Exec, The Mobile App For Errands, Adds Messaging (Oh, And Sam Altman Led Their Round)

Exec, which is kind of like Uber-meets-Taskrabbit, is overhauling its product today. It's adding iMessages-like functionality to the app that makes it easier for customers to sync up with the people running their errands. The app, which comes from a veteran team of Y Combinator alums including Justin.tv co-founder Justin Kan, can call up people (called "Execs") to run basic errands instantaneously. There's no bidding process and it costs $25 an hour for everything from delivering flowers to housecleaning and other odd jobs. The app has looked pretty basic for awhile in the "Get Shit Done" spirit of the company. But the team found it needed more. "Basically, one thing we realized after doing a couple thousand jobs is that people want more communication with their execs," Kan said. "People want to know what's going on when the jobs are happening. The basic idea is to have execs send updates on their jobs very quickly."?As for the service itself, Kan says there are about 100 "Execs" running errands in San Francisco. He's focused on improving specific use cases like cleaning.

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6 Fun Board Games for Preschoolers to Play with the Family ...

Board games for preschoolers are a fun way for the family to sit and play together.? Most board games for young kids are very easy to learn and play, and with bright colors and fun objectives the child can stay engaged long enough to finish a game.? One of the things that makes for a good board game for kids is an ability to have a little competition, but not so much that a preschooler cannot have a good time.? Another thing that makes for a good family board game is for a little complexity that will keep a parent willing to keep playing over and over again.

These six board games provide fun for preschoolers and parents alike due to their look, feel, and fun objectives.

Candy Land

Candy Land has been one of the most popular board games for preschoolers for decades.? The rules are as simple as it gets.? The board consists of a trail of square colors, and players take turns turning over cards that tell which space to move to.

Why This is a Good Board Game For Preschoolers: No reading is required to play Candy Land.? All they have to do it draw a card, look at the color on the card, and move to the next space with that color.? Candy Land also is a race, which in my experience has always been the easiest way to have kids show a competitive spirit.? There are also some fun characters on the game board which provide a break from the colored squares.

Chutes and Ladders

Chutes and Ladders is a board game that consists of a grid of 100 squares with slides (chutes) and ladders that help the players move quickly from one square to another. The game has a spinner with numbers 1-6 that tell how many spaces to move. If the player lands on a ladder, they get to move ahead a few spaces.? If the player lands on a chute, they have to move back a few spaces.? Each of the ladders displays a child doing something good, and each of the chutes displays a child doing something bad.? Some kids might pick up on that, other might not.

Chutes and Ladders can take a while to play, which can be frustrating, especially if no one can successfully navigate through the chutes on the last row of spaces.? But overall it is a quality game.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Chutes and Ladders uses numbers to tell the players how far to move, which helps kids learn to count.? The grid also uses a snake-like pattern when moving up the board which requires a little bit of critical thinking, especially for younger players.? It is also exciting when they get to move up a ladder, and very exciting when mom or dad has to slide down a chute.

Trouble

Trouble is a fun board game in which players race around the board to get their four pegs from Start into Home.? The catch is that if you land on another player's piece, that piece has to go back to Start.? But if someone else lands on your piece, then your piece has to go back to Start.?

There is a popper in the middle of the board with a die.? When the popper is depressed, the die pops and the player must move however many spaces shown on the die.? It is a fun alternative to simply rolling a die.

Another fun aspect of the game of Trouble is that there are alternative forms of the game.? Whether it is with the character of Cars, Star Wars, or Dinosaur Train, kids can have fun with this game with their favorite characters from TV or movies.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Trouble involves counting after pressing the popper.? Kids also learn how to read a die, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but it can be a little confusing at first.? The game involves an exciting race around the board; a race that typically comes down to the wire.? Kids also enjoy landing on a peg of their opponent.

The Ladybug Game

The Ladybug Game is a fun board game in which players race their ladybug tokens around the board while trying to accumulate cardboard aphids that allow them to pass by certain spaces.? There is a stack of cards that are drawn that direct the players on what to do.? Much like Candy Land, there is no strategy to speak of.? You simply follow the directions on the card and hope for the best.? One thing I have started doing with my child is trading certain cards for aphids.? That way there is some sort of thinking and strategy that happens.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: The Ladybug Game is bright and colorful and of course features a "fun" bug with the ladybug.? Quite a bit of counting is involved in The Ladybug Game, whether it is the spaces around the board or the aphids that must be collected.

