Trend and lifestyle

45,000 Verizon workers go on strike over contract

2011-08-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

45,000 Verizon workers go on strike over contract

NEW YORK — Unions representing tens of thousands of Verizon Communications Inc. workers have called a strike after failing to reach an agreement with the company on a new labor contract.

Verizon says negotiations in Philadelphia and New York with the Communications Workers of America fell apart early Sunday.

The previous contract that expired at midnight Saturday covered 45,000 workers, including 10,000 represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

They work as telephone and repair technicians, customer service representatives and operators from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.

CWA says the concessions are unjustified, given that Verizon is highly profitable — the company's revenue rose 2.8 percent to $27.5 billion in the second quarter.

But Verizon says its wireline business

Poverty link to starting periods younger

2011-05-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Poverty link to starting periods younger

Girls from poorer backgrounds are more likely to start their periods at a younger age, thereby increasing their risk of breast cancer, a UK study says.

It found girls in lower socio-economic groups with typically poorer diets began at 12.1 years on average compared to 12.5 years for wealthier girls.

Their breast cancer risk was greater as they produced the hormone oestrogen longer, the study of 90,000 women says.

It was published in the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.

The research data being gathered from this group of women over 40 years is also helping to find the causes and risk factors associated with breast cancer.

The study is a partnership between Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Institute of Cancer Research.

This research found that there was little change in the age of menarche (when a girl's periods begin) for 40 years until the late 1980s.

Then the age dropped from 12.6 years to about 12.3 years, with the drop steepest in poorer areas.

Study author Danielle Morris, from The Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey, said the results suggested that girls, particularly from poorer backgrounds, are starting their periods younger.

"While we don't know all the reasons behind this, changes in diet may have played a part.

"This decrease is important because the age at which a girl starts her periods can influence her chances of developing breast cancer later in life."

Oestrogen effect
Dr Tabitha Randall, consultant paediatrician at Nottingham Children's Hospital, said this was due to exposure to the hormone oestrogen.

"Girls who start their periods earlier are producing oestrogen for longer periods of time, although those who start their periods early normally finish early, but then they may start taking hormone replacement therapy."

Previous research has shown that the female hormone oestrogen is linked to the growth of breast tumours.

Levels of oestrogen in the body are also influenced by diet and, therefore, body weight.

"Diet is important because fatty tissue turns male hormones into oestrogen," said Dr Randall.

Previously, girls from higher socio-economic groups tended to start their periods younger because their affluence led to greater food intake and heavier body weight.

But researchers say the trend appears to have reversed.

Girls of lower socio-economic status are now starting their periods at a younger age (12.1 years) than girls from wealthier backgrounds (12.5 years) because they are the ones who tend to have poorer diets and are more likely to be overweight.

The age at which girls start their periods can be added to the list of risk factors for breast cancers, which are known to be a woman's age, alcohol intake, weight and use of hormone replacement therapy and the contraceptive pill.

A family history of breast cancer may also increase the risk of developing the disease.

Professor Anthony Swerdlow, co-leader of the Breakthrough Generations Study, says that the incidence of breast cancer has risen progressively over a long time in the UK.

"We think these changes have come about through a combination of factors each of which individually makes a small difference.

"Understanding how these factors influence a woman's risk of developing breast cancer should allow us to develop strategies for preventing the disease in the future."

Microsoft CEO promises Windows 8 in 2012, 500 new features for Windows Phone 7

2011-05-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CEO promises Windows 8 in 2012, 500 new features for Windows Phone 7

Windows 8 for desktop computers and tablets will ship in 2012, and an upcoming Windows Phone 7 update will include 500 new features, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Monday at a developers conference in Japan.

Ballmer made the announcement in a speech, shortly after expressing his condolences to Japan about the earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation in March.

"It's been 18 months since my last trip in Japan, which in my whole 30 years of working for Microsoft is the longest period of time between visits in Japan," Ballmer said in his speech. "Microsoft is very committed to Japan. We're celebrating 25 years this year, 25 years of Microsoft business in Japan. And to all of the developers in the room, I say: Thank you very much for the support and for the partnership."

Ballmer said that Japan is home to Microsoft's second-largest subsidiary and that Microsoft is looking to Japan to help the company be competitive in areas where it "is committed to investing and innovating and leading."

One of the areas Microsoft wants to lead is "natural user interface" -- using speech, gestures and touch to control computers. Microsoft has had success with its Kinect motion-sensing camera for its Xbox 360 video game console, but it has yet to release a major consumer tablet offering, which would rely on a touch-screen-oriented version of Windows.

Ballmer expressed frustration about having released Windows Phone 7 to the market last fall.

"Another big sort of effort for us in terms of transforming the future of communication is the Windows Phone," he said. "We came to market with Windows Phone about a year later than I wish we had, shame on us.

"But we're moving forward very actively. We launched Windows Phones last November. We've done a set of upgrades. We have a release that will come to market later this year in Japan. Not only is it a new release that is now much more global, but we've added over 500 new features to Windows Phone."

Not long after that, Ballmer turned his attention to what Microsoft is doing on Windows 8.

"Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year," Ballmer said. "We've done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand-new user interface. We've added touch and ink and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors."

Rumor: 'iPhone 5' to Sport Curved Glass Touchscreen

2011-05-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

Rumor: 'iPhone 5' to Sport Curved Glass Touchscreen

File this slice of grapevine buzz under "what the heck for?" but it seems the latest 'iPhone 5' scuttlebutt has Apple's next-gen iPhone packing a curved-glass touchscreen.

Today's gossip-starter: DigiTimes, which cites "industry sources" as stating Apple just snapped up between 200 and 300 glass-cutting machines to make curved iPhone displays. Why Apple and not the glass manufacturers themselves? Because cover glass makers were "reluctant to commit investment to the purchase of glass cutting equipment due to the high capital involved," said DigiTimes' sources.

How soon before they're fitted to iPhones? The machines are already in assembly plants, reports DigiTimes, due to spring into action "once yield rates for the production of curved glass reaches a satisfactory level."

What would you use a curved glass touchscreen to do? Copy Google, for starters. The Google Nexus S, which launched last December, already has one. Also: to make it more comfortable to hold up to your ear. Even though you're really supposed to be using ear buds to fend off the bad brain vibes and, you know, drive with both hands on the wheel.

