smell spammed: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

Thunder take 3-0 series lead with 104-101 win

HOUSTON (AP) ? Kevin Durant was in uncharted territory on Saturday night, playing in his first game without friend and teammate Russell Westbrook.

Durant knew it would be different, but vowed to do whatever he could to carry his team through this difficult period.

He delivered on that promise by scoring 41 points and helping Oklahoma City fight off Houston's late rally to beat the Rockets 104-101 for a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven playoff series.

"I didn't feel the same," Durant said. "And I knew I just had to give my all from here on out ... every game is for him."

Durant checked his phone moments after leaving the court and smiled recalling the text messages he received from Westbrook.

"He texted me at halftime and right after the game," Durant said. "Just said congrats and that he loved me."

Durant scored 27 points in the first half, and the Thunder led by 26 points before a big third-quarter rally by the Rockets put them within striking distance.

Houston regained the lead with about 4 minutes left, and was up with less than a minute remaining. But Durant hit a 3-pointer, which bounced off the rim before falling in, to put Oklahoma City on top 100-99.

"We didn't want to give up any 3s," Houston's James Harden said. "He just made a lucky shot. It was good defense. It just went in and took some of the energy out of us."

A turnover by Harden gave the Thunder the ball back and Derek Fisher made two free throws to push the lead to three. Harden made a layup, but Reggie Jackson hit two more free throws after that.

Houston had a last chance, but Carlos Delfino's 3-pointer fell short.

Thunder coach Scott Brooks was impressed that his team was able to win despite losing its All-Star point guard.

"It's been an emotional time the last 48 hours," Brooks said. "We all love what Russell (Westbrook) is about. He's got probably the biggest heart I've ever been around."

Fisher said it was difficult getting through these last couple of days, but the 16-year veteran said he was there to help the younger guys deal with the loss of Westbrook.

"We're still grieving, so to speak, as a team," Fisher said. "But that's why I'm here, and that's why this is a team. Injuries and bad things happen in sports, but we still have to figure out a way to get things done."

Harden scored 30 points for the Rockets in the first playoff game in Houston since 2009. The Rockets will be at home again for Game 4 on Monday night.

Westbrook was injured in Game 2 and had season-ending right knee surgery Saturday. It was the first time Durant had played a pro game without Westbrook, who hadn't missed a game in his career before Saturday.

Durant's 41 points equaled a playoff career high, and he also had 14 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. He sat down for just 44 seconds on Saturday.

"Kevin has done a great job of being a playmaker all season long," Brooks said. "He's an amazing scorer, and he sets up a lot of guys to get easy buckets."

Jackson made his first career start in place of Westbrook and had 14 points, and Serge Ibaka added 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Chandler Parsons had a tying 3-pointer for Houston with 5:46 left, and Delfino put the Rockets in front for the first time since early in the first quarter when he connected from long range to make it 94-93 about 2 minutes later.

Ibaka made four straight points after that, ending with a reverse layup, to make it 97-94 with about a minute and a half left.

Harden hit a pair of free throws. Then Francisco Garcia's 3-pointer put them up 99-97 with 45 seconds left, before the clutch shot by Durant.

The Rockets rallied from a 15-point deficit to take a lead in the fourth quarter in Game 2. But they weren't able to hold on and Oklahoma City got the 105-102 win.

It was much the same this time, as Houston went up late only to fall again.

"We've got to find a way to win those games," Houston coach Kevin McHale said.

Harden complained that he and his teammates were sluggish and lacked energy early. He knows that won't cut it if they expect to win on Monday.

"We have to have that energy from the beginning of the game to the end of the game," he said. "We can't have droughts. You have to play a solid game for 48 minutes."

Westbrook's absence didn't seem to bother Oklahoma City early, as Durant had the big first half and the Thunder looked to be in complete control.

Things changed in the third quarter when Durant was limited offensively and Houston outscored the Thunder 27-14 in the period.

Houston point guard Jeremy Lin, who bruised a chest muscle in Game 2, started but scored only two points in about 18 minutes.

Parsons scored 21 points, and Garcia had 18.

After a big run got Houston within eight in the third quarter, Garcia and Harden made 3-pointers around a dunk by Durant to whittle the lead to 80-76 entering the last quarter.

Durant was scoreless in the third until his dunk with 27 seconds remaining in the quarter.

The Thunder led by 19 points when the Rockets used a 16-5 surge to get to 78-70 with 2? minutes left in the third. The Rockets harassed Oklahoma City into three turnovers in that stretch, and Durant went cold as he missed four shots.

NOTES: Garcia and McHale received technical fouls in the first quarter. ... Pitching great Roger Clemens and Houston Texans star receiver Andre Johnson attended the game.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thunder-3-0-series-lead-104-101-win-042836906.html

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Mike McCue Wants Flipboard To Be The Home Of Brand Advertising For Mobile Publishers

Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said that publishers are facing a huge reduction in ad revenues. Publishers have seen revenues go from dollars in print, to dimes on the web, to pennies on mobile. According to McCue, a lot of the reason for that is the way that content is packaged and ads are displayed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wCEHXl4zSOo/

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Gftr Wants To Stop Wasting Birthdays With Social Network Crowdsourced Gifts

My calendar is mostly filled with Facebook birthdays, these days, and at best those notifications will prompt me to post on someone's wall once a year. Gftr, a project from TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013's Hackathon, wants to use those birthdays to power more meaningful gift-giving, thanks to crowdsourcing and the one day every year when people have the most goodwill directed towards them.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EUgD_lY77bs/

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Compton mayor's race raises profile of former child star Rippy

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Rodney Allen Rippy poses for a photo outside Compton City Hall in March during his campaign for mayor. He finished 10th among 12 candidates.

