WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal officials say 20,000 foster children have been adopted after being listed on a national website that links adoptive families with kids.
The number is especially significant because the majority of those adopted were not infants, but many were teens, minorities and those with disabilities.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praised the efforts, but said Thursday that many more children still need permanent homes. More than 100,000 of the country's roughly 400,000 foster kids are looking for adoptive families.
The website, AdoptUSKids.org, gives prospective parents background information and a photo of each child. Once a parent indicates an interest, the website connects them with the child's caseworker.
Actor Bruce Willis was the face of the campaign when President George W. Bush launched it in 2002.
While The Guardian undoubtedly garnered attention when it posted court papers detailing data collection rules for the NSA, it also provided a lot of detail that isn't easy to digest. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is more than willing to break down those rules, however -- and it doesn't like what it sees. It's concerned that there are too many exceptions letting the NSA store and transmit private information, with little oversight preventing investigators from seeing more US data than they should. Allegedly, the rules could defy American rights to anonymous speech; they may also violate attorney-client privileges both inside and outside of the US. We have a hunch that the NSA might disagree with this interpretation of its authority, but you can see all the points of contention for yourself at the link below.
Plus, World War Z is smart and tense, and The Bling Ring is stylish and lurid.
Also opening this week in limited release:
A Hijacking, a thriller about a Danish cargo ship commandeered by a group of Somali pirates, is Certified Fresh at 100 percent.
The Attack, a drama about a prominent Israeli Palestinian whose wife is posthumously accused of being a suicide bomber, is at 92 percent.
Unfinished Song, starring Gemma Arterton and Terence Stamp in a dramedy about a grumpy older guy who comes out of his shell when he joins a local choir, is at 64 percent.
Maniac, starring Elijah Wood in a thriller about a withdrawn shop owner whose dark side is unleashed, is at 54 percent.
The French import Three Worlds, a drama about disparate people who reconnect after a hit-and-run accident, is at 43 percent.
Somm, a documentary about a group of wine experts working to pass the demanding Master Sommelier test, is at 33 percent.
Rushlights, a thriller about a pair of teens who get into big trouble when they attempt to claim an inheritance under false pretenses, is at zero percent.
Contact: Michael Carlowicz Michael.j.carlowicz@nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
On June 19, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of smoke from wildfires burning in western Alaska. The smoke was moving west over Norton Sound. (The center of the image is roughly 163 West and 62 North.) Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fire.
According to an advisory released by the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, record heat and dry fuels have produced record-setting fire potential across boreal spruce forests and tundra landscapes. The heat wave is the product of an intense ridge of high pressure over the state.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? University of Missouri-Kansas City athletics director Tim Hall is leaving for an AD job at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
His resignation is effective July 1. Hall said in a news release that he's confident "things are headed in the right direction" at UMKC. The Baltimore campus is close to his extended family.
Hall has been the athletics director at UMKC since 2007. He previously served as the associate athletics director for development at Kent State University.
During Hall's tenure, UMKC has won conference championships in men's soccer, men's golf, men's tennis and softball. Hall also announced this spring the hiring of Louisville assistant Kareem Richardson as head men's basketball coach.
UMKC's interim AD will be Carla Wilson, currently senior associate athletics director for business and administration.
Travel portal TripAdvisor continues to push ahead with its mobile and social acquisitions: today the company announced that it has acquired GateGuru, a mobile app that provides real-time information on airports, weather, and flights -- much of it picked up from crowdsourcing, much like Waze does with road travel. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but we are trying to find out.
Facebook is not just for keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing pictures, and status updates. Now it's a tool for catching wanted people.?
The Greene County Sheriff's Office is using the social media site to track down crime suspects. Sheriff's deputies are posting pictures of wanted people on Facebook and they are getting more tips than ever.
"We will post on Facebook to cast a larger net, especially with if there are suspects that could be outside of our jurisdiction," said Michael Martin, sheriff's deputy. He says since the sheriff's office started online it has made more arrests leading to convictions.?
The sheriff's office Facebook page has more than 900 likes, and even more people?are looking at the pictures. ?On April 28, the office posted a "People of Interest" album. Nineteen people shared it with their followers, meaning thousands could have seen the pictures.
"We found the results to be extraordinary," Martin said.?
Reporting a tip is always confidential. You can message, email, call or text the sheriff's office.?
Facebook has also been successful because of its real-time capabilities. Rather than somebody seeing a flyer on a wall days or weeks after an event, they will come across pictures faster - maybe even that exact hour or day - on Facebook.
Many details about us can be ? and often are ? tracked, collected, collated and analyzed. Companies mine personal information in the name of profit. Government authorities mine it in the name of security.
Big Data 2013
A special section on the business and culture of big data.
Privacy advocates say most Americans do not know they are being tracked. That is why, these experts argue, new laws and policies should be adopted to limit data collection, increase transparency and protect everyone?s privacy. Otherwise, some people will take steps to protect themselves and others won?t.
