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Has the Maps fiasco shaken your confidence in Apple?
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Saturday Highlights: US appeals court sends Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban decision back to lower court endangering Apple's victory?more in our Apple/Macintosh section; interesting analysis over at Fortune ponders the man in charge of Siri and the new Maps: Scott Forstall; Louie Herr of Digital Trends says we haven't learned the lesson from Antennagate with regards to Maps, saying we've overreacted to the ordeal; Andy Ihnatko says Tim Cook's letter to consumers was the "perfect response", but that Apple's mistake was pushing Maps right into the deep end when they should have approached it like they did Siri; meanwhile, Jim Dalrymple believes this is a simple "black eye, nothing more"; curious question arises out of the Maps issue: "should Apple let users select alternate default apps?"; Consumer Reports not too hard on Maps; some ex Apple and NASA engineers make a pricey coffee maker; Jack Purcher analyzes Intel's computing direction toward "transparent computing"; over at TidBITS, Glenn Fleishman probes mysterious cellular data usage occurring on iOS 6 devices; Apple removes "the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever" from Maps description on Apple.com; InformationWeek's Eric Zeman reviews his iPhone 5 experience, while Mark Crump provides a view of the iPhone 5 from a photographer's perspective, and over at iDownload Blog, Sebastien Page presents a course on B&W iPhone photography.
Friday Highlights: Tim Cook apologizes to customers for Map errors, says Apple doing everything they can to make it better, in the mean time he recommends Bing, Waze, others as alternatives?numerous reports in our Apple/Macintosh, and Op/Ed sections, Jonny Evans believes the message hints that Apple is working to make their mapping service best in the world, not just better; Chris Ciaccia at The Street calls the apology a grand slam saying "no company on Earth...knows how to spin a negative story into good positive vibes better than Apple"; Tim Bajarin says the real reason Apple jettisoned Google Maps had to do with giving valuable customer data to Google, which would help Android; iPhone 5 available for sale in 22 countries starting today; Macworld reviews Parallels Desktop 8, VMware Fusion 5; US Air Force uses iPads saving more than $5 million/year; court in China says Apple must pay $82,000 to encyclopedia company due to App Store piracy; report says iPhone 5 prices are least in United States, most in Italy; ABC News report on TSA official theft of iPad; Sharp says they are not the cause iPhone 5 shortages, pumping out "adequate volumes of display[s]"; TechInsights analysis of A6 chip; Macotakara blog posts mock-up of apparent iPad mini; San Jose Mercury News's Larry Magid reviews iPhone 5, says is "a worthy upgrade, but nothing to get excited about"; however, Dwight Silverman at the Houston Chronicle is "even more sold on it" now that he's tested his iPhone 5 with LTE finding a big difference from pre-LTE iPhones; Mactuts+ shows you how to upgrade RAM in your MacBook Pro; Mac OS X Hints has a tip that could solve WiFi woes on your iPhone, as well as a tip to arrange icons on your Apple TV menu; New York Times's J.D. Biersdorfer answers reader question on asking Siri questions the right way.
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Welcome to MacSurfer's Headline News! Is this the headline you are looking for?
Sat Sep 29
"Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook: Please, Will The Regulators Stop Worrying About Monopolies?" Forbes
9:14 AM
"Apple vs. Samsung: Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban could be lifted"?Bloomberg News?12:20 PM
"Samsung wins reconsideration on Galaxy Tab sales ban in US"?Crave @ CNET?9:02 AM
"Sales ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be reconsidered"?Ars Technica?2:50 PM
"Apple's Mapping Strategy: Today China. Tomorrow the World"?Forbes?2:34 PM
"Apple's Maps Is A Black Eye, Nothing More"?TechCrunch?10:08 AM
"Apple seems to have gotten a little bit lost"?CNN?2:34 PM
"Apple issues full apology over iOS 6 maps cartastrophe"?Wired UK?12:27 PM
"Judging From Apple's Apology, Maps Matter and Nokia Has Maps That Work"?Forbes?8:10 AM
"iOS 6 Map Flap: Should Apple Let Users Select Alternate Default Apps?"?Forbes?8:15 AM
"Tim Cook: 'So sorry for Apple's crap maps app - try Bing or Nokia'"?The Register?8:59 AM
"Apple's excessive work hours progress: tracking 800k, 97% 60-hour work week compliance"?The Next Web?10:31 AM
"'Weak' Apple iPhone 5 Sales Are A Glitch"?Seeking Alpha?8:11 AM
"Apple sued again, this time over Numbers spreadsheet tech"?Crave @ CNET?9:02 AM
