Daily Rituals

Given that I've now devoted two entries in this series to potables?coffee and alcohol?it seems only fair to take a moment to examine artists' eating habits.

Now, obviously, there are no great secrets of creativity to be found in the meals of great minds. Drinking more coffee can help you produce more work?and, certainly, avoiding alcohol during working hours is a wise strategy?but what you eat is pretty much irrelevant. Right?

Well ? That's what I assumed until I started looking through my Daily Rituals files more carefully. It turns out that there is one common eating habit, and it is simply not eating very much. Over and over, various artists mention that they work better on an empty stomach or after eating relatively little.

The pianist Glenn Gould, for instance, would only eat one meal a day?or, rather, since he preferred a nocturnal schedule, one meal a night. According to Kevin Bazzana's biography, Gould would visit a local all-night diner for scrambled eggs, salad, toast, juice, sherbet, and decaf coffee. Eating more frequently made him feel guilty, he said, although he snacked on arrowroot biscuits, Ritz crackers, tea, water, orange juice, and coffee throughout his waking hours. On recording days he didn?t eat at all; fasting, he said, makes the mind sharper.

Marcel Proust seemed to share this view. His longtime housekeeper Celeste served him coffee and one or two croissants after he woke in the late afternoon. This was sometimes Proust?s only sustenance for the entire day. ?It isn?t an exaggeration to say that he ate virtually nothing,? Celeste recalled in a memoir of her life with the author. ?I?ve never heard of anyone else living off two bowls of cafe? au lait and two croissants a day. And sometimes only one croissant!? (Unbeknownst to Celeste, Proust did sometimes dine at a restaurant on the evenings he went out, and there are reports that he ate huge quantities at these occasions.)

Gustav Mahler didn't skip meals, but he preferred food that was light, simple, thoroughly cooked, and minimally seasoned. ?Its purpose was to satisfy without tempting the appetite or causing any sensation of heaviness,? wrote his wife, Alma, to whom it seemed ?an invalid?s diet.? The filmmaker Ingmar Bergman favored similarly austere foods. ?He constantly eats the same lunch,? the actress Bibi Andersson remembered. ?It doesn?t change. It?s some kind of whipped sour milk, very fat, and strawberry jam, very sweet?a strange kind of baby food he eats with corn flakes.?

A number of other figures enjoyed a slightly more varied diet but still preferred to eat essentially the same thing every day. Oliver Sacks wrote a description of his routine for the book, noting that he almost always eats a large bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a noon meal of herrings and black bread, and tabouli and sardines for dinner (or, if he has company, sushi). When she was staging The Artist Is Present at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Marina Abramovi? always ate lentils and rice?with no spices and not even salt?in the morning before the performance, and then had more lentils, a whole grain, a vegetable, and a light vegetable consomm? when she returned home afterward.

If all of this makes the life of the artist sound awfully repetitive and dull?well, that's sort of the point. For many artists, deciding what to eat is just one more distraction from the work. If you want to devote hours of intense focus to your art, something else in your life has got to take a backseat, and all too often it is lunch.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5eeaa33e9c44796e85552054e388de41

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Trash Talkin? Tuesday

Trash Talkin’ Tuesday

Alessandra Ambrosio Caught Grooming in Public?[The Frisky] Amanda Bynes Kicked Out of Gym for Smoking Pot?[HollyWire] Nicole Eggert Injured on Reality Show?[Right Celebrity] Rihanna Smashes a Billboard Record?[The Celebrity Cafe] Kanye West Dazed with Kim Kardashian?[The Blemish] Miley Cyrus Goes Too Short with Her Shorts?[The Huffington Post] Kate Middleton’s Baby Bump is Growing Bigger?[PopCrunch] Justin ...

Trash Talkin’ Tuesday Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/trash-talkin-tuesday-92/

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Palestinian journalist jailed for Abbas photo

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? A West Bank appeals court on Thursday upheld a one-year prison term for a Palestinian journalist who had a photo on his Facebook page that authorities claimed portrayed President Mahmoud Abbas as a traitor, rights activists said.