Study: iPad Readers Retain Less Than Newspaper Reader

2011-05-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

Study: iPad Readers Retain Less Than Newspaper Readers

A new study from French internet company Miratech took a look at the reading patterns of newspaper readers versus iPad readers. Utilizing eye tracking technology and using subjects who already owned iPads, they were able to conclude that, for various reasons, newspaper readers were able to retain more of the information they read than iPad readers.

The study, however, isn't without its flaws: There's no sample size given, and I'm not sure of the cultural implications of non-English newspapers. But there is some interesting information we can draw out; namely, that reading times on both the iPad and newspaper were very similar: 1 minute 13 seconds on an iPad, and 1 minute 11 seconds on a traditional paper.

Here's the eye-tracking video for the newspaper:

The study concludes, "It is easier to assimilate and retain information read in a newspaper than on an iPad," but notice in the videos the higher degree of interaction the reader has with the iPad. I'd guess that the added layers of interfacing augment the experience in a different way, especially when you take a look at the eye movement patterns, which are noticeably slower on the iPad (even though the study concludes that more people are skimming the reader).

Read Write Web points to a similar eye tracking study Google conducted back in 2009, which concluded that users on the web read in an "F-shaped" pattern—they read the first two lines of a paragraph, then neglect the rest—but if that's the case, you're probably not reading this sentence, anyway.

(via Read Write Web)

Sony to post $3.2 billion annual loss on tax write-offs

2011-05-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Sony to post $3.2 billion annual loss on tax write-offs

(Reuters) - Sony Corp will post its third straight annual net loss for the year that ended in March after writing off tax credits in the wake of Japan's earthquake and tsunami, the latest in a string of grim headlines on the consumer electronics giant.

The maker of PlayStation video games, Vaio computers and Bravia TVs has been battling to recover from the March 11 disaster, and more recently, a series of security breaches on its networks that affected more than 100 million user accounts.

The annual net loss would be Sony's second-largest ever, underscoring the decline of a company once a symbol of Japan's electronic and manufacturing excellence.

"I have been skeptical about Sony for a long time. Sony has been overtaken by Apple and other companies," said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO and president of Fukoku Capital Management in Tokyo. "The management is not able to show shareholders the future of the company."

Sony has found itself outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and is facing a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft.

The firm, which previously forecast a net profit of 70 billion yen for 2010/11, surprised markets on Monday by declaring the need to update investors with revised estimates ahead of its official earnings report on Thursday.

Stock exchange rules in Tokyo require companies to notify investors if estimates for the business year are likely to be more than 30 percent higher or lower than their most recent forecast.

Sony said it now expected to post a net loss of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion), due to a non-cash charge of around 360 billion yen related to Japanese tax credits.

Companies are allowed to carry forward tax losses for up to seven years if they can show future taxable profits are likely. But three consecutive years of net losses is considered evidence under U.S. accounting rules, the global standard, that those credits may not be available to it.

Sony said it expected sales to rise this year and forecast a return to net profit, without elaborating.

It earlier forecast was issued before the March 11 earthquake, which has tipped Japan's economy into recession and disrupted supply chains globally in a number of industries.

Although Sony revised its bottom line, it maintained that annual operating profit would still come in at 200 billion yen for 2010/11, which is broadly in line with consensus forecasts.

In its first estimate for the year to March 2012, Sony said its operating profit would also be around 200 billion yen.

CLEAN SLATE

Some investors saw the revisions as a way for Sony to put the slew of bad news behind it and start with something of a clean slate.

"Sony sharply revised down its net forecast to a big loss to show that the impact of the earthquake has been largely factored-in during the previous financial year, while the impact would be limited for the current year," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"Probably the company is expecting the global economy to recover during the second half of the year. Maybe this perception could be a bit optimistic, but we still have to wait and see."

Sony estimated the impact of the quake in the current year at 150 billion yen at the operating level.

Many of Sony's rivals, including Panasonic Corp, have yet to issue forecasts for the current year due to uncertainty following the disaster.

Sony last month disclosed that it had been a victim of one of the biggest cyber-attacks in history.

It shut down its PlayStation Network across the globe in mid-April and has slowly started to restore access, starting in the United States. The company is still working with Japanese government authorities to restore access in that country.

Sony said "known costs" for the hacking attacks were estimated at 14 billion yen. Sony is targeting the end of May for fully restoring the affected networks.

Last week, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer fired back at critics who say the company was too slow to notify consumers once the attack was known.

Shares in Sony ended down 0.5 percent in a Tokyo market down 1.5 percent. It shares though have fallen 24 percent so far this year, compared with a 7 percent fall in the Nikkei average.

($1=81.71 yen)

(Additional reporting by Tim Kelly and Chikafumi Hodo; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Developmental Disabilities, Including Autism and ADHD, Are on the Rise

2011-05-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

Developmental Disabilities, Including Autism and ADHD, Are on the Rise

One in six American children now has a developmental disability — a 17% increase over the past decade, driven largely by increases in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to government researchers.

The new study, published in Pediatrics, found that 15% of U.S. children aged 3 to 17 were diagnosed with a developmental disability in 2006-08 — about 10 million children in all. In 1997-99, that rate was 12.8%, or 8 million children.

While researchers saw increases in a wide range of developmental problems, including stuttering and learning disabilities, the most significant increases were seen with autism and ADHD.

Autism rates nearly quadrupled over the study period, from 0.19% of children in 1997-99 to 0.74% in 2006-08. But, overall, ADHD accounted for the greatest number of developmental disability cases; rates rose by 33%, from 5.7% of children in 1997-99 to 7.6% by 2008.

China's McDonald's Will Give You a Discount, Just for Being Male

2011-05-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

China's McDonald's Will Give You a Discount, Just for Being Male

Tired of paying a cover charge and not getting a break? Chinese McDonald's restaurants are taking pity and introducing a “man-only discount” for those with the Y chromosome.
To commemorate the introduction of 100% pure beef in their burgers, China's golden arches is offering a 50% discount on second burgers for men only. The deal is only available on Wednesdays.

McDonald's China general manager, according to Shanghaiist, says that the promotion is a reaction to the special treatment that women and children can sometimes receive. We're sure it's not also because the general manager is a dude.

Regardless, males outnumber females by more than 30 million in the Communist country. Sadly, as a side effect of China's one-child policy and a societal preference for males, the gender ratio discrepancy is growing. Well, at least the discount includes the majority of the population.