"Apple's Cook sorry for Maps errors, suggests rival services"?Reuters?9/28
"Apple apologises for Maps switch 'frustration'"?BBC?9/28
"Apple Maps Apology: There is no company on Earth that knows how to spin a negative story into good positive vibes better than Apple, and the company did it again on Friday."?TheStreet?9/28
"Apple's Tim Cook apologises for iOS 6 Maps in open letter, suggests users try Google, Nokia and other mapping apps"?The Next Web?9/28
"Apple CEO 'Extremely Sorry' for IPhone Maps Frustration" [Video Report]?Bloomberg?9/28
"Tim Cook Apologizes for Apple's Maps"?New York Times [Free/Paid Registration Required]?9/28
"Apple CEO Apologizes for Maps App"?WSJ.com [Paid Membership Required]?9/28
"Apple CEO: 'We are extremely sorry' for Maps frustration"?CNNMoney?9/28
"Tim Cook apologizes for Apple's new Maps app"?Fortune?9/28
"Music publisher blocked iPhone 5 music service, report says: Sony/ATV and Apple couldn't agree on licensing fees and that's why we didn't see a Pandora-like music service from Apple, according to a story in the New York Post."?CNET News?9/28
"Apple iPad dominates tablet web traffic: An analysis of traffic from tablet computers to more than 1,200 websites found that 98.1 per cent of the traffic came from the Apple iPad."?Telegraph?9/28
"Gene Munster: iPhone 5 stockouts in 16 of 20 stores/Only 4 stores in smaller cities had iPhones 5s available for sale, and only for Sprint"?Fortune?9/28
"Appeals court sends Galaxy Tab injunction back to trial judge"?Reuters?9/28
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AppleCare/Troubleshooting
"OS X Server: Packet filter rules do not load"?Apple Support?9/28
Reviews/How-To/Tips
"Review: Parallels Desktop 8 vs. VMware Fusion 5"?Macworld?9/28
"Review: Adobe Premiere Elements 11 offers an easy, fast, and simple take on video editing"?TechHive?9/28
"Review: Things 2.0 makes managing to-do lists manageable"?Macworld?9/28
"MacMost Now 767: Using Text Columns in Pages"?MacMost?9/28
"Add New iOS Style Widgets To Mountain Lion Dashboard [OS X Tips]?Cult of Mac?9/28
"An Easy Way To Generate The Toughest, Coolest, Longest Passwords Right On Your Mac"?BohemianBoomer?9/28
"How Many Ways Can You Listen To Music On Your Mac? Here's Another One!"?TeraTalks?9/28
"Is Your Life Worth A Journal? 2 Ways To Journal Your Day On A Mac (one is free, one is not)"?Mac 360?9/28
"How To Control iTunes, Spotify, And Rdio From Your Mac's Menubar (and what's missing in the mix)"?NoodleMac?9/28
"It's Baaack! The Compression And Archive Tool That Mac Users Love To Hate"?Mac 360?9/28
"How To Get Free Music, TV Shows, Movies, And Apps Delivered To Your Mac"?Mac 360?9/28
"Free: The Top 10 Add On Features For Safari That Apple Forgot To Include On The Mac's Favorite Browser"?McSolo?9/28
Op/Ed
"AirPlay Mirroring A Killer Feature In Mountain Lion"?MacNews?9/28
Press Releases
"Blinq Turns Your PC Or Mac Into A Server For Sharing Photos"?AddictiveTips?9:04 AM
"MOTU ships Digital Performer version 8"?Electronista?9/28
"OmniGrowl Updated for Growl 2, CaliBrate Also Updated"?prMac?9/28
"FCP Editors Go Retro with New Slide Pop Special Effects Package"?prMac?9/28
"Report: Apple Maps usage down to four percent"?Electronista?2:35 PM
"Original 2007 Google-powered iPhone maps app reportedly built by 2 engineers in 3 weeks"?iMore?8:01 AM
"Weekly Wrap: iPhone 5 review, iOS 6 annoyances, and a Tim Cook Maps apology"?Macworld?2:34 PM
"Consumer Reports: Apple's Maps App Still Provides a Good Solution for Standard Software"?ModMyi?10:30 AM
"U.S. regional carriers undercut major carries with iPhone 5 discounts"?BGR?10:29 AM
"Former Apple, NASA Engineers Make $11,111 Coffee Maker"?ABCNews?8:12 AM
"Steve Jobs (Action Figure) Returns From the Dead"?PC Magazine?7:31 PM
"Artist Creates Sculpture Made Using Steve Jobs' Recycled Trash"?technabob?9:05 AM
"Urban Outfitters drops cash registers for Apple's iPad in 400 stores"?AppleInsider?9/28
"Apple Launches New App Store Feature Section for Alternative Maps"?MacRumors?9/28
"Global iPhone 5 Rollout Continues, Tight Supplies Be Damned"?AllThingsD?9/28
"iPhone 5 dials up discount for regional carrier debut: Some smaller carriers will trim $50 off the normal retail price for Apple's next-generation smartphone when they begin selling it tomorrow."?CNET News?9/28
"Videos: Queuing up for Apple's iPhone 5 in 22 languages"?Fortune?9/28
"The iPhone 5 goes on sale in 22 more countries today"?iDownload Blog?9/28
"Apple's iPhone 5 Availability Expands: What It Means To Regional Carriers"?TechCrunch?9/28
"Most iPhone 5 Customers Will Buy in Next 6 Months" [Video Report]?Bloomberg?9/28
"Survey: Younger Shoppers Increasingly Using Mobiles To Buy And Compare"?TechCrunch?9/28
"As Apple says sorry, Google Maps gets a little better"?CNET News?9/28
"Apple Clears First Hurdle, Possible iPhone 5 Launch In China Before The Year-End"?Forbes?9/28
