Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/168629481?client_source=feed&format=rss
lacuna paranormal activity 3 trailer paranormal activity 3 trailer oomph oomph cmj olin kreutz
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Live: Facebook To Open Engineering Office In NYC
Facebook is holding a special event this afternoon at its office in New York City. The event is a little strange, in that Facebook only sent invites out this morning ? which may be because it will feature U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The event will also include Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer. Facebook hasn't given any indication as to what to expect, but I'm guessing it has something to do with expanding its presence in New York, particularly around engineering given Schroepfer's attendance. Its current NYC office has a handful of engineers, but is dominated by employees on the sales side. I'll be updating this post as the event unfolds. You can also watch the event right here Update: Yep, Facebook is indeed opening an engineering-focused office early next year, to be headed by long-time Facebook engineering manager Serkan Piantino. The company isn't saying how many engineers it will be hiring, but that it will take all the top talent it can get. This is major news for both the company and the NYC tech scene. See my live notes from the event below. 2:20 PM EST ? Sandberg has stepped up to the podium to discuss the importance of opening up an office in NYC, and why engineering how been so important to the company.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dZxMJZqctOg/
walmart black friday ad rick perry gaffe rick perry gaffe graham spanier graham spanier penn state board of trustees joe pa
Friday, December 2, 2011
Complaint Tests Rule Protecting Science From Politics
One of the first things President Obama did after he took office was put out a memo that basically said: Don't mess with science.
The March 9, 2009, memorandum stated that "political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions" and said all government agencies should have appropriate rules and procedures to safeguard the scientific process.
Nearly three years later, only a few have finalized new policies ? though they're starting to be put to the test.
Meanwhile, many more agencies are still drawing up their plans and face a Dec. 17 deadline from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
"The order that President Obama issued in March of 2009 was a better job than I could have written myself. It was quite a bold declaration, and we're waiting for it to be filled in," says Jeff Ruch, a lawyer with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that helps scientists who feel they're under political pressure.
The Complaint
On Wednesday, Ruch's group is testing some of the government's new protections by filing a complaint with the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year, it was the first government agency to set up a new system for protecting science.
Ruch's complaint alleges that federal officials with the Bureau of Land Management hired researchers to do a major review of all the different environmental impacts on a half-dozen regions in the Western U. S., but directed the scientists to exclude livestock grazing from the analysis.
Government officials said they didn't include livestock grazing in the review because they didn't have the appropriate data. But Ruch doesn't buy it. He says livestock grazing on public land is a touchy subject because any restrictions would affect ranchers.
"To us, this is exactly the sort of abuse that the White House directive was designed to prevent," says Ruch. "And so we will file a formal complaint, under one of the few policies that exist."
'Learning As We Go Along'
His allegations are going to Ralph Morgenweck, the Interior Department's scientific integrity officer, who is responsible for investigating accusations of political interference.
Morgenweck, a scientist who has worked with the department for more than three decades, notes that the new rules cover everyone, including political appointees.
"I think it puts everyone on notice that you can make a decision and ignore the science ? you do that at your risk ? but what this policy is really getting at is not to mischaracterize that science," Morgenweck says.
Morgenweck said last month that he had already received several complaints under the new policy but didn't give details.
"We don't really know how the policy is going to work until we actually get into the practice of it," he says. "And we're into it now, and so we're learning as we go along."
A Complicated Process
Government officials make decisions that involve science all the time ? everything from approving new drugs to regulating offshore drilling. When George W. Bush was president, critics charged that if science conflicted with political goals, it was suppressed or manipulated. That's why, in his inaugural address, Obama pledged to "restore science to its rightful place."
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has been coordinating the scientific integrity effort across the government.
"The process was a lot more complicated than we expected or than the president expected at the outset," says director John Holdren, the president's top science adviser.
He says each agency has had to develop its own procedures because they have such different missions ? some deal with classified information, for example.
He expects to get final policies from around 20 agencies and says the bottom line will be the same for all.
"The president's guidelines, my guidelines, all of these policies simply forbid political manipulation of scientific findings," says Holdren. "And if we find out that's happened, we will fix it."
