DeltaWomen: Why abused women stay in bad relationships

(CNN) -- This week, as the Senate decides whether to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and Valentine's Day approaches, it's worth noting that most domestic violence victims don't ask for roses, chocolate or federal funding. Instead, we have one simple wish: We want the abuse to end.

We don't want the relationship to end.

This fact about "crazy love" surprises many people. How could you still love someone who has hurt you?

Leslie Morgan Steiner

The answer is as complicated as love itself. We victims tend to be hope junkies, open-hearted and optimistic. We believe that our loved ones are capable of change. Some would say we are na?ve. Others say we are too kind or too forgiving. Often we cannot find the courage to leave an abusive relationship until our life (or our children's safety) has been threatened.

When victims end an abusive relationship, the first thing we need is shelter. This is the No. 1 request made by victims who call the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the federally funded national helpline (1.800.799.SAFE). It is a practical request -- a roof over our heads. But it is also an emotional one -- the deep need to seek safety and to protect our children from danger.

Many victims know instinctively what friends and family usually don't: The most lethal time in an abusive relationship is after you leave. More than 70% of domestic violence murders happen after the victim has gotten out. Like 20-year-old Selina Brown, who was shot in the face last year as she and her toddler daughter tried to board a bus. So safe shelter is, naturally, our biggest priority.

The second most common request also surprises people -- even in a town like Washington, D.C., with nearly 100,000 lawyers. Victims say that after immediate shelter, what we need most is legal advice and representation. Any woman who is going to turn herself from domestic violence victim to a domestic violence survivor needs this service.

I should know. I come from a family of Harvard-educated lawyers. Yet, when I left my abusive ex-husband -- an Ivy League Wall Street trader who kept three loaded guns in our house -- I had no one to accompany me to family court to get my temporary restraining order made permanent, and no one to help me begin divorce proceedings.

So I went to court alone.

Fortunately, a young legal aid attorney from a local women's shelter showed up. She spoke to my husband and the judge. She pointed me in the direction of the bullet-proof glass window where my new restraining order awaited. She recommended a divorce lawyer I could hire immediately.

Thanks to her, and dozens of other strangers who helped me, I left my ex-husband. Today I'm happily remarried and the mother of three wonderful children. I have a black lab and drive a Honda Odyssey minivan. I couldn't have left and rebuilt such an ordinary, happy life without the kindness of others.

Here in Washington, 700 registered pro bono lawyers have joined forces with a new nonprofit, the D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project. It now has more attorneys than Washington's largest law firm. The lawyers are typically stay-at-home moms craving volunteer work that puts their legal training to good use.

The volunteer lawyers' group provides mentoring, training, court appearance scheduling and malpractice insurance, all within a $350,000 annual budget, which is tiny considering it serves a city of more than 600,000 people. Since its founding, it has helped more than 2,000 family violence survivors. In 2012, its lawyers donated more than 14,000 pro bono legal hours.

I call that true love.

This Valentine's Day, I'd like to call on all lawyers in Washington and elsewhere to consider helping stop domestic violence for good. The D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project model can be replicated in any small town or big city. By giving victims a little pro bono assistance, lawyers can help make our nation's dinner tables, homes and families the safe and peaceful oases they should be. By giving a small amount of time, like the advocate who helped me so many years ago, we can all help victims of domestic violence.

Now that's a Valentine's Day present we can all get mushy about.

Source: http://deltawomen.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-abused-women-stay-in-bad.html

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Rockwell Collins awarded contract to continue GPS cost savings ...

The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy?s Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III Program Office has awarded Rockwell Collins a $3.2 million Technology Investment Agreement to continue the next phase of a joint investment agreement for the Low Cost Military GPS program.

Previous phases of the program aided Rockwell Collins in developing the next generation military GPS SAASM (Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module). This device, which allows decryption of precision GPS coordinates, is the smallest, lightest weight and lowest power-consuming SAASM device available today. It enables the creation of GPS receivers that provide significant size, weight and power reduction for military systems in use around the world. Among these military GPS receivers is the Rockwell Collins MicroGRAM, a stamp-sized GPS receiver used for micro-embedded applications such as handheld tactical radios, soldier systems and micro unmanned air vehicles. Other applications include the Rockwell Collins NavFireTM, the smallest, lowest power, G-hardened military GPS receiver for artillery and the Rockwell Collins MicroDAGR, the smallest, lowest power secure handheld GPS receiver in the world.

?Rockwell Collins has been a leader in the development of GPS receiver technology for nearly 30 years having produced more than 50 GPS products and delivered more than 1 million receivers for commercial avionics and government applications,? said Bob Haag, vice president and general manager of Communication and Navigation Products for Rockwell Collins. ?The DPA Title III Program has supported us in making smaller, lower cost GPS receiver technology available for a broad range of important Department of Defense programs.?

The DPA Title III Program directly supports the U.S. Department of Defense?s (DoD) Better Buying Power Initiative to deliver better value to the taxpayer and warfighter by improving the way the DoD does business. In particular, the ?low-cost GPS program? successfully reduced the size, weight, power and cost of GPS devices, embracing the objectives of the DoD?s Better Buying Power efforts. To date, the program has saved the government an estimated $100 million and it is estimated that the DoD will realize more than $300 million in additional cost savings and cost avoidance over the next five years.

Source : Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE: COL)

Published on ASDNews: Feb 27, 2013
?

Source: http://www.asdnews.com/news-47867/Rockwell_Collins_awarded_contract_to_continue_GPS_cost_savings_program.htm

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Symbolism, in different moods, on Capitol Hill

Debo Patrick Adegbile was born some 12 years after Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That incident occurred in 1955. Late Wednesday morning, 46-year-old Adegbile was moving to take his place at the podium in the Supreme Court chamber in Washington at the very moment that President Barack Obama and the leaders of Congress were unveiling the Rosa Parks memorial statue in the Capitol, across the street?a little more than 100 years after her birth.

It was poignant symbolism of the kind that often unfolds in the high councils of Washington. But the celebration on the Capitol side of the street was markedly more upbeat than the somber mood that Adegbile confronted inside the crowded chamber of the Supreme Court.

Adegbile is an African-American, as is the president, and as was Rosa Parks, one of the heroines of the civil rights movement. The young lawyer is now the senior staff attorney of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and it was his task on Wednesday to urge the Supreme Court not to strike down the federal law that everyone?even its current critics?agree was America?s most successful civil rights law: the Civil Rights Act of 1965. In extending that law for 25 years in 2006, Congress gave it this title: the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act.

?Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court,? Adegbile began. He would continue for 15 minutes, fielding questions from the bench, including some hard ones from Justice Antonin Scalia. Perhaps fortunately for Adegbile, he was not at the podium when Justice Scalia had belittled civil rights legislation by calling it ?racial entitlements? that are passed by large majorities in Congress because the lawmakers are politically wary of voting against them.

Once before, the Supreme Court had considered striking down the key sections of the re-enacted Voting Rights Act, but stopped short of doing so. That was in 2009. At that time, the court did attempt to send a message to Congress that the law was vulnerable constitutionally, if Congress did not modernize its enforcement formula to reflect the fact that ?the South has changed.?

Since then, the states and some of the local governments that have to obey the law?s toughest demands (those are restricted to those jurisdictions that had the worst records in racial discrimination in voting in 1972) have intensified their constitutional attack on it, since Congress did not react at all to the court?s message of four years ago.

Adegbile, alongside the federal government?s top courtroom advocate, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., sought to persuade the justices on Wednesday that the law is still needed, and it is still needed mainly in the same states that have been covered since the law?s first enactment.

It was clear, though, that at least four?and probably five?of the justices retained the deep doubts about the law?s constitutionality that they had expressed at a hearing four years ago. In addition to Scalia, they were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy (and, probably, Justice Clarence Thomas, since he has openly contended that the law was invalid, although he remained silent Wednesday).

Justice Kennedy did give some passing hints that, in the final reckoning, he might not be prepared to strike down the law in its entirety, suggesting that it may be the only effective legal weapon the government has to deal with racial discrimination in voting, where it continues to exist.

The law in its current form clearly had the support of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor (Kagan and Sotomayor were not yet on the court when the law?s validity was last explored). Justice Stephen G. Breyer expressed some skepticism about the coverage formula for the law, but seemed on the whole to want the law to be kept on the books.

Just as the prospect of a 5-4 split, with the majority against the law, was beginning to take at least preliminary form as the court hearing wound down, President Obama across the street was in the midst of his remarks in Statuary Hall. Rosa Parks is the first black woman to have a statue in that memorial theater.

?Our minds fasten on that single moment on the bus,? the president commented. ?Ms. Parks alone in that seat, clutching her purse, staring out a window, waiting to be arrested. That moment tells us something about how change happens or doesn?t happen, the choices we make, or don?t make. ? In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America?and change the world.?

He was talking about an incident in Alabama. And Alabama was also on the Supreme Court?s mind, in a case from that state?s Shelby County. The timing very likely was a coincidence, but symbolism often happens that way.

Lyle Denniston is the National Constitution Center?s Adviser on Constitutional Literacy. He has reported on the Supreme Court for 55 years, currently covering it for SCOTUSblog, an online clearinghouse of information about the Supreme Court?s work.

Recent Constitution Daily Stories
Key part of Voting Rights Act in peril after Supreme Court session
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Happy birthday, 22nd Amendment!
Sequester facts: What happens next, what gets cut
Why Congress protected its own pay in the sequester deal

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/symbolism-different-moods-capitol-hill-221208464--politics.html

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Choosing a good Android Application Development company

?

Android
is the most popular mobile operating system around the world, which
everyone would agree. Everyday a huge number of Android based devices
are getting activated. This tremendous success has made it possible
for an excellent industry called android application development?to
come into existence and grow at a racing speed.

One
of the reasons contributing mainly to the success of Android is the
open source factor. People can use the source code freely and develop
applications for it and put in on Google App Store.

Before
opting for the best android application development company, the
client should look out for the following factors.

• The
  company should possess a good number of expert android application
  developers

• The
  developers should possess experience in developing multiple android
  applications in various categories of applications

• It
  should display a perfect app designing capability across various
  android devices.

• The
  android application development company should offer user interface
  designing

• The
  cost of app development must be less when compared to other
  companies

• Testing
  services must also be offered apart from the development services

• The
  app delivered after testing should have a smooth user experience

• Customization
  of the app is very important

• Should
  possess a faster turnaround time

• Source
  code security with non-disclosure agreement should also be signed

• If
  the client requires, the android application development company
  should be able to market the application as well

  If
  any company is offering all the above benefits, the client may look
  forward in signing an agreement with the android application
  development company. The fact being, Businesses have many choices
  when it comes to choosing the best mobile application development company. They can go for any
  of the available platforms including Android, iOS, BlackBerry or
  Windows Phone.
  Android is a leading mobile platform with more
  than 70 percent market share. So it is very important to make sure
  all the client requirements are met for running a successful android
  application development company.

Posted in Computer - Mobile computing.

Tagged with android app development, android application development, Mobile application development.

By stevensmith ? January 3, 2013

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" ; document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[2].childNodes[0].innerHTML = data ; document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[0].style.display='block'; var contentdiv = document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[2].childNodes[0] ; //var toppos = (document.body.clientHeight - parseInt(contentdiv.style.height))/2 + scrolltop; var toppos = (document.documentElement.clientHeight - parseInt(contentdiv.style.height))/2 + scrolltop; document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[2].style.top = toppos+'px'; document.getElementById(popdiv).style.display='block' ; } function hidePopUp(popdiv) { document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[0].style.display='none'; document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[1].style.display='none'; document.getElementById(popdiv).childNodes[2].style.display='none'; }

Source: http://blogs.rediff.com/mobileapplicationdevelopmentcompany/2013/01/03/choosing-a-good-android-application-development-company/

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PFT: Texans' coach Kubiak impressed by Te'o

AP

It?s late February.? The Combine is unfolding.? And that means it?s time for scouts to rip or praise players under the cloak of anonymity.

Plenty of writers who publish assessments made by unnamed scouts are now ridiculed when doing so.? The pedigree and accomplishments of Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tend to insulate him from scrutiny, even when his unnamed scouts swing and miss on players like Robert Griffin III.? (Heck, McGinn can even publish Wonderlic numbers without being vilified.)

McGinn assesses the players who could be available when the Packers use their first-round pick, and he shares the insights of a pair of unnamed scouts regarding Florida State defensive end Bjoern Werner, a German-born-and-bred prospect who is now poised to fulfill the very unlikely dream of being a first-round draft pick in the NFL.

?He?s good, but I don?t see the special in him,? one unnamed scout said. ?Kind of a try-hard, good football player but nothing special.?

Said another:? ?He?s not a dynamic pass rusher but he seems to get sacks.? He comes off the ball hard but he?s not special.?