It was the second such case in two months, and Abbas' Palestinian Authority is facing mounting criticism for stifling dissent. In particular, Abbas' security forces have targeted supporters of the Islamic militant Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from him in 2007.

The defendant in Thursday's case was Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Hamas-linked Al-Quds TV.

Nimer Hamad, an adviser to Abbas, said the Palestinian president would pardon Hamamreh, but declined further comment.

Prosecutors have alleged that a photo montage on his Facebook page back in 2010 showed Abbas next to a villain in a popular TV drama about French colonial rule in the Levant. The villain was an informer for the French and the photo caption read: "They're alike."

Hamamreh denied that he was the one who posted the photo, but last year a court sentenced him to a year in prison. An appeals court upheld the sentence Thursday, said Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.

In February, a Palestinian court sentenced university student Anas Awwad, 26, to a year in jail for "cursing the president" on Facebook. The Palestinian judiciary applies a Jordanian law that criminalizes cursing the king.

Awwad's father said at the time that his son was being punished for what appeared to be a humorous caption under a picture showing Abbas kicking a soccer ball.

An appeals court overturned Awwad's sentence earlier this month and ordered a new trial, Abdeen said. Several other Palestinians face similar charges, he said.

Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, which administers 38 percent of the West Bank, have come under fire repeatedly for squashing dissent. Hamas, which rules Gaza, has faced similar accusations, including going after supporters of Abbas' Fatah movement.

The Palestinian political split of 2007 largely halted the work of democratic institutions. It paralyzed the parliament and prevented new parliamentary and presidential elections.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-journalist-jailed-abbas-photo-192114714.html

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Video: PFT: How can Lions maximize pick?

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/51355237#51355237

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New lung cancer study takes page from Google's playbook

Mar. 25, 2013 ? The same sort of mathematical model used to predict which websites people are most apt to visit is now showing promise in helping map how lung cancer spreads in the human body, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Research.

A team of researchers used an algorithm similar to the Google PageRank and to the Viterbi Algorithm for digital communication to analyze the spread patterns of lung cancer. The team includes experts from the University of Southern California (USC), Scripps Clinic, The Scripps Research Institute, University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York.

"This research demonstrates how similar the Internet is to a living organism," said USC Viterbi School of Engineering Professor Paul Newton, Ph.D., the lead and corresponding author of the study. "The same types of tools that help us understand the spread of information through the web can help us understand the spread of cancer through the human body."

Employing a sophisticated system of mathematical equations known as a Markov chain model, the research team -- guided by USC applied mathematicians- found that metastatic lung cancer does not progress in a single direction from primary tumor site to distant locations, which has been the traditional medical view. Instead, they found that cancer cell movement around the body likely occurs in more than one direction at a time.

Researchers also learned that the first site to which the cells spread plays a key role in the progression of the disease. The study showed that some parts of the body serve as "sponges" that are relatively unlikely to further spread lung cancer cells to other areas of the body. The study identified other areas as "spreaders" for lung cancer cells.

The study revealed that for lung cancer, the main spreaders are the adrenal gland and kidney, whereas the main sponges are the regional lymph nodes, liver and bone.

The study applied the advanced math model to data from human autopsy reports of 163 lung cancer patients in the New England area, from 1914 to 1943. This time period was targeted because it predates the use of radiation and chemotherapy, providing researchers a clear view of how cancer progresses if left untreated. Among the 163 patients, researchers charted the advancement patterns of 619 different metastases to 27 distinct body sites.

The study's findings could potentially impact clinical care by helping guide physicians to targeted treatment options, designed to curtail the spread of lung cancer. For example, if the cancer is found to have moved to a known spreader location, imaging tests and interventions can be quickly considered for focused treatment before the cells may be more widely dispersed. Further study is needed in this area.

