soigne aircraftman: April 2013

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Putting the brakes on Parkinson's

Apr. 22, 2013 ? The earliest signs of Parkinson's disease can be deceptively mild. The first thing that movie star Michael J. Fox noticed was twitching of the little finger of his left hand. For years, he made light of the apparently harmless tic. But such tremors typically spread, while muscles stiffen up and directed movements take longer to carry out. Research groups led by Armin Giese of LMU Munich and Christian Griesinger at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in G?ttingen have developed a chemical compound that slows down the onset and progression of Parkinson's disease in mice. The scientists hope that this approach will give them a way to treat the cause of Parkinson's and so arrest its progress.

The disease usually becomes manifest between the ages of 50 and 60, and results from the loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells in the substantia nigra, which is part of the midbrain. Under the microscope, the affected cells are seen to contain insoluble precipitates made up of a protein called alpha-synuclein. As an early step in the pathological cascade, this protein forms so-called oligomers, tiny aggregates consisting of small numbers of alpha-synuclein molecules, which are apparently highly neurotoxic. By the time the first overt symptoms appear in humans, more than half of the vulnerable cells have already been lost. Many researchers therefore focus on developing methods for early diagnosis of the condition. However, current therapies only alleviate symptoms, so the research teams led by Armin Giese and Christian Griesinger set out to address the underlying cause of nerve-cell death.

Together, the scientists have developed a substance which, in mouse models of the disease, reduces the rate of growth of the protein deposits and delays nerve cell degeneration to a yet unprecedented degree. As a consequence, mice treated with this agent remain disease-free for longer than non-medicated controls. "The most striking feature of the new compound is that it is the first that directly targets oligomers and interferes with their formation," explains Christian Griesinger, head of the Department of NMR-based Structural Biology and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. The discovery is the result of years of hard work. "Combining skills from a range of disciplines has been the key to our success. Biologists, chemists, clinicians, physicists, and veterinarians have all contributed to the development of the therapeutic compound," adds Armin Giese, who leads a research group at LMU's Center for Neuropathology and Prion Research.

Giese and his colleagues systematically tested 20,000 candidate substances for the ability to block formation of the protein deposits that are typical for the disease. The screen made use of an extremely sensitive laser-based assay developed by Giese years ago when he was working together with Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in G?ttingen. Some interesting lead compounds identified during the very first phase of the screening program served as starting point for further optimization. Ultimately, one substance proved to be particularly active. Andrei Leonov a chemist in Griesinger's team, finally succeeded in synthesizing a pharmaceutically promising derivative. This is well tolerated at dosage levels with significant therapeutic effects, can be administered with the food, and penetrates the blood-brain barrier, reaching high levels in the brain. The two teams have already applied for a patent on the compound which they called Anle138b -- an abbreviation of Andrei Leonov's first name and surname.

A complex series of experiments has provided encouraging indications that Anle138b could also be of therapeutic use in humans. These tests involved not only biochemical and structural investigations of Anle138b's mode of action but also employed several animal models of Parkinson's which are under study in Munich and in laboratories of the Excellence Cluster "Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain" in G?ttingen. Mice exposed to Anle138b were found to display better motor coordination than their untreated siblings. "We use a kind of fitness test to evaluate muscle coordination," Giese explains. "The mice are placed on a rotating rod and we measure how long the animals can keep their balance."

Generally speaking, the earlier the onset of treatment, the longer the animals remained disease free. What's more, the beneficial effects of Anle138b are not restricted to animals with Parkinson's disease. "Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is caused by toxic aggregates of the prion protein," Griesinger points out. "And here too, Anle138b effectively inhibits clumping and significantly increases survival times." These findings hint that Anle138b might also prevent the formation of insoluble deposits formed by other proteins, such as the tau protein that is associated with Alzheimer's disease. Further experiments will address this issue. Anle138b will therefore be a useful research tool in medicine, as it will enable scientists to study the process of oligomer formation in the test-tube and to determine how their assembly is inhibited. The researchers hope ultimately to gain new insights into the mechanisms into how neurodegenerative disorders develop.

The drugs so far available for treatment of Parkinson's disease only control its symptoms by enhancing the function of the surviving nerve cells in the substantia nigra. "With Anle138b, we may have the first representative of a new class of neuroprotective agents allowing to retard or even halt the progression of conditions such as Parkinson's or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease," Griesinger says. However, he warns that the findings in mice cannot immediately be applied to humans. The next step will be to carry out toxicity tests in non-rodent species. Only if these are successful will clinical trials in patients become a realistic possibility. As clinician Giese emphasizes: "To successfully establish a novel therapeutic agent for treatment of real patients is a laborious task that requires a lot of work as well as serendipity."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/9seAVv42u9I/130422111147.htm

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Feds delay policy to allow small knives on planes

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Airline passengers will have to leave their knives at home after all. And their bats and golf clubs.

A policy change scheduled to go into effect this week that would have allowed passengers to carry small knives, bats and other sports equipment onto airliners will be delayed, federal officials said Monday.

The delay is necessary to accommodate feedback from an advisory committee made up of aviation industry, consumer, and law enforcement officials, the Transportation Security Administration said in a brief statement. The statement said the delay is temporary, but gave no indication how long it might be.

TSA Administrator John Pistole proposed the policy change last month, saying it would free up the agency to concentrate on protecting against greater threats. TSA screeners confiscate about 2,000 small folding knives from passengers every day.