Horton Hears a Who

The Horton Hears a Who board game is a spinoff of the popular Dr. Seuss book and movie. This is a very fun game for preschoolers for primarily one reason, the elephant mask that must be worn.? The game begins with 6 colored clovers that are hidden around the room.? The nose of the elephant mask has a piece of velcro, and the players must put on the mask, find the needed clover, and pick up the clover with the mask.? Sounds crazy?? It kind of is.? It's not the most comfortable game for adults to play, but I've never seen a kid that didn't like it.? There is an actual board game aspect of the game, but it is secondary to the finding of the clovers.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: The Horton Hears a Who board game is fun for the exact reasons you might think it is fun.? Look at the elephant mask in the picture.? This is a hard game for kids to resist.

Five Little Monkeys

The Five Little Monkeys board game is more involved than you might think at first sight, but what gets preschoolers wanting to play is the bed.? The bed is pressed down, and during play the players place their tokens on the bed.? After each turn, a red button is pushed, and after a certain amount of button presses, the bed pops up and sends some of the tokens to the ground.? It makes a loud pop and makes a big mess.? A perfect recipe for preschool board game fun.

Why This is a Good Board Game for Preschoolers: Five Little Monkeys uses a spinner which helps with counting.? There are also small tokens that must be collected, which requires some thinking on the part of the player.? But most of all, kids like this game because of the bed.

Board games are great ways for families to spend time with their preschoolers.? A good board game for preschoolers to play with the family can lead to fun afternoons or evenings that everyone will enjoy.

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OBAMA AND THE CHOOM GANG | Weekly World News

President Barack Obama?s pot smoking days have been given the Taiwanese animation treatment.

The prolific company, called Next Media Animation, has used an unpublished biography of the President?s younger years as the basis of their latest cartoon salacious re-enactment.

David Maraniss? book, the yet-unreleased ?Barack Obama: The Story?, reveals how?a teen Obama and his friends formed The Choom Gang ? slang for smoking marijuana ? in which he invented inhaling techniques and rode a car called the Choomwagon.

The 2-minute animated clip takes inspiration from Mr Maraniss? research about Mr Obama when he was a teenager in 1970s Hawaii.

Playing on the acronym for the President?s nickname, the clip is titled ?Obama and marijuana: POT-us dope-smoking daze revealed.?

It shows him sitting in the Oval Office, frustrated at the stagnant economy, and quickly an imaginary pot dragon wisks him away to his high school days in the Choomwagon.

He and his buddies proceed to take strong hits off of a bong before racing eachother in cars while high.

The dream ends when one friend flips over his car- which Mr Maraniss asserts as a truth in his book- and Mr Obama wakes up, rolling on the floor of the Oval Office. The first lady?s back is to the camera and she glares at her disobedient husband before he sobers up.

The revelations about young Barry?s drug use come weeks after Mr Maraniss released an excerpt about his college girlfriend and their sex life.

Though the President has disclosed his drug use in previous statements- including a portion of his memoir- the new details may surprise some because of the extent of his usage.

Among his friends, Mr Obama was considered the rule maker of the pot-smoking group. One was ?total absorption? or ?TA?, the rules of which stated that if you exhaled early, ?you were assessed a penalty and your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around.?

Another idea was ?Roof Hits? ? rolling up car windows to stop smoke blowing out and going to waste.

?\?Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated,?\? an old school friend told the author.

Maraniss goes on to reveal he was known for his ?interceptions? when a joint was being passed around.

?He often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted ?intercepted?, and took an extra hit,? he writes.

The anecdotes are from Obama?s time studying at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii and Occidental College in Los Angeles.

One of Obama?s friends, Mark Bendix, had a Volkswagen microbus that they called ?the Choomwagon?, the book continues, and they would use it to drive up?Mount Tantalus in Honolulu.

Once parked, they??turned up their stereos playing Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult and Stevie Wonder, lit up some ?sweet-sticky Hawaiian buds? and washed it down with ?green bottled beer? (the Choom Gang preferred Heineken, Becks, and St. Pauli Girl).?

The book also documents Obama?s early democratic leanings, explaining that the group operated by concensus and any member could veto a suggestion.

?Whenever an idea was broached, someone could hold up his hand in the V sign (a backward peace sign of that era) and indicate that the motion was not approved?

Lydia Warren and Meghan Keneally?
Daily Mail

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Daily Nutrition Supplement For Women Healthy And Well Balanced ...