"iPhone 5 lights up China's gray market"?CNET Asia?9/28
"US Air Force Electronic Flight Bag Team fought Windows bureaucracy and deployed iPads?[Video]?9 to 5 Mac?9/28
"Thanks to the iPad, The Air Force is Saving More Than $5 Million Per Year"?PadGadget?9/28
"Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead: The company's data stockpile and investment in AI means a smartphone helper that answers queries before you even ask them."?Technology Review?9/28
"Company Alleges that Apple's 'Numbers' Infringe on Borland Patent"?Patently Apple?9/28
"Apple sued over spreadsheet technology"?CNET News?9/28
"Chinese court rules Apple must pay over $82K to encyclopedia publisher over App Store piracy"?AppleInsider?9/28
"Apple music logo trademark rejected"?TG Daily?9/28
"Italians Pay The Most, Americans The Least For iPhone 5"?App Advice?9/28
"Apple iPhone 5 proves a hit with V3 readers"?V3?9/28
"Need a bit of Bible? There's an app for that"?CNN?9/28
"ABC News Tracks Missing iPad To Florida Home of TSA Officer"?ABCNews?9/28
"Find My iPad Catches Thieving TSA Officer Red-Handed [Video]?Cult of Mac?9/28
Non-Apple News
"Cellphones Take a Big Bite Out of Budgets"?WSJ.com [Paid Membership Required]?9:12 PM
"What happens if smartphones become commodities?"?Reuters?7:22 PM
"Google rolls out more improvements to its mapping tools following Apple's Maps apology"?Digital Trends?8:04 AM
"Neil Young reveals Pono music player, promises 'the best sound anyone can get'"?The Verge?9/28
"Amazon unlikely to launch color e-book readers in 4Q12"?DigiTimes?9/28
"Move over iPhone: In China, it's cool to call on 'Xiaomi'"?CNN?9/28
Publications/Podcasts
"Podcast: iPhone 5, one week later ? early users weigh in"?GeekWire?9:04 AM
"The Critical Path #56: Strategic Disadvantages: A discussion with James Allworth"?asymco?7:59 AM
"Gene Steinberg meets commentator Daniel Eran Dilger, of AppleInsider, and Avram Piltch, of Laptop magazine, this week on the Tech Night Owl LIVE!"?The Tech Night Owl LIVE?9/28
"Bj?rn Adamski of Telestream Demonstrates the New Flip4Mac"?MacVoicesTV?9/28
"TUAW Origin Stories: PDF Cabinet"?TUAW?9/28
"Ted Landau's iPhone 5 and iOS 6 Experiences and Opinions"?MacNotables?9/28
"Commutist podcast: Apple's iO-mess, dirty data centers and Tesla"?GigaOM?9/28
"What's Behind Mysterious Cellular Data Usage in iOS 6?"?TidBITS?12:31 PM
"Apple's iOS 6 stumbles on basic connectivity: Wi-Fi"?CNET News?9:08 PM
"SK Telecom Gains Unprecedented iPhone 5 Feature While Apple Files for Passbook Trademark and Much More"?Patently Apple?6:46 PM
"Apple no longer calls iOS6 Maps 'the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever'"?9 to 5 Mac?9:04 AM
"Apple removes superlatives from Maps description"?iDownload Blog?10:08 AM
"Apple iPad Mini debut reportedly imminent"?CNBC?8:13 AM
"iPhone 5 Display Vs. Spectroradiometer"?MacStories?12:50 PM
"iPad mini Video, Photos Leak"?Tapscape?8:05 AM
"Sharp says making adequate volumes of display used in iPhone5"?Reuters?9/28
"Sharp: Our iPhone 5 display production is 'adequate'"?CNET News?9/28
"It's Now Pretty Clear This Screen Is The Reason iPhone 5 Sales Were So Disappointing"?Business Insider?9/28
"Turret Commander For iPhone and iPad Is Temporarily Available For Free (Normally $2.99)"?Apple Sliced?8:54 AM
"Alien Booth For iPhone and iPad Is Free Today (Was $0.99)"?Apple Sliced?8:54 AM
"Leave Devil Alone For iPhone Is Free Right Now (Previously $0.99)"?Apple Sliced?8:54 AM
"Deal Alert: Apple 11.6" Dual-Core i5 MacBook Air MC968LL/A $759.99"?Run Around Tech?7:55 AM
"Woot! has 2011 Dual-Core i5 MacBook Air ? New in box (Update: $749)"?9 to 5 Mac?7:55 AM
"Mac Compatible Printers... Prices Range From $70 To $400 -Best Selling -Prices, Deals, Reviews And Information"?MacReviewZone?2:36 PM
"Best Selling Mac Scanners -From $88 To $496 -Prices, Reviews And Information"?MacReviewZone?2:42 PM
"Space Station: Frontier HD For iPad Is Temporarily Available For Free (Normally $2.99), The iPhone Version Is Also Free"?Apple Sliced?9/28
"The Magician's Handbook: Cursed Valley HD (Full) For iPad Is Free Right Now (Previously $4.99)"?Apple Sliced?9/28
"Radballs For iPhone and iPad Is Free Today (Was $0.99)"?Apple Sliced?9/28
"iPad (2012) Prices & Sales"?MacPrices?9/28
"MacBook Air Prices & Sales"?MacPrices?9/28
"MacBook Pro Prices & Sales"?MacPrices?9/28
"Apple refurbs: 5 Macs $999 or less"?MacNN?9/28
"Mac Software Deals: Photoshop Elements 11, $84; Photoshop Elements 10, $49"?FairerPlatform?9/28
Deal Brothers Daily Deal: Mac mini 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5:? $1189.00 Delivered
Reviews
"iPhone 5: My First Week/After spending a week with the Apple iPhone 5, I have a clear picture of what has improved, evolved, and gone sideways."?InformationWeek?9:08 AM
"A photographer's view of the iPhone 5"?GigaOM?12:20 PM