The proposal immediately drew fierce opposition from flight attendant unions and federal air marshals, who said the knives can be dangerous in the hands of the wrong passengers. Some airlines and members of Congress also urged TSA to reconsider its position.

The delay announced by TSA doesn't go far enough, a coalition of unions representing 90,000 flight attendants nationwide said Monday.

"All knives should be banned from planes permanently," the group said in a statement.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who opposed the policy, said TSA's decision is an admission "that permitting knives on planes is a bad idea." He also called for a permanent ban.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., another opponent, said he will continue to push TSA to drop the proposal entirely.

"People with radical ideas can use everyday objects to cause great harm," Markey said. "If there is an opportunity to decrease risks to Americans, we have a duty to protect our citizens and disallow knives from being taken onto planes."

The proposed policy would have permitted folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) or less in length and are less than 1/2-inch (1-centimeter) wide. The policy was aimed at allowing passengers to carry pen knives, corkscrews with small blades and other small knives.

Passengers also would have been be allowed to bring onboard as part of their carry-on luggage novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs, the agency said.

Security standards adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, already call for passengers to be able to carry those items. Those standards are non-binding, but many countries follow them.

The proposal didn't affect box cutters, razor blades and knives that don't fold or that have molded grip handles, which are prohibited.

Passengers were prohibited from carrying the small knives onboard planes after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Some of the terrorists in those attacks used box cutters to intimidate passengers and airline crew members.

It's unlikely in these days of hardened cockpit doors and other preventative measures that the small folding knives could be used by terrorists to take over a plane, Pistole told Congress last month.

There has been a gradual easing of some of the security measures applied to passengers after the 9/11 attacks. In 2005, the TSA changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on airplanes small scissors, knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches. The move came as the agency turned its focus toward keeping explosives off planes, because intelligence officials believed that was the greatest threat to commercial aviation.

And in September 2011, the TSA no longer required children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes at airport checkpoints. The agency recently issued new guidelines for travelers 75 and older so they can avoid removing shoes and light jackets when they go through airport security checkpoints.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-22-Knives%20on%20Planes/id-17e9cc9774654c4dac516e2da0041e34

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The Science Behind Why We Procrastinate

Some research says the best way to spark creativity is to walk away and that the best ideas come from those least-expected ?aha!? moments. So maybe procrastination isn?t such a bad thing after all. Or is time spent on those cat memes taking its toll? Can procrastinating ever be a source of productivity? Here's what the research has to say.

This is a guest post by Anna Codrea-Rado via Quartz.

Here?s the complete guide to procrastinating at work:

Clever People Procrastinate Smartly

The Creativity Research Journal studied the working habits of a particularly intelligent group of people, winners of the Intel Science Talent competition. They found the group procrastinated productively. Some used procrastination as a trigger for a helpful amount of stress needed to ignite positive action. Others saw it as a ?thought incubator." They put off making a decision because they wanted to fully process it before finding a solution.

The same study also found that the tasks the science competition winners were doing while avoiding work were helping in other areas of their life. They were procrastinating efficiently and taking care of other responsibilities. So don?t feel too guilty the next time you pause from that spreadsheet to pay your gas bill online.

Procrastination Isn?t Just Bad Time Management

Professor Joseph R. Ferrari of DePaul University writes extensively on procrastination and has found that procrastinators aren?t simply managing their time poorly. It?s a tactic deployed by those with vulnerable self-esteem and has a lot to do with perceived notions of time.

There are two types of procrastinators out there: those who delay making decisions, and those who delay taking action. Ferrari found that the decision-avoiders are dependent on others, relying on them to make their minds up for them. They?re more submissive and prefer to pass the buck to someone else whom they can blame them if it all goes wrong.

The task-avoiders, on the other hand, are generally characterized by low self-esteem; they make a decision but don?t follow up on it. Of course a lot of people fall into both categories, but the findings go some way in explaining the different ways people procrastinate.

Nature Versus Nurture

Though procrastination might seem merely a personality quirk, scientific opinion is divided as to whether it can be put down to nature, or is the product of a person?s environment.

According to Ferrari and further research from Oklahoma State University, factors like ?time perspective? affect someone?s likelihood to procrastinate. Time perspective is how people understand and interpret their past, present and future. For example, someone who focuses on the bad things in his past is more prone to bitterness and resentment. Although it?s possible to modify your time perspective, it?s thought to be rooted in personality and linked to procrastination.

Other research, though, has found that environment is also a contributing factor in procrastination. The American Psychological Association, for example, found that procrastination often starts at school, where a lack of rigor in curricula and not being punished for missed deadlines can breed time-wasting habits.

Procrastinators Hate Procrastinators

In one of his many studies into the behavioral habits of procrastinators, Ferrari found that they are hyper-critical of their fellow procrastinators. This is especially true of women. When asked to the evaluate the poor performance of a co-worker who has the same procrastinating tendencies and habits as themselves, workers were harsher on them than their non-procrastinating co-workers.

The Real Problem is "Flow"

That trance you can go into when finding yourself scrolling through cat memes or chatting an afternoon away has a name. It?s called ?flow." The concept was coined by psychologist Mih?ly Cs?kszentmih?lyi and was originally considered a good thing because it?s a state of deep engagement and absorption, as he abstractly explains in a Wired interview.

Andrew Thatcher and his colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa wanted to understand more about flow in relation to two other online behaviors: procrastination and problematic internet use. They were trying figure out to what extent too much time online was psychologically and socially harmful.

