Headline May 2nd, 2012 / The New Einstein

"The New Einstein"

Respectful Dedication to Peace and Harmony of the World! 

Sir David Frost

Steven Spielberg

Jack Welch/GE

Albert Einstein started a revolution, and no living physicist has done that, but a new generation of theoretical physicists is now approaching fundamental questions with new spirit. They have been striking out in new directions, working in a less ideological way and eschewing grand attempts at final theories in favour of making progress by taking simple ideas and developing them towards an experimental stage.

A leading member of the new generation is Giovanni Amelino Camelia. This Italian Scientist has invented ways to check theories of quantum gravity, the field of theoretical physics engaged in unifying all the laws governing nature's forces, including those concerning gravity, experimentally. 

The older generation had given up on this because they thought they would require a particle accelerator as big as a galaxy to accelerate particles to the energies needed to test our ideas. Scientist Amelino  Cameloa and his colleagues realised that we already have access to an experimental appratus much larger than galaxy: the whole universe. 

By observing light that has been travelling for billions of years we can make the last in experiments that universe has already been doing for us. Thinking about what results such experiments will produce has led him and others to new ideas about relativity theory itself. 

In the field of quantum theory which embraces several theoretical fields of physics, the new generation is now trying to make a quantum computer. This is leading to new ways of thinking about quantum physics, which in turn is inspiring new ideas about unification and quantum gravity. One generation of cosmologists are avoiding aligning themselves with any one theory and have honed on the problem of the big bang singularity, the point from which the universe exploded.

A recommended reading for all students is Lee Smolin's book "The Trouble with Physics." So, with the large Hadron Collider, a 27km circumference particle accelerator buried 100m under Switzerland, the Scientists are sure to make progress. They hope to address many fundamental questions about the universe. Are there more than four dimensions? Does ''God Particle'' exist? Why can only 4% of the world's mass be acccounted for through astro observation? And if it all goes pear shaped, how can we fill a black hole the size of Switzerland in planet earth?? All amazing! All awesome!

Goodnight & God Bless!

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SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless

About One Baby Born Each Hour Addicted to Opiate Drugs in U.S.

About one baby is born every hour addicted to opiate drugs in the United States, according to new research from University of Michigan physicians.

In the research published April 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, U-M physicians found that diagnosis of neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, almost tripled between 2000 and 2009.

By 2009, the estimated number of newborns with the syndrome was 13,539 -- or about one baby born each hour, according to the study that U-M researchers believe is the first to assess national trends in neonatal abstinence syndrome and mothers using opiate drugs.

"Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report which found that over the last decade sales for opiate pain relievers like OxyContin and Vicodin have quadrupled," says Stephen W. Patrick, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., lead author of the study and a fellow in the University of Michigan's Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.

Darwinian Selection Continues to Influence Human Evolution

New evidence proves humans are continuing to evolve and that significant natural and sexual selection is still taking place in our species in the modern world.

Despite advancements in medicine and technology, as well as an increased prevalence of monogamy, research reveals humans are continuing to evolve just like other species.

Scientists in an international collaboration, which includes the University of Sheffield, analysed church records of about 6,000 Finnish people born between 1760-1849 to determine whether the demographic, cultural and technological changes of the agricultural revolution affected natural and sexual selection in our species.

Project leader Dr Virpi Lummaa, of the University's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: "We have shown advances have not challenged the fact that our species is still evolving, just like all the other species 'in the wild'. It is a common misunderstanding that evolution took place a long time ago, and that to understand ourselves we must look back to the hunter-gatherer days of humans."

Dr Lummaa added: "We have shown significant selection has been taking place in very recent populations, and likely still occurs, so humans continue to be affected by both natural and sexual selection. Although the specific pressures, the factors making some individuals able to survive better, or have better success at finding partners and produce more kids, have changed across time and differ in different populations."

As for most animal species, the authors found that men and women are not equal concerning Darwinian selection.

Principal investigator Dr Alexandre Courtiol, of the Wissenschftskolleg zu Berlin, added: "Characteristics increasing the mating success of men are likely to evolve faster than those increasing the mating success of women. This is because mating with more partners was shown to increase reproductive success more in men than in women. Surprisingly, however, selection affected wealthy and poor people in the society to the same extent."

The experts needed detailed information on large numbers of study subjects to be able to study selection over the entire life cycle of individuals: survival to adulthood, mate access, mating success, and fertility per mate.

Genealogy is very popular in Finland and the country has some of the best available data for such research thanks to detailed church records of births, deaths, marriages and wealth status which were kept for tax purposes. Movement in the country was also very limited until the 20th century.

