Access Industries, a holding company owned by Len Blavatnik, the Russian-born billionaire investor, is one of several parties investing $60 million in Daisy, a planned service by Beats Electronics, Beats announced late Tuesday. Immacolata Borelli, the quasi-heroine of Gerald Seymour's powerful new novel, is 25, tough, gorgeous and exceedingly spoiled. She's spoiled because she's the beloved daughter of the leaders of one of Naples's most powerful and ruthless crime families.As early spring approaches,

gardeners are thinking about their properties, and I've received questions about vehicular circulation, screening, controlling damage from deer and other topics.
U.S. stocks rose, almost wiping out the Dow Jones industrial average's 2010 loss, after better-than-expected earnings at companies from United Parcel Service to Apple and Ford Motor lifted confidence that the economy is recovering. The youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay pleaded guilty to war crimes, including murder, on Monday, part of an agreement with prosecutors that allows the Obama administration to avoid a trial that threatened to undermine its use of military commissions.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Yolette Pierre says thank you, America. She points to the plastic over her head, to a gray sack on the dirt floor, to a bucket in the corner.
Thank you for the tarp. Thank you for the rice. Thank you for the water, too.
Discovering your DNA sequence is cheap and easy, and that genetic knowledge could change – even save – your lifeA decade ago, researchers completed what was one of the greatest scientific achievements of our time when they decoded the last of the three billion letters that make up the human genome. Since then, the cost of sequencing has dropped dramatically – from $3bn for the first human genome to a few thousand dollars today.Inexpensive sequencing created a whole new industry, enabling individuals to access their own genetic information. You
may never have thought about what's in your genome, but one day soon you will, and it will be an important part of your healthcare.Far
sooner than anyone would have thought possible, the real-world benefits of genetic science and access to the data itself are available to people the world over.
Today, genetics is not just for scientists. Each of us can now explore our own DNA. I
co-founded the personal genetics testing company 23andMe in 2006 with the mission of enabling people to get access to their DNA and create the software tools so they can understand it.  I am asked regularly, "Why would you ever want your genetic information?"Learning about your genetics enables you to optimize your health. It will take us decades to understand all 3bn base pairs in the human genome, but today we already know what

thousands of important genetic differences mean for individuals.


We know that genes affect your risk for conditions like cystic fibrosis and breast cancer, and we know how your genes affect your responses to drugs like Warfarin. As genetic testing becomes more affordable, more people can benefit from understanding their genetics and use that understanding to improve their health, help them prevent the harmful side-effects of some drugs and potentially avoid preventable deaths.For example, roughly 8% of people with European ancestry have a genetic variant that puts them at higher than average risk for blood clots. There are a number of easy ways to minimize this risk, ranging from avoiding oral contraceptives to staying hydrated and maintaining mobility during

airplane flights.  A decade ago, NBC journalist David Bloom died at the age of 39 on assignment in Iraq after spending many hours with limited mobility in a tank. Bloom's wife has said he didn't know he was genetically predisposed to blood clots.
If he had known, could he have changed his fate? It's easy to get tested for this genetic variant and it enables micro niche finder review with high risk to make changes in their lifestyle that decrease their risk.
 Some genetic variants can be informative about one's risk for Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. While effective medical interventions might not exist today to reverse those diseases, individuals might opt to make choices based on that knowledge – have children earlier, or retire sooner. The knowledge might also spur lifestyle changes that could help mitigate the effects or stave off the onset of those diseases.
My husband found out he is genetically at a higher risk for Parkinson's disease. That information motivated him to exercise more,

moderate his diet and drink coffee – choices that research shows could decrease his risk.  Learning of his genetic risk for Parkinson's also motivated my husband to participate in research.
There is now a community of

more than 700 individuals who have the same rare genetic variant that puts them at a higher risk for Parkinson's disease. Partnering with researchers this community is trying to answer a number of important questions: why do some people get the disease and some don't? What environmental factors might contribute to, or possibly help prevent, the disease? What treatments work best? Combining genetic data with the efficiency, scalability and global information exchange enabled by the internet has opened up a whole new world to researchers.
 The next decade will bring about tremendous discovery and alter the way we approach healthcare. Prime Minister David Cameron's administration recently