Unsurprisingly, they found a strong link between procrastination and problematic internet use, as they wrote in the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior. But they also found that when someone was in a state of flow while engaged in a non-work related activity, she was more likely to end up with problematic internet use.

In a way, then, this frames procrastination not as a time-wasting phenomenon, but more as a disconnect between intent and action. Flow is a desirable state to be in when you?re working, but you misdirect it at something else, like avoiding a boring task or the pressure of an assessment, you fall down a rabbit hole.

How To Spot a Procrastinator

A study by Ritu Gupta and colleagues in the journal Current Psychology suggests a way for employers to screen applicants for their procrastination tendencies. People who believe in some form of fate or pre-destination?in a hopeless, ?it?s out of my hands? kind of way?are more prone to procrastination, because such people tend to be more neurotic and anxious.

But more surprising, perhaps, is that the other main characteristic of the typical procrastinator is a relatively healthy life outlook. According to the study, people who have a glowing, nostalgic view of their past have a high tendency towards procrastination. This new finding (the study was conducted in 2012) runs opposite to previous research in the field, and scientists don?t yet have a concrete explanation for what seems rather counter-intutive.

Right, back to those cat memes.

The Complete Guide to Procrastinating at Work | Qz.com

Andrea Codrea-Rado covers management and design for Quartz. She is Columbia University's Tow Center digital media fellow. Follow her on Twitter @annacod.

Image via Getty/Maciej Laska.

Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2Iifu8G7tfI/the-complete-guide-to-procrastinating-at-work-477166257

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Best Place To Start A Blog | Content for Reprint

Author: Martie McCabe | Total views: 12 Comments: 0
Word Count: 780 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 3:05 PM

The basic premise of Web marketing is to market your goods and services online. Newcomers may find it tricky to engage Website marketing, but lots of solid advice is available so you can begin your adventure into Internet promotion with safety and success.

Advertise your company on popular websites online. This can make a big difference for exposure. For the most bang for your buck, choose a page with plenty of traffic so that as many people as possible see your company name.

Are you looking for a way to improve your website marketing campaign? Use certain strategies to ensure your customers are aware that your site is secure. Include a privacy policy in the upper right hand corner of your page. These guarantees are a great way to gain the confidence of consumers that are iffy about shopping online. Furthermore, you have an obligation to protect your customers from fraud.

Do your research online for a comparison of different marketing techniques on the best place to start a blog. Check out online communities for business owners, start following marketing blogs, download free e-books, and check out free seminars.

In order to increase ad revenue, customize your site's banners and make them look less like advertisements. Try to make them appear like clickable links to get more content. Most people will not click banners when they see them, so this will entice them to.

Talk with other online retailers to see if any mutual arrangements can be made. This method is very efficient at linking many different markets, which will increase your sales. This strategy is proven effective by the ways that online booking agents bundle vacation packages. This idea is perfect for any company that has linked products that complement each other, but are not seen as competitors.

To boost your site traffic and optimize your site for search engines on how to start blogging, you absolutely must have unique, original and fresh content. This really helps websites that sell products that other websites offer. Traffic won't be generated because you won't rank high at all if you just copy other content. When you have unique and original product descriptions, your site will stand out in the search engines and lead you to higher rankings.

Ask well known and respected individuals in your niche to write articles or do interviews. Before you publish anything, be certain of getting permission. You don't want to suffer legal problems. After you have permission, write the articles from your interviews and submit to online directories. This can get you sales, credibility and more traffic.

Let your users post reviews. The real customer experiences will encourage new sales, and the new content will help drive traffic to your site.

Provide free gifts to go along with purchases of your services and/or products to help customers feel respected. Making customers feel good is often underrated among strategies for Affiliate marketing, so although including free gifts with orders may seem expensive, in the long run having repeat business and loyal customers will pay off.

One tip that everybody should follow is allowing users the option of buying items at wholesale or retail prices; depending on how much they decide to purchase. You will be able to make a profit with wholesale price selling, but this offers a great way to increase product sales.

A feedback box at the bottom of an ad copy can be implemented, allowing consumers to provide you with information as to why they chose not to purchase from you on that day. Their input is valuable because they will let you know if they weren't happy with your available products, your policies or if there was another problem they experienced.

If you have a knack for writing, try writing about your products and business and then submit your articles to websites and magazines. Include your website information along with all your business information. Urge them to give priority to publishing the articles you provide by giving them incentives and commissions.

Create a unique quality website and you will get more visitors. Post something unexpected, like an animated cartoon, a video presentation or a free offer to generate interest. Giving people items that they cannot find anywhere, but your site is a great way to market.

The tips you've just reviewed should give you an excellent idea of how to prepare your online marketing efforts. Effective Website marketing techniques allow your business to grow at a pace you are comfortable with.

Martie McCabe writes articles on internet marketing to help you succeed with how to use blog titles to start your own blog. Visit my blog at http://www.empowernetwork.com/10k/best-place-to-start-a-blog/ where you can find more articles and ideas on how to start an online business from home.

1: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

3: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/best-place-to-start-a-blog.htm

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Family Tree: Six Degrees of Grimes ? The FADER

Grimes lives out of a suitcase most days of the year, but being one of the most talked-about artists in music also makes you a full-time ambassador for your home town. Across musical collaborations with folks like Majical Cloudz and Doldrums and videos by directors like Evan Prosofsky and Emily Kai Bock, Claire Boucher has succeeded in channeling some of the spotlight back onto the particular pocket of the Montreal music community where she found her voice. Seeing as there are a lot of new names coming out of Canada right now, we thought it?d be a cool challenge to figure out how everyone?s connected, from Grimes to the sonically hybrid DIYers surrounding Montreal?s Arbutus Records, the weird music lynchpin that first realized Boucher was doing something special, and branching out from there. Somehow, the web extends as far as Mac DeMarco, Brooke Candy and tUnE-yArDs.