"CruxSkunk iPad Keyboard Exposes the Mirage of Kickstarter [Review]?Mashable?12:19 PM
"Review: Case-Mate Barely There Case for iPhone 5"?Run Around Tech?12:19 PM
"PowerSkin Battery Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 review"?iMore?10:08 AM
"Review: Speck PixelSkin HD case for iPhone 5"?M.I.C. Gadget?9:52 AM
"Review: Wahoo Blue HR Heart Rate Strap for iPhone 4S/5"?iSource?7:55 AM
"iPhone 5 vs. the VPI Traveler turntable: The iPhone 5 may be the star of the moment, but the VPI Traveler could stay in your life for decades."?CNET News?10:07 AM
"Magia Zip For IPad Has One Sticky Problem"?MacNews?9/28
"GLAS.T iPhone 5 screen protector from Spigen SGP (Video Review)"?Insanely Great Mac?9/28
iPad/iPhone/iPod touch Apps
"6 cool little features you didn't know iOS 6 had"?VentureBeat?12:23 PM
"Top Tier Alternatives To Apple Maps For iOS 6"?Apple'n'Apps?7:56 AM
"Don't Like Facebook? Then You'll Like Voicepic Even More"?App Advice?12:50 PM
"Flurry for Twitter for iPhone review"?iMore?8:01 AM
"9 home theater apps to improve your big screen with a small screen"?Digital Trends?8:04 AM
"Arrow Mania Review"?148Apps?2:35 PM
"Little Conquest Review"?148Apps?12:49 PM
"Project: Mayhem Review"?148Apps?12:23 PM
"iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Location data shootout!"?iMore?9/28
"Create Your Own Passbook Cards, Coupons, & Tickets"?Apple Gazette?9/28
"Brewster: Merge iPhone Contacts With Facebook, Twitter, Gmail & Others"?AddictiveTips?9/28
"Bad Piggies for iPhone and iPad review"?iMore?9/28
"Bad Piggies ? Review: Feels like Angry Birds, but plays in a fresh new way"?What's on iPhone?9/28
"Appidemic: GridBlock for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch"?AppleTell?9/28
"'Lunar Silver Star Story Touch' Review - The Classic RPG in Your Pocket"?Touch Arcade?9/28
"'Infectonator' Review - Ending the World, One Zombie at a Time"?Touch Arcade?9/28
"Score! Classic Goals for iPad and iPhone review"?Macworld UK?9/28
"Carbonite Mobile Review"?148Apps?9/28
"Note Anytime Review: A free note taking and sketching app for the iPad that's packed with many features to give users creative flexibility."?148Apps?9/28
"Find the Way Review: Find the Way is a short maze game that pits players against a clock as they race to find a way out."?148Apps?9/28
"'Super Monsters Ate My Condo' Review and TA Plays - Not Just a Sequel, a SUPER Sequel"?Touch Arcade?9/28
How-To/Tutorial
"Use Siri The Right Way On Your iPhone And iOS 6 [Feature]?Cult of Mac?12:49 PM
"A course on black and white iPhone photography"?iDownload Blog?7:56 AM
"How to Use the Panorama Camera to Take Amazing Panoramic Pictures with iPhone"?OS X Daily?9/28
"How to Upgrade the RAM in Your MacBook Pro"?Mactuts+?9/28
Tips
"How to Assign a Passcode with More than Four Digits to Secure Your iOS Device"?The Mac Observer?10:08 AM
"How to choose an Apple Maps alternative"?USA Today?9:53 AM
"Ask Maggie is back! Which iPhone 5 is right for you?"?CNET News?9:00 AM
"Here's a neat tip to help make sure you get your iPhone back should you ever lose it"?The Next Web?8:00 AM
"One possible solution to iPhone Wi-Fi problems"?Mac OS X Hints?9/28
"Apple explains how to create home screen shortcuts to Google and Nokia maps on the web"?iDownload Blog?9/28
"Q&A: Asking Siri ? the Right Way"?New York Times [Free/Paid Registration Required]?9/28
"How To Buy A Smartphone: Which Is Better, Android or iPhone?"?ReadWriteWeb?9/28
Tim Cook's Maps Apology
"Old Maps vs. New Maps"?Vore?6:50 PM
"Tim Cook's apology shows that Apple cares, but still needs to fix problem"?TUAW?12:18 PM
"The Macalope Weekly: From bad to worse"?Macworld?10:08 AM
"NYT: iOS Maps another internet services blunder for Apple"?AppleInsider?8:00 AM
"MacOS KenDensed: iPhone 5's First Week & that Maps Thing"?The Mac Observer?7:59 AM
"Hate to Say 'I Told You So', Where by 'Hate' I Mean 'Draw Great Satisfaction From'"?Daring Fireball?9/28
"Apple's genius Maps jiu-jitsu: the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?VentureBeat?9/28
"Examining Maps in the Wake of Tim Cook's Apology"?TidBITS?9/28
"Tim Cook's 'Mapology': No explanation of premature Maps launch"?CNET News?9/28
"Did Apple's Apology Scare Off iPhone 5 Buyers?"?CNBC?9/28
"Well Played On Maps, Apple. Your Move,?Google."?TechCrunch?9/28
"Apple Losing Its Sense of Direction"?WSJ Blogs?9/28
"Leaders Apologize"?Forbes?9/28
"Tim Cook open letter: We fell short with new Maps app; we are extremely sorry"?MacDailyNews?9/28
"Apple CEO Cook Posts Letter Apologizing For Buggy Maps"?Forbes?9/28
"CEO Tim Cook apologizes for 'falling short' on Apple Maps"?GigaOM?9/28
"Apple apologizes for iOS 6 maps"?BetaNews?9/28
"Tim Cook on Apple Maps: 'We Are Extremely Sorry'"?AllThingsD?9/28
President Reagan famously exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall," in a Berlin speech. Does it matter if a president is a great orator?