By John Rogers, The Associated Press

COMPTON, Calif. -- Before he suddenly surfaced in the race for mayor of this hardscrabble Los Angeles suburb, Rodney Allen Rippy's name was likely to evoke that question inspired by that class of former child stars who didn't die young, end up in jail or a celebrity rehab series: "Whatever happened to that guy?"

Rippy was just 3 in 1972, when he became the toast of a generation as the pint-sized TV pitchman for the Jack In The Box fast-food chain. When he picked up a hamburger that looked as a big as a hubcap and tried to cram it into his mouth, America was entranced. When he finally said, "Too bigga eat!" a national catchphrase was born.

Soon the cute, chubby-cheeked youngster with the Afro as big as his head was hanging out in Hollywood with Michael Jackson. He made movie cameos and recorded a hit album called "Take Life a Little Easier."

Then the 1970s ended, and so did Rippy's career.

More than 30 years later, he resurfaced as a candidate for mayor in a city known variously over the years as the birthplace of gangsta rap, the murder capital of the country and the home of the drive-by shooting.

Although he got only 75 votes, finishing 10th among 12 candidates, his earnest but futile campaign raised the inevitable question of where he had been.

Rippy never strayed far from Hollywood, it turns out. He simply stepped away from the cameras.

When his Jack In The Box career ended about the time he was finishing high school, he went to college and earned a marketing degree.

"I wanted to continue to act, but at the time acting was a thing that unless you were really burning hot, you better have something on the back burner," he said recently over lunch at a Compton restaurant down the street from City Hall.

Seeing how the adults around him had turned a cute little kid from Long Beach into a national star, he decided marketing was the way to go.

He formed Ripped Marketing Group in 2000 and has promoted everything from smokeless cigarettes to leisure wear to country music. It gave him the idea, he says, that he could promote Compton too. He wanted to change the image of a city that, although financially troubled, has seen crime and gang violence drop precipitously in recent years.

He wasn't the first child star to remerge from anonymity to run for office. His contemporary, the late Gary Coleman, did the same when he launched his quixotic campaign for governor of California in 2003.

Unlike Coleman and many other former child stars, Rippy never got into a fistfight with an autograph seeker. He hasn't been caught in a crack house or drunkenly crashed his car.

"Don't get me wrong, I know the good, the bad, the ugly, but I have sense enough to stay away from it," he said. "My mom always said, 'Rodney, you need to understand this: It's very easy to get into trouble. It's very difficult to get out."

The Afro and the chubby cheeks are gone, but Rippy's appearance often has people scratching their heads, wondering where they've seen him before. Their reaction when they find out is sometimes like that of Saudia Pearsall's.

"THE RODNEY ALLEN RIPPY?" the waitress shouted with glee after she spotted him at a back table.

"Ahhhhh! I might vote for you just because I like you," she added, laughing. "That little Afro. 'This burger's too bigga eat!'"

A day later, she was having second thoughts, realizing she didn't know much about his campaign.

Her reaction ? delight at meeting a celebrity but wondering what the heck he's doing here ? is something Rippy says he sees often.

Rippy lost out on a marketing job once, when the person he was to work for started to believe he was being punked for a reality show: "He thought it was some kind of game, like I had some sort of hat-cam on."?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b409f6f/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C270C17947760A0Ecompton0Emayors0Erace0Eraises0Eprofile0Eof0Eformer0Echild0Estar0Erippy0Dlite/story01.htm

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Four arrested as Bangladesh building toll rises to 352

By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses and two engineers were detained in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands killed at least 352 people.

More were being pulled alive from the rubble at the building, where police said as many as 900 people were still missing in Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident.

The owner of the eight-storey building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 mainly young women workers was still on the run.

Police said several of his relatives were detained to compel him to hand himself in, and an alert had gone out to airport and border authorities to prevent him from fleeing the country.

Officials said Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and the workers were sent in on Wednesday despite warnings the previous day that it was structurally unsafe.

Anger at the negligence has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police on Saturday using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who burned cars.

Two engineers involved in building the complex were picked up at their homes early on Saturday, Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman said. He said they were arrested for dismissing a warning not to open the building after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars the previous day.

The owner and managing director of the largest of the five factories in the complex, New Wave Style, surrendered to the country's garment industry association during the night and they were handed over to police. They will be kept in remand for an initial 12 days.

The factory, which listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, occupied upper floors of the building that officials said had been added illegally.

"PEOPLE ARE ASKING FOR HIS HEAD"

"Everyone involved - including the designer, engineer, and builders - will be arrested for putting up this defective building," said junior internal affairs minister Shamsul Huq.

Anger over the working conditions of Bangladesh's 3.6 million garment workers - most of whom are women earning as little as $38 a month - has grown since the disaster.

Hundreds were on the streets again on Saturday, smashing and burning cars and sparking more battles with police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon. Eyewitnesses said dozens of people were injured in the clashes.

An alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition said it would call a national strike on May 2 if all those responsible for the disaster were not arrested by Sunday.

Rahman identified the owner of the building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.

"People are asking for his head, which is quite natural," said H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister.

Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory nearby the latest disaster killed 112 people.

Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Saturday asked garment factory owners to produce building designs by July in a bid to improve safety.