"Studying evolution requires large sample sizes with individual-based data covering the entire lifespan of each born person," said Dr Lummaa. "We need unbiased datasets that report the life events for everyone born. Because natural and sexual selection acts differently on different classes of individuals and across the life cycle, we needed to study selection with respect to these characteristics in order to understand how our species evolves."

The project was funded by the European Research Council and the Kone Foundation (Finland) and was carried out with Wissenschftskolleg zu Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, University of Turku in Finland, University of Helsinki in Finland, and the Population Research Institute in Finland.

Original source here.

Faster-Ticking Clocks

Our solar system is four and a half billion years old, but its formation may have occurred over a shorter period of time than we previously thought, says an international team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and universities and laboratories in the US and Japan.

Establishing chronologies of past events or determining ages of objects require having clocks that tick at different paces, according to how far back one looks. Nuclear clocks, used for dating, are based on the rate of decay of an atomic nucleus expressed by a half-life, the time it takes for half of a number of nuclei to decay, a property of each nuclear species.

Radiocarbon dating for example, invented in Chicago in the late 1940s and refined ever since, can date artifacts back to prehistoric times because the half-life of radiocarbon (carbon-14) is a few thousand years. The evaluation of ages of the history of earth or of the solar system requires extremely "slow-paced" chronometers consisting of nuclear clocks with much longer half-lives.

The activity of one of these clocks, known as nucleus samarium-146 (146Sm), was examined by Michael Paul, the Kalman and Malke Cooper Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as researchers from the University of Notre Dame and the Argonne National Laboratory in the US and from two Japanese universities.

146Sm belongs to a family of nuclear species which were "live" in our sun and its solar system when they were born. Events thereafter, and within a few hundred million years, are dated by the amount of 146Sm that was left in various mineral archives until its eventual "extinction."

146Sm has become the main tool for establishing the time evolution of the solar system over its first few hundred million years. This by itself owes to a delicate geochemical property of the element samarium, a rare element in nature. It is a sensitive probe for the separation, or differentiation, of the silicate portion of earth and of other planetary bodies. The main result of the work of the international scientists, detailed in a recent article in the journal Science, is a new determination of the half-life of 146Sm, previously adopted as 103 million years, to a much shorter value of 68 million years. The shorter half-life value, like a clock ticking faster, has the effect of shrinking the assessed chronology of events in the early solar system and in planetary differentiation into a shorter time span.

The new time scale, interestingly, is now consistent with a recent and precise dating made on a lunar rock and is in better agreement with the dating obtained with other chronometers.

The measurement of the half-life of 146Sm, performed over several years by the collaborators, involved the use of the ATLAS particle accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

ScienceDaily

Cheapest Destinations for British Tourists are Revealed

Year after year, surveys and research are essential to helping Britons know where they should put their money. With everything going so well for the British Pound, it opens up a whole lot more options on where to go best. It makes holidays so much easier and puts a lot more money and a lot more fun thanks to Sterling Rates.

Recent survey by the Post Office Travel Money shows that Bulgaria is the cheapest destination for British tourists this summer. All based on criteria of a list of items and as well as their prices. Bulgaria managed to beat Turkey which comes in at a not-so-close second place.

The criteria are set with comparing ten everyday items as well as a full three course meal at a local restaurant. Going to Bulgaria will cost tourists a day’s worth of £42.79 ($68.46) actually improved and lessened their prices by 4% from 2011. These prices are compared with each other. The second cheapest which is Turkey, will cost the average British Tourist £54.22 ($86.75) which had a big improvement from 2011 with a 22% cut in prices, not bad at all.

The reason for this is the improving strength of the British Pound against the European Euro. Rates change and prices fluctuate so it is best to watch out for which is the most suitable destination for holiday spending. The rates against the Euro make Europe the best destination this summer for British travelers.

The more expensive is, for example Brighton, which will cost about £79.25 ($126.8), which priced up by 3% from last year, so it’s probably best to get out of the country for a chance of a good vacation with cheaper rates. The best thing is to do research and plan out every detail of the spending. It is also helpful to check out the Post Office Travel Money’s Latest Price Index for yearly updates as well.

Microsoft buys Nook stake, B&N shares soar

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp will invest $300 million in Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook e-reader, gaining a foothold in the fast-growing e-books market as the bookseller gets more firepower to compete against Amazon.com's Kindle and Apple Inc's iPad.

The move comes as Microsoft is looking to generate excitement around its tablet-friendly Windows 8 operating system, expected on the market around October.

The deal announced on Monday includes Microsoft taking a stake in the bookseller's college bookstore division. It also means that the two companies have settled their patent dispute.

