Law Firm SEO Tactics to Avoid in 2013 ? Slaw

Over the past year, Google has made a number of significant changes to its delivery of search engine rankings. In light of those changes, law firms that employ various aggressive search marketing tactics need to reconsider them. In this column, I want to highlight some of the major web-spam filters that Google has created and offer some important (and ethical) lessons for maintaining a strong search engine presence.

Let?s start by discussing a couple of those changes.

Penguin and Panda

Major alterations to Google?s ranking methods tend to be given nicknames, kind of like hurricanes ? but for some businesses, these ?filters? on search results can (at least virtually) be just as devastating. In 2012, Google used Penguin and Panda to cull from their search results a number of websites that used questionable methods. Occasionally these filters also caught a few high-quality websites; but for the most part, the new search results were an improvement.

The first of these tweaks, Penguin, went after sites whose inbound link profiles were built around artificial or low-quality links ? websites that had few or no real incoming links or signs of engagement. A firm that built its website marketing around links coming from thousands of unattended (spammy) websites, for example, would be at risk for a Penguin-driven removal of their domain from the search results. Even more blatant examples might include a site that constructed its own network of ?empty? linked websites, or purchased links to such a network from a third party.

The Panda filter, to describe it simply, targeted websites that published (in many cases, mass-published over a short period of time) too much low-quality content ? pure web-spam. These are websites that have been overtly replicated: often built in an automated fashion, with repetitive or mildly tweaked messages. Publishing the same copied material on multiple-domains owned by the same business can now push those domains out of the search results.

Few law firms employ the tactics targeted by either of these filters, but there are still some lessons lawyers can learn:

• You still want fresh inbound links to your website, but buying them is never the answer. Don?t do it.
• Avoid re-publishing the same articles on multiple firm-owned domains. Instead, create a customized summary for each particular audience, and link over to the original piece.
• Websites with unique content that generate a variety of engagement styles (links, comments, social media conversations, etc.) always paint a positive picture with Google.
• Find out who exactly is linking into your firm website. If those links look like spam, they probably are. Reconsider how those links came to be, and whether you?re marketing to the right audience.

Dialed-up Anchor Text Filters for Homepages

One of the hallmark signals for search relevance has long been the words or phrases we make into clickable links. For the past ten years, websites in competitive markets have battled to acquire the most links that utilized their target search phrase, building up what?s called ?link text?.

Abuse and spam? You bet. So Google alleviated the problem by filtering out those sites with excessive ?commercial? link text profiles. But for those firms flirting with the edge of ?optimization?, this kind of filtering remained somewhat rare, and it still worked ? at least until the second half of 2012. Google has now turned up the dial significantly.

Firms that chose to swap and build links with marketing-oriented link text (in some cases, with almost nothing but) have watched their search rankings dip in recent months. Probably the worst affected were new websites under a year old and without any other search signals to offer Google (reflecting a lack of ?domain trust?).

The homepages of some law firms, in my view, could be at a similar risk, and should beware of the link text running into their homepage, because it sends mixed signals to Google. Firm homepages are normally branded around the firm?s name, which is reasonable; but if the links coming in all say ?DUI lawyers? in the link text, those two pieces don?t match ? at least, not in Google?s eyes.

Here at Stem, we?ve been advising our clients to steer clear of commercial link text directed at their homepage. Branded links ? linking on the firm?s name, ?Smith LLP?, for example ? are performing much better. And while pointing some commercial link text at the homepage remains an effective (and safe) approach, and is even somewhat required in competitive markets, lowering the percentage of commercial link text aimed at your firm homepage is smart.

More search lessons for 2013:

• You need to understand which terms and phrases are considered ?commercial? by Google. To do this, conduct searches for your firm?s services and observe the number of paid advertisements displayed.
• Sending mass amounts of commercial link text at a new or unmarketed website is a recipe for disaster.
• Domain age counts. New websites are fragile, and they get clipped by over-optimization filters faster than their older counterparts.
• Build search trust around your firm?s name and your lawyer?s names; then let your practice pages and content deliver commercial search term exposure.

Exact Match Domain Names

I wrote a piece here at Slaw a couple years ago that discussed, among other topics, the effectiveness of commercial keywords in domain names. That approach of registering two or three commercial terms in a domain name, and getting instant results with little effort, is drawing to a close. Those domains targeting commercial search phrases have recently become less effective, and when Google deems domains to be ?low quality?, they may even be filtered out of the search results.

These domain names aren?t necessarily ?dead?, but other measurable signs of engagement are also now required. Simply having a great domain name, alone, is no longer enough to jump to the top of the search rankings. At the very least, having social media presence, and a regular flow of original content (and deep links flowing into that content) is going to be a requirement before these types of sites can rank well. Or, put another way, the playing field has been leveled: there are no more shortcuts to top placement.

More lessons?

• Reduce the number of commercial terms in microsite and blog domains. A maximum of two seems sensible. (avoid: toronto-vancouver-drunk-driving-lawyers.com)
• No hyphens in domain names; this has always looked ?spammy?, and still does.
• Keep the quality signals high: good links come from established organizations who publish on the same topics as your firm does. PageRank isn?t always the best measure, but avoid links from sites with a ?PR0? or ?PR1?.
• And an optional personal tip ? I avoid online press releases for new websites. These releases often get scraped and published as ?instant content? for scam websites, sending a high volume of low-quality links into your new web property.

Conclusion

Remember, Google?s role is to index your website and then measure its relevance against the rest of the web. With billions of websites competing against each other, sites that can demonstrate their audience?s engagement are going to be considered stronger.

Some law firms (and some search consultants) will look at those measurable search signals (links, likes, +1s) and ask, ?How do we get those attributes? At all costs, how much, and how fast can we make that happen?? Not only is this the wrong approach, but it?s the type of manipulative behaviour that Google is now trying to eliminate.

The better approach is to treat these signals as the aftermath of your marketing. SEO, based on long-term thinking, can be truly effective when we make good choices: on publishing, building audiences, coding, classification, proper description, and most important, connecting with people. Many of the issues mentioned in this column are simply the result of short-term thinking and poor marketing choices.

Next column, I?ll turn the tables and look at some of the best SEO investments for 2013.

