Sony Takes Another Swing at Android Tablets With Xperia S

The 9.4-inch Xperia Tablet S is Sony’s latest shot at an Android slate. “Every Android tablet has to be compared against the Nexus 7,” said ABI’s Jeff Orr. Like the Nexus 7, the Xperia Tablet S is based on the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. However, the Google tablet is priced at $200, while the Xperia Tablet S will be offered in three models starting at $400.

Sony on Wednesday launched the Xperia Tablet S at the IFA consumer electronics show in Germany.

It’s the second generation of the Tablet S, and it continues its predecessor’s positioning as both a tablet and a universal remote control.

However, the Xperia Tablet S is slimmer than its predecessor. Further, it has a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and is now included in Sony’s Xperia sub-brand, which covers mobile experiences and includes the PlayStation.

The Xperia Tablet S will replace the Sony Tablet S, Sony Electronics spokesperson Maya Wasserman told TechNewsWorld. It will be available in the United States on Sept. 7.

Specs for the Xperia Tablet S

The Xperia Tablet S runs Android 4.0. It will be upgraded to Android Jelly Bean when the version becomes available.

The device’s 9.4-inch screen is coated to reduce fingerprint smudges and glare.

The Xperia Tablet S has a full-sized SD card slot and HDMIconnectivity. It also has built-in WiFi capabilities.

Sony will preload redemption codes that will let purchasers access three out of 15 available movies from the Google Play movie library.

Sony Cosa Nostra

The Xperia Tablet S will come with Sony Entertainment Network Services preloaded. This will give users access to music, videos and games from the network. It will also let users store photos and videos in the cloud and share them on any device at any time with friends through Sony’s PlayMemories Online service.

A preloaded Reader app will let Xperia Tablet S owners purchase eBooks from Sony and manage their books across Sony Readers and Xperia smartphones. This fall, Xperia Tablet S owners will be able to access dedicated content from PlayStation Mobile.

Sony also offers Small Apps, which will let Xperia Tablet S owners use minimized versions of various apps simultaneously with another app. Any widgets downloaded to the tablet can be added to the Small Apps.

The tablet’s Socialife feature aggregates owners’ social networking sites and news feeds. Further, Sony offers three media apps on the tablet: Walkman, Album and Movies.

“Sony has a history of doing things differently from other brands,” said Jeff Orr, senior practice director mobile devices at ABI Research. “They work with the standards organization and give a little spin on the end to work with their own ecosystem.”

Making the Android Pilgrimage

Sony hasn’t had much success with its Android tablets so far, but this might change. “It has the user experience and the content ecosystem and now just needs to get its sales and marketing fully functioning,” Peter King, director of tablet and touchscreen strategies atStrategy Analytics, told TechNewsWorld.

However, a lot will depend on whether consumers will appreciate Sony’s quirky approach.

“Every Android tablet has to be compared against the Nexus 7,” ABI’s Orr told TechNewsWorld.

Like the Nexus 7, the Xperia Tablet S is based on the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. However, the Nexus 7 already runs Android Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS. Further, the Google tablet is priced at US$200, while the Xperia Tablet S will be offered in three models starting at $400.

Controlling the Home Media Center

In the U.S., Sony is marketing the Xperia Tablet S primarily as a remote control device, using infrared (IR) technology.

Pairing IR with DLNA technology “would give users the ability to discover audio and video content on DLNA-enabled devices,” ABI’s Orr pointed out. However, IR is competing with Bluetooth as the standard for remote control devices.

Further, “[we must ask] how does the Sony experience compare with what Apple’s doing with Apple TV and Airplay, and with what Samsung’s offering?” Orr continued. Features in Samsung’s Smart TV line include facial recognition, gesture recognition and a variety of apps.

Also, users with iPhones who want to fit it into the Sony [home entertainment] environment need to figure out if that will work, Orr said. “It probably doesn’t.”

Apple's Record-Breaking Value: Hard to Reach, Hard to Keep

ueled by a mountain of cash combined with excitement over upcoming products, Apple's value has reached new heights, making it the most valuable publicly traded company in history. How long it can stay at that peak, however, is anyone's guess. "Many companies whose total value was huge only 20 years ago, such as Microsoft, IBM and GE, have a total value smaller today," said Siegel+Gale's Russ Meyer.

The stock market can't get enough of Apple, it would seem. On Monday the company's shares passed the US$664 mark, setting a new record as the most valuable publicly traded company in history. On Tuesday morning the legend continued: Apple's stock rose close to 1 percent, trading at $671.30 per share before hitting a mid-morning decline.

Apple is the tech industry's darling, its golden child. It would be easy to attribute Monday's events to merely its overall aura of financial invincibility.

Recent events that might have given Apple's stock an extra push, however, include the growing anticipation of its next iPhone, expected to arrive this fall, as well as a rumored iPad mini and a possible full-sized television.
What's at Work Here?

Then there's the matter of Apple's huge cash stockpile, Russ Meyer, global strategy director for branding firm Siegel+Gale, told MacNewsWorld.

Essentially, he said, "what people will pay for the product is relatively high, and Apple's costs are relatively low. Thus, a lot of cash being created."

More immediately, though, the rumored upcoming product launches have been driving Apple's stock price, he said. "Given Apple's track record of creating -- and recreating -- products that exceed customer needs, are different than the competition and create a simple, delightful experience, investors are anticipating Apple will do it again with these new product launches." Thus, he said, the price of the stock rises with the expectation of even more brand-driven cash being created.
How Long Can It Last?

It's unclear whether Apple can maintain such heights, especially if one accepts that the rumored products in its pipeline are indeed the driver behind the recent increases.

"The iPhone 5 and 7-inch tablets will face a lot more competition this time, and the iPhone 5, based on what has leaked out of Apple, had far less of Steve Jobs in it than expected," Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, told MacNewsWorld. "I'm hearing it was basically built by committee, which suggests it may not meet expectations."

That means, he continued, that there is a lot of risk to investors who think Apple will maintain this valuation. Also, he added, he has his doubts about the "most valuable company in history" title. "If you adjust for inflation, you'll likely find firms like the original Standard Oil, before the market collapse, and even Microsoft were more highly valued at their peak."

Apple, though, "is clearly the most valuable company in recent memory," he conceded.

"It's hard to stay on top forever," Meyer added. "Many companies whose total value was huge only 20 years ago, such as Microsoft, IBM and GE, have a total value smaller today.

But, he added, while it may be true that inevitably Apple will be overtaken by some other company, it is harder to make a case that Cupertino's surge is fueled entirely by hype and hot air.

Apple's P/E ratio is actually relatively low (15.57) compared to the overall S&P 500 (16.1), Meyer said, as well as to other tech stocks like Facebook (68.51) or Amazon (291.73).

"Stocks in the midst of a bubble usually have a relatively high P/E ratio. This doesn't seem to be the case with Apple," he explained.
Best Ever Title Not Necessarily a Prize

Still, Apple may regret the day it was crowned "most valuable."

"The biggest problem with being the best ever is that you also have to maintain 'perfection,' which everyone knows is impossible, even if you are considered the 'best ever,'" Jeff Sica, president and chief investment officer of SICA Wealth Management, told MacNewsWorld.

"The greatest problem with Apple is that despite its monumental technological innovation of the past, it's what's next that counts. The innovative mind behind Apple, Steve Jobs, has passed, and since his departing, there has been limited innovation at Apple."

It will be only after Apple proves it can continue to innovate, instead of just rolling out new versions of established products, that they can justify their "best ever" designation, he said.

Curiosity Rover Zeroes In on Traces of Past Habitats on Mars

At 10:31 P.M. Pacific time on August 5, NASA’s Curiosity rover will begin the first direct search for habitable environments on Mars

All science begins in a star trek mode: go where no one has gone before and discover new things without knowing in advance what they might be. As researchers complete their initial surveys and accumulate a long list of questions, they shift to a Sherlock Holmes mode: formulate specific hypotheses and develop ways to test them. The exploration of Mars is now about to make this transition. Orbiters have made global maps of geographic features and composition, and landers have pieced together the broad outlines of the planet’s geologic history. It is time to get more sophisticated.

Our team has built the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, on the hypothesis that Mars was once a habitable planet. The rover carries an analytic laboratory to test that hypothesis and find out what happened to the early clement environment we believe the planet had. Loosely defined, a habitable environment has water, energy and carbon. Past missions have focused on the first requirement and confirmed that Mars had—and occasionally still has—liquid water [see “The Red Planet's Watery Past,” by Jim Bell; Scientific American, December 2006]. Those missions have also seen hints of geochemical gradients that would provide energy for metabolism. But none has seen carbon in a form potentially suitable for life.

Gospel music in Paris flourishes

France may be the most militantly secular country in Europe, but Paris’s gospel scene is flourishing.

The choir sways and their orange robes sway with them. The conductor, packed in an ice-cream-white suit, urging them on, while out front the Reverend Jean Carpenter – moving quite possibly like nobody has ever moved before in this ancient church in the medieval heart of Paris – sings praise to the Lord.

The person who emailed to say I should go and hear her sing described her voice in one word – “Biiiiiiiiiiig”.

