study, Dr. Barone Gibbs discusses the results in depth, including its implications for men and women of all ages and the challenges of self-reporting in research on diets and eating behaviors.
This web page is from the Disabled World Diets and Dieting section which provides: Information on obesity and diets including diet plans and weight loss for overweight people of all ages.
Body Fat Percentage Calculator for Men and Women - Information regarding calculating body fat for males and females includes body fat calculator and formula.
Height to Weight Ratio Chart - Calculate your ideal weight to height ratio using the handy height to weight guide chart to help you avoid obesity related illness or even future disability later in life.
Weight Loss Planning Calculator for Women and Men - Our Weight Loss Planning Calculator helps you to establish realistic time-lines for your weight loss goals.
Calculate Calories Burned - If you're at a desirable body weight and have plenty of energy, your calories in food intake is probaly ok. However if you're gaining weight and feel tired a lot of the time, you may want to consider counting your intake of calories in food and changing your daily diet, because as you ingest extra calories your body will convert the excess energy to body fat.
Body Mass Index Calculator - Online body mass index calculator to find your current BMI measurement and learn how to measure your waist circumference. Your body mass index measurement combined with your Waist Circumference measurement can be used to determine obesity and the increased risk for various diseases.
Menopause - The time in a woman's life when her periods (menstruation) eventually stop and the body goes through changes that no longer allow her to get pregnant. It is a natural event that normally occurs in women age 45 - 55.
?Rain-battered Haiti is at risk of a fresh cholera outbreak? after ?[t]ropical storm Isaac ripped through the impoverished Caribbean island [Saturday],? children?s charity Plan International warns, according to AlertNet (8/26). ?The 400,000 people living in camps in the capital Port-au-Prince, such as Jean Marie Vincent, as well as those living in towns to the south of the island, including Les Cayes and Jacmel are among those at risk, following heavy rains and flooding,? Oxfam writes in a press release (Brinicombe, 8/26). ?With a reported total of 10 deaths for the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by [Haiti and the Dominican Republic], the scale of devastation was less than many people had feared,? but ?the capital and countryside of disaster-prone Haiti did suffer sporadic flooding, fallen poles and scores of toppled tents that housed people who lost their homes in the massive 2010 earthquake,? the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. ?Across Haiti, the number of people evacuated due to flooding rose over the weekend,? the news service notes, adding, ?The World Food Program had distributed two days of food to 8,300 of the people who had left their houses for 18 camps? (Blanco, 8/26). ?Aid groups have prepared clean water and hygiene kits to help prevent the spread of cholera, which Haiti has struggled to control since the earthquake,? according to VOA News (8/25).
More here: Haiti At Risk Of Fresh Cholera Outbreak After Tropical Storm Isaac Hits?
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NAROWAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Shahzad Iqbal abandoned the jet-set lifestyle of a corporate executive because he wanted to do something worthwhile for his country. So he invested his life savings in world-class bull semen.
He imports the sperm from potent bulls in the West, with names like Socrates, Air Raid and Liberator, and sells it at affordable prices to farmers so they can breed cows that produce higher volumes of quality milk.
Iqbal is one of a band of trailblazers - from small-town entrepreneurs to managers in multi-national companies - who want to transform Pakistan's ramshackle dairy industry into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
"It's going to take a revolution to turn it around," said Iqbal, as his farm workers moved metal cylinders filled with liquefied nitrogen gas that store the semen at -196 Celsius (-321 Fahrenheit).
If Iqbal and his comrades can succeed in their mission to overturn centuries-old practices and introduce modern techniques, they could open the door to a revolution in the livelihoods of millions of impoverished farmers.
The dismal state of the dairy industry is a striking example of Pakistan's habit of missing opportunities throughout a 65-year history tainted by military coups, political infighting and a form of crony capitalism that has stifled entrepreneurship.
With 63 million cows and buffaloes, Pakistan has one of the world's biggest herds, but it cannot export milk because the animals' yields are so low.
Preoccupied by power struggles and tension with the army, successive governments have failed to realize the potential of the sector, which engages about 35 million people, or 20 percent of the population, in direct or related work.
While other countries worked on ways to improve livestock gene pools, fodder and veterinary medicine, Pakistan largely left its farmers to fend for themselves over the decades.
The result is a haphazard supply chain riddled with inefficiencies stretching from the cow's udder all the way to the tea cup.
