Texas district attorney, wife found dead at home

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? A Texas prosecutor and his wife were found killed in their house two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office, authorities said.

Investigators found the bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, on Saturday, said Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis. Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and deputies were part of the investigation.

Assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office on Jan. 31.

Lewis declined to say how the couple died or whether authorities believe their deaths are linked to Hasse's. He wouldn't provide further details.

Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told The Dallas Morning News that the McLellands had been shot in their home and that although investigators didn't know if their deaths and Hasse's were related, they couldn't discount it.

"It is a shock," Aulbaugh told the paper. "It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise."

Sam Rosander, who lives in the same unincorporated area of Kaufman County as the McLellands, told The Associated Press that sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway for about a month after Hasse was killed.

Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was checking to see if Hasse's killing could be related to the March 19 killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements, who was gunned down after answering the doorbell at his home. He said it's routine for authorities to look for possible links when there are similarities between two deaths.

Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.

Hasse was chief of the organized crime unit when he was an assistant prosecutor in Dallas County in the 1980s, and he handled similar cases in Kaufman County, 33 miles southeast of Dallas.

McLelland had said Hasse was one of 12 attorneys on his staff, all of whom handle hundreds of cases at a time.

"Anything anybody can think of, we're looking through," McLelland said after the assistant prosecutor was killed.

In recent years, Hasse played major roles in Kaufman County's most high-profile cases, including one in which a justice of the peace was convicted on theft and burglary charges and another in which a man was convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter.

McLelland graduated from the University of Texas before a 23-year career in the Army, according to the website for the district attorney's office. He later earned his law degree from the Texas Wesleyan School of Law.

He and his wife have two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-district-attorney-wife-found-dead-home-045407488.html

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From Dallas to Damascus: The Texas 'straight shooter' who could replace Syria's Assad

Ozan Kose / AFP - Getty Images

Ghassan Hitto, speaking to reporters after his March 18 election as Syria's interim prime minister.

By Ayman Mohyeldin and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

He is a ?straight shooter? from Texas who worked as a telecoms executive until November. But Ghassan Hitto now finds himself the presumptive caretaker-leader of Syria as world powers plot the end of Bashar Assad?s crumbling regime.

The American citizen, born in Syria, is the new prime minister of the opposition?s interim government ? the apparatus that the international community hopes will seal the end of Assad?s rule.

Friends describe Hitto, 50, as ?sincere? and ?practical,? but the charismatic technocrat will need all the charm he can muster to unify Syria?s fragmented opposition.

His rapid rise has prompted questions about how the deadly conflict should end and has cast a light on infighting, fueled by regional countries purportedly supporting certain opposition figures.

The Free Syrian Army, one of the key rebel groups fighting Assad?s forces on the ground inside Syria, responded to Hitto?s appointment in Istanbul on March 18 by refusing to recognize his authority.

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?The situation there is so dire, I?m afraid for him,? said Mustafa Carroll,?who worked alongside Hitto in Texas as a volunteer at Muslim advocacy groups. ?It?s a big responsibility and it?s very complicated.?

?He?s a straight shooter, very sincere, very well-regarded and a very active community person,? said Carroll, who is director of the Houston chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

Seen as Muslim Brotherhood's pick
Hitto, a father of four, lived in the U.S. for three decades, most recently on the outskirts of Dallas working as director of operations for telecoms supplier Inovar, where co-worker?Arshad Syed remembers him as "honest" and "personable."

He left Syria in the early 1980s and received an MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University on top of a degree in computer science and mathematics from Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Strongly active in community groups, he was a member of the board of directors at the private Islamic school Bright Horizons Academy, in Garland, Texas, where his wife Suzanne still teaches English.

In November, he made the decision to get involved in the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces -- the international grouping that seeks to end Syria?s civil war on the condition that Assad is removed from power.

/

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

?Like a lot of people living away, he just wanted to help his homeland,? said Carroll.

Hitto?s wife did not return calls, but the academy issued a statement describing him as ?a practical man with great management experience.?

It said: ?He was always open minded and open to debate. He conducted himself with the highest honesty and integrity. His talent for bringing people together for the common good will be missed in our community.?

Hitto, a respected technocrat but an inexperienced politician, won the overwhelming number of votes from those who cast a ballot -- other possible candidates that included a former Syrian regime official -- but some members of the Coalition boycotted the vote in protest at the process.

Not everyone was convinced the opposition needed an interim government, seeing it as yet another organization that could compete for control of a post-Assad Syria.

Official spokesman Walid al-Bunni walked out of the vote in protest and Moaz al-Khatib, president of the Coalition, resigned and had to be persuaded back on board just in time for the Arab Summit in Doha, which began Tuesday.

?Hitto?s whole role has been undermined from the start,? said Christopher Phillips, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at U.K. think tank, Chatham House.

?He?s very much the Muslim Brotherhood?s man, and is seen as such. There was a lot of pressure to get an interim opposition leader in place ahead of the Doha talks, but the way in which it was done, and the choice of very much the man that Qatar and Turkey wanted, has infuriated and alienated just about every key player in the process.?

Represents 'the some of the some'
Salman Shaik, director of the Brookings Center in Doha, said many Syrians "still regard the appointment of Hitto with suspicion." Even if Assad is toppled from power, Hitto is by no means certain of the authority he needs to implement free and fair elections.

?The huge elephant in the room is that there is no guarantee that, if and when the Assad regime falls, that any of the groups fighting in Syria will gather around this official opposition,? said Phillips. ?There are huge uncertainties in all of this.?

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, commentator and general manager of the Al Arabiya news channel, wrote: ?I am confident that Mr. Hitto is a respectable person and that he cares about Syria. But during this difficult time, we want a person who represents everyone and not only some Syrians. Some members of the Syrian coalition decided to choose Hitto but the coalition itself only represents some Syrians. Therefore, Hitto represents the some of the some!?

Yasser Tabarra, the Chicago-based legal adviser to the Coalition, says the interim government will focus on managing the 60 to 70 percent of the country that is liberated and controlled by opposition rebels.

The government would coordinate local management efforts, including establishing law and order, and delivering basic goods and services, Tabarra said.

Two key stumbling blocks remain: whether the Coalition should enter into any form of negotiations with the regime while Assad is still in power, and whether Hitto, an ethnic Kurd viewed as the Muslim Brotherhood's favored candidate, can unite the ideological differences between its liberal and Islamist members.

In his task, Hitto at least has the backing of the U.S.

?This is an individual who, out of concern for the Syrian people, left a very successful life in Texas to go and work on humanitarian relief for the people of his home country,? said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland after Hitto?s election.

?We?re very hopeful that his election will foster unity and cohesion among the opposition.?

NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a2a8a9d/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C30A0C1750A0A980A0Efrom0Edallas0Eto0Edamascus0Ethe0Etexas0Estraight0Eshooter0Ewho0Ecould0Ereplace0Esyrias0Eassad0Dlite/story01.htm

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TCL LE46FHDE5300

• Pros

  Very affordable. Good image detail. Energy efficient.

• Cons Oversaturated reds and greens. Sluggish remote. Only two HDMI ports.
• Bottom Line

  With the TCL LEFHDE5300 series you get capable LED-backlit HDTVs at affordable prices?the 46-inch model we tested rings up for less than $550. Features are scarce and color accuracy could be better, but this set is still a good deal for the money.

By John R. Delaney

Cash-strapped consumers take note: Chinese HDTV manufacturer TCL has reset the bar for budget-priced HDTVs. We recently reviewed the company's LE40FHDE3000 model and gave it props for its overall bang for the buck, as the least-expensive 40-inch HDTV we?ve ever tested. If you want a slightly bigger screen, though, TCL's LEFHDE5300 series is a better choice. This line has 42- and 46-inch versions, and the 46-inch version we tested, the LE46FHDE5300, is notable for its $549 (list) price, especially considering you might be able to find it for much less if you shop around. It's not without issues, though, color accuracy is a bit off, and the remote was slightly slow to respond in our tests. And like most budget HDTVs, there aren?t many features to be had here. On the plus side, 1080p image detail is sharp and the set doesn?t require a lot of power. If you're on a strict budget, TCL is worth checking out.

Design and Features
The LE46FHDE5300 may be inexpensive, but it doesn?t look cheap. The 46-inch panel is framed by very thin (0.5-inch) matte black bezels on the top and sides, with a slightly wider (0.8-inch) bezel on the bottom. The only adornments are a shiny TCL logo in the center of the bottom bezel and a silver Power button off to the right.

At first glance the set looks extremely thin, measuring just 0.6 inches at its thinnest point. However, it juts out to 2.2 inches at the bottom where the down-firing speakers are embedded. The 25-pound cabinet is supported by a heavy, rectangular glass base that is sturdy but doesn?t provide any swivel. There are four VESA-compliant mounting holes on the back for hanging the TV on a wall using an optional mounting kit.

The right side of the cabinet is home to three rocker buttons (Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, Menu/Input). Around back, facing left, are two HDMI ports, a USB port, and a headphone jack. Downward-facing ports include composite and component A/V ports, PC audio input, VGA video input, digital audio output, and an antenna/cable jack. As with the TCL LE40FHDE3000, and our budget Editors' Choice, the RCA LED42C45RQ, this model only has two HDMI ports and lacks any network port, Wi-Fi, or Web apps.

The set uses the same remote that ships with the LE40FHDE3000. It?s 8 inches long, with a glossy black finish and 37 non-backlit buttons. There are no color-coded keys, but it does have playback controls and a dedicated picture preset button. I noticed a lag in response time when using the remote to change picture settings and while navigating through the settings menus, an issue I did not experience with the LE40FHDE3000.

There are six picture presets: Natural, Sports, Cinematic, Vibrant, ECO, and Personal. Basic settings include Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness. Expert settings allow you to adjust Backlight, Color, Tint, and Color Temperature. The Advanced settings menu offers an SABC (Screen Adaptive Brightness Control) option that, when enabled, changes the brightness level depending on the content being displayed. There?s also a Dynamic Backlight option that changes the backlighting level depending on screen content, and three noise reduction settings.

Performance
Using images from the DisplayMate HDTV diagnostic utility, a Klein K10-A Colorimeter, and SpectraCal?s CalMan 5 software, I performed a basic darkroom calibration on the LE46FHDE5300 and then measured luminance levels and color accuracy. The set produced a peak brightness of 255.73 cd/m² and a black level reading of 0.079 cd/m². The resulting contrast ratio of 3,237:1 is nothing to write home about, although it is higher than what we got from other low-cost sets including the Insignia NS-42E480A13, the Westinghouse UW40T2BW, and the RCA LED42C45RQ.

Color accuracy is sketchy, as you can see from the CIE chromaticity chart below. The closer the red, green, and blue dots are to their corresponding boxes, the better the color accuracy. (Ideally each dot will be inside the box.)? In this case, blues were very close to ideal, but reds and greens land well outside the box. As a result, the LE46FHDE5300?s picture is a little hot, or oversaturated. This was obvious while watching the movie Piranha on Blu-ray; flesh tones looked a bit too red, and Elisabeth Shue?s blond hair had a very slight green cast to it. That said, color accuracy issues are not uncommon with HDTVs in this price range, and are part of the reason you?ll pay a lot more for a same-size set like the Sony Bravia KDL-46HX850, which has extremely accurate colors.

Otherwise, the LE46FHDE5300 offers sharp image detail and moderately good viewing angles. There is some loss of luminance at around 45 degrees off center that gives the picture a slightly washed out look, but colors remain intact.

The LE46FHDE5300 is a relatively energy efficient budget HDTV, requiring 53 watts of power during testing, which is exactly what the much smaller (40-inch) Westinghouse UW40T2BW used, and only slightly more than the same-size Sony KDL-46HX850 (47 watts). The Insignia and RCA models used 64 watts and 67 watts, respectively, and both have smaller screens than the LE46FHDE5300.

Conclusion
If you?re in the market for a simple, inexpensive, larger-than-40-inch HDTV, the TCL FHDE5300 series has you covered. It delivers a bright picture and sharp image detail, has relatively wide viewing angles, and is energy efficient. While its color accuracy is not optimal, it offers a better all-around picture than comparably priced sets like the Insignia NS-42E480A13 and the Westinghouse UW40T2BW. That said, it still can?t match the overall picture quality of our reigning Editors? Choice for budget HDTVs, the 42-inch RCA LED42C45RQ.