Keeping tabs on cancer's movement in the body is vital to patient care. While a primary cancer tumor (confined to a single location) is often not fatal, a patient's prognosis can worsen if the cancer metastasizes -- that is, flakes off and travels to other parts of the body to form new tumors.

The study is part of a relatively new movement to involve physical sciences in oncology research. Mathematics probability models that interpret data from specific patient populations offer a new alternative to the established approach of relying on broader clinical trends to predict where, and how fast, cancer will spread.

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

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

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Journal Reference:

1. P. K. Newton, J. Mason, K. Bethel, L. Bazhenova, J. Nieva, L. Norton, P. Kuhn. Spreaders and sponges define metastasis in lung cancer: A Markov chain mathematical model. Cancer Research, 2013; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-4488

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/S2c0yU_9a4g/130325111150.htm

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RIT Shows Off Community Photo Project

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RIT's 28th Community Photo Project, the Big Shot, happened Saturday night at 8:30. The project's focus, the world's largest domed stadium.

Before

In the "before" shot, pictured, you can see the home of the Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys Stadium with all it's lights off for the first time since its construction.

After

Using a technique they describe as painting with light, about 2,500 volunteers from around the world helped to achieve this final image by aiming their light source at the stadium while R.I.T. photographers shot the photo.

The night-time photograph was shot from a 40 ft. construction lift.

Source: http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/650399/rit-shows-off-community-photo-project

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2013 Ford Fusion S from North America

Good comfortable vehicle, gets a lot of looks.

Can't beat the car for the price. The engine runs smooth, and it has decent pick up and gas mileage for the size of the vehicle. Interior is nice and has all of your basic luxuries in the base model, without all of the fluff.

Source: http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/ford/fusion/2013/

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Mayor Bloomberg On Domestic Drones In NYC - Business Insider

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg considers the domestic use of military-style drones "scary" but says that there is no way to stop it.

?Everybody wants their privacy, but I don?t know how you?re going to maintain it,? Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. ?It?s just we?re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different ... you can?t keep the tides from coming in.?

In September a Congressional Research report stated that domestic drones may be able to bypass constitutional privacy safeguards because of their high level of sophistication.

At least 81 entities, including 17 police departments, have applied for permission to fly drones in U.S. airspace.

But the mayor seems to be referring to something more omnipresent, like having drones with ARGUS technology flying 17,500 feet above the Big Apple while transmitting high resolution images of people.

"There'll be cameras every place" within five years, Bloomberg estimated. "We're going to have more visibility and less privacy. I just don't see how you could stop that."

The mayor figures that if the city already has security cameras in strategic places around the city ? 2,400 in Manhattan alone as of 1998 ? then drones aren't any different.

?It's scary. What?s the difference whether the drones up in the air or in the building?? Bloomberg said. ?I mean intellectually, I have trouble making a distinction. And you know you're going to have face recognition software."

Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union told CBS that the mayor's nonchalance does nothing to quell legitimate concerns that the government could save the data to analyze it.

?It?s disappointing that the mayor shows such disdain for the legitimate concern of New Yorkers about their privacy," she said. "None of us expects that we?ll go unseen when we?re out on the street, but we also have the right to expect that the government isn?t making a permanent record."

Here the CBS news report with Bloomberg's remarks:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mayor-bloomberg-on-domestic-drones-in-nyc-2013-3

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Reward linked to image is enough to activate brain's visual cortex

Friday, March 22, 2013

Once rhesus monkeys learn to associate a picture with a reward, the reward by itself becomes enough to alter the activity in the monkeys' visual cortex. This finding was made by neurophysiologists Wim Vanduffel and John Arsenault (KU Leuven and Harvard Medical School) and American colleagues using functional brain scans and was published recently in the leading journal Neuron.