Twitter and Facebook Know Where You've Been Online? Do Not Like

2011-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Twitter and Facebook Know Where You've Been Online? Do Not Like

For those who like to Like things on Facebook or tweet them to friends, beware: You're telling your social media much more about you than you might think.

A study carried out on behalf of the Wall Street Journal found that "Like" and "Tweet" widgets on websites track users' movements across the internet even when they're not used, with Facebook admitting to sharing data for advertising purposes only when the widget is clicked on.

Twitter, meanwhile, claims to delete the information quickly, although a spokesman said that the company "could in theory use the data to 'surface better content' for users in the future."

The study, carried out by former Google engineer Brian Kennish's new comapny, Disconnect Inc., surveyed the 1,000 most popular sites online according to Google, and found that Facebook collected browsing data from 331 of them, with Twitter collecting data from "about 200." The collection of browsing data is described by their creators as an "unintended side-effect" of the way that the widgets work, with Facebook's CTO Bret Taylor telling the WSJ "We don't use them for tracking and they're not intended for tracking." Well, not yet, at least.

Coffee Drinking Linked With Lower Risk of Fatal Prostate Cancer

2011-05-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

Coffee Drinking Linked With Lower Risk of Fatal Prostate Cancer

Drinking six cups of coffee a day could leave a man pretty wired, but it may also help lower his risk of fatal prostate cancer, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study is the largest to examine the link between coffee and prostate cancer, involving about 48,000 men who took part in the long-running Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which evaluated the relationship between diet and diseases like cancer and heart disease. Every four years between 1986 and 2006 participants reported how much coffee they drank per day (along with other dietary information); they were then tracked for prostate cancer through 2008. Overall, 5,035 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 642 of those cases were deadly.

The researchers found that the reduction in prostate cancer risk linked to coffee consumption was most pronounced for lethal cancers: men who drank at least six cups a day were 60% less likely to develop deadly cancer, compared with men who drank none. Those who drank one to three cups a day had a 30% lower risk of lethal cancer.

The effect was the same whether men drank regular coffee or decaf, suggesting that caffeine isn't the key factor in cancer risk. "Coffee has a lot of different biological effects and several of them seem like they might be relevant for prostate cancer," lead author, Kathryn Wilson, a research fellow in epidemiology at Harvard, told Health.com. "It's an important source of antioxidants and also has positive effects on glucose metabolism and insulin levels, and it's thought that insulin plays a role in the progression of prostate cancer."

The study does not prove that drinking coffee directly prevents prostate cancer; it suggests only an association between consumption and a lower risk. But it adds to the existing evidence that coffee may be linked to a host of health benefits, including lower risks of Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver cancer and an aggressive type of breast cancer.

That's good news for people who are already coffee junkies, though the authors of the current study do not recommend that middle-aged men start downing loads of coffee to try to prevent prostate cancer.

(More on TIME.com: Study: Drinking Coffee May Lower Women's Risk of Stroke)

The new study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Read the full Health.com piece here.

Is the Shelby GT350 the Best Mustang Ever?

2011-05-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Is the Shelby GT350 the Best Mustang Ever?

It has often been said that you should never meet your heroes because you’ll likely be disappointed. For better or worse, one of mine is a car.

Born five years before me, the 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 was already a classic by the time I reached the age of automotive awareness. The first real thoroughbred Mustang, its Guardsman Blue stripes over white livery remains iconic today, and pristine originals command prices well into the six-digit range.

That being the case, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll probably never get the chance to drive one in anger on a racetrack. That opportunity certainly passed a couple of decades ago.

So, it was with childlike glee that I welcomed the news that Shelby American was resurrecting the name on an all-new Mustang in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the original. Yes, I see you are good at math.

The year 2012 marks the passage of 47 years. Well, the new car -- based on the 2011 Mustang, actually -- was unveiled in January 2010, 45 years after the first one was. And even though we’re just in 2011 now, the Mustangs currently on sale are 2012 models, and not technically anniversary models. To be honest, for all I care they could call it the Centennial Edition, just let me drive the car.

Changes to the stock Mustang start on the outside and work their way in. There’s a custom body kit that includes a deep front fascia, twin nostril hood, rocker panel extensions, fully blanked out rear quarter windows and some work on the rear end that fills in the concave trunk lid and adds 1967-68 Mustang-type back up lights to the bumper skirt, to further upset the time-space continuum. Six-piston Baer front brake calipers peek out from behind a unique set of Cragar rims. Red, white or blue paint schemes are all available, but if you choose anything other than white with blue stripes I want nothing to do with you.

Underneath, the GT350 gets an upgraded suspension that uses a mix of parts from the Ford Racing catalog and some of Shelby’s own pieces. A caster and camber kit tips the top of the front wheels in so far that the car looks bow-legged. This is fitting on a ride that wears the name of a real Texas cowboy like racing legend Carroll Shelby.

All of the above and a few bits more will cost you $26,995 on top of the price of a new Mustang GT, which runs about $30,000, or $35,000 if you opt for the convertible. Of course, if you’re going to drive around in a car that looks like the GT350, you’re going to want to be able to kick butt no matter what it’s up against. An extra $7,000 will let you do that.

That outlay buys you an intercooled Ford Racing supercharger running at 8 pounds of boost and a custom Borla exhaust system that combines to increase horsepower from a stock 412 hp to 525 hp. The thunder emitted by it under full throttle is like velvet-wrapped brimstone, and nearly worth the price on its own.

Imagine the voice of a stock car character from the world of the movie “Cars” named Barry Whitewalls, and you get the idea.

Keep the wallet opened a little longer and you can add plenty of track day performance goodies including the Baer 6-piston rear brakes, high performance cooling package, watts link rear suspension and aluminum driveshaft that the car waiting for me in the paddock of Pocono Raceway was outfitted with.

It also had a full interior upgrade that mostly consisted of a lot of silver plaques with serial numbers and Shelby’s name, but also a three-pack of gauges on the A-pillar for fuel pressure, oil pressure and supercharger boost, as well as nifty red, white and blue leather boots for the six-speed manual transmission gearshift knob and handbrake lever.

With all of this in mind, I fired up the GT350, slipped it into first gear and set off for a leisurely drive out of the speedway exit to the nearest gas station to fill up. As you’d expect, outside of its natural habitat the thoroughbred is a little unhappy, but its tight suspension isn’t anywhere near punishing enough that you’ll need to trailer it to the track. Shelby American says it’ll even get 25 mpg on the highway if you take it easy, but as a post-title package, don’t expect to find the proof on the EPA fuel economy website.