Due to responsibilities at home and workplace women more easily than men grow careless about their health, that is why there is great need to take daily nutrition supplement for women. If any women thinks that she needs to take additional nutrition supplement after an age or when she starts feeling weak and her systems get slower than probably she is grossly wrong. The reason behind this is that it really does not matter how healthy and nourishing diet a woman takes unless, she takes it regularly and without failing even for few days and compliment the diet with regular exercises and proper rest and sleep, her body is going to get weak and internal systems slow and sluggish.

Apart from daily routine different phases of a woman's life like pregnancy, child care and menopause affect internal systems and weaken the body substantially.

Regular menstruation cycle is necessary part of every woman's life during reproductive age but even slight disturbances and problems related to these can lead to deficiencies and disorders which may not show symptoms initially but creep up later to cause problems. Healthy diet, regular exercises and proper rest is not possible always and regularly hence there is serious need to take daily nutrition supplement for women.

Daily nutrition supplements are not just to cure deficiencies or to provide extra energy but also to counter ill-effects of irregular diet, unhealthy diet, irregular sleeping pattern, stress at home or at work place, lack of exercises and phases of life. Body needs regular and well balanced supplementation of vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, fats and minerals to stay energetic and healthy, exercises, regular physical activity and proper rest ensure absorption of these in the body, in absence of any of these, body suffers and organs get weaker and slower.

Daily nutrition supplements ensure supplementation of all the vital nutrients in proper balance and also ensure absorption of these in the body so a woman does not have to worry about diet, exercise and sleep always and still remain healthy, younger and fit for longer period in life. To support the body and health one needs to take daily nutrition supplement for women.

Daily nutrition supplements for women are not only extremely helpful in staying healthy and fit but also resolve many cosmetic concerns. The effects of these supplements which improve blood flow and strengthen digestive, urinary and reproductive system prevent signs of ageing and problems like early graying of hairs, wrinkles, loose and dull skin and loss of luster of skin every effectively. With balanced supplementation of nutrients and their proper absorption the internal systems stay active and high on energy and keep body toxin free to maintain proper and healthy hormonal balance which keeps stress, anxiety, depression and other psychological problems at bay.

Daily nutrition supplements for women have been found beneficial in removing dark, spots acne marks and other blemishes on the skin too. Medically it has been found that women who have been in good health during reproductive years do not face many problems during pre-menopause or post-menopause and these phases pass very easily.

Read about Energy Supplements for Women.

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Former Liberian leader Taylor jailed for 50 years

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Angry Birds and PES 2012 join Skype: won't work on Windows Phones with 256MB RAM (updated)

Putting the squeeze on those hardware specifications has lead to several more app casualties on Microsoft's ever-growing mobile platform. Unfortunately, it includes one of mobile gaming's biggest hitters: Angry Birds. We gave installation a go on our own Lumia 610 and were met with the unfortunate message seen above. According to WindowsPhoneApps Spanish, it's not the only one affected by the reduction in RAM on these lower-priced smartphones. PES 2012 won't run on the lower-specced smartphone, while videocall app Tango also joins its rival Skype on the no-go list.

Update: Nokia's confirmed that Rovio is, indeed, working on an optimized version of Angry Birds for the Lumia 610, though an exact release date is still up in the air.

Angry Birds and PES 2012 join Skype: won't work on Windows Phones with 256MB RAM (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 May 2012 06:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tool-wielding robots crawl in bodies for surgery

In this April 18, 2012, photo, Carnegie Mellon University professor Howie Choset, right, stands beside a robot as staff researcher Florinan Enner uses a controller to demonstrate how it climbs up a tubular armature at their lab on campus in Pittsburgh. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer and other diseased organs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this April 18, 2012, photo, Carnegie Mellon University professor Howie Choset, right, stands beside a robot as staff researcher Florinan Enner uses a controller to demonstrate how it climbs up a tubular armature at their lab on campus in Pittsburgh. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer and other diseased organs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this April 18, 2012, photo, Carnegie Mellon University professor Howie Choset, right, stands behind a robot as staff researcher Florinan Enner uses a controller to demonstrate how it moves at their lab on campus in Pittsburgh. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer and other diseased organs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this April 18, 2012, photo, Carnegie Mellon University professor Howie Choset stands behind a robot demonstrating how it climbs up a tubular armature at their lab on campus in Pittsburgh. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer and other diseased organs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

This April 18, 2012, photo made with a fisheye lens shows one of the robots being developed at Carnegie Mellon University penetrating a model of a heart in Pittsburgh. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer and other diseased organs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? Imagine a tiny snake robot crawling through your body, helping a surgeon identify diseases and perform operations.