She wasn’t exaggerating.

“Oh my gosh!” she cries when asked how she feels when she’s up there performing. “I want to dance! I want to sing! I want to touch everybody! I want to touch Jesus! I want to see his face! When I’m up there, I feel love.”

Not the sort of thing the French are used to hearing.

France – with its burka ban, and strict separation of church and state – is the most militantly secular country in Europe. Many people regard religion with suspicion and even the six per cent who regularly go to church are often shy of using the J-word, let alone shaking their stuff in church to praise Him.

It’s a difference in religious culture as wide as the Atlantic, which is maybe one reason gospel concerts here sometimes provoke intense reactions.

“I don’t preach, but I speak ‘Franglais’ with the people and they help me with my French,” says Jean, who hails from Queens in New York State. “I ask them if they understand and they say ‘Yes!’ And sometimes we all end up in tears. We end up touched by what comes through me and then, in essence, it touches them and then they give it back. We can have such a powerful time.”

Like the time a man who’d lost his daughter came to talk to her after the concert.

“She had died. He told me he needed prayer,” Jean recalls. “And needed someone to pray with. So we held him, we hugged him and cried with him and we found the priest of a church and we put him in contact with that church.

“That is what we are hoping to do. Not just do a show and leave. No! No! I would not have done my job if that happens.”

For Jean Carpenter and the other singers on Paris’s flourishing gospel scene, this music is not a style – it is a mission.

Indeed, she says, the reason she moved here was that, after singing in Paris for the first time on tour in 2004, she thought her voice and her ministry would make more impact in France than back in the USA.

“African-American gospel? Oh, the French just go crazy,” says another long-term Paris resident Ricki Stevenson. She is the creator of Black Paris Tours, which guides tourists round the landmarks of black America’s long love affair with this city.

“It’s kind of surprising, but the French just have a passion for this music,” she says. “They feel deeply those sounds. It touches them in a way that I have not seen a lot of others being touched.”

Gospel musicians were at the forefront of a movement of black American artists from the US to France. Later on came the likes of Sidney Bechet, Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong. But the first were a gospel ensemble called The Fisk Jubilee Singers, who came to Paris as early as the 1870s.

They also performed in England during that tour and sang “Go Down, Moses” to Queen Victoria.

The Wilberforce Choir came to Paris in the 1900s. Much later, in the 1950s, one of the most celebrated gospel groups of all time, the Golden Gate Quartet, didn’t just play in Paris, it settled down in the city and stayed.

Still swinging at 84, lead singer Clyde Wright remains in Paris today.

Sure, he says, there was racism in France too. You could still see the same dark looks in some people’s eyes. But there wasn’t the institutionalised racism he’d known growing up in North Carolina.

“We had to walk about three kilometres (two miles) to get to school,” Wright remembers.

In the winter time, it was cold with no shoes on your feet or whatever shoes you could find. There was a bus, but on that bus there were about 13 whites – boys and girls on their way to their brick school. And that bus would just pass by us, and if you were in the way, he would blow the horn and say, ‘Get over’… not one would stop and say, ‘Get in’. That was out of the question.”

Gospel music was the milk he was raised on.

“I’m very religious,” he says. “I’ve sung other songs, but for me it has no meaning. It’s just for the pleasure of people. But (gospel) is soul music and that is something that I learned as a child. In pop music, they have what they call soul music, but soul music, in reality, it’s the old negro spirituals sung in the days of slavery.”

At a Paris club called the Speakeasy, a few paces from the Arc de Triomphe, another pillar of the Paris gospel scene, Linda Lee Hopkins, even throws in the occasional gospel number when she’s singing to the night-time cocktail crowd.

She’s full of stories about how the Holy Spirit works through this music – about French people in tears, French people feeling something, French people getting over their initial hostility to anyone or anything to do with religion. But sometimes, when they’re booking her in to play somewhere, people ask her to tone down the God stuff.

“They want you to compromise sometimes. They want gospel because they think it’s radio music – especially the songs from Sister Act,” she says. “I tell them, ‘That is not gospel. They are secular songs adapted for the film.’ So if they tell me, ‘I want you to sing gospel, but don’t mention Jesus.’ It’s like He’s my life, I cannot not mention Him!”

They don’t always understand, says Linda Lee Hopkins.

Wanting gospel music without the gospels, without Jesus, without the Lord, is like wanting cake without the flour, she says. So what does she do? She leaves it up to the Holy Spirit. If He wants her to sing about Jesus, she does. And guess what? He does.

Why Does Music Make Us Feel?

A new study demonstrates the power of music to alter our emotional perceptions of other people

As a young man I enjoyed listening to a particular series of French instructional programs. I didn’t understand a word, but was nevertheless enthralled. Was it because the sounds of human speech are thrilling? Not really. Speech sounds alone, stripped of their meaning, don’t inspire. We don’t wake up to alarm clocks blaring German speech. We don’t drive to work listening to native spoken Eskimo, and then switch it to the Bushmen Click station during the commercials. Speech sounds don’t give us the chills, and they don’t make us cry – not even French.

But music does emanate from our alarm clocks in the morning, and fill our cars, and give us chills, and make us cry. According to a recent paper by Nidhya Logeswaran and Joydeep Bhattacharya from the University of London, music even affects how we see visual images. In the experiment, 30 subjects were presented with a series of happy or sad musical excerpts. After listening to the snippets, the subjects were shown a photograph of a face. Some people were shown a happy face – the person was smiling – while others were exposed to a sad or neutral facial expression. The participants were then asked to rate the emotional content of the face on a 7-point scale, where 1 mean extremely sad and 7 extremely happy.

The researchers found that music powerfully influenced the emotional ratings of the faces. Happy music made happy faces seem even happier while sad music exaggerated the melancholy of a frown. A similar effect was also observed with neutral faces. The simple moral is that the emotions of music are “cross-modal,” and can easily spread from sensory system to another. Now I never sit down to my wife’s meals without first putting on a jolly Sousa march.

Although it probably seems obvious that music can evoke emotions, it is to this day not clear why. Why doesn’t music feel like listening to speech sounds, or animal calls, or garbage disposals? Why is music nice to listen to? Why does music get blessed with a multi-billion dollar industry, whereas there is no market for “easy listening” speech sounds?

In an effort to answer, let’s first ask why I was listening to French instructional programs in the first place. The truth is, I wasn’t just listening. I was watching them on public television. What kept my attention was not the meaningless-to-me speech sounds (I was a slow learner), but the young French actress. Her hair, her smile, her mannerisms, her pout… I digress. The show was a pleasure to watch because of thehumans it showed, especially the exhibited expressions and behaviors.

The lion share of emotionally evocative stimuli in the lives of our ancestors would have been from the faces and bodies of other people, and if one finds human artifacts that are highly evocative, it is a good hunch that it looks or sounds human in some way.

As evidence that humans are the principal source of emotionality among human artifacts, consider human visual signs. Visual signs, I have argued, have culturally evolved to look like natural objects, and have the kinds of contour combinations found in a three-dimensional world of opaque objects. Three-dimensional world of opaque objects? Nothing particularly human about that, and that’s why most linguistic signs – like the letters and words on this page – are not emotionally evocative to look at.

But visual signs do sometimes have emotional associations. For example, colors are notoriously emotionally evocative, and arguments about what color something should be painted are the source of an alarming number of marital arguments. And “V” stimuli, such as that yield sign on the street, have long been realized (within the human factors literature) to serve as the most evocative geometrical shape for warning symbols. But notice that color and “V” stimuli are plausibly about human expression. In particular, color has recently been argued to be “about” human skin and the exhibited emotions – which is why red grabs our attention, since it’s associated with blushing and blood – and “V” stimuli have been suggested to be “about” angry faces (namely, angry eyebrows).

Which brings us back to music and the Logeswaran paper. Music is exquisitely emotionally evocative, which is why a touch of happy music makes even unrelated pictures seem more pleasant. In light of the above, then, we are led to the conclusion that the artifact of music should contain some distinctly human elements.

The question, of course, is what those elements are. One candidate is our expressive speech – perhaps music is just an abstract form of language. However, most of the emotion of language is in the meaning, which is why foreign languages that we don’t understand rarely make us swoon with pleasure or get angry. That’s also why emotional speech from an unfamiliar language isn’t featured on the radio!

But there is a second auditory expressive behavior we humans carry out – our bodily movements themselves. Human movement has been conjectured to underlie music as far back as the Greeks. As a hypothesis this has the advantage that we have auditory systems capable of making sense of the sounds of people moving in our midst – an angry stomper approaching, a delicate lilter passing, and so on. Some of these movements trigger positive emotions – they conjure up images of pleasant activities – while others might be automatically associated with fear or anxiety. (The sound of running makes us wonder what we’re running from.) If music were speech-driven, then it is missing out on the largest part of speech’s expressiveness – the meaning. But if music sounds like human expressive movements, then it sounds like something that, all by itself, is rich in emotional expressiveness, and can be easily interpreted by the auditory system.