?Do we really want a cadre of people who protect themselves, a privacy elite? What does that make everyone else, easy pickings?? said Frank Pasquale, a professor at Seton Hall School of Law who is writing a book on technology called ?The Black Box Society.? ?I think self-help is a complete myth. There is no good self-defense.?
The only real way to avoid data profiling would be to go off the grid. No Internet. No mobile phones. No credit cards. Basically, none of the conveniences and connectivity of modern life. That isn?t an option for most of us. But there are ways to minimize our digital footprints and at least nominally impede government or commercial surveillance. Here are a few of them:
LOSE THE SMARTPHONE
Alexei Miagkov, a leading product engineer for Ghostery, a free browser extension that lets Internet users track and control third-party data collection, carries an old ?dumb phone,? the kind that can make calls, send text messages, take photos ? and that?s about it. Smartphones, he says, are de facto tracking devices.
?If you think about a smartphone, it?s a little computer in your pocket, and it?s always connected,? he said. Using a low-tech phone ?reduces my footprint, my privacy exposure, because I don?t have unknown third parties collecting my information.?
USE GHOST E-MAIL
Dan Auerbach, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in San Francisco, uses a variety of e-mail addresses, some of them fake, to help obfuscate his online activities.
That is because companies can share people?s e-mail addresses, he says, allowing some analytics or marketing companies to connect the activities of a person who logs in with the same e-mail address across many sites. If users register for a service using addresses containing their real names or variations of their names, companies may be able to connect those address with those people?s identities.
?I think it?s common to be wary of giving out your personal information for every single service,? Mr. Auerbach said. ?If you are going to give me a sign-up form, I am going to give you a bogus answer back. I think that?s a perfectly legitimate thing to do.?
CRUSH THE COOKIES
When a person goes online, companies like ad networks and data brokers may use cookies ? bits of code ? and other techniques to track that user around the Web. Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student in computer science and law at Stanford, employs an arsenal of cookie countermeasures.
Mr. Mayer turns on private browsing mode, a setting that prevents the browser from storing information about Web sites visited during a particular online session. He has also installed free browser extensions, like Adblock Plus, that allow him to block ads and disable online tracking. These programs can also be used to disable buttons from social networks like Facebook and Google Plus, preventing the networks from following a user?s online activities from site to site.
?I don?t want companies I never heard of to know what I am doing on the Web,? Mr. Mayer said. Even with services he does use, he said, ?I would like not to have everything I look for be correlated, what articles I read, the videos I watch.?
USE MULTIPLE BROWSERS
To inhibit online trackers, Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton, uses three different browsers: Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. He says he reserves one browser for e-mail, another for social networking and a third for general browsing. And never the three shall meet.
?To the extent that you as a consumer can frustrate the trackers,? Professor Felten said, ?you may reduce the amount of tracking going on.?
PAY CASH
Credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards ? all leave digital trails that are easy to track. That may be fine with most people for most transactions, but experts like Professor Felten recommend that people pay cash for items they want to keep private, like health products.
?You can buy something with cash and without a loyalty card and it probably will not end up in a record,? he says.
Other experts recommend paying cash for products like alcohol, cigarettes, condoms or fast food.
?Things that you reveal in transactions that you do with your name attached, you should assume people can make inferences and it can be difficult to predict what those inferences might be,? Professor Felten said. ?You might decide it?s O.K. and make peace with it. Or you might decide to pull back and be a little more cautious.?
In other words, that old countermeasure to flesh-and-blood busybodies espoused by Hester Prynne in ?The Scarlet Letter,? a sensation of 1850, remains good advice even in an era of Big Data.
?We must not always talk in the marketplace,? Hester Prynne said, ?of what happens to us in the forest.?
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom said Thursday he was "in tears" after a European company deleted all the data it was hosting from his shuttered file-sharing site.
Netherlands-based LeaseWeb announced it had deleted all Megaupload files from 630 servers.
LeaseWeb said in a statement it hosted the data for over a year at its own expense without receiving any requests to access it or retain it before deciding the time had come to use the servers for other purposes.
But Dotcom said in a series of Twitter posts that his lawyers repeatedly asked LeaseWeb to keep the data pending U.S. court proceedings.
Dotcom said that millions of users' personal files had been lost in the "largest data massacre in the history of the Internet."
U.S. authorities shut down Megaupload last year and indicted Dotcom and other executives. Prosecutors accuse them of racketeering by facilitating massive copyright fraud. Dotcom says he's innocent and can't be held responsible for those who chose to use Megaupload to illegally download songs or movies.
LeaseWeb's deletions would mostly affect former Megaupload users in Europe. Other Megaupload files remain stored on U.S. servers.
U.S. attempts to extradite Dotcom from his home in New Zealand have been delayed as his complex legal case plays out. His extradition hearing is now scheduled for November.