Source: http://www.slaw.ca/2013/02/27/law-firm-seo-tactics-to-avoid-in-2013/

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Football's next big hit? Steady 'ball's eye view' of game now possible

John Roach , NBC News ? ? ? 11 hrs.

For anyone who?s ever imagined what it?s like to be a football caught in the end zone and spiked on the turf in celebration, your dream is alive. Robotics researchers have embedded a camera into a football and developed an algorithm to give fans a new view ? from the pigskin?s perspective.

When the football is thrown in a spiral, the embedded camera records a succession of frames as the ball rotates. The challenge is that, since footballs can spin at a stomach-churning 600 revolutions per minute, the raw video is unwatchable. The software algorithm converts the blurry, spinning footage into a stable, wide-angle view by discarding sky-facing frames and stitching together the remaining frames for a panorama.

The result is a field-facing view from the ball's perspective as it?s tossed down the field. Check it out in the video below.

The researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo realize the NFL may block the idea before camera-embedded footballs are fielded for regular play, but the technology is promising for game analysis during the pre-and post-game shows, for example.

The researchers suggest an artsy project that could capture the expressions of the faces of players during a game of catch. Perhaps this could be used to provide a baseball?s view of a homerun hit or a soccer ball soaring into the goal. How about a golf ball? In any case, as cameras get smaller ? and more shock-resistant ? more possibilities arise.

Progress on the BallCam will be presented March 8 at the Augmented Human International Conference in Stuttgart, Germany. Further fine tuning is needed to make the images flawless, such as a faster camera sensor and other techniques to reduce all the blurring.

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/footballs-next-big-hit-steady-balls-eye-view-game-now-1C8589666

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Strains of antibiotic-resistant 'Staph' bacteria show seasonal preference; Children at higher risk in summer

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
410-502-9405
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Strains of potentially deadly, antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria show seasonal infection preferences, putting children at greater risk in summer and seniors at greater risk in winter, according to results of a new nationwide study led by a Johns Hopkins researcher.

It's unclear why these seasonal and age preferences for infection with methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) occur, says Eili Klein, Ph.D., lead author on the study and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral and Health Sciences.

But he says that increased use of antibiotics in the winter may be one of the reasons. The winter strain that infects seniors at a greater rate is generally acquired in the hospital and resistant to more antibiotics. On the other hand, the summer strain of MRSA, which is seen with growing frequency in children, is largely a community-transmitted strain that is resistant to fewer antibiotics.

"Overprescribing antibiotics is not harmless," Klein notes. "Inappropriate use of these drugs to treat influenza and other respiratory infections is driving resistance throughout the community, increasing the probability that children will contract untreatable infections."

In fact, the study found that while MRSA strains exhibit a seasonal pattern, overall MRSA infections have not decreased over the last five years, despite efforts to control their spread.

A report on the study, which used sophisticated statistical models to analyze national data for 2005-2009, appears today in the online issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

As the researchers report, hospitalizations from infections tied to MRSA doubled in the United States between 1999 and 2005. The ballooning infection numbers were propelled by MRSA acquired in community settings, not hospital or other health care settings, as had been the case prior to 1999.

Specifically, the study found that a strain of MRSA typically seen in community settings is more likely to cause infection during the summer months, peaking around July/August. The authors' data analysis showed children were most at risk of becoming infected with this strain, typically from a skin or soft tissue wound or ailment.

In fact, in examining data for one year 2008 the research team found that 74 percent of those under the age of 20 who developed an infection with MRSA had a community-associated MRSA infection.

Meanwhile, the health care-associated MRSA strain, which is typically seen in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings, was found to be most prevalent in the winter months, peaking in February/March. Patients aged 65 or older are more likely to acquire a MRSA infection from this strain.

"Our analysis ... shows significant seasonality of MRSA infections and the rate at which they affect different age groups," write the authors of the report titled "The changing epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the United States: A national observational study."

Klein said additional research on seasonal patterns of MRSA infections and drug resistance may help with developing new treatment guidelines, prescription practices and infection control programs.

###

Other authors on the paper include Ramanan Laxminarayan of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in Washington, D.C., and David L. Smith of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Read the abstract: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/02/28/aje.kws273.abstract

Media Inquiries:

Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
443-898-2320

Helen Jones
hjones49@jhmi.edu
410-502-4922

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
410-502-9405
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Strains of potentially deadly, antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria show seasonal infection preferences, putting children at greater risk in summer and seniors at greater risk in winter, according to results of a new nationwide study led by a Johns Hopkins researcher.

It's unclear why these seasonal and age preferences for infection with methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) occur, says Eili Klein, Ph.D., lead author on the study and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Advanced Modeling in the Social, Behavioral and Health Sciences.

But he says that increased use of antibiotics in the winter may be one of the reasons. The winter strain that infects seniors at a greater rate is generally acquired in the hospital and resistant to more antibiotics. On the other hand, the summer strain of MRSA, which is seen with growing frequency in children, is largely a community-transmitted strain that is resistant to fewer antibiotics.

"Overprescribing antibiotics is not harmless," Klein notes. "Inappropriate use of these drugs to treat influenza and other respiratory infections is driving resistance throughout the community, increasing the probability that children will contract untreatable infections."

In fact, the study found that while MRSA strains exhibit a seasonal pattern, overall MRSA infections have not decreased over the last five years, despite efforts to control their spread.

A report on the study, which used sophisticated statistical models to analyze national data for 2005-2009, appears today in the online issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

As the researchers report, hospitalizations from infections tied to MRSA doubled in the United States between 1999 and 2005. The ballooning infection numbers were propelled by MRSA acquired in community settings, not hospital or other health care settings, as had been the case prior to 1999.

Specifically, the study found that a strain of MRSA typically seen in community settings is more likely to cause infection during the summer months, peaking around July/August. The authors' data analysis showed children were most at risk of becoming infected with this strain, typically from a skin or soft tissue wound or ailment.

In fact, in examining data for one year 2008 the research team found that 74 percent of those under the age of 20 who developed an infection with MRSA had a community-associated MRSA infection.

Meanwhile, the health care-associated MRSA strain, which is typically seen in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings, was found to be most prevalent in the winter months, peaking in February/March. Patients aged 65 or older are more likely to acquire a MRSA infection from this strain.