Regardless of whether music is emotional intonation from speech or a summary of expressive movements – or something else altogether – the new research by Logeswaran and Bhattacharya adds yet more fuel to the expectation that music has been culturally selected to sound like an emotionally expressive human. While it is not easy for us to see the human ingredients in the modulations of pitch, intensity, tempo and rhythm that make music, perhaps it is obvious to our auditory homunculus.

A brief history of Gospel music Part II

1960s to present day

The financial success of secular black music in the 1960s and 70s ushered in a new kind of Gospel artist: more performance-aware yet equally spiritually and socially engaged. They included the ‘Godfather of Soul’ James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Reverend Al Green, Sam Cooke, Shirley Cesaer and The Staple Singers. It was common for these artists to chose one side of Gospel’s divide as religious and secular music industry did not mix. It also confirmed the acceptance of Gospel artists as solo performers.

In the 70s and 80s artists like the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Andrae Crouch, Commissioned and Candi Staton brought the popular sounds of disco, funk and other mainstream genres into the growing spectrum of Gospel. This era also brought to prominence some of Gospel’s biggest musical families including The Clark Sisters, The Hawkins and The Winans.

The 90s brought an R’n'B crossover explosion when Gospel artists such as Sounds of Blackness, Helen Baylor and Bebe and Cece Winans scored big international chart and club hits. This was also a good time to be ‘Gospel’ and British, as record companies took note of the US success and tried to emulate it with homegrown artists like Paul Johnson, The Escofferys, Nu Colours, Mica Paris, Ruby Turner, Patrick Jean-Paul Denis, Lavine Hudson and Bryan Powell. This favourable mood also bolstered recognition for the existing traditional Gospel groups like the London Community Gospel Choir and the Inspirational Choir.

The current genres of Gospel owe as much to its rich heritage as they do to the upbeat performance of urban or ‘street music’. Kirk Franklin, Tye Tribbett, Tonex and J Moss have adopted a Holy Hip Hop attitude in bringing the ‘good news’ to a younger generation. However, the popularity of more traditional artists like Smokie Norful, Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams remains strong.

Today’s UK Gospel sound celebrates the full spectrum of Gospel music, with funk bands like Four Kornerz, praise and worship with the traditional ‘church’ sound of Noel Robinson and Nu Image and the African influence of Muyiwa and Riversongz, and the urban styling of groups like Raymond and Co and Siani, and solo performers like Priscilla Jones and Roger Samuels. It also includes other subgenres like house, reggae and grime that dominate youth culture.

A brief history of Gospel music

The history of Gospel is predated by its African roots, in the traditions of indigenous African people, with songs of praise, worship and testimony to cultural gods and deity.

The earliest coming-together of a Christian message interpreted into black music history was through the incidence of the transatlantic slave trade - the movement of African people from their customary faiths into an interpretation of Christianity.

The first incarnations of Gospel music were in the three phases of Negro spirituals: work songs, jubilees and social Gospel. Work songs came into being pre-1867. They were songs and chant composed by the slaves and sung largely outside church, in the cotton fields and plantations. These songs drew from Biblical imagery as inspiration through the hardships of slavery but also as coded songs of hope and freedom.

Jubilees were similar to work songs but sung in church as slaves began to embrace Christian forms of worship. They were ‘call and response’ style hymns and developed harmony as different parts sung as a group.

The struggle for civil rights and the tangible problems of segregation and inequality inspired a new brand of socially aware Gospel music in the mid-1920s and through to the 1960s. These songs integrated social messages with scripture references. Gospel music divided into church-based worship songs on one side and music by Christians with more of a secular social conscience on the other.

The term ‘Gospel’ is attributed to Thomas A. Dorsey in the 1930s. Dorsey was a former bluesman who went on to write some of the most enduring standards of Gospel music. Dorsey’s songs inspired a number of Gospel and Southern American artists, including Elvis Presley. The Gospel music of the civil rights era, often referred to as the Black Gospel period, defined Gospel’s richest heritage with artists like Mahalia Jackson, The Clara Ward Singers, Dorothy Love Coates, The Caravans, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Blind Boys of Alabama and The Edwin Hawkins Singers.

Exploring London’s coffee crescent

Fans of the baddest bean in town have been turning up the buzz in recent months as London’s coffee scene has exploded into life. One particular strip, which could be fairly dubbed “London’s coffee crescent”, is a particularly rich seam for caffeine lovers, stretching from Shoreditch in the east, then along Old Street to Clerkenwell and Farringdon in the west.



The area has been a place of pilgrimage for a while, with the near-legendary Gwilym’s Coffee Cart on Whitecross Street Market pulling in punters from across the city. Just up the road, Look Mum No Hands is a bicycle workshop disguised as a top-notch cafe (or possibly the other way round) that screens big bike races and serves a mean lunch. It is one of several cycling-themed cafes nearby, with FullCity on Leather Lane offering a more rugged messenger-friendly environment. At the west end of the crescent in Farringdon, Farm Collective is another fresh offering.

The area is a snapshot of central London, with weekday office workers, a growing crowd of cooler-than-thou scenesters and long-time Londoners going about their business. While it is not slap-bang on the tourist trail, there is much to recommend in a wander here, from Shoreditch’s fashionable bars and shops to Bunhill Fields – where you will find the graves of poet William Blake and writers John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe – and historic lanes and churches around the area of Smithfields.

It is in Clerkenwell that another relatively recent opening, St Ali (now called Workshop – same fabulous cafe, just a different name), is to be found. St Ali will be familiar to fans of Melbourne’s much-heralded coffee scene as the original is found in the suburb of South Melbourne, sandwiched between the West Gate Freeway and Albert Park. The London version has only been open a few months and is an ambitious enterprise. As well as serving eye-popping espresso and a huge variety of filtered coffees, the cafe also serves a full menu accompanied by some superb craft beers and has London’s only on-site roaster.

St Ali certainly offers something different — managing to feel like a place to have lunch and drink coffee at the same time. St Ali’s director of coffee, Tim Williams explained that London’s less distinctive coffee culture compared to, say, Melbourne’s, offered “a clean slate” when it came to the sort of place that might be viable. To prove the point, his previous London venture, Penny University, was a six-seat coffee bar that only served a changing menu of three different filter coffees.

What to drink when in these places? St Ali imports and roasts their own beans, meaning you will almost always find something interesting there. Elsewhere, Monmouth beans and those produced by Square Mile Roaster are well regarded for London brewing. Monmouth Coffee has branches on Monmouth Street in Covent Garden and at Borough Market and in Bermondsey. But follow your nose. At the moment, it feels that every cross-town journey takes visitors to London past an interesting looking new cafe. It may be wise to build some slack into your visit to the British capital to check some of them out.

Caffeination: Australia’s coffee culture

Strike up a conversation with an Australian abroad and you will inevitably uncover a national quirk: the obsessive quest for a “decent” coffee. It will usually be accompanied by disapproving tales of the watery/weak/burnt offerings that have crossed their path (unless of course you happen to be in Italy, where the tone may well be deferential).


Global chains like Starbucks were surprised when they failed to take root in Australian cities, seeming not to have noticed there was a fully formed coffee scene already in place and some very fussy customers to contend with. Coffee drinking is, in fact, a diehard national habit with real estate sold on its proximity to café strips, and baristas, roasters and an increasing number of growers who have world class qualifications.

Rum was the country’s first favourite beverage, though it was soon usurped by tea; it was not until the 1920s that Russian refugees such as Ivan Repin opened coffee shops that rapidly popularised brewed coffee and take-home beans.

Repin is credited with paving the way for the espresso onslaught of the 1950s. As Italian migrants arrived in number to Australia, prized stove-top coffee makers and the odd Gaggia were often stashed in their suitcases. Roasting businesses, distribution networks and Italian-style cafes soon followed.

Melbourne’s Pellegrini’s restaurant (66 Bourke St, Melbourne) is an ever-enchanting survivor of this generation. The brew in their signature Duralex glasses may be unremarkable, but the Italian brio, urban bonhomie and original décor are as authentic as it gets.

As the inner city neighbourhoods rapidly gentrified in the early 1980s, Sydney’s Bill & Toni’s (74 Stanley St, East Sydney), The Arch (81 Stanley St, East Sydney) and Tropicana (227B Victoria St, Darlinghurst) – all still serving up flat whites and foccacia – lured a new generation who claimed cappuccino-drinking as its own.

Italy’s Lavazza coffee began its export business in Australia around this time, a whole decade before chancing it in UK and US markets, while local outfits like Melbourne’s Genovese and Grinders, and Brisbane’s Merlo (Ann St, Brisbane) became household names.

While the original family-run roasters still prosper, and most of Australia remains content with a simple latte or short black (perfectly made, of course), the cities are now in the grip of coffee’s third wave: single origin beans, premium small batch roasts, terroir and alternative brewing methods such as the Clover syphon, filter and cold drip. They are part of a global phenomena that includes Chicago’s Intellegensia, Seattle’s Caffé Vita and Oslo’s Tim Wendelboe, it is the era of the micro-roastery.