Call For Transparency
Francesca Grifo, head of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, welcomes this effort and says it has boosted morale among government researchers.
"The very fact that we're having these conversations has had a fundamentally good effect," says Grifo.
But like others in the scientific community, she says the handful of policies that have been made public so far dodge critical issues.
"None of the policies are comprehensive," says Grifo. "None of the policies deal with the really hard stuff."
She wants to see things like strong whistle-blower protections, and guarantees that scientists can speak freely about their research.
She also says agencies should have to tell the public how many investigations they do, and how they're resolved.
"Right now, one of the frustrations with the Interior policy is that there isn't external accountability," she says. "You know, there is no external reporting."
In her view, without more transparency, it will be hard to know what these policies really accomplish.
snl boxing news boxing andy dalton miami marlins waterboarding corporal kelsey de santis
Toothache lawsuit may stifle medical gag orders
courtesy of Bob Lee
Robert Lee, 42, shown here in New York's Central Park, sued his former dentist, who required him to sign a contract promising not to criticize her online.
By JoNel Aleccia
A Maryland man who had a bad toothache has filed a class-action lawsuit against his New York dentist after she required him to sign a contract promising not to trash-talk her online?-- and then fined him thousands of dollars trying to enforce it.
Lawyers for Robert Lee, 42,?this week asked a New York federal court to declare that dentist Stacy Makhnevich?s contract, which effectively attempts to gag patient reviews, is unethical, invalid and illegal.
Within hours, the complaint filed by the advocacy group Public Citizen had prompted the company that designed Makhnevich?s contract to advise dentists and doctors to stop trying to muzzle negative comments posted on online sites such as Yelp, RateMD.com and others.
?We retired the form,? said Dr. Jeffrey Segal, a neurosurgeon and founder of Medical Justice Services Inc., a North Carolina firm that claims to battle medical defamation for a fee. ?We probably should have retired the agreement earlier, but today?s the day we did it.? He added that he?s?telling his 3,500?members to stop using the contract in the future.
The move drew praise from Paul Alan Levy, the lawyer representing Lee, but he said that Lee?s case against Makhnevich will continue and that the issues it raises remain.
?We?re glad to see that Medical Justice is not going to be peddling this agreement in the future,? Levy said.
Makhnevich did not respond to calls from msnbc.com and it was not immediately clear whether she planned to continue enforcing the contract.??A professional?opera singer, Makhnevich bills herself as "the classical singer dentist of New York."
She was among hundreds of medical professionals nationwide in recent years who refused to care for patients unless they signed anti-defamation contracts. In the contracts, the doctors and dentists promised not to evade federal patient privacy protections in exchange for patients? agreeing not to post public comments about them.
Lee sought help from Makhnevich last year after he developed an infection and severe toothache. He went to her office in agony, he says, and, although he questioned terms of the contract, he needed to be treated. So he signed.
?It was a situation of duress,? said Levy.
In Lee?s case, the contract not only demanded that he not post negative comments, it included a clause that said Makhnevich owned the copyright to any critical posts.
Lee said he didn?t think anything of that until months later, when he said he discovered that Makhnevich had overcharged him by about $4,000 for his care, submitted his records to the wrong insurance company and then refused to provide copies of the records so he could submit them correctly himself.
Frustrated, he posted complaints on medical sites that included Yelp and DoctorBase.
?Avoid at all cost! Scamming their customers!? read one post published in August.
Lee, who has since moved to Huntingtown, Md.,?said he also posted comments that said: ?Honestly, how do you live with yourself? Just try being a decent human being.?
Within days, Makhnevich demanded that the sites remove the comments and threatened to sue Lee. She also said he was infringing on her copyright provisions and started sending invoices for fines of $100 a day. By October, the total topped $4,600, he said.
Yelp and other sites have consistently refused medical providers? demands to remove offensive comments, citing protections under the federal Communication Decency Act.
The copyright claim was ridiculous, because posting patient comments is a classic fair use under the federal Copyright Act, Levy said. And privacy protections afforded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, are legally binding, regardless of whether a patient agrees to refrain from publicly posting negative comments, according to the federal Office of Civil Rights.