Without knowing anything about the team(s) for which these scouts work, there?s no way of knowing whether they?re badmouthing Werner in the hopes that he?ll be available when their team(s) pick.? That?s how it works.? Teams that love a player say bad things about him, wishing for a free fall.? Teams that hate a guy say great things about him, hopeful he?ll be taken early ? pushing down the board players in which the team is actually interested.

With more and more media swarming around the pre-draft process, there?s always someone ready to publish these anonymous assessments.

But citing an ?unnamed scout? tells the audience nothing about the skills or credentials of the scout.? As the late George Carlin used to say (as Carlin himself would say, he?s saying nothing now), there?s a worst doctor in the world ? and someone has an appointment with him tomorrow.? Similarly, there are plenty of scouts who aren?t as skilled as others.? Any time an unnamed scout is being quoted, there?s a chance that he?s the worst of them all.

You know, like the ones who told McGinn last year that, as to RG3, ?[e]verybody is just assuming because of the Heisman and the socks and all that bs. . . . they are ignoring a lot of bad tape that he?s had,? that ?I don?t think he has vision or pocket feel, which to me are the two most important components of quarterbacking,? that ?[h]e?s just running around winging it,? that ?[h]e?s [Michael] Vick, but not as good a thrower,? that ?he?s not as good as Cam Newton,? that ?[a]s much as is written about his athleticism, his athleticism under duress in the pocket isn?t even close to Cam Newton?s,? that ?the only way he gets big plays with his feet is if he?s got a wide-open field and the sea opens for him,? that ?[h]e?s got a little bit of a selfish streak, too,? and that ?[h]e doesn?t treat anybody good.?

Or maybe these unnamed scouts are just good enough to know how to push lies in the hopes of advancing agendas.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/24/gary-kubiak-was-impressed-by-manti-teo-meeting/related/

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Android application using facebook

Today, 06:41 PM ? #1 (permalink)

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Android application using facebook

---

Hi,

I'm interesting in develop android application with this format:
- Log in with facebook acount.
- Every user can save kind of data
- Every user can retrive the saved data of all his facebook friends which uses
the application

I want to know what is the best and the easier way to do this?
to use a sql server which save all the facebook users id and all the data they saved, and the application will connect this data base?

There is any other recommended way to this?

Thanks,
Gal

?

Source: http://androidforums.com/application-development/692266-android-application-using-facebook.html

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Mobile Nations podcasting update: What's new for 2013!

Hey everyone! It's time for a mighty Mobile Nations podcast network update, and a peak at some really cool stuff we have planned for 2013! First of all, we have all-new album art for the shows. The original concept was created by superstar designer Marc Edwards of Bjango to be crisp, clean, and modern. It's tough to make a whole catalog of shows consistent yet retain all their individual personalities. With Marc's help, I think we've nailed it. And by popular demand, we've even added a small TV logo to the bottom of all the video podcast album art so you can distinguish them from their audio counterparts at a glance. We absolutely love them, and we hope you do too. (And yes, we'll be making all of them available as HiDPI/Retina wallpaper for your phones and tablets later this week!)

If you haven't recently, please make sure you leave a review and rating for your favorite Mobile Nations shows, where ever and when ever you can. It encourages services (like iTunes) to feature us, that helps us get more great listeners and viewers like you, and we appreciate it a lot!

Now on with the shows!

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/c-F9hD1f5TA/story01.htm

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Flipping the 'off' switch on cell growth: Protein uses multiple means to help cells cope when oxygen runs low

Feb. 22, 2013 ? A protein known for turning on genes to help cells survive low-oxygen conditions also slows down the copying of new DNA strands, thus shutting down the growth of new cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their discovery has wide-ranging implications, they say, given the importance of this copying -- known as DNA replication -- and new cell growth to many of the body's functions and in such diseases as cancer.

"We've long known that this protein, HIF-1?, can switch hundreds of genes on or off in response to low oxygen conditions," says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist who led the research team and has long studied the role of low-oxygen conditions in cancer, lung disease and heart disorders. "We've now learned that HIF-1? is even more versatile than we thought, as it can work directly to stop new cells from forming." A report on the discovery appears in the Feb. 12 issue of Science Signaling.

With his team, Semenza, who is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering and Institute for Genomic Medicine, discovered HIF-1? in the 1990s and has studied it ever since, pinpointing a multitude of genes in different types of cells that have their activity ramped up or down by the activated protein. These changes in so-called "gene expression" help cells survive when oxygen-rich blood flow to an area slows or stops temporarily; they also allow tumors to build new blood vessels to feed themselves.

To learn how HIF-1?'s own activity is controlled, the team looked for proteins from human cells that would attach to HIF-1?. They found two, MCM3 and MCM7, that limited HIF-1?'s activity, and were also part of the DNA replication machinery. Those results were reported in 2011.

In the new research, Semenza and his colleagues further probed HIF-1?'s relationship to DNA replication by comparing cells in low-oxygen conditions to cells kept under normal conditions. They measured the amount of DNA replication complexes in the cells, as well as how active the complexes were. The cells kept in low-oxygen conditions, which had stopped dividing, had just as much of the DNA replication machinery as the normal dividing cells, the researchers found; the difference was that the machinery wasn't working. It turned out that in the nondividing cells, HIF-1? was binding to a protein that loads the DNA replication complex onto DNA strands, and preventing the complex from being activated.

"Our experiments answered the long-standing question of how, exactly, cells stop dividing in response to low oxygen," says Maimon Hubbi, Ph.D., a member of Semenza's team who is now working toward an M.D. degree. "It also shows us that the relationship between HIF-1? and the DNA replication complex is reciprocal -- that is, each can shut the other down."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. M. E. Hubbi, Kshitiz, D. M. Gilkes, S. Rey, C. C. Wong, W. Luo, D.-H. Kim, C. V. Dang, A. Levchenko, G. L. Semenza. A Nontranscriptional Role for HIF-1? as a Direct Inhibitor of DNA Replication. Science Signaling, 2013; 6 (262): ra10 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2003417

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/XQflXj1NWK4/130223111517.htm

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Facebook Bugs Have Been Messing With Your Page Reach

In yet another Bad News Friday post, Facebook has informed us that it hasn't exactly been counting the audience for our posts quite?correctly. In fact, the social network has been significantly understating the "reach" of Facebook posts ? especially paid posts ? for at least the past several months.

In a blog post yesterday on Facebook Studio, the social network's marketing hub, the company admitted that coding errors have been misrepresented the audience reached by Facebook posts?since sometime last year (though it hasn't yet been much more specific than that). Facebook stresses that these bugs have only impacted reporting and not delivery, meaning fans were still receiving the posts, even if Facebook wasn't counting them properly. The company said the stats should update once Facebook cleans up its code.?