Our visual perception is not determined solely by retinal activity. Other factors also influence the processing of visual signals in the brain. "Selective attention is one such factor," says Professor Wim Vanduffel. "The more attention you pay to a stimulus, the better your visual perception is and the more effective your visual cortex is at processing that stimulus. Another factor is the reward value of a stimulus: when a visual signal becomes associated with a reward, it affects our processing of that visual signal. In this study, we wanted to investigate how a reward influences activity in the visual cortex."

To do this, the researchers used a variant of Pavlov's well-known conditioning experiment: "Think of Pavlov giving a dog a treat after ringing a bell. The bell is the stimulus and the food is the reward. Eventually the dogs learned to associate the bell with the food and salivated at the sound of the bell alone. Essentially, Pavlov removed the reward but kept the stimulus. In this study, we removed the stimulus but kept the reward."

In the study, the rhesus monkeys first encountered images projected on a screen followed by a juice reward (classical conditioning). Later, the monkeys received juice rewards while viewing a blank screen. fMRI brain scans taken during this experiment showed that the visual cortex of the monkeys was activated by being rewarded in the absence of any image.

Importantly, these activations were not spread throughout the whole visual system but were instead confined to the specific brain regions responsible for processing the exact stimulus used earlier during conditioning. This result shows that information about rewards is being sent to the visual cortex to indicate which stimuli have been associated with rewards.

Equally surprising, these reward-only trials were found to strengthen the cue-reward associations. This is more or less the equivalent to giving Pavlov's dog an extra treat after a conditioning session and noticing the next day that he salivates twice as much as before. More generally, this result suggests that rewards can be associated with stimuli over longer time scales than previously thought.

Why does the visual cortex react selectively in the absence of a visual stimulus on the retina? One potential explanation is dopamine. "Dopamine is a signalling chemical (neurotransmitter) in nerve cells and plays an important role in processing rewards, motivation, and motor functions. Dopamine's role in reward signalling is the reason some Parkinson's patients fall into gambling addiction after taking dopamine-increasing drugs. Aware of dopamine's role in reward, we re-ran our experiments after giving the monkeys a small dose of a drug that blocks dopamine signalling. We found that the activations in the visual cortex were reduced by the dopamine blocker. What's likely happening here is that a reward signal is being sent to the visual cortex via dopamine," says Professor Vanduffel.

The study used fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans to visualise brain activity. fMRI scans map functional activity in the brain by detecting changes in blood flow. The oxygen content and the amount of blood in a given brain area vary according to the brain activity associated with a given task. In this way, task-specific activity can be tracked.

###

The full text of the study "Dopaminergic reward signals selectively decrease fMRI activity in primate visual cortex" is available on the Neuron website: http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(13)00052-4?utm_source=ECE001&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&bid=BKXPH4F:90EZ4

KU Leuven: http://www.kuleuven.be

Thanks to KU Leuven for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127410/Reward_linked_to_image_is_enough_to_activate_brain_s_visual_cortex

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Senate gives pre-dawn OK to Democratic budget

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An exhausted Senate gave pre-dawn approval Saturday to a Democratic $3.7 trillion budget for next year that embraces nearly $1 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade but shelters domestic programs targeted for cuts by House Republicans.

While their victory was by a razor-thin 50-49, the vote let Democrats tout their priorities. Yet it doesn't resolve the deep differences the two parties have over deficits and the size of government.

Joining all Republicans voting no were four Democrats who face re-election next year in potentially difficult races: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., did not vote.

The vote came after lawmakers labored through the night on scores of symbolic amendments, ranging from voicing support for letting states collect taxes on Internet sales to expressing opposition to requiring photo ID's for voters.

The Senate's budget would shrink annual federal shortfalls over the next decade to nearly $400 billion, raise unspecified taxes by $975 billion and cull modest savings from domestic programs.

In contrast, a rival budget approved by the GOP-run House balances the budget within 10 years without boosting taxes.