Remarkably, rescuers armed with rod cutters and drills were still pulling people alive from the precarious mound of rubble - 29 in all since dawn on Saturday.

Marina Begum, 22, spoke from a hospital bed of her ordeal inside the broken building for three days.

"It felt like I was in hell," she told reporters. "It was so hot, I could hardly breathe, there was no food and water. When I regained my senses I found myself in this hospital bed."

Frantic efforts were under way to save 15 people trapped under the concrete who were being supplied with dried food, bottled water and oxygen.

Heavy machinery will not be used to remove the remaining bodies and debris until all the survivors are rescued, junior minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak said.

About 2,500 people have been rescued from the remains of the building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from Dhaka.

WRONG PERMIT, ILLEGAL FLOORS

Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said the owner of the building had not received the proper building consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building from the local municipality which did not have the authority to grant it.

"Only CDA can give such approval," he said. "We are trying to get the original design from the municipality, but since the concerned official is in hiding we cannot get it readily."

Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.

Islam said the building had been erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, weakening the foundations.

Duty free access offered by Western countries and low wages helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry. Sixty percent of the clothes go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and Canada takes 5 percent.

North American and European chains, including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, a unit of George Weston Ltd, said they were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.

Loblaw, which had a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items made at one of the factories, said on Saturday that it was working with other retailers to provide aid and support.

It said it was sending representatives to Bangladesh and was also joining what it described as an urgent meeting with other retailers and the Retail Council of Canada.

(Writing by John Chalmers and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Paul Tait and Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-arrested-bangladesh-building-toll-rises-325-043614507.html

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Boston marathon bombing: how it connects Tolstoy, David Foster Wallace

Echoes of one of Tolstoy's great works, inspired by the conflict between Russia and Chechnya, can be found in the final novel by David Foster Wallace.

By Nina Martyris,?Contributor / April 26, 2013

Tolstoy's novel 'Hadji Murad' reflects the author's fascination with the East-West struggle between the Europeanized rulers of Russia and the Muslims of Chechnya.

Enlarge

The Boston Marathon bombing brought together two disparate worlds: Cambridge and Chechnya. And at the same time it reasserted a connection between two great writers: Leo Tolstoy and David Foster Wallace.

Skip to next paragraph

Friday, April 26, 2013

10 Things to See: A week of top AP photos

AP10ThingsToSee - A man takes pictures inside a work of art entitled "Poetic Cosmos of the Breath" by Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno, which is part of an exhibition at the waterfront of West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

AP10ThingsToSee - Kashmiri Muslim devotees participate in a torch lightimg procession on a hilltop near the shrine of Muslim saint Sakhi Zain-ud-din Wali, in Aishmuqaam, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Srinagar, India, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)

AP10ThingsToSee - A man squats near the collapsed remains of a building destroyed by an earthquake in Lushan county in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Monday, April 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

AP10ThingsToSee - Indian policemen try to remove protestors shouting slogans outside Prime Minister's residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 21, 2013. The girl was allegedly kidnapped, raped and tortured by a man and then left alone in a locked room in India?s capital for two days. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

A moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing is observed on Boylston Street near the race finish line, exactly one week after the tragedy, Monday, April 22, 2013, in Boston, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

This week's collection includes a moment of silence in Boston, a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi, a North Korean army colonel standing near the demilitarized zone, "Poetic Cosmos of the Breath" by Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno and a frightening scene from the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh.

___

This gallery contains images published April 18-25, 2013.

Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://apne.ws/XZy6ny

___

See other recent AP photo galleries:

From finish line to capture: The week in Boston: http://apne.ws/15QSX0Y

Manhunt: 48 hours in Boston: http://apne.ws/XZyr9Y

Boston Marathon bombings: Suspects caught on camera: http://apne.ws/15QTjVz

China rushes relief after Sichuan earthquake: http://apne.ws/10fvmPs

Ecuador embraces Mexican mariachi music: http://apne.ws/10fvq1C

Blast levels neighborhood in Texas: http://apne.ws/15QTLTF

___

AP 10 Things To See:

Week 1: http://apne.ws/ZWiCOl

Week 2: http://apne.ws/ZWiJt0

Week 3: http://apne.ws/10USsze

Week 4: http://apne.ws/14Qg5N1

Week 5: http://apne.ws/ZbwW8U

Week 6: http://apne.ws/101TrcA

Week 7: http://apne.ws/XZyYZu

___

Follow AP Images on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Images

Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com/

___

This gallery was curated by news producer Caleb Jones in New York: http://apne.ws/15QV0Cc

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-25-AP-10-Things-To-See/id-86bd18e049194aa59e35e32a0c1f388b

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neo-neocon ? Blog Archive ? Public on legal immigration: too much

A majority says it should be reduced.

The poll was taken right after the capture of the Boston bomber?legal immigrant, and US citizen of less than a year?s duration. The first anniversary of his becoming a citizen will occur on September 11, 2013.

The results represent a spike:

A just-released Fox News poll finds 55 percent of voters think fewer legal immigrants should be accepted into the U.S. That?s up from 43 percent in 2010.