In a Melbourne warehouse conversion that wins in the sustainability as well as style stakes, Seven Seeds (106 Berkeley St, Carlton) is also part café, part retail outlet and part instructional facility with a mission to “relentlessly” pursue coffee excellence. The city’s Sensory Lab (297 Little Collins St) ratchets up the science; white-coated staff will analyse customer’s palates before recommending a single origin or blend.

Sydney’s booming Single Origin (60-64 Reservoir St, Surry Hills) has a Surry Hills flagship that is the favoured pitstop for the local creative industries, with tables spilling out onto the footpath and across the street. They uniquely offer a small batch version of Australia’s other much loved brew – pale ale.

Cup Specialty Coffee (85 Russell Street) in Brisbane’s West End sources seasonal and traceable green coffee and still roasts on site in view of its café, fitted out to play to the light industrial setting and the owner’s DIY ethos. Gold Coast stalwarts, Crema Espresso (27 Tedder Av) have been roasting on the coast for years. And as Queensland and Northern NSW’s coffee industry grows, expect Brisbane and Byron Bay’s roasters to be proudly using local beans too.

Can the sound of snoring reveal an illness?

Scientists say they have found a cheap and easy way of detecting a condition from recordings of people sleeping.

Snoring is no joke for partners, but it’s not much fun for the snorer either. Severe snoring is the sound of a sleeper fighting for breath, as relaxed muscles in the pharynx (the top of the throat) allow the airway to become blocked. Lots of people snore, but the loud and irregular snoring caused by a condition known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can leave a sufferer tired and fuddled during the day, even though he or she is rarely fully awoken by the night-time disruption.

OSA is costly and laborious to diagnose, and it’s difficult to distinguish genuine OSA – which afflicts between 4% and 10% of the population – from ordinary snoring. Often a snorer will need to sleep under observation in a laboratory wired up to instruments that monitor brain waves, eye movement and other sleep-related activities. But a team in Brazil that brings together medics and physicists has a simpler solution: they say they have found a way of analysing snore recordings that is able not only to spot OSA but can distinguish between mild and severe cases.

Diagnosing OSA from snore sounds is not a new idea. The question is how, if at all, the clinical condition is revealed by the noises. Does OSA affect the total number of snores, or their loudness, or their acoustic quality, or their regularity – or several or all of these things? In 2008 a team in Turkey showed that the statistical regularity of snores has the potential to discriminate ordinary sleepers from OSA sufferers. And last year a group in Australia found that a rather complex analysis of the sound characteristics of snores, such as the pitch, might be capable of providing such a diagnosis, at least in cases where the sound is recorded under controlled and otherwise quiet conditions.

A person who snores but does not suffer from OSA typically does so in synchrony with breathing, with successive snores less than about ten seconds apart. In these cases the obstruction of the airway that triggers snoring comes and goes, so that snoring might stop for perhaps a couple of minutes or more before resuming. So for ‘healthy’ snoring, the spacing between snores tends to be either less than ten seconds or, from time to time, more than about 100 seconds.

OSA patients, meanwhile, have snore intervals that fall within this time window. The snores follow one another in train, but with a spacing dictated by the more serious restriction of airflow rather than the steady in-and-out of breathing.

‘Snore memory’

Physicist Adriano Alencar of the University of São Paulo and his colleagues looked for unique patterns in OSA by measuring what they call a snore time interval index, which is a measure of how often the time between snores falls between 10 and 100 seconds. They compared this with a standard clinical measure of OSA severity called the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which is obtained from complicated monitoring of a sleeping patient’s airflow in a laboratory. (Hypopnea is the milder form of OSA in which the airway becomes only partially blocked.)

Alencar and colleagues found that the higher the value of their snore interval index, the higher the patient’s corresponding AHI is. In other words, the snore index can be used as a pretty reliable proxy for the AHI: you can just record the snores at home rather than going through the rigmarole of the whole lab procedure.

That’s not all. The researchers could also use a snore recording to figure out how snores are related to each other – whether there is a kind of “snore memory”, so that, say, a particular snore is linked to a recent burst of snoring. This memory is measured by a so-called Hurst exponent, which reveals hidden patterns in a series of events that, at first glance, look random and disconnected. An automated computer analysis of the snore series could “learn”, based on training with known test cases, to use the Hurst exponent to distinguish moderate from severe cases of OSA, making the correct diagnosis for 16 of 17 patients.

The work of Alencar and colleagues hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. But in the light of the earlier studies of OSA signatures in snore sounds, it adds to the promise of an easy and cheap way of spotting snorers who have a clinical condition that needs treatment.

What’s more, it supports a growing belief that the human body generates several subtle but readily measured indicators of health and disease, revealed by statistical regularities in apparently random signals. For example, sensitive measurement of the crackling sounds generated when our airways open as we breathe in can tell us about the condition of our lungs, perhaps revealing respiratory problems, while ‘buried’ statistical regularities in heartbeat intervals or muscle movements encode information about cardiac health or sleep states. Our bodies tell us a lot about ourselves, if only we know how to listen.

Why do we need to sleep?

The question still perplexes scientists, but there are now several intriguing theories that explain our need for a daily nap.

Some people need eight hours. Others can exist on four. But the bottom line is that everybody needs sleep – it is as essential as breathing and eating. Yet, despite decades of study, scientists still do not know why we do it.

However, there are some intriguing clues and theories. One obvious clue is that we all feel better after a good night’s sleep, and much worse if deprived of a decent night’s rest. In humans the need for sleep gets so strong after a few days that nothing will keep you awake – with reports of people falling asleep standing up, even whilst being kicked or having intolerably loud music played at them. Within days of having no sleep, people report confusion, forgetfulness and hallucinations. (In case you are wondering, the world record for going without sleep is eleven days.)

But saying that we sleep because we are tired is rather like saying we eat because we are hungry – it is why we sleep, but not necessarily why we need it.

Memory aid

One theory that has emerged in recent years is that sleep helps us to process and consolidate new memories. Our memory system is a psychological wonder, and several studies have suggested that sleep provides some behind-the-scenes maintenance.

For instance, Matthew Walker and colleagues from the University of California gave volunteers aptitude tests like remembering sequences of patterns fired at them on a computer. Half the volunteers learned these patterns in the morning, and half in the evening. To test their memories he got them back into the lab – the morning learners returned after a full day of being awake, the evening learners came back after a night’s sleep. Sure enough, those who were allowed to sleep had better recall of the test patterns­.

By the way, there is good news for siesta or powernap lovers. Similar comparisons indicate that you can get a memory boost from a daytime nap. So, if you have been studying or working hard in the morning, do not be too hard on yourself if you fancy closing your eyes for a while.

One school of thought is that sleep aids our memories by refreshing and reorganising them without interfering with our waking thoughts. Evidence comes from several studies using methods that record the brain directly. For instance, when rats were trained to find their way around a maze, their brains produced the same activity patterns during sleep as when they had carried out the task – suggesting that the brain was reconstructing the experience.

A rest might help ease bad experiences, too. A study published last yearby Walker’s group has posed the intriguing suggestion that the brain might also deal with the memory of unpleasant or traumatic events during sleep (3).

Dream on

From this we also gain an important insight into the fascinating phenomenon of dreams. These crazy adventures our minds have while we are sleeping may be a product of our memories randomly activating so as to keep them fresh, and of the mind seeking connections between all the things we have recently experienced. This could also explain why hallucinations accompany sleep deprivation. Without the opportunity to reorganise our memories during sleep, dreams intrude into our waking lives, causing difficulty in distinguishing our inner lives from reality.

Much of this is informed speculation. It is likely that as well as fine-tuning our brains, our bodies use this opportunity to carry out a list of housekeeping tasks, for instance, repairing damaged cells.

But some scientists argue that the purpose of sleep may not be restorative. In fact, they argue that the very question “why do we sleep?” is mistaken, and that the real question should be “why are we awake?”. If you are safe and warm and fed, it is a waste of energy to be awake and moving around (and possibly getting into trouble). Far better, this argument goes, is to be awake only when you have to and sleep when it suits you (4).

One thing is certain, not only do we have to sleep, but it is good for your mind and body as well. Although everyone needs a different amount of sleep, the average is about seven hours – and people who sleep a lot less than this are at a higher risk of various illnesses, such as heart disease, and a shortened lifespan.

So instead of feeling guilty the next time you fancy a nap, think about how much good it will do you.

Christian Marriage and Sex

I’m not married but I publish something worthwhile of someone who IS married

The time has come for us as believers to change our distorted image of sex. God created sex, but over the years some Christians have come to view sex as something invented by the world. Well, here’s a news flash for you, Hugh Hefner did not invent sex! God Almighty did, and there’s nothing nasty or dirty about it.

Unfortunately, some Christian women feel that sex is their wifely duty rather than something to be enjoyed by both she and her husband. When you think about it, it’s an insult to God, to look upon something He created and fail to see the beauty in it or cherish it as a gift.

Sex between a husband and his wife is not just physical, it’s emotional, and it’s spiritual. The word of God describes it as a man and a woman becoming one flesh. But unfortunately, some of us have become so “heavenly bound” that we are simply no earthly good. In other words, we are so focused on getting to heaven that we forget we have a life to live here on earth. Not just tolerating life, but living life to the absolute fullest.