That blueprint? by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., his party's vice presidential candidate last year ? claims $4 trillion more in savings over the period than Senate Democrats by digging deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.

"We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. "But I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide."

A day that stretched roughly 20 hours featured brittle debate at times. The loudest moment came toward the end, when senators rose as one to cheer a handful of Senate pages ? high school students ? who lawmakers said had worked in the chamber since the morning's opening gavel. Senators then left town for a two-week spring recess.

Congressional budgets are planning documents that leave actual changes in revenues and spending for later legislation, and this was the first the Democratic-run Senate has approved in four years. That lapse is testament to the political and mathematical contortions needed to write fiscal plans in an era of record-breaking deficits that until this year exceeded an eye-popping $1 trillion annually, and to the parties' profoundly conflicting views.

"I believe we're in denial about the financial condition of our country," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, top Republican on the Budget panel, said of Democratic efforts to boost spending on some programs. "Trust me, we've got to have some spending reductions."

Though budget shortfalls have shown signs of easing slightly and temporarily, there is no easy path for the two parties to find compromise ? which the first months of 2013 have amply illustrated.

Already this year, Congress has raised taxes on the rich after narrowly averting tax boosts on virtually everyone else, tolerated $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, temporarily sidestepped a federal default and prevented a potential government shutdown.

By sometime this summer, the government's borrowing limit will have to be extended again ? or a default will be at risk ? and it is unclear what Republicans may demand for providing needed votes. It is also uncertain how the two parties will resolve the differences between their two budgets, something many believe simply won't happen.

Both sides have expressed a desire to reduce federal deficits. But President Barack Obama is demanding a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to do so, while GOP leaders say they won't consider higher revenues but want serious reductions in Medicare and other benefit programs that have rocketed deficits skyward.

Obama plans to release his own 2014 budget next month, an unveiling that will be studied for whether it signals a willingness to engage Republicans in negotiations or play political hardball.

The amendments senators considered during their long day of debate were all non-binding, but some delivered potent political messages.

They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies, and to endorse the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is to pump oil from Canada to Texas refineries.

They also voted to voiced support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama's health care overhaul, and for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.

In a rebuke to one of the Senate's most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.

The Democratic budget's $975 billion in new taxes would be matched by an equal amount of spending reductions coming chiefly from health programs, defense and reduced interest payments as deficits get smaller than previously anticipated.

This year's projected deficit of nearly $900 billion would fall to around $700 billion next year and bottom out near $400 billion in 2016 before trending upward again.

Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.

__

Associated Press reporter Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-23-US-Budget-Battle/id-0a2d0f626980495ba449672ca577046b

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Nevada depot blast: Was exercise that killed seven really necessary?

The training accident at Hawthorne Army Depot came during a live-fire exercise. These exercises carry risk, but military officials say they are needed to prepare troops for battle.

By Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer / March 19, 2013

US Marines pass through a mountainous area during a rough terrain driving course in Hawthorne, Nevada in this file photo. Hawthorne Army Depot is often used to prepare troops for Afghanistan and for live-fire exercises.

Lance Cpl. Uriel De Luna-Felix/US Marine Corps/Reuters/File

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The deaths of seven US troops ? and the injuries of several others ? in a live-fire training exercises at a military base in Nevada Monday raises questions about just how necessary such training is for troops in an era of modern warfare.

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Though the cause of the fatalities, which happened Hawthorne Army Depot at 10 p.m. local time, is still under investigation, it appears that a 60-millimeter mortar shell exploded as Marines were preparing to fire the shell.

Would they get the same experience using blank rounds that still simulated the noise and confusion of battle, for example? Senior US military officials say the answer to that question is "no." Though such exercises entail some measure of risk, they are vital, the officials suggest.?

Some argue that the danger inherent in live-fire exercises is key to instilling a sense of fear, so that troops can come to envision in some small measure what battle will be like. Others contend that using live rounds during training hones troops by making them more focused during drills.