Photo by Mike Sargent/AFP/Getty Images.
?How To Measure for a President: Suppose the presidential campaign was settled by a job interview. Here?s what we should look for,? by John Dickerson. As we enter the home stretch of the presidential campaign, John Dickerson explores what qualities a candidate needs to be a good president. He argues that candidates must know how to play politics, and he also talks about what it takes to manage a White House staff.
??Pop Art: The brilliant redesign of the soda can tab,? by Tom Vanderbilt. It?s been 35 years since Jimmy Buffett ?blew out [his] flip flop/ and stepped on a pop top.? Now Tom Vanderbilt explores the simple engineering marvel that replaced the old, dangerous metal scraps. But oddly enough, attaching the tab to the can still hasn?t kept kids from swallowing it.
?The World Doesn?t Love the First Amendment: The vile anti-Muslim video shows that the U.S. overvalues free speech,? by Eric Posner. In this provocative piece, University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner puts American regard for freedom of expression in an international context?and suggests we might be the ones in the wrong.
?Why You Hate Cyclists: Partly because of jerks like me. But it?s mostly your own illogical mind,? by Jim Saksa. What explains the never-ending war between drivers and bikers? Not maniac cyclists?science: ?When it comes to cyclists, once some clown on two wheels almost kills himself with your car, you furiously decide that bicyclists are assholes,? Saksa writes, ?and that conclusion will be hard to shake regardless of countervailing facts, stats, or arguments.?
?Human Rights, the Death Penalty, and Affirmative Action: What will the Supreme Court decide in this term?s first big cases?? by Emily Bazelon. On the docket this fall: Does a 1789 anti-piracy statute allow cases against foreign corporations in American courts for human rights abuses on foreign soil? Can we execute defendants who are found mentally incompetent to help their lawyers with appeals? And will the Court strike down affirmative action? Emily Bazelon offers a preview.
?How Can We Stop Pedophiles? Stop treating them like monsters,? by Jennifer Blyer. Pedophiles might struggle with sexual attraction to children for years before they abuse, but mandatory reporting requirements discourage them from seeking help. Jennifer Blyer recommends treating pedophilia as an unchangeable neurological condition and teaching mental health professionals how to offer treatment?before it?s too late.
?Who Was the Most Religious President of All Time? They called him ?The Deacon,?? by Forrest Wickman. This week, The New Yorker?s r Nicholas Lemann wrote that Mitt Romney ?would arguably be the most actively religious President in American history.? But which president holds the title right now? Forrest Wickman suggests it?s Jimmy Carter, who went door-to-door introducing himself as a peanut farmer/missionary.
?House of Pain: Obama may be president. Democrats may keep the Senate. But the House isn?t going anywhere,? by David Weigel. Nancy Pelosi tries to convince reporters that Democrats can take back the House, but David Weigel?s not buying it?especially not after the 2011 redistricting. ?That would mean that the people who drew the districts didn't do very good jobs,? a pollster tells Weigel.
?There Will Be No Bacon Shortage: How a British trade association press release sent the Internet into a senseless panic,? by Matthew Yglesias. We won?t run out of bacon, but we might have to pay a bit more for it. Matthew Yglesias traces the bacon shortage rumor back to its source.
?NFL 2012: The scab refs and the NFL slide deeper into incompetence,? by Drew Magary. The referee lockout is finally over. Relive the madness with Week 3 of Slate?s season-long NFL roundtable with Deadspin, where Drew Magary, Chris Kluwe, Barry Petchesky, and Stefan Fatsis analyze the botched call heard around the world.
It wasn't all that long ago that Modbook Inc's CEO, Andreas Haas, made the mac-in-tablet Modbook Pro official, now we're learning that the super-slate will launch with high performance SSD storage. So, as you wield your MacBook Pro come tablet, you'll be free from spinning disks. Great, but what impact will this have on capacity? Well, according to the firm, storage will start at 64GB as standard, with upgrades possible all the way up to a, not-unreasonable, 480GB. Pre-orders go live on October 3rd, along with the all important reveal on price. Regardless of cost, if that void between the iPad and full-fat Windows 8 slates had been irking you, here's your answer.