Dotcom this year started a new site called Mega. The deletions do not affect that site.
June 18, 2013 ? Research from the University of Adelaide shows that iodized salt used in bread is not enough to provide healthy levels of iodine for pregnant women and their unborn children.
The study -- led by researchers from the University's Robinson Institute -- has prompted calls for pregnant women to keep taking iodine supplements.
Iodine deficiency is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the most common preventable cause of brain damage in the world.
"Iodine is an essential element which is important for human brain development and thyroid function," says one of the lead authors of the study, Associate Professor Vicki Clifton from the University's Robinson Institute and the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
"In 2009, Australian bread producers began a mandatory program of iodine supplementation in bread to help provide a boost to iodine levels in the community. Our study was aimed at determining whether or not that was having a positive impact on iodine levels for pregnant women."
In the study, almost 200 South Australian women were tested throughout their pregnancy and six months after giving birth.
"We found that South Australian women are mildly iodine deficient. Despite the inclusion of iodized salt in bread, women who were not taking an iodine supplement during pregnancy were still suffering from iodine deficiency," Associate Professor Clifton says.
"Those women who were taking a supplement in addition to eating bread with iodized salt were receiving healthy levels of iodine, well within WHO guidelines."
This is the latest study to follow on from the pioneering work of the University's Emeritus Professor Basil Hetzel AC, who began researching iodine deficiency more than 50 years ago at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in collaboration with the Papua New Guinea Public Health Department.
His work revealed very low urine iodine levels and high rates of goitre were associated with a form of brain damage called 'cretinism'. Professor Hetzel showed that this brain damage could be prevented by correcting the severe iodine deficiency before pregnancy.
"There's a lot of work going on around the world to ensure that pregnant women are receiving enough iodine for the healthy development of their unborn babies," says Professor Hetzel, who is also a lead author on this current study.
"The message is simple: by taking iodine supplements, pregnant women will be able to prevent brain and organ development problems in their babies, and also maintain a healthy level of iodine for themselves."
Professor Hetzel says Australia continues to be a world leader in this field, "but there is still very little public understanding about the dangers of iodine deficiency."
The results of this study were published in the Nutrition Journal.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) ? A woman has been sentenced to eight days in jail for stealing a former "American Idol" contestant's iPhone while the singer was performing at a California elementary school.
City News Service reports 47-year-old Bertha Alicia Avalos, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft charges Monday and was sentenced immediately.
Todrick Dramaul Hall reported his phone missing after a performance at Hazard Elementary School in Santa Ana.
Hall and a school security guard used the "Find My iPhone" feature on the device to track the phone to a grocery store where Avalos was shopping with her son, a student at the school.
Avalos gave the phone back to Hall. He wanted to press charges, so she was taken into custody later at her home.
Finally, after 14 long years CeeLo, Khujo, Big Gipp and T-Mo to reunite and set forth another Goodie Mob album! The quartet enlisted the vocal assistnce of Janelle Monae for their first single ?Special Education,? off the highly anticipated ?Age Against the Machine? due out August 27th.
?I don?t wear the clothes you wear, I?m just different I don?t care,? sings Monae over the upbeat tune. Even though we wish Janelle Monae would sing about something different for once, like love perhaps, we can?t deny how much we?re feeling the track!
Hit the play button below:
Like HelloBeautiful on Facebook to stay on top of your favorite black celebrities:
MUST READ: PRESS PLAY: Janelle Monae & Erykah Badu Freeze Themselves In ?Q.U.E.E.N? Video
MUST READ: Janelle Monae Covers ESSENCE Magazine: ?The Tuxedo Will Out Live Us All?
MIT and UC Berkeley launch energy-efficiency research projectPublic release date: 18-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pamela Tom ptom@haas.berkeley.edu 510-642-2734 University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business
The E2e Project aims to give decision-makers real-world evidence on the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy and emissions
BERKELEY, CA and CAMBRIDGE, MA Energy efficiency promises to cut emissions, reduce dependence on foreign fuel, and mitigate climate change. As such, governments around the world are spending tens of billions of dollars to support energy-efficiency regulations, technologies and policies.
But are these programs realizing their potential? Researchers from the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business have collaborated to find out.
The researchers' energy-efficiency research project, dubbed "E2e," is a new interdisciplinary effort that aims to evaluate and improve energy-efficiency policies and technologies. Its goal is to support and conduct rigorous and objective research, communicate the results and give decision-makers the real-world analysis they need to make smart choices.
The E2e Project is a joint initiative of the Energy Institute at Haas and MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), an affiliate of MITEI two recognized leaders in energy research.
The project's name, E2e, captures its mission, the researchers say: to find the best way to go from using a large amount of energy ("E") to a small amount of energy ("e"), by bringing together a range of experts from engineers to economists from MIT and UC Berkeley. This collaboration, the researchers say, uniquely positions the E2e Project to leverage cutting-edge scientific and economic insights on energy efficiency.