In the end, the point of training is to do everything possible to make the men and women of the military prepared to go to war, and live-fire exercises are seen as being a crucial part of that process.

?We don?t want war to be the first time a soldier has handled ? and is comfortable ? with live rounds,? says Lt. Col. Jerome Pionk, the Army?s team chief for weapons, environment, and technology.

?It?s not so much the sense of danger but the awareness of responsibility that is heightened during live-fire exercises,? adds Colonel Pionk.

This experience breeds confidence, Pionk says. He recalls his first live-fire training exercise in the Army: ?I didn?t come from a hunting culture,? he says.

?When you get out there with blanks, you know it?s not real. When you have that live ammo, though, there?s a sense of heightened responsibility,? he says. ?You get absorbed in that. You think, ?I?ve got live bullets here. I?ve got to take this seriously.? ?

What?s more, there are often physical differences in weight between live munitions and training rounds, military officials add.

To avoid accidents, there are a number of safety measures that precede live-fire exercises, Pionk says. ?When I was an infantry platoon leader, you did a dozen rehearsals before you were issued live ammo? for an exercise.

Such rehearsals without live rounds are standard even if a unit is returning from Afghanistan or ?if you have nothing but senior guys ? extremely well-trained guys ? before they get locked-and-loaded with live ammo,? he adds. ?

The number of live-fire exercises troops take part in vary with their military occupational specialties, but troops are generally required to do live-fire exercises at least once a year as part of their annual qualification requirements.

Hawthorne Army Depot, a base that is nearly 230 miles square and serves as an ammunition depot, is an ideal spot for live-fire exercises.

According to the depot?s website, the remote base in the heart of Nevada's mountainous desert offers a ?realistic simulation of the situation in Afghanistan? for troops, including Special Operations Forces, who train there. This training includes live-fire exercises, often for troops preparing to deploy to war.

Even beyond live fire-training, military exercises generally involve risks, particularly as troops are preparing for ongoing wars.?

Seven US troops died in February 2012 during a midair collision of two helicopters at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, which sits along the jagged, rocky mountains and open desert of the Arizona-California border and is also meant to simulate the conditions in Afghanistan.

There were five such crashes in 2009, and another five in 2010.?

A Marine spokesman says the fatal incident at Hawthorne is under investigation.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bLrRDvQ4nU8/Nevada-depot-blast-Was-exercise-that-killed-seven-really-necessary

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Radio Rymatica Online/Internet Radio/Podcast/Music Videos ...

Miami Heat Gets 23RD Straight Win! LeBron James Dunks on Jason Terry Too! [RadioRymatica.com]

Miami Heat Gets 23RD Straight Win! LeBron James Dunks on Jason Terry Too! [RadioRymatica.com]

Miami Heat Now Holds The Second Most Wins In A Row (23) In NBA History.

Source: http://www.radiorymatica.com/2013/03/miami-heat-gets-23rd-straight-win.html

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Malls must move beyond shopping to survive in Internet era

By Tom Bill

CANNES, France (Reuters) - As growing numbers of shoppers move online, European mall owners are looking to pull in customers by including services that can't be replicated on the Web like hospital care and government offices.

Malls must become more like full-service community centers to survive in the face of a growing list of failed retailers like HMV and Blockbuster, property experts at the annual MIPIM trade fair in Cannes, France, told Reuters.

On the flip side of that retail revolution, the experts see big gains in warehousing as more goods are sent and returned via post.

"The days of the stand-alone mall are numbered," said David Roberts, the chief executive of architect Aedas, one of the five largest practices in the world. The company has been involved in city masterplan projects in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

"In 20 years time you will find stores that sell books and DVDs replaced by sites that give people a reason to go the mall ... art galleries, education centers and health and spa treatments."

Florencio Beccar, fund manager of CBRE Global Investors European shopping centre fund, cited the recent purchase of a mall in Germany, saying the fact it included a large medical centre was "a big plus".