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.
Described this week in the open-access journalPLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.
It was discovered by an international research consortium that included the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Davis (UCD), Global Viral, the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon, the Institut National de Recherche Biom?dicale, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Metabiota and others.
"Known viruses, such as Ebola, HIV and influenza, represent just the tip of the microbial iceberg," said Joseph Fair, PhD, a co-author and vice president of Metabiota. "Identifying deadly unknown viruses, such as Bas-Congo virus, gives us a leg up in controlling future outbreaks."
"These are the only three cases known to have occurred, although there could be additional outbreaks from this virus in the future," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, who spearheaded the UCSF effort to identify the virus. Chiu and his team continue to work on new diagnostics to detect the virus so that health officials in Congo and elsewhere can quickly identify it should it emerge again.
One odd characteristic of the Bas-Congo virus, Chiu said, is that while a number of other viruses in Africa also cause deadly outbreaks of acute hemorrhagic fever?Ebola virus, Lassa virus and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus to name a few ?the new virus is unlike any of them.
Genetically it is more closely related to the types of viruses that cause rabies, which are known to infect people with a very different sort of disease?a neurological illness that is uniformly fatal if untreated but may take months to develop.
An antibody test developed in this study was applied to the one patient who survived and to others who had come into contact with him. It suggested that the disease may be spread from person to person but likely originated from some other source, such as an insect or rodent.
The identity of this animal "reservoir" and the precise mode of transmission for the virus remain unclear and are currently being investigated by Metabiota and the central African members of the consortium through the PREDICT Project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats Program.
How the New Virus Emerged
In the summer of 2009, a 15-year old boy in a small rural community called Mangala village suddenly fell ill and developed a bleeding nose, bleeding gums and bloody vomit. He rapidly worsened, dying within three days of the first signs of illness.
A week later, a 13-year old girl who attended the same school and lived in the same neighborhood as the boy came down with a similar, serious illness. She declined just as rapidly and also died within three days. One week after that, the male nurse who cared for this girl began showing the same symptoms, and he was transferred to a hospital in Boma, a nearby port city that sits along the Congo River upstream from Africa's Atlantic coast.
Members of the consortium, who had initiated a project to diagnose unusual cases of severe hemorrhagic fever, obtained blood samples collected from the nurse by the Congolese doctors and sent them to the laboratory of Eric Leroy, PhD, doctor of veterinary medicine at the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville in Gabon. There the samples were tested for traces of any known virus, but nothing was found. The Metabiota scientists then solicited the expertise of Chiu at UCSF and Eric Delwart at the Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco to aid in the diagnosis.
The researchers ultimately identified a completely new virus as the cause of the mysterious illness through a powerful strategy for identifying novel pathogens known as "deep sequencing," in which millions of DNA sequences are generated from a clinical sample and then pieced together using computer algorithms combined with human analysis.
Distinct Attributes of Bas-Congo
The Bas-Congo virus belongs to a family of viruses known as the rhabdoviruses, a large family of viruses that infect plants, insects and mammals, including humans. The most famous member of this family is the virus that causes rabies. But even among the rhabdoviruses, Bas-Congo is something of an outlier, being very genetically distinct from other members of the family.
What's most unusual about this virus, though, said Chiu, is what it does to people.
No other rhabdoviruses are known to cause the acute, rapid and deadly hemorrhagic fever seen in the three cases in the Congo. Rabies, for instance, can be a deadly disease if untreated, but the course of rabies in humans is nothing like the rapid and deadly onset seen with the Bas-Congo virus. There is some precedent, however, for hemorrhagic disease from rhabdoviruses in the animal kingdom: fish rhabdoviruses are known to cause hemorrhagic septicemia?acute bleeding and death?in affected fish.
The third patient had enormous amounts of BASV in his bloodstream just two days after he fell ill?more than a million copies in every milliliter of blood.
The BASV sequence was also used to design an antibody test for the virus, an effort led by Graham Simmons at the BSRI, another member of the consortium. Antibodies are blood immune proteins produced in response to an infection. The antibody test allowed the researchers to screen both the third patient with acute hemorrhagic fever and other people who had come into contact with the third patient, including the nurse who cared for him in the Boma hospital. High levels of BASV-specific antibodies were found in the third patient, establishing that he indeed had been infected with Bas-Congo virus. The same antibodies were also found in the second nurse, even though he never actually became sick.
"What this suggests is that the disease may be transmissible from person to person?though it's most likely to have originated from some other source," said Nathan Wolfe, PhD, founder and chairman of Global Viral, and a co-author on the paper. "The fact that it belongs to a family of viruses known to infect a wide variety of mammals, insects and other animals means that it may perpetually exist in insect or other 'host' species and was accidentally passed to humans through insect bites or some other means."
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University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu
Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.
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Everything you see in the music video happened to Marine-turned-country-singer Stephen Cochran: Pushing the girl away, boozing into oblivion, the gun on the blanket. It all went down last year.?