Shares of Barnes & Noble soared nearly 70 percent on Monday, while Microsoft shares were nearly flat.

The agreement values the Nook and textbook businesses, which will form a new subsidiary, at $1.7 billion.

"This is not a financial investment. It's a strategic investment to strengthen Windows 8 as a platform for tablets and e-reading," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.

Barnes & Noble gets a much-needed capital injection and a way to enter the digital books market outside the United States.

Microsoft will receive a 17.6 percent stake in the new company, temporarily called Newco. It will be run by Barnes & Noble and will maintain a relationship with the U.S. bookstore chain's nearly 700 stores.

Barnes & Noble's Nook has found a strong following, allowing it to garner some 27 percent of the U.S. e-books market in the 2-1/2 years since the device was launched. But battling Amazon's market-leading Kindle has proved expensive.

"It gives them a much larger partner with deeper pockets, it gives them increased reach," said Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom. "In the last two years they've had their backs against the wall."

Last year, Barnes & Noble suspended its dividend to have more cash to develop Nook. In January, it lowered its sales and profit forecasts.

The companies also said on Monday that they have settled their patent litigation. Last year, Microsoft filed lawsuits for patent infringement against Barnes & Noble over the Nook in part of its assault on devices running on Google Inc's Android system.

NOOK TO GO GLOBAL
Barnes & Noble has poured tens of millions of dollars into developing the Nook. The first version hit the market in 2009, two years after the Kindle.

The company's e-readers, tablets and electronic book sales have helped it offset a broader decline in book sales. Same-store sales of books at its brick-and-mortar stores have edged up again largely thanks to the bankruptcy last year of Borders Group.

But the Nook has been available only in the United States and the company said last year it wanted to take its digital business to new markets.

Barnes & Noble's CEO, William Lynch, told analysts on a conference call Microsoft's reach would help in that regard.

"We will have the opportunity to collaborate on developing best-in-class reading technologies for those Windows users and extend the digital bookstore to hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and internationally," he said.

The company had said in January that it might spin off its digital business, which includes the Nook, arguing that investors were not giving the company enough credit for that growth.

The company did not say on Monday if it would take the new company public.

Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale in 2010 but attracted only one firm offer - a bid for $17 per share, or $1 billion, last May, from Liberty Media, which was drawn by the Nook's growth.

Liberty ultimately decided to invest $204 million rather than buy the company outright. It now has preferred shares it can convert into a 16.6 percent stake in Barnes & Noble at a strike price of $17. A spokeswoman for Liberty Media was not immediately available for comment.

Some 71 percent of Barnes & Noble is held by its top four shareholders, making the stock's moves more volatile. It is also one of the New York Stock Exchange listed shares with the highest short interest, adding to their jumpiness.

Barnes & Noble shares were up 67 percent at $22.85 late on Monday morning. The company was valued at just above $823 million at Friday's close.

Microsoft shares were unchanged at $31.98.

Siri Concept Will Self-Destruct Your iPhone If Stolen

Even if your iPhone is password protected and its data is backed up on iCloud, there's still that uneasy feeling that comes with losing your device or having it stolen. From the creators of the stunning iPhone 5 and iPad 3 concept videos comes a quirky new clip of Siri self-destructing if the lock is incorrectly attempted three times.

That's right. Siri blows up -- or cracks -- the phone.

"Everyone has friends whose smartphones have been stolen, so we came up with this extreme measure that a user could enable," Aatma Studio CEO Pramod Modi Shantharam told Mashable. "If the owner can't have it, no one else should."

Eagle-eyed viewers will recognize the ill-fated phone as the star of a recent iPhone 5 concept video. Aatma Studio's first video with new iPhone design idea, which features an ultra-thin iPhone design, a laser keyboard and a holographic display, raked in more than 50 million views on YouTube.

Aatma Studio is making a habit of creating innovative, mind-blowing concepts for Apple products. In March, the company unveiled a video that toyed with a 3D multiplayer hologram for gaming, a feature that allows a movie to be displayed across two connected iPad screens at once and a 2560 x 1140 resolution edge-to-edge retina display, which gives the allusion of a larger visual screen area.

Saint Mary's College: Educating heart, mind, and soul

The bad news about Saint Mary’s College summer camps? They turn off the ice cream machine at breakfast.
That’s it. The rest of the news is great if you’re a girl entering grades 5–12: fun, friendship, fine arts, forensic science, athletics, and more. Plus, the chance to be mentored by outstanding Saint Mary’s students like Katey Wagner.
An elementary education major from Burr Ridge, Illinois, Katey loves camp so much that she’s sticking around after graduation to return for her third year as a fine arts camp counselor.