"Our analysis ... shows significant seasonality of MRSA infections and the rate at which they affect different age groups," write the authors of the report titled "The changing epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the United States: A national observational study."

Klein said additional research on seasonal patterns of MRSA infections and drug resistance may help with developing new treatment guidelines, prescription practices and infection control programs.

###

Other authors on the paper include Ramanan Laxminarayan of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in Washington, D.C., and David L. Smith of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Read the abstract: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/02/28/aje.kws273.abstract

Media Inquiries:

Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
443-898-2320

Helen Jones
hjones49@jhmi.edu
410-502-4922

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/jhm-soa022713.php

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Bayer Opposes the Formation of a Mirena MDL | The Legal ...

Posted by Roopal LuhanaFebruary 27, 2013 3:36 PM

In August 2012, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals petitioned the New Jersey Courts to centralize all Mirena IUD lawsuits filed in the state into one location. On January 8, 2013, the New Jersey Supreme Court denied the request for unknown reasons.

Soon after, on January 16, 2013, Mirena lawyers representing plaintiffs with claims against Bayer filed a motion with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) to consolidate all federal cases into one court. Bayer, however, has this time filed a response opposing federal centralization, arguing that it is not appropriate.

Bayer Seeks Consolidation at State Level

Bayer wanted to consolidate New Jersey Mirena lawsuits in Middlesex County Superior Court, arguing that consolidation would be more efficient. In their petition, they wrote, ?Centralized Management in a Mass Tort venue, with an experienced Judge, will help ensure fairness to the parties, provide a streamlined approach to case management and avoid the possibility of duplicative motion practice and inconsistent discovery rulings between multiple Judges in Morris County.?

The company expected additional Mirena lawsuits to be filed in the future, and argued that centralization would conserve judicial resources and reduce the risk of inconsistent rulings. The arguments proved moot when the New Jersey Supreme Court denied the consolidation request.

Bayer Argues Against Federal Consolidation

Now that Mirena IUD plaintiffs have filed a petition to have federal lawsuits consolidated in the Northern District of Ohio, Bayer seems to have changed its tune. In a response to the petition, the company stated, ?An MDL is not necessary here and will only prejudice Bayer.?

The company goes on to explain that it has already prepared to try one Mirena lawsuit that has been on file for two years. The case was scheduled to be tried May 2013, but because of the MDL petition, has now been stayed pending the JPML?s decision. Bayer has ?spent significant time and money to defend the case,? producing over 1.7 million pages of documents and presenting numerous company witnesses for deposition.

If the JPML orders all federal Mirena lawsuits consolidated, Bayer states that it will face ?the possibility of starting over with an MDL that would largely duplicate the time-consuming discovery process? that the company has already completed.

Bayer Says MDL Will Encourage ?Marginal? Mirena Claims

Bayer also argues that establishing a Mirena MDL will encourage plaintiffs to file ?marginal? Mirena claims that ?do not plead even the most basic facts,? again to Bayer?s prejudice. The current cases ?do not even meet the basic requirements to justify an MDL,? the company states, since the most commonly alleged injury ?uterine perforation?is not ?common,? but so far is claimed in only six of the eight federal cases already pending. Bayer adds that they have warned about the risk of perforation since 2001, so there is no need for extensive discovery about their knowledge of such a risk.

Finally, the company argues that consolidation will not make discovery any more convenient or efficient, since ?discovery regarding the plaintiff-specific individual issues in a perforation case will likely overwhelm any alleged common issues.?

What About New Jersey?

In defending its supposed flip-flopping on the issue of consolidation, Bayer states that New Jersey was unique, in that the cases there were all ?at the early stage of litigation with no dispositive motions pending and no trial settings.? The cases were also all pending in one county, but county courts are not equipped to handle mass tort litigation.

?That is a dramatic contrast to this situation,? Bayer wrote, ?where every federal court with one or a few Mirena cases pending before it is fully capable of handling those cases.?

Plaintiffs See It Differently

Plaintiffs argue that though the Mirena label does warn about uterine perforation, it does so in a way that leads consumers to assume the problems occur only during the insertion process. Yet women have reported experiencing this complication long after the Mirena was inserted. In addition, plaintiffs state that Bayer failed to warn about spontaneous migration, where the Mirena can move to other parts of the body after insertion.

The plaintiffs further argue that because of these and other issues with the Mirena, ?It is expected that once the due diligence vetting and gathering of medical evidence is completed, there will be hundreds of lawsuits filed throughout the country.?

The JPML is expected to hear arguments on the establishment of a Mirena IUD on March 21, 2013.

Source: http://newyork.legalexaminer.com/fda-and-prescription-drugs/bayer-opposes-the-formation-of-a-mirena-mdl.aspx?googleid=307362

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When the Outrage Runs Out

Erick Erickson is all outraged out. The founder of the popular conservative blog RedState, a brand-new Fox News pundit, and the?creator of a piece of outrage?that inadvertently hobbled Mitt Romney's campaign, the "We Are the 53%" meme,?writes today, "We do our cause more harm than good if we get outrageously outraged over every slight and grievance." It's a stunning admission from one of the architects of the conservative outrage machine.?"I think conservative media is failing to advance ideas and stories," Erickson writes. Sure, you can blame the liberal media for some of that. But, he says, conservative media has forgotten the most important thing in reporting: finding facts. "There are scandals to uncover and there are outrageous stories to be outraged over, but I would submit conservatives are spending a lot more time trying to find things to be outraged over?than reporting the news and basic facts online from a conservative perspective."?We wish him luck, he will need it.

RELATED: Hackers Slap Porn on The Daily Caller

Erickson's prime example is the Obamaphone story -- a video, hyped by the Drudge Report and Rush Limbaugh during the presidential campaign, in which a woman yelled that Obama was buying her a cell phone. Erickson writes:

"What many conservatives missed was that the program was a pre-existing program. In fact, the 'Obamaphone' idea goes back to the Reagan Administration, but the present program was implemented in 2008 when George W. Bush was President. Government funds are not even used directly."