Cash-strapped consumers take note: Chinese HDTV manufacturer TCL (The Creative Life) has reset the bar for budget-priced HDTVs. We recently reviewed their LE40FHDE3000 model and gave it props for its overall bang for the buck, and for being the cheapest 40-inch HDTV we?ve seen here at the PCMag.com Labs.? However, if a 40-inch screen just won?t cut it, consider 46-inch version of the company's LEFHDE5300 series, the LE46FHDE5300. This $549 (list) 1080p LED-backlit HDTV offers significantly more viewing area than its smaller sibling, and it?s a relative steal at just under $550 (or less if you shop around). However, it is not without issues; color accuracy is off and the remote is slow to respond. Like most budget HDTVs, there aren?t many features on this model, either. ?On the plus side, image detail is sharp and the set doesn?t require a lot of power. The 42-inch version, the LE42FHDE5300, is available for even less, and while we haven't tested that specific model, our tests based on the LE46FHDE5300 give a good sense of how it will perform. ? Design and Features ? The LE46FHDE5300 may be inexpensive, but it doesn?t look cheap. The 46-inch panel is framed by very thin (0.5-inch) matte black bezels on the top and sides, with a slightly wider (0.8-inch) bezel on the bottom. The only accoutrements are a shiny TCL logo in the center of the bottom bezel and silver power button off to the right. ? At first glance the cabinet looks extremely thin, measuring just 0.6 inches at its thinnest point. However, it juts out to 2.3 inches at the bottom where the down-firing speakers are embedded. The 25-pound cabinet is supported by a heavy, rectangular glass base that is sturdy but doesn?t provide swivel movement. There are four VESA-compliant mounting holes on the back for hanging the TV on a wall using an optional mounting kit. ? The right side of the cabinet is home to three rocker buttons (Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, Menu/Input). Around back facing left are two HDMI ports, a USB port, and a headphone jack. Downward-facing ports include composite and component A/V ports, PC audio input, VGA video input, digital audio output, and an antenna/cable jack. As with the TCL LE40FHDE3000 and the Editors' Choice RCA LED42C45RQ, this model only has two HDMI ports and lacks any network port, Wi-Fi, or Web apps. ? The LE46FHDE5300 uses the same exact remote that ships with the LE40FHDE3000. It?s 8 inches long, with a glossy black finish and 37 non-backlit buttons. There are no color-coded keys, but it does have playback controls and a dedicated picture preset button. ?I noticed significant lag in response time when using the remote to change picture settings and while navigating through the settings menus, an issue I did not experience with the LE40FHDE3000. ? There are six picture presets: Natural, Sports, Cinematic, Vibrant, ECO, and Personal. Basic settings include Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness. Expert settings allow you to adjust Backlight, Color, Tint, and Color Temperature. The Advanced settings menu offers an SABC (Screen Adaptive Brightness Control) option that, when enabled, changes the brightness level depending on the content being displayed. There?s also a Dynamic Backlight option that changes the backlighting level depending on screen content, and three noise reduction settings. ? Performance ? Using images from the DisplayMate HDTV diagnostic utility, a Klein K10-A Colorimeter, and SpectraCal?s CalMan 5 software, I performed a basic darkroom calibration on the LE46FHDE5300 and then measured luminance levels and color accuracy. The set produced a peak brightness of 255.73 cd/m2 and a black level reading of 0.079 cd/m2. The resulting contrast ratio of 3,237:1 is nothing to write about, although it is higher than what we got from the Insignia NS-42E480A13, the Westinghouse UW40T2BW, and the RCA LED42C45RQ. ? Color accuracy was sketchy, as you can see from the CIE chromaticity chart below. The closer the red, green, and blue dots are to their corresponding boxes, the better the color accuracy (ideally each dot will be inside the box).? In this case, blues were very close to ideal but reds and greens landed well outside the box. As a result, the LE46FHDE5300?s picture is a little hot, or oversaturated. This was obvious while watching the movie Piranha on Blu-ray; flesh tones looked a bit too red and Elisabeth Shue?s blond hair had a very slight green cast to it. That said, color accuracy issues are not uncommon with HDTVs in this price range, and is one of the reasons you?ll pay more for a set like the Sony Bravia KDL-46HX850, which has extremely accurate colors. ? Otherwise, the LE46FHDE5300 offers sharp image detail and moderately good viewing angles. There was some loss of luminance at around 45-degrees off dead center that gave the picture a slightly washed out look, but colors remained intact. ? The LE46FHDE5300 is a relatively energy efficient budget HDTV and earns our Greentech stamp of approval. It required 53 watts of power during testing, which is exactly what the much smaller (40-inch) Westinghouse UW40T2BW used and only slightly more than the Sony KDL-46HX850 (47 watts). The Insignia and RCA models used 64 watts and 67 watts, respectively, and both have smaller screens than the LE46FHDE5300. ? Conclusion ? If you?re in the market for a 46-inch HDTV but need to keep expenses below $600, the TCL LE46FHDE5300 has you covered. It delivers a bright picture and sharp image detail, and it has relatively wide viewing angles. It?s energy efficient, too. While its color accuracy is not optimal, it offers a better all around picture than comparably priced sets like the Insignia NS-42E480A13 and the Westinghouse UW40T2BW. That said, it still can?t match the overall picture quality of our reigning Editors? Choice for budget HDTVs, the RCA LED42C45RQ. By John R. Delaney Contributing Editor, Monitors and HDTVs

As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing business displays, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for the past 8 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's...

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Robotic ants successfully mimic real colony behavior

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Scientists have successfully replicated the behaviour of a colony of ants on the move with the use of miniature robots, as reported in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. The researchers, based at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, USA) and at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (Toulouse, France), aimed to discover how individual ants, when part of a moving colony, orient themselves in the labyrinthine pathways that stretch from their nest to various food sources.

The study focused mainly on how Argentine ants behave and coordinate themselves in both symmetrical and asymmetrical pathways. In nature, ants do this by leaving chemical pheromone trails. This was reproduced by a swarm of sugar cube size robots, called "Alices," leaving light trails that they can detect with two light sensors mimicking the role of the ants' antennae.

In the beginning of the experiment, where branches of the maze had no light trail, the robots adopted an "exploratory behaviour" modelled on the regular insect movement pattern of moving randomly but in the same general direction. This led the robots to choose the path that deviated least from their trajectory at each bifurcation of the network. If the robots detected a light trail, they would turn to follow that path.

One outcome of the robotic model was the discovery that the robots did not need to be programmed to identify and compute the geometry of the network bifurcations. They managed to navigate the maze using only the pheromone light trail and the programmed directional random walk, which directed them to the more direct route between their starting area and a target area on the periphery of the maze. Individual Argentine ants have poor eyesight and move too quickly to make a calculated decision about their direction. Therefore the fact that the robots managed to orient themselves in the maze in a similar fashion than the one observed in real ants suggests that a complex cognitive process is not necessary for colonies of ants to navigate efficiently in their complex network of foraging trails.

"This research suggests that efficient navigation and foraging can be achieved with minimal cognitive abilities in ants," says lead author Simon Garnier. "It also shows that the geometry of transport networks plays a critical role in the flow of information and material in ant as well as in human societies."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Simon Garnier, Maud Combe, Christian Jost, Guy Theraulaz. Do Ants Need to Estimate the Geometrical Properties of Trail Bifurcations to Find an Efficient Route? A Swarm Robotics Test Bed. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1002903 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002903

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/~3/tNBJskzfrCY/130329090614.htm

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DSB2Go

Detect Safe Browsing to Go, known by the less wordy "DSB2Go," is a nifty USB device that offers users a locked-down personal Web browser to protect users' Web activity and accounts from malware designed to intercept login credentials and steal information. With DSB2Go, it doesn't matter if the computer has keyloggers or other types of malware installed, because all user activity and data are encrypted within the device's hardened browser. It is extremely easy to use, as the user just has to plug it in to the computer before logging into the site.