Quite a jump, isn?t it? My hunch is that the figure will go down again, at least somewhat, as the recency of the Boston bombing fades. And even if it doesn?t, don?t look to see legal immigration reduced, especially under this administration. The idea of fewer legal immigrants may be popular with the people, but it doesn?t seem to be all that popular with politicians of either party.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 25th, 2013 at 9:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://neoneocon.com/2013/04/25/public-on-legal-immigration-too-much/

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Mathematical Proof That Growing Old Means Getting Boring

What happens when you crunch a heap of Facebook data with one of the most sophisticated computational tools in the world? Mathematical proof for the myriad ways your life gets boring as you get older. That's right, as you get older, you're going to spend even more time whining about the weather and the government and less time thinking about important things like video games. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6nI4zqFoGb4/mathematical-proof-that-growing-old-means-getting-boring

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Firefly protein lights up degenerating muscles, aiding muscular-dystrophy research

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have created a mouse model of muscular dystrophy in which degenerating muscle tissue gives off visible light.

The observed luminescence occurs only in damaged muscle tissue and in direct proportion to cumulative damage sustained in that tissue, permitting precise monitoring of the disease's progress in the mice, the researchers say.

While this technique cannot be used in humans, it paves the way to quicker, cheaper and more accurate assessment of the efficacy of therapeutic drugs. The new mouse strain is already being employed to test stem cell and gene therapy approaches for muscular dystrophies, as well as drug candidates now in clinical trials, said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and director of Stanford's Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging.

Rando is the senior author of a study, published online April 24 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describing his lab's creation of the experimental mouse strain in which an inserted gene coding for luciferase, the protein that causes fireflies' tails to glow, is activated only in an important class of rare stem cells that, collectively, serve as a reserve army of potential new muscle tissue. Under normal circumstances, these muscle stem cells, or "satellite cells," sit quietly adjacent to muscle fibers. But muscular injury or degeneration prompts satellite cells to start dividing and then to integrate themselves into damaged fibers, repairing the muscle tissue.

Muscular dystrophy is a genetically transmitted, progressive condition whose hallmark is the degeneration of muscle tissue. There are many different forms, whose severity, time of onset and preference for one set of muscles versus another depends on which gene is defective. But as a general rule, the disease begins to develop well before symptoms show up.

As the muscle fibers of someone with muscular dystrophy die off, nearby satellite cells -- which are normally dormant in the tissue -- begin replicating in an attempt to replace the lost muscle tissue. "But in the end, satellite cells' attempt to restore tissue is overwhelmed," said Rando, who is the founding director of Stanford's Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic.

No truly effective treatments for muscular dystrophy exist. "Drug therapies now available for muscular dystrophy can reduce symptoms a bit, but do nothing to prevent or slow disease progression," said Rando. Testing a drug's ability to slow or arrest muscular dystrophy in one of the existing mouse models means sacrificing a few of them every couple of weeks and conducting labor-intensive, time-consuming microscopic and biochemical examinations of muscle-tissue samples taken from them, he said.

So Rando decided to design a better mouse. Dozens of mouse models of different varieties of muscular dystrophy, designed to best reflect different forms of the disease, already exist. Rando's team chose to start with a strain whose human analog is called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. This steadily progressive form of the disease, whose clinical manifestations typically are most pronounced in limb muscles close to the torso (the thigh versus calf, or upper arm versus forearm), begins during the second or third decade of life, after the muscle-building burst of childhood is largely complete.

From that "starter" mouse strain, Rando's team developed another strain of mice that were prone to the same disease process but whose muscle cells contained the luciferase gene. When these mice are 2 months old, Rando and his associates use a sophisticated laboratory technique to activate the luciferase gene in the mice's satellite cells.

Once a luciferase gene is activated in a satellite cell, it stays "on" permanently in that cell and in all of its progeny, including mature muscle cells, causing them to glow whenever the mice are given a compound that gives off light in the presence of luciferase. So, as the muscular dystrophy progressed in the new mouse strain, the damage it inflicted on muscle fibers and the ensuing recruitment of neighboring satellite cells resulted in the affected muscle tissue's being increasingly luminescent. This luminescence, which could be observed through the mice's skin, was strong enough to be monitored and attributed to a precise anatomical location by a highly sensitive camera.

Invasive microscopic and biochemical methods are first able to detect disease symptoms in mice with the limb-girdle-analog strain when they are about 6 months old. In contrast, using this new method, the Stanford team could literally "see" the first signs of the disease's manifestation as early as 3 months.

Rando and his colleagues confirmed the validity of their luminescence assay with parallel examinations of the mice by standard microscopy and biochemical analysis. They also confirmed, in potentially luminescent but otherwise normal mice not suffering from progressive muscle deterioration, that healthy muscle tissue is ordinarily quiescent. In these mice, the Stanford scientists observed negligible luminescent output reflecting the less than 1 percent of all cells in muscle tissue that are satellite cells.

"In these luminescent mice, we could pick up the disease's pathological changes well before they could be seen otherwise," said Rando. "The readout was so sensitive we could observe those changes within a two-week period. Not only that, but we got our measurements instantaneously, without killing the mice."

The new assay's speed, accuracy and relative noninvasiveness will advance the pace of preclinical work, Rando said. "A lot of head-to-head comparisons of muscular-dystrophy therapies, including drugs already in clinical trials as well as stem cell therapies and gene therapies on the near horizon, can now be made that couldn't have been tried before, because they would have been too expensive and time-consuming to make them worth the effort."

The study was funded by the Jain Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (grant DP1OD000392). The first author was research associate Katie Maguire, PhD. Additional co-authors were Leland Lim, MD, PhD, clinical assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences; and undergraduate student Sedona Speedy.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Bruce Goldman.