After all, your marriage is a reflection of the marriage between Christ and the church. And guess what? Christ is passionate about you! So get passionate about your spouse. If you don’t know how to make this change then pray and ask God to renew your heart and mind in this area. After that, we suggest you educate yourself. Go out and get all the books you can on this subject and read until you become a “sexpert”. Now listen, we’re not suggesting you go out and buy porn, or tasteless books that dishonor God.

There are plenty of Christian books that have been written on this topic, so you should have no problem finding Godly material.

Now, take it one step further by planning a time to sit down with your spouse and read the material together. This little gesture will have sparks flying.

If you have been slacking in this area of your marriage, we encourage you to make immediate changes. Be deliberate about getting the spice back into your sex life. Apologize to your mate for treating this aspect of your marriage as drudgery. Finally, repent to your creator for not appreciating his beautiful gift and ask him to continue renewing you in this area.

Believe us, your new attitude will be a breath of fresh air to your spouse.

Conventions are a waste of time...

Do animals think?

It’s not always pretty

It’s not always pretty...NO IT IS NOT.!!!

Sales….I mean who do want to do it? Are you a sales man or woman? Life, who wants to be in the bottom of it, It is not pretty…but There is a link (or well I don’t know the exact word to describe it) between these two words

Sales: Learn how to sell yourself as an entrepreneur inspire lives with your story

Bit why do we hate selling or being a sales person? Are we pre-program to hate this kind? “I just don’t wanna be a sales person” or “I hate selling”…

Most of us ignore the correlation between life and sales….your job for instance if you got one: lets see you selling yourself to make a living…

And we selling ourselves for a puny paycheck…it’s not always pretty but most people just don’t realize about it and just keep going they’re plugged to a matrix (remember the movie?) and they will defend it and even fight for it

I’M GONNA LEAVE YOU WITH A THOUGHT..”WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?”

Now if you want to know what we do click here and take notes..

Stephen Hawking museum visit signals return to health

Professor Stephen Hawking has visited London’s Science Museum in a visit that signals an improvement in the 70-year-old’s health.

Last month, the famous physicist was forced to pull out of a birthday reception at the museum due to illness.

But on Saturday Prof Hawking got a chorus of Happy Birthday from well-wishers and typed “thanks” on his computer.

The scientist took a tour of the museum and described it as “one of my favourite places”.

Roger Highfield, the museum’s director of external affairs, said: “When our visitors saw him come into the museum there was a fantastic buzz of excitement and a big crowd gathered.”

An exhibit marking the professor’s life – Stephen Hawking: A 70th Birthday Celebration – is currently on show there.

It includes objects and papers from his own archive, the suit he wore for his zero gravity flight in 2007, and a script from his appearance on The Simpsons.

‘Be curious’

Professor Hawking turned 70 on 8 January but had to pull out of a symposium at Cambridge University that day, as well as his planned museum appearance.

However, in a recorded message, he used the Cambridge gathering to warn that humans would not “survive another thousand years” without beginning to colonise other parts of space.

He also called on people to “be curious” and “look up at the stars and not down at your feet”.

Prof Hawking – who entered the popular consciousness thanks to his bestseller A Brief History of Time – was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was 21.

Many experts say he has defied medical science by reaching the age of 70 as his degenerative illness usually proves fatal within five years of diagnosis.

Julian Assange: Ecuador asylum decision criticised

The UK and Sweden have criticised Ecuador for granting political asylum to Julian Assange as the diplomatic row over what to do with him intensifies.

The Wikileaks founder took refuge at Ecuador’s London embassy in June as he faced extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.

The UK has said it will not allow him safe passage out of the country.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said he hoped talks with the UK would “overcome this”.

He told BBC Mundo the UK should respect Ecuador’s “sovereign decision” otherwise “we will use the alternatives under international law to demand the safe passage”.

“We don’t think it is reasonable that, after a sovereign government has made the decision of granting political asylum, a citizen is forced to live in an embassy for a long period,” he added.

Mr Patino also claimed “other elements” were motivating Sweden’s wish to extradite Mr Assange, and tweeted his “sincere appreciation” to the national assembly in Ecuador which passed a resolution condemning the “threat” to Mr Assange’s political asylum.

However, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said his country would not be lectured by Ecuador.

Mr Bildt said Sweden was entirely within its rights to question Mr Assange about a serious alleged crime.

He denied that Mr Assange would ultimately be extradited to the US to face the death penalty.

Ecuador has said Mr Assange’s human rights might be violated if he were sent to Sweden to be questioned over allegations that he sexually assaulted two female ex-Wikileaks volunteers while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture in 2010.


The Wikileaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several countries, particularly the US.

The 41-year-old Australian citizen, who claims the sexual contact was consensual, has said the allegations against him were politically motivated and he feared that, if extradited to Sweden, he would then be passed on to US authorities.

The Swedish foreign ministry has rejected Ecuadorean claims that the sexual assault allegations facing the Wikileaks founder were not the real reason the country wanted him extradited.

‘Negotiated solution’

Mr Assange said that while Ecuador’s decision was “a historic victory, our struggles have just begun”, adding that “the unprecedented US investigation against Wikileaks must be stopped”.

The UK Foreign Office said it remained committed to reaching a “negotiated solution” but following its obligations under the Extradition Act, it would arrest Mr Assange if he left the embassy.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said there was “no legal basis” to allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the country and warned that the case could go on for a “considerable” time.

In a statement issued after the Ecuadorean decision, Mr Hague said that Britain was under a “binding obligation” to extradite him to Sweden.



Ecuador’s foreign minister Ricardo Patino: “We believe that his fears are legitimate”

“It is important to understand that this is not about Mr Assange’s activities at Wikileaks or the attitude of the United States of America. He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offences,” Mr Hague added.

Will Grant, the BBC’s correspondent in the Ecuadorean capital Quito, said opponents of President Rafael Correa on the national assembly felt the diplomatic spat with Britain was unnecessary and Ecuador had no right to get involved.

In Sweden, foreign ministry spokesman Anders Joerle said it was “unacceptable that Ecuador would want to halt the Swedish judicial process”.

He added that Sweden “emphatically reject the gross accusations that is made against the Swedish judicial system”.

Claes Brogstrom, the lawyer for the two Swedish women making the sexual assault complaints against Mr Assange, said their ordeal seemed to have been overlooked by Mr Assange’s supporters.

He insisted that the charges against Mr Assange would be treated as a “normal case” in the Swedish judicial system.

“He will be interrogated by the prosecutor. The prosecutor after that has to decide whether to prosecute him or not and if that happens there will be a trial in the court of Stockholm.

“There’s no demand from the United States that he should be extradited to the US,” Mr Brogstrom added.

‘Sic Her:’ Man, Dog Attack Bride At Denver Wedding

– A man is on the run from police and a dog is under quarantine at the Denver Animal Shelter after a shocking attack at a wedding party last weekend.

So far it’s not clear why the man police say is Joel Neveraz, a wedding guest, encouraged his pit bull to attack the bride and also attacked the woman himself.

Neveraz allegedly got upset about something at Brittany Schults’ wedding on Saturday in North Denver. He then left and came back later with his pit bull.

Schults told CBS4 Neveraz suffers from several mental illnesses and at one point spent time in a mental hospital.

“At one point and time he was a best friend. Someone I thought I could trust, someone I thought would never let anyone hurt me,” she said.

After he came back to the party following the wedding it was clear something wasn’t right.

“I begged and pleaded with him ‘Just stop. Bring the dog home, it’s my wedding. Don’t do this, don’t do this,’ ” Schults said.

Soon after Neveraz allegedly told his dog to attack Schults.

“He said ‘Sic her. Sic her, Skylo,’ ” she said. “The dog dragged me to the ground and shook me in its mouth.”

The dog also attacked Schults’ new husband.

“Joel stood there with the leash in hand laughing, laughing that the dog was biting me,” she said.

A police report states Neveraz then started punching Schults with brass knuckles.

“It was terrible. It made a beautiful party into something I’ll never forget.”

Schults showed CBS4 some of the injuries she sustained in the attack, including bite marks from the dog in her skin.

“I’m just hoping no one else gets hurt the way I did or worse,” she said.

Neveraz has been in trouble with the law before. This mug shot was taken after he was arrested on charges of assaulting a peace officer:

According to his latest Facebook post Neveraz is headed to Boston, but his friends actually think he might be headed to Mexico to hide with family members. The last time friends heard from him was in a text:

2 more stops then I hit my death bed nice knowin all yall ain’t this wat use want: (yup it will be a sick death but i aint going alone

Police say Neveraz should be considered dangerous. Anyone with information about his wherebouts is asked to contact authorities.

Germany relaunches privacy probe against Facebook

Facebook came under fresh pressure in Germany Thursday after authorities reopened a probe into the website’s facial recognition software which they say violates the privacy of its users.

The head of the data protection office in the northern city of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, said he would resume an investigation launched against Facebook more than a year ago but suspended in June.