The Atlantic Wire did not miss this! At the time, Erickson and his site did not like The Atlantic Wire's Obamaphone?coverage?very much at all. He was outraged by our presenting basic facts about his outrage. He even titled his post, "Elspeth Reeve Manufactures More Moral Outrage." But now is the time for a new, less outraged age. Erickson writes:

I just do not see the need to get outraged over things without first having all the facts at hand. Further, I do not see the need to get outraged over everything, when better targeting of stories that truly resonate would serve conservatives well. We do our cause more harm than good if we get outrageously outraged over every slight and grievance.?Yes there is an institutional media bias against the right, but we must also honestly acknowledge that conservatives have also screamed 'Wolf' a these past few years more often than there was one.

Erickson says he'd like to hire a couple reporters to do the basics -- who, what, when, where, why, and how. "Conservatives must start telling stories, not just producing white papers and peddling daily?outrage," he says. This is a fantastic development. More facts being reported by more reporters is a good thing! But Erickson should note that some of those outrage-peddlers doing more harm than good started with the very same noble ambitions before hitting the wall of audience demand.

RELATED: Big Boi Busted; Larry David Has Groupies

Tucker Carlson floated the idea of what would become The Daily Caller in a 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference speech. Conservative news sites have failed when they "refused to put accuracy first -- this is the hard truth," Carlson said. Sure,?The New York Times?is liberal, he said, but it cares about accuracy. "Conservatives need to build institutions that mirror those institutions," he said. Tellingly, he was booed. As Salon's Alex Pareene explained, The Daily Caller's traffic was bad, so it started doing stunts. Some were funny at first, like buying KeithOlbermann.com. Now it's not that funny anymore. Here are some things The Daily Caller did in the past year: publish the tweets of Trayvon Martin to show he really was a scary teen, hype a 2007 Obama speech as shocking because it "appeals to racial solidarity" and Obama uses a "phony" black accent, and publish the claims of alleged hookers who allegedly slept with New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. The last of these reports appear to have had the effect of slowing the media response?to the senator's ethically troubling actions involving a wealthy doctor-donor. That story is less sexy and outrageous, but it's the one supported by facts.

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Tucker Carlson (by the Logic of The Daily Caller) Is a Radical Left-Wing Conspirator

(Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/outrage-runs-161854100.html

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DC is killing off a major character this week (SPOILER ALERT ...

The death of a major comic book character is one of those pop culture events that gives you a moment to sit back and really consider the big questions. Questions like: ?So, is this a shameless marketing ploy, or is it an actual good story that will nevertheless be pitched as a shameless marketing ploy?? And: ?How long until they bring him/her/it back to life?? Well, even cynical grouches ? who remember the good old days when it seemed like Barry Allen might actually stay dead ? might be a bit surprised by the news that DC is preparing to off one of their main characters. Which character you ask? Take a look ? SPOILERS FROM HERE:

Image Credit: DC Comics

As reported by the New York Post, the current Robin will bite the dust in the upcoming Batman Incorporated #8. The current Robin is Damian Wayne, the 10-year-old son of Bruce Wayne and femme fatale Talia Al-Ghul. Damian was brought back into the continuity by Grant Morrison, who has been shepherding the Bat-titles for the last several years. Morrison?s run is coming to an end this summer, with Batman Incorporated #12, and with Damien?s death, it?s clear that he?s pulling out all the stops for the endgame. He tells the Post, ?He saves the world. He does his job as Robin. He dies an absolute hero.?

Students of Bat-history will know that this is actually the second time a Robin has died in the line of duty. The second Robin, Jason Todd, bit the dust in the iconic ?Death in the Family? storyline in the last ?80s. (Fans were actually allowed to vote on whether he would live or die.) Todd was replaced by Tim Drake, who notably did not die before being replaced by Damian. So, lesson learned: Even-numbered Robins probably aren?t long for this world.

Follow Darren on Twitter: @DarrenFranich

Read More:
DC is making a new ?Batman/Superman? comic book ? Check out art by Jae Lee!
The most powerful person in the comic book industry?

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/02/26/robin-damian-wayne-dying/

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The Catholic Church needs to repent for brutalizing Irish society ...

Emer O'Kelly: Irish society must ensure State delivers compensation to survivors

Published Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 7:41 AM

Updated Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 7:41 AM

Irish society should feel guilty for perpetuating a system that allowed for women to be sent to Magdalene Laundries

Photo by Press.tv

The social structure that allowed for forced labor and misery in Magdalene Laundries to occur is part of the Irish psyche, according to Sunday's Irish Independent Op Ed.

Writing for the newspaper, journalist Emer O?Kelly states that the Irish society should feel guilty for perpetuating a system that allowed for women to be sent to Magdalene Laundries.

?The stigma is ours, and ours alone, to be shared by all of us except the women victimized and brutalized by Irish society as a whole. That the women could have perceived themselves as bearing a stigma for their incarceration reflects on us, not on them,? O?Kelly states.

?The catalogue of miseries Ireland has inflicted on the helpless and hopeless over the generations since independence is as long as it is sickening. With each new revelation, each parading of repressed grief and hurt, each dreadful witness to our inhumanity, we have squirmed and exempted ourselves from blame.?

Last Tuesday Irish leader Enda Kenny apologized to an estimated 10,000 women who were forced into unpaid labor from 1922 to 1996.

Delivering an official apology in the Irish parliament, he told the women and their families, ?This is a national shame for which I say again I am deeply sorry and offer my full and heartfelt apologies.?

According to O?Reilly, one of the short fallings of the Senator Martin McAleese? 1,000 page report was to suggest women were self-referred to the laundries.

?Was a destitute woman thrown on the street by her parents "willing" when her choice was between selling herself or a hell-hole of slave labour?

?Was a motherless child "willing" when a Catholic priest took her from the care of her widowed father because to have her free in society left her open to "moral hazard"?

Read more: Magdalene survivors call for fair compensation package ahead of Irish government meeting

?If every woman still alive who was ever locked in one of those dark, fearful places was a prostitute; if every woman there had given birth to children "out of wedlock", there should still be no "stigma". They were human, that's all: human like the rest of us. And they were ignorant of the world and its ways, the ignorance as enforced as was their incarceration.?

O?Reilly describes Irish society in the past as a closed society: ?an engineered regimentation of the population that described ignorance as innocence, and equated deprivation with purity and nobility of soul: the essence of fascism.?

The column described a joyless Ireland during the Magdalene years when the Church had a stronghold over the country and highlights the terrible conditions they were forced to work under.

