Unemployment, economic turmoil in Europe and slower growth in China and the Far East are expected to curb business travel growth in U.S., according to a new report by the Global Business Travel Association.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/49350236#49350236
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My first real exposure to the world of hi-tech occurred in 2005 when I spent time working with the founders of a start-up that specialized in the rendering of real-time 3-D environments. Their technology was so dazzling that experienced observers thought they were being tricked or deceived during our demonstrations. To their credit the mostly very young programmers and algorithm writers were very idealistic. Most of them came from a ?gaming? background, but had little respect for their previous work product. They were determined to limit application of their software to ?virtuous? endeavors, which included the creation of 3-D learning environments.
On one occasion we met with representatives of a Northern California school district, which was experiencing a significant drop off in student enrollment. For every student lost the district lost thousands of dollars of government funding, which amounted to millions of lost dollars annually. Many of those students were being home-schooled and the district thought that by creating a rich, online, learning environment they might be able to recapture these disenchanted students and simultaneously reclaim their government funding. Our technology was a perfect fit for the mission, and we brain-stormed ideas for creating what amounted to a sophisticated, interactive, online school. One presumption I held, was that no matter how realistic and functional that online experience might be, it would pale in comparison to actually attending school and interacting with teachers and fellow students. Our virtual school was, at best, a compromised version of reality, whereas ?real school? was, well, real. The young scientists disagreed. They in fact expressed a preference for the virtual learning environment. And that?s when I got it about techno-types. Reality isn?t their thing. Physical interaction isn?t their thing. Sociability isn?t their thing. The ability to isolate and avoid real-world settings actually appeals to them. The social realm, in many ways, is a distraction and a burden to them.
I bring this up because of a recent article in the New York Times (Drop Out, Dive In, Start Up) about PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and his Thiel Fellowship Program. In a nutshell, Mr. Thiel ?bankrolls people under the age of 20 who want to find the next big thing.? The next big thing being (for the most part) some sort of technological gadget, which can, I assume, eventually be pitched to ?some venture capitalist (like himself), and after that to Wall Street types who will then organize a highly lucrative and fee producing IPO - America?s 21st century version of a wet dream. There is, however, a catch. The young entrepreneurs must forgo college (during the term of the Fellowship), which seems to be as much of the point as creating the products themselves. College, for this collection of techno-achievers, is basically dismissed as a waste of time. Indeed, a parent of one of the Fellows stated ?I can?t think of a worse environment than school?.I detest American so-called education.? It?s always easy for elites (intellectual and financial) to disdain generally useful institutions like schools and government which are rendered non-essential to them by virtue of their unusual and elevated status. Why worry about public schools or universities when your little genius can always be home-schooled or attain a private school scholarship? Why invest in police and public parks when you live in a gated community or guarded high-rise, and belong to a country club? ?
For a while now, I?ve been harboring a contrarian attitude towards our focus on all-tech all the time. Technology as the solution to everything represents, in my mind, a simplistic, money-driven, and over-valued world view in the same way that placing computers in every classroom creates the illusion of genuine progress and learnedness. Our society lacks something, but that something is not a deficiency in technology. That?s why I?m not so sure that what America really needs is the cultivation of a cadre of cosseted, socially isolated, narrowly focused techno-geeks rendering ?solutions? for a better America. If Mr. Thiel was truly a ?free thinker? (as described by the Times) he might recognize that there are pressing needs in America that might be better served by awarding $100,000 grants to free-thinking people under the age of 20 with the desire to ponder and shape policies and ideas that might create a more socially just, economically balanced, happiness-generating, and internationally attuned society. The gadgets of Silicon Valley don?t do that. They do produce riches, increasingly for a relative few (I suggest reading the following article at DEMOS.com), and they do produce mass marketable products of dubious necessity and social effect. But too frequently they are solutions to little, if not nothing, that really matters.
This point of view was crystallized for me during the war in Iraq. On a daily basis I would read newspaper accounts of the war to my elderly mother-in-law Gogo whose eyesight was then beginning to fail. And those accounts, in 2006, were relentlessly morbid ? mass killings, IED attacks, Mosque bombings, troop ambushes, atrocities. On and on it went, countless, and never-ending. Then one day, sometime in the middle of this protracted and unnecessary carnage, I came across an article about some sort of technological gizmo, the type of thing that Mr. Thiel might even have financed, that would enable American forces to detect from high and afar their enemies on the ground. For some reason, that article and its gleefully techno-oriented theme ticked me off. The one thing that America possessed in Iraq in spades was an almost imponderable degree of technological superiority - a reflection, no doubt, of our country?s greatness, as defined by people like Mr. Thiel.