DSB2Go protects users from malware infections, phishing attempts, and pharming attacks. The device also foils man-in-the-middle and man-in-the-browser attacks. There is usually a trade off between security and convenience as the user gives up ease-of use to be secure, or being less secure in order to make it easy to use. DSB2Go balances the two successfully, as the only inconvenience is remembering to carry the USB device.

Many kinds of modern malware burrow deep into the user system in order to avoid being detected by antivirus and other security products. This means users may not even be aware their computers are infected with a banking Trojan or other data-stealing malware. When users access sensitive sites, such as online banking or business applications, from an infected computer, the malware intercepts login credentials and can take over the account. DSB2Go removes the uncertainty, since as long as the users are using the virtualized Web browser, all Web activity and data is encrypted and hidden from the malware. Even if the user is on a Zeus-infected computer, the malware can't penetrate the DSB2Go environment to access the data.

The device doesn't try to protect all Web activity but just those sites administrators identified beforehand in a whitelist on the management portal. Businesses can use DSB2Go as an extra layer of security to protect employees accessing certain business-critical applications, or roll out the service to customers accessing a specific online service. At $37.89 per device for an annual subscription, this can become a fairly expensive solution for large deployments, but Easy Solutions offers volume pricing and discounts.

Before making the plunge, businesses can also sign up for a 15-day free trial, during which they get three DSB2Go USB devices and the ability to whitelist up to three sites on the management portal.

Getting Started
Easy Solutions sent a USB device and created an account on the company's Detect Monitoring Service portal for this review. The company's IT administrator logs into the portal and navigates to the "DSB2Go" tab to activate devices, create groups, define "protected applications," and view usage activity. When I logged in, I saw the USB drive I had was already activated.

If I had additional devices, I could activate it using the serial numbers. I could? set a password for each device and assign a "group." Groups allow administrators to assign basic policies to the device, such as the types of applications the user could access and authentication requirements.

Groups, Devices, Sites
After creating a group, I can set the device's security level?entering the device password or a unique username/password combination before the hardened Web browser launches?or turn it off to use the device without any restrictions. Each device is then assigned to a group.

This way, I could ensure all the devices within a department had the same security level.

The interface was pretty sluggish, which may have been the fault of the test environment I was using. The pages took a while to load when switching tabs, and some windows didn't close right away.

The whitelist lives in the portal's "protected sites" section. I listed all the URLs to sites users are allowed to access using DSB2Go. This part can get tedious quickly for applications which redirects across several subdomains since administrators must specify each address separately. Gmail redirects users to accounts.google.com before displaying the inbox on mail.google.com, for example. For this review, I listed Gmail, Salesforce, TDBank, and Bank of America. I listed both onlinebanking.tdbank.com and www.tdbank.com?for TDBank. If the URL I am adding has SSL (uses HTTPS), then I have to upload the site's certificate.

I can do this manually (downloading the site certificate through the regular browser, or if it is an internal application, using the SSL certificate I have) or use the "scan for certificate" feature. This nifty trick checks the URL and grabs the valid SHA1 fingerprint. Saving the SSL certificate protects users from domain hijacking and other spoofing attacks where users are maliciously redirected to other sites.

I assigned at least one group to each URL. This way, I maintained a single whitelist for the entire organization but could specify a subset for each group. If the site's group didn't match the device's group, the user would not be able to go to that site.

While the list is easy to create, it can get long pretty quickly because of the individual sub-domains that need to be rested. There is no quick way to search or sort the URLs. I was able to filter the view to display URLs assigned to specific groups, but overall, the list is unweildy to work with after a certain length.

The end-user doesn't have any control over what sites the device allows. The entire user experience is managed by the administrator via the portal. This is a great way for adding basic access policies to certain business applications.

Simple for Users
From the user perspective, it's dead simple: plug in the drive into the USB port and open up the special Web browser. The Web browser displays icons for each site the device is authorized to use. After about four or five sites, this screen appears really cluttered and there doesn't seem to be a way to sort the order the icons appear in.

Users click on the icon to go to the permitted site. If there is a problem with the SSL certificate, the user will be blocked.

Other than the fact that the user cannot type in a URL at all in the address bar, this special browser acts just like any other browser. Users can hit the back button to go back in the browsing session and open multiple tabs.

If while browsing through the approved application, an internal link goes to a different subdomain that wasn't already approved (such as customerservice.tdbank.com in the above banking example), the user is? automatically blocked. It would have been nice if the configuration service supported wildcards, so I could just say accept all *.tdbank.com sites without having to list each one individually. On the other hand, this means administrators have granular control, being able to specify which services are allowed: users are allowed to use Gmail and Calendar, but not Groups and Drive, for example.

The fact that the end-user doesn't have to download or install software was a big plus, although I wondered how many people would lose the USB drive or forget to keep it within reach.

I was disappointed the service is currently limited to only Windows users. Mac OS X and Linux users are currently not protected. When I plugged the device in to a Linux laptop, it didn't even detect anything in the USB port.

Secure Browsing?Up To A Point
There are other virtual browser options for businesses, but many of them are out of the SMB's reach. DSB2Go addresses the fact that SMBs need this kind of browser technology, too.

Since all the settings are handled by the cloud service, DSB2Go is perfect for active business travelers who use different devices or access the Internet using open networks, or for customers who need to access a specific service or application. I am concerned about the fact that there is no way for administrator to verify that users are actually using DSB2Go. The user can easily skip the drive altogether and just use the regular Web browser.

Taking advantage of security provided by DSB2Go requires a significant behavior change, as the administrator has to convince the end-user that using this device is worth the extra effort. Other than that, though, DSB2Go is a nifty device that can really help businesses keep their customers and employees while accessing sensitive Web sites.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/lKK7qH0jOWc/0,2817,2417213,00.asp

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Sonic Vitamins: The most powerful Brain Entrainment ... - Get self-help

Having tried out so many Brain Entrainment products over the years, when I run into something that works well, I like to let others know about it. The reason is that Brain Entrainment is quick and instant, unlike most of the self-help programming, which takes weeks and months to work (or in many cases ? not work!) It?s important that when you read through a self-help review, I feel, that the person who is reviewing the programme, has actually used the programme.

Brainwave Entrainment is a quick win for me, as I get to write about it within hours and days and not months. I think you?ll like Brain Entrainment for very similar reasons. You know it works ? and the proof is in the eating.

I?ve?loaded this one up onto my iPod permanently, and cannot recommend it more.

There are two main providers?I?ve?settled on. The one is EOC Institute, which to my mind (if you excuse the pun) makes the most sophisticated recordings available. Their programme called ?Equisync? is probably the most sophisticated Brainwave Entrainment?mp3?available. Their range is limited, and so I started looking around, testing a few other providers. Sonic Vitamins is really exciting. Their range is as broad as it is deep.