“Camp is just as much fun for the counselors as it is for the girls,” she says. “I love the kids and doing activities with them and laughing with them. And Saint Mary’s is a really good, safe environment. We’re a women’s college, so we’re very nurturing. We look out for the girls like they’re our little sisters.”

Katey first visited Saint Mary's College when her
younger sister came to summer camp. "I drove with
my mom to drop her off, and I loved it immediately."The camps program has more than 50 dedicated staff members, including counselors, instructors, trainers, nurses, and other workers. They receive extensive training in everything from first aid and CPR to supporting homesick girls.

“The best thing for homesickness is to keep the girls busy so they don’t have time to think about home,” Katey says. “And at the end of the day, when they’re winding down, I try to make it extra special and give them attention and support. They come to my room or we’ll sit in the hallway and paint nails or have dance parties. I always bring snacks and play music for them.

"Saint Mary's is a really good, safe environment,"
Katey says. "We're a women's college so we're
very nurturing."
“The girls make friends so quickly and they’re so excited to be together.”

It’s also thrilling for them to get a taste of college life. “They love being in the residence halls. They’re like, ‘You live here all year? You’re so lucky you get to eat in the dining hall every day.’”

And the dining hall, Katey says, is one of the greatest joys of camp. While there are plenty of healthy options, “They get to eat corn dogs, mac and cheese, and curly fries," Katey says. "They love choosing their own food, and they especially love the ice cream machine. We have to turn it off at breakfast.”

University Press Release here.

St. Olaf College : Two students awarded Goldwater Scholarships

Two St. Olaf College students have been awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2012–13 academic year.

Benjamin Keisling '13 and Sarah Ludwig '13 were chosen from a field of 1,123 applicants to receive one of the 282 scholarships worth up to $7,500. The Goldwater Scholarships are awarded each year to undergraduate students who have shown significant achievement and potential in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. Since 1995, 31 St. Olaf students have been awarded this scholarship. Michelle Frank '13 earned an honorable mention from the Goldwater Foundation.

Keisling, a physics major, is part of a student research team that spent the past two summers working with Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Bob Jacobel to analyze the evolution of a subglacial lake in Antarctica. Last fall the students presented their findings at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting. Keisling also performed field work in Norway, measuring the seismicity of glaciers and how glacial processes work.

Ludwig, a chemistry and biology major, spent last summer in the Siberian Arctic researching the impact of carbon and nutrient transports on global climate change. Her work was part of the Polaris Project, a field course and research experience funded by the National Science Foundation. Ludwig is currently researching wetlands, with a specific focus on how various plant types influence wetland methane emissions.

After graduation, Keisling plans to pursue a Ph.D. in geophysics. He would like to one day model earth systems, with a focus on applications relating to climate change, geodynamics, and alternative energy. Ludwig also plans to attend graduate school and earn a Ph.D. in biogeochemistry, with the goal of eventually teaching at the university level and conducting research in polar ecosystems.

University Press Release here.

Drew University: In Defense of College

Columbia professor and author Andrew Delbanco argues that college should be a time for students to discover their passions and feel free to fail

Suddenly everyone seems to be questioning the value of college. They cost too much. They’re too slow to change. They don’t prepare undergraduates to compete in the global economy.

Yet the concepts underpinning the traditional college experience are as fresh and valid as when the Puritans founded Harvard College nearly four centuries ago, according to Columbia University Professor Andrew Delbanco, the featured speaker at the April 25 meeting of the Drew Faculty Seminar series. And tinkering with those concepts, Delbanco said, is a bad idea.

The director of American Studies at Columbia and author of a new book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, Delbanco said America properly changed the face of higher education by expanding educational opportunities and encouraging diversity. But he said colleges today should resist pressures to promote distance learning, compress the time spent at college and convert full-time faculty to part-time freelancers.

Delbanco believes college should be a time for undergraduates to reflect, explore new subjects, feel free to fail, and discover their passions. That is best done, he says, in a residential setting, among professors who are dedicated to teaching.

“One idea we should be very loath to give up is the fundamental idea that students have a great deal to learn from each other,” he said. “It’s fundamental to the American college, and an institution like Drew, where a large proportion of students live on campus. A true college is as interested in what happens outside class as in class.”

Delbanco said traditional colleges also provide a “rehearsal for democracy,” producing educated citizens who can tell the difference between demagogues and true reformers. “College gives you a bullshit meter,” he said. “That’s a technology that’s never going to become obsolete.”

But he admitted private liberal arts institutions are severely stressed. “Students are fleeing the humanities everywhere,” he said. “The money culture has also suffused higher education.”