Yet there we were the ?exceptional? nation of genius engaged in a borrowed trillion dollar war of choice foisted upon us by an unstudied President who barely comprehended the distinction between Iraqi Sunnis and Shias. How did that happen? How imperfect were the lynchpin institutions of our society - business, media, government, - that we found ourselves bogged down in a politically engineered war hatched by a morally compromised government, and supported by an aloof and distant citizenry ever so content to allow an ?all volunteer? Army to do their fighting? It wasn?t technology, inherently void of principle, perspective, and values that we lacked, but wisdom. Wisdom of the sort perhaps attained by attending college, immersing oneself in that social realm, and studying the ?soft? qualitative disciplines of history, art, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology. In other words, the very setting and the very studies that Mr. Thiel and his ?Fellows? find so unappealing.
What is our national purpose? We have extensive and new math standards. We are determined to compete with engineers from all over the world in the creation of alluring products. We are laden with gadgets, yet we are bereft. Unschooled in the very world and reality alluded to by that same parent who further stated ?turn your kids loose on the world, introduce them to the rigors of reality most important of which is earning your own way.? ?Iraq was literally teeming with engineers and technologists from ?corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton, all of them very adept at earning their way in the world. A world they disrespected, misunderstood, and had little problem destroying. But hey, that?s just a free-thinking thought.
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The increase in anal cancer incidence in the U.S. between 1980 and 2005 was greatly influenced by HIV infections in males, but not females, according to a study published October 5 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Anal cancer in the U.S. is rare, with an estimated 6,230 cases in 2012, but incidence has been steadily increasing in the general population since 1940. HIV infection is significantly associated with an increase in anal cancer risk, and anal cancer is the fourth most common cancer found in HIV-infected people. However, it has been unclear the degree to which anal cancer cases occurring among people with HIV has affected anal cancer incidence in the general population.
In order to determine the impact of HIV on anal cancer incidence in the U.S., Meredith S. Shiels, Ph.D., M.H.S., of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues looked at data from the HIV/AIDS Cancer Match Study?specifically the number of people with anal cancer with and without HIV between 1980 and 2005 in 17 U.S. states and metropolitan areas.
The researchers found that of the 20,533 anal cancer cases between 1980 and 2005, an estimated 1,665 individuals were infected with HIV. In 2001-2005, the most recent time period examined, 1.2% of women with anal cancer and 28.4% of men with anal cancer were HIV-positive. During 1980-2005, HIV infection did not have an impact on the increasing anal cancer incidence rates among women, but HIV had a strong impact on the increasing anal cancer incidence rates among men. "A large proportion of U.S. males with anal cancer in recent years were HIV-infected," the authors write, adding that, "Measures that would effectively prevent anal cancer in HIV-infected males could markedly reduce anal cancer rates at the population level."
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Journal of the National Cancer Institute: http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org
Thanks to Journal of the National Cancer Institute for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124251/HIV_helps_explain_rise_of_anal_cancer_in_US_males
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This may come as no surprise to many of us, but T-Mobile mentioned on Twitter a couple days ago that the Samsung Galaxy S III (S3) is the carrier's all-time best-selling device. There's no doubt that the Galaxy S3 (and Galaxy S2 before it) have been monumental hits for Samsung, but T-Mobile also puts a lot of their marketing weight behind these flagships. Considering that it doesn't offer that fruit phone and often misses out on other devices because of exclusivity deals with other carriers, the success of the Galaxy S3 for T-Mobile may be more important as a single device than it is to any other carrier in the US.
Source: T-Mobile (Twitter)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/70V756PhYeU/story01.htm
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Wellington house prices increased 1.9 per cent in the past month, according to the Real Estate Institute's housing price index, with listings becoming increasingly scarce.
However, REINZ figures out yesterday also showed that the gain for the past year is just 1.8 per cent, reflecting the earlier weak state of the market. The housing price index for the region remains 2.8 per cent below the peak.
REINZ chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said an increasing shortage of listings was becoming apparent across the region.
"Uncertainty in the public service sector [is] making owners cautious about listing their properties," she said. "Buyer interest is still evident and [sales] clearance rates are solid."
The housing price index nationally increased 0.6 per cent in September to a new record high, showing a gain of 5 per cent in the past 12 months. The index adjusts for some of the variations in the mix of properties sold, which can move the monthly median house price up and down more sharply.
The less reliable median price figures showed Wellington region prices up $20,000 or 5.3 per cent to $400,000 in September, compared with the same month last year.
"The trend in [Wellington] median price is solidly improving, though the trend in sales volumes continues to move more or less sideways," REINZ said.
REINZ said Hutt Valley, Upper Hutt and Western Wellington house prices had noticeably increased on September last year.
Wellington region sales volumes in September were up 11 per cent from a year ago to 573, though down on August this year when almost 600 homes were sold.
It took an average of 35 days to sell a home in the region, compared with 39 days in August.
Nationally, the median house price was up 6 per cent in the past 12 months to $371,000.