Start out with Siesta Shot.?I?ve?loaded this one up onto my iPod permanently, and cannot recommend it more. I use it on weekends, in between getting more chores done and relaxing or going out.

The programme starts off with what sounds like helicopter blades whirring around you. There?s a lot going on in the background at this stage, working to bring you down. The helicopter effect gets slower and slower, 20mins in as you?ll just lolling off to sleep, they sound like brushes, or feet wiping on an outdoor?fiber?mat. That?s the last thing you notice, until 30mins later when the brushing speeds returning to the helicopter effect (which by now you realise are the same sound just at different speeds).

This programme has three significant benefits over other Brain?Entrainment?programming?I?ve?tested:

• It?s cheaper
• You are guaranteed to fall asleep for a little while
• A short while after awakening, you are filled with new energy and will be surging awake for hours to come ? you will feel brighter and livelier. (Sounds like a clich?, but I?m quite serious.)

Sonic Vitamins? Siesta Shot was the fifth programme?I?ve?tested so far, and it is by the best example of how effective and powerful Brainwave?Entrainment?can be.? While I appreciate other programmes like cool Instant Zen track and the very curious Happiness Lift, it was my Siesta Shot that really sold me on the entire range ? and led me to review Sonic Vitamins so highly.

For about Brainwave Entrainment click here.

Source: http://www.selfhelpable.com/sonic-vitamins-powerful-brain-entrainment-sleep-programme/

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Path to peace: StandWithUs | Opinion | Jewish Journal

March 28, 2013

by Roz Rothstein

On Monday evening, March 11, I had a public discussion with Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder and president of J Street, at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. The topics included how American Jews should approach pro-Israel advocacy, whether peace is currently attainable between Israel and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, and what American Jews can do to help the two sides reach an agreement.

We agreed that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is dangerous and harmful to Israel. We agreed that the Palestinian teaching of hate, incitement and terrorism is an impediment to peace, and we both professed a desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

[Read a counterargument to this column here: Pathway to peace: J Street]

We strongly disagreed, however, on some critical issues. J Street argued that American Jews should lobby the U.S. government to pressure Israel into changing some of its policies. Referring to a?statement from J Street?s Web site, I read aloud that, ?J Street was formed to change the conversation on Israel and to give voice to American Jews who believe that they have a responsibility to vocally oppose Israeli government policies that threaten Israel?s future.? While Ben-Ami claimed he did not recognize this statement from his Web site, I was troubled that J Street felt it had a right to lobby the American government in order to pressure Israel ? and its democratically elected government ? into pursuing J Street?s agenda.?

We also disagreed about whether Abbas is a reliable partner for peace. While Ben-Ami assured the audience that ?this is the time, and Abbas is the man,? I noted that just two months ago, in January 2013,?Abbas honored past Palestinian terrorist leaders, including the Mufti of Jerusalem who collaborated with Adolf Hitler to bring the Holocaust to the Middle East. I questioned how Ben-Ami could trust Israel?s security in the hands of Abbas, who promotes one set of values to his Arabic constituency and quite another to Western audiences.??

Likewise, Ben-Ami and I differed on how he characterized certain facts. For instance:

Beitar soccer games: Ben-Ami suggested that Israeli incitement and Palestinian incitement are similar.?I expressed that I felt this was an unreasonable comparison. For evidence, he pointed out that Israeli crowds at Jerusalem soccer matches shout, ?Death to Arabs? so much that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he could no longer root for his team. In response, I noted that this is a critical point: Olmert represented the State of Israel and he condemned such views. I said that you can judge a society by the way its leadership responds when its people say or do hateful things.?

Ben-Ami then implied that there was a lack of an official Israeli government response to the hateful soccer rhetoric because Olmert is now a private citizen. In fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?strongly condemned?the racist comments of Beitar fans.?

Monument for Baruch Goldstein: When I cited Baruch Goldstein as an example of how Israel denounces acts of violence by Israelis against Palestinian civilians, he stated that Israel ?funded a monument [to Baruch Goldstein]. See the public memorial!? In fact, Israel?never funded a monument?to Baruch Goldstein. There was indeed a monument erected by some Goldstein supporters, but the Israeli army demolished it after the Knesset passed a law in 1999 forbidding memorials to terrorists. My point was that the Israeli government condemned Goldstein as a terrorist while the PA government glorifies terrorists.??

Demographic threat: Ben-Ami repeated his oft-made declaration that Israel must be pressured into making peace now because demographics are such that Jews will be a minority in Israel within a generation and ?will be ruling over a majority that doesn?t have rights.? I called this fear-mongering and asked Ben-Ami if he includes the Palestinian population of 1.5 million people living in Gaza in his accounting of Israeli demographic concerns. This is a critical point because Israel no longer has administrative or political control over the Gaza population. Ben-Ami admitted he includes the population of Gaza.?Interestingly, if we remove Gaza from these calculations, Ben-Ami?s demographic numbers are reduced by 50 percent and no longer make the case for the demographic threat being an emergency.?

Humanitarian blockade on Gaza:?Ben-Ami asserted that Israel caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza in the 2008 war through its blockade and that the blockade was lifted in part because of J Street?s lobbying. I pointed out that Israel?has consistently allowed food and medical supplies?into Gaza, even during wars and blockades. At the time, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, said that the agency received 15 trucks of aid a day and had two months of stock in Gaza to aid recipients.??

Mediation techniques: While I agreed with Ben-Ami?s statements that we need an active American role in facilitating Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, I disagreed with his desire to impose specific details about what the peace agreement should be. As an honest broker, I would hope that the American role would be to mediate a plan arrived at by the parties themselves, rather than pressuring the parties into pre-existing expectations. President Barack Obama himself echoed this sentiment when he recently said that his role should be to?listen?to both sides and help them work out compromises.

Looking back at the evening?s discussion, I am saddened that Ben-Ami insists that he and J Street are helping Israel, when in reality the actions of his organization are only hurting Israel and the advancement of peace. Although we all wish for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,?J Street?s work only emboldens Palestinians to continue their history of rejectionism and incitement.?J Street encourages Palestinian refusal to return to negotiations because it does not require any accountability from them and does not seek to change hateful attitudes toward Israel ? both of which are prerequisites for a lasting peace.??

Roz Rothstein is the CEO of StandWithUs.

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Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

JewishJournal.com reserves the right to use your comment in our weekly print publication.

Source: http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/path_to_peace_standwithus

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Police ID severed head found on golf course in 1989

A severed head found on a golf course 24 years ago has been identified using DNA evidence and may be linked to a serial killer, New Jersey police said today.

The head of 25-year-old Heidi Balch, who worked as a prostitute around Manhattan in 1988, was found on a Hopewell Township, N.J., golf course, in 1989, but was only identified this month after collaboration between the New Jersey State Police and the Hopewell Township Police Department.

