Amanda & Garrett : Magnolia Plantation Wedding

Amanda & Garrett?s crazy gorgeous wedding at Magnolia Plantation was nothing short of fabulous. They enlisted Cindy Zingerella of Engaging Events to coordinate their day and there were a million extra touches included into everything.

Their wedding day began with a first look on the red bridge at Magnolia. One of my favorite shots below is of Amanda and her sister walking towards Garrett, who is in position and waiting to be told that he can turn around. You could tell that their friends were very important to them and their extended wedding party was full of fun and laughter.

They were married under one of the great oaks along the Ashley river. Their dog, Derby, played a huge part in the day and his green seersucker bowtie matched the groomsmen. Amanda?s dress was a light blush Ulla Maija gown ?with lace overlay. It was perfectly understated and exquisite all at the same time.

They had a rocking reception with Two 3 Ways playing and one of the groomsmen had a cameo with some awesome Dave Matthews covers. At the end of the night, they ran under an arch of sparklers to their black cab.

Congratulations you two! Thanks for having us there to capture it all for you!

?

Event Planner: Engaging Events

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Magnolia Plantation

Flowers: Judy Johnston

Catering: Mosaic

Transportation: Black Cab

Videographer: Artistic Eye

Band: Two 3 Ways

Wedding Cake: Jim Smeal

Hair & Makeup: Vanity Salon

My second shooter: Sally Watts?

Tags: Artistic Eye, Engaging Events, Jim Smeal, Magnolia Plantation
Posted in Weddings | No Comments ?

Source: http://www.leighwebberphotography.com/blog/amanda-garrett-magnolia-plantation-wedding/

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Serbia gets green light to negotiate entry to European Union

Serbia: After decades of transformation, the former Yugoslav republic will begin negotiating to join the EU in January 2014. Once considered a pariah because of its role in the collapse of Yugoslavia, Serbia has made democratic reforms and captured fugitives wanted for war crimes.

By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak,?Reuters / June 29, 2013

Kosovo Serbs gather to mark the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo at Gazimestan, near the capital Pristina Friday. European Union leaders gave Serbia the go-ahead on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the bloc and also agreed to launch negotiations with Kosovo on a so-called association agreement on the path to eventual EU membership. The decision came after both countries reached a deal in April to improve relations.

Hazir Reka/Reuters

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Serbia?won the green light on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the European Union, capping a remarkable transformation in the prospects of the biggest former Yugoslav republic since the 1990s wars.

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The decision, taken at an EU summit, rewards?Belgrade?for an April deal to improve relations with its former province of?Kosovo, which broke away from?Serbia?in a 1998-99 guerrilla war.

EU leaders also agreed?Brussels?should launch negotiations with?Kosovo?on a so-called association agreement, which covers trade, economic and political relations and is a step on the path to eventual EU membership.

The leaders agreed talks would start in January 2014 "at the very latest" with?Serbia, which was long treated as a pariah because of its central role in the wars that tore through the?Balkans?after the 1991 collapse of?Yugoslavia.

"We are at a historic moment for the?Balkans?and for?Europe?as a whole,"?European Council?President?Herman Van Rompuy?told a news conference, noting that the decisions on?Serbia?and?Kosovo?came as?Croatia?prepares to join the?European Union?on Monday.

"These ... decisions are an immediate result of the courageous agreement?Belgrade?and?Pristina?reached last April," said Van Rompuy, who will travel to both capitals on Monday.

Serbia?and?Kosovo?have been at odds since?Kosovo?seceded in 2008 with Western backing. After months of EU-brokered talks, the two sides reached an agreement in April aimed at ending the virtual ethnic partition of?Kosovo?between its ethnic Albanian majority and a pocket of some 50,000 Serbs in the north.

The agreement still has to be fully implemented, and EU governments will assess progress before giving a final, formal go-ahead to talks later this year.

The EU negotiation process should help drive reforms in?Serbia, the largest country to emerge from the former?Yugoslavia, luring investors to its ailing economy.

Prime Minister?Ivica Dacic, leader of the co-ruling Socialists and ex-spokesman for late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, said his government had worked hard for the EU bid.

"The date for (EU) accession talks is the first step of this great journey we are about to undertake," Dacic said in a live broadcast of a cabinet session.

Defence Minister?Aleksandar Vucic, head of the conservative Serbian Progressive Party, said the Balkan state must do more to consummate reforms. "This is the turning point in our modern history.?Serbia?has demonstrated that no one can stop its way forward," Vucic told ministers.

In?Belgrade?about 2,000 hardline nationalists rallied peacefully against EU accession and demanded the resignation of the government.