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

Journal Reference:

Katie K. Maguire, Leland Lim, Sedona Speedy, Thomas A. Rando. Assessment of disease activity in muscular dystrophies by noninvasive imaging. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; DOI: 10.1172/JCI68458

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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/most_popular/~3/BhuLAjoJ3Wk/130424125832.htm

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

And We're Back.....

Source: http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/index.php?/archives/4591-And-Were-Back......html

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Without a plan to get a great reputation and market it, a business is susceptible to getting a bad reputation, even if they may not deserve it.

More and more companies understand that now, more than ever, they need to keep a good image and let people know they are not just out for themselves, but they really care about their customers.

This started becoming necessary with the advent of social networks, online forums, blogs and other online communication and information sharing. But since there really are no current laws to prevent total strangers from damaging your business online or stealing your private information, online management is now critical.

Changing your reputation and how prospects see you, will rapidly get you more customers, clients or patients and increased profits!

GET YOUR FREE REPORT NOW! Just enter your phone number in the orange box at the top right of this page!

Online reputation building, or ORM as it?s known, is the practice of making people and businesses look their best on the Internet. To accomplish that, people need to control their online search results because they frequently contain inaccurate, misleading or outdated material which can adversely influence how web searchers view them.

Source: http://internetmarketingservice1.com/pricing/reputation-marketing.html

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Become A Successful Webmaster With These Practical Web Hosting ...

Author: Duncan Barua | Total views: 57 Comments: 0
Word Count: 671 Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 6:13 AM

If you decide you want to sell handcrafted items online, you might not be sure how to set up your website to do so. For an e-commerce site, you will need to set up a shopping cart system. Keep in mind that not every web hosting company will give you this ability. There are other capabilities you want to check on before choosing a web host, so read on.

Switching to using a dedicated server can help meet your web hosting requirements. Dedicated servers are more secure. You can also get more disk space and bandwidth on a dedicated server. This ensures that visitors have no problems when visiting your site. Satisfied customers are more likely to continue using your services and are more likely to order more products.

When choosing a host for a site that needs more traffic, choose a host that has SEO features. A SEO feature will allow your site to be registered with multiple search engines. However, it doesn't hurt to register your website on your own time; this allows you to include detailed information and descriptions about the site and its intended purpose.

View the site of the web host you're considering. A poorly done site could mean a "red flag" for the hosting company. Such a website may indicate an inexperienced, incompetent or illegitimate provider. A well-designed, informative, and professional-looking site indicates a company's attentiveness to detail and their experience with web design.

Don't choose a host only because of their prices. You should consider all of the various features and options. A good price is not enough, so hold out for the option that best fits your situation. Your final choice should meet ALL of your needs, not just price.

Find out a web hosting company's history before choosing to use them. Make sure they've been around awhile and have a good background. You should make sure that the web hosting company has been in business for a minimum of a year. What would you do, after all, if your hosting company went out of business?

Before any final decision is made about a hosting site, be sure to learn about their safety and security features. You want to make sure that they provide a strict service that prevents hackers from accessing your site and information. A reputable host will back up their servers often.

When choosing a web host, make sure you find one that will quickly respond to your inquiries. Choose a host that communicates with its customers and answers any questions and notifies them of any important information. It is also important to have a hosting provider that can answer your questions should any problems arise.

Make sure you look at a web hosting company's site very carefully before you sign up with their hosting plan. You should find forums, contact information, and resources like support documentation. Figure out if the host will give you more resources and tutorials as soon as you become their client.

Find out if your web host offers refunds for downtime. You will only be given a small percentage of your monthly bill, likely to be a couple of pennies, and it won't compare to the losses in revenue you face. Choose a web host who has a good track record for uptime as opposed to offering refunds.

Ensure you are able to contact your host in the case of a problem. Web host that offer a variety of contact options are your best bet for getting good customer support. This will save you a lot of headaches, if something should happen.

If you're ever in doubt, look over the above tips to determine if the hosting company you're considering provides you the features that are sensible for your website. Know what you want to avoid over or under paying for hosting features.

Design Web Limited is a hosting company, offering unique products and services for individuals and businesses, with a focus on open source applications. Our goal is simply to be the best hosting company we can be. For more information on our web hosting products please visit Design Web. Click here for a free Drupal Hosting account.

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/become-a-successful-webmaster-with-these-practical-web-hosting-hints-and-tips.htm

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New York's First Passive House Would Have No Problem Hiding From the Predator

Earlier today we talked about the Living Building Challenge, a certification system that rates the sustainability of a building over the course of a year. Here's a follow-up about 23 Park Place, a Park Slope townhouse that's probably the most energy efficient home in the city, thanks to its Passive House certification. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/x520CXi7XvM/check-out-an-amazing-thermal-image-of-nycs-first-passive-house

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Sporting events: Clear your memory to pick a winner

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Predicting the winner of a sporting event with accuracy close to that of a statistical computer programme could be possible with proper training, according to researchers.

In a study published today, experiment participants who had been trained on statistically idealised data vastly improved their ability to predict the outcome of a baseball game.

In normal situations, the brain selects a limited number of memories to use as evidence to guide decisions. As real-world events do not always have the most likely outcome, retrieved memories can provide misleading information at the time of a decision.

Now, researchers at UCL and the University of Montreal have found a way to train the brain to accurately predict the outcome of an event, for example a baseball game, by giving subjects idealised scenarios that always conform to statistical probability.