It's not science fiction. Scientists and doctors are using the creeping metallic tools to perform surgery on hearts, prostate cancer, and other diseased organs. The snakebots carry tiny cameras, scissors and forceps, and even more advanced sensors are in the works. For now, they're powered by tethers that humans control. But experts say the day is coming when some robots will roam the body on their own.

"It won't be very long before we have robots that are nanobots, meaning they will actually be inside the body without tethers," said Dr. Michael Argenziano, the Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Argenziano was involved with some of the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials on robotic heart surgery more than 10 years ago. Now he says snake robots have become a commonly used tool that gives surgeons a whole new perspective.

"It's like the ability to have little hands inside the patients, as if the surgeon had been shrunken, and was working on the heart valve," he said.

But Argenziano and experts in robotics say the new creations work best when they're designed for very specific tasks. "The robot is a tool. It is no different in that sense than a scalpel. It's really a master-slave device," he said.

Howie Choset has been researching and building robots, particularly snake robots, at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University for years.

Choset believes that his snake robot and others like it help reduce medical costs by making complex surgeries faster and easier. Choset says his new design is smaller and more flexible than earlier models: The diameter of the head is less than the size of a dime.

The size of surgical robots allows surgeons to operate with far less damage to the body, helping the patient heal faster. For example, instead of opening the entire chest up during heart surgery, a small incision is made, and the robot crawls inside to the proper spot.

Dr. Ashutosh Tewari of Cornell University Medical Center has used robotic tools to perform thousands of prostate operations. He said the precision of the tiny robotic tool is vital not just to cutting out cancerous tumors, but to seeing exactly what nerves to leave intact.

Tewari said he's most excited about the potential for surgical robots to do things humans can't do. He said the variety of sensors available for surgical robots keeps expanding, even as they get smaller. He said they may one day be able to test chemicals or blood in the body, or even the electrical connections in nerves.

Argenziano noted that robots aren't a magic cure. "The robot is good at certain things and it's not good at other things," he said. Some studies have found that the cost effectiveness of surgical robots varies greatly. In smaller hospitals, the high cost of purchasing and maintaining a robot may not make sense.

Choset has also built larger snake robots designed for search and rescue, or just exploration. They can climb poles or trees and then look around through a camera in the head, and slither through places humans can't reach.

"We sent our snake robots into these caves off the coast of the Red Sea to look for evidence of ancient Egyptian ships," he said. "To me archaeology is like search and rescue, but everyone's been dead for 5,000 years," reducing the pressure.

Another expert at Carnegie Mellon stresses that there's still an enormous gap between humans and even the most high-tech robots. Manuela Velosa noted that robots have been built that excel at one or two tasks ? but not at the variety of tasks humans perform without even thinking.

Velosa has been building robots that ask humans for help when they don't know what to do, as well as teams of robots that play soccer against each other. Sometimes, the robots surprise her.

During one soccer game against robots from another university, the Carnegie Mellon team scored on a particular play. That sent a positive signal to the robot's computers, which are designed to reward success and discourage failures in the game.

Her robots then tried the play again ? and scored again. It turned out they had discovered a programing flaw in the other team of robots, just like some sports teams find a flaw in their opponents.

In the second half Velosa's robot's kept using the same play, scoring every time, and thus reinforcing the tendency to try the play over and over. The robots crushed the other team.

"It was programmed by me, but it looked to me as if they learned," she said. "I believe we are much closer to having robots be able to coexist with humans. The beautiful thing is you see the robots learning.

Associated Press

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SIP Phones ? a brief history and overview of features and options

This article has been viewed 9 times.

As the world shrinks and the internet allows global communication for practically no money whatsoever, the telecommunication standards of the past are falling by the wayside, and this is as true a statement to make about the traditional landline telephone as any device. The decline of the land line phone is primarily because of the growing popularity and considerable benefits offered by VoIP services and particularly SIP Phones. VoIP services are ideal not just for individual users but also for small and large businesses alike, and as more and more people switch to using SIP Phones and VoIP services it?s essential to equip yourself with the knowledge that will allow you to deal with these new technologies.
What is a SIP Phone?

SIP is an acronym which means Session Initiation Protocol, and is basically a service which allows two people or indeed large groups to communicate vocally and visually over their broadband internet connections. A SIP Phone then is simply a device which facilitates this communication, allowing voice and video conferencing and requiring specific software and hardware to get the job done. Calls between two users using a SIP phone are almost always free no matter where they are in the world, and VoIP services also allow their users to connect to old PSTN land line networks for minimal costs per minute. The other great thing about using a SIP phone is that it is of course a protocol that transfers the voice signals digitally so there is the opportunity for crystal clear conversations between a caller in Durham to a caller in Delhi.
Softphone or Hardware Device?