"Cutting energy has lots of potential to help us save money and fight climate change," says Michael Greenstone, MIT's 3M Professor of Environmental Economics and a member of MITEI's Energy Council. "It's critical to find the local, national and global policies with the biggest bang for the buck to use governments', industry's and consumers' money wisely while slowing climate change."
Greenstone is leading the project with Christopher Knittel, co-director of CEEPR, and Catherine Wolfram, associate professor and co-director of the Energy Institute at Haas.
"When deciding on the best energy measures to implement, decision-makers should compare model predictions to actual consumer behaviors. That's where this project comes in," Wolfram says. "The E2e Project is focused on singling out the best products and approaches by using real experiments centered on real buying habits. It will provide valuable guidance to government and industry leaders, as well as consumers."
The group's motivations for studying energy efficiency are derived, in part, from the McKinsey Curve a cost curve that shows that abating emissions actually pays for itself.
"Our goal is to better understand what the costs and benefits of energy-efficient investments are where the low-hanging fruit is, as well as how high that fruit is up the tree," says Knittel, MIT's William Barton Rogers Professor of Energy Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "The McKinsey curve would suggest the fruit's already on the ground. If this is true, we want to figure out why no one is picking it up."
Former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a member of the E2e advisory board, says, "I like the saying 'A penny saved is a penny earned,' which rings true from the standpoint of energy. Energy that is used efficiently not only reduces costs, but is also the cleanest energy around. The E2e Project will allow us to better understand which energy-efficiency programs save the most pennies."
Shultz is a distinguished fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where he leads the Energy Policy Task Force. The board also includes MIT Institute Professor John Deutch, former undersecretary of the Department of Energy; Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School and President Obama's former director of regulatory affairs; Susan Tierney, managing principal at Analysis Group and a former Department of Energy official; and Dan Yates, CEO and founder of Opower.
The E2e Project seeks to answer questions such as: Are consumers and businesses bypassing profitable opportunities to reduce their energy consumption? What are the most effective ways to encourage individuals and businesses to invest in energy efficiency? Are current energy-efficiency programs providing the most savings?
The project's first experiments are already underway. For example, the team is tracking consumers' vehicle purchasing decisions to discover if better information about a car's fuel economy will influence consumers to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. If so, emphasizing the calculated fuel savings in the vehicle information presented to consumers may be productive.
Other initial projects include evaluating the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program, and determining why households invest in energy efficiency and the returns to those investments.
###
More information: e2e.haas.berkeley.edu or e2e.mit.edu
The E2e Project was funded with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
RELATED LINKS:
MIT Energy Initiative: http://mitei.mit.edu/
Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research: http://web.mit.edu/ceepr/www/
University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business: http://haas.berkeley.edu/
Energy Institute at Haas: http://ei.haas.berkeley.edu/
[ | 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.
MIT and UC Berkeley launch energy-efficiency research projectPublic release date: 18-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pamela Tom ptom@haas.berkeley.edu 510-642-2734 University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business
The E2e Project aims to give decision-makers real-world evidence on the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy and emissions
BERKELEY, CA and CAMBRIDGE, MA Energy efficiency promises to cut emissions, reduce dependence on foreign fuel, and mitigate climate change. As such, governments around the world are spending tens of billions of dollars to support energy-efficiency regulations, technologies and policies.
But are these programs realizing their potential? Researchers from the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business have collaborated to find out.
The researchers' energy-efficiency research project, dubbed "E2e," is a new interdisciplinary effort that aims to evaluate and improve energy-efficiency policies and technologies. Its goal is to support and conduct rigorous and objective research, communicate the results and give decision-makers the real-world analysis they need to make smart choices.
The E2e Project is a joint initiative of the Energy Institute at Haas and MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), an affiliate of MITEI two recognized leaders in energy research.
The project's name, E2e, captures its mission, the researchers say: to find the best way to go from using a large amount of energy ("E") to a small amount of energy ("e"), by bringing together a range of experts from engineers to economists from MIT and UC Berkeley. This collaboration, the researchers say, uniquely positions the E2e Project to leverage cutting-edge scientific and economic insights on energy efficiency.
"Cutting energy has lots of potential to help us save money and fight climate change," says Michael Greenstone, MIT's 3M Professor of Environmental Economics and a member of MITEI's Energy Council. "It's critical to find the local, national and global policies with the biggest bang for the buck to use governments', industry's and consumers' money wisely while slowing climate change."
Greenstone is leading the project with Christopher Knittel, co-director of CEEPR, and Catherine Wolfram, associate professor and co-director of the Energy Institute at Haas.
"When deciding on the best energy measures to implement, decision-makers should compare model predictions to actual consumer behaviors. That's where this project comes in," Wolfram says. "The E2e Project is focused on singling out the best products and approaches by using real experiments centered on real buying habits. It will provide valuable guidance to government and industry leaders, as well as consumers."