Dr Bradley Love (UCL Department of Cognition, Perception and Brain Sciences), lead author of study, said: "Providing people with idealized situations, as opposed to actual outcomes, 'cleans' their memory and provides a stock of good quality evidence for the brain to use."

In the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers programmed computers to use all available statistics to form a decision -- making them more likely to predict the correct outcome. By using all data from previous sports leagues, the computer's predictions always reflected the most likely outcome.

Next, researchers 'trained' the brains of participants by giving them a scenario which they had to predict the outcome of. Two groups of subjects, those given actual outcomes to situations and those given ideal outcomes were trained and then tested to compare their progress.

The scenarios consisted of games between two Major League baseball teams. Participants had to predict which team would win and were told if their prediction was correct. Those in the 'actual' group we told the true outcome of the game and those in the 'ideal' group were given fictional results.

Prior to participants' predictions, the teams had been ranked in order based on their number of wins. For the ideal group, researchers changed the results of the match so the highest ranking team won regardless of the true outcome. This created ideal outcomes for the subjects as the best team always won, which of course does not happen in reality.

Participants in the experiment were tested by being asked to predict the outcomes for the rest of the matches played in the league, but they were not given feedback on their performance. Even though the 'ideal' group had been given incorrect data during training, they were significantly better at predicting the winner.

Dr Love explained: "Unlike machine systems, people's decisions are messy because they rely on whatever memories are retrieved by chance. One consequence is that people perform better when the training situation is idealised -- a useful fiction that fits are cognitive limitations."

Participants' prediction abilities were compared to computer models that were either optimised for prediction or modelled on human brains. After ideal outcome training, the study showed that 'ideal' subjects had greatly enhanced their skills and were comparable with the optimised model when predicting baseball game outcomes.

Authors suggest that idealised real world situations could be used to train professionals who rely on the ability to analyse and classify information. Doctors making diagnoses from x-rays, financial analysts and even those wanting to predict the weather could all benefit from the research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University College London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

Journal Reference:

Gyslain Gigu?re and Bradley C. Love. Limits in decision making arise from limits in memory retrieval. PNAS, April 22, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219674110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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/computers_math/information_technology/~3/zH-MY7K8-vk/130422154923.htm

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Nadal vs Djokovic in Monte Carlo final again

MONACO (AP) ? Novak Djokovic will have a crack at toppling Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo Masters final for a second straight year.

Despite their respective injury concerns, they will meet for the 16th time in a championship. Nadal leads 8-7 in their finals.

"I am not the kind of player who is stupid and says, 'I want to play against the best,'" Nadal said joking, added he would rather face an easier opponent on Sunday.

Nadal can improve upon his formidable record on the Monte Carlo red clay ? winner of the last eight titles and 46 consecutive match victories. He defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the semifinals on Saturday to set up a rematch with Djokovic.

The Spaniard has reached five successive finals since returning from a seven-month layoff for a left knee injury. He will go for his fourth title of the season against Djokovic, who cruised past unseeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-1.

The No. 1 player showed no sign his right ankle was bothering him, two weeks after twisting it during a Davis Cup match against the United States.

"At the start of the week, the way I felt in the first match, if somebody told me I'd be playing finals, I'd be very happy to hear that," Djokovic said. "I'm handling it much better than I was at the start of the week. It has been improving and the pain has been decreasing. It's much, much less than before."

Djokovic and Nadal have not played against each other since last year's French Open final, which Nadal won. He has won their last three encounters, after Djokovic took the previous seven ? all of which were tournament finals. Nadal leads their head-to-head contests 19-14.

"I need to have a very optimistic mindset," Djokovic said. "I'm not going out there to play my best; I'm going out there to win. That's how I'm going to feel tomorrow."

Nadal has been on a winning roll at Monte Carlo since 2005. His last loss here was to former French Open champ Guillermo Coria in 2003, and he missed the following year because of injury.

He insists he's still some way from full fitness, despite dropping only one set so far.

"I know I need time to be 100 percent fit," said Nadal, adding he thinks Djokovic's injury was tame by comparison. "He stopped for, what, a few days for his ankle?"

Their finals have gone in cycles: Nadal won the first five; Djokovic the next seven; Nadal the following three.

"I know what I need to do," Djokovic said. "Of course, it's easier said than done."

In Grand Slam finals, Djokovic leads 3-2.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga saved four match points and he rallied back from 5-1 down to force a second-set tiebreaker before Nadal clinched the victory with a forehand winner.

"My feeling was I played a solid first set without doing anything special, but with no mistakes," said Nadal, adding that he was hampered by the windy conditions. "It's true that for me it's better if we see a little bit more sunshine."

Tsonga started strong but missed three break chances in the fourth game ? including one which left him shaking his head in disbelief after Nadal scooped the ball off his ankles and whipped it back down the line. The flustered Frenchman made 17 unforced errors in the first set compared to four for Nadal.

"I always try to be aggressive when I play him. It's the only way for me. If I stay back, there's no way I can win," Tsonga said. "But I can't rush to the net either because otherwise he hits a passing shot, and 90 percent of the time I lose the point. So I have to have the right mix between patience and aggressiveness."

Fognini made 26 unforced errors against Djokovic and was jeered off the court after losing his first Masters semifinal in 52 minutes.

The Italian called for a trainer at 4-1.