"It was shocking," said Hopewell Township Police Chief George Meyer, who was one of the detectives called to the scene after the head was found near the seventh hole.

"Periodically, over the years, detectives would pick up the case and make efforts at identifying her," he said. "I kind of thought, 'No, she is never going to be identified.'"

A break came when detectives realized the dumped head matched a story from serial killer Joel Rifkin, who claimed to have dismembered and dumped a victim named Susie around New Jersey, State Police Det. Sgt. Stephen Urbanski told ABCNews.com. Rifkin was never convicted for the alleged crime, but is serving 200 years in prison for other murders.

Detectives decided to chase the story.

"The team obtained the names of all the prostitutes that were registered around the same time [from the NYPD]," Urbanski said.

They then compared the photos to the composite of the severed head. A woman named Susan Spencer seemed to be a match.

After chasing aliases and false Social Security numbers attached to the woman, a face on a missing persons website jumped out at Urbanski.

It was Heidi Balch.

The problem was, Balch wasn't reported missing by her aunt until 2001 and, when making the report, she told police her niece was last seen in 1995.

Still, the team decided to pursue the lead and paid the aunt a visit. Not only did they learn that the sighting in 1995 was secondhand information, but Balch's parents were alive and living in Baltimore.

"After interviewing [the aunt], we went down to Baltimore and grabbed the mom's DNA," Urbanski said.

The DNA was a match to the skull, closing the 24-year-old cold case.

"Looking at the horrific case, and after a lot of people worked on it, it was amazing it came to this," Urbanski said. "It was a matter of finding those clues."

Heidi Balch Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-identified-severed-head-24-121106617.html

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Cold cities less sustainable than warm cities, research suggests

Mar. 26, 2013 ? Living in colder climates in the US is more energy demanding than living in warmer climates. This is according to Dr Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan, who has published new research today, 28 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters.

Dr Sivak has calculated that climate control in the coldest large metropolitan area in the country -- Minneapolis -- is about three-and-a-half times more energy demanding than in the warmest large metropolitan area -- Miami.

Dr Sivak calculated this difference in energy demand using three parameters: the number of heating or cooling degree days in each area; the efficiencies of heating and cooling appliances; and the efficiencies of power-generating plants.

Not included in the analysis were the energy used to extract fuels from the ground, the losses during energy transmission, and energy costs.

"It has been taken for a fact that living in the warm regions of the US is less sustainable than living in the cold regions, based partly on the perceived energy needs for climate control; however, the present findings suggest a re-examination of the relative sustainability of living in warm versus cold climates."

Heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) are climatological measures that are designed to reflect the demand for energy needed to heat or cool a building. They are calculated by comparing the mean daily outdoor temperature with 18?C.

A day with a mean temperature of 10?C would have 8 HDDs and no CDDs, as the temperature is 8?C below 18?C. Analogously, a day with a mean temperature of 23?C would have 5 CDDs and no HDDs.

Based on a previous study, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis has 4376 heating degree days a year compared to 2423 cooling degree days in Miami.

In the study, Dr Sivak used a single measure for the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, as most are currently rated using different measures so they cannot be directly compared. His calculations showed that a typical air conditioner is about four times more energy efficient than a typical furnace.

"In simple terms, it takes less energy to cool a room down by one degree than it does to heat it up by one degree," said Dr Sivak.

Grouping together climatology, the efficiency of heating and cooling appliances, and the efficiency of power-generating plants, Dr Sivak showed that Minneapolis was substantially more energy demanding than Miami.

"In the US, the energy consumption for air conditioning is of general concern but the required energy to heat is often taken for granted. Focus should also be turned to the opposite end of the scale -- living in cold climates such as in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rochester, Buffalo and Chicago is more energy demanding, and therefore less sustainable from this point of view, than living in warm climates such as in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and Las Vegas," Dr Sivak concluded.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics (IOP), via AlphaGalileo.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Michael Sivak. Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in Minneapolis than in Miami. Environmental Research Letters, 2013; 8 (1): 014050 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014050

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/NNa2up0jJI4/130328075710.htm

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Amazon X-Ray Goes Prime Time With TV Support

Now you can find out who played that guy Raylan Givens just shot down on Justified without frantically searching the internet while pausing the show.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/S57MFt6bmzQ/

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Common -- but without a name

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr Wendy Nelson
wendy.nelson@niwa.co.nz
64-438-60600
Pensoft Publishers

A widely distributed red alga from New Zealand receives a scientific name at last

The most commonly occurring red alga in the algal order Bangiales in New Zealand has at last received a formal scientific name. Pyropia plicata, is an intertidal red alga, found in abundance in the North, South and Chatham Islands. It has been confused for many years with a species first collected from the New Zealand subantarctic islands in 1840. Recent research had clarified the identity and distribution of the southern species, Porphyra columbina, and also transferred it to the genus Pyropia. The description of Py. plicata was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The newly described Py. plicata has a distinctive growth form with pleated blades. It has beautiful purple to grey coloration, bleaching to khaki-green on upper edges. It is found attached to high intertidal rocks by a central rhizoidal holdfast, which are hair-like extensions of the blade cells. Although the blades are only one cell layer thick they are remarkably resistant to the rigours of life on the intertidal shore and can withstand drying in the sun, and rehydrating when the tide returns.

This is one of the species that is known in New Zealand as karengo, and is highly prized by Maori as a taonga or treasure. Pyropia species are also eaten worldwide and known to be high in protein and trace elements. In Japan species of Pyropia are known as nori and are familiar to many people worldwide as the seaweed sheet that is wrapped around sushi.

"When we began work on the Bangiales of New Zealand over 20 years ago, we thought there were only a few species in this order in the southern Pacific." comments Dr. Wendy Nelson from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand. "We have come to realise the diversity in this region is very high, and there are still many species that are undescribed. Documenting species and clarifying their relationships are important steps in understanding diversity and protecting our environment."

###

?riginal source:

Nelson, W.A. (2013) Pyropia plicata sp. nov. (Bangiales, Rhodophyta): naming a common intertidal alga from New Zealand. PhytoKeys 21: 17-28., doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.21.4614

Sutherland, J.; Lindstrom, S.; Nelson, W.; Brodie, J.; Lynch, M.; Hwang, M.S.; Choi, H.G.; Miyata, M.; Kikuchi, N.; Oliveira, M. Farr, T.; Neefus, C; Mols-Mortensen, A.; Milstein, D.; Mller, K. (2011).. A new look at an ancient order: generic revision of the Bangiales. Journal of Phycology 47:1131-1151.

Licensing:

This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is expected to link back to the original article.