Courtesy of Stephen Cochran
Stephen Cochran, a former Marine recon scout and now a country-music singer, has penned a new song about PTSD - combat-related symptoms that almost claimed his life in 2011.
Even the actor who portrays Cochran is, himself, a former Marine and Iraq veteran who knows of post-traumatic stress, who has wrangled with identical demons. The actor was not acting.
The only on-screen tweak from reality was?the type firearm shown. In his dimmest hour, behind a locked door in his Nashville home, exhausted, alone, and telling himself: ?I?m done,? Cochran rested a loaded shotgun against his bed.
?I was just trying to get the nerve. I had it planned out,? Cochran told NBC News. ?I didn?t know what was wrong with me. I was tired of taking all these pills. I was going through a breakup. Couldn?t write anymore. Watching everything fall apart. I was ready to check out.?
Then: salvation, and a surreal rescue scene worthy of an epic ballad. His dog, Semper Fi, began scratching relentlessly at his door, bloodying her paws. Next, Cochran?s ex-fianc? unexpectedly entered the house, simply to retrieve a forgotten item, he said. She saw the anxious dog. She expected the worst. She barged into the bedroom, spotted the gun and physically restrained Cochran.?
But from anguish came inspiration. Amid an existence long blurred by PTSD ??the residue of Afghanistan firefights, Marine buddies lost in combat, and his own nearly fatal injury???one question blazed in Cochran's head. He jotted it down: ?How do you paint a picture back in focus??
?It was the only way I could describe trying to put your life back together, literally trying to do the impossible,? he said.
Around that single thought, Cochran penned an entire song, ?Pieces,?an ode to the blackness from which he was aching to escape, a tale of reconnecting the scattered fragments of his shattered world, and a message of solidarity for his military brothers and sisters. The single ? part of a CD with the same title???will be released in this country on Nov. 11. The song already has charted in Europe.
?It?s not just my story. So many of us think about (suicide) because you just get so tired, so tired of being the crazy guy. Or of hearing: ?He?s weird.? Or of hearing: ?We can?t hire you because we really don?t know what post-traumatic stress is and you might come back and kill us all.?
?I really wrote it as my own healing, for what I was going through,? added Cochran, 33, who teamed with fellow musician Trevor Rosen to complete the song. It took them only 15 minutes.
But after playing it at several veterans? benefits, Cochran heard from service members up and down the chain of command how they, too, connected with the lyrics. That feedback has turned ?Pieces? into the soundtrack of the singer?s ongoing crusade.
?We have an epidemic of suicides in the military right now.?At this point, we are physically losing both of these wars in the United States of America, not overseas.
Related: First opera about Iraq War reaches out to veteran suffering from PTSD
?If we want to stop our suicides, we need a complete overhaul in our ?warrior? terminology in this country, in the way we train our families (how to relate with homecoming veterans). That?s what I want to start with ?Pieces,? and the video. I want to get a bridge between our civilian population and the veterans. And I want to reach into the rooms of some of these guys and girls ??who are just sitting in the dark and watching TV all day like I did???and let them know: You?re not alone.?
Perhaps the most ironic thread of Cochran?s story coils back to the days of his first, true musical success. In 2007, one year after retiring from the Marines, he scored a country hit with ?Friday Night Fireside,? the culmination of a childhood dream for a guy raised in Nashville. The accompanying video was voted No. 1 by Great American Country?fans for five straight weeks.
courtesy of Stephen Cochran
After his the light-armoured vehicle crashed in Afghanistan, Stephen Cochran fractured vertebrae and suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2004. Told he would never walk again, an experimental procedure by VA surgeons restored his steps.
Two years later, Cochran became the national spokesman for research and development at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ??his thank you for a successful, experimental surgery performed by VA surgeons who repaired his broken back. In 2004, Cochran had splintered several lumbar vertebrae when the vehicle in which he was riding through southern Afghanistan slammed into gaping hole that once held an anti-tank mine. He couldn?t feel or move his legs for months, and was told by doctors that he?d never take steps again. He walked.
The former Marine reconnaissance scout, part of the U.S. force that first knocked the Taliban out of Afghanistan?s Helmand Province, next teamed up with the VA to become its national co-chair for voluntary service. In that role, Cochran toured America, urging veterans to seek help for combat stress, ?to let them know you don?t have to suffer in silence,? recalled Rosetta Fisher-Oliver, the VA?s chief of voluntary service for Tennessee and for parts of Kentucky and Georgia.
In 2011, Cochran recorded the music video ?Hope??for the VA to try and cement his get-help pleas to fellow troops. What few knew: Cochran was losing his own hope.
?We worked on that video together, and the week he was supposed to make the video, I tried to get in touch with him, just to check to see that he was going to be on time,? said Fisher-Oliver.
She was unable to reach him, however, because Cochran was by then seeking treatment ? after reaching the brink of suicide in his bedroom.
?Here?s a person who?s trying to get the message out and he?s still struggling with issues too,? she said. ?He later told me: ?I almost wasn?t here.? ?
Cochran now acknowledges that he carried ?almost dual personalities? during that time. In front of fellow veterans and fans, he sang, smiled, shook hands and signed autographs. ?But I also had to deal with this monster I have inside my head and inside my gut, all day.? At home, his family and his then-fianc?, he admitted, took the brunt of his mood swings and emotional detachment.
courtesy of Stephen Cochran
After breaking his back in Afghanistan, Cochran was greeted by a fellow Marine. He later regained the ability to walk.