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Source: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/The-Catholic-Church-needs-to-repent-for-brutalizing-Irish-society-193255221.html

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Meat plant shutdowns inevitable in budget cuts: USDA (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287635241?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Best refrigerators to buy if you're on a budget

This Whirlpool model stands out with its external ice and water dispenser.

By Kara Reinhardt, Cheapism.com

Refrigerators these days can connect to the Internet, display recipes on a touchscreen, and ?blast chill? a can of beer in minutes. They can also cost upward of $3,000 for a freestanding model. Built-in refrigerators disguised as kitchen cabinets command an added premium. For consumers on a budget, respected brands such as GE, Kenmore, LG, Whirlpool, and Maytag make roomy, energy-efficient refrigerators that can keep food cold or frozen for far less. ?

Below are Cheapism?s top picks under $900.

• The Maytag M1TXEGMYW (starting at $710) exemplifies the design you see most often among inexpensive models: a refrigerator with a freezer on top. It totals 20.6 cubic feet inside and features an ice maker, two crisper drawers with humidity control, adjustable glass shelves, and adjustable bins on the door big enough to hold a gallon of milk. Consumers posting reviews online consider this refrigerator sturdy and reliable. It comes in white, black, and the creamy off-white known as bisque. It?s also available in stainless steel, but that in-demand finish carries a much higher list price. (Where to buy)
• The Whirlpool ED5KVEXVQ (starting at $899) is a side-by-side model that squeaks in under the $900 cap. It offers the most interior space, at 25.1 cubic feet, and devotes more room to the refrigerator than the freezer. It includes one crisper drawer, pullout glass shelves, and adjustable gallon-size door bins. Many reviewers note the water and ice dispenser on the front of the freezer, an uncommon perk in this price range. The color options are white and black. (Where to buy)
• The Kenmore 69002 (starting at $848) takes the increasingly popular approach of putting the freezer on the bottom. Reviewers appreciate the refrigerator?s spacious 19.7-cubic-foot interior with adjustable glass shelves, fixed gallon-size door bins, humidity-controlled crispers, and digital temperature controls. This model is available only in white. (Where to buy)
• The GE GTH18GBD (starting at $537) is a conventional top-freezer refrigerator that comes in white, black, and bisque. Many reviewers seem willing to forgive a bit of noise in exchange for what they declare excellent value. This basic model with 18.1 cubic feet of space houses two crispers with humidity control, fixed gallon-size bins and storage for canned beverages on the door, and adjustable glass shelves. (Where to buy)

Each refrigerator design has its pros and cons. Top-freezer refrigerators are generally cheapest and have wider shelves than side-by-side models, so they can accommodate large platters. Still, a side-by-side refrigerator may be the best choice if you have a galley kitchen or a center island that doesn?t allow much clearance for the doors. A bottom-freezer refrigerator puts fresh food within easy reach.

All the models listed above have earned federal Energy Star certification, which means they?re about 15 percent more efficient than non-certified refrigerators and should save buyers at least $80 on energy costs over the life of the appliance. If you?re replacing a refrigerator more than 10 years old, the government estimates you can save anywhere from $200 to $1,100.

More from Cheapism:

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17057486-cheapism-best-budget-refrigerators?lite

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Iran thinks nuke talks going great, West not so much

ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran gave an upbeat assessment of two days of nuclear talks with world powers that ended on Wednesday, but Western officials said Tehran must start taking concrete steps to ease mounting concerns about its atomic activity.

The first negotiations between Iran and six world powers in eight months ended without a breakthrough in Almaty, but they agreed to meet again at expert level in Istanbul next month and resume political discussions in the Kazakh city on April 5.

Israel, assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, is watching the talks closely. It has strongly hinted it might attack Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such aim.

Iran's foreign minister said he was optimistic an agreement could be reached with the powers - the United States, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and China - on the country's disputed nuclear program.

"Very confident," Ali Akbar Salehi told Reuters when asked on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in Vienna how confident he was of a positive outcome.

The six powers offered at the February 26-27 Almaty meeting to lift some sanctions if Iran scaled back nuclear activity that the West fears could be used to build a bomb.

Tehran, which says its program is entirely peaceful, did not agree to do so and the sides did not appear any closer to a deal to resolve a decade-old dispute that could lead to another war in the Middle East if diplomacy fails.

But Iran still said the talks were a positive step in which the six powers tried to "get closer to our viewpoint".

Western officials had made clear they did not expect major progress in Almaty, aware that the closeness of Iran's presidential election in June is raising political tensions in Tehran and makes significant concessions unlikely.

"I hope the Iranian side is looking positively on the proposal we put forward," said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who led the talks on behalf of the powers. "We have to see what happens next."

The United States did not expect a breakthrough and "the result was clearly in line with those expectations," a senior U.S. official said.

The meeting was "useful" as the two sides agreed dates and venues for follow-up talks but there was a need for progress on confidence building measures, the official added.

UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR SITE

The West's immediate priority is that Iran halts higher-grade uranium enrichment and closes an underground facility, Fordow, where this work is carried out. The material is a relatively short technical step from bomb-grade uranium.

"What we care about at the end is concrete results," the U.S. official said.

One diplomat in Almaty said the Iranians appeared to be suggesting at the negotiations that they were opening new avenues, but that it was not clear if this was really the case.

Both sides said experts would meet for talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 18 and that political negotiators would return to Almaty on April 5-6.

Russian negotiator Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that the powers had offered to ease sanctions on Iran if it stops enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile purity - a short technical step from weapons grade - at the Fordow underground site where it carries out its most controversial uranium enrichment work.

Western officials said the offer of sanctions relief included a resumption of trade in gold and precious metals.

One diplomat said that lifting an embargo on imports of Iranian petrochemical products to Europe, if Iran responded, was also on the table. But a U.S. official said the world powers had not offered to suspend oil or financial sanctions.

The sanctions are hurting Iran's economy and its chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, suggested Iran could discuss its production of higher-grade nuclear fuel, although he appeared to rule out shutting Fordow.

In comments in Persian translated into English, Jalili told a news conference Fordow was under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and there was no justification for closing it.

MOOD "MORE OPTIMISTIC"

Asked about the production of 20-percent enriched fuel, he reiterated Iran's position that it needed this for a research reactor and had a right to produce it.

Iran says its enrichment program is aimed solely at fuelling nuclear power plants so that it can export more oil, and that Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to peace in the region.

But Jalili did indicate that Iran might be prepared to talk about the issue, saying: "This can be discussed in the negotiations ... in view of confidence building."

Iran has also previously suggested that 20-percent enrichment was up for negotiation if it received the fuel from abroad instead. It also wants sanctions lifted.

"While an agreement to meet again may not impress skeptics of diplomacy, an important development did occur," said Trita Parsi, an expert on Iran. "The parties began searching for a solution by offering positive measures in order to secure concessions from the other side.

Another expert, Dina Esfandiary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: "I note that the mood is more optimistic and that's great, but a deal still hasn't been reached and in my view its unlikely to be reached before the Iranian elections have come and gone."

(Additional reporting Fredrik Dahl in Almaaty, Georgina Prodhan in Vienna, Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich, Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powers-wait-hear-iran-response-nuclear-offer-043022098.html

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Uncertainty clouds future of Calif nuke plant

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The mounting bill tied to the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in California jumped to more than $400 million through December, as the company that runs it contends with costly repairs and a host of questions about its future, regulatory filings and officials said Tuesday.

The seaside plant between Los Angeles and San Diego was sidelined in January 2012 after a tiny radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water inside its steam generators.

Edison International, the parent of operator Southern California Edison, said replacement power cost reached $300 million through Dec. 31, while repairs and inspections hit $102 million.

The figures come as SCE pushes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to restart one of the twin reactors, Unit 2, and run it at 70 percent power for five months in hopes of ending vibration and friction blamed for tube damage.

Meanwhile, state regulators are determining if ratepayers should be hit with costs tied to the shutdown, the NRC's investigative arm is looking into information Edison provided to the agency on the generators and environmental activists are pressing to have the plant shut down permanently.

"The scope of necessary repairs for the steam generators ... or the length of the units' outages could prove more extensive than is currently estimated," company documents said.

"The cost of such repairs or the substitute market power that must be purchased during the outage could exceed estimates and insurance coverage, or may not be recoverable through regulatory processes or otherwise," Edison added.

Regulatory filings also said SCE's insurance coverage for wildfires that could arise from its operations might not be sufficient.

In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Edison Chairman Ted Craver said the company hoped the Unit 2 reactor could be online by summer but noted that preparations are being made if that doesn't occur.

"We are convinced it is safe to run the unit," he said.

The NRC Tuesday also released Edison's response to a thorny question on the plant's ability to run safely at full power.

Even though the restart calls for a trial run at reduced power, the NRC staff last year said that operating rules require San Onofre to ensure generator tubes don't break during "the full range of normal operating conditions," including at full power.

That appeared to raise an obstacle to the proposed restart. The NRC said it wanted the company to demonstrate that Unit 2 could meet that threshold, or explain how generator tubes would interact with each other if the plant is operating at maximum capacity.

In a response, the company argued, in essence, that 70 percent is full power for the five-month trial run.

Under its proposal, full power "is 70 percent for the proposed operating period" and meets the federal requirements, the company wrote.

The company said in a statement it will provide additional evaluations next month to demonstrate Unit 2 can run at 100 percent power, even though its restart plan, based on 70 percent power, will remain unchanged.

The NRC has not ruled on that issue.

Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer on nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a critic of the nuclear power industry, said the response "raises serious questions about the credibility of Edison."

If company officials are preparing an analysis to run at full power "why have they said for months they need to restrict power to 70 percent?" Hirsch asked.

The problems at San Onofre center on steam generators that were installed during a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010. After the plant was shut down, tests found some generator tubes were so badly eroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a stunning finding inside the nearly new equipment.

The ability of San Onofre to run safely at lower power ? and whether that limit would require an amendment to its operating license ? came up in December at a hearing of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an arm of the NRC.

Administrative Judge Gary Arnold asked Edison attorney Steve Frantz if he was confident that the plant could operate at 99 percent power with its ailing generators.

"I do not say that," Franz responded. He argued that running at 70 percent power would fall within San Onofre's license and operating rules.

The generators, which resemble massive steel fire hydrants, control heat in the reactors and operate something like a car radiator. At San Onofre, each one stands 65 feet high, weighs 1.3 million pounds and has with 9,727 U-shaped tubes inside, each 0.75 inch in diameter. Hundreds of the tubes have been taken out of service because of damage or as a preventative step.

Craver also disclosed that Edison and the Japan-based company that built the generators, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, are squabbling over the amount of money that could be recovered under warranty.

___

Follow Michael R. Blood at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-26-Nuclear%20Plant%20Problems/id-75878e4c1fcd4251aa85c0911ce87293

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Guns for Beyonc? tickets proposed

Beyonc? performs during the half-time show of the 2013 Super Bowl. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)

Got a gun? Hand it in, and you could end up with a ticket to Beyonc?'s Mrs. Carter tour.

At least, that's the dream of music manager Michael "Blue" Williams, the head of Family Tree Entertainment. The idea is part of his proposal for what the New York Daily News says would be the "first private-sector gun buyback program."

Called Guns for Greatness, Williams' proposal, made to the New York City Police Department, would offer music industry mentorship and concert tickets in exchange for firearms. Of course, if the department rubber-stamps the program, Williams, who has managed Outkast and Cee Lo Green, among others, still has to get the wildly popular singer to sign on to the idea.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the Daily News that Williams' plan needs to be studied. He said, ?We want to get as many guns off the streets, and if this works, we?d like to support it.?

The hip-hop mogul has raised $75,000 toward his $100,000 fundraising goal. Richard Buery, CEO and president of the Children?s Aid Society, has added his name to the proposal.

In a letter to the NYPD and shown to the Daily News, Williams writes, ?A disturbingly high number of these [gun] victims are young people. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and others have noted strongly, the issue of gun violence is an urgent crisis that requires immediate attention.?

The NYPD currently has a program that offers cash for guns, no questions asked.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gun-buyback-proposal-trade-firearms-beyonc%C3%A9-tickets-195308327.html

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Chimps 'solve puzzles for fun'

25 February 2013 Last updated at 08:53 ET

Chimpanzees enjoy trying to solve brainteasers, according to research done at Bedfordshire's Whipsnade Zoo.

Scientists set up a game for six chimps that involved moving red dice through pipes until they fell into a container.

The same task was also carried out using brazil nuts instead of dice, so that success led to a treat.

However, the Zoological Society of London found the apes enjoyed getting stuck into a puzzle, with or without the opportunity to win a prize.

The chimpanzees, all members of an adult family group at the zoo, had to prod sticks into holes in the pipes to change the direction of the dice and get them to fall in the right place.

They did not receive advance training on how to play the game and the scientists said the apes were given complete freedom whether or not to pit their wits in the puzzle.

'Feel-good reward'

Researcher Fay Clark, from the society, said they noticed the chimps were "keen to complete the puzzle" for its own sake, regardless of whether or not they received a food reward.

"This strongly suggests they get similar feelings of satisfaction to humans who often complete brain-games for a feel-good reward," she said.

"For chimps in the wild, this task is a little bit like foraging for insects or honey inside a tree stump or a termite mound, except more challenging because the dice do not stick to the tool."

Researchers created higher "levels" of challenge by connecting many pipes together, and making them opaque so the dice or nuts could only be glimpsed through small holes.

The findings are published in the March edition of the American Journal of Primatology.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-21573339#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Ex-Canada ambassador pleased Affleck thanks Canada

Grant Heslov, from left, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney pose with their award for best picture for "Argo" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Grant Heslov, from left, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney pose with their award for best picture for "Argo" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

TORONTO (AP) ? The former Canadian ambassador to Iran who protected Americans at great personal risk during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis said Monday it was good to hear Ben Affleck thank Canada after Affleck's film "Argo" won the Oscar for best picture.

"Argo" came under criticism from some Canadians, including former ambassador Ken Taylor, who said he felt slighted by the movie because it makes Canada look like a meek observer to CIA heroics. Taylor says it minimizes Canada's role in the Americans' rescue.

Taylor criticized Affleck on Friday and said he hoped Affleck would acknowledge Canada's role. Affleck briefly thanked Canada in his acceptance speech Sunday.

"Finally, he mentioned Canada," Taylor said. "Under the circumstances, I think that was fine. It certainly acknowledged Canada. I think certainly the movie was about CIA agent Tony Mendez. I think that President Carter's remarks put everything in proportion."

Carter appeared on television last week and said, "90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian," but the film "gives almost full credit to the American CIA."

Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and at the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran for three months and facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports. He also agreed to go along with the CIA's film production cover story to get the Americans out of Iran.

Taylor became a hero in Canada and in the United States where crowds celebrated with banners that proclaimed, "Thank you, Canada."

Taylor said the movie makes it seem like the Canadians were just along for the ride. Taylor and Carter both noted that Mendez, played by Affleck in the film, was only in Iran for a day and a half.

"The movie is done. President Carter expressed his views, and that's where we sit. I think, being realistic, there's not much at this point that can be realized," Taylor said.

"Argo" also makes no mention of Sheardown, the First Secretary at the embassy. Taylor said it was Sheardown who took the first call from the American diplomats who had evaded capture when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 and agreed right away to take the Americans in. Sheardown died on Dec. 30, and his wife, Zena, called the movie disappointing.

"Argo" screenwriter Chris Terrio, who won best adapted screenplay prize Sunday night, mentioned Taylor and Sheardown in his speech after saluting Mendez.

"Thirty-three years ago Tony, using nothing but his creativity and his intelligence, got six people out of a very bad situation," said Terrio, who based his script on Mendez's book "The Master of Disguise" and a Wired magazine article by Joshuah Bearman.

"And so I want to dedicate this to him and the Taylors and the Sheardowns and people all over the world in the U.S., in Canada, in Iran, who use creativity and intelligence to solve problems non-violently."

Taylor appreciated that Terrio mentioned Sheardown, Sheardown's wife and Taylor's wife.

"He dedicated it to Tony Mendez. That was what his script was about, it so that's understandable. I think that recognition of both Pat and myself and John and Zena was in a sense welcomed," he said.

During a recent talk in Toronto, Taylor took issue with a myriad of creative liberties in "Argo" and said Terrio "had no idea" what he was talking about.

Friends of Taylor were outraged last September when "Argo" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The original postscript of the movie said that Taylor received 112 citations and awards for his work in freeing the hostages and suggested Taylor didn't deserve them because the movie ends with the CIA deciding to let Canada have the credit for helping the Americans escape.

Taylor called the postscript lines "disgraceful and insulting" and said it would have caused outrage in Canada if the lines were not changed. Affleck flew Taylor to Los Angeles after the Toronto debut and allowed him to insert a postscript that gave Canada some credit.

In a statement released on Friday, Affleck said he admired Taylor very much but said he was surprised Taylor still had an issue with the film. Affleck also said he agreed narrate a documentary that Taylor is involved with, about Canada's role in the Iran hostage crisis.

Taylor said it was news to him that Affleck had agreed to narrate the documentary and said he looked forward to working on it with him.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-25-Canada-Argo%20Slight/id-d0680ac1b8664286b8e4272a2c6b5a7c

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World's postal services struggle with lower demand

OTAKI, New Zealand (AP) ? Sandra Vidulich is so excited about the leather boots she ordered through Amazon that she rips open the box in front of the postman and tries them on.

"I looove them," she declares, as the driveway at her tree-lined home in rural New Zealand briefly becomes a catwalk. "They're cool."

For now, a boom in Internet shopping is helping keep alive moribund postal services across the developed world. But the core of their business ? letters ? is declining precipitously, and data from many countries indicate that parcels alone won't be enough to save them. The once-proud postal services that helped build modern society are scaling back operations, risking further declines.

The United Kingdom is preparing to wash its hands of mail deliveries entirely by selling the Royal Mail, which traces its roots back nearly 500 years to the reign of King Henry VIII.

The U.S. Postal Service sparked uproar this month when it announced plans to stop delivering letters on Saturdays. New Zealand is considering more drastic cuts: three days of deliveries per week instead of six.

It's only in the past few years that postal services have truly felt the pinch of the Internet. Revenues at the USPS, which delivers about 40 percent of the world's mail, peaked in 2007 at $75 billion.

But the decline since then has been rapid. USPS revenue in 2012 fell to $65 billion, and its losses were $15.9 billion. It handled 160 billion pieces of mail that year, down from 212 billion in 2007. And it had slashed its workforce by 156,000, or 23 percent.

Elsewhere, the news is just as grim. La Poste in France estimates that by 2015, it will be delivering 30 percent fewer letters than it did in 2008. Japan last year delivered 13 percent fewer letters than it did four years earlier. In Denmark, the postal service said letter volumes dropped 12 percent in a single year.

The Universal Postal Union, which reports to the United Nations, estimates that letter volumes worldwide dropped by nearly 4 percent in 2011 and at an even faster clip in developed nations. Developed countries closed 5 percent of their post offices in 2011 alone.

And while Internet shopping continues to grow, postal services that once profited from their monopoly on letters find themselves competing for parcels against private companies like FedEx.

U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he doesn't believe the service can ever regain the revenue from packages it has lost from letters. He said axing Saturday mail deliveries, while keeping six-day-a-week package deliveries, will save the service about $2 billion a year.

Donahoe said he thinks ending Saturday letter deliveries will keep the USPS a solid proposition for years to come.

"People still go to their mailbox every day and they wait for their mail to come," he said. "It's part of American life."

And it has been since the beginning. The postal service's role was defined in the Constitution, and Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. The short-lived Pony Express achieved an enduring place in American folklore. Even the modern system of highways and airline travel grew from pioneering routes developed by the postal service.

"It's easy to forget how central this institution was to commerce, public life, social affairs," said Richard John, a Columbia University professor who has written a book on the postal service. "It was once very, very important. Of course, that was then and this is now."

Even now, however, much depends on the post office. According to the Envelope Manufacturers Association, the postal service is at the core of a trillion-dollar mailing industry in the U.S. that employs more than 8 million people.

And for delivering a paper letter cheaply, there is simply no alternative. If rural residents were ever charged the actual cost of mail rather than the subsidized standard rate, John said, the costs would be prohibitive.

The value of the mail goes beyond money in many places, including rural New Zealand. The postal carrier serves as a focal point for the community.

John Lahmert, the postman who delivered the boots, has been delivering mail to farms around the North Island town of Otaki for 18 years. The 72-year-old independent contractor seems to know everybody on his route and doesn't mind stopping for a chat.

Noeline Saunders greets him at the gate, wondering if her citrus trees have arrived. Not yet, Lahmert tells her. Barry Georgeson, a semi-retired farmer, calls out a greeting and wanders down to pick up his letters.

"We don't like change," Georgeson said when asked about the possibility of mail coming just three times a week. But he said he could learn to live with it.

Many seemed resigned to a reduced service.

"I think people can genuinely understand that the world is changing," said New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. "And while some people are still very reliant on the mail, for a lot of people that's a fraction of the way they receive information."

About 7 in 10 Americans said they'd favor axing Saturday deliveries if it allowed the post office to deal with billions of dollars in debt, according to a poll by The New York Times and CBS News.

Some countries, including Australia, Canada and Sweden, have already cut deliveries to five days a week. Others are tinkering with partial privatizations.

Exactly what Britons might expect under a privatized service remains unclear. Some speculate it could mean cutbacks.

Royal Mail's Chief Executive Moya Greene declined to comment for this story: "We're simply not doing interviews about the planned sale," spokesman Mish Tullar wrote in an email.

In policy documents, the UK government said six-day-a-week deliveries and standardized letter prices remain vital but that private investors will provide more financial stability than "unpredictable" taxpayer funding.

While letter volumes are falling in developed nations, the reverse is true in some developing countries. In China, mail deliveries are up 56 percent since 2007, driven by a more than fourfold increase in premium express mail, according to figures from China Post.

Yet people in China are accustomed to having their mail show up late or disappear altogether. As Internet use increases in the developing world, mail may never become as essential as it has been elsewhere.

Not everybody is ready to give up on letters. Reader's Digest sends out about 500,000 pieces of mail each week to people in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia as it tries to entice them to buy its merchandise.

"A lot of players are going for a digital strategy, and fewer are doing the direct-mail approach," said Walter Beyleveldt, managing director for the Asia Pacific region. "Because of that, the mailbox will get emptier. It will potentially become an exciting place to go and look."

New Zealanders, however, may be looking there half as often as early as next year, if proposed changes to the New Zealand Post's charter are approved.

The government is accepting public comments until mid-March. A quarter of those received so far were mailed in, a rate considered unusually high.

The other 75 percent? Email.

___

Joe McDonald in Beijing, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo, Lori Hinnant in Paris, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report. AP researchers Yu Bing and Monika Mathur also contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-postal-services-struggle-lower-demand-071303113--finance.html

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Researchers devise new image sensor that could meld screens with cameras

CCD sensors have long ruled the digital imaging roost, but a team of researchers at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria have concocted flat, flexible and transparent image sensors that could eventually change things up. Made from a flexible polymer film suffused with fluorescent particles, the prototypes catch only a specific wavelength of light and shoot it to an array of sensors that surround the sheet's edge. At that point, the rig calculates where light entered the polymer by measuring how much it has diminished during its travel time, and then composes an image from that data. It's said the process is similar to how a CT scan functions, but uses visible light instead of X-rays. Not only is the membrane relatively inexpensive and potentially disposable, but the solution is a world's first, to boot. "To our knowledge, we are the first to present an image sensor that is fully transparent - no integrated microstructures, such as circuits - and is flexible and scalable at the same time," said Oliver Bimber, co-author of the group's paper.

As of now, the setup only snaps black and white images with a resolution of 32 x 32 pixels, but there are plans to boost its fidelity by leveraging higher quality photodiodes (or even composite photos). Also, color photographs could be achieved by using several sheets that capture different hues of light. So, what's this all mean for practical applications? Researchers believe its prime use lies in layering the film on TV screens and other displays to offer gesture controls without pesky, additional cameras. In addition, objects can be imbued with sensor capabilities if wrapped with the layer, and even CCD's could benefit from having a slice of the polymer slapped on them to take photos at different exposures. Hit the second source link for the scientific nitty-gritty, or head past the break for a glimpse at the setup's photos.

Filed under: Cameras, Alt

Comments

Via: Gizmodo

Source: The Optical Society, Optics InfoBase

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/researchers-transparent-flexible-image-sensor-screen-camera/

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