With a belly full of premium, I headed back to the speedway, where I joined a bevy of Mustangs in attendance for the annual Ponies in the Poconos event. Spotting a break in traffic, I dropped the clutch and hit the banking of Turn 3 going in the opposite direction that the NASCAR cars do. It did not take long to get through it. The GT350 can accelerate from 0-60 mph in under four seconds, and feels every bit that fast. Power is there from the moment you step on the gas all the way up to its 7,000 rpm redline, where your only thought is “Can I have more, please?”

But after the rev limiter answers “no,” you reach the braking zone and something even more wonderful happens. Despite a longish amount of pedal travel -- at least in the well-worn example with 4,000 miles on the odometer that I drove -- the nearly 2-ton beast slows down like it’s got chutes attached. Rotate the steering wheel to put the Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar G:2 tires to work, and the GT350 turns in with the alacrity of a much smaller and lighter vehicle as it glides through the turn in a perfectly neutral stance.

The GT350 is the first Mustang I’ve ever written about that I won’t reflexively describe as “prone to understeer.” Even if the front starts to wash out in a curve, you just have to press on the gas pedal a little harder to let loose the rear tires and bring the tail around. All the while the body remains perfectly controlled, just rolling back to center with no rebound as you set up for the next corner.

For a while I considered that I might be experiencing the haze of driving a great car unfettered by the fear of the long arm of the law, but then I noticed something: A Nissan GT-R in front of me that managed to infiltrate the event. It shouldn’t have, because I – a third-rate driver, at best – made quick work of it. Soon afterward, I found myself looking at the Boeing 737-size rear wing of a Mustang FR500S from the SCCA World Challenge racing series.

On the straight sections, he couldn’t shake me if he tried, and I know that he did. After taking advantage of his extra downforce and near slick rubber to put some space between us in the twisty section, I watched him lock up the tires and sail through the cones as he missed the chicane at the end of the fastest part of the track.

The only bad thing that comes to mind about the Shelby is that the seats – reupholstered buckets from the stock Mustang GT – don’t offer nearly enough support to keep up with what the rest of the car can do. It’s a sentiment seconded by a GT350 owner at the event who swapped them out for a set of racing seats, something you’ll definitely want to do if this is your sort of thing. If not, please don’t buy this car. Only 350 will be made for 2012, and I’d hate to see them go to waste.

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Boyhood dreams rarely come true, but this one certainly lived up to a few decades of buildup. Sure, it wasn’t the real deal, but I’ll take it. I’ve driven a lot of Mustangs over the years, even owned a couple, and the GT350 is easily the best of the bunch. It’s everything I hoped that my hero would be. Unfortunately, I have another.

In 1969, Ford introduced the black and orange Mustang Boss 302, a race car for the road that is very much in the same vein as the Shelby. This year, they started making a new one to celebrate that car’s, what, 42nd anniversary? I just hope that I don’t have to wait another five years to get my hands on one. Until I do, the GT350 is my boss.

At the Furniture Fair, Sustainable Furniture Gets Playful

2011-05-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

At the Furniture Fair, Sustainable Furniture Gets Playful

THE table lamp is laid-back, and no wonder. Created by Peter Stathis, a San Francisco industrial designer, for Joby, a San Francisco consumer products company, Trapeze has the easygoing affect of a Bay Area windsurfer on a fair-trade coffee break.

But don’t be fooled by its relaxed demeanor. Trapeze has a serious side — it’s good for the environment, too. Introduced at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which ended on Tuesday, the lamp has 102 LEDs embedded in its ultra-thin head; a diffuser softens and spreads the light so that it resembles the warmth of (boo, hiss) incandescent bulbs. Another bit of patent-pending wizardry allows Trapeze to bend like a Cirque du Soleil gymnast because no wires run through its jolly, bulbous joints. The current somehow manages to flow anyway.
At the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, where the furniture fair is held every May, and in concurrent design events throughout the city, playfulness mingled with social responsibility, and sometimes overshadowed it. Among the more than 500 exhibitors from 39 countries, the green conversation hadn’t faded by any means, but it was less strident, better integrated into the ambient hum of the new.
This fair showed that objects as banal as recycling containers, stepladders, fruit crates and old potatoes can have flair. At the Javits Center, Catherine Mui, a designer based in Hong Kong, showed her GO recycling bin, its compartments topped with sculptures of a bottle, can and carton to assist in sorting.
Among the items at “Use Me,” the American Design Club exhibition in NoHo, was Step, a ladder by Iacoli & McAllister, of Seattle, inspired by models from the 1920s, except that it had pink-painted oak treads and was priced at $1,195, so it probably won’t be left to rot in the garage. (It’s sustainable the way emerald brooches are.)
Hannu Kahonen’s Fruit Box chair, on display at a Finnish design exhibition in the meatpacking district, challenged consumers who presumably have mastered Ikea furniture to assemble their own seating from recycled planks lashed together with linen cord.
And at “Model Citizens,” a design show at the Chelsea Art Museum, the Dutch designer Juliette Warmenhoven’s Potato Music Box, part of her Everyday Growing collection, turned a sprouting potato into a centerpiece. The music box, constructed by hand of paper dipped in plastic, displayed the potato on a rotating pedestal, flaunting its underappreciated charms.
Once the grim, chastising superego of product design, sustainability has become delightful. And it no longer calls attention to itself as insistently as it once did. Trove, the Brooklyn wallpaper company, has begun applying its delicate, nature-themed prints to wallcoverings made with calcium carbonate, the stuff of marble and limestone; the texture of the material offers little evidence of its provenance, although a sample was suspiciously heavy and cool. Randall Buck, a founder of Trove, said the stone-based wallcoverings are breathable, antimicrobial, degradable (into dust) and easier to hang than conventional wallpaper because they don’t expand and contract when paste is applied. Another virtue, Mr. Buck pointed out, is that while “paper wants to turn yellow,” stone is content to remain its original color.
Sustainability has traditionally created aesthetic challenges, leading to products made in regrettable shades of oatmeal, but designers at this year’s fair positively embraced those hurdles. At the booth representing Rhode Island School of Design’s furniture department, students working with Twintex, a recyclable Owens Corning-manufactured composite of glass and polypropylene, described the medieval tools they used to turn the material into hairy-looking tables, chairs and lamps. For Eun Sang Ernie Lee, the author of an armchair composed of crimped waves of fiber, the instruments were giant knitting needles; a system of aluminum rods and clips to produce the perm; and a kiln to bake the chair into stability.
How big were the needles? “Two inches in diameter,” Mr. Lee estimated. Other students jumped in to correct him, making circles of three and four inches with their fingers.