CURRENCY BUOYED

The Serbian dinar swung upwards to 113.5 to the euro after the EU agreement from a low of 114.05 earlier in the day, currency traders in?Belgrade?said.

Mladen Dodig, head of research at Erste Bank in?Serbia, said the date for EU membership talks would be a major support for reforms and improvement in the business climate, and would boost investor confidence and foreign investment.

"This will have a stabilising effect for financial markets and the foreign currency market, but I also expect structural reforms," said?Miladin Kovacevic, the deputy head of the Serb Statistics Office.

NATO Secretary-General?Anders Fogh Rasmussen?welcomed the EU's decision and said KFOR, the NATO-ledKosovo?peacekeeping force, would "continue to play its role by ensuring a safe and secure environment for all people in?Kosovo". KFOR, in?Kosovo?since June 1999, comprises 5,000 troops from 31 countries.

Dacic said this week he hoped?Serbia?could wrap up membership talks in 4-5 years, although the widely held view in?Brussels?is that it is unlikely to be admitted before 2020.

In the past few years,?Serbia?has made notable strides towards the EU thanks to progress on democratic reforms and the capture of fugitives wanted for crimes during the Yugoslav wars.

Serbs consider?Kosovo?the fount of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith, but?Belgrade?lost control over the territory in 1999 when NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians in a counter-insurgency campaign by Milosevic's security forces.

Kosovo?is now recognised by 100 nations, including the?United States?and 22 of the EU's 27 members.

Of?Serbia's fellow ex-Yugoslav republics,?Slovenia?joined the EU in 2004,?Croatia?follows on Monday and tinyMontenegro?began membership talks last year.?Macedonia?is a candidate, while Bosnia has yet to apply.

($1 = 0.7691 euros) (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in?Belgrade?and Ethan Bilby in?Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/world/~3/Wz_lHHaqzbQ/Serbia-gets-green-light-to-negotiate-entry-to-European-Union

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Pa. girl doing well after 2nd lung transplant

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who underwent a double-lung transplant amid a national debate over the organ allocation process received a second set of lungs after the first failed, and has now taken some breaths on her own, the girl's parents said Friday.

The first set of lungs failed within hours of the June 12 transplant at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Sarah Murnaghan was placed on machines, according to her mother. She was placed back on the lung transplant list the night after her surgery and received a second set of lungs on June 15.

"We were told ... that she was going to die," Janet Murnaghan said at a news conference Friday afternoon as she explained why Sarah's second transplant was not publicly disclosed. "We weren't prepared to live out her dying in public."

The suburban Philadelphia girl initially received lungs from an adult donor after her parents sued over national rules that place children behind adolescents and adults on the priority list for adult lungs ? even if the children are sicker and are capable of accepting adult organs.

The Murnaghans and the family of 11-year-old Javier Acosta of New York City challenged the policy making children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available or be offered adult lungs only after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered. Both children have end-stage cystic fibrosis.

A federal judge ruled they should be eligible for adult lungs after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declined to intervene.

Janet Murnaghan said Sarah's condition began to "spiral out of control" shortly after the first surgery. A second set of lungs was found and transplanted even though the donor once had pneumonia, making the surgery extra risky. The second set was also from an adult donor.

Sarah's mother said the second transplant was a success and the girl was able to take a few breaths on her own.

The failure of the first transplant is not uncommon. A 2005 University of Pennsylvania study found nearly 12 percent of lung transplants experienced what's called primary graft failure, where the organ almost immediately begins to fail.

But the timing ? she received a second set of lungs just three days after her first ? was narrow.

Of 5,081 lung transplants performed between 2010 and 2012, there were only seven retransplants within a week of the initial operation, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the private nonprofit group contracted by the government to manage the transplant list.

"I think this very clearly illustrates that the decision needs to be scientific and medical, rather than judicial," said Lawrence O. Gostin, a health law professor at Georgetown University who questioned the legal basis of the rulings. "UNOS was under pressure from the publicity surrounding this case and the court's decision. It is highly unusual to get two transplants within days."

According to UNOS, a graft failure does not automatically propel someone to the top of the waiting list of potential recipients, who have been assigned scores based on need. But Sarah's new score made her eligible for the second set of lungs.

Earlier this month, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which is overseen by UNOS, resisted making rule changes for children under 12 seeking lung transplants, but created a special appeal and review system to hear such cases. The special review option will expire on July 1, 2014, unless the full board of directors votes to keep it in place.

Of the 1,663 people currently seeking a lung transplant in the U.S., 12 are between the ages of 6 and 10.

Sarah was placed back on a ventilator due to partial paralysis of her diaphragm, a complication of surgery that is not allowing her lungs to expand her mother said.

Sarah is slated for surgery on Monday in an effort to repair her diaphragm.

"There's still a lot in front of us," Murnaghan said, but then added: "Sarah's a fighter. She's always been a fighter."

____

AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergard contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-girl-doing-well-2nd-lung-transplant-193353953.html

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Al Jazeera America network ramps up ahead of debut

By Poornima Gupta and Liana B. Baker

ASPEN/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Al Jazeera America has hired hundreds of journalists and finalized parts of its programming schedule, as it moves ahead with its plan to create a mainstream U.S. cable news channel that aims to compete with dominant networks like CNN and Fox.

The network, with headquarters in New York City, has already hired about 650 employees in the United States as it gears up for a late-August launch, said Ehab Al Shihabi, the executive director of international operations.

The network will focus on regional and local U.S.-based investigative journalism for its U.S. programming. It will feature a flagship two-hour long news program between 7 and 9 p.m., Al Shihabi told an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Al Jazeera may face an uphill battle in attracting a loyal U.S. audience, given that it is under the patronage of the government of Qatar. It will at first be available in only 49 million U.S. households - about half of the reach of CNN.

Al Jazeera, which has a separate English service called Al-Jazeera English, already available in the United States, has been trying to break into the U.S. cable market for a number of years, but it has so far failed to get significant traction.

Many U.S. consumers remember that Al Jazeera gained world notoriety when it aired videos of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's speeches during the early 2000s, and had been viewed by many as being anti-American - particularly at the height of the Iraq War.

Al Shihabi acknowledged that there may be a perception problem among consumers of Al Jazeera being a controversial news channel but dismissed the challenge as one of the issues faced by any startup channel. He said the network's programming will dispel any doubts about the quality of content or any perceived political bias and that a head of U.S. operations will be announced soon.

He called Al Jazeera America a "serious investment," without specifying an exact amount. He added the network will focus on investigative journalism, which they expect will give it a competitive edge.

As part of its investment in the U.S,. Al Jazeera bought Al Gore's Current TV earlier this year to allow it to compete with U.S. news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Terms were undisclosed, but analysts estimated the deal could be worth as much as $500 million.

Al Jazeera plans to have 8 minutes of commercials in an hour, which is lower than the industry standard of 14-16 minutes, Al Shihabi said, adding that the network will launch with 12 bureaus in the United States. Al Jazeera is planning bureaus in major cities such as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.

The network's model is based on the one followed by the BBC, which is U.K. state funded but independently operated, Al Shihabi added.

(Additional reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-jazeera-america-network-ramps-ahead-debut-215735321.html

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avast! Mobile Security & Antivirus (for Android)

If you've been saving yourself for the free Android security suite that does just about everything, then friend, have I got a deal for you. avast! Mobile Security & Antivirus (free, Google Play) is from the familiar name in free PC and Mac antivirus, and packed with a huge array of powerful tools and fine-grained controls. These benefits outweigh its cluttered interface and lockscreen issues to take the Editors' Choice for free Android security apps.It stands next to Bitdefender?Mobile Security and Antivirus, our Editors' Choice for paid subscription Android security apps.

Anti-Malware
In truth, anti-malware is not where the Android security begins and ends. It's very unlikely that you'll encounter malicious software on your phone, but it is generally foremost on the minds of consumers.

When AV-Test rated avast! in June 2013, they found that the software detected 100% of the 2,545 samples the company used. Even better, AV-Test reports that it had no false-positive detections. This is a marked improvement over the previous test, which rated avast! slightly lower and with only half the sample size.

PC Mag relies on third-party testing labs for information about the accuracy of Android security app malware scans.

In my testing, I noticed that the accuracy came at a price. avast! took 66.06 seconds to scan just the apps on my Samsung Galaxy S III , and a whopping 132.2 seconds to scan apps and files. This is on par with TrustGo Antivirus and Mobile Security, but far longer than TrendMicro Mobile Security & Antivirus. Bitdefender?uses ultra-speedy cloud scanning that completes a scan in just over 10 seconds. Though the scans are long, avast! plays nice with other apps. With a scan running in the background along with 12 other apps, I didn't see any stuttering while playing Minecraft.

Also, though the scan is slower, it can be performed at any time and checks every file on your device. Bitdefender's cloud-based approach only focuses on executable files, and needs an internet connection to scan. Their approach is to only focus on the files that could be a threat, and is far more targeted than avast!'s brute-force approach. That said, avast! is well-positioned to guard against new threats that use novel attack vectors we've yet to imagine. It's also good for the kind of user who roots their device and side-loads everything.

avast! will also keep an ever-vigilant eye on your device, warning you as soon as it detects something it doesn't like. This includes during a malware scan; the app triggers an alert as soon as it detects something, and you can uninstall the offending app and pick up the scan where you left off.

Though many security apps can scan all the files on your device, avast! goes one step further with the File Shield. When active, File Shield will scan every file when used, either read from or written to. It's cool, but totally overkill and turned off by default as it eats into battery life.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/SFwNZ7FVUZE/0,2817,2421101,00.asp

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Sony Music Unlimited (for Android)

The stream music space is packed with competitors, so, to stand out from the glut, a product must be truly excellent (Slacker Radio) or be in possession of a unique feature/gimmick (Songza). Sony Music Unlimited is neither. While it doesn't do anything particularly offensive, it also doesn't do enough to warrant must-try status.

Getting Started With Sony Music Unlimited
You begin by creating an account and inputting your billing information. Yes, your billing information. Sony Music Unlimited lacks a free version (unlike Slacker Radio), but the $9.99 per month Premium membership delivers an ad-free listening experience and lets you skip tracks without limitations. There's also a 30-day free trial account if you'd like to try before you buy.

Sony Music Unlimited takes you to the Home screen after you log in. There you'll find a handful of new releases (at the time of this writing, they were Wale's "The Gifted" and Bob Marley's "Legend Remixed") and your recently updated playlists. Scrolling down reveals recommended tracks and popular songs. Songs and albums are represented by thumbnails set against a plain, white background?it isn't very visually appealing. Slacker, Songza, and other apps have more attractive interfaces that beckon you to dive deeper. Superficial gripe? Maybe.

But there are more serious issues with the interface, too. For instance, the home screen lacks a search box; you must tap the striped icon in the upper-left corner to access a vertical menu. Slacker Radio's mobile apps have the search box at the very top of the screen for fast access?I appreciate that it doesn't make me take an extra step. The same menu contains other options such as Channels (Latin Top 100, and Hot Songs), Browse (where check out almost two dozen genre stations), My Library (one of the two areas where playlists live), and tinker with settings. There's also an offline mode that you can toggle on/off, too. Sony Music Unlimited, by default, only lets you save playlists for offline playback if you're connected to a Wi-Fi signal, but you can change a setting so that you're able to do so over 3G/4G. This comes in extremely handy when you're in a location where you may not be able connect to a signal (such as on an airplane).

Pump Up the Volume
Sony Music Unlimited's boasts a 15-million-track library, but navigating it may prove a head scratcher. There's little visual consistency between the Home, Browse, Eras, and music playback screens, so moving from section to section was a bit jarring. Even worse, the app would sometimes hang as I tried attempted to move from screen to screen.

That said, the listening experience is quite good. Sony Music Unlimited features several Dirtbombs albums (a relatively obscure Detroit-based band), including a disc with King Khan that I didn't know existed. Very cool. Unfortunately, Sony Music Unlimited has just three of six Patton Oswalt albums, so fans of the nerd-king may be left disappointed.

On the other hand, Sony Music Unlimited's audio quality should please all but the most discerning ears?especially when a listener enters Settings and cranks the quality up to "HQ." With a pair of Sony MDR headphones channeling the audio, I picked up subtle instrumentation in the Eagles' "Take It Easy." You can share song snippets via Facebook, Twitter, email, and other means if you're so inclined. Unfortunately, Sony Music Unlimited doesn't have lyrics and artist bios, which many hardcore music fans love.

You can, of course, create custom channels and favorite/ban individual tracks to tailor the experience, but pretty much every streaming music service does that nowadays. The lack of hook?such as Slacker Radio's creative themed playlists (YOLO Radio, live ESPN sports talk)?leave it without much of an identity.

The Final Countdown
Sony Music Unlimited isn't a bad service?it just needs some work to make it a true challenger in the Android streaming music space. Slacker Radio's remains the category's Don Dada, courtesy of its quirky themed stations, artist bios, and lyrics. Sony Music Unlimited's sound quality and catalog may appeal to some, but there are better options available.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/GSY9J4OarTs/0,2817,2421119,00.asp

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Obama: No wheeling or dealing to extradite Snowden (The Arizona Republic)

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Dear Prudence: Horribly Neglected Pet

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Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/dear_prudence/2013/06/dear_prudence_video_horribly_neglected_pet.html

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BP Challenges Settlements in Gulf Oil Spill

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The oil company asserted that thousands of claims were either inflated or nonexistent in ads that are to appear in three major newspapers Wednesday.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/business/energy-environment/bp-challenges-settlements-in-gulf-oil-spill.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Final push to save landmark 'flying saucer? terminal

JFK's endangered Worldport terminal (Mary Altaffer/AP)Anthony Stramaglia has many fond memories of JFK Airport?s iconic Terminal 3. For one, it was the first place he ever got on a plane.

?I was only 2 years old,? said Stramaglia of his first trip through Pan American World Airways? "Jetsons"-esque structure, the Worldport. ?I?m dating myself here, but it must have been 1971. I flew out with my mother on a trip to Rome, and there must have been something about the terminal that struck me, even then.?

Stramaglia, a New Jersey resident, has thrown himself into a quixotic campaign to save the Pan Am Worldport from almost certain demolition by the New York/New Jersey Port Authority and Delta Air Lines, which now owns it. In 2011 he joined a grass-roots Save the Worldport campaign, founded by a former Pan Am employee, Kalev Savi.

?I?m not a preservationist by trade,? said Stramaglia. ?I?m an IT guy. But this is something I latched on to. I have a close emotional tie with it.?

Opened on May 24, 1960, the Worldport conjures up images of a time when air travel was seen as sophisticated and glamorous. With its massive, cantilevered roof suspended over a structure of concrete and glass, the terminal is a sleek embodiment of 1960s style and the emergence of the Jet Age. Some call it a flying saucer; and for Stramaglia, it?s a flying saucer worth saving.

?Midcentury modern is disappearing these days. Some of it is making a comeback with TV shows like 'Mad Men,' but we?re afraid that if this goes it?s going to be one of those Penn Stations,? Stramaglia said, referring to New York City?s original Pennsylvania Station, which was demolished in 1963.

Named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation?s annual list of America?s Most Endangered Places this week, the Worldport has recently garnered a considerable amount of attention, including an article appearing in The New York Times.

?With the Worldport, the threat was clearly dire and the significance of the place was really compelling to us,? said Roberta Lane, spokesperson for the National Trust, told Yahoo News by phone. ?Our aim is to help people embrace modern design and to preserve our modernist heritage. The Worldport embodies the very best of the tradition that came out of the Jet Age, and it occupies a significant place in aviation history as well.?

Stramaglia says he appreciates the publicity his cause has received, but he worries that it might be too late. According to the Times, workers have already started to remove asbestos and lead paint from the terminal to prepare for the wrecking crews.

?It?s not looking good at this point until we get in front of Delta,? he said. ?We know the terminal?s obsolete as far as travel?that?s a given. But the saucer can be repurposed.?

Suggestions from the Save the Worldport campaign have included a museum as well as restaurants, shops and an observation space.

The organization has yet to receive a response from Delta on these proposals. And while Stramaglia and his team have spoken with the Port Authority on several occasions, they say that?s not enough.

?It?s a small victory,? said Stramaglia of those meetings. ?But they can?t do anything here?they need the private funding from Delta.?

Still, the National Trust believes it can use its status as a top preservation advocacy group to rally support for the Worldport.

?Raising public awareness can be an extremely powerful thing, and we?ve had a good record of that with our annual lists of endangered places,? said Lane, who cited the successful refurbishment of JFK?s futurist TWA Flight Center after that building appeared on the organization?s 2004 list. ?There?s been a real groundswell for groups like Save the Worldport.?

More than 6,700 people have joined the group?s Facebook campaign, while an online petition has garnered signatures from almost 70 countries. Stramaglia said people aged 16 to 64 have signed the petition.

?It shows you how much younger people care for the architecture and the history,? he said.

The Worldport has been on the chopping block since 2001, when the Port Authority conducted an eligibility report on the terminal?s status as a historical landmark. According to the Times, Delta plans to turn the site into a parking zone for its aircraft by 2015.

?They said there?s nothing original about the building,? said Stramaglia of the Port Authority?s 2001 report. ?They said that the terminal?s cantilevered roof and the suspension cables were something you see every day. They?re not. Those techniques might be common in architecture, but it?s the uniqueness of how they were applied here that makes the building special.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/final-push-save-jfk-endangered-flying-saucer-pan-195857352.html

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James ?Tony Soprano? Gandolfini on Sesame Street (video) (Americablog)

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Facebook comments get image embeds, give online flame warriors graphical ammo

Facebook comment threads are apparently a bit too calm, so the social network company's decided to mix things up with the addition of in-line image embeds starting today. But wait -- put down the link to your hottest GIF -- apparently the service only supports static images for now. And not everyone has it thus far, with the service only rolling out to folks who have a camera icon appear in the comment response field.

The functionality is rolling out on both web and mobile versions of Facebook; product engineer Bob Baldwin debuted the addition on his Facebook profile, where he said he built the image embedding "at a hackathon" with a gaggle of other FBers. Let us know in the comments below if you've already got it, and leave some pictures on the Engadget Facebook page!

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Bob Baldwin

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/19/facebook-inline-images/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Study: Wiser medication use could cut health costs

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude.

The new findings by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics improve on numerous prior efforts to quantify the dollars wasted on health care.

Numerous experts previously have estimated that tens of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars, could be better used each year to improve patient care and outcomes and to slow down spending by government health programs, insurers and consumers.

The institute, part of data analysis and consulting firm IMS Health, used its proprietary data on prescriptions written by doctors ? many of which patients never fill ? plus other information to produce a current, more reliable estimate of avoidable costs solely related to medication use.

IMS arrived at the $213 billion figure based on six categories in which doctors, patients or both could be making better use of medication, from getting a prompt diagnosis when new symptoms arise to taking medicines as directed by the doctor. Across the six categories, the researchers generally focused on spending on a handful of very common or very expensive diseases ? from high cholesterol and blood pressure to HIV and diabetes ? for which costs of care and complications are well documented.

"There's even larger avoidable costs if we were to look at all disease areas" where patients aren't getting optimal care, Murray Aitken, the institute's executive director, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. "There's a big opportunity for improvement."

The $213 billion equals nearly 8 percent of the more than $2.7 trillion the U.S. spent on health care last year. Those billions could pay for the health care of more than 24 million Americans currently uninsured, according to IMS.

And Aitken said more-appropriate use of medication ? taking it exactly as prescribed, not taking antibiotics for viral illnesses, preventing medication errors and the like ? could prevent 6 million hospitalizations, 4 million trips to the emergency room and 78 million visits to doctors and other outpatient care providers each year.

"Those are staggering numbers," Aitken said.

The report, titled "Avoidable Costs in Healthcare," found the biggest area of waste is patients not taking medicines prescribed by their doctor, either at all or as directed. IMS estimates the cost of such "non-adherence" at about $105 billion a year.

Reasons for the longstanding problem include patients fearing drug side effects, not understanding complications that can occur without treatment, having mental health issues and not being able to afford their medicines. Price has become less of a factor, though, as there are now relatively inexpensive generic versions of drugs for most diseases.

"I think there's really good, solid evidence that if you adhere to medications, that keeps you out of the hospital," said M. Christopher Roebuck, president of health policy consultants Rx Economics LLC.

Roebuck, who was not involved in the study, said it's well done. But he said the estimates of potential savings are "quite conservative" for medication non-adherence and treatment delays.

Those delays are blamed for racking up about $39 billion a year in avoidable care costs ? due to patients putting off doctor visits and not getting medications they're prescribed, or doctors not promptly starting treatments proven to prevent expensive complications.

"We've got a lot of people without insurance who are not routinely going to the doctor, and even some with insurance aren't," Aitken said.

Other areas of waste noted in the report include:

? Prescribing antibiotics inappropriately, as for patients with the flu or another viral infection, costing about $35 billion annually. This can contribute to bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics, resulting in more expensive treatment and even hospitalization with a future infection.

? Medication errors, costing about $20 billion annually. Those include sloppy handwriting leading to the wrong drug or dose being dispensed and doctors not checking to see that the patient is getting better, meaning they've been getting the right medicine. Those errors are on the decline due to more doctors using electronic prescriptions and other changes.

? Not using generic drugs when they are available, costing about $12 billion annually. That's a decreasing problem, as strategies of health plans and pharmacies encourage patients to choose generics by setting copayments for brand-name drugs a few times higher than for the generics. Without insurance, generics can cost 90 percent less than brand-name drugs. Today, when a generic is available, it's dispensed about 95 percent of the time.

? Multiple medication confusion, costing about $1.3 billion annually. For elderly patients taking five or more medicines, it's easy to mix up which pills should be taken when, and for those who are frail, those mistakes can cause serious harm. That problem likely will grow significantly with our aging population.

The report will be shared with government, medical and policy groups and other stakeholders in the health system, Aitken said.

The institute, whose clients include major drugmakers, noted that its report was prepared without funding from government or the pharmaceutical industry.

___

Follow Linda A. Johnson at http://twitter.comLindaJ_onPharma

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-wiser-medication-could-cut-health-costs-100504412.html

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The Suddenly Booming Business of Secretive Communications | FP ...

For anyone in the habit of wearing a tinfoil hat, the last couple of weeks have been ones of redemption. With a steady stream of revelations about the National Security Agency's astonishingly broad intelligence-gathering activities, conspiracy theories about its reach have seemingly been validated.

Those same raise a related question: Are there ways to avoid the NSA's prying eyes?

It turns out there are (for the most part, anyway). And for the companies selling communication tools to circumvent surveillance programs, business is going like gangbusters.

Silent Circle, a company that provides encrypted email, phone, and messaging services, has seen sales increase 400 percent so far this month (you can now take advantage of a 50-percent discount on its full suite of services). Moxie Marlinspike, the hacker and developer behind Whisper Systems, another purveyor of encrypted communications tools, says his service has seen a 3,000-percent increase in its new active user rate since June 6, when the story about the NSA's PRISM program first broke, though he did not offer specifics about the number of users the company has signed up. Cryptocat, a free encrypted chat service, welcomed almost 5,000 new users last week, and server traffic is currently running 80 percent above average for its 65,000 regular users, according to Nadim Kobeissi, the site's lead developer. And Tor, a web browser that protects its users from so-called "traffic analysis," has seen a 17-percent increase in its mean daily users in the United States (the number of users is now approaching 90,000).

"We are running around with our hair on fire -- it's insane," Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke told Foreign Policy.

Utilizing a peer-to-peer encryption tool, Silent Circle's communication tools -- which include everything from email to text messaging to video conferencing -- promise near-anonymity on the web. In layman's terms, these services scrable your communications with users using a similar encryption protocol, turning your message into a bunch of gibberish for the NSA analyst listening in.

Silent Circle's offerings are part of a burgeoning movement online to ensure user anonymity and prevent privacy breaches, but tools such as encrypted email can only do so much to fight back against the NSA. In recent years, encryption technology has become so advanced that the agency has largely moved away from using brute-force decryption methods -- that is, leveraging an immense amount of computer power to unlock a given encryption algorithm -- and instead adopted traffic analysis methods, according to Janke.

As part of this new approach, the NSA scoops up immense troves of a given type of communication and tries to spot patterns in those exchanges. That technique, known as traffic analysis, allows the agency to establish connections between people and groups on the Internet. And by identifying its targets in the morass of messages, the NSA can map a given target's entire social network. That information can often be more valuable than the content of the message itself.

All this means that encryption tools like those offered by Silent Circle are only a first step -- a reality that Janke fully acknowledges -- and that email is particularly vulnerable to NSA snooping.

"Due to the physics of email -- how a server needs to take that data and send it down to someone else -- it is vulnerable to metadata and it hangs around forever," Janke said, referring to secondary data -- the contents of the "to" and "from" fields, say, or routing information. (That said, Silent Circle avoids some of these problems by retaining a minimal amount of user data. If the government comes knocking -- as it has -- Silent Circle has nothing to give them.)

This climate has helped popularize services such as Tor, which masks a user's location by bouncing the user's connection off a large number of servers. It's a little like trying to throw off someone who's tailing you by making many sharp turns in your car. Tor uses the vast architecture of the web to achieve a similar effect.?

So, to review: If you want to prevent the NSA from listening in on your conversations, hop on Tor, log onto Cryptocat, and talk all you want about your plans for global domination.?

But even then, if the NSA knows your identity and considers you a sufficient threat, it has the ability to hack into your computer and track every keystroke you make. There's little encryption can do about that.

Source: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/18/the_suddenly_booming_business_of_secretive_communications

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Tire dealers grow business with Upright Tire ... - PR NewsChannel

(PR NewsChannel) / June 18, 2013 / TAMPA, Fla.?

Increasing numbers of U.S. tire dealers are reporting significant business growth after working with Upright Tire to develop a tire dealer website. Upright Tire is an exclusive and focused program approach to online marketing for tire dealers.

In 2011, the seasoned SEO firm, Upright Communications, launched Upright Tire to provide online marketing support for wholesale tire distributors and tire dealers. The program, which began with seven participating dealers, has grown to include 49 tire dealers with over 130 locations.

Upright Tire clients say that program is an easy an highly effective way for them to develop or enhance an online marketing presence. Since the majority of these small business owners do not have the time or staff to invest in developing and maintaining a website, Upright Tire provides a full service solution by offering website and content development, online coupons, organic and maps SEO rankings, site visit and phone tracking, social media management, and other exclusive Upright Tire services.

According to Upright Tire Program Manager, Colleen Frye, the participating tire dealers have reported significant growth since starting the program including increases in website visits, phone traffic, and sales revenue. ?We?ve see amazing business growth ? 10 percent of our dealers have opened a new store within the first year of the program,? Colleen stated. ?Our approach with this program was to listen to what tire dealers needed, and to develop a program to specifically address those needs. The response has been tremendous.?

Upright Tire expects the program to continue to grow, and as they gain more experience in addressing the needs of tire dealers, they anticipate they will be able to offer even more specialized services to this market.

About Upright Communications: Since 1996, Upright Communications has been dedicated to helping businesses enhance their online presence with effective website design, quality content development, and ethical search engine optimization. Upright Tire is a strategic and focused website program for tire dealers who want to grow their business with online marketing. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Upright Communications has offices in Tampa, Fla. and Venice, Calif. Visit www.walkupright.com to learn more.

MEDIA CONTACT
Jenn Johnson
Upright Communications
142 West Platt Street, Suite 118
Tampa, FL 33606
Phone:?????? (813) 642-7422

Direct link:??http://www.prnewschannel.com/2013/06/18/tire-dealers-grow-business-with-upright-tire-online-marketing-program/

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Source: http://www.prnewschannel.com/2013/06/18/tire-dealers-grow-business-with-upright-tire-online-marketing-program/

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Biden: Gun control opponents 'will pay a price?

Vice President Joe Biden (Fernando Vergara/AP)

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, seeking to revive efforts to pass gun-reform legislation in Congress, warned lawmakers opposed to reform that Americans aren't on their side.

"The country has changed" since the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Biden said during remarks delivered on Tuesday afternoon in the White House's South Court auditorium. Lawmakers "will pay a price?a political price ... for not getting engaged and dealing with gun safety."

Two months after the Senate failed to support the expansion of background checks for gun purchasers despite intense pressure from the administration, victims rights groups and others, the White House announced on Tuesday that the issue remains a top priority for the administration and its supporters in Congress and elsewhere.

"This fight isn?t over. Far from it," Biden said.

Before Biden's remarks, the White House, in an attempt to demonstrate commitment to the issue of reducing gun violence, announced on Tuesday that the administration has completed or made progress?Biden later described it as "major progress"?on 21 out of 23 executive actions. The actions were produced by a gun violence task force the vice president led after the Newtown shooting and were issued by President Barack Obama in January.

Progress, Biden said, has been made on ending the ban on government research of gun violence, creating incentives for states to share information about potentially dangerous gun purchasers, enhancing the tracking of guns recovered in criminal investigations and more.

He also announced that guides from the departments of Education, Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services that can help develop "high-quality emergency operations plans" for K-12 schools, higher-education institutions and places of worship have been released. He said 100 school districts nationwide now have increased access to resources including federal training on shooter situations.

?The Administration has more work to do to complete the remainder of the executive actions that the President announced in January," a progress report released on Tuesday by the White House reads. "But Congress must also act. Passing common-sense gun safety legislation, including expanding background checks and making gun trafficking a federal crime, remains the single most important step we could take to reduce gun violence.?

The report repeats a line often used during the Senate?s debate of expanded background checks: "A vast majority of the American people? support these steps.

?It is time for Congress to take action and get this done," the report adds.

Many stakeholders in the gun debate believed the administration?s best chance to get Congress to pass gun-reform measures died with the failed vote for expanded background checks in April, when Newtown was fresh in the minds of the public and politicians and many interest groups were active in the debate over gun violence.

But the administration and Senate Democratic leaders were unable to wrangle support from key Democrats from guns rights states in addition to select Republicans.

?It came down to politics,? Obama said as he chastised Congress from the Rose Garden the night of the April 17 vote. ?They caved to the pressure.?

Obama added, ?All in all, this was a pretty shameful day in Washington."

The White House says it has continued to publicly court Congress, but other than Biden?s recent event on mental illness, it has held few public events related to gun violence.

When pressed about whether the administration is pursuing potential swing Democrats in the Senate on the issue of background checks with the same intensity as it did during the Senate?s spring gun debate, the White House has mostly declined to offer any specifics other than to confirm that conversations are ongoing.

On Monday, a senior administration official once again declined to release details about these types of meetings, saying the White House remains "engaged with members of Congress" on the issue.

During his remarks on Tuesday, Biden declined to mention lawmakers by name, but said that "he knows" some senators who voted against expanded background checks "wonder now whether that was a prudent vote."

He added that he's received "phone calls from those members of Congress?many of whom voted no" asking for the administration to "find a way for us to revisit this."

The vice president said, "We need to make sure the voices of those we lost are the loudest ones we hear in this fight."

The two executive actions where progress has not been made, according to the report, are confirming a director to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (something up to Congress as the administration has already nominated Todd Jones, who has served as acting director) and hashing out mental health benefits with Health and Human Services.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/biden-tout-progress-executive-actions-reduce-gun-violence-114010300.html

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