Source: http://www.thefader.com/2013/04/23/family-tree-six-degrees-of-grimes/

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Monday, April 22, 2013

How can I balance ADA with safety concerns? ? Business ...

Q. Can I consider safety when deciding whether to hire a disabled applicant or retain an employee with a disability?

A. An employer may require that an individual not pose a ?direct threat? to the health or safety of herself or others. The ADA regulations define direct threat as a ?significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or others that cannot be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation.? ?

The individual must pose a significant risk, not just a slightly higher risk, based on objective evidence of the following factors:

Duration of the risk
Nature and severity of the potential harm
Likelihood that the potential harm will occur
Imminence of the potential harm.

If an individual poses a direct threat as a result of a disability, determine whether a reasonable accommodation would either eliminate the risk or reduce it to an acceptable level. If no accommodation would either eliminate or reduce the risk, you may refuse to hire an applicant or discharge an employee who poses a direct threat.

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We believe great content should be read and passed around. After all, knowledge IS power. And good business can become great with the right information at their fingertips. If you'd like to share any of the insightful articles on BusinessManagementDaily.com, you may republish or syndicate it without charge.

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Syrian opposition warns Hezbollah to stay out

BEIRUT (AP) ? The Syrian opposition called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country immediately, as activists said regime troops supported by pro-government gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels Sunday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

The Syrian National Coalition ? the main Western-backed opposition group ? warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria's civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to "adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah" and to control the border to "prevent further risks and to protect civilians in the area."

The statement, posted on the Coalition's Facebook page, coincides with a surge in fighting around the contested town of Qusair in Syria's Homs province near the frontier with Lebanon. Over the past two weeks, the Syrian military, supported by pro-regime militia backed by Hezbollah, has pushed to regain control of the border area ? a strategic region because it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It also points to the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, which pits a government dominated by the president's Alawite minority against a primarily Sunni Muslim rebellion, as well as fears that the civil war could drag in neighboring states.

The pro-regime gunmen are members of the Popular Committees, which were set up last year in Syria with Hezbollah's backing to protect Syrian villages inhabited by Lebanese Shiites, although rebels accuse the fighters of attacking opposition villages in the area and fighting alongside government forces.

While Hezbollah confirms backing the Popular Committees, it denies taking part in Syria's civil war.

The fighting along the border region has flared in recent weeks, and on Saturday?government forces captured the villages of Radwaniyeh and Tel al-Nabi Mando. On Sunday, regime forces shelled the villages of Abu Houri, Saqarigh, Nahriyeh and Ein al-Tanour in the Qusair region, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group. It said at least four rebels were killed in the fighting.

Syrian state television said the army was trying to "uproot all the terrorists from the area." The government, which denies it is facing a popular uprising, describes the revolt as a foreign-backed plot and calls those trying to topple it "terrorists."

Lebanon's state-run news agency reported two shells fired from Syria landed Sunday in the town of Hermel near the frontier with Syria, causing material damage but no casualties. A day earlier, two mortar rounds landed in the town for the first time, marking an escalation in violence along the already tense border.

Syria's 2-year-old conflict has repeatedly spilled over into neighboring states, while the violence at home has forced more than 1 million Syrians to escape their homeland to seek safety abroad. Most of the refugees have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, where they have put an immense burden on already cash-strapped governments to cope with huge influx.

In Jordan, police arrested eight Syrians on suspicion of inciting riots at the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp, according to a Jordanian security official who requested anonymity in line with regulations.

About 100 Syrian refugees threw stones at Jordanian police on Friday for preventing some of them from sneaking out of their desert camp. Ten police officers were injured, including two who remain in critical condition.

The security official said a military prosecutor was set to question the eight suspects later Sunday. If convicted, they face up to three years in jail.

The Zaatari camp houses 150,000 Syrian refugees, while another 350,000 Syrians have found shelter in Jordanian communities. Conditions in the overcrowded camp have worsened since it opened last July, and there have been several riots.

In Damascus, a senior Iranian lawmaker on Sunday expressed support for Assad, and said that what he called the U.S.-led battle to oust the Syrian leader had failed.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran's parliamentary?committee on national interest and?foreign policy, said Tehran is "happy that?the U.S., with its abilities and regional allies, has failed despite its efforts" to topple Assad.

"Today, they are the losers in the game, no doubt," Boroujerdi told Iranian state TV ahead of talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

Iran is Syria's chief regional ally.

Al-Moallem repeated the government line that Syria is the victim of a foreign conspiracy hatched by the United States in cooperation with Syria's neighbors. Damascus has previously rebuked Saudi Arabia and Qatar for financing arms purchases to the rebels, and Turkey and Jordan for allowing arms shipments.

The U.S. has long called for Assad to leave power, but for months did not play an active role in backing the rebellion. Recently, however, Washington has grown more assertive, helping cobble together the Syrian National Coalition late last year in the hopes that it could unite the deeply divided opposition and provide a conduit for aid to the rebels.

At an international conference on Saturday in Istanbul that brought together the opposition leadership and its chief international supporters, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Obama administration would double its non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition with an additional $123 million in supplies. That could include for the first time armored vehicles, body armor, night vision goggles and other defensive military supplies, officials said.