The group's motivations for studying energy efficiency are derived, in part, from the McKinsey Curve a cost curve that shows that abating emissions actually pays for itself.
"Our goal is to better understand what the costs and benefits of energy-efficient investments are where the low-hanging fruit is, as well as how high that fruit is up the tree," says Knittel, MIT's William Barton Rogers Professor of Energy Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "The McKinsey curve would suggest the fruit's already on the ground. If this is true, we want to figure out why no one is picking it up."
Former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a member of the E2e advisory board, says, "I like the saying 'A penny saved is a penny earned,' which rings true from the standpoint of energy. Energy that is used efficiently not only reduces costs, but is also the cleanest energy around. The E2e Project will allow us to better understand which energy-efficiency programs save the most pennies."
Shultz is a distinguished fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where he leads the Energy Policy Task Force. The board also includes MIT Institute Professor John Deutch, former undersecretary of the Department of Energy; Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School and President Obama's former director of regulatory affairs; Susan Tierney, managing principal at Analysis Group and a former Department of Energy official; and Dan Yates, CEO and founder of Opower.
The E2e Project seeks to answer questions such as: Are consumers and businesses bypassing profitable opportunities to reduce their energy consumption? What are the most effective ways to encourage individuals and businesses to invest in energy efficiency? Are current energy-efficiency programs providing the most savings?
The project's first experiments are already underway. For example, the team is tracking consumers' vehicle purchasing decisions to discover if better information about a car's fuel economy will influence consumers to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. If so, emphasizing the calculated fuel savings in the vehicle information presented to consumers may be productive.
Other initial projects include evaluating the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program, and determining why households invest in energy efficiency and the returns to those investments.
###
More information: e2e.haas.berkeley.edu or e2e.mit.edu
The E2e Project was funded with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
RELATED LINKS:
MIT Energy Initiative: http://mitei.mit.edu/
Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research: http://web.mit.edu/ceepr/www/
University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business: http://haas.berkeley.edu/
Energy Institute at Haas: http://ei.haas.berkeley.edu/
[ | 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.
PHOENIX (AP) - Patrick Corbin had another chance to go to 10-0, and he certainly was good enough to do it.
Arizona's offense wasn't up to the challenge, though, and one pitch to Giancarlo Stanton spoiled Corbin's night.
Stanton homered twice, the second one off Heath Bell in the ninth inning, and the recently punchless Diamondbacks lost their fourth straight, 3-2 to the Miami Marlins on Monday night.
Corbin, trying to become the first left-handed starter in 35 years to go 10-0, held Miami hitless through five. He allowed two hits through eight innings but gave up a soaring, two-run homer to left by Stanton that tied the game at 2 in the sixth.
"He's really good. He's got some stuff," Miami manager Mike Redmond said of the Arizona pitcher. "He was tough. He was aggressive, threw strikes. He made the mistake to Stanton and that was it. Other than that he was lights out. That was impressive."
Stanton's line-drive home run to right off former teammate Bell (2-1) in the ninth put Miami ahead for the first time. It was the 100th homer of his career, and sixth in 43 at-bats at Chase Field.
Bell pitched last season for Miami, and Stanton was asked if his familiarity with the reliever's pattern helped him in the at-bat.
"Yeah," Stanton said, "for the most part."
Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said it's time to reassess how to pitch to Stanton.
"The guy is swinging the bat good. We have to find a better way to get around him," Gibson said. "You can see how strong he is. He just barreled it."
Mike Dunn (2-1) threw a scoreless eighth inning to get the win.
Steve Cishek pitched a perfect ninth for his 10th save in 12 tries. Willie Bloomquist flied out to deep center to end the game.
Paul Goldschmidt drove in both Arizona runs with a homer and a single.
Corbin, with no decisions in his last three starts, was trying to become the first left-handed starter to begin the season 10-0 since Ron Guidry went 13-0 for the New York Yankees in 1978, according to STATS. Corbin struck out seven and walked one but the Diamondbacks lost for the first time in his 14 starts.
Gibson said Corbin deserved better.
"Patrick was great," Gibson said. "He pitched his heart out, two runs. We scored eight runs in four games. ... We should have had several runs tonight. We are in a bad spot at the plate right now. Guys are trying to do too much."
Corbin got behind in the count to Stanton before the big home run, which followed Juan Pierre's one-out single, Miami's first hit of the night.
"The pitch to Pierre was kind of up and he kind of put a swing on it and it fell in," Corbin said. "The pitch to Stanton, too, was in, but I felt good all night and was able to throw whatever pitch I wanted."
Arizona was 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
"More of the same," Gibson said.
Goldschmidt, hitless in his previous 12 at-bats and just 3 for 33, lined Jacob Turner's 1-0 pitch over the right-field fence to put Arizona up 1-0 in the third, his 16th home run. The Diamondbacks made it 2-0 in the fifth when Gerardo Parra singled, stole second and scored when Goldschmidt singled sharply to center.