There are two ways in which a user can enjoy the benefits of VoIP, the first being through a software solution using a PC with a broadband internet connection and a headset attached to the PC?s sound card. A Softphone usually refers to a piece of software which facilitates VoIP calling and also has the features of a regular phone, represented graphically onscreen. VoIP services like Skype offer Softphone functionality as well as more complex VoIP and instant messaging services. Alternatively there is hardware specifically designed to use SIP telephony without the need for a computer, and this will usually come in the form of a unit which will very much resemble the style of older phone technologies. However, a hardware SIP Phone should give you all the same functionality of a Softphone program, though you will of course need a broadband internet connection to take advantage of the technology.
Benefits for Small Business

As with any advancement in the world of telecommunications it is not just the big businesses who can reap the immediate benefits of SIP phones as there is a lot to appeal to the small business owner. Using a SIP phone and VoIP calling can help reduce the cost of your phone bills to virtually zero, allowing customers to call you for free and allowing you to expand your business online without having to fork out piles of money. You can also top up a SIP phone account with extra minutes to call any other PSTN phone in the world at a fraction of the cost of a call from another PSTN land line.

For a large selection of 03 numbers, 0300 Numbers, 0330 Numbers, 0800 Numbers, 0845 Numbers, 0871 Numbers, 0808 numbers, 0844 Numbers, premium rate numbers and Freephone Numbers please click on the ?numbers? link above.

HTML Ready Article You Can Place On Your Site. (do not remove any attribution to source or author) <title>Articles Location | SIP Phones ? a brief history and overview of features and options</title><h3>SIP Phones ? a brief history and overview of features and options</h3><p>By: Kieron James</p><p>As the world shrinks and the internet allows global communication for practically no money whatsoever, the telecommunication standards of the past are falling by the wayside, and this is as true a statement to make about the traditional landline telephone as any device. The decline of the land line phone is primarily because of the growing popularity and considerable benefits offered by VoIP services and particularly SIP Phones. VoIP services are ideal not just for individual users but also for small and large businesses alike, and as more and more people switch to using SIP Phones and VoIP services it's essential to equip yourself with the knowledge that will allow you to deal with these new technologies. <br />What is a SIP Phone? </p><p>SIP is an acronym which means Session Initiation Protocol, and is basically a service which allows two people or indeed large groups to communicate vocally and visually over their broadband internet connections. A SIP Phone then is simply a device which facilitates this communication, allowing voice and video conferencing and requiring specific software and hardware to get the job done. Calls between two users using a SIP phone are almost always free no matter where they are in the world, and VoIP services also allow their users to connect to old PSTN land line networks for minimal costs per minute. The other great thing about using a SIP phone is that it is of course a protocol that transfers the voice signals digitally so there is the opportunity for crystal clear conversations between a caller in Durham to a caller in Delhi. <br />Softphone or Hardware Device? </p><p>There are two ways in which a user can enjoy the benefits of VoIP, the first being through a software solution using a PC with a broadband internet connection and a headset attached to the PC's sound card. A Softphone usually refers to a piece of software which facilitates VoIP calling and also has the features of a regular phone, represented graphically onscreen. VoIP services like Skype offer Softphone functionality as well as more complex VoIP and instant messaging services. Alternatively there is hardware specifically designed to use SIP telephony without the need for a computer, and this will usually come in the form of a unit which will very much resemble the style of older phone technologies. However, a hardware SIP Phone should give you all the same functionality of a Softphone program, though you will of course need a broadband internet connection to take advantage of the technology. <br />Benefits for Small Business </p><p>As with any advancement in the world of telecommunications it is not just the big businesses who can reap the immediate benefits of SIP phones as there is a lot to appeal to the small business owner. Using a SIP phone and VoIP calling can help reduce the cost of your phone bills to virtually zero, allowing customers to call you for free and allowing you to expand your business online without having to fork out piles of money. You can also top up a SIP phone account with extra minutes to call any other PSTN phone in the world at a fraction of the cost of a call from another PSTN land line. </p><p>For a large selection of 03 numbers, 0300 Numbers, 0330 Numbers, 0800 Numbers, 0845 Numbers, 0871 Numbers, 0808 numbers, 0844 Numbers, premium rate numbers and Freephone Numbers please click on the "numbers" link above. </p><p><b>Article Courtesy of</b> Articles Location<br /></p>

This article was prepared for you by Kieron James, one of our 'Authors'.
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Come Saturday Morning: Scott Walker?s Texas Deer Czar: Hunting as We Know It = ?Communism?