Caspar agreed at the time to let negotiations between Facebook and Irish authorities about the software run their course, in the hope that the US-based company would accept stricter terms for the use of such data in Europe.

Facebook’s European operations are based in Ireland.

“This hope has only been partially fulfilled,” he said in a statement. “The potential for abuse with a biometric database is immense.”

He accuses the online social network of contravening European privacy laws with its system for registering the faces of users in photographs posted on the site.

Facebook, which began using the software last year, had pledged to stop using it on new users but declined to make other concessions, Caspar said.

“Thus the existing database of biometric data, established without the consent of those affected, remains illegal,” he said, citing an EU review in March.

Caspar said he still aimed to reach a negotiated settlement with the company, with the “minimum requirement” being that users either give their consent to their images being kept in Facebook’s database or they must be destroyed.

In December, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said after an initial audit that Facebook had to better explain to users what happens to their personal data and give them more control.

But following complaints that little had been done, a Facebook spokesman said in April that the DPC “did not at any time say that Facebook should amend its privacy policy based on European data protection rules.”

The DPC has pledged to issue a full updated report by October.

Germany has some of Europe’s strictest privacy laws due to the abuses under its Nazi and communist dictatorships.

In 2010, it took fellow Internet giant Google to task for its Street View service featuring interactive maps with links to recent photos of homes and businesses.

As a special concession to these concerns, Google allowed Germans to “opt out” of the service, promising to pixelate their houses or shops.

Khamenei: Zionist regime will disappear from map

The Passive Defense Organization head added that the Islamic Revolution was a "beacon of light" and that the plight of the Palestinians was not forgotten.

Calling on Muslims to rally on Al-Quds Day, he expressed hope that the Islamic world would be "strong against the Zionist threat," adding that the "Islamic front in Syria has been strengthened," presumably a reference to Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

An Israeli government official responded to Jalali's comments by saying it was simply a "reaffirmation of what we continually hear from the Iranian leadership."

The official said that the statement was "not an aberration," and that Israel was taking the Iranian threat very seriously. "We urge others to do the same," he said. "The Iranians use unequivocal language, and their words speak for themselves."

The official said that it would be in the interest of Iran's leadership to rein in these comments in at this time to reduce international pressure, and the fact that Iran's leaders continue to utter such remarks just shows the degree to which they actually believe them.

The official, meanwhile, dismissed a report on a left-wing, anti-Netanyahu blog called Tikun Olam Wednesday purporting to have "an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel's war plans against Iran." The blogger, Richard Silverstein, said the document "feels" like it came "from the shop of national security advisor Yaakov Amidror, a former general, settler true believer and Bibi confidant. It could also have been produced by Defense Minister Barak, another pro-war booster."

According to Silverstein the document talks about a coordinated strike that will include an "unprecedented cyber-attack" that will totally paralyze the Iranian regime, as well as a barrage of ballistic missiles launched from Israel and Israeli submarines near the Persian Gulf. IAF planes, according to the "document," will be armed with electronic warfare gear previously unknown even to the US that will render the planes "invisible."

One government official said there is "a lot of press speculation out there, and everyone has their 'secret source.' It is not the government's policy to comment on any piece of speculation."

Israeli military: Blasts heard in southern city

The Israeli military says explosions have been heard in the southern city ofEilat, and it's suspected that rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The military said soldiers searched the area for several hours after the blasts were heard late Wednesday, but no exploded rockets were found. No injuries or damage were reported. There was no immediate comment from Egypt.

Eilat is next to the Sinai, scene of militant attacks in recent weeks. This month militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza converge. They stole vehicles and crashed into Israel, where Israeli forces stopped them.

Eilat has been the target of previous rocket attacks, apparently from Sinai. Israel has expressed concern about extremist Islamists and Palestinian militants from Gaza operating there.

Israeli minister warns of 30-day war with Iran

A strike on Iran’s nuclear sites would spark a 30-day war with missile attacks on Israel's cities and as many as 500 dead, according to the Israeli minister responsible for preparing home defences.


Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as home front defence minister to become ambassador to China, said the country was “ready as never before”.


“The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on a number of fronts,” he told the Maariv newspaper.


“It could be that there will be less fatalities, but it could be there will be more, that is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts.”


Speculation is growing that Israel is planning a unilateral attack on Iran’snuclear programme - or that it is using the question to increase pressure on Barack Obama to launch an American strike.


Western governments share the fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions but oppose military action and want to give more time to diplomacy.

And in Israel, critics have warned that the country is not ready for the promised Iranian retaliation, pointing to a shortage of gas masks, for example.

Mr Vilnai declined to say whether he thought Israel should take military action against Iran, but warned any such decision required serious consideration.

“The only question is if a clash is necessary. War is something that is better to postpone and weigh carefully,” he said.

Mr Vilnai is to be replaced by Avi Dichter, a former internal security minister and ex-head of the country’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.

Israel demands nuclear ultimatum for Iran

Israel declared that international talks with Iran on its nuclear programme had failed as it demanded a deadline of "just a few weeks" be handed down to Tehran to scrap its atomic build-up.


It emerged that new intelligence shared with Israel by the West indicated that Iran had moved several steps closer to developing a nuclear warhead that could be fitted on the Shahab-3 missile.


According to an unidentified official, new intelligence obtained by Israel, the United States and other Western states shows that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is progressing far beyond the scope reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency.


Tehran has made significant progress towards assembling a nuclear warhead for a Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of nearly 1,000 miles, putting the whole of Israel, including the Dimona nuclear reactor in the southern Negev desert, within the Islamic republic's range. Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy foreign minister, called on the Western powers to declare that the negotiations with Iran, conducted by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, had failed.


He called for Iran to be presented with an ultimatum of a "few weeks" to cease its nuclear programme.


Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, issued a public warning that Tehran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb. "Every threat against the home front is dwarfed by one threat. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," he told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

In a further sign that Israel is stepping up preparation for a possible showdown with Iran, the army's home front command sent out thousands of text messages in a test run of a programme to alert people when rocket attacks are launched on specific areas.

The test continues this week when hundreds of thousands of people will receive text messages in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English.

Chinese Companies Pull Out of US Stock Markets

Just a few years after Chinese companies lined up to sell shares on Wall Street, a growing number are reversing course and pulling out of U.S. exchanges.

This week, Focus Media Holding announced its chairman and private-equity firms want to buy back its U.S.-traded shares and take the Shanghai-based advertising company private. The deal would value Focus Media at $3.5 billion, according to financial information firm Dealogic.

Smaller companies also are withdrawing from U.S. exchanges. In a sign of official encouragement, a Chinese business magazine said a state bank has provided $1 billion in loans to help companies with listings abroad move them to domestic exchanges.

The withdrawals follow accusations of improper accounting by some companies and a deadlock between Beijing and Washington over whether U.S. regulators can oversee their China-based auditors.

Some Chinese companies say they are pulling out of U.S. markets because a low share price fails to reflect the strength of their business. Withdrawing also eliminates the cost of complying with American financial reporting rules.

Focus Media “has been seriously undervalued on U.S. stock markets” and being taken private will help to promote its “long-term strategic development,” said a company spokeswoman, Lu Jing. The company, formed in 2003, operates electronic advertising displays in elevators, grocery stores, and other locations.

“We haven’t considered whether to list the company on Chinese markets, but that possibility has not been excluded,” Lu said.

U.S.-traded Chinese companies faced scrutiny after auditors for several quit and others were accused of accounting irregularities. Concerns about company finances have caused share prices to tumble, costing investors several billion dollars.

“Probably all these companies have some questionable accounting, so they may prefer to move out of the U.S., not to come under too much scrutiny,” said Marc Faber, managing director of Hong Kong fund management company Marc Faber Ltd.

A financial firm, Muddy Waters Research, accused Focus Media last year of overstating the number of its display panels and questioned acquisitions reported by the company. Focus Media denied the allegations and said independent auditors confirmed the size of its network.

This week, Muddy Waters founder Carson Block said in a statement: “The markets are far better off if a few deep pocketed investors own Focus Media instead of mutual funds and other public shareholders.”

The group proposing to take the company private includes its chairman, Jason Nanchun Jiang, and private-equity firms CITIC Capital Partners, CDH Investments, and China Everbright Ltd.

The status of Chinese companies in the U.S. could be complicated by a dispute between U.S. and Chinese regulators over whether American inspectors will be allowed to examine the work of their China-based audit firms.

Washington wants auditors to hand over documentation on companies that are under investigation but Chinese authorities have barred the release of some information. If a settlement is not reached, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could reject audits by China-based firms, forcing companies to find new auditors.

In May, Beijing took steps to tighten control of local affiliates of major accounting firms by issuing a requirement for Chinese citizens to head those offices.

Dozens of Chinese companies issued shares on Wall Street over the past decade, raising billions of dollars from investors who wanted a stake in the country’s booming economy.

Many were private companies that could not raise money on Chinese exchanges that were created to finance state industry or wanted the higher public profile.

Chinese regulators encouraged the move as a way for entrepreneurs to raise money and speed the development of China’s economy. But in recent years Beijing has encouraged private companies to issue shares in China to help develop its markets and give Chinese households better investment options.