After Delbanco’s talk, in the Founders Room at Mead Hall, faculty members pressed him for solutions. “What’s the most worrisome part of all this? What do we do?” asked Wendy Kolmar, chair of the English Department.

“I think we want to continue to find ways to attract people of high intelligence and idealism into the teaching ranks,” he said. “We also need to proselytize for what we believe in.”

University Press Release here.

Trinity College Dublin Fosters Academic Links with Top Chinese University

Trinity's Vice-Provost for Global Relations, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer and President of Beihang University, Professor Huai Jinpeng, sign MoU agreement.

Trinity College Dublin and one of China’s top universities, Beihang University, recently signed a strategic partnership which will enable both institutions cooperate in teaching and research, and facilitate both academic and cultural interchange.

The agreement will see Trinity College Dublin work closely with Beihang in the fields of nanotechnology, chemistry and physics, and will facilitate the exchange of students and researchers between the two institutions. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to conduct their final year research project at the partner institution. Additionally, joint courses and research centres will be developed for collaborative research in priority areas including history, literature, music and the arts. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Trinity’s Vice-Provost for Global Relations, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer and President of Beihang University, Professor Huai Jinpeng.

Speaking about the strategic partnership Professor Jane Ohlmeyer said: “We are delighted to enter into this partnership with Beihang University with respect to teaching and research. It will provide a platform for joint collaborative research projects which will encourage the exchange of faculty, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students with the objective of fostering academic cooperation and collaboration between both parties.”

University Press Release here.

Why Aren't More Students Doing Sandwich Courses?

You've just passed your degree, time to remove the arm bands and jump in at the deep end. You arrive at your interview and are greeted with the question: "How much industry experience do you have?"

Nowadays everyone is scrambling for work placements. Even unpaid internships are oversubscribed. Meanwhile employers say recent graduates are lacking work skills. Why then, are sandwich courses in decline?

Sandwich degrees – vocational courses where students spend a year working within their industry – are meant to introduce you to the world of work and complement university learning. Sounds good, right? Yet despite the advantages of sandwich degrees, there has been a steady fall in the numbers enrolling on such courses.

The Wilson review of links between universities and industry says (on page 38): "Despite the undoubted advantages of undertaking a placement, there has been a decline in this practice in recent years from 9.5% of the total full-time cohort in 2002-03 to 7.2% in 2009-10."

The vast majority of these sandwich degrees are provided by a small cluster of universities and they're mostly in areas such as science, engineering, IT and business. I chose to study a degree in pharmaceutical science at Sheffield Hallam University because the course there allowed me to spend a year in industry – which I'm now doing, working with company Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.

But why don't more universities offer placement years – and in a broader range of courses? Employers' reluctance to spend time supervising students is partly to blame, says Warwick University professor Kate Purcell, an expert in the graduate labour market.

"Work placements are very difficult for universities to set up and they're expensive for to run – departments have to arrange visits by academics, and mentoring, to ensure students are having a rewarding experience."

For students, the burden of paying tuition fees (albeit discounted) while on a placement year is off-putting. At the moment, universities can charge up to £4,500 for sandwich years – though a guideline fee of £1,000 has been suggested by the Wilson review.

Seven months into my placement I can say that it has been worth it. I'm using exciting technology to purify proteins aimed at stage 1, 2 and 3 drug trials. It's satisfying to know that the drugs I'm developing may one day save lives. I feel like I'm learning from the best – and hopefully, when the dreaded moment comes, I'll be able to respond to employers' questions about my industry knowledge.

But it's not just a handy nugget to add to the CV. My industry placement has been about experience and discovery, empiricism and experimentation. This year has given me confidence, memories, direction and assurance – and being paid has helped too. When I finally return to university for my final year I will no longer be a student, I'll be a scientist.

Read article at the original source here.

Pebble smart watch: Top Kickstarter project, ever

Imagine raising $7 million from nearly 50,000 strangers in a matter of weeks. That's the power of a growing trend toward crowd funding, as demonstrated by the most successful Kickstarter campaign yet.

The Pebble watch syncs with iPhone and Android smartphones to deliver e-mail, text messages, and calendar alerts, among other things. Dubbed the "smart watch," Pebble's journey to becoming the most funded Kickstarter project to date is not exactly a Cinderella story, but it's impressive nonetheless.

Eric Migicovsky leads the development team behind Pebble. The developers already have a similar product called inPulse for Android and BlackBerry smartphones. This month, Migicovsky and his team shattered the dogma of traditional funding by venture capitalist firms by tapping into the Kickstarter community.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Migicovsky had to overcome two hurdles before Pebble could become a reality: lack of funding and challenges with Apple's operating system that prevented interaction with watches. Apple updated its software last summer, so that left the issue of funding.