Study: How a 'Fat Gene' Affects Cholesterol and Diabetes

2011-05-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Study: How a 'Fat Gene' Affects Cholesterol and Diabetes

Scientists have long known that obesity is associated with a host of other health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Now a team of researchers at King's College London and the University of Oxford have shed light on why: a gene found in fat tissue acts as a "master regulator," controlling the effect of a bunch of other genes that are linked to obesity, cholesterol and diabetes.

The master gene in question is called KLF14, and while it has previously been linked to Type 2 diabetes and cholesterol, the new research clarifies how — and offers a new target for treatment of obesity-related diseases.

"This is the first major study that shows how small changes in one master regulator gene can cause a cascade of other metabolic effects in other genes," said lead author Tim Spector in a statement.

(More on TIME.com: Can a Mother's Pregnancy Diet Influence Her Child's Future Weight?)

The research was part of a large-scale multinational study called the MuTHER study (for Multiple Tissue Human Expression Resource). Scientists analyzed more than 20,000 genes found in fat samples taken from just under the skin of 400 pairs of female twins in the U.K. They found an association between KLF14 and the expression of other genes, also found in fat, that affect a range of metabolic traits including body-mass index, cholesterol and insulin and glucose levels.

To confirm the findings, the researchers further tested 600 fat samples from a separate group of Icelandic women.

Interestingly, the researchers say, the activity of the KLF14 gene is inherited from the mother; the copy of the gene inherited from the father is switched off. So how a person's KLF14 gene may affect expression of other metabolism-related genes is dependent on the copy received from the mother.

The findings further corroborate existing evidence that metabolic traits — everything from weight to insulin levels are interrelated — and that those relationships have a genetic component.

The researchers hope their discovery will spur further research and someday help improve medical treatments for obesity and its associated metabolic diseases. "This has great therapeutic potential," said Spector. "By studying large detailed populations such as the twins we hope to find more of these regulators."

The study was published in Nature Genetics on May 15.

Facebook’s New Way to Combat Child Pornography

2011-05-19T03:59:00.001-07:00

Facebook’s New Way to Combat Child Pornography

As online photo sharing has exploded so has, tragically, the distribution of child pornography. But while the rise of the Internet and digital cameras have revived a scourge that had nearly been eliminated in the late 1980s, new technology may also help to beat it back again.

Microsoft says it has refined a technology it created called PhotoDNA to identify the worst of these disturbing images — even if they are cropped or otherwise altered — and cull through large amounts of data quickly and accurately enough to police the world’s largest online services. And on Thursday, it will announce that Facebook will be the first service to join it in using the free technology, which Microsoft donated to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in December 2009.

Facebook, the largest photo-sharing site on the Internet, said it has begun to use PhotoDNA to hunt for several thousand registered illegal images among the 200 million images uploaded by its users each day. Facebook will host anonline event at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on Friday to explain the initiative, which follows its January move to join the center’s Amber Alert network.

“Our hope and belief is that Facebook will be just the first of many” companies to use what has proven to be highly effective technology, said Ernie Allen, chief executive of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “ Online services are going to become a hostile place for child pornographers and pedophiles.”

PhotoDNA is being used to find and remove only known images of sexual exploitation of pre-pubescent children to avoid trampling on the privacy and free-speech rights of consumers of adult pornography, he said. The courts have ruled that pornographic pictures of children are child abuse, not legally protected free speech.

By focusing on images of children under 12, the initiative is battling “ the worst of the worst” images, which are often shared over and over again, he said. Child pornography is growing increasingly violent and depicting increasingly young children, including infants and toddlers.

“These are crime scene photos,” not porn, Mr. Allen said. “This tool is essential to protect these victims and to prevent, to the greatest degree possible, the redistribution of their sexual abuse.”

PhotoDNA can currently search for about 10,000 images collected by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which has amassed 48 million images and videos depicting child exploitation since 2002, including 13 million in 2010 alone. The center has a Congressional mandate to act as a clearinghouse for this material, to help identify and aid victims and to assist law enforcement in investigations of perpetrators.

Tests conducted on Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Windows Live and Bing services during the last year indicate a chillingly large trade in these images. A network that compares 10 million images to the center’s inventory of 10,000 illegal photos can expect to have about 125 hits a day, according to Hany Farid, a Dartmouth computer science professor and expert in digital imagery who worked with Microsoft to hone the technology. At least 50,000 child pornography images are being transmitted online every day, he estimated.

“This is not a tiny dark little world,” he said. “The problem is phenomenal.”

PhotoDNA works by creating a “hash,” or digital code, to represent a given image and find instances of it within large data sets, much as antivirus software does for malicious programs. However, PhotoDNA’ s “robust hashes” are able to find images even if they have been altered significantly. Tests on Microsoft properties showed it accurately identifies images 99.7 percent of the time and sets off a false alarm only once in every 2 billion images, and most of them point to nearly identical images, Dr. Farid said.

To create a hash, the software puts the image in black and white and into a standard size. Then it carves the image into blocks and subjects it to an array of measurements. The resulting “signatures” can be provided to online service providers, who can then use them to find these specific illegal images on their systems without possessing them or looking at customers’ private content.

“We’re very passionate about PhotoDNA because we’ve seen it work,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’ s general counsel. “We invented it through Microsoft research, and we are trying to give it away free, including to our competitors.” He encouraged consumers to pressure online services to adopt it.

A video from Microsoft explaining how PhotoDNA works

Until now, Facebook has relied primarily on abuse reports from its users, reviewed by trained employees, to find and eliminate offensive images. But with PhotoDNA, it can keep child pornography from making it onto its site in the first place. “We’ve found it to be a very powerful tool in identifying these images,” Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s assistant general counsel said.

PhotoDNA has potential future applications in areas like protecting intellectual property and could aid law enforcement. Rob McKenna, the state attorney general in Washington, said his office is interested in its potential to bolster cases against pedophiles who have molested multiple children by identifying photographs of multiple crimes that occurred in the same physical setting.

Mr. Allen said he hopes that all major Internet services will eventually adopt PhotoDNA, including the 90 technology companies with whom it already works to block and take down Web sites known to trade in child pornography.