Posted by Pensoft Publishers.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr Wendy Nelson
wendy.nelson@niwa.co.nz
64-438-60600
Pensoft Publishers

A widely distributed red alga from New Zealand receives a scientific name at last

The most commonly occurring red alga in the algal order Bangiales in New Zealand has at last received a formal scientific name. Pyropia plicata, is an intertidal red alga, found in abundance in the North, South and Chatham Islands. It has been confused for many years with a species first collected from the New Zealand subantarctic islands in 1840. Recent research had clarified the identity and distribution of the southern species, Porphyra columbina, and also transferred it to the genus Pyropia. The description of Py. plicata was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The newly described Py. plicata has a distinctive growth form with pleated blades. It has beautiful purple to grey coloration, bleaching to khaki-green on upper edges. It is found attached to high intertidal rocks by a central rhizoidal holdfast, which are hair-like extensions of the blade cells. Although the blades are only one cell layer thick they are remarkably resistant to the rigours of life on the intertidal shore and can withstand drying in the sun, and rehydrating when the tide returns.

This is one of the species that is known in New Zealand as karengo, and is highly prized by Maori as a taonga or treasure. Pyropia species are also eaten worldwide and known to be high in protein and trace elements. In Japan species of Pyropia are known as nori and are familiar to many people worldwide as the seaweed sheet that is wrapped around sushi.

"When we began work on the Bangiales of New Zealand over 20 years ago, we thought there were only a few species in this order in the southern Pacific." comments Dr. Wendy Nelson from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand. "We have come to realise the diversity in this region is very high, and there are still many species that are undescribed. Documenting species and clarifying their relationships are important steps in understanding diversity and protecting our environment."

###

?riginal source:

Nelson, W.A. (2013) Pyropia plicata sp. nov. (Bangiales, Rhodophyta): naming a common intertidal alga from New Zealand. PhytoKeys 21: 17-28., doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.21.4614

Sutherland, J.; Lindstrom, S.; Nelson, W.; Brodie, J.; Lynch, M.; Hwang, M.S.; Choi, H.G.; Miyata, M.; Kikuchi, N.; Oliveira, M. Farr, T.; Neefus, C; Mols-Mortensen, A.; Milstein, D.; Mller, K. (2011).. A new look at an ancient order: generic revision of the Bangiales. Journal of Phycology 47:1131-1151.

Licensing:

This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is expected to link back to the original article.

Posted by Pensoft Publishers.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/pp-cb032813.php

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Ryan T. Anderson explains how gay marriage undermines natural ...

From the Heritage Foundation. (H/T Tom)

Excerpt:

Weakening marital norms and severing the connection of marriage with responsible procreation are the admitted goals of many prominent advocates of redefining marriage. E. J. Graff celebrates the fact that redefining marriage would change the ?institution?s message? so that it would ?ever after stand for sexual choice, for cutting the link between sex and diapers.? Enacting same-sex marriage, she argues, ?does more than just fit; it announces that marriage has changed shape.?[3]

Andrew Sullivan says that marriage has become ?primarily a way in which two adults affirm their emotional commitment to one another.?[4]

The Norm of Monogamy.?New York University Professor Judith Stacey has expressed hope that redefining marriage would give marriage ?varied, creative and adaptive contours,? leading some to ?question the dyadic limitations of Western marriage and seek?small group marriages.?[5]?In their statement ?Beyond Same-Sex Marriage,? more than 300 ?LGBT and allied? scholars and advocates call for legal recognition of sexual relationships involving more than two partners.[6]

University of Calgary Professor Elizabeth Brake thinks that justice requires using legal recognition to ?denormalize[] heterosexual monogamy as a way of life? and ?rectif[y] past discrimination against homosexuals, bisexuals, polygamists, and care networks.? She supports ?minimal marriage? in which ?individuals can have legal marital relationships with more than one person, reciprocally or asymmetrically, themselves determining the sex and number of parties, the type of relationship involved, and which rights and responsibilities to exchange with each.?[7]

In 2009,?Newsweek?reported that the United States already had over 500,000 polyamorous households.[8]?The author concluded:

[P]erhaps the practice is more natural than we think: a response to the challenges of monogamous relationships, whose shortcomings?are clear.? [C]an one person really satisfy every need? Polyamorists think the answer is obvious?and that it?s only a matter of time before the monogamous world sees there?s more than one way to live and love.[9]

A 2012 article in?New York Magazine?introduced Americans to ?throuple,? a new term akin to a ?couple,? but with three people whose ?throuplehood is more or less a permanent domestic arrangement. The three men work together, raise dogs together, sleep together, miss one another?and, in general, exemplify a modern, adult relationship. Except that there are three of them.?[10]

The Norm of Exclusivity.?Andrew Sullivan, who has extolled the ?spirituality? of ?anonymous sex,? also thinks that the ?openness? of same-sex unions could enhance the bonds of husbands and wives:

[A]mong gay male relationships, the openness of the contract makes it more likely to survive than many heterosexual bonds.? [T]here is more likely to be greater understanding of the need for extramarital outlets between two men than between a man and a woman.? [S]omething of the gay relationship?s necessary honesty, its flexibility, and its equality could undoubtedly help strengthen and inform many heterosexual bonds.[11]

?Openness? and ?flexibility? are Sullivan?s euphemisms for sexual infidelity. Similarly, in a?New York Times Magazine?profile, gay activist Dan Savage encourages spouses to adopt ?a more flexible attitude? about allowing each other to seek sex outside their marriage.[12]?The?New York Times?recently reported on a study finding that exclusivity was not the norm among gay partners: ??With straight people, it?s called affairs or cheating,? said Colleen Hoff, the study?s principal investigator, ?but with gay people it does not have such negative connotations.??[13]

Leading Advocates of Redefining Marriage Celebrate That It Will Weaken Marriage

Some advocates of redefining marriage embrace the goal of weakening the institution of marriage?in these very terms. ?[Former President George W.] Bush is correct,? says Victoria Brownworth, ?when he states that allowing same-sex couples to marry will weaken the institution of marriage?. It most certainly will do so, and that will make marriage a far better concept than it previously has been.?[14]Professor Ellen Willis celebrates the fact that ?conferring the legitimacy of marriage on homosexual relations will introduce an implicit revolt against the institution into its very heart.?[15]

Michelangelo Signorile urges same-sex couples to ?demand the right to marry not as a way of adhering to society?s moral codes but rather to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution.?[16]Same-sex couples should, he says, ?fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely, because the most subversive action lesbians and gay men can undertake?is to transform the notion of ?family? entirely.?[17]

It is no surprise that there is already evidence of this occurring. A federal judge in Utah allowed a legal challenge to anti-bigamy laws.[18]?A bill that would allow a child to have three legal parents passed both houses of the California state legislature in 2012 before it was vetoed by the governor, who claimed he wanted ?to take more time to consider all of the implications of this change.?[19]

It?s very important to understand that the typical gay relationship between males is not going to conform to the lifelong, exclusive commitment that heterosexual marriage involves. You can read about the numbers right here on this paper from the Family Research Council, which collects together evidence from secular sources, such as the U.S. Census and peer-reviewed research.