announced plans to spend £100m to sequence 100,000 people and create a national human genome database. This database alone will trigger tremendous understanding of the genome and fuel medical innovation.
 The genetic revolution is here. Just as computer technology and the internet created whole new industries and extraordinary benefits for people that extend into almost every realm of human endeavor from education to transportation to medicine, genetics will undoubtedly benefit people everywhere in ways we can't even imagine but know will surely occur.GeneticsMedicineDNA databaseHealth policyHealthAnne Wojcickiguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
All rights reserved.
| Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Australian actor Russell Crowe discusses a pro-Julia Gillard tweet This past summer, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) challenged roboticists around the world to design a new class of robot, one that could be easily integrated into classrooms around the world.
SEG, a robot designed by Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) Director Daniela Rus’ Distributed Robotics Lab, took third prize in the traditional (roaming) category of the competition.SEG,
an origami-inspired Segway robot, is a small robot made of polyester.
The robot roams on two large wheels, and is able to avoid obstacles and collisions thanks to an onboard sensing and navigation system.
What is perhaps most noteworthy about SEG, though, is that the robot was printed on a sheet of polyester and takes less than one day and $15 to produce.SEG is one of the first robots designed under Rus’ new project aimed at reinventing how robots are designed and produced. Funded by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project aims to develop a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours.“This research envisions a whole new way of thinking about the design and manufacturing of robots,” Rus says. “We believe that it has the potential to transform manufacturing and to one day enable one robot per child in schools.”With SEG and other printable robots the Distributed Robotics Lab is currently designing, researchers are hopeful that by breaking down the barriers that have traditionally made robots inaccessible to the general public, they will help to usher in forex growth bot era of robotic usage.
In order to create more affordable and accessible robots, the group has been working on redesigning the production process for building robots to rely more on accessible tools.“The
basic principle behind our work with printable robots is accessibility; we want everyone to have access to robots.
The three main problems blocking the general population from accessing robots are the cost, the time it takes to develop a robot, and the difficulty associated with making and controlling robots,” says Cagdas Onal, a postdoctoral associate in Rus’ lab.
“These robots we are making are inexpensive, they can be produced in hours as opposed to months, and they are easy to deal with.”While a conventional robot can

typically take weeks to assemble, and thousands of dollars to design and program, SEG was printed on a sheet of polyester using a laser cutter, which is used to etch creases into the material. Once printed the surface is folded, following the pre-determined creases, into the desired shape, which in the case of SEG is a small platform connected by two large wheels. Even the circuit board, which contains all of the sensing and basic programming necessary for the machine to

navigate, is printed using a conventional printer to further reduce costs.According
to Onal, the robot can be assembled in well under 24 hours, making it an especially applicable tool for teaching young children about robotics.
Onal and his colleagues envision sending robotic kits to classrooms around the world so that students could print, assemble and then program their own robots.
In fact, the team is already planning to send printable robot kits to classrooms in Africa in the near future.“This is a great starting point to teach kids basic programming and robotics,”

Onal says.
“They will be able to see the results of their labor in a concrete fashion, and will be able to learn and experiment with the robot in a hands-on manner.” Juventus clinched their second successive Serie A title with three games to spare by beating Palermo 1-0 on Sunday, crowning a season which coach Antonio Conte described as a "triumphant march."     Pope Francis is a well-established fan of soccer, a sport that has a long history with religious institutions. Japan manager Koji Yamamoto knows how difficult it will be for his country to win a third straight World Baseball Classic. OPEN TARGET Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack By Clark Kent Ervin U.S. stocks

last week advanced the most since November after fewer Americans filed for jobless claims and oil's biggest weekly increase in two decades lifted energy stocks.
The Finnish phone maker released its remarkable Lumia 1020 phone with a 41-megapixel camera - but it's still missing native apps for low-quality Instagram, Vine and SnapchatThere's no doubt about it: photographs taken with Nokia's new Lumia 1020 device are enormously impressive if you print them out onto a large-format high-quality print measuring, say, 1.3m
wide by a metre deep. Here at Pier 42, where the launch took place earlier on Thursday, there are a number of prints showing photos taken in the past few days here in New York.One of the most striking (not online yet, but coming at Nokia's press site) shows a view towards the apartments overlooking Central Park. The lines of the apartments are razor-sharp; the grass in Central Park is vigorously green; the pools of water are pellucid blue. Viewing it online doesn't really do the 41-megapixel shot justice.
Along with the other dozen shots hanging in a sort of gallery, you need to see it published professionally to comprehend it.
And that's before you

learn that it was taken from a helicopter.
"That's a challenge for most smartphones," said one of Nokia's engineers, google sniper review worked on the device for quite some time. "But we've got optical image stabilisation…" He wasn't too fazed at the specifications leaking out ahead of the official announcement. "41 megapixels is just a number," he said.
"That doesn't tell you what it's like to look at."Yet
here's a strange thing: if Nokia were to release the 1020 as a stand-alone camera, stripping out the mobile phone element, it would certainly bomb.
The compact camera market "is in free fall", to quote the writer from Amateur Photographer (who is also out here as a guest of Nokia). People have given up buying compact cameras because they're digital, just like their smartphones, and take nice pictures, just like their smartphones, but they don't have the capability to send their pictures to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine or Snapchat. And the cameras on smartphones are generally "good enough" - just as MP3-quality sound has generally been found to be "good enough" by the vast majority of buyers.By making the Lumia 1020 a superlative camera that has a phone attached, Nokia seems to be going after a very specific segment

of the market: "prosumers" who want to take really good photos and have the connectivity that a smartphone provides.
It's not, however, going to attract the sort of people who want to take a picture and upload it to the main social networks.Price of successFor one thing, there's

the price. The Lumia 1020 will cost $299 upfront for the basic 32GB model plus the cost of a contract from AT&T in the US; for comparison, the AT&T iPhone 5 is $199 for the base 16GB model before the contract.
(Update: the 32GB iPhone costs $399, so the price is the same if you equalise those specifications.
However there isn't a 16GB