The results of the yearlong pilot at Microsoft, he said, should provide “enormous reassurance to companies that this works, that this is something they should do, that it’s the responsible thing to do and that they can use it without fear of violating anybody’s rights."

Source: bbc.co.uk

Facebook launches a page for non-profits

2011-05-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

@TIMETIME.com
Facebook launches a page for non-profits
Sure, Facebook's a profit-driving, user-gaining, Google-bashing powerhouse, but it's got a softer side, too.

How so, you ask?
It's showing support for social good by launching a revamped resource center to help non-profits effectively use the site to their benefit, reports Mashable. Aw, shucks, how sweet!

And the site's loaded with features. For starters, the main newsfeed highlights non-profit news and announcements. There's also a comprehensive non-profit guide for raising awareness and funds through a social network, a section for quick tips on how to create a Facebook page, a list of relevant Facebook products and tools to establish a presence on the site, and a tab for stories about users' own personal causes.

Another section showcases successful non-profits. So far, organizations such as (RED), truth, and Water.org have shared their stories with the larger community.

The page itself has more than 400,000 likes, while a post announcing the new and improved center has garnered hundreds of likes.

Facebook is like the gift that keeps on giving. And we thought we were spoiled with Facebook Deals and comment editing.

But truly, the resource center is feel-good stuff – warm fuzzies and all.

10 years later, Apple's 'crazy' retail gamble is a hit

2011-05-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

10 years later, Apple's 'crazy' retail gamble is a hit

(CNN) -- It started with one store at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia, just outside of Washington.

Ten years and more than 300 stores later, it's become a retailing venture unique in the world of consumer electronics.

The Apple retail store, the stylized and shiny public face of the Cupertino, California-based gadget giant, turns 10 on Thursday.

It's a marketing strategy that few other companies could pull off, analysts say -- one powered as much by Apple's heralded (some would say overhyped) focus on style and presentation as by its products themselves.
But as the 2000s were just dawning, it was far from a sure thing.
"Around the time Apple started to roll out, Gateway's products were going the other way," said Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing and branding firm Hanft Projects, referring to the PC makers (they of the cowhide-designed boxes) who eventually gave up on their own retail-store model in 2004.

"If you go back and look at what all the pundits said, they all thought Apple was crazy to get into the retailing business."

Until then, the consumer technology model was fairly well set. Hardware manufacturers made computers and other gadgets, which were sold alongside their competitors at electronics and big-box retail stores. Picking up the cost of overhead, and gambling that shoppers would patronize a store with only one company's products, was considered risky.

A decade of growth
By the end of the 2010 fiscal year, Apple had opened 317 retail stores, 233 in the United States and 84 in Europe, Asia and other countries, according to Ticonderoga Securities, which studies the company.

Apple stores across the world host long lines of acolytes -- er, shoppers -- with the retail launch of every high-profile new gadget, such as an iPhone or iPad. The stores earned roughly $3.2 billion, about 13% of Apple's total sales, in 2010, Ticonderoga said.

The model works, Ticonderoga analyst Brian White says, because it's an extension of Apple's overall model of keeping tight reins on their products and their image.

"Apple, as you know, likes to control their environment -- they do it with their PCs and other products ... because they think they can do it better," he said. "The stores look the same. They feel the same. They're generally in the same type of upscale areas. You can control the quality and the experience."
Some Apple stores, such as the flagship New York City store on Fifth Avenue, are even design symbols in themselves. That one, open 24 hours a day, is a distinctive 32-foot glass cube.
Apple declined a request to speak with someone for this article. A spokeswoman would not say earlier this week what, if any, plans Apple had to commemorate Thursday's anniversary and would not provide any Apple documentation about the history of the stores.
The company seems to definitely have something brewing, however.
Multiple reports have retail employees planning overnight shifts in advance of the anniversary, and black barriers arriving to hide ... well ... something.

The first store
In a 2000 video shown to Apple developers, CEO Steve Jobs strolls through the as-yet-unopened Virginia store, showcasing then-novel features such as the Genius Bar and nooks for children's activities.

With nary an iPod or iPhone in sight (the iPod was launched in October that year, with the iPhone following in 2007), Jobs introduced the concept that the stores would be more than just retail space.

"Literally half the store is devoted to solutions," Jobs says in the video. "Because people don't just want to buy personal computers any more. They want to know what they can do with them."

Then, Hanft said, there's the intangible appeal.
"People will almost invent reasons to go there," he said. "Apple is closer to a fashion aesthetic than a tech aesthetic. You walk in, and you would think it's closer to Prada than it is to Radio Shack."

The opening of that first Apple store was greeted with the zeal that's become commonplace when new Apple products are released.
"I went to this rave last night and had all this extra energy, so I decided to come here," Chris Barylick, who was first in line after showing up six hours before the store opened,told tech blog CNET at the time.

Praise, criticism and "The Simpsons"
For Apple critics (and what critics attack their prey more lustily than Apple's?), that's the point. They say the stores are merely clubhouses catering to Apple fans' blind loyalty to the company.
"If you don't believe me, go into an Apple store," Simon Mills of London's Daily Mail wrote last year in a sweeping anti-Apple piece titled "Why I hate Apple, the infuriating cult making people smug bores."

"You will hear very little conversation and absolutely no laughter at all. Instead, you'll see lines of cult followers passively standing in front of screens, their faces riddled with the anxiety and discomfort of someone terrified they are behind the technological times."
Even "The Simpsons" took some jabs when the animated family paid a visit to the "Mapple Store."

"It's so sterile!" a starry-eyed Lisa exclaims as she enters. Homer marvels at a "myCube," a glowing device "fueled by dreams and powered by imagination," according to the haughty employee behind the "Brainiac Bar."
"What does it do?" Homer asks. The employee's response: "You should ask yourself, 'What can I do for it?' "

Analysts predict that as long as Apple maintains steady, targeted growth with the stores, they'll continue to succeed with them. Emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil are obvious next steps.

"It's only going to get bigger," said White, who travels regularly to China and said "Apple fever" got hot in earnest there with the release of the iPad.

Hanft agrees, as long as Apple sticks to the model that's worked so far.

"They could get greedy. They could move into markets that can't support them. That's the risk."
He also said that if "brand dictator" Jobs became less involved, someone at the company could decide to put other products in the store (now, it's just Apple and a handful of approved accessories). That, Hanft said, could water down the stores' appeal.