I found out from a Sconnie friend of mine that, to my great astonishment, many Wisconsinites ? particularly those living in prime hunting areas ? don?t know about the beliefs and comments of Scott Walker?s hand-picked deer czar, Dr. James Kroll, who Walker imported from Texas:

As reported in Lodi Valley News, Walker has hired Texan Dr. James Kroll to serve as Wisconsin?s ?deer czar,? a position that gives Kroll considerable power over Wisconsin?s deer management policy. Kroll is an outspoken proponent of game farms, and an opponent of public lands and public game management, which he is on record as describing as ?the last bastion of communism.?

The public lands Kroll despises include the state parks, state and national forests, and other publicly held property that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites?particularly in the northern part of the state?rely on for deer hunting. Hunters on public land may be surprised to discover that Walker regards their annual trek into a state forest as a radical left wing activity akin to marching in a May Day parade in Red Square. But so it is.

If Kroll gets his way, public land hunters will get the shaft. The deer herd no longer would be managed as a public resource, but as the private property of wealthy landowners. Wisconsin will become like Europe, where hunting is the privilege of the wealthy.

In Wisconsin and Minnesota, deer hunting in state forests is a way of life. Even for many city dwellers, going out and bagging your first deer is a rite of passage on a par with getting your driver?s license.

And James Kroll wants to take all of that away.

Worse, he wants to make the Wisconsin hunting experience so pricey and privatized that only the richie-rich types, our genteel overlords, can afford it. In other words, just like he apparently did for Texas:

Do we really want to follow the example of Texas? They started down this path in 2001, after heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. Now 95% of hunting is done on private land, and getting a lease to hunt costs around $2000-$5000 per gun. Is that really what we want in Wisconsin?

A Texas hunter I know complained recently that she and her husband can no longer afford to hunt in Texas, as even the cheap leases will cost over $3000 for the two of them. That?s not counting the cost of licenses, fuel, etc! And when you can?t afford to hunt, that means more money going towards groceries since you don?t have a freezer full of meat.

One of the things that you are taught if you grow up in a hunting household is that one of the most cherished and sought-after freedoms of our forebears was the right to hunt game ? a very important right in a time when most people had to secure their own food and couldn?t just drive to the nearest Safeway for it. This was a right that in Europe and the British Isles was limited to the nobility or the rich, who wanted to keep the deer all to themselves. Scott Walker, for all his talk about freedoms, wants to take away a key freedom and birthright of all Wisconsin citizens and turn them back into mere subjects, the very fate their ancestors strove to avoid, just so a bunch of rich elites can ? like the lords and ladies of yore ? have all the deer to themselves.

Got any rellies in Wisconsin? Make sure they see this. Especially if they live in rural areas.

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Smartphone app could help blind navigate indoors

19 hrs.

Devin Coldewey

For a blind or visually-impaired person, getting around a large building like a hospital or lab may involve a lot of guesswork and asking for directions. A new system?called Navatar created by engineers at the University of Nevada, Reno, uses the sensors in a smartphone to detect progress along a map of a building, allowing for natural navigation that's cheap to boot.

There are more sophisticated indoor-navigation systems, like the new Indoor Positioning System chips, but this one doesn't require any special hardware (other than standard sensors like an accelerometer) and no beacons or cameras need to be installed in the building. And because it doesn't use wireless signals, it can be used in places like hospitals and museums that frown on such transmissions.

All it needs is a 3-D map of the building, which in this case was created using Google's free SketchUp program, though it could conceivably be created automatically from blueprints or other records. The user puts in their starting point and destination ("South entrance, going to room 243") and the system gives them turn-by-turn directions, all the while counting footsteps and detecting changes in orientation in order to get a rough idea of where the user is in the building.

The creators of the program claim that using the sensors in the phone and the map data, they can locate the user to within six feet, which is more than accurate enough to get someone into the vicinity of their destination. And because it knows the layout of the building, it doesn't have to say "10 feet ahead," but rather says "turn right, then second door?on the left," and relies on the person's ability to navigate the environment to fill in the gaps or update?the location if necessary.

It wouldn't be just for the visually impaired, either; Eelke Folmer, who leads the project, told me that the technology is easily adaptable for other situations. A fireman navigating a smoky and unfamiliar building, for instance, or just a regular, sighted person trying to find their way around a big place like an airport without relying on battery-sucking wireless.