The additional aid brings total non-lethal U.S. assistance to the opposition to $250 million since the fighting began more than two years ago. Washington has refused so far to provide weapons to Syria's rebels out of fears they could fall in the hands of extremists.

The U.S. pledge was the only tangible, public offer of new international support at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the 11 main countries supporting the opposition and fell well short of what the opposition has been appealing for: weapons and direct military intervention to stop the violence that has killed more than 70,000 people.

The Syrian National Coalition is seeking drone strikes on sites from which the regime has fired missiles, the imposition of no-fly zones and protected humanitarian corridors to ensure the safety of civilians.

___

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-warns-hezbollah-stay-162204111.html

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

China's Sichuan hit by earthquake, killing 2

BEIJING (AP) ? At least two people were killed Saturday when a powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province near the same area where a devastating quake struck five years ago, with state media warning the casualty toll could climb sharply.

The government's seismological bureau said the quake hit shortly after 8 a.m. in Lushan county in the city of Ya'an, home to China's famous pandas.

The news office for the Sichuan provincial government said on its official microblog account that two people were reported killed in Lushan and that two townships had suffered severe damages.

A state-run China News Service, quoting unnamed local media, said more than 100 people may have been killed or hurt in the earthquake.

The seismological bureau initially measured the quake at magnitude-7, while the U.S. Geological Survey recorded it at 6.6-magnitude, powerful enough to cause severe damage. Its depth was shallow, less than 13 kilometers or 8 miles, which could magnify the impact.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that the quake rattled buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu 115 kilometers, or 70 miles, to the east.

There are reports that the airport in Chengdu was closed shortly after the earthquake, and

State-run China Central Television reported the Chengdu airport was temporarily closed, and that delays and flight cancellations were expected.

Social media users who said they were in Lushan county posted photos of collapsed buildings and reported that water and electricity had been cut off.

A man who answered the phone at the Ya'an city government said telecommunications were cut and that medical and rescue teams are on the way to the area.

"I felt the strong quake this morning in my office. All drawers of the desk opened and some stuff on the table fell on the floor," said the man, who refused to give his name, as is usual with low-ranking Chinese government officials.

The epicenter lies along the same Longmenshan fault where the devastating 7.9-magnitude quake struck in May 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-sichuan-hit-earthquake-killing-2-015533561.html

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Monday, April 15, 2013

How Exercise And Other Activities Beat Back Dementia

An older man performs exercises in Mumbai, India. Research suggests that moderate physical exercise may be the best way to keep our brains healthy as we age.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

An older man performs exercises in Mumbai, India. Research suggests that moderate physical exercise may be the best way to keep our brains healthy as we age.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

The numbers are pretty grim: More than half of all 85-year-olds suffer some form of dementia.

But here's the good news: Brain researchers say there are ways to boost brain power and stave off problems in memory and thinking.

In other words, brain decline is not necessarily an inevitable part of aging. "It's simply not pre-destined for all human beings," Bryan James tells Shots. He's an epidemiologist at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago. "Lots of people live into their 90s and even 100s with no symptoms of dementia."

So what can you do to increase the odds? Neuroscientist Art Kramer, who directs the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, has a number of suggestions. First and foremost, Kramer says, is to exercise. Research shows it's the best thing you can do for your brain.

Kramer did a study in which he scanned the brains of 120 older adults, half of whom started a program of moderate aerobic exercise ? just 45 minutes, three days a week, mostly walking. After a year, the MRI scans showed that for the aerobic group, the volume of their brains actually increased.

What's more, individuals in the control group lost about 1.5 percent of their brain volume, adding up to a 3.5 percent difference between individuals who took part in aerobic exercise and those who did not. Further tests showed that increased brain volume translated into better memory.

The findings support earlier animal research in which rodents that were exercised had a number of favorable physiological changes, Kramer says. They had more new neurons, stronger connections between neurons, and increased blood supply to a number of regions in the brain.

Rachel Whitmer, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, agrees that it's important to exercise your body to ensure the health of your brain. It's not just getting adequate exercise, Whitmer says, it's also "maintaining good blood pressure, levels of cholesterol and a healthy weight," and remembering that "what's good for the heart is good for the brain."

What about mental exercises? Kramer says the evidence isn't nearly as conclusive, but keeping your brain active can't hurt.

The brain loves novelty, so if you do crossword puzzles, try shifting to a different type of puzzle ? Sudoku, for example, he says. Or learn a new language. Play a new instrument.

And go out with friends. James recently published a study looking at the social lives of about 1,100 adults over 80. He asked them about going to restaurants and sporting events, playing bingo, doing volunteer work and other activities.

Individuals were followed for up to 12 years. Those with busy social lives were half as likely to develop dementia, compared with those with minimal social activities.

In another study, James looked at a different measure of activity ? something he calls "life space." He added up how often people got out of their bedroom, went out of their house, traveled out of their neighborhood or out of town. "The people who never left their home ? even though they didn't seem to have any cognitive problems when we started following them ? were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease" over five years, James says.

And finally, there's the popular notion of brain food. There's some evidence suggesting that omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, and antioxidants, like vitamins C and E, found in vegetables, may help nourish the brain.

Putting it all together, Kramer jokingly suggests that the best advice might be to join a book group that walks and drinks red wine while talking about the book. Red wine contains antioxidants, Kramer notes. You'd be discussing a stimulating topic with good friends while exercising your body. "How can you beat it?" he says. "It's got all four!"