Lumia 1020, which means price-conscious buyers might stop at the 16GB iPhone.)
For another, there's the fact that it's Windows Phone - which still doesn't have native apps for Vine, Instagram or Snapchat. Chief executive Stephen Elop points out that there are third-party apps which will do the posting to Instagram (via Hipstamatic, a company which went through its own near-death experience last August when it laid off all but one of its staff). You can post to Instagram via Hipstamatic, and then read Instagram via an app called Instance.
And there's

a Snapchat-compatible app.Yet none of this is like having the native apps.
And the question of whether ordinary people will really pay top whack for a fantastic camera is already answered by the compact camera market; and of whether they'll pay top whack for a top-end smartphone seems increasingly to be "no" as sales forecasts for the Samsung Galaxy S4 are revised down, along with those for the iPhone.So what is the purpose of the Lumia 1020? I think it's to show off a top-end capability that Nokia can then push down to its lower-end phones - rather as Samsung does with the Galaxy S range, where the top-end phone is the flag carrier for the cheaper range that follows it.
People who appreciate high-quality photography (in terms of pixels captured) tend to assume that everyone will want just the same, if only they're shown

the chance to get it.
But this is rather like the argument that hi-fi manufacturers fooled themselves with a decade or so ago, thinking that by offering "24-bit" audio quality on Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio they would tempt people away from lo-fi MP3 listening. Sound argumentThe reality is that most people listen to music in very low quality from car radios, small bookshelf speakers, lousy headphones. MP3s weren't, and aren't, much worse - sometimes, better - than what they used to get.
And fat burning furnace download to have ridiculously good hearing to distinguish the difference in 24-bit sound (and even that might be imaginary). SACD and DVD-Audio died like dogs in a ditch.Now, we're much better at distinguishing differences in quality in photos, particularly when they're printed out; but viewed on a 5in smartphone screen or even a standard laptop screen, the lack of quality in most of the photos we take isn't visible. Nokia's best hope may be that screen technology improves so rapidly that the difference in picture quality becomes more visible. For the meantime, though, it will be the cheaper Lumias - the 520 and 610 particularly - which will be the bedrock of its sales.
(In fact, as I wrote this article, Kantar WorldPanel ComTech tweeted that the Lumia 520 had helped Nokia to reach its highest smartphone share in the UK since April 2011 - back in the days when Nokia still sold Symbian. It didn't however specify how high that is.)Even then, what Stephen Elop really needs more than Lumias with fantastic cameras is for Vine, Snapchat and Instagram to write native apps for the Windows Phone platform.
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be in his hands.NokiaSmartphonesMobile
phonesPhotographyInstagramVineCharles Arthurguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     Mike Green’s power-play goal eight minutes into overtime gave the Capitals a victory over the Rangers. The teams meet for Game 3 on Monday at Madison Square Garden.    
The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show. A situation in Wise County illustrates how many family physicians are caught in a growing divide between

rural and urban health care markets.     The Walt Disney Company is developing an app that will live stream ABC programming on digital devices, British newspapers protest a new regulatory agency, and the pace of Hollywood’s biggest films often remains glacial, even as other media speed up. Anyone who has seen pictures of the giant, red-hot cauldrons in which steel is made — fed by vast amounts of carbon, and belching flame and smoke — would not be surprised to learn that steelmaking is one of the world’s leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases. But remarkably, a new process developed by MIT researchers could change all that.The
new process even carries a couple of nice side benefits: The resulting steel should be of higher purity, and eventually, once the process is scaled up, cheaper. Donald Sadoway, the John F.
Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at MIT and senior author of a new paper describing the process, says this could be a significant “win, win, win” proposition.The paper, co-authored by Antoine Allanore, the Thomas B. King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy at MIT, and former postdoc Lan Yin

(now a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), has just been published in the journal Nature.
With investors’ focus on the Federal

Reserve’s policy statement due later in the day, shares on Wall Street traded higher.
Retro Report revisits an experiment in the Arizona

desert in 1991 that sought to test the limits of sustainability.
Deemed a fiasco, the project had a surprising afterlife.     In March 2012, separatist rebels and Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda exploited the political chaos following a coup in Mali and overran half of the northwest African country. A French-led intervention is now striking back at the rebel militias. The bride and the groom are lawyers in New