This admission could be a big deal for Facebook, which has taken some serious heat from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and other big brands for allegedly throttling their access to their Facebook fans. Last November, Cuban complained, both on Twitter and in heated articles on sites like The Huffington Post,?that Facebook was restricting brands' ability to engage their fans in order to juice sales of paid "promoted posts."

Less Bang For The Buck

The bugs Facebook is describing, however, could also conceivably have led brand and business?owners?like Cuban to believe they were getting less bang for their Facebook marketing buck. In its post yesterday,?Facebook claimed that the bugs held down the reported audience for paid newsfeed posts, meaning that such promotional posts actually reached a larger number of users than the social network's statistics previously suggested.

"As soon as we found the bugs our engineering team began work to resolve them as quickly as possible. We're rolling out fixes beginning this morning and over the weekend," Facebook's post states. That's certainly reassuring for anyone who relies on Facebook for social marketing, but the underreporting to date is still a pretty big deal. It's an even bigger deal where paid reach is concerned, since that involves placing ads placed in users' news feeds???ads that then reported back inaccurate numbers.?

Here's what will change as a result of the ongoing bug fixes, according to Facebook:

• Total reach to stay the same or increase for most Pages
• An increase in paid reach if you ran News Feed ads
• An increase or decrease in organic reach, depending on many factors such as the composition of your fan base, when and how often you post and your spending patterns
• A change in metrics computed from reach and impressions, such as engagement rate and virality
• We know that accurate data is fundamental to building and improving your Facebook presence. We are taking this very seriously. ?We have already put a number of additional quality and verification measures in place to prevent future bugs and resolve them quickly if they arise

Where It All Began

Facebook says the problems originated during an update to its iOS and Android apps, TechCrunch reported. While trying to speed up mobile performance of its site, Facebook ended up stripping away a little too much of the data reported back to its servers. This resulted in a couple of bugs that failed to count page posts as users upgraded to new versions of the apps, and then a lesser bug that counted the viewing of a desktop news feed ad twice, as both an organic and then a paid impression.

It wasn't until a number of complaints from clients that Facebook decided to perform an internal audit, which uncovered the bugs and forced the company to begin an intense three-week fix.?

While you can certainly argue that the bugs didn't cause that much damage???after all, many pages will soon show improved reach as a result of the fixes ??the problem certainly does some damage to Facebook's reputation as a secure and accurate social hub for business.?

But if you're a brand manager who's been feeling a little down in the dumps over your failure to engage readers with paid posts, you can take heart in?Facebook's two-minute video reiterating its solutions. With alarmingly low depth-of-field, a woman with a very calming voice explains everything you need to know about this not-a-real-problem to soothing?piano music. Surely your average social media manager shouldn't require much more than that to fend off frustration.?

Source: http://readwrite.com/2013/02/23/facebook-bug-page-reach

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Urijah Faber and Court McGee take UFC 157 wins

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Urijah Faber and Court McGee got back on the winning track at UFC 157 on Saturday.

Faber got a first-round submission win over Ivan Menjivar. Faber and Menjivar started the fight with a rolling takedown and Faber ended up on top. He worked the top position until Menjivar got back to his feet. Faber held on, and while attached to Menjivar's back, Faber swung around and sunk in a rear naked choke. Menjivar tapped at 4:34 in the first round. The Anaheim crowd erupted for "The California Kid."

It was an important win for Faber after he lost a title fight to Renan Barao in July. The win puts him at 27-6, with five of his losses coming in title fights.

[Also: Ronda Rousey survives UFC debut, wins via first-round arm bar]

In earlier action, Court McGee punched his way to a decision win over Josh Neer. McGee used an effective strategy early on of working Josh Neer's body. Throughout the first round, Neer was hobbled by McGee's body punches. But in the second, McGee worked more on headshots. Though it wasn't as effective, McGee outstruck Neer. In the final round, McGee worked the ground game and controlled Neer while still leading on strikes. All three judges saw it 30-27 for McGee.

It was McGee's first fight at welterweight.

?I felt great at 170 lbs. This was a great move for me. I felt stronger, faster and had a lot more gas. I was told by FightMetric that I broke the record for most significant strikes ever in a welterweight fight and feel great. I could have stopped it, maybe, early with body shots but I was glad I put on a good performance.?

After the win, McGee's record is 15-3. Though he won "The Ultimate Fighter," he also lost two fights in 2012.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Watch: Floyd Mayweather's college football betting secret
? Michael Jordan gets minor league offer
? Alex Smith on the trading block in Indy
? Wake Forest knocks off No. 2 Miami

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/urijah-faber-court-mcgee-ufc-157-wins-042110004--mma.html

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Nothing makes me hungrier than watching a parade of stick-thin celebrities walk the red carpet.

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Source: http://feeds.someecards.com/~r/someecards/~3/a8tzOU2KA68/academy-awards-celebrities-pizza-mom-up-totinos-funny-ecard

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Personal Injury Lawyer Larry Disparti Says Google Nexus Tablet Matches His Law Firms Mission

Personal Injury Lawyer Larry Disparti Says Google Nexus Tablet Matches His Law Firms Mission ? (February 23, 2013)

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) February 23, 2013

Larry Disparti, a personal injury lawyer serving clients throughout Florida and Illinois, explained today why his firm has switched from providing clients with the Apple iPad to loaning to them Google Nexus tablets during the course of their case.

Disparti said his firm, The Disparti Law Group, P.A., is calling the program the Client Recovery Maximizer System?.

We found that the integration of Googles Nexus tablet with Google features like Gmail, Google docs and chat, as well as the Google calendaring feature, make the Nexus tablet more useful for our purposes, said Disparti, founder of the Disparti Law Group, P.A, which has offices in Chicago and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Florida.

Our firms mission is to help our clients to recover compensation for the injuries they have suffered, and we need for them to have the ability to readily contact and assist us as their attorneys, he added. The Google Nexus tablet fits our mission perfectly. While the iPad certainly has many great uses, we simply find that the tablet suits our firm better.

The Disparti Law Group recently began the program of loaning to each of the law firms clients a Google Nexus tablet. Disparti said the devices should enable clients to:

• ????Communicate with the firms attorneys through dedicated email accounts
• ????Take photos and record video of their injuries and recovery
• ????Keep up with doctors and lawyers appointments.