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/15/176920391/how-exercise-and-other-activities-beat-back-dementia?ft=1&f=1007

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Press Release: Massive Solar Flare May Disrupt Earth Radio, GPS

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Home / / Massive Solar Flare May Disru... 2013-04-14 14:17:00 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - News Providers News)

/EINPresswire.com/ April 12, 2013 /EIN News/?A massive solar flare has fired particles toward earth that may disrupt radio communications and GPS signals over the next few days. This event can result in a geomagnetic storm as it collides with the magnetosphere. Harmful radiation also results, but will be blocked by the atmosphere. See the article here:

-Massive Solar Flare Article?http://energy.einnews.com/article/145899847

EIN News, a leading media monitoring company, provides in-depth news about space science and developments via a number of news sections, including:

-Solar Flares News Topics?http://solarflares.einnews.com/category/solar-flares-miscellaneous
-NASA News?http://nasa.einnews.com/

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EIN News has developed one of the world?s leading real time news indexing services. Its systems continuously scan the web, indexing news from thousands of worldwide sources. The data is then filtered according to specific needs, and the processes are supervised by a team of professional news editors.

Thousands of industry, government and private institutions rely on EIN News for their media monitoring needs. Combining both intelligent search technologies and the human element, EIN News delivers the most efficient, yet personalized media monitoring, news aggregation and syndication services on the market.

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- EIN Inbox Robot (www.inboxrobot.com), a newsletter service that searches thousands of online sources and delivers results directly to the email inbox of a user or a group of users.

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Source: http://www.caymanmama.com/2013/04/14/Massive-Solar-Flare-May-Disrupt-Earth-Radio-GPS_2013041414644.html

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Phone Number List Issues. - C And C++ | Dream.In.Code

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5 Replies - 51 Views - Last Post: Yesterday, 06:58 PM Rate Topic:

#1 solemnservant ?

Reputation: 0

Posts: 8
Joined: 10-March 13

Posted Yesterday, 06:23 PM

Ok, So technically this program works. My problem is my error message is also displayed when I print the information. Can someone help me figure out how to prevent this from happening?

 /***************************************** Phone Number List ******************************************/  # include <iostream>		// i/o stream header # include <cstring>			// header file needed to use strstr function using namespace std;  /****************** Function Main ******************/ int main () { 	const int num = 11;		// num holds 11 contacts 	const int length = 100;		// Maximum allowable charactersfor each line is 100  	//  Array contacts[][] holds 11 contacts with phone numbers 	char contacts[num][length] = {   "Becky Warren, 555-1223",  									 "Joe Looney, 555-0097", 									 "Geri Palmer, 555-8787",  									 "Lynn Presnell, 555-1212", 									 "Holly Gaddis, 555-8878",  									 "Sam Wiggins, 555-0998", 									 "Bob Kain, 555-8712",  									 "Tim Haynes, 555-7676", 									 "Warren Gaddis, 555-9037",  									 "Jean James, 555-4949", 									 "Ron Palmer, 555-2783"};  	char search[length];		//Array search[] holds user's input 								//and searches inside the array contacts[][] 	char *IdContact = NULL;		// IdContact points to the user's query inside array contacts[][] 	int index;		// loop counter 	 	//Prompts user to search for contacts 	cout << "To search for your contact's number please enter a name or partial name of the person.\n"; 	cin.getline(search, length);		//user's input 	 	//Searches array for matching substring 	for (index = 0; index < num; index++) 	{ 		IdContact = strstr(contacts[index], search); 			if (IdContact != NULL) 			{ 				cout << contacts[index];		//prints all possible contacts with in the string 				 			} 			 	}  	//if no matches are found, display error message; 	if (IdContact == NULL) 				cout << "Sorry, No matches were found!"; 	return 0; }

Is This A Good Question/Topic? 0

Replies To: Phone number List issues.

#2 Skydiver ?

Reputation: 1779

Posts: 5,304
Joined: 05-May 12

Re: Phone number List issues.

Posted Yesterday, 06:37 PM

Your condition on line 52 is incorrect. You should remember between lines 45-47 that you printed out at least one match.

#3 solemnservant ?

Reputation: 0

Posts: 8
Joined: 10-March 13

Re: Phone number List issues.

Posted Yesterday, 06:44 PM

Ok thanks, I check it out. I also got help on another board and it seems like after adding a bool flag during the search it fixed my problems.

#4 Skydiver ?

Reputation: 1779

Posts: 5,304
Joined: 05-May 12

Re: Phone number List issues.

Posted Yesterday, 06:46 PM

Yup. Use of a bool flag is one way of remembering that you found a match.

#5 solemnservant ?

Reputation: 0

Posts: 8
Joined: 10-March 13

Re: Phone number List issues.