Regulators have made it easier for private companies to join China’s two exchanges in Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen, though most listings still are for state enterprises. The Shenzhen exchange created a second board for small companies, imitating the U.S.-based Nasdaq market.

Major state companies such as oil giant PetroChina and China Mobile

the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers, also have issued shares abroad. None has indicated it plans to withdraw from foreign stock exchanges.

The economics also are shifting in China’s favor.

U.S.-traded companies saw share prices plunge following the 2008 global crisis, while economic growth at home, even after a recent decline, is still forecast at about eight percent this year. Rising Chinese incomes are creating a bigger pool of money for investment.

“Generally speaking, a company’s shares are sold at a higher premium in initial public offerings on Chinese stock markets than on U.S. markets,” said Mao Sheng, a market strategist for Huaxi Securities in the western city of Chengdu. Also, he said, “If the company’s business is mainly in China, it will be good for its brand promotion.”

Another U.S.-traded company, Fushi Copperweld

announced plans in June by its chairman, Li Fu, and a Hong Kong firm, Abax Global Capital, to take the maker of metallic conductors private.

Muddy Waters cited Fushi Copperweld in April as one of several companies it said dealt with an investment bank that helped enterprises seeking U.S. stock market listings to conceal problems and misrepresent financial information.

Fushi Copperweld denied Muddy Waters’ “vague and nonspecific” claims.

The company said its privatization will be financed with loans from the China Development Bank.

Created to support construction of highways and other public works in China, CDB plays a growing role in its corporate expansion abroad. The bank provides credit to buyers of Chinese telecoms gear and other big-ticket goods and has financed building projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

CDB has lent $1 billion “to help Chinese public companies leave the U.S. stock market to return to domestic markets,” the business magazine Caixin said last month.

Employees who answered the phone at Fushi Copperweld said no one was available to comment.

Also in June, China TransInfo Technology a provider of traffic management technology, announced privatization plans to be financed by CDB’s Hong Kong branch. A company spokeswoman said she could not comment because the plan is not finalized.

In October, Harbin Pacific Electric withdrew from Nasdaq in a share buyback financed by $400 million in loans from the CDB.

Britain’s surfing heritage

Surfing may be a pastime synonymous with swaying palms and jangling Californian guitar music, but what’s little known is the role that Britain’s own surfing pioneers have played in the development of the sport.
Surfing may be a pastime synonymous with swaying palms and jangling Californian guitar music, but what’s little known is the role that Britain’s own surfing pioneers have played in the development of the sport.

The Museum of British Surfing recently opened in Braunton, North Devon, with exhibitions spanning Captain Cook’s encounters with Polynesian surfers in the 18th Century – the first time a European witnessed the sport – through to a small flotilla of historic surfboards.

Britain’s surfing pioneers were very different from the tousled-haired stereotypes of today. Agatha Christie was among the first, taking to the shores around South Africa and Hawaii in the 1920s. She recalled that there was: “Nothing like that rushing through the water at what seemed to you a speed of about two hundred miles an hour… until you arrived, gently slowing down, on the beach, and foundered among the soft flowing waves.”

British surfing has even had Royal approval – Edward Windsor, the future King Edward VIII, carried the distinction of being the first surfer from Britain to be photographed on his first trip to Hawaii in April 1920.

Upmarket casino cuisine in Atlantic City

“Come for the slots, stay for the food” — it is a business strategy (and advertising tagline) that casinos have relied on for decades, recognising that the main draw of a casino is the opportunity to win big. But a few years ago, when a spate of high-profile chefs flocked to Las Vegas, the restaurant scene quickly overtook gambling as the Nevada city’s main attraction.

With the May opening of the $2.4 billion luxuryRevel Resorts – a complex of 14 restaurants, 1,898 rooms, a concert hall, high-end shops, a pool, spa and two nightclubs — Atlantic City, New Jersey, the US’ second-largest gambling destination, is following in Las Vegas’ successful footsteps, hoping that an emphasis on dining and lifestyle will help the once down-and-out destination bounce back from the effects of the US recession.

There have been more than 20 restaurant openings in the past year in Atlantic City, ranging from traditional seafood to Asian fusion to upmarket steakhouses to outposts of casual chains from New York and Philadelphia. High-profile annual culinary events have also drawn previously unseen crowds, including the Atlantic City Restaurant Week in May, the Beer and Music Festival in April and the Food & Wine Festival in July, headlined by camera-friendly chefs like Tyler Florence, Paula Deen and Andrew Zimmerman. Visitors who would rather learn to cook than gamble can take a pizza-making class every Saturday at Tony Baloney’s, a casual Italian restaurant, or a variety of courses at the Harrah’s ResortViking Cook School Both venues launched classes two years ago.

Like the Food & Wine Festival, which brings a dose of star power to the beachside town, many of Revel’s 14 restaurants are helmed by Iron Chefs (from the US-based reality television show), Michelin-starred chefs and James Beard Award winners from New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia — markets that feed into Atlantic City, said Curt Huegel, a principal at LDV Hospitality, the firm that manages Revel’s French-inspired seafood brasserie Azure by Allegretti, the steakhouse American Cut and the casual Italian restaurant Lugo Cucino E Vino.

“The plan for this hotel is that there are two parts of it; that there’s a resort and there’s a casino,” said Huegel. “Everything else in Atlantic City has just been a casino. If you go around to the restaurants, they feel different here. You don’t feel like you’re in Atlantic City. And that’s a great thing.”

Despite the slew of recent restaurant openings, Atlantic City still has a long way to go before it trumps — or equals — Las Vegas. In contrast to Revel and the Borgata, which opened its in 2003 and underwent a recent renovation, many of Atlantic City’s other hotel properties are still hopelessly outdated and the iconic boardwalk has seen shinier, cleaner days. But with Revel – by far the splashiest opening of the summer – it is clear that Atlantic City is committed to moving beyond beach bars and buffets.

Here is where to sample some of the best Revel has to offer.

Amada

Located on the casino level and overlooking the hotel’s private beach, this dark and sexy tapas restaurant features Andalusian music and flamenco dancers. It is an outpost of Iron Chef star Jose Garces’ popular Philadelphia restaurant of the same name — and is often booked solid on Friday and Saturday nights. The food presentation is as dramatic as the moody, dark décor of tiled floors, a rustic wooden ceiling, massive Moorish-style metal lanterns and semi-enclosed tables near the back of the restaurant.. The chicken in the paella valenciana, a huge dish loaded with saffron rice, chorizo and peas, is carved and served tableside by your waiter. When your order of patatas bravas, a tray of delicately arranged spicy potato pieces spaced far apart and standing tall, arrives at the table; you spear each one with a mini skewer. Crab-stuffed piquillo peppers are bursting with seafood and the seemingly simple artichoke flatbread is made richer with truffles and manchego cheese.

Azure by Allegretti

French chef Alain Allegretti’s seafood restaurant brings a touch of southern France to the Jersey Shore. The breezy, sophisticated and glamorous space dazzles, but Allegretti keeps the menu simple and puts the focus on the freshness of the day’s catch. A thoughtful sommelier checks in throughout the meal and provides spot-on pairing suggestions, such as creamy west coast oysters with a French rosé. It all feels very St Tropez. Order the charred octopus appetizer, prepared perfectly so its tenderness contrasts with the accompanying faro, artichoke and fava bean salad. Or try the lobster salad, its claws fanned out over chilled potatoes and French green beans. For the main course, opt for one of the whole roasted and filleted fish options, such as the branzino to share. The seafood risotto, loaded with shrimp, lobster, clams and scallops is plenty creamy, but by infusing the dish with seafood stock it stays surprisingly light.

One

The summer brunch parties start at noon and go until 5pm every Saturday at this music-heavy American grill, with a giant pink neon sign that reads, “This Must Be the Place”, pop art prints all over the walls and DJs spinning mash-ups all day. The party serves up hired dancers and a special menu that includes tableside “Bloody Hell” bottle service; it comes with a bottle of premium vodka and tequila plus all the fixings to customize a Bloody Mary. The menu leans towards comfort food favourites made with gourmet ingredients: sliders use Kobe beef, fries are drizzled with truffle oil, and lobster makes an appearance in the mac and cheese.

Robotic Fueling of Unmanned Surface Vessels Tested

Engineers from the NRL Spacecraft Engineering Department (SED) successfully demonstrate the robotic fluids transfer from a stationary platform to an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) in wave heights greater than three feet. The Rapid Autonomous Fuel Transfer (RAFT) project exhibits the ability to track the motion of a Sea Fox naval vessel, safely emplace a magnetic refueling fitting to an on-board refueling receptacle and successfully complete fluids transfer.

Under current circumstance, USV refueling demands that a grappled connection, usually by hand, be made between the USV and the refueling vessel.

“Refueling a USV at sea, particularly in adverse weather or in high sea states, can prove difficult and often dangerous,” said Dr. Glen Henshaw, Attitude Control Section, SED Control Systems Branch. “Transferring our extensive knowledge and proven success of robotic spacecraft servicing can prove equally successful in reducing risks at sea.”