Much of the video content, including a diary of the clients recovery and interviews with family members, can be used to compile video demand packages and strengthen the clients position when negotiating for a settlement, Disparti said.

Disparti cited a Consumer Reports review that said the 16GB Nexus 10 equals the iPad in most areas of performance and has a slightly larger display.

A Los Angeles Times comparison of the Nexus 10, the iPad and Microsofts Surface said the Nexus 10 consistently loaded Web pages faster than its rivals and noted that it is lighter and thinner than the iPad. The Times rated the iPad higher for video and sound quality and said it has access to more games than the Nexus.

Disparti said his firm has found that the Nexus is a more cost-effective choice with a price point about $100 lower than the iPad and the Surface.

The attributes of the Nexus are what we hope prospective clients are looking for in a law firm, Disparti said. The Disparti Law Group is dedicated to its work and to delivering services to clients as efficiently as possible.

And, as our switch from the iPad to the Nexus tablet demonstrates, we examine the facts and go where the evidence leads. Were not afraid to reexamine the common wisdom or our previous conclusions.

About Disparti Law Group, P.A.

The personal injury and disability benefits lawyers of the Disparti Law Group, P.A., provide legal assistance in cases involving Social Security Disability (SSD), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), railroad disability (FELA and RRB claims) and veterans benefits (including TSGLI claims). Additionally, the firm represents clients in cases involving car accidents, slip-and-fall or premises liability, products liability, medical malpractice, wrongful death, nursing home neglect and inadequate security. The Disparti Law Group, P.A., features an Illinois office in Chicago (200 S. Wacker Dr., #3100, Chicago IL 60606; local phone 312-506-5511) and Florida offices in Tampa (2203 N. Lois #830, Tampa, FL 33607; local phone 813-932-2942) and Holiday (1041 U.S. 19, Holiday, FL 34691; local phone 727-934-7862). For more information, please use the firms online contact form.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/personal-injury-lawyer/google-nexus-tablets/prweb10461826.htm.

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Source: http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=2446725

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UFC 157 prelims: Dennis Bermudez, Matt Grice deliver Fight of the Year candidate

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- UFC 157's preliminary card started with a bang and ended with a snoozer on Saturday.

Dennis Bermudez took a tight split decision in a fight that will go down as a fight of the year candidate. He won it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 over Matt Grice.

Bermudez fell into full mount early in the round and rained punches down on Grice's head, but Grice got out and came back late in the round by leveling Bermudez with a left hook.

But it's the third round of the fight that the MMA world will remember. Bermudez threw everything but the kitchen sink at Grice, but Grice hung in. He continued to throw kicks and punches at Bermudez right up until the horn sounded and a grateful crowd in Anaheim came to its feet.

?That was insane. Somewhere around the second round I woke up and thought 'Oh, I?m in a fight, I think I am in California somewhere'," Bermudez said. "If he?d given me a reason, maybe I would have quit. I had that battle inside me where I maybe could have [quit] but I won that battle and from there got back into the fight."

Brendan Schaub used takedowns, and little else, to beat Lavar Johnson 30-27 on all the judges cards in the final fight of the prelims. With the crowd booing, Schaub repeatedly took down Johnson, who had little takedown defense.

Michael Chiesa continued his unbeaten streak with a rear naked choked of Anton Kuivanen. Chiesa rolled through to get into perfect position. He sunk in a rear naked choke that turned Kuivanen's face red. Kuivanen tapped at 2:29 in the second round.

Sam Stout managed another decision win, taking the split 29-28, 28-29 over Caros Fodor. 14 of his fights have ended with judges cards being read, and this decision put his record to 19-8.

Kenny Robertson made quick work of Brock Jardine. He stopped him with a knee bar at 2:57 in the first round.

"Sometime you gotta go with what you are handed. He was on top of me but didn?t have a great posture," Robertson said after the fight. "I saw the opening, so I grabbed his leg and hyper-extended it and he verbally submitted. I?ll take it. It is a first round win in the UFC."

For the card's opener, Nah-Shon Burrell and Yuri Villefort put on a thrilling bout that ended with Burrell taking the decision 30-27, 29-28, 29-28. Villefort had a strong first round, grabbing Burrell for two different submission attempts. But Burrell fought back in the second round, busting up Villefort's face with smart boxing. In the final round, Villefort grabbed a heel hook, but left his face open. Burrell used the opportunity to punch Villefort several time.

After the thriller by Burrell and Villefort, Neil Magny and Jon Manley's bout was a let down for the crowd in Anaheim. They spent much of the bout in a clinch, with Manley trying for a takedown that never came. Magny took the bout with better striking as the bout wore on.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-157-prelims-dennis-bermudez-matt-grice-deliver-033448621--mma.html

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No guns allowed at GOP meeting blasting ?gun free zones? (Americablog)

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Registration begins for public observation of appeal in renewable energy disputes

MORE:

At the request of the participants ? Canada, Japan, and the European Union ? the Appellate Body Division in these appellate proceedings has decided to open the oral hearing to public observation by WTO?Members and the general public via simultaneous closed-circuit television broadcast to a separate viewing room. The oral hearing will take place on Thursday, 14 March and Friday, 15?March 2013.

In the light of limited seating capacity, the places reserved for the public will be allocated on a first come, first served basis upon receipt of the completed registration form. Completed forms should be sent by e?mail only to the following address: ABRegistration@wto.org. Applications will be accepted until 5?p.m., Geneva time, Tuesday, 5 March 2013. Those to whom seats have been allocated will be advised by e-mail by Friday, 7 March 2013, at which time further information regarding the hearing will be provided. Those attending will need to present valid identification (official photo ID) to access the viewing room. Please note that no audio/video recording will be permitted. Portable phones and other such devices must be switched off throughout the hearing. Security checks may delay access to the viewing room.

The WTO cannot offer any support, including financial, for accommodation, flight arrangements and visas.

ONLY THOSE WITH RESERVED SEATS WILL BE ADMITTED.

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Source: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news13_e/hear_ds412_426_14mar13_e.htm

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Birds Eye recalls UK meals after Belgium horse DNA find

LONDON (Reuters) - Frozen food maker Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals sold in Belgium.

The discovery of horsemeat in food labelled as beef has triggered product recalls and damaged confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry. The scandal erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed that some beef products also contained horsemeat.

"Regrettably, we have found one product, chilli con carne, produced for us by Frigilunch N.V. and sold in Belgium, that has tested positive for horse DNA at 2 percent," Birds Eye said in a statement.