Goldschmidt leads the NL with 61 RBIs.
Corbin, meanwhile, was cruising through five. Only two Miami batters reached during that span, Stanton on third baseman Martin Prado's two-out error in the first and a two-out walk to Marcell Ozuna in the fourth.
In the sixth, pinch-hitter Justin Ruggiano grounded out, but Pierre's opposite-field single to left ended the no-hit bid. Ed Lucas popped out but Stanton hit a high drive on Corbin's 2-0 pitch into the second deck above the Arizona bullpen in left and it was tied at 2.
The Diamondbacks, swept in three games at San Diego last weekend, opened a six-game homestand.
Turner allowed two runs and six hits in five innings.
NOTES: Diamondbacks RHP Ian Kennedy dropped his appeal and began serving a 10-game suspension for his role in last week's brawl with the Dodgers. ... Arizona RHP Randall Delgado, who came over from Atlanta in the Justin Upton trade, will be recalled from Triple-A Reno to start Tuesday night in the spot normally taken by RHP Brandon McCarthy. Miami RHP Nathan Eovaldi, out all season with right shoulder inflammation, will make his first start of the year. To make room for Eovaldi, the Marlins optioned Ozuna to Double-A Jacksonville. ... McCarthy, out with a shoulder injury, threw off a mound and could get a rehab start next. McCarthy says a seizure, related to the head injury he sustained from a line drive last September, will not affect his comeback.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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??HBT Daily: If you watched the U.S. Open, you saw Shawn Stefani sporting an MLB logo on his bag. Craig Calcaterra expects to see MLB promotion popping up in more sports.
Marc Maron is going to be a married man! The popular stand-up comedian, who hosts a twice-weekly podcast, "WTF With Marc Maron," and has his own IFC TV series, "Maron," is engaged to his girlfriend, Jessica.
PHOTOS: At what age stars got engaged
Maron announced the news in a blogpost on Monday, June 10, appropriately titling the post, "I proposed to Jessica."
The 49-year-old, who lives with his fiancee in Los Angeles with their three cats, recalled the sweet proposal to fans.
"I got her a ring and everything," he wrote. "I served her pancakes on her birthday and stuck the rock right in the middle of the top cake on the stack. We cried and laughed."
PHOTOS: Stars' stunning wedding gowns
Maron, who's been married twice before (his second wife was former standup comedian, Mishna Wolff), is hoping that third time is the charm.
"And so begins another journey into matrimony," he continued. "I hope it doesn?t kill me or my heart. We?re both excited. I?m also scared but we can keep that between us."
PHOTOS: Stars' engagement rings
The comedian, who's been a frequent guest on Comedy Central, "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," recently released his latest book, "Attempting Normal."
iOS 7 is not only the most skeuomorphic and liberating version of Apple's mobile operating system to date, it's also potentially the most fun. (I say potentially because it's not finished yet, and we'll likely only know whether Apple truly achieves their vision once it launches this fall.) This idea -- the gamificaton of interface -- isn't new, of course. With iOS 7, Apple's simply, audaciously attempting to take it to the next level.
When the original iPhone launched in 2007, its blisteringly fast animations, smooth transitions, direct manipulations, and emulated behaviors such as elastic banding and inertial scrolling played a huge part in making iOS (then iPhone OS) not only immediately delightful, but persistently engaging. It's also what made it not only accessible, but enjoyable for kids and non-tech savvy people alike.
Apple gamified their operating system in the best sense of the word.
To accomplish the high frame-rate, smooth scrolling, and other elements, Apple implemented technologies that are key to gaming, like OpenGL (and implemented them so well that a year later developers basically got a lot of what they needed to launch the first set of games on the iPhone "for free".) Apple gamified their operating system in the best sense of the word, and everyone from Apple to the first wave of App Store developers, to us, all benefited.
While 6 years is a long time, many of us can probably still remember back to our first days, weeks, and months using the original iPhone. Pinching and zooming through photos and maps and watching details leap out or fall back. Spinning dials, sometimes intentionally too fast, to set numbers for timers. Flicking through lists and watching them accelerate and decelerate, and pulling down well past its limits just to watch it bounce back. (Loren Brichter did the latter so much he ended up creating pull-to-refresh.) And the list goes on.
Apple and other companies had used some of these animations and interactions before, of course, but the sheer quality of the iPhone's interface combined with the intimacy of capacitive touch made the entire experience something more viceral.
Over time Apple added other touches, like page turning in iBooks, sliding -- and in some cases bouncing -- panels in Notification Center and the Lock screen, and more. Again, nothing completely new, but a lot that felt novel when it came to the overall experience.
And now iOS 7.
I misclassified iOS 7 at the beginning of this article. It's less another level and more a sequel to the original (and comes with all the dangers inherent to making a sequel). It takes many of the same interactive elements, blows them out, and makes them the central mechanic for the entire operating system. There's a real (if not real-world) physics engine here, and particle effects, and far more that's been disclosed to developers in the non-public sessions at WWDC 2013. And instead of aping game mechanics for the iOS 7 interface, Apple hired real, renowned game developers to create it.