Providing the host ship the capability to refuel USVs without the need to bring them aboard ship enhances mission efficiency and reduces host ship exposure. This works to improve the effectiveness of naval USV missions and decrease risks to personnel and potential damage to vessels and equipment.

Experimenting with both fully autonomous and human-controlled operations at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center wave simulator facility, NRL engineers completed approximately 60 trial refueling attempts at sea states ranging from zero, or calm seas, to 3.25, or maximum wave heights in excess of three feet, with a demonstrated high rate of success.

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Rapid Autonomous Fuel Transfer (RAFT) project teamed NRL with Clemson University, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). NRL was the lead robotics integrator and designed the robotics system.

Further robotic transfer tests will possibly include land-based autonomous HMMV (High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) applications without the need to stop driving and on-air Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) refueling.

Autonomous Robotic Plane Dodges Obstacles When Flying Indoors

For decades, academic and industry researchers have been working on control algorithms for autonomous helicopters — robotic helicopters that pilot themselves, rather than requiring remote human guidance. Dozens of research teams have competed in a series of autonomous-helicopter challenges posed by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); progress has been so rapid that the last two challenges have involved indoor navigation without the use of GPS.

But MIT’s Robust Robotics Group — which fielded the team that won the last AUVSI contest — has set itself an even tougher challenge: developing autonomous-control algorithms for the indoor flight of GPS-denied airplanes. At the 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), a team of researchers from the group described an algorithm for calculating a plane’s trajectory; in 2012, at the same conference, they presented an algorithm for determining its “state” — its location, physical orientation, velocity and acceleration. Now, the MIT researchers have completed a series of flight tests in which an autonomous robotic plane running their state-estimation algorithm successfully threaded its way among pillars in the parking garage under MIT’s Stata Center.

“The reason that we switched from the helicopter to the fixed-wing vehicle is that the fixed-wing vehicle is a more complicated and interesting problem, but also that it has a much longer flight time,” says Nick Roy, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and head of the Robust Robotics Group. “The helicopter is working very hard just to keep itself in the air, and we wanted to be able to fly longer distances for longer periods of time.”

With the plane, the problem is more complicated because “it’s going much faster, and it can’t do arbitrary motions,” Roy says. “They can’t go sideways, they can’t hover, they have a stall speed.”

Found in translation

To buy a little extra time for their algorithms to execute, and to ensure maneuverability in close quarters, the MIT researchers built their own plane from scratch. Adam Bry, a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and lead author on both ICRA papers, consulted with AeroAstro professor Mark Drela about the plane’s design. “He’s a guy who can design you a complete airplane in 10 minutes,” Bry says. “He probably doesn’t remember that he did it.” The plane that resulted has unusually short and broad wings, which allow it to fly at relatively low speeds and make tight turns but still afford it the cargo capacity to carry the electronics that run the researchers’ algorithms.

Because the problem of autonomous plane navigation in confined spaces is so difficult, and because it’s such a new area of research, the MIT team is initially giving its plane a leg up by providing it with an accurate digital map of its environment. That’s something that the helicopters in the AUVSI challenges don’t have: They have to build a map as they go.

But the plane still has to determine where it is on the map in real time, using data from a laser rangefinder and inertial sensors — accelerometers and gyroscopes — that it carries on board. It also has to deduce its orientation — how much it’s tilted in any direction — its velocity, and its acceleration. Because many of those properties are multidimensional, to determine its state at any moment, the plane has to calculate 15 different values.

That’s a massive computational challenge, but Bry, Roy and Abraham Bachrach — a grad student in electrical engineering and computer science who’s also in Roy’s group — solved it by combining two different types of state-estimation algorithms. One, called a particle filter, is very accurate but time consuming; the other, called a Kalman filter, is accurate only under certain limiting assumptions, but it’s very efficient. Algorithmically, the trick was to use the particle filter for only those variables that required it and then translate the results back into the language of the Kalman filter.

Confronting doubt

To plot the plane’s trajectory, Bry and Roy adapted extremely efficient motion-planning algorithms developed by AeroAstro professor Emilio Frazzoli’s Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems (ARES) Laboratory. The ARES algorithms, however, are designed to work with more reliable state information than a plane in flight can provide, so Bry and Roy had to add an extra variable to describe the probability that a state estimation was reliable, which made the geometry of the problem more complicated.

Paul Newman, a professor of information engineering at the University of Oxford and leader of Oxford’s Mobile Robotics Group, says that because autonomous plane navigation in confined spaces is such a new research area, the MIT team’s work is as valuable for the questions it raises as the answers it provides. “Looking beyond the obvious excellence in systems,” Newman says, the work “raises interesting questions which cannot be easily bypassed.”

But the answers are interesting, too, Newman says. “Navigation of lightweight, dynamic vehicles against rough prior 3-D structural maps is hard, important, timely and, I believe, will find exploitation in many, many fields,” he says. “Not many groups can pull it all together on a single platform.”

The MIT researchers’ next step will be to develop algorithms that can build a map of the plane’s environment on the fly. Roy says that the addition of visual information to the rangefinder’s measurements and the inertial data could make the problem more tractable. “There are definitely significant challenges to be solved,” Bry says. “But I think that it’s certainly possible.”

Circuit design (a short article)

The process of circuit design can cover systems ranging from national power grids all the way down to the individual transistors within an integrated circuit

For simple circuits the design process can often be done by one person without needing a planed or structured design process, but for more complex designs, teams of designers following a systematic approach with intelligently guided computer simulation are becoming increasingly common.As circuit design is the process of working out the physical form that an electronic circuit will take, the result of the circuit design process is the instructions on how to construct the physical electronic circuit.This will normally take the form of blueprints describing the size, shape, connectors, etc in use, and artwork or CAM file for manufacturing a printed circuit board or Integrated circuit.

News: Israel media talk of imminent Iran war push

Israel's prime minister and defence minister would like to attack Iran's nuclear sites before the U.S. election in November but lack crucial support within their cabinet and military, an Israeli newspaper said on Friday.

The front-page report in the biggest-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth came amid mounting speculation - fuelled by media leaks from both the government and its detractors at home and abroad - that war with Iran could be imminent even though it might rupture the bedrock ties between Israel and the United States.

"Were it up to Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, an Israeli military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran would take place in the coming autumn months, before the November election in the United States," Yedioth said in the article by its two senior commentators, which appeared to draw on discussions with the defence minister but included no direct quotes.

Spokesmen for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Barak declined to comment.

Yedioth said the top Israeli leaders had failed to win over other security cabinet ministers for a strike on Iran now, against a backdrop of objections by the armed forces given the big tactical and strategic hurdles such an operation would face.

"The respect which in the past formed a halo around prime ministers and defence ministers and helped them muster a majority for military decisions, is gone, no more," Yedioth said. "Either the people are different, or the reality is different."

Israel has long threatened to attack its arch-foe, seeing a mortal menace in Iranian nuclear advances and dwindling opportunities to deal them a blow with its limited military clout. Washington has urged Israel to give diplomacy more time.

The war talk is meant, in part, to stiffen sanctions on Tehran - which denies seeking the bomb and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes - by conflict-wary world powers. Israel and the United States have publicly sought to play down their differences, the latter saying military force would be a last-ditch option against Iran.

A Reuters survey in March found that most Americans would support such action, by their government or Israel's, should there be evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons - even if the result was a rise in gas prices.

BOMB, BALLOT

But U.S. President Barack Obama, seeking re-election in November, has counselled against what he would deem premature Israeli unilateralism. He recently sent top officials to try to close ranks with the conservative Netanyahu.

Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, an old friend of Netanyahu who casts himself as a more reliable bulwark for Israeli security, also visited Jerusalem last month.

The Yedioth article said, without citing sources, that some government advisers in Israel and the United States believed a pre-November strike might "embarrass Obama and contribute to Romney‮‮‮‮‮‮‮'‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‎s chances of being elected."

Yedioth said the aim of an initial Israeli attack on Iran could be to trigger an escalation that would draw in superior U.S. forces - but described Barak as dismissive of this theory.

"He believes that America will not go to war, but will do everything in its power to stop it. It will give Israel the keys to its emergency (munitions) stores, which were set up in Israel in the past. Israel needs no more than this," Yedioth said.

Netanyahu, apparently trying to avoid being seen as meddling in U.S. politics, has voiced gratitude for cross-partisan support of Israel in Washington, while insisting his country remains responsible for its own security.

Haaretz, an influential liberal Israeli newspaper, quoted an unnamed senior official in the Netanyahu government as saying the Jewish state - widely assumed to have the region's only atomic arsenal - potentially faced a greater danger from Iran than on the eve of its 1967 war with several Arab neighbours.

That thinking seems to be gaining ground domestically.

A poll published on Friday by the mass-circulation Maariv daily found that 41 percent of Israelis saw no chance of non-military pressure on Iran succeeding, versus 22 percent who thought diplomacy could work.

While 39 percent of Maariv's respondents said dealing with Iran should be left to the United States and other world powers, 35 percent said they would support Israel going it alone as a last resort - up from previous polls that found around 20 percent support for the unilateral option.

source: Reuters