TD Securities head of research Annette Beacher said house price inflation had been climbing since July 2011. Concerns were rising about the rapid pace of price rises in Auckland, resulting from people leaving Christchurch and years of next to no new homes being built, she said.
The average days to sell fell from 46 in February to 33, "traditionally associated with double-digit house price inflation".
New Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler would need to tell financial markets and policymakers how he would react, if at all, "to this surge in asset-price inflation", Beacher said.
The next review of the official cash rate is on October 25, though the central bank is expected to leave the cash rate at 2.5 per cent for some time. TD Securities expected the first move up in rates in March, while most expected a move later in April or June.
Meanwhile, extremely low levels of Auckland and Christchurch houses for sale were behind a fall in national house sales in September, says ASB senior economist Jane Turner.
REINZ said the number of national house sales fell 6.8 per cent to 5653 from August, although sales remain 8 per cent above the same time last year.
?We believe the dip in turnover in September is due to lack of supply rather than easing demand.?
Turner doubts there would be a meaningful rise in housing supply, outside of the Christchurch rebuild, given limited capacity within the construction sector.
Compared with the number of households in New Zealand, the monthly level of sales remained about 23 per cent below the average seen in the past 20 years, according to Deutsche Bank.
REINZ's O'Sullivan said the total number of new national listings had grown from August to September, but not enough to meet market demand.
?This means properties have turned over faster and prices have increased,? said O'Sullivan.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7785323/Shortage-of-listings-pushes-house-prices-up
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Today I?m sharing two Deco Art projects at the DIY Club:
Patio Paints and Patio Paints Home & Garden Stencil?
Thrifty Candlestick Transformation
before
after
and Decoupaged Chandelier?
Reminder: LAST DAY!!!
I?ll be drawing the winner first thing tomorrow morning. There?s still time to enter to win!
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ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) ? Experienced skydiver and extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner hopes to take the leap of his life on Tuesday, attempting the highest, fastest free fall in history.
If he survives, the man dubbed "Fearless Felix" could be the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. If he doesn't, a tragic fall could be live-streamed on the Internet for the world to see.
Rigged with cameras, the 43-year-old former military parachutist from Austria is scheduled to jump from a balloon-hoisted capsule 23 miles near Roswell on Tuesday morning. He wants to break the record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who jumped from an open gondola at an altitude of 19.5 miles. Kittinger's speed of 614 mph was just shy of breaking the sound barrier at that height.
Baumgartner, who has been preparing for the jump for five years, has made two practice runs from the Roswell area, from 15 miles high in March and 18 miles in July.
And while he and his team of experts recognize the worst-case scenarios ? including "boiling" blood and exploding lungs ? they have confidence in their built-in solutions. Those solutions are something NASA is watching closely. The space agency is interested in the potential for escape systems on future rocket ships.
Baumgartner's top medical man is Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon whose wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, died in the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. Clark is dedicated to improving astronauts' chances of survival in a high-altitude disaster.
The No. 1 fear is a breach of Baumgartner's suit, which could cause potentially lethal bubbles to form in his bodily fluids, a condition known as boiling blood. There are also risks he could spin out of control, causing other problems.
This death-defying venture is being sponsored by energy drink maker, Red Bull, which has funded other extreme athletic events. The project's team of experts has a plan for almost every contingency. The spacesuit and capsule were tested in the early skydiving practice runs. The company won't say how much the project, called Stratos for stratosphere, is costing.
But whether Baumgartner can make what he vows will be his final jump depends on the weather. A cold front that brought winds to the area this weekend prompted the team to move the planned Monday jump to Tuesday. Even the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, 200 miles to the north, was forced to cancel its opening mass ascension of more than 500 balloons on Saturday morning because of the high winds. Those balloons took off Sunday, but winds in the 9 mph range and above remain in the forecast for Roswell all week, and the jump can only be made if winds on the ground are less than 2 mph.
Still, Baumgartner's team remained optimistic about getting the mission off the ground.
"From what we are looking at so far, we are on schedule (for Tuesday)," meteorologist Don Day said at a media briefing Sunday.
Weather permitting, Baumgartner will be lifted into the stratosphere around 7 a.m. MDT by a helium balloon that will stretch 55 stories high. Once he reaches his target altitude, he will open the hatch of his capsule and make a gentle, bunny-style jump. Any contact with the capsule on his exit could break open the pressurized suit that will protect him from temperatures as low as minus 70 and a lack of oxygen. He hopes to reach a speed of 690 mph to break the sound barrier.
Baumgartner, who has made more than 2,500 jumps from planes, helicopters, landmarks and skyscrapers over the past 25 years, promises this jump will be his last.
He says he plans to settle down with his girlfriend and fly helicopters on mountain rescue and firefighting missions in the U.S. and Austria.
___
Online:
Red Bull Stratos: http://www.redbullstratos.com
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force: http://tinyurl.com/2dsnn6
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