"CHASING MY ANIMALS"
The challenge for Iqbal and his fellow pioneers starts with men like 65-year-old Abdul Rashid, a farmer limping along with a cane made from a branch, trying to keep up with his cows and buffaloes wandering through flooded fields in Punjab, Pakistan's agricultural heartland.
Unlike in the West, where livestock is neatly organized in high-tech farms for maximum efficiency, Pakistan's dairy industry is fragmented.
The majority of suppliers are individual farmers who own three or four cows and buffalos and are scattered in remote villages along crumbling roads or cart tracks.
There is no modern marketing system, so it is up to the farmers to find a buyer for their meager yields.
"I have no one to turn to for help," said Rashid as he struggled to stop his animals wandering across a road.
"I spend my time chasing my animals and they don't give me enough milk to improve my family's life."
Rashid and millions of farmers like him rely on middlemen, or dodhis in Urdu, to sell their milk to households, transporting it in rusty cans tied to old Yamaha motorcycles.
In the potholed town of Sahiwal, dodhis dropped dirty ice cubes into the churns. Dead flies floated on the surface, a reminder of the bacteria that often contaminates Pakistan's milk supplies.
"Nothing has changed in 40 years," said one of the middlemen, Mohammed Akram, 55, wearing worn-out plastic sandals and standing near a pile of fetid garbage.
"We get up at four in the morning to buy the milk, two kilograms from here, four kilograms from there. We get it from far and wide. It's a lot of hard work."
Only about three percent of Pakistan's milk is processed, unlike in many countries where supermarket shelves are stacked with various domestically produced brands.
DREAMS
After 15 years of making good money as an executive for Western beverage and tobacco companies overseas, Iqbal decided he wanted to do something for Pakistan.
To Iqbal, there was no more glaring example of the gap between Pakistan's potential and its performance than the dairy industry.
Rather than despair, he saw an opportunity, pouring his savings of $1 million into creating a breed improvement project called Jassar Farms.
He dreams of the day when the average Pakistani cow, which yields about 1,600 liters (420 U.S. gallons) of milk after it calves, can compete with the top of the line Israeli Holstein that churns out 12,500 liters (3,300 gallons).
Iqbal acknowledges the odds are stacked against entrepreneurs in Pakistan because of red tape, corruption, poor governance, chronic power cuts and a Taliban insurgency that keeps many investors away.
"I'm not saying I'm mad, but certainly I'm not absolutely normal either, because it takes a lot of persistence to undertake this kind of challenge," said Iqbal, wearing a pink polo shirt and jeans.
BIG MONEY
Iqbal can take comfort from the fact that he is not alone in his quest for reform. Some international companies are also working for change.
Nestle has installed 3,200 industrial-size milk refrigerators at collection points across the country to lay the foundations for the kind of cold storage chain essential for a modern dairy industry, and give farmers a steady market for their milk.
At a training centre with manicured lawns and spotless dormitories for farmers in Punjab, Nestle holds workshops to drive home a simple message - properly managed cows produce more milk.
Instructors show farmers how to treat their animals - the Nestle cattle lounge around on soft sand under powerful fans, chewing nutritious fodder. They have constant access to water - essential practices of which most farmers are ignorant.
So far, Nestle has put 9,000 farmers through the program. Some have doubled their milk output, says the company, which estimates it could make about $450 million in milk exports from Pakistan.
"The potential is very large but it will only succeed if we can develop milk of export quality because we need to be able to trade in the commodity export market," said New Zealander Bill Stevenson, head of milk collection and dairy development at Nestle Pakistan Ltd.
Like Iqbal, he has found that deep in rural Punjab, attitudes are hard to change.
Many farmers still view their animals as status symbols, not assets that can help turn around the economy, where some believe a lack of opportunities for a frustrated, youthful population may pose as big a threat to stability as militancy.
Cows are often sold to pay for weddings or dowries and are seen as four-legged insurance policies for hard times, usually living beside farmers' mud and brick homes.
"It's a full-time job," said farmer Mukhtar Ahmed as he lay on a rope bed outside his home, a cow defecating nearby.
"And farmers can't always sell their milk because it's not easy to transport and find buyers. Many are left with unsold milk."
Here's an example of a North American company buying up some European tech: ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Aug-2012
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By Kathryn Stolarz
Forrester Research Inc. has recently announced Polycom, the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) as the top-ranked company in both ?current offerings? and ?strategy? in a report on video collaboration solutions.