Migicovsky was advised by startup incubator Y Combinator's co-founder, Paul Graham, to post his project on Kickstarter. Within two hours of doing so, the team hit their $100,000 goal.

Kickstarter works by letting anyone propose a project on the site, setting a monetary goal. If the goal is met, the project gets funded. Everything from independent films to garden projects has been funding through Kickstarter campaigns.

Pebble isn't the only Kickstarter project that's gained an overwhelming level of support. Projects like Elevation Dock and Brydge keyboard both garnered huge responses for their innovative design concepts.

Developers for the video game "Shadowrun" turned to Kickstarter to fund the next iteration of the game, "Shadowrun Returns." The game studio that published "Shadowrun," FASA Studios, was shut down by Microsoft in 2007. The game's original creators, Harebrained Schemes, obtained the license from Microsoft and took to Kickstarter to raise funds for development. More than 36,000 backers shelled out $1.8 million to see the next release of the game.

Kickstarter isn't the only company in the space, but the success of Pebble only demonstrates how crowd funding can make a significant impact on startups and companies in need of a lifeline.

Source

Google faces lawsuit over its stock-split plan

Criticism of its recent stock split plan has evolved into a court case against Google. A shareholder filed a class action lawsuit in an attempt to block the plan on the grounds that it gives Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin too much power, according to Reuters.

Brockton Retirement Board brought the suit, alleging that Page and Brin "wish to retain this power, while selling off large amounts of their stockholdings, and reaping billions of dollars in proceeds." Brockton filed the complaint in Delaware, where Google is incorporated.

Google announced its first stock split -- or, if you will, "non-voting capital stock plan" -- last month. As part of the split, the company plans to issue a new class of stock that won't carry voting rights. Current Google stockholders will receive one share of this new Class C stock for each company share they already hold. But future stock grants to employees and new acquisitions will be of the non-voting variety. The overall effect will be to ensure that Google's existing shareholders -- especially its founders -- retain their current voting power.

According to Reuters, the Brockton complaint says that the plan cements Page and Brin's "iron-clad grip" on Google by maintaining their 56.3 percent voting stake.

In Page and Brin's 2012 Founders' Letter explaining the stock split plan, the co-founders wrote:

We recognize that some people, particularly those who opposed this structure at the start, won't support this change -- and we understand that other companies have been very successful with more traditional governance models. But after careful consideration with our board of directors, we have decided that maintaining this founder-led approach is in the best interests of Google, our shareholders and our users. Having the flexibility to use stock without diluting our structure will help ensure we are set up for success for decades to come.

Source

Samsung pulling away from Apple in smartphone market

It's no secret that Samsung and Apple are battling it out for smartphone dominance. But it appears Samsung is, at least for now, winning the war.

During the first quarter of 2012, Samsung shipped 42.2 million smartphones worldwide, earning it 29.1 percent market share, according to a study released today by research firm IDC. Apple, meanwhile, shipped 35.1 million iPhones, helping it to secure 24.2 percent market share. During the same period last year, Samsung shipped just 11.5 million smartphones, while Apple shipped 18.6 million units.

"The race between Apple and Samsung remained tight during the quarter, even as both companies posted growth in key areas," Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program said today in a statement. "Apple launched its popular iPhone 4S in additional key markets, most notably in China, and Samsung experienced continued success from its Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet and other Galaxy smartphones."

Interestingly, not all research firms can agree on the size of the spread between Samsung shipments and iPhone shipments last quarter. Although Juniper Research agreed that Apple shipped 35.1 million iPhones during the period, the research firm believes Samsung actually shipped 46.9 million devices, earning it 33 percent market share.

"While Apple and Samsung have taken it in turns to lead the smartphone market over the last four quarters, it seems as if Samsung may now have established a firm lead in this space, shipping 11.8 million more units than the Cupertino, California company in Q1," Juniper wrote in a statement today.

Apple and Samsung have become arch enemies in the mobile space. Not only are the companies vying for the top spot in sales, but they're also heavily engaged in a host of lawsuits around the world. The companies' CEOs are expected to hold mediation talks later this month to address their troubles, but there appears to be no love lost between the parties.

Samsung might have an advantage with smartphone shipment calculations, since it sells many more devices than Apple does. Still, Apple has more iPhones on store shelves than ever, offering the iPhone 3GS for free, the iPhone 4 for $100, and the iPhone 4S for as little as $200 with two-year contracts.