But, at least for now, he expects the surprise success to continue into the next decade.
"You have to give them credit for not just defying the skeptics, but basically creating a new retail model," he said.

Facebook Loosens Up Promotion Guidelines, Allows for Booze and Guns

2011-05-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Facebook Loosens Up Promotion Guidelines, Allows for Booze and Guns

In efforts to streamline its promotional guidelines, Facebook is relaxing on a few of its longstanding policies that have prohibited a number of goods from being communicated in contests and sweepstakes, including alarm-y things like "alcohol, dairy, gambling, & gasoline."

The reason for the change? There are two, actually. First, Facebook is looking to make its policies across different legal categories more consistent with its overarching rules. The announcement states that Facebook is looking to streamline its guidelines to "make them easier to understand and consistent with the format of other Facebook Terms & Policies," leaving it up to the companies running the sweepstakes to adhere to local laws and regulations.

But it's important to note that Facebook's new hands-off approach is by no means an endorsement of all the above-posted iffy-ness; rather, the newly simplified guidelines shift the burden of legal enforcement away from "Facebook, the platform," and over to marketers themselves.

Basically, Facebook's not trying to be the police anymore.

As Inside Facebook reports:

Rather than add an additional layer of legal complexity, Facebook is now leaving it up to marketers to run their promotions in ways that don't violate local laws, such as restricting entry to residents of states without restrictions.

You can read the rest of the newly simplified guidelines here.

Report: MacBook Airs Get Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt in June or July

2011-05-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

Report: MacBook Airs Get Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt in June or July

Ready, set, Sandy Bridge! It looks like Apple's MacBook Air may finally get the processor and chipset update it's long deserved in the coming mid-summer months.

Digitimes cites a Taiwan-based supplier as reporting Apple will begin shipping new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models packing Sandy Bridge (faster, cooler, lower power) as well as Thunderbolt (high-speed external I/O, more power output) by the end of this month for introduction as soon as June or July.

That should please any of you standing by for ultra-light Apple laptops with processors worth a darn. The MacBook Air remains the only MacBook-class device still chug-a-lugging with comparably creaky Core 2 Duo (launched in 2006) processors.

Of course there's still “Ivy Bridge” to think about, Intel's upcoming 22 nanometer shrink due later this year that'll add “3D” tri-gate transistor tech, further reducing power consumption and, according to Intel, boosting performance 20 to 30% over Sandy Bridge tech.

Though if you want that in a MacBook Air, you'll probably have to wait until next year.

PlayStation Network Security Woes Continue with New Exploit

2011-05-18T08:10:00.001-07:00

PlayStation Network Security Woes Continue with New Exploit

Reports are starting to bubble up saying that Sony's PlayStation Network may have been compromised yet again and, sure enough, I can't even log into my own account on PlayStation.com: I get the above message.

MCVUK.com reports the following:

"The exploit allows people to change users' password via the PSN password reset page using only a PSN account email and date of birth – both of which were obtained by hackers in the original breach...

...As a result, PSN sign-in is now unavailable on a number of Sony's sites."

The area on Sony's site where you'd normally reset your password has been taken offline as well. The issue doesn't currently affect actual sign-ins on the PlayStation 3 console—just the websites.

The exploit was exposed by Nyleveia.com, which says, "While we will not reveal specific details regarding how the exploit is performed for obvious reasons, we can say that the exploit involves a vulnerability in the password reset form currently implemented, not properly verifying tokens."

The site contacted Sony and—to Sony's credit—the issue appears to have been addressed rather quickly. Until it's fixed, however, Nyleveia.com cautions that the security hole potentially affects "any account the email and date of birth was known for, regardless of if the password was changed or not, or what region the account was tied to."

You'll know your account has been compromised if you got an automated e-mail from Sony telling you that your password's been changed. Assuming you didn't change it yourself, use the contact information contained within the e-mail to get things straightened out. For the time being, it appears that nobody can log in or change passwords via Sony's sites, which is a good thing.

Google News Offers to Cut Blogs Out of Your Feed

2011-05-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

Add this to the growing idea that web users are looking more for authoritative voices and less for citizen journalism from their internet these days: As part of Google's expansion of Google News - which offers such benefits as personalized top stories, click-to-expand options and the chance to view multimedia in the search results - there's also the ability to filter out results from blogs.

SearchEngineLand noticed the option (which, to be fair, also allows users to increase their blog results, as well as increase or drop press releases from the News search), but also added this interesting fact: Google classifies everything with an RSS feed as a blog. Which makes dropping blogs from News searches a somewhat limiting option, it seems to me. But then, we have an RSS feed here, so I would say that, wouldn't I?

Source: JakartaForum

Rumored Amazon Tablets Have Dual-Core and Quad-Core Processors

2011-05-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Rumored Amazon Tablets Have Dual-Core and Quad-Core Processors

We've assumed that an Amazon tablet is coming. Amazon's CEO has hinted that an Amazon tablet is coming. All we need now are the finer details, and they're starting to trickle in.

According to an unnamed tipster who spoke to Boy Genius Report, Amazon's tablets will be powerhouses. One of them, code-named "Coyote," will run on Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor -- the same as in Motorola's Xoom and a slew of other high-end Android tablets that are hitting the market around now. The other, code-named "Hollywood," will pack Nvidia's quad-core T30 processor, also known as "Kal-El."

What does all that technical jargon mean? Not much, for now. Raw tech specs are nothing without adequate software, and exactly what software Amazon's tablet will be running remains a mystery. It'll probably be based on Android, but with a lot of customizations to integrate Amazon's Appstore, movies, music and e-books. The question, then, is whether Amazon's Android tweaks will be able to take full advantage of Nvidia's next-generation processor.

But if BGR's rumor is accurate, it does put Amazon in a position to walk all over Barnes & Noble's Nook Color. The bookseller recently beefed up its 7-inch tablet with an app store, e-mail and Adobe Flash, but it's still a fairly weak tablet by today's standards. It slows down on desktop-optimized websites and chokes on Flash video, and generally isn't meant for heavy-duty tasks. Harry McCracken calls the Nook Color "the netbook of tablets." It could be easy pray for Amazon's dual-core and quad-core tablets if the prices are right.

Unfortunately, BGR had no other information to offer, but these tablets may not arrive until the holidays, so we'll surely learn more through the rumor mill before then. Stay tuned.