With iOS 7, screens aren't bouncing because they're keyframe-animated to do so. They're bouncing because the virtual world they exist in has sent them ricochetting off another object. They're not sliding because an image is being moved from one coordinate to another, but because they're rotating around the surface of cylinders. Interface hasn't just gone from traditional animation to 3D, or from element to object, it's been dropped into a full-blown virtual world.
Some of the gamification Apple's doing was shown off in the WWDC 2013 keynote, including the layers that move and shift as the device moves and shifts -- of the interface objectified, of interaction brought to life. Some hasn't been yet, and some is likely still very much a work in progress. (Spoiler: Any screen or app not shown off on Apple's iOS 7 feature pages probably isn't done yet.)
I'd like to see even more of it. I'd like to see a more playful way to unlock iOS, like Apple uses for their retail devices, or Google uses for Android. I'd like to see a Stock icon that changes color from red to black to reflect the state of the market. I'd like to tilt to scroll the multitasking cards. I'd like to flick away spam in Mail and pinch in and out of the Calendar. I'd like Reminders to be sortable and stackable. And I'd like all of it, every gesture-based direct manipulation, to be consistent across iOS so I never have to so much as think about what I'm doing. I just have to do it.
Apple might get to some of this, if not far better, sooner or later, but more importantly they've given developers the tools they need to experiment with all sorts of ideas right now.
Interface gamified leads to play which leads to discovery which leads to yet more play.
Interface gamified leads to play which leads to discovery which leads to yet more play. It's a hugely virtuous cycle. That's how iPhone OS began, and that's how iOS is beginning again. The implications are more than a little exciting, and the ramifications are something we won't even start seeing until the fall.
Apple framed iOS 7 as the most important release since the original iPhone OS, and that's absolutely true. Just like iPhone OS 1 set the stage for the first 6 years of the platform, including the amazing apps that came with iPhone OS 2 and the App Store, iOS 7 sets the now much more physical stage for what will certainly be years ahead, and the next generation of apps that feel like living objects in unreal space.
So remember about a month ago when scientists in Canada found the oldest undisturbed water cache ever? The one that had been stagnant beneath a rock for roughly 1.5 billion years? And that might hold the remains of prehistoric life? Yeah, don't drink that; it tastes like crap. Or so says Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar. And she should know?she's tasted it.
As a lead researcher and newfound connoisseur of primordial soup, Lollar described the physical properties of the liquid during a recent interview with the LA Times. And what's ancient water like? Salty, viscous, and turns kind of orangey when exposed to air. Refreshing!
But wait, you may wonder, how does she have such an intimate, sensory knowledge of the ancient goo? Good question?The La Timeswanted to know, too. And Lollar responded with admirable, unsettling honesty:
I have to admit I have tasted it from time to time. It tastes terrible. It is much saltier than seawater. You would definitely not want to drink this stuff.
Yes. She's tasted it. From time to time. More than once. There were multiple occasions where she said, "It's probably a good idea to put this potentially 2.5 billion-year-old water of indeterminate makeup into my mouth.... you know, again."
Admittedly, the first time was for science, for which we commend her bravery. But once you're on the second and third rounds of primordial sauce, motive starts to get a little hazy. Especially when you consider that scientists are still waiting to find out if the liquid is hiding any number of ancient lifeforms. But once you've tasted that salty, syrupy nectar, putting down the beaker is a lot easier said than done. Apparently.
So, Dr. Lollar, the next time you're staring into the bottom of those empty test tubes, just remember?the two-billion-year-old water can't love you back. [LA Times via The Atlantic]
E3 and WWDC are complete, so we set aside an hour to highlight the big announcements from both events in this week's episode of the podcast. Tim joins the same club as our Senior HD editor, Richard Lawler, by reserving both the Xbox One and PS4, while Brian and Peter wonder what a world with "NintenDroid" and Mario on iOS would be like. Don't delay -- drag your pointer down below to hear it all for yourself.
Ipswitch offers businesses grappling with the thorny issue of how to securely transfer large files with an easy-to-use secure email platform, MOVEit Cloud. Employees can share files securely amongst themselves as well as with authorized individuals outside the organization.
Think about it: when your employees need to share files with colleagues, contractors, partners, and customers, what do they do? Odds are they are either just emailing the files to each other or using consumer-focused cloud services such as Dropbox and Box.net. This means that you, as IT, have a difficult time tracking who has access to which file, where these files are winding up, and whether sensitive information is protected. For companies in regulated industries, this becomes a bigger headache because IT has no control over how data is shared within and outside the organization, nor does it know if the information is encrypted before leaving the network.