?You?re screaming out: Please help me understand what I?m going through, because I have no clue! That?s why you see the high number of divorces in the military,? Cochran said. ?I told my fianc?: ?I don?t know what I?m dealing with so the best thing for you to do is just leave and you?ll thank me later.' ?
She left.
But in what could have been Cochran?s final minutes, she came back, and burst into his bedroom.
After Cochran artfully turned that horrid moment into a song, he met the man picked to portray his downward spiral in the ?Pieces? video: Daniel Dean, a Nashville songwriter and actor. He also looks a bit like Cochran. He seemed like a logical choice.
In talking with Dean, though, Cochran learned that the man was a Marine sniper who did three tours in Iraq. And they both had lived for years with the lingering anxieties that often remain for veterans who log months of combat exposure.
?He told me: 'This is my story, too,'? Cochran remembers. ?That dude lived that.?
They also agreed with the concept that ?Pieces? would be not just the first music video to delve so deeply into PTSD. It would break ranks with dozens of other standard, country-music videos about the U.S. military ? mini movies that often include battle scenes that, some critics say, glorify war.
?Stephen does country music and so do I, and there?s a lot of military songs and a lot of them are pretty much B.S.? Dean said. ?You?ve got the Toby Keith type stuff?and that?s all right for what it is. But very rarely does a song hit a military person the way this one does.
?Just because it?s real. It?s one of the things I doubt you?ll hear any of the other country stars singing about. It?s (usually) more of the patriotic angle. Most military members aren?t songwriters like Stephen and I. So, I guess that lets us be able to sing things that you can?t say or can't deal with.??
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Criticizing the US and UN,?Zimbabwean?President Robert Mugabe, said the world should have condemned the violent death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi the same way it did US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
By Arshad Mohammed,?Reuters / September 26, 2012
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday.
Frank Franklin II/AP
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Zimbabwean President?Robert Mugabe?said on Wednesday the death of Libyan leader?Muammar Gaddafi?was as tragic as that of US Ambassador to?Libya?Christopher Stevens, as he delivered a scathing critique of US, U.N. and NATO actions.
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Speaking firmly, if occasionally stumbling over words, the 88-year-old president accused the?United States?of "rushing to suck oil from?Iraq" when it invaded the country in 2003 on the erroneous grounds that it possessed weapons of mass destruction.
He said the U.N. Security Council had allowed itself to be "abused" last year by authorizing "all necessary measures" - diplomatic code for military intervention - to protect civilians in?Libya?in a NATO operation that eventually toppled Gaddafi's government and led to his death at the hands of rebels.
Speaking with deliberate irony, Mugabe opened an address to the U.N.?General Assembly?by praising as "most glowing and most moving" a speech by U.S. President?Barack Obama?on Tuesday in which he rued Stevens' death.
Stevens and three other Americans were killed during what Washington has called a "terrorist" attack on the?U.S. mission?in Benghazi on Sept. 11. The assault forced the evacuation of U.S. personnel from the eastern city that was the hub for the Libyan rebel movement.
"I am sure we were all moved, we all agree, that it was a tragic death indeed and we condemn it," said Mugabe, who has ruled?Zimbabwe?since independence from Britain in 1980 and is among?Africa's longest-serving leaders.
"As we in spirit join the?United States?in condemning that death, shall the?United States?also join us in condemning that barbaric death of the head of state of?Libya?- Gaddafi? It was a loss, a great loss, to?Africa, a tragic loss to?Africa."
?The Zimbabwean accused the?United States?and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the 28-member Western security alliance whose air strikes helped Libyan rebels defeat Gaddafi's forces, of acting under false pretenses.
"The mission was strictly to protect civilians, but it turned out that there was a hunt, a brutal hunt, of Gaddafi and his family," Mugabe said. "In a very dishonest manner we saw ... Chapter 7 being used now as a weapon to rout a whole family."
Chapter 7 of the?United Nations?Charter allows the U.N. Security Council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.
"Bombs were ... thrown about in a callous manner and quite a good many civilians died. Was that the protection that they had sought under Chapter 7 of the Charter?
"So the death of Gaddafi must be seen in the same tragic manner as the death of?Chris Stevens. We condemn both of them." Mugabe, a long-standing critic of the West, is himself widely criticized for turning what was once one of?Africa's strongest economies into a basket case and has been accused of hanging on to power through vote-rigging.
Other speakers at the U.N.?General Assembly?on Wednesday - notably?Bolivia's leftist president,?Evo Morales, and Iranian President?Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?- also criticized the United States for what they see as economic and political bullying.
A U.S. official had no immediate comment on Mugabe's remarks.
The Zimbabwean leader appeared to be in reasonable health despite questions about his wellbeing sparked by Zimbabwean media reports that he has traveled to?Singapore?eight times in the past year to seek medical attention.
He walked in an almost jaunty manner to and from the lectern in the?General Assembly hall, where he read his speech from a written text.
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President Reagan famously exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall," in a Berlin speech. Does it matter if a president is a great orator?