Take a look:

Research indicates that the average male homosexual has hundreds of sex partners in his lifetime:

???The Dutch study of partnered homosexuals, which was published in the journal?AIDS, found that men with a steady partner had an average of eight sexual partners per year.[12]

???Bell and Weinberg, in their classic study of male and female homosexuality, found that 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with 500 or more partners, with 28 percent having one thousand or more sex partners.[13]

???In their study of the sexual profiles of 2,583 older homosexuals published in the?Journal of Sex Research, Paul Van de Ven et al. found that ?the modal range for number of sexual partners ever [of homosexuals] was 101-500.? In addition, 10.2 percent to 15.7 percent had between 501 and 1,000 partners. A further 10.2 percent to 15.7 percent reported having had more than one thousand lifetime sexual partners.[14]

???A survey conducted by the homosexual magazine?Genre?found that 24 percent of the respondents said they had had more than one hundred sexual partners in their lifetime. The magazine noted that several respondents suggested including a category of those who had more than one thousand sexual partners.[15]

[...]Even in those homosexual relationships in which the partners consider themselves to be in a committed relationship, the meaning of ?committed? or ?monogamous? typically means something radically different than in heterosexual marriage.

???A Canadian study of homosexual men who had been in committed relationships lasting longer than one year found that only 25 percent of those interviewed reported being monogamous.? According to study author Barry Adam, ?Gay culture allows men to explore different?forms of relationships besides the monogamy coveted by heterosexuals.?[16]

???The?Handbook of Family Diversity?reported a study in which ?many self-described ?monogamous? couples reported an average of three to five partners in the past year. Blasband and Peplau (1985) observed a similar pattern.?[17]

???In?The Male Couple, authors David P. McWhirter and Andrew M. Mattison reported that, in a study of 156 males in homosexual relationships lasting from one to thirty-seven years:

Only seven couples have a totally exclusive sexual relationship, and these men all have been together for less than five years. Stated another way, all couples with a relationship lasting more than five years have incorporated some provision for outside sexual activity in their relationships.[18]

Are we ready to call that marriage? Isn?t it bad enough that we already have undermined the permanence and stability of marriage with no-fault divorce laws and giving benefits to common-law couples? Don?t you think that these factors will undermine stability, the same way that infidelity undermines heterosexual relationships?

But marriage is a particular thing. It?s permanent. It?s exclusive. It?s not based on feelings and desires. The purpose of marriage is to recognize and encourage people to constrain and bound their sexual activity for the benefit of society. We want to encourage parents to bond together permanently and exclusively, so that the bond is stable. We should be encouraging people to be chaste before marriage, to make good decisions about who to marry, to reward marriages that last, and to make it harder to get out of a marriage. Especially one with children.

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Filed under: Polemics, Definition of Marriage, Family, Father, Female, Gay, Gay Marriage, GLBT, Lecture, Lesbian, LGBT, Male, Marriage, Marriage Definition, Men, Mother, Natural Marriage, Parenting, Research, Robert P. George, Ryan T. Anderson, Same-Sex Marriage, Sherif Girgis, Traditional Marriage, What Is Marriage?, Women

Source: http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/ryan-t-anderson-explains-how-gay-marriage-undermines-natural-marriage-norms/

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First documented case of child cured of HIV

Mar. 3, 2013 ? Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University today described the first documented case of a child being cured of HIV. The landmark findings were announced at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Persaud, an amfAR grantee, detailed the case of a two-year-old child in Mississippi diagnosed with HIV at birth and immediately put on antiretroviral therapy. At 18 months, the child ceased taking antiretrovirals and was lost to follow-up. When brought back into care at 23 months, despite being off treatment for five months, the child was found to have an undetectable viral load. A battery of subsequent highly sensitive tests confirmed the absence of HIV.

Confirmation of the cure was made possible by a grant the Foundation awarded to Dr. Persaud and Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts in September 2012. The grant allowed Drs. Persaud and Luzuriaga to establish a research collaboratory to explore and document possible pediatric HIV cure cases. The collaboratory includes renowned researchers Drs. Stephen Spector and Doug Richman at the University of California, San Diego; Dr. Frank Maldarelli at the National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Tae-Wook Chun at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"The child's pediatrician in Mississippi [Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi] was aware of the work we were doing, and quickly notified our team as soon as this young patient's case came to her attention," said Dr. Rowena Johnston, amfAR vice president and director of research. "Because the collaboratory was already in place, the researchers were able to mobilize immediately and perform the tests necessary to determine if this was in fact a case of a child being cured."

According to Dr. Persaud, comprehensive tests have confirmed beyond doubt that both mother and child were HIV positive when the child was born, and today no signs of HIV infection in the child can be detected by the most sensitive means available.

The only other documented case of an HIV cure to date remains that of Timothy Brown, the so-called "Berlin patient." In 2006, while on treatment for HIV, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with leukemia. His physician was able to treat his leukemia with a stem-cell transplant from a person who was born with a genetic mutation causing immunity to HIV infection. Following the transplant, Mr. Brown was able to stop HIV treatment without experiencing a return of his HIV disease.

This new case points to the tantalizing possibility that different populations of HIV-positive people might be cured in different ways. While Mr. Brown's case was the outcome of a complex, high-risk, and expensive series of procedures, this new case appears to have been the direct result of a comparatively inexpensive course of antiretroviral therapy.

"Given that this cure appears to have been achieved by antiretroviral therapy alone," said Dr. Johnston, "it is also imperative that we learn more about a newborn's immune system, how it differs from an adult's, and what factors made it possible for the child to be cured."

The Mississippi case also underscores the importance of identifying HIV-positive pregnant women, expanding access to treatment regimens than can prevent mother-to-child transmission, and of immediately putting infants on antiretroviral therapy in the event that they are born HIV positive.

"We are proud to have played a leading role in bringing this first pediatric HIV cure to light," said amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. "The case is a startling reminder that a cure for HIV could come in ways we never anticipated, and we hope this is the first of many children cured of HIV in the months and years to come."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/T7KjFVtM9pY/130303172640.htm

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UK: Queen hospitalized after apparent infection

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida, March 1 (Reuters) - Tiger Woods, who has endured his share of controversy and media scrutiny, said world number one Rory McIlroy should choose his words more carefully after withdrawing from the Honda Classic with what was initially a mysterious explanation. Before driving away from the PGA National course on Friday after a nightmare start to his round, McIlroy told reporters: "I'm not in a great place mentally. I can't really say much, guys. I'm just in a bad place mentally. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-queen-hospitalized-apparent-infection-160426769.html

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