The bottleneck seems to be the mapping and annotating of environments. It's one thing to build a few models of buildings on campus, another to have thousands of buildings around the country mapped and accessible to the app. That said, it's a powerful approach in its independence from wireless infrastructure, and in how it utilizes both the?senses of the user and the "expanded" senses of their device.

More information on the system, along with some papers describing the techniques used, can be found at the Navatar site.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

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A business travel nightmare ? Flying to the wrong city ? Best China ...

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Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Melanie Marken was headed to her hotel to rest up for a business meeting in Bloomington, Ind., last month when she made a discovery.

She was in the wrong Bloomington.

Marken?s travel agent had mistakenly booked her on a flight to Bloomington, Ill. And she had to drive nearly five hours to make her meeting in the Indiana city with the same name.

?Remember when you were a little kid and got lost at the mall?? she says. ?That?s what I felt like.

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Oil falls as equities dip on Greek, euro zone woes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures tumbled on Wednesday, pressured along with U.S. equities as banking troubles in Greece sparked risk aversion across markets worried about euro zone debt.

The European Central Bank confirmed a Reuters report that it has stopped providing refinancing to some Greek banks as they are severely undercapitalized. The news pressured Wall Street and oil, as the dollar surged against the euro.

The ECB move erased a morning uptick in oil prices after U.S. data showed domestic crude stockpiles rose much less than what an industry group reported late on Tuesday.

Uncertainty in Greece, already shaken by the inability of politicians to form a government, pulled the euro to a four-month low against the U.S. dollar while Wall Street dropped in choppy trading. That, in turn, provoked a further sell-off in oil futures.

"The S&P 500 turned negative, deepening the weakness in the stock market on concerns about Greece and that has speeded up the pace of oil's slide today," said Mark Anderle, trader at TAC Energy in Dallas.

Also keeping oil prices lower was news that U.S. President Barack Obama was expected to seek support on Saturday from other Group of Eight leaders to tap emergency oil reserves later this summer before the European Union's July embargo of Iranian crude, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The White House declined to comment on the report.

In London, ICE Brent for June delivery expired and settled at $111.71 a barrel, down 53 cents, after volatile trading between $110.41 and $112.10. Front-month Brent fell for the fourth time in five sessions.

The July Brent contract closed at $109.75, dropping $1.70.

Falling for the fourth straight session, U.S. June crude settled at $92.81, down $1.17, the lowest front-month settlement since November 2. It fell to $91.81 early, the lowest intraday since November 3, and rose as high as $94.16.

Trading volumes rose above 600,000 contracts for both markets, with Brent posting a 17 percent rise above its 30-day average, according to Reuters data. U.S. crude volume was up 10 percent above its 30-day average.

Brent's premium against U.S. crude climbed in the session to more than $19, the widest since April 10, before closing at $18.90, up from $18.26 on Tuesday.

The wider spread emerged as the weekly report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for U.S.-traded crude, rose 1 million barrels to a record 45.13 million barrels.

Traders are anticipating that the reversal of the Seaway pipeline's flow directly from the delivery hub to Houston in the main U.S. refining center in the Gulf Coast that is set for Thursday would help ease the oil glut in the Midwest and strengthen U.S. crude prices, resulting in a narrowing of the spread.

U.S. oil prices briefly swung into positive territory, recovering from session losses of more than $2 after the EIA data showed that crude stocks rose 2.1 million barrels, to 381.6 million barrels, last week, far less than the 6.6 million barrel build shown in the American Petroleum Institute's report on Tuesday and closer to analysts' forecasts.

U.S. crude inventories are brimming as stocks have risen eight straight weeks to hit the highest level in 22 years, according to EIA data.

Bigger-than-expected drawdowns in U.S. gasoline and distillate stockpiles were seen supportive initially as four-week average demand rose above last year's level for the first time this year, the EIA data showed.

But as the trading session neared the close, weakened technical support prompted a flurry of selling of U.S. heating oil and gasoline futures, said TAC's Anderle.

U.S. June gasoline settled at $2.9209 a gallon, falling 2.32 cents, the lowest close for front-month RBOB since February 3. June heating oil finished at $2.8976, dropping 3.54 cents, posing the lowest close since December 28.