"As a precautionary measure in the UK and Ireland we will withdraw all other products produced by the same supplier, namely traditional spaghetti bolognese (340g), shepherd's pie (400g) and beef lasagne (400g)."

The group said it would also withdraw a total of eight product lines in Belgium as well as one chilli con carne product in the Netherlands as a precautionary measure.

Private equity group Permira's frozen food brands include Birds Eye in Britain, Iglo, which trades across much of continental Europe, and Findus in Italy.

Birds Eye added that the withdrawn products would not be replaced on supermarket shelves until it had completed an investigation into the issue and had complete confidence in Frigilunch N.V.

Contacted by Reuters, Frigilunch declined to comment beyond saying it would issue a statement soon.

Birds Eye said tests showed its beef burgers, beef pies and beef platters sold in Britain and Ireland did not contain horse DNA.

(Reporting by Rhys Jones; Additional Reporting by Charlie Dunmore; Editing by Neil Maidment and Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/birds-eye-recalls-uk-products-horse-dna-belgium-093100548--sector.html

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Palestinians clash with Israeli troops across the West Bank

RAMALLAH (Ma?an) ? Clashes erupted across the West Bank after the Friday prayers between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters who rallied to show solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners.

Dozens were hurt as Israeli soldiers fired tear gas heavily to disperse the protesters.

Similarly, worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem demonstrated in the compound after the Friday prayer before Israeli troops broke into the squares and clashed with the protesters.

According to Israeli radio station Reshet Bet, Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades to disperse the worshipers. The report highlighted that demonstrations started near the Moroccan Gate through which the soldiers stormed the compound and started to chase protesters.

In Ramallah in the central West Bank, 12 young men were hurt by tear gas and rubber-coated bullets during clashes with Israeli troops after the Friday prayers. Locals told Ma?an that the soldiers detained one Palestinian. The sources highlighted that the Friday prayer was performed near the main gate of Ofer detention center west of Ramallah.

They said about 100 Palestinians preformed Friday prayers near Ofer before Israeli soldiers showered them with tear gas as soon as they finished prayer.

As a result young men started to hurl stones at the soldiers and police officers. A Ma?an reporter said the soldiers directed their tear gas to journalists who gathered in the area to report about the event. He added that the soldiers fired live ammunition at a car for journalists, but nobody was hurt.

Further clashes took place in al-Arrub and al-Fawwar refugee camps in Hebron district.

Witnesses said young Palestinian men in al-Arrub camp north of Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones. Clashes erupted first at the main entrance to the camp on the main road between Hebron and Bethlehem. Then the clashes extended to camp?s alleys resulting in more victims of tear gas as some canisters fell inside houses.

One owner of these houses was identified as Nayif Nimir al-Badawi. Four people were hurt by tear gas. Three others were hurt in house of Khamis Awad al-Badawi.

Israeli forces shut down the main entrance to al-Fawwar camp north of Hebron after young men hurled stones at Israeli soldiers. The soldiers responded with tear gas before they closed the main entrance to traffic.

In Tulkarem in the northern West Bank young Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in the western part of the city. Soldiers fired tear gas as the young protesters pelted them with stones. The clashes erupted after hundreds of young men rallied after the Friday prayer chanting slogans against Israel's treatment to Palestinian prisoners.

The northern West Bank city of Jenin also witnessed confrontations between young Palestinians and Israeli soldiers after the Friday prayer. Nine Palestinians were detained during the clashes and dozens were hurt by tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.

Jenin's clashes started after young men marched from mosques toward al-Jalama checkpoint expressing solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian prisoners. A Ma'an reporter said Israeli forces fired hundreds of tear gas canisters at the protesters in addition to rubber-coated bullets and foul smelling liquids.

Local and security sources told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers detained nine young men. The sources identified one detainee as 14-year-old Amir Majid Irqawi. They said the soldiers assaulted him beating him brutally before he was detained.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=567985

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Krauthammer: Obamacare Is ?Terrible,? But It?s Law Of The Land And GOP Govs Are ?Honorable? For Embracing It

There has been a recent trend of Republican governors embracing the Medicaid expansion provision of the Affordable Care Act, and this week Florida governor Rick Scott became the latest to jump on the bandwagon. On Fox News earlier today, Bret Baier held a panel discussion on this shift, with Charles Krauthammer saying that while the health care law is insolvent and terrible, it is the law of the land, and said that Scott and his fellow governors are making an ?honorable? decision for embracing the Medicaid expansion.

RELATED: Krauthammer To Hannity: Roberts Was Protecting The Court?s ?Reputation? With Health Care Decision

The Weekly Standard?s Steve Hayes said it?s easy to ?understand the rationale? of why Republican governors are embracing parts of the health care law, but found it ?particularly galling? that Scott, who ?made his career opposing Obamacare? and has consistently been one of its most ardent opponents, pulled a surprising 180 this week. Hayes called Scott?s shift a politically ?cowardly? decision.

Kirsten Powers argued it is a striking example of the limits of Republican opposition to health care. She said that there has been no real alternative plan offered concerning how to provide health care to poor people. Baier pointed out that the Medicaid expansion was rejected in far more states than it has been accepted in. Krauthammer responded to Powers? point by saying the health care law goes even further in expanding Medicaid to people who are above the poverty line.

Krauthammer then defended Scott?s actions as ?honorable? after his long opposition to the health care law, in spite of personally believing the Medicaid provision in the law is too expansive, and clarified that despite his defense he still believes it to be ?insolvent? and ?a terrible idea.? Powers said that at least Scott is accepting reality and not just pretending that poor people will ?disappear? and solve the problem.

Hayes pointed out no one is talking about how the Medicaid expansion will be paid for, maintaining that it is ?unwise? for Republican governors to concede defeat when there are alternatives and that the full implementation of the health care law will end up being a ?policy disaster.?

Watch the video below, courtesy of Fox News:

??

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Source: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/krauthammer-obamacare-is-terrible-but-its-law-of-the-land-and-gop-govs-are-honorable-for-embracing-it/

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Honey, It's Electric: Bees Sense Charge On Flowers

Flowers are nature's ad men. They'll do anything to attract the attention of the pollinators that help them reproduce. That means spending precious energy on bright pigments, enticing fragrances and dazzling patterns.

Now, scientists have found another element that contributes to flowers' brand: their distinct electric field.

Flowers taylor their displays towards the sensory capabilities of their pollinators. Bees can see visible and ultraviolet light, they have precise olfactory receptors, and now we know they can also detect electric fields.