Posted Yesterday, 06:46 PM

This is what got it to work:

/***************************************** A D.I.C Head 4/14/13 Phone Number List ******************************************/  # include <iostream>		// i/o stream header # include <cstring>			// header file needed to use strstr function using namespace std;  /****************** Function Main ******************/ int main () { 	bool found = false;		// flag to find if contact was found 	const int num = 11;		// num holds 11 contacts 	const int length = 100;		// Maximum allowable charactersfor each line is 100  	//  Array contacts[][] holds 11 contacts with phone numbers 	char contacts[num][length] = {   "Becky Warren, 555-1223",  									 "Joe Looney, 555-0097", 									 "Geri Palmer, 555-8787",  									 "Lynn Presnell, 555-1212", 									 "Holly Gaddis, 555-8878",  									 "Sam Wiggins, 555-0998", 									 "Bob Kain, 555-8712",  									 "Tim Haynes, 555-7676", 									 "Warren Gaddis, 555-9037",  									 "Jean James, 555-4949", 									 "Ron Palmer, 555-2783"};  	char search[length];		//Array search[] holds user's input 								//and searches inside the array contacts[][] 	char *IdContact = NULL;		// IdContact points to the user's query inside array contacts[][] 	int index;		// loop counter 	 	//Prompts user to search for contacts 	cout << "To search for your contact's number please enter a name or partial name of\nthe person.\n"; 	cin.getline(search, length);		//user's input 	 	//Searches array for matching substring 	for (index = 0; index < num; index++) 	{ 		IdContact = strstr(contacts[index], search); 			if (IdContact != NULL) 			{ 				cout << contacts[index] <<endl;		//prints all possible contacts with in the string 				found = true;	//set the flag 			} 	}  	//if flagged as false, no matches are found and error message is displayed; 	if (!found) 				cout << "Sorry, No matches were found!"; 	return 0; }

This post has been edited by Skydiver: Yesterday, 07:54 PM
Reason for edit:: Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

#6 solemnservant ?

Reputation: 0

Posts: 8
Joined: 10-March 13

Re: Phone number List issues.

Posted Yesterday, 06:58 PM

Page 1 of 1

Source: http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/318529-phone-number-list-issues/

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Deadly Taliban attack targets elite unit in Afghanistan

The 13 soldiers killed were members of Afghanistan's Third Battalion, one of only a small number of Afghan Army units rated as fully self-sufficient by the US military.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / April 12, 2013

Pigeons surround Afghan men kneeling down for Friday payers near the Pul-e Khishti mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday. Taliban militants attacked an Afghan army outpost near the eastern border with Pakistan on Friday, killing over a dozen Afghan National Army soldiers, the Defense Ministry said.

Ahmad Jamshid/AP

Enlarge

?A Taliban attack killed 13 Afghan soldiers Friday at a remote Army outpost in the eastern province of Kunar, underscoring the rising challenges that face the country?s Army as foreign troops withdraw over the coming year.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Venezuela election: Is a vote for the opposition a vote against your mother?

A pro-government campaign slogan ahead of Sunday's presidential election underscores the focus on a key constituency of former president Ch?vez, who said there could be no socialism without feminism.?

By Whitney Eulich,?Staff writer / April 13, 2013

A pregnant woman displays the slogan "My future is safe with Maduro" at a rally for acting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday, April 9 in the run-up for Sunday's election.

Ramon Espinosa/AP

Enlarge

Caracas, Venezuela; and Boston

If you vote for the opposition, you don?t love your mother ? at least according to one bold pro-government slogan in the leadup to Venezuela?s presidential election tomorrow.

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What may sound like a schoolyard jab in fact touches on an important legacy of former President Hugo Ch?vez?s 14-year administration: Poor women were some of the main beneficiaries of the charismatic socialist leader?s welfare programs. Mr. Ch?vez created scores of social missions, which brought services like adult literacy education, subsidized food, and free healthcare into many low-income neighborhoods ? and, in the process, gave many women more influence and even political power.

?There is a before and after Ch?vez when it comes to women in Venezuela,? says Mercedes Chac?n, editor-in-chief of CCS, a Caracas-based pro-Ch?vez daily.

?The awakening of [poor] women started under chavismo,? she says.

Although the ?mama? slogan implies that?voting for someone other than Ch?vez?s handpicked successor, Nicol?s Maduro, could put these programs at risk, both Mr. Maduro and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles say they don?t plan to dismantle Ch?vez?s social missions, which were created by presidential decree and funded by petrodollars. But high inflation, lagging oil production, and issues of cash flow?could mean changes may be unavoidable.

'Central protagonists'

Ch?vez?s Bolivarian revolution emphasized grassroots political change, and social programs like the missions were an attempt not only?to lift up the poor, but also to engage them in the political process. The execution was often far from perfect ? many programs were thrown together on the fly or left underfunded. At times Bolivarian missions were redundant and added a layer of bureaucracy or space for corruption.

Trusted government statistics and program impact evaluations are difficult to come by, but to communities that for generations had felt excluded or ignored, the acknowledgement of their existence and needs was a tide change.

Mothers exchange ideas

Every Tuesday afternoon in El Valle, a poor barrio in the southern part of Venezuela?s capital Caracas, some 200 women gather to discuss everything from access to healthcare and clean water to dealing with sewage. They are beneficiaries of the Madres del Barrio mission, which provides financial support and a space to share concerns for mothers living in extreme poverty.

?My life changed socially, economically, politically [under Ch?vez],? says Nancy Contreras, a mother of two.

?Now I can talk in public, I can say what I feel. Before I couldn?t,? she says.

Ms. Contreras says she and her neighbors are ordinary women and housewives turned community leaders. Whatever issues come up in the barrio, they discuss them during the meeting and find solutions.

?We all share our thoughts. We talk of what we need and what we can improve in our neighborhoods,? says another mother, Nancy Hern?ndez.

?Ch?vez made popular women central protagonists in his politics,? says Sujatha Fernandes, an associate professor of sociology at Queens College in New York and author of ?Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Ch?vez?s Venezuela.? The government put up billboards representing mostly poor and mixed race women as social workers and doctors, for example. ?It was really important in giving women a sense of what they could achieve in life.?