It?s not clear whether Lee?s lawsuit will spell an end to medical gag-order contracts, but Levy said the quick action by Medical Justice was ?gratifying.?
?It is outrageous that a patient would have to sign away his constitutionally protected right to get treatment for a toothache,? he added.
A New York dentist is being sued by a patient who posted negative reviews about the dental care he received.
Related stories:
Docs seek to stifle patients' rants on Web sites
Nurse's suicide highlights twin tragedies of medical errors
Price-gougers hike vital?drug costs during shortage
?
derek fisher rumpelstiltskin rumpelstiltskin occupy oakland occupy oakland yahoo.com/mail david nelson
'Book Of Mormon' Is Officially A Success
NEW YORK -- Nine Tony Awards, critical praise and some filthy humor has made "The Book of Mormon" a solid Broadway investment.
Producers of the hit show said Tuesday that it has recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months.
The musical is the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of "South Park," and Robert Lopez, who co-wrote "Avenue Q."
It was crowned best musical for its offensive yet good-natured look at two missionaries who arrive in Uganda and get way more than they bargained for, including gun-toting warlords and a running gag about maggots in a man's scrotum.
The show is one of the hardest tickets to score and, thanks to premium pricing, took in more than $1.6 million at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre last week.
___
'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/book-of-mormon-investment_n_1119647.html
uc berkeley ohio state basketball annie annie zuccotti park leymah gbowee will rogers
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Herman Cain?s usual response to trouble: It?s not true (Washington Post)
Some FiOS Customers Can Trade in Set-Box for XBox (NewsFactor)
In a move that may get more people in new markets signed up for Verizon's FiOS Internet and TV services, the communications giant has announced a way for premium users of Microsoft's Xbox 360 to access 26 FiOS channels.
Beginning in December, there will be an app for that.
You're the Remote
Verizon says the deal will expand a "borderless lifestyle for consumers," allowing Xbox LIVE Gold members who also subscribe to both FiOS TV and Internet service to view "select live channels" via Xbox with no additional hardware. The app will be available for download next month, and the 26 channels depend on the level of TV service you select.
Xbox users can already watch streaming movies via Netflix.
Using the Kinect motion sensor, Xbox users will be able to use voice and gesture commands to select their channels and adjust volume.
"Joining forces with Microsoft and Xbox, we are breaking the boundaries between TV and gaming, and furthering the borderless lifestyle Verizon customers enjoy with our new offers and services," said Eric Bruno, vice president of consumer and mass business product management for Verizon. "We are putting the controls in our customers' hands, and giving them the ability to watch TV on another dynamic device that they can control with voice and gesture commands."
To sweeten the deal, new customers who sign up online through Jan. 21 will pay a special rate for triple-play TV, Internet and voice phone service, $89.99 a month, including a one-year Xbox Live Gold Membership and a free Xbox game, "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary."
Xbox Live Gold membership starts at $5 per month, depending on options, or $8.33 per month for family membership.
To further gain the attention of the gaming community, Verizon is cosponsoring the Dec. 9 Gamers Choice Awards with gaming network Machinima, with winners decided by the public via Facebook and Twitter.
Tapping New Markets
Technology consultant Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group sees the offer as a way for Verizon to reach beyond its geographic market limitations.
"This solution will be most attractive to people who can get Internet but where FiOS isn't now offered and it should be far cheaper for Verizon to provide than a typical FiOS household," said Enderle. "In short, it allows them to compete for business that they currently don't have physical access to, and it does anticipate a time when what we now call cable services are separate from the company that actually provides your physical connections."
But as the Internet continues to shake up the home entertainment landscape, Enderle said, Verizon will likely still focus its efforts on selling traditional FiOS access.
"Near term I think they will still prefer the inherent lock-in of a full cable solution if they have the choice," he said. "This would ideally be placed where that choice doesn't exist or as a hedge against what appears to be a growing de-bundling trend."
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111130/tc_nf/81164
psat brenda song mountain west mountain west rickross rickross uganda
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)