But as IDC points out, the smartphone market is about more than just Samsung and Apple. It's just too bad consumers don't see it that way.

During the first quarter, Nokia saw its shipments plummet 50.8 percent year over year to 11.9 million units. Research In Motion's BlackBerry device shipments fell 29.7 percent, while HTC was down 23.3 percent. Altogether, the three companies could not match Apple's market share.

For the smartphone market as a whole, however, things are looking up. During the first quarter of 2011, 101.7 million smartphones hit store shelves, according to IDC. Last quarter, that figure soared to 144.9 million units.

Source

IE continues to rebound in browser market

The reversal of Internet Explorer's ill fortunes appears less likely to be a fluke with the release of April statistics for Web browser usage.

Net Applications' global browser statistics, updated today, showed the top browser reclaiming a sliver of usage from its rivals, growing from 53.8 percent in March to 54.1 percent of usage in April on personal computers.

The top rivals kept their rankings overall. No. 2. Firefox held dropped from 20.6 percent to 20.2 percent; Chrome rose from 18.6 percent to 18.9 percent; Safari dropped from 5.1 percent to 4.8 percent; and Opera held level at 1.6 percent.

Microsoft is heavily pushing IE9, which ships with Windows 7 and which restores some of the competitiveness that Internet Explorer has lacked for years. The company also is trying hard to move IE6 users off the decade-old browser and has begun promoting the forthcoming IE10 version that'll ship with Windows 8.

But among mobile devices -- phones and tablets -- Microsoft continues to be weak.

There, Safari usage grew considerably from 60.5 percent to 63.8 percent, Net Applications said. Google's Android browser grew from 18.3 percent to 18.9 percent, and Opera Mini dropped from 15.4 percent to 12.1 percent.

The mobile market has been more volatile in Net Applications' measurements, so gains and losses have been more fleeting, but Safari seems to have no trouble maintaining its strong lead, at least for now. No doubt Google hopes to change that with its new Chrome version for Android.

The split between mobile and PC browsing stayed about level, with 92.4 percent of usage on personal computers and 7.3 percent on mobile devices.

Net Applications said the iPad now handily tops the iPhone in mobile device usage. iPads account for 33.7 percent of mobile device browser usage to 27.4 percent for iPhones.

Meanwhile, StatCounter, an alternative analytics site with different methods, shows No.1 IE continuing to slide, No. 2 Chrome rising but not as fast as in previous months, and No. 3 Firefox about level.

StatCounter counts raw page views, not qualifying its data by daily usage, pre-rendered pages in Chrome that may not ever actually be viewed, and geographic differences with global Internet usage patterns vs. its own analytics network. Net Applications does make those adjustments to its data. Both firms gather data based on global visits to Web pages that include its tracking technology.

Source

Nancy Culpepper: Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason

Book Description:
Kentucky native Nancy Culpepper boldly left home to attend school in Massachusetts, married a Yankee, and raised her son in the Northeast. “One day I was feeding chickens and listening to Hank Williams and the next day I was expected to know what wines went with what,” she tells her husband, Jack. Yet no matter where she travels, her rural southern heritage is never far from her thoughts, her habits, and her heart.

Nancy is on a lifelong quest to understand her place in the world. Returning home to the family farm, she searches for photographic evidence of an ancestor bearing her own name. Still in her jeans, she brings home strange ideas and an assertiveness she learned up north.
Always adventurous, Nancy travels far and wide–searching, seeking. The narrative sweep of her life traverses the turbulent sixties, the Vietnam War, the eighties and the foreboding death of John Lennon, and finally the new millennium–when a self-assured Nancy finally emerges. These humorous and often touching stories recount her courtship and marriage to Jack, her relationship with her precocious son, and the deep, loving bond between her parents, Spence and Lila Culpepper. Eventually Nancy’s marriage is threatened by a cultural divide that plagued her and Jack from the start. But when she inherits the Culpepper family farm and discovers more pieces of her ancestral puzzle, she realizes that her life is assuming its proper shape. Later, standing on a lonely mountain in England, she sees the world from a surprising perspective.

Bestselling author Bobbie Ann Mason’s prizewinning Nancy Culpepper chronicles have appeared in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, The Southern Review, and other distinguished literary anthologies. She has compiled these stories into one definitive collection, which includes the novella Spence + Lila, two new, never-before-published stories, and one Pushcart Prize winner. Heartfelt and thought-provoking, Nancy Culpepper is a poignant depiction of change and growth in a modern-day heroine.