"I once saw a clinic in a Brazilian mall where you checked in and are buzzed on a device when they are ready. In the meantime you go shopping," he said. "With the ageing population in Europe you can see that happening more and more."

CBRE Investors, which has about 14 billion euros ($18.2 billion) of retail property under management in Europe and 5,000 tenants, also owns a mall in southern Sweden with a library and a local municipal office, he said.

"More shopping centre developers will have early talks with these sorts of tenants as well as the big anchor retailers," Beccar said.

Mall owners like Land Securities, Intu, Westfield and Klepierre have increased the number of restaurants and cinemas to persuade shoppers to stay longer, and offer promotions to reward frequent shoppers who can be tracked via their mobile phones.

COMMUNITY CENTRES, ADVENTURE PARKS

But these steps don't go far enough, some experts say, in light of a forecast last month that 90 percent of retail sales growth in Britain, France and Germany between 2012 and 2016, or 91.5 billion euros, is expected to be online, according to the property arm of French insurer AXA, which manages 43 billion euros of assets.

As well as changing what's inside, mall owners will need to borrow ideas from developing markets like Dubai and China where centers are part of wider mixed-use developments where people live or include open spaces where they spend leisure time, Roberts said.

"Convenience and Internet shopping has created a breakdown in community structures and there's a gap there waiting to be filled," he said.

"There is a complete lack of vision among many shopping centre owners," said Joe Valente, a managing director at JP Morgan Asset Management, who helps manage 7 billion euros of real estate in Europe.

"The big thing that's missing is that unlike almost every other industry they haven't caught on to building their own brand. Why not have a bluewater.com?" he said, referring to the large mall of the same name in southeast England.

"Landlords fear cannibalizing sales but in 10 to 15 years they won't have a choice because they will be cannibalized anyway," he said. In other words, a growing number of shoppers will move online whatever malls do.

"On a mall website you could book a parking space, a restaurant table or your car to be valeted. Why do people go to Covent Garden?" he asked of the central London district.

"There's nothing there you won't find anywhere else but I would argue it's a strong brand."

Christian Ulbrich, chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa at property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle, said: "Stores will get bigger and become more like adventure parks that attack all of your emotions.

"For example, Globetrotter has a climbing wall and cycle track in its Frankfurt store to try out its products," he said of the German outdoor clothing and equipment retailer.

WAREHOUSING

While retailers and mall owners struggle to find answers, all agree that warehouse property owners are the big beneficiaries of the change in retail habits.

Every additional 1 billion euros of online sales resulted in an average additional warehouse demand of approximately 72,000 square meters in Britain, Germany and France over the last five years, a report from warehouse landlord Prologis said last year.

"Logistics is the new retail," said Simon Hope, global head of capital markets at property consultant Savills, referring to the way changing consumer trends will affect the way investors see property.

"There is a trend of money moving away from all but the best and most regionally dominant malls into logistics as they are economically shielded," he said.

The fact that the Norwegian and Chinese sovereign wealth funds have recently invested in the sector, as well as a report that Brookfield, lower Manhattan's largest office landlord, is trying to do the same, shows serious bets are being made on logistics property, Hope said.

Yields for high quality logistics property can be six or seven percent versus four or five percent for top shopping centers.

As another example of how retailers may re-think their operations, some are likely to club together to operate out of smaller logistics sites close to city centers to enable same-day deliveries, a service increasingly in demand, Ulbrich said.

"The issue they all face is that shopping is no longer enough of a reason to go to shopping centers."