He tapped into established feminist movements in 1999 when rewriting the Constitution, including articles that guaranteed equal treatment for men and women and recognized domestic labor as an economic contribution. He even famously said there could be no socialism without feminism.

Targeting low-income women wasn?t an accident under chavismo. For starters, women tend to outvote men in Venezuela, says Rachel Elfenbein, a scholar at Canada?s Simon Fraser University. Ms. Elfenbein has spent the last year and a half studying an article in Venezuela?s Constitution that recognizes unpaid housework as economic activity, entitling citizens to social security.

And Ch?vez was wildly popular with the poor and working classes, who were long excluded by the two parties that dominated politics. Through this base, Ch?vez was able to clinch four presidential election victories in 14 years. Just under half of Venezuela?s poorest people are women, according to the World Bank, and this share of the population stood to gain the most from welfare changes.

?In the absence of the state it is often women who take on social responsibilities? like searching for water, caring for the health and education of family members, and putting food on the table, says Elfenbein.

?[Poor] women and men experienced chavismo differently because of the different gender roles in society,? she says.

Decisionmaking

Poor women not only benefited from missions, but served as their vital backbone. The government was able to engage neighborhood women in the distribution of services and rolling out missions, and in return, often received free labor.

?In a lot of communities it?s women holding these programs up,? says Elfenbein, while noting that their involvement has not necessarily created pathways into the formal labor force, or toward greater gender equality.

?I think the difficulty is that the political empowerment hasn?t necessarily been accompanied by providing other means of real economic empowerment,? says Claudia Piras, an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank who focuses on gender, labor markets, and entrepreneurship in Latin America. ?Like increasing not only their rights but their means to really be able to participate in the labor force and have better jobs and a more decent living.?

For example, Venezuela has one of the largest gaps between men and women with bank accounts at formal financial institutions. There is a 16.9 percent difference in the number of female and male account holders, compared to the average of 9 percent in Latin American and Caribbean countries as a whole, according to the World Bank.?

Though female participation in government programs was noticeably high under chavismo ? take the 200-woman turnout a week for Madres del Barrio in El Valle ? the inherent locus of decisionmaking power did not noticeably shift.

?I would sit in on a health committee meeting in the barrio San Agustin, and there would be 35 women and two men,? says Ms. Fernandes. But??the two men were the [ones] making the big decisions.??

?The structure of the patriarchy is still present,? she says.?

And Elfenbein points out that despite the chorus of chavista women celebrating their increased voice during the Ch?vez era, there is a built-in hurdle to being critical of the government.?

?When you?re reliant on the government for social benefits for the survival or your household, how free are you going to feel? ? Would they feel free to discuss how the government isn?t meeting their needs in front of government authorities? I don?t know.?

On a national level, the image of a male-controlled society is visible in the national assembly, where less than 20 percent of the elected representatives are female. And only four of Venezuela?s 24 states have female governors. But three out of the five branches of government have female appointees heading the judicial, electoral, and so-called citizen branches. Several women also direct ministries, including Edm?e Bentacourt, the minister of trade, and Nancy P?rez, who heads the ministry of women, created in 2009.

An opportunity?

Maduro, Ch?vez's choice to succeed him, is believed to have a leg up in tomorrow's election with a strong sympathy vote and access to state media reflected in his average 16-point lead, calculated in early April. But neither he nor Capriles has Ch?vez?s charisma.

Maduro might create an initiative, says Fernandes, ?but without Ch?vez there to inspire and motivate the masses, participation could drop.?

There?s another lens through which to view the future, however. Without Ch?vez dominating the conversation, a new political sphere may yield fresh opportunities at the community level, Fernandes says:??A new kind of decisionmaking could open up.? ?

The next administration could present ?a real opportunity,? says Elfenbein. ?Chavez was an amazing catalyst for the Bolivarian process, but he was also the Achilles heel.?

It?s unclear, she says, to what extent women were ?participating in political decisionmaking versus showing up at marches, rolling out social programs, and filling a seat.?

?This is an opportunity not to rely on the president, but to rely on their own power and their own organizing to achieve political change.?

? Irene Caselli contributed reporting from Caracas.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hZKZTfqtelc/Venezuela-election-Is-a-vote-for-the-opposition-a-vote-against-your-mother

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I hate the Nexus 4 Wireless Charger

About a month ago I picked up an LG Nexus 4. I've known Android for some time, but until buying the Nexus 4 I'd yet to actually own an Android handset. While Android has surprised me in some areas and frustrated me in others, that's not what I'm here to talk about today. Nope, I'm here to talk about the Nexus 4 Wireless Charger and how much I hate it.

The photo above was taken approximately five minutes after I'd carefully and deliberately set my Nexus 4 onto the Wireless Charger to, well, wirelessly charge. And it did. The move to get from being positioned centered on the charger to resting on its side with the charger as a glorified kickstand was smooth and quiet. It went entirely unnoticed as I sat not two feet away, working on my computer. Not until I looked over to see if it had stayed in position did I discover that it in fact had not.

Normally my Nexus 4 just slips down half an inch or so until it's no longer optimally positioned on the charger and no longer taking a charge through the ether. Sometimes it also lists slightly to the right, but only by ten degrees or so. After I took that photo, rolled my eyes, and posted it to Twitter, I carried on with my work, curious to see where the Nexus 4 would slide to next. Five minutes later, my typing was interrupted by a soft thunk - gravity had finally conspired to pull the phone entirely off the charger and it was now resting flat on its back on my desk.