• Visible
• Ultraviolet
• Fragrance
• Electric

Visible spectrum. Certain bright colors and petal shapes attract certain pollinators.

Kevin Collins

Ultraviolet (false color). Bees and other pollinators can see the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. They are guided by patterns on flowers that are invisible to humans.

Kevin Collins

Ultraviolet (false color). Bees and other pollinators can see the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. They are guided by patterns on flowers that are invisible to humans.

Kevin Collins

Fragrance plume (artist's depiction). Bees follow specific odors to locate flowers, and once they arrive, use scent maps to move toward the center of the flower. Fragrance that clings to a bee provides information for other bees back at the hive.

Adam Cole/NPR

Electric field (artist's depiction). Flowers have a weak negative electric charge relative to the air around them. Different flowers have different electric fields, often with charge concentrated at the tips of the petals.

Adam Cole/NPR

Anne Leonard, who studies bees at the University of Nevada, says our understanding of pollinator-flower communication has been expanding for decades.

"Flowers do a lot of things you might not expect," Leonard says. "We observe they have these distinct bright beautiful, colors, patterns, scents."

But we don't often stop to consider that this incredible display is all an attempt to attract bees and other pollinators. These displays don't just consist of things humans notice. There are also patterns in the ultraviolet spectrum, petal temperatures and textures and shapes.

"We've found that by producing these combinations of sensory stimuli, the plant basically makes its flowers easier for the bee to learn and remember," Leonard says.

That means the bee can forage more efficiently and flowers are more likely to be pollinated.

"This is a magnificent interaction where you have an animal and a plant and they both want this to go as well as possible," says Gregory Sutton of the University of Bristol in the U.K. "The flowers are trying to make themselves look as different as possible. This is to establish the flower's bland."

Sutton and a team of researchers led by Daniel Robert have just uncovered a whole new layer to flower brands.

"We found that flowers can use electric fields," Sutton says.

That's right ? electric fields. It turns out flowers have a slight negative charge relative to the air around them. Bumblebees have a charge, too.

"When bees are flying through the air, just the friction of the air and the friction of the body parts on one another causes the bee to become positively charged," Sutton says.

It's like shuffling across a carpet in wool socks. When a positively charged bee lands on a flower, the negatively charged pollen grains naturally stick to it. The Bristol team wondered if bees were aware of this electrostatic interaction.

So, the designed an experiment ? one described in this week's Science magazine. The researchers built a small arena full of fake flowers. Each flower was simple ? a stalk with a small steel dish at the top. Half of the "flowers" held delicious sugar water. The other half held quinine, a substance that bees find bitter and disgusting.

When bumblebees were allowed explored this false flower patch, they moved around randomly. They chose to land on sweet flowers just about as often as bitter flowers.

But when the sweet flowers carried a small charge, the bees learned pretty quickly to choose the charged flowers. And when the electric charge was removed? They went back to their random foraging.

The bees had recognized the electric field, and had learned to use it to find sweet flowers. But that's not all.

"In the seconds just before the bee lands, there is electrical activity in the plant," Sutton says.

The plant's electric field is changed by the proximity of that positively charged bee. And once the bee leaves, the field stays changed for 100 seconds or so. That's long enough for the altered field to serve as a warning for the next bee that buzzes by. She won't stop to investigate a flower that's already been visited.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172611866/honey-its-electric-bees-sense-charge-on-flowers?ft=1&f=1007

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Robotic bat wing engineered: Researchers uncover flight secrets of real bats

Feb. 21, 2013 ? The strong, flapping flight of bats offers great possibilities for the design of small aircraft, among other applications. By building a robotic bat wing, Brown researchers have uncovered flight secrets of real bats: the function of ligaments, the elasticity of skin, the structural support of musculature, skeletal flexibility, upstroke, downstroke.

Researchers at Brown University have developed a robotic bat wing that is providing valuable new information about dynamics of flapping flight in real bats.

The robot, which mimics the wing shape and motion of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, is designed to flap while attached to a force transducer in a wind tunnel. As the lifelike wing flaps, the force transducer records the aerodynamic forces generated by the moving wing. By measuring the power output of the three servo motors that control the robot's seven movable joints, researchers can evaluate the energy required to execute wing movements.

Testing showed the robot can match the basic flight parameters of bats, producing enough thrust to overcome drag and enough lift to carry the weight of the model species.

A paper describing the robot and presenting results from preliminary experiments is published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. The work was done in labs of Brown professors Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz, who are the senior authors on the paper. Breuer, an engineer, and Swartz, a biologist, have studied bat flight and anatomy for years.

The faux flapper generates data that could never be collected directly from live animals, said Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at Brown who led the project. Bats can't fly when connected to instruments that record aerodynamic forces directly, so that isn't an option -- and bats don't take requests.

"We can't ask a bat to flap at a frequency of eight hertz then raise it to nine hertz so we can see what difference that makes," Bahlman said. "They don't really cooperate that way."

But the model does exactly what the researchers want it to do. They can control each of its movement capabilities -- kinematic parameters -- individually. That way they can adjust one parameter while keeping the rest constant to isolate the effects.

"We can answer questions like, 'Does increasing wing beat frequency improve lift and what's the energetic cost of doing that?'" Bahlman said. "We can directly measure the relationship between these kinematic parameters, aerodynamic forces, and energetics."

Detailed experimental results from the robot will be described in future research papers, but this first paper includes some preliminary results from a few case studies.

One experiment looked at the aerodynamic effects of wing folding. Bats and some birds fold their wings back during the upstroke. Previous research from Brown had found that folding helped the bats save energy, but how folding affected aerodynamic forces wasn't clear. Testing with the robot wing shows that folding is all about lift.

Studying an animal with unique abilities

Over the years, Kenneth Breuer, an engineer, and Sharon Swartz, a biologist, have developed a large archive of bat data, from wind tunnels to field studies and slow-motion video.In a flapping animal, positive lift is generated by the downstroke, but some of that lift is undone by the subsequent upstroke, which generates negative lift. By running trials with and without wing folding, the robot showed that folding the wing on the upstroke dramatically decreases that negative lift, increasing net lift by 50 percent.

Data like that will not only give new insights into the mechanics of bat flight, it could aid the design of small flapping aircraft. The research was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation..

Inspired by the real thing

Bat wings are complex things. They span most of the length of a bat's body, from shoulder to foot. They are supported and moved by two arm bones and five finger-like digits. Over those bones is a super-elastic skin that can stretch up to 400 percent without tearing. The eight-inch robot mimics that anatomy with plastic bones carefully fabricated on a 3-D printer to match proportions of a real bat. The skin is made of a silicone elastomer. The joints are actuated by servo motors that pull on tendon-like cables, which in turn pull on the joints.