Bing Adds Facebook Social Features

2011-05-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Bing Adds Facebook Social Features

Microsoft's search site Bing just got a whole lot more social with the addition of a bunch of new Facebooky features so you can "bring the Friend Effect to search" (Bing's phrase, not mine).
What's the Friend Effect? According to Bing, it's the way that "90 per cent of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision making process".

Once you have your Bing plugged into your Facebook, you'll start seeing all sorts of Facebookery appearing embedded inside your search results.

For example, if a page of results includes something one of your Facebook friends has Liked (that's Liked, not merely liked), Bing will show you.

It will also tie in geo data about where your Facebook friends live, and let you Like stuff with one click one a button in the optional Bing bar.

What's really going on here? Bing and Facebook have done a deal that is mutually beneficial, and hits back at their mutual enemy, Google.

Google's past efforts at social features have fallen flat, and Bing didn't want to make the same mistakes, so it simply did a deal with the most successful social company around. Bing gets more users via Facebook, slowly chipping away at Google's market-leading position. "Bing" hasn't become a verb yet, but Facebook is huger than huge, and an excellent way to pull people in.

Meanwhile Facebook gets a web search partner without having to friend Google first. So it's happy too.

Personally, my Facebook friends are the last people I want virtually sitting on my shoulder while I'm searching the web. But that's just me. I must be in that other 10 per cent of people.

(Via Bing blog)

Source: techland.time

PlayStation Network not up in Japan due to security concerns

2011-05-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

PlayStation Network not up in Japan due to security concerns

(CBS/AP) TOKYO - Sony may have partially restored its troubled PlayStation Network around the globe, but in Japan government officials have refused to restart the online gaming services due to uncertainly of the alleged security boost, according to reports.

In a Dow Jones press release obtained by gaming blog Engadget, a Japanese regulatory official said Sunday that Sony needs to provide more information on what security measures it has implemented since the massive hack last month that compromised more than 100 million online accounts and caused the company to shut the online gaming service down.

"We are asking Sony whether their measures are good enough when compared to countermeasures taken in the past," Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told the Dow Jones Newswires.

Restored operations have begun in the United States and Europe, but for now those services are limited to online gaming, chat and music streaming.

Sony said it aims to fully restore the PlayStation Network by the end of May.

PSN is a system that links gamers worldwide in live play. Sony shut it down on April 20 after discovering a hacker attack.

Sony said personal data, including credit card numbers, may have been stolen. But the company said Sunday it had not received any reports of the stolen information being used illegally.

Sony spokeswoman Kumie Tanaka told the news wire service that the company has beefed up security measures to protect customers' personal data and hopes to restore service in Japan soon.

"We are still in talks with various authorities [in Japan and Asia]," Tanaka said according to the press release. "By receiving advice from the industry ministry, we would like to have the service in Japan ready."

Complete coverage of the PlayStation network attack on Crimesider

new breast implants Measuring up

2010-03-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Every day, almost a thousand women in the United States surgically boost their breast size — making breast augmentation the most popular cosmetic-surgery procedure in the country. The practice is now so mainstream that college seniors get implants as graduation gifts and mothers get them after nursing their children. There are also thousands of breast-cancer survivors each year who choose to undergo reconstruction after a mastectomy. Half of American women say they know someone who has had breast implants, according to a poll by the National Women's Health Resource Center.

Breast augmentation is surgery, of course, and comes with risks, which can include unnatural-looking results, painful hardening of scar tissue, and reoperation. (Detailed information is at fda.gov and breastimplantsafety.org.) But for many women, the perceived rewards outweigh the possible complications, the price tag, and the eventual need for the implants' replacement. Indeed, studies show that about 95 percent of patients say they're satisfied with the results.

In the face of this robust demand, not to mention potential profit, doctors and manufacturers say they are developing ways of making going bigger better.

One such breakthrough in silicone implants is nicknamed “the gummy bears.” Now in clinical trials that could lead to FDA approval soon, these feature a highly cohesive silicone gel, which is formulated into a semisolid consistency. The thick filling holds the implant's shape consistently and poses minimal risk of migrating outside the shell if it ruptures, says Steven Teitelbaum, a plastic surgeon in Santa Monica.

Plastic surgeons are fine-tuning the augmentation procedure itself, too. A technique pioneered by John Tebbetts, a plastic surgeon in Dallas, takes 30 minutes, versus the standard 45 to 90 minutes, and the majority of his patients say they feel well enough to go out the same evening.

The method involves meticulous preoperative planning of size and delicate handling of tissues to reduce postoperative pain, Tebbetts says.

It is currently in limited use, however, and some doctors worry about its safety; patients who are too active soon after surgery might increase their risk of complications, cautions David Hidalgo, a plastic surgeon in New York City. (“Early activity causing complications depends on how the surgeon plans and executes the surgery,” Tebbetts says.)

Most surprisingly, the field of breast enlargement is not even confined to traditional saline- or silicone-implant surgery. Scientists in Australia recently announced a discovery that could lead to an entirely new approach. Their research suggests that it's possible to grow breast tissue gradually by stimulating fat cells. Human trials in mastectomy patients are scheduled to begin soon, and if the procedure is proven safe, growing breasts purely for cosmetic reasons might be feasible someday, the researchers say.

For better or worse, breast enhancement has become part of our culture. As the practice heads into its twelfth decade of existence, allure looks at the biggest news in breast augmentation.

Source: msnbc.msn.com

So Much for That Free Google Phone Idea

2009-12-30T17:17:00.000-08:00

A quick update on the Nexus One, the Android phone Google will likely uncrate at the Jan. 5 media event announced yesterday. According to documents leaked to Gizmodo, Google plans to sell the device unlocked and unsubsidized for $530 or with a two-year T-Mobile contract for $179.99.

If these documents are legitimate, they would appear to confirm that Google (GOOG) does indeed hope to rebalance the wireless market power structure, disintermediating carriers by selling the Nexus One directly to users, who will be allowed to choose the wireless provider of their choice.

But that $530 price point is a bit daunting, and it seems unlikely that many customers will be eager to pay it upfront–even if they’re given a post-purchase carrier subsidy once they select a provider and a wireless contract. So while the Nexus One might shake up the current wireless market model a bit, it’s probably not going to upend the market as it might have had Google opted to sell the device at cost or subsidize it with online advertising.

Google’s plan, may, however, set the bar for how an Android phone should be done and set the stage for some much improved second-generation Android devices.

Source: Digital Daily by John Paczkowski All Thinks Digital