Kompany winner takes Man City top of League

Vincent Kompany scored the only goal as Manchester City beat title rivals Manchester United to go top of the Barclays Premier League.
Kompany rose above the Manchester United defence to head in from a David Silva centre in first-half injury-time.
City striker Sergio Aguero twice went close in the opening period, volleying over and then shooting wide.
Yaya Toure went close with two second-half shots, Aguero fired into the side-netting from a difficult angle and Gael Clichy had an effort saved by David de Gea's legs as City pushed for a second goal.
Reigning champions United struggled to carve out any chances as they slipped behind City on goal difference with two matches remaining.  (premierleague.com)

Arsenal sign Lukas Podolski for undisclosed fee

Germany striker Lukas Podolski will join Arsenal for the start of next season, his current club Cologne have confirmed.

The 26 year-old, who has 95 caps for the national team, will move to the Emirates for an undisclosed fee after both clubs and the player reached agreement over the deal.
Podolski said: "The move to Arsenal provides a great opportunity for me to gain experience in international competitions at a top European club."
Podolski, who started his career at Cologne before rejoining them in 2009 after an unhappy three-year spell at Bayern Munich, added on the club's official website: "I have made this decision not against Cologne but for this great opportunity and the good of my own individual development.
"This was not an easy decision for me at all, as Cologne, our fans and the city are something special for me. I will always carry Cologne in my heart. We need to pool our strengths now and have to be fully focused on our survival in the Bundesliga."
The Poland-born forward, who had one year left on his contract with the Bundesliga strugglers, has scored 18 league goals for a side battling relegation so far this term, his best ever top-flight return.

Yellow Submarine (1968)

Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated musical fantasy film based on the music of The Beatles. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists (UA) and King Features Syndicate. The real Beatles participated only in the closing scene of the film, with the fictional counterparts of The Beatles voiced by other actors.

Synopsis: Once upon a time... or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland, a place where happiness and music reigned supreme. But all that was threatened when the terrible Blue Meanies declared war and sent in their army led by a menacing Flying Glove to destroy all that was good. Enter John, Paul, George and Ringo to save the day! Armed with little more than their humor, songs, and of course, their yellow submarine, The Beatles tackle the rough seas ahead in an effort to bring down the evil forces of bluedom.

The film received a widely positive reception from critics and audiences alike. It is also credited with bringing more interest in animation as a serious art form. Time commented that it "turned into a smash hit, delighting adolescents and esthetes alike"

Backstreet Boys Welcome Back Kevin Richardson

Kevin Richardson is Backstreet's Back, all right. The fifth member of the Backstreet Boys has announced that he is formally rejoining the group after leaving in June 2006.

In footage posted on their website from their show with New Kids on the Block at London's O2 Arena, BSB member Nick Carter told the excited room, "I think we should let them in on the secret we have. Since we love you guys so much, especially in London, that we are going to come back, we are going to be back in July to record the next Backstreet Boys album this year."

While that bit of news had the crowd cheering, it was what Brian Littrell shared that really got the room screaming. "There's two parts to that secret," he said. "And Kevin is coming back!" They then added that they might play shows with all 10 members of NKOTBSB.

Though Richardson left the group six years ago, he has made sporadic concert appearances with the band, including one on the Backstreet Boys cruise back in December. Still, the remaining members of the band always were skeptical that a full-fledged reunion would ever take place.

On Twitter, they had this additional message for their fans. "Now everything is back to normal ... Welcome back @kevinrichardson." For his part, Kevin seemed pretty stoked about being reunited with his band of brothers, adding on his Twitter, "Hello beau-ti-ful people. Yes, the cat is OFFICIALLY out of the bag. It's on and crackin!"

Discover design stars of the future with live stream of FIT's Annual Fashion Show

While designers including Calvin Klein and Diane von Furstenburg may have front row seats for the upcoming Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) graduate runway show in New York, fashionistas can get involved too, as it will be possible to watch the show live online for the first time this year.

The prestigious design school boasts alumni including Michael Kors, Ralph Rucci, Reem Acra, and Nanette Lepore, and the graduate show, The Future of Fashion, is one of the most anticipated in the fashion calendar for discovering stars of the future.

Nowadays it is commonplace for labels in all four fashion capitals to live stream fashion shows, and designers in the Big Apple such as Diane von Furstenberg, Carolina Herrera and Narciso Rodriguez have been doing so for some time, so it makes sense for FIT to follow suit.

Fashion fans will be able to catch The Future of Fashion streamed live on the web at 7:30pm Wednesday, May 2, via www.fitnyc.edu/futureoffashion.

To get into the mood beforehand you can also gain insight into the final preparations by the FIT students ahead of the fashion show by checking out some of their blogs. For a list of links visit http://www.fitnyc.edu/12061.asp.