But he looked demoralized and at the next changeover he called for the trainer again, pointing to his left shin as the trainer sprayed and taped it. He said he hurt it playing football tennis with his coach.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nadal-vs-djokovic-monte-carlo-final-again-172612070--spt.html

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Dames selected for UN, World Bank global energy initiative committee

The United Nations and the World Bank on Friday announced its selection of 42 members for its global public?private partnership Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

The advisory board, which comprised leaders in business, finance, government and civil society, would be co-chaired by UN secretary-general and initiative founder Ban Ki-moon and World Bank group president Jim Yong Kim.

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative aimed to provide universal access to modern energy; double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; and double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.

The advisory board was tasked with strategically guiding the project, undertaking high-level advocacy for action on energy and mobilising businesses, investors and civil society to take action on "high-impact initiatives", such as off-grid lighting, growingenergy efficiency, energy and women's health, and the procurement of renewable energy, on behalf of Sustainable Energy for All.

?The initiative has demonstrated the ability to mobilise multibillion-dollar commitments, leverage large-scale investments and build on a rapidly expanding knowledge network,? the UN and World Bank said in a joint statement.

The parties noted that more than 70 countries were participating in the initiative.

The ten-person executive committee for the initiative, headed up by Bank of America chairperson Chad Holliday, comprised Eskom CEO Brian Dames, Norway Development Minister Heikki Holm?s, Brazilian Development Bank president Luciano Coutinho, World Bank VP for sustainable development Rachel Kyte, UN assistant secretary-general for strategic planning Robert Orr, The Energy and Resources Institute (India) executive director Leena Srivastava, World Resources Institute president Andrew Steer, UN Foundation vice chairperson Timothy Wirth, US State Department special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs Carlos Pascual and European Commission deputy director-general Klaus Rudischhauser.

Additional advisory board members would be announced after further consultations with stakeholders.

Edited by: Chanel de Bruyn

To subscribe to Engineering News's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.

Source: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/un-world-bank-selects-advisory-board-for-global-energy-initiative-2013-04-19

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Activists cheer as Montana formally decriminalizes gay sex

By Dan Boyce

HELENA, Montana (Reuters) - Montana's governor on Thursday signed into law a bill that formally decriminalizes homosexual sex, a move gay rights activists in the state called a watershed moment in their battle for equality.

The measure removed from the books a law classifying gay sex as a felony. It was struck down by the Montana Supreme Court 16 years ago and no longer enforced.

"I am not going to speak too long," Democratic Governor Steve Bullock told the crowd packed into the expansive rotunda of the state capitol for a signing ceremony. "Because frankly, the longer I talk, the longer this unconstitutional and embarrassing law continues to stay on our books."

Lobbyist Linda Gryczan, who filed the original lawsuit which led to the state Supreme Court nullifying the ban in 1997, said having it formally removed from the books meant more now.

"Because (that) would have followed the normal course of what you'd expect, unconstitutional law, you take it off the books ... it makes sense," she said. "Unfortunately, to a lot of people, prejudice got in the way and we had to fight that prejudice."

Previous attempts in the legislature to remove the law failed. This time, it passed the state Senate by a vote of 38-11 and the House, 64-35.

Representative Jerry Bennett was one of the 35 Republicans who opposed the bill, saying he did so on religious grounds.

"God says we're to love one another ... but I still have to remain true to my beliefs in God and what he asks of us, and so balancing that is a very difficult thing at times," Bennett said.

Republican state Representative Duane Ankney, who has a gay daughter, said the law was an affront.

"To say she is any less of a person, or she is a criminal for her lifestyle really upsets me," Ankney said.

Montana Human Rights Network Organizer Jamee Greer says the bill's passage is "the first explicit victory for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community through the (Montana) legislature in history."

But Greer says it's just one step toward full equality in the state.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/activists-cheer-montana-formally-decriminalizes-gay-sex-020611026.html

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Expand Your Market Presence with Internet Advertising

Internet advertising companies
help clients get their message through the cluttered online world of
advertising, clicks and social media hot spots. Generally, this requires taking
the message to where customers are and where they are looking for a great
product or service. Fulfilling this requirement offers major benefits to
entrusting your business to an Internet
advertising company.

First, you can take advantage of immediate publication through online advertising. Use of the Internet does not limit you to a specific time zone or geographical location. Instead, you can connect with millions of people at once. You can maintain that connection strategies such as interactive marketing to communicate and promote your product or service.

Second, you can get a bigger bang with investment dollars focused on advertising online. An Internet marketing company can customize the message to make it relatable to customers in the U.S. and overseas. Your advertisements go where the customers are by appearing on web pages that are relevant to your business. Further, your business can grow alongside the expansion of the Internet.

Another major benefit to hiring an Internet advertising company is the freedom from deciphering search engine terms and algorithms. The company you hire already has the expertise in creating strategies that will increase your website?s ranking on popular search engines. Therefore, you can focus your energy towards the running your business and preparing for the influx of customers.

To Click or Not to Click

The sophistication of online advertising is a huge advancement over banner ads that ruled the web during the initial stages of marketing online. One thing that remains is the consumer?s ability to control whether or not they will click on your advertisement. Typically, Internet advertising companies are skilled at creating an ad about your company that appeals to consumer interests.

By using different techniques that align with your company and the website on which the advertisement is placed, potential customers are less likely to ignore your great offer. Most techniques such as flash animation, graphics that pop or even video ads can present an offer that the customer will not refuse. The advertising company can scale back on excess graphics if your business requires more text for expression.

A targeted approach to online advertising with strategic placement of text ads can automatically attract more potential customers. For example, a contextually relevant ad on a fitness site is appropriate if you offer weight loss supplements. These ads are less intrusive than a flashy interruption when users visit a website. However, a combination of both techniques is a turn-off for users and decreases the likelihood that you will close a sale.