(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons in New York, Jessica Donati in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy, M.D. Golan, Sofina Mirza-Reid and David Gregorio)

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Kansas budget negotiators resume talks

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Rams head coach Jeff Fisher 'discounted last year' for QB Sam Bradford

He won a Lombardi Trophy in 2011.? In 2012, he may be hoisting a trophy that would cause Lombardi to question what the hell?s going on out here. Packers receiver Donald Driver, who may not be a Packer much longer, may soon by the next champion on Dancing with the Stars. Driver?s push to the?

Click here for the entire Inside the Playbook seriesClick here for my breakdown of the NFL ''Route Tree''Rookie DBs need to get in the film room this offseason. Its that simple. For all the times I talk about technique, the playbook, etc., watching tape can?t be neglected. And for most rooks, they don?t know how to study and break down film like a pro...

During a recent radio appearance, new Rams head coach Jeff Fisher explained why he has faith in Bradford, who struggled in 2011 after winning Rookie of the Year honors the season before.

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When does planning interfere with achieving our goals?

Public release date: 16-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary-Ann Twist
JCR@bus.wisc.edu
608-255-5582
University of Chicago Press Journals

It seems really simple: If you want to achieve something, set a goal and then make specific plans to implement it. But according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers get overwhelmed while juggling multiple goals.

"Research has shown that forming specific plans for a single goal makes success more likely," write authors Amy Dalton (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Stephen Spiller (UCLA). "Most of us, however, are juggling multiple goals in our lives and jobs and managing a busy schedule is difficult. This raises the question of whether forming specific plans can help us accomplish more of the tasks we set out to do."

The authors looked at what happens when consumers make specific plans to pursue goals. For example, someone with the goal of eating a healthy meal might plan to "eat a salad with low-fat dressing at lunch tomorrow in the cafeteria." The research involved laboratory and field experiments that manipulated whether or not people plan in advance how they will implement their goals and the number of goals participants formed.

In one study, the authors provided participants with a to-do list of "virtuous activities" to complete over the course of five days; some people had one activity, but others had six. Half the participants were encouraged to plan specifically how, when, and where they would carry out the to-do list each day. "We found that specific planning helped people who had a single goal on their to-do list, but not people with multiple goals," the authors write. A second study, which involved a computer task, yielded similar results.

Why is specific planning less effective when applied to a number of goals? The authors believe that planning reminds people of all the obstacles and constraints that stand in the way of achieving goals.

But planning isn't always detrimental to achieving multiple goals. In an interesting twist, the authors found that people came to see their goals as more manageable if they thought other people were juggling more goals than they were. "These people framed their goals as relatively easy to carry out and were more likely to benefit from planning," the authors write.

###

Amy N. Dalton and Stephen A. Spiller. "Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals." Journal of Consumer Research: October 2012. For more information, contact Amy Dalton (amy.dalton@ust.hk) or visit http://ejcr.org/.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mary-Ann Twist
JCR@bus.wisc.edu
608-255-5582
University of Chicago Press Journals

It seems really simple: If you want to achieve something, set a goal and then make specific plans to implement it. But according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers get overwhelmed while juggling multiple goals.

"Research has shown that forming specific plans for a single goal makes success more likely," write authors Amy Dalton (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Stephen Spiller (UCLA). "Most of us, however, are juggling multiple goals in our lives and jobs and managing a busy schedule is difficult. This raises the question of whether forming specific plans can help us accomplish more of the tasks we set out to do."

The authors looked at what happens when consumers make specific plans to pursue goals. For example, someone with the goal of eating a healthy meal might plan to "eat a salad with low-fat dressing at lunch tomorrow in the cafeteria." The research involved laboratory and field experiments that manipulated whether or not people plan in advance how they will implement their goals and the number of goals participants formed.

In one study, the authors provided participants with a to-do list of "virtuous activities" to complete over the course of five days; some people had one activity, but others had six. Half the participants were encouraged to plan specifically how, when, and where they would carry out the to-do list each day. "We found that specific planning helped people who had a single goal on their to-do list, but not people with multiple goals," the authors write. A second study, which involved a computer task, yielded similar results.

Why is specific planning less effective when applied to a number of goals? The authors believe that planning reminds people of all the obstacles and constraints that stand in the way of achieving goals.

But planning isn't always detrimental to achieving multiple goals. In an interesting twist, the authors found that people came to see their goals as more manageable if they thought other people were juggling more goals than they were. "These people framed their goals as relatively easy to carry out and were more likely to benefit from planning," the authors write.

###

Amy N. Dalton and Stephen A. Spiller. "Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals." Journal of Consumer Research: October 2012. For more information, contact Amy Dalton (amy.dalton@ust.hk) or visit http://ejcr.org/.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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