MOVEit Cloud from Ipswitch is a secure, cloud-based file service that helps IT control how documents are passed around, without over-complicating the interface for the end-users. It is very similar to AppRiver's CipherPost Pro but has better folder management.
From the end-user perspective, MOVEit Cloud is intuitive to use because the Web interface is just like a Webmail client, and there is an Outlook plugin, which means they don't even have to leave the familiar interface. Users don't have to install complicated tools or jump through a series of steps to properly encrypt the file before sending it; MOVEit Cloud automatically takes care of that.
IT teams will like MOVEit Cloud because it provides a detailed view on who transferred what files when, as well as define certain rules on what can be done with the documents, such as restricting forwarding and automatically deleting the files after they are read.
MOVEit Portfolio Ipwsitch offers two main modules in its MOVEit suite: Ad Hoc Transfer and File Transfer. File Transfer handles cases when files and data are shared between servers, systems, and applications, or when groups need to access a common shared folder. Ad Hoc Transfer, also available as a stand-alone module, refers to situations when an employee has to send files and messages to another individual or group.
These two modules are available in two deployment packages, MOVEit DMZ, which refers to the on-premise version, and MOVEit Cloud, the hosted version. This review focuses on MOVEit Cloud and the Ad Hoc Transfer module, in particular.
At a little over $23 a month, the platform is very affordable. However, MOVEit Cloud is not intended for the smallest business, as there is a minimum 25-user investment, which comes out to $3,600 a year, or just $12 per user per month. Final pricing depends on the actual number of users, and it can go as low as $5 per user per month, according to Ipswitch.
Getting Started To begin, Ipswitch created a MOVEit Cloud account and the accompanying environment, branding it with the PCMag logo. The fact that it can be customized to look like the company's internal portal indicates this is the "official" platform, as opposed to a random service employees may be using.
I also received a username and password for accessing the support portal, which contains detailed manuals and reams of documentation. The password requirements for the support portal are pretty stringent as even a 12-character string with upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, was not considered strong enough. I finally managed to change to a password that was 21-characters long with a mix of upper and lower case letters and numbers.
The administrator has full control over the system, managing users who have access to the system, storage and bandwidth limitations, and deciding whether messages could ever be saved locally. The administrator can see all the files that have been ever uploaded, by whom, and who has sent that file or viewed it. I could generate in-depth reports based on this information.
MOVEit Users When I logged in for the first time, I was prompted to download the upload/download wizard, which requires Java to run. The tool speeds up getting the files up for transfer, handles multiple file transfers, performs automatic integrity checking, and handles files larger than 2GB in size?Next: MOVEit Cloud Administrator, User Interfaces
VATICAN CITY - Biker culture came to the Vatican on Sunday as Pope Francis blessed thousands of Harley-Davidsons and their riders celebrating the manufacturer's 110th anniversary with a loud parade and plenty of leather.
Thundering Harley engines nearly drowned out the Latin recitation of the "Our Father" prayer that accompanied Francis as he greeted the crowd before Mass. Standing in his open-top jeep, Francis drove up the main boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square, blessing the thousands of people in what was a giant Harley parking lot.
Once the service got under way, bikers in their trademark leather Harley vests sat in the square alongside nuns and tens of thousands of faithful Catholics taking part in an unrelated, two-day pro-life rally.
Francis addressed them both afterward, giving a blessing to the "numerous participants" of the Harley gathering.
Tens of thousands of Harley owners from around the world descended on Rome for the four-day anniversary of the American manufacturer.
The main events were Sunday's Vatican blessing and a parade Saturday past the Colosseum and other historic landmarks ? adding colour, traffic and noise to an already colorful day in downtown Rome, thanks to a gay pride march.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that six bikes were involved in a pileup Saturday on the main ring road around the capital, while a Swiss biking couple were killed in a highway crash on Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based, Harley gave Francis two white classic Harleys for the Vatican police force to use.
There was something a bit incongruous about the Harley crowd ? known for its "Freedom" motto, outlaw image and adventuresome spirit ? taking part in a solemn papal Mass to commemorate a 1995 encyclical on the inviolability of human life.
"Evangelium Vitae" is a roadmap of the church's teaching against abortion, euthanasia and murder. Harley's advertising for its 2013 bike collection reads "Live life on your own terms. More than 30 ways to defy the status quo."
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, noted that there were probably quite a few Catholic riders in the crowd and that regardless, anyone is welcome to a papal Mass.
"I know great people who have big bikes," Lombardi quipped.
In his comments to the pro-life crowd, Francis offered prayers "for every human life, especially the most fragile, defenceless and threatened." But he stayed away from saying anything more polarizing about abortion or contraception.
He then spent a good half-hour after the Mass caressing, kissing and chatting with a few dozen sick or disabled people in the square, including one on a motorcycle wearing Harley garb.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Gems ? each forged with its own recipe of elements, temperature and pressure ? offer precious clues to some of the most profound questions about the life of our planet.
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Public release date: 21-Jun-2013
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