Brand Marketing Online

Within every technique that the marketing company offers is the consideration of your company brand. Name recognition is essential to help your company stand out from the crowd of competitors. Typically, rigorous techniques for an online ad campaign should meet or exceed industry guidelines for a chance to survive.

The worst thing that can happen is to have an online brand campaign that users never bother to view. If the ad takes too long to load, potential customers may scroll down to information that is readily available. You only have a few seconds to make the right impression to consumers.

An online campaign using brand marketing techniques should use your investment dollars effectively. Your brand represents how consumers will perceive your business. The online advertisement should promote your product or service as a direct reflection of the brand. For example, if you sell the world?s juiciest hamburger you want to attract consumers who are looking for juicy burgers.

A professional Internet marketing company will take time to understand your business to ensure each ad is visible to the right consumer. Placement of the ads also can affect whether the right customer is targeted. Keeping with the juicy burger example, you hardly want to advertise on a website that caters to vegans.

While you want to attract more customers, the goal is to do so without being overly intrusive. Privacy still matters even for the most ardent web surfer. Therefore, you want to hire an advertising company that can deliver a targeted strategy that is also conspicuous. Essentially, your company will become the muzak of online places. The advertisement is there for the consumer to read on their terms with enough representation that ensures they will.

The Bottom Line of Internet Advertising to Increase Your Bottom Line

The broad categories of industries that advertise online present an opportunity for marketing companies to employ the latest trends. Whether your business is real estate, home electronics, automobile sales or financial services, opportunities abound for transformative solutions. A smart advertising company is creative enough in using the art of persuasion to help you grow your business. Having a keen understanding of Internet marketing will lead to strategies that work.

Knowledge of the type of customer who is attracted to your product or service can only strengthen the business and increase sales. Advertising online can integrate content on your company website. It can also take advantage of cutting-edge technology. Make sure you partner with a professional Internet marketing company that is dedicated to helping you gain credibility and visibility online.

Source: http://smartinternetadvertising.blogspot.com/2013/04/expand-your-market-presence-with.html

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

ACLU: Slow smartphone updates are privacy threat

LONDON (AP) ? One of the leading U.S. civil-rights organizations is taking on an unusual cause: spotty smartphone updates.

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate what it considers a failure by U.S. wireless carriers to properly update the Google-built operating system used on Android phones. The ACLU says that sluggish fixes have been saddling many smartphone users with software that is out of date and therefore dangerous.

"At its core, it's not all that different from any other defective product issue," said the ACLU's Chris Soghoian, who drew the analogy between a vulnerable smartphone and "a toaster that blows up."

Experts and government officials have long warned that failing to fix known security flaws ? whether on phones or computers ? gives hackers opportunities to steal data or use the devices to launch larger attacks.

The ACLU's 17-page complaint, filed Tuesday, accused carriers AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless of ignoring those warnings. It cited figures showing that only 2 percent of Android devices worldwide had the latest version of Google's operating system installed. The complaint said that as many as 40 percent of all Android users are still using versions of software released more than two years ago.

The complaint said the carriers were exposing Android customers to "substantial harm" by not moving fast enough on upgrades. The ACLU asked the FTC to force carriers to either warn customers about the issue or start offering refunds.

The FTC said it received the ACLU's complaint but declined to comment further. The agency does not necessarily have to take the complaint up. If it does, an investigation would likely take months.

Carriers who replied to queries from The Associated Press denied delays in the updates, often described as patches. In emailed statements, Sprint said it followed "industry-standard best practices" to protect its customers, while Verizon said its patches were delivered "as quickly as possible." AT&T and T-Mobile did not return emails seeking comment. Google Inc., which was not targeted by the complaint, declined comment.

Carriers are in a tricky position. Google makes its Android operating software available for phone makers to use and modify as they see fit. Phone makers, in turn, let wireless carriers make additional changes, such as restricting software upgrades. The three-part process involves "rigorous testing," according to Verizon.

Making sure newer versions of Google's operating system run smoothly with all the various devices and carriers involved is particularly important for older phones, which may have trouble running the latest software or apps. Customers may not notice or care whether their Android device is running the latest and safest operating system, but they will notice if a misconfigured update means they can't make calls or run their favorite apps.

Yet Travis Breaux, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said the testing process was straightforward. He suggested that carriers were struggling to adapt to the realities of fast-changing smartphone software.

"There are standard practices for testing and evaluating patches," Breaux said. "Microsoft does this all the time."

Jeffrey Silva, a telecom policy analyst with New York-based Medley Global Advisors, said he had a tough time understanding the delays given the highly competitive U.S. cellphone market.

"It's hard to know why they haven't done it to date," he said. "They have all the incentive in the world."

Soghoian said that pressuring carriers to update their phones more quickly wasn't a bid to turn the ACLU into a consumer-protection body. Instead, he said, the organization wanted to advertise the sorts of steps that could be taken to boost the nation's online defenses without the need for invasive new laws. In particular, he referred to a cybersecurity bill now before Congress. Critics ? including the White House ? say that bill doesn't adequately protect private data.

"This is part of our attempt to reframe the cybersecurity agenda," Soghoian said. "Before violating anyone's privacy, the government should first be addressing the low-hanging fruit that everyone can agree on."

___

Online:

The ACLU on smartphone security: http://bit.ly/11fTiDy

___

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter