Nothing stokes the emotional coals like slow-mo drops of water and orchestral strings. That's at least what the team behind this ASUS promo video seem to think. Amidst the melodrama there are actually a few new nuggets of info about the rained-on N-series Notebook. There's "SonicMaster Premium" sound from Bang and Olufsen on board, which the firm claims should please the pickiest of ears, and full HD wide-view screens. A backlit keyboard and fancy touch pad are also shown off, with the latter matching the aspect ratio of the screen for "intuitive control." The claimed (up to) two-week standby time should please the infrequent user, while the impatient will like the two second wake-up time. Whether it'll have Oscar-winning performance to match the video, however, is yet to be known.
Maxwell's mom can learn a lot from another superstar mama, Queen B. By John Mitchell
<P><a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/simpson_jessica/artist.jhtml">Jessica Simpson</a> is basking in the glow of new motherhood after <a href="/news/articles/1684216/jessica-simpson-baby-girl-maxwell-drew-johnson.jhtml">giving birth to her daughter</a>, Maxwell Drew Johnson, on Tuesday, but if we know anything about celebrity moms, she'll be back to work in no time flat.</P><P>While she hasn't released an album of new material since 2008's country crossover record <i>Do You Know,</i> Simpson remains a true mogul. Her fashion line, the Jessica Simpson Collection, is the most successful ever for a celebrity. What began as a vanity line of bags and shoes has transformed into a billion-dollar brand that now also includes clothing, jewelry, fragrances and sunglasses.</P><P><CENTER><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:724613/cp~name%3Dnews%26id%3D1676907%26vid%3D724613%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A724613" width="460" height="260" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed></CENTER></P><P>The dueling pulls of motherhood and celebrity create a tough balancing act for a new mom, but being a mogul already is evidence enough that Simpson can wear a lot of hats. Just look at <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/knowles_beyonce/artist.jhtml">Beyoncé</a>, another multi-hyphenate superstar with a newborn who is already plotting her return to form.</P><P>Indeed, Queen B is a perfect example of exactly how to balance early motherhood with the rigors of being a mogul. She's done things her way and is readying her musical comeback with several <a href="/news/articles/1681308/beyonce-memorial-day-atlantic-city-shows.jhtml">planned dates in Atlantic City</a>, currently appears on the cover of<a href="/news/articles/1683832/beyonce-people-most-beautiful-woman.jhtml"><i>People</i>'s Most Beautiful issue</a> (a covert and classy post-baby body reveal, in true Beyoncé style) and has even suggested she may at some point create a line of maternity clothes for her House of Dereon fashion line, telling <a href="http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/cover/beyonces-baby-love-interview-1111"><i>Harper's Bazaar</i></a> late last year, "I love figuring out designs that still make me feel edgy and sexy while pregnant."</P><P>Here are the three ways Jessica should look to Beyonce for post-baby mommy mogul inspiration:</P><P><big><b>Bouncing Back Professionally</b></big><br> Simpson's focus has switched from music to television in recent years, though she has never ruled out returning to the studio. Motherhood is a subject that has proven to be ace songwriting material for several pop divas, most notably Madonna. Madonna's 1998 album <i>Ray of Light</i> was inspired by the changes having a child had on her life, from her pursuit of spirituality post-baby to the change in her priorities once Lourdes entered the picture. The album went on to become one of her best-selling and most acclaimed, scoring five Grammy nominations, including Album and Record of the Year, and winning three awards. Its success reinvigorated the star, who returned to touring a few years later with a bang and has been on the road multiple times since, setting records along the way.</P><P>Beyoncé is reportedly already working on <a href="http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/02/14/beyonce-prepping-two-new-albums">not one, but <i>two</i> records</a>, and it goes without saying that baby Blue Ivy and the experience of motherhood will be a chief topic of her songwriting. She's also set to make her return to the stage for three concerts at the re-launch of Atlantic City's Revel Entertainment Center over Memorial Day weekend.</P><P>Simpson would be smart to put all the emotions she's feeling now to good use and start penning tracks for her return to music. The very emotions she's feeling now are the things that make for the best songs, something Beyoncé is seemingly well-aware of.</P><P><big><b>Working on Your Fitness</b></big><br> Jessica seems intent to make her post-baby weight loss a public affair (Get it? That song is her most underrated jam!) with a reported <a href="http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11490423-jessica-simpsons-baby-wait-is-over-but-weight-watchers-awaits?lite" target="_blank">multimillion-dollar endorsement deal</a> with Weight Watchers, clearly taking a cue from B by keeping it healthy.</P><P>Unlike so many other celebrities, who rush hard in ways that cannot be good for them to get their figures ready for "How I Got My Body Back" tabloid photo shoots as if it were some sort of competition, Beyoncé didn't appear to feel any sort of rush to get her pre-baby figure back. According to her <a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20360857_20589758,00.html"><i>People</i> interview</a>, she has relied on a healthy, protein-heavy diet and three 90-minute workout sessions per week, mixing things up by combining running, dancing and exercise ball crunches. And the results speak for themselves: Four months later she looks fantastic, if not yet back to her perfect pre-baby figure. (Which is just fine; regardless of what the tabloids tell you, it is unnatural for the mother of a newborn to look as if she never had a baby in the first place just a few months after giving birth.)</P><P>"I feel my body bouncing back," B told <i>People.</i> "Whatever was tight and muscular, like my legs, I'm seeing it come back. You just have to work at it."</P><P>And work at it is exactly what Jessica will do — just in a more public setting than B. In the scheme of diets, Weight Watchers is among the healthiest and most effective. The program helps participants lose weight by forming helpful habits, eating smarter, getting more exercise and providing support, and has proven successful for such celebs as Jennifer Hudson.</P><P>Having negotiated her contract with the company in December, she may not be taking her cues from Beyoncé here, but they clearly share the same mind-set when it comes to post-baby weight loss. Slow, steady, healthy and long-term is the goal.</P><P><big><b>Creating Products</b></big><br> While Beyoncé doesn't have a line of baby clothes just yet, she has mentioned being interested in creating a maternity line for her House of Dereon label. Jessica may have a leg up on Beyoncé in this department, given the breadth of products that have popped up under her Jessica Simpson Collection label.</P><P>As both moms search for ways into the elusive baby market, Christopher Gavigan, who works with Jessica Alba on her Honest brand, <a href="/news/articles/1677997/beyonce-motherhood-business.jhtml">told MTV News</a> that he urges celebrity moms like B and Jessica to stick to what they love when it comes to branding.</P><P>"Find what you're passionate about and go do that," he advised. "You articulate that in a brand or in a way you feel from a business perspective that you feel you get your focus articulated in some meaningful or special way. A lot of it is partnerships and leveraging the greatest assets of each other."</P><P><i>What else can Jessica learn from Beyoncé — or vice versa? Let us know in the comments below!</i></P><P><a href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1617615"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/s/spotted/banner/spotted.jpg"></a></p>
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Sort of. I have done some roleplaying. Not a lot, but some. Anyways, my name is Lilith :) and I stumbled upon this site. I hope to meet a lot of awesome people!
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It looks like the team from Y Combinator-backed Stypi is heading to Salesforce, according to this blog post.UPDATE: We've confirmed that Salesforce has acquired Stypi. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. As we reported last year, Stypi develops a lightweight, real-time collaborative text editor. It's similar in many ways to fellow YC alum Etherpad, which was acquired by Google. You can create documents in Stypi and edit it just as you would any other document, and you can invite new collaborators simply by sending them the URL.
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) ? While chlorpyrifos is no longer registered for household use in the US, it continues to be widely used around the world, as well as on many food and agricultural products throughout the US.
Even low to moderate levels of exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos during pregnancy may lead to long-term, potentially irreversible changes in the brain structure of the child, according to a new brain imaging study by researchers from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Duke University Medical Center, Emory University, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The changes in brain structure are consistent with cognitive deficits found in children exposed to this chemical.
Results of the study appear online in the April 30 PNAS.
The new study is the first to use MRI to identify the structural evidence for these cognitive deficits in humans, confirming earlier findings in animals. Changes were visible across the surface of the brain, with abnormal enlargement of some areas and thinning in others. The disturbances in brain structure are consistent with the IQ deficits previously reported in the children with high exposure levels of chlorpyrifos, or CPF, suggesting a link between prenatal exposure to CPF and deficits in IQ and working memory at age 7.
The study also reports evidence that CPF may eliminate or reverse the male-female differences that are ordinarily present in the brain. Further study is needed to determine the consequences of these changes before and after puberty, the researchers say.
Notably, the brain abnormalities appeared to occur at exposure levels below the current EPA threshold for toxicity, which is based on exposures high enough to inhibit the action of the key neurological enzyme cholinesterase. The present findings suggest that the mechanism underlying structural changes in the brain may involve other pathways.
According to the lead author, Virginia Rauh, ScD, Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, "By measuring a biomarker of CPF exposure during pregnancy, and following the children prospectively from birth into middle childhood, the present study provides evidence that the prenatal period is a vulnerable time for the developing child, and that toxic exposure during this critical period can have far-reaching effects on brain development and behavioral functioning."
"By combining brain imaging and community-based research, we now have much stronger evidence linking exposure to chlorpyrifos with neurodevelopmental problems," adds senior author Bradley S. Peterson, MD, Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Director of MRI Research in the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center.
In the current study, the researchers used MRI to evaluate the brains of 40 New York City children, ages 5 to 11, whose mothers were enrolled prenatally in a larger cohort study. Researchers compared 20 children with high exposures to CPF with 20 children with lower exposures; all exposures occurred prior to the EPA ban on household use of the chemical in 2001. They found brain anomalies were associated with the higher exposure.
Since the 2001 ban, a drop in residential exposure levels of CPF has been documented by Robin Whyatt, DrPH, a co-author on the present study and Professor of Clinical Environmental Health Sciences and Co-Deputy Director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School. However, the chemical continues to be present in the environment through its widespread use in agriculture (food and feed crops), wood treatments, and public spaces such as golf courses, some parks, and highway medians. People near these sources can be exposed by inhaling the chemical, which drifts on the wind. Low-level exposure can also occur by eating fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed. Although the chemical is degraded rapidly by water and sunlight outdoors, it has been detected by the Columbia researchers in many urban residences years after the ban went into effect.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
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Virginia A. Rauh, Frederica P. Perera, Megan K. Horton, Robin M. Whyatt, Ravi Bansal, Xuejun Hao, Jun Liu, Dana Boyd Barr, Theodore A. Slotkin, and Bradley S. Peterson. Brain anomalies in children exposed prenatally to a common organophosphate pesticide. PNAS, April 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1203396109
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Secondhand smoke continues to vex children with asthmaPublic release date: 1-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Stevens Martin ssmartin@aap.org 847-434-7131 American Academy of Pediatrics
Most asthmatic youths are exposed to tobacco smoke and suffer array of health problems
BOSTON Despite longstanding recommendations for children with asthma to avoid tobacco smoke, many youths are still exposed to secondhand smoke and their health suffers because of it, according to a study to be presented Tuesday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.
"National asthma guidelines have advised avoidance of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) for patients with asthma for decades, but it is unclear to what degree these recommendations are being followed and what the impact of exposure has been in an era of increased awareness of the effects of ETS exposure," said lead author Lara J. Akinbami, MD, FAAP, medical officer, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers undertook this investigation after co-author Brian Kit, MD, MPH, conducted a study showing that 53 percent of children with asthma were exposed to smoke from cigarettes, cigars or pipes from 2005 to 2010. These findings also will be presented at the PAS meeting on Saturday, April 28.
Investigators analyzed data from the 2003-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 972 children ages 6-19 years who had been diagnosed by a doctor with asthma and who reported having asthma at the time of the survey. They looked at the association between exposure to ETS and the following effects of wheezing in the past year:
number of days of school or work missed;
number of health care visits to a doctor's office or emergency department (ED);
number of days with sleep disturbed;
amount of activity limitation; and
any wheezing with exercise or physical activity.
NHANES consists of health interviews and examinations at a mobile center. During the health interviews, respondents were asked about demographic characteristics, smoking in the household, personal smoking habits (ages 12 and above) and asthma history. Blood samples were taken to assess serum cotinine, which measures exposure to ETS or personal use of tobacco products.
Results showed that 53 percent of the children were exposed to ETS. After adjusting for differences in age, sex, race and poverty status, exposure to ETS was associated with higher odds of having three or more visits (vs. no visits) to a physician's office or ED due to wheezing in the past year; sleep disturbed by wheezing one or more nights per week (vs. none); and activity limitations (fair amount, moderate amount or a lot vs. none) due to wheezing.
There was no significant association between ETS exposure and missing school or work due to wheezing or wheezing during exercise.
"Although this advice is certainly not new, discussing avoidance of environmental tobacco smoke with asthma patients remains critical," Dr. Akinbami said. "New tools are needed to help families achieve the goal of reducing exposure, both inside the home and in other environments."
###
The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) are four individual pediatric organizations that co-sponsor the PAS Annual Meeting the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Academic Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Members of these organizations are pediatricians and other health care providers who are practicing in the research, academic and clinical arenas. The four sponsoring organizations are leaders in the advancement of pediatric research and child advocacy within pediatrics, and all share a common mission of fostering the health and well-being of children worldwide. For more information, visit www.pas-meeting.org. Follow news of the PAS meeting on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PedAcadSoc.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Secondhand smoke continues to vex children with asthmaPublic release date: 1-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Stevens Martin ssmartin@aap.org 847-434-7131 American Academy of Pediatrics
Most asthmatic youths are exposed to tobacco smoke and suffer array of health problems
BOSTON Despite longstanding recommendations for children with asthma to avoid tobacco smoke, many youths are still exposed to secondhand smoke and their health suffers because of it, according to a study to be presented Tuesday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.
"National asthma guidelines have advised avoidance of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) for patients with asthma for decades, but it is unclear to what degree these recommendations are being followed and what the impact of exposure has been in an era of increased awareness of the effects of ETS exposure," said lead author Lara J. Akinbami, MD, FAAP, medical officer, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers undertook this investigation after co-author Brian Kit, MD, MPH, conducted a study showing that 53 percent of children with asthma were exposed to smoke from cigarettes, cigars or pipes from 2005 to 2010. These findings also will be presented at the PAS meeting on Saturday, April 28.
Investigators analyzed data from the 2003-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 972 children ages 6-19 years who had been diagnosed by a doctor with asthma and who reported having asthma at the time of the survey. They looked at the association between exposure to ETS and the following effects of wheezing in the past year:
number of days of school or work missed;
number of health care visits to a doctor's office or emergency department (ED);
number of days with sleep disturbed;
amount of activity limitation; and
any wheezing with exercise or physical activity.
NHANES consists of health interviews and examinations at a mobile center. During the health interviews, respondents were asked about demographic characteristics, smoking in the household, personal smoking habits (ages 12 and above) and asthma history. Blood samples were taken to assess serum cotinine, which measures exposure to ETS or personal use of tobacco products.
Results showed that 53 percent of the children were exposed to ETS. After adjusting for differences in age, sex, race and poverty status, exposure to ETS was associated with higher odds of having three or more visits (vs. no visits) to a physician's office or ED due to wheezing in the past year; sleep disturbed by wheezing one or more nights per week (vs. none); and activity limitations (fair amount, moderate amount or a lot vs. none) due to wheezing.
There was no significant association between ETS exposure and missing school or work due to wheezing or wheezing during exercise.
"Although this advice is certainly not new, discussing avoidance of environmental tobacco smoke with asthma patients remains critical," Dr. Akinbami said. "New tools are needed to help families achieve the goal of reducing exposure, both inside the home and in other environments."
###
The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) are four individual pediatric organizations that co-sponsor the PAS Annual Meeting the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Academic Pediatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Members of these organizations are pediatricians and other health care providers who are practicing in the research, academic and clinical arenas. The four sponsoring organizations are leaders in the advancement of pediatric research and child advocacy within pediatrics, and all share a common mission of fostering the health and well-being of children worldwide. For more information, visit www.pas-meeting.org. Follow news of the PAS meeting on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PedAcadSoc.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 1-May-2012
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