The robot doesn't quite match the complexity of a real bat's wing, which has 25 joints and 34 degrees of freedom. An exact simulation isn't feasible given today's technology and wouldn't be desirable anyway, Bahlman said. Part of why the model is useful is that it distills bat flapping down to five fundamental parameters: flapping frequency, flapping amplitude, the angle of the flap relative to the ground, the amount of time used for the downstroke, and the extent to which the wings can fold back.

Experimental data aside, Bahlman said there were many lessons learned just in building the robot and getting it to work properly. "We learned a lot about how bats work from trying to duplicate them and having things go wrong," he said.

During testing, for example, the tongue and groove joint used for the robot's elbow broke repeatedly. The forces on the wing would spread open the groove, and eventually break it open. Bahlman eventually wrapped steel cable around the joint to keep it intact, similar to the way ligaments hold joints together in real animals.

The fact that the elbow was a characteristic weak point in the robot might help to explain the musculature of elbows in real bats. Bats have a large set of muscles at the elbow that are not positioned to flex the joint. In humans, these muscles are used in the motion that helps us turn our palms up or down. Bats can't make that motion, however, so the fact that these muscles are so large was something of a mystery. Bahlman's experience with the robot suggests these muscles may be adapted to resist bending in a direction that would break the joint open.

The wing membrane provided more lessons. It often tore at the leading edge, prompting Bahlman to reinforce that spot with elastic threads. The fix ended up looking a lot like the tendon and muscle that reinforce leading edges in bats, underscoring how important those structures are.

Now that the model is operational, Bahlman has lots of plans for it.

"The next step is to start playing with the materials," he said. "We'd like to try different wing materials, different amounts of flexibility on the bones, looking to see if there are beneficial tradeoffs in these material properties."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joseph W Bahlman, Sharon M Swartz, Kenneth S Breuer. Design and characterization of a multi-articulated robotic bat wing. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2013; 8 (1): 016009 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016009

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/mH5WJdkNVC4/130221143942.htm

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In South Africa, Crime And Violence Are Permanent Headlines

No place has been as riveted by Oscar Pistorius and the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend as South Africa.

But even before this sensational story burst into the headlines, South Africans were fiercely debating issues that are more or less permanent fixtures in this country ? crime, and violence against women.

Crime has always been high in poorly policed black areas, and whites have felt it more in recent years as well. It seems most everyone has been victimized, and many more than once. Well-off South Africans live behind high walls, they pay private security firms to patrol their neighborhoods, they have state-of-the-art security systems, and some of them are armed.

So when Pistorius said in court that he mistook his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder breaking into his home, he was offering an explanation that struck a chord with many of his countrymen.

Yet South Africa is also a place where violence against women is out of control, from rape on the streets to abuse between a man and his female partner. In fact, before the Pistorious case, the newspapers and talk shows were focused on the gruesome gang rape and murder of teenager Anene Booysen in a small town outside Cape Town.

Public protests and marches that had been planned around the Booysen case went ahead as scheduled this week. The only change the organizers made was to add Steenkamp's name to the long list of victims.

President Jacob Zuma has called for the harshest possible sentences for the perpetrators in the Booysen case. His government recently gave high-profile backing to a campaign that calls for "16 days of no violence against women and children."

A Volatile Mix

The Pistorius case is playing out against this highly charged background. South Africans have been watching, along with the rest of the world, as evidence has been presented this week, and with the judge granting Pistorius bail on Friday. But women's groups of all races have picketed against Pistorius, while many sports fans and friends seem to side with him.

Added to this volatile mix is a widespread and longstanding belief that the South African police are not particularly competent and therefore may not be able to figure out exactly what happened at Pistorius' home in a gated community in Pretoria.

Those concerns have already been realized as the spotlight turned temporarily to Hilton Botha, the police detective who had been heading the Pistorius investigation.

He gave testimony that seemed to hurt the prosecution Wednesday, and on Thursday reports emerged that he was facing seven attempted murder charges himself related to a 2011 shooting while he was on duty. Botha has been replaced, but in short order he reinforced the notion that the police may be unprepared for the intense scrutiny they will face.

Because home break-ins are so common, South Africa has had ample opportunity to establish the ground rules on how a victim can legitimately respond.

Senior South African litigator Paul Hoffman says the law is clear that a person cannot fire four shots into a locked door and call it self-defense. An "imminent threat" is required, he says.

What Pistorius' lawyer will have to argue is that he fired in "putative self-defense," according to Hoffman. Even if this is the case, and the judge accepts it, Pistorius could still be liable for "culpable homicide," though that's a much lesser charge that may or may not result in a jail term.

Gun Laws Easily Circumvented

In theory, South Africa has gun control laws that appear rigorous. They require a background check that includes a visit by authorities to the place where the weapon will be stored. The prospective owner must show he has a safe or piece of furniture where the weapon can be safely locked away.

However, high gun-theft rates result in a lively illegal trade in stolen weapons.

According to court testimony and media reports, Pistorius had a permit for at least one hand gun. But he also appears to have had ammunition without a permit, which his lawyer has argued was licensed to his father. Pistorious had applied for permits for another five firearms and could be liable for prosecution for any unlicensed weapon or ammunition found in the house, according to media reports.

Crime in South Africa cuts across all demographics. Poor, black areas are rife with muggings, rapes and shootings. Killers often prey on isolated white farmers. In middle-class suburbs, most residences are protected by private security firms, dominated by the international security company ADT. While not foolproof, this provides much better protection than the poor black majority can afford.

In a middle-class, gated Johannesburg townhouse, I was a victim of exactly the crime Pistorius says he feared. At 3 a.m. I walked into my living room to find what looked like four men in the semi-darkness. They almost certainly colluded with security guards at the front gate, who believed that I was away on a holiday.

At the sound of my loud hand claps, shouts and perhaps the disconcerting sight of a semi-clothed, middle-aged man, they fled. I took care to give them a clear path out.

I didn't own a gun, and this incident did not make me buy one. It was surprise and confusion, perhaps quick-wittedness or just pure luck that saved me.

Many South Africans have such stories, and their own experiences may shape the way they look at the trial of Oscar Pistorius.

John Matisonn, who was NPR's southern Africa correspondent from 1986 to 1991, is a freelance writer living in Cape Town.

Source: http://wvxu.org/post/south-africa-crime-and-violence-are-permanent-headlines

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