($1 = 0.7704 euros)

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malls-must-move-beyond-shopping-survive-internet-era-095438540--sector.html

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Why You Shouldn't Forget About Latency

If your internet connection leaves you constantly waiting for streams to buffer, you probably love nothing more than to bitch and gripe about bandwidth. But easy there, tiger, because your issue could be a much more fundamental issue that everyone seems to have forgotten about: latency. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-H426m3wXwE/why-you-shouldnt-forget-about-latency

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Insert Coin on-stage demos at Expand liveblog

Remember our Insert Coin Competition? Voting remains open through tomorrow at 5:40PM PT, and our five finalists are demoing their projects on stage today. We posted hands-ons with each of the projects earlier today, so you don't need to tune in to snag a closer look. If you're looking for a quick recap, however, this is the place to be. Click on through for today's Insert Coin Demos, live from the Engadget Expand stage at Fort Mason in San Francisco!

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100% 56 Up

All Critics (53) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (0)

What ultimately is so compelling about 56 Up is the universality of the experiences. We were all once children. And we all will die. And in between, there is everything else.

We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time.

Apted, himself now in his early 70s, says he hopes to continue the series further. Long may it live.

Watching "56 Up" gives you the wonderful feeling of seeing a sociological experiment blossom into something novelistically rich and humane.

Time has been neither kind nor cruel to the 13 men and women profiled in "56 UP." It has just been time, which is what this groundbreaking series is about.

We are all older now, and this series proves it in a most deeply moving way.

We might say that '56 Up' serves much the same function as 'Amour,' but it responds to the inevitability of decline with compassion, not dread.

What started as a crafty way of looking at the U.K.'s rigid class structure has grown into a portrait of melancholy middle age, with its heartbreaks and minor-key triumphs.

Those British kids are now 56

Watching the eighth film is intriguing but, in a way, disappointing. At this point in the game, it feels as if all the characters have determined their lots in life and are simply plodding through their interviews.

Quite simply one of the great documentary projects in the history of cinema, an engrossing sociological experiment on film; and though this mostly mellow installment isn't as revelatory as some earlier ones, it's still a remarkable document.

... feels like a retrospective and summation of the whole series, with ample quotation from the previous films, an approach that makes it interesting even for viewers who haven't seen the previous installments.

A completely unique and remarkable documentary project.

Apted skillfully weaves old footage with the new, and we become poignantly aware of another factor shaping their lives (and our own): biology, as the we watch the once-cute kids grow gray and heavy.

Perhaps the boldest and probably longest running sociological experiment on film.

I think the best thing about this movie (and the entire series) is that it forces the viewer to think about their own lives. It's kind of an awakening experience.

Once again, Apted assembles a captivating documentary that's profoundly educational, essential viewing to aid the understanding of the human experience.

"56 Up" is well worth seeing.

56 Up is still moving and philosophic, though not as exciting as earlier episodes, which had more drama.

The running time is over two hours, but the lives here are richly revealed and vastly rewarding.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/56_up/

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Oculus VR's Nate Mitchell backstage at Expand (video)

Nate Mitchell, vice president of product for Oculus VR, was in the spotlight here at Expand discussing gaming hardware, such as the firm's VR headset, and what it means for the future with folks from NVIDIA and Razer. Mitchell found his way backstage and we asked him about the largest challenges the headset is facing, how Oculus is supporting developers and creating standards for VR games and when an immersive holodeck experience might finally arrive. Take a leap past the break to catch the full interview footage.

Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here

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Did Apple just endorse the Samsung Galaxy S4

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There have been differing reactions among the public in Argentina over the election of the new pope.

On Wednesday, Cardinal Bergoglio, 76, of Argentina was named pope of the Roman Catholic ...

Source: http://www.argentinastar.com/index.php/sid/213280747/scat/d805653303cbbba8

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UK: We will compensate troops hit by Cyprus levy

LONDON (AP) ? Britain's Treasury chief says the government will compensate U.K. troops who lose money to Cyprus's bailout tax.

About 3,500 British military personnel are based in Cyprus, which has announced a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank balances as part of a deal with creditors for ?10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money.

The announcement sent Cypriot depositors rushing to ATM machines to drain their accounts.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Sunday that the government would compensate troops and civil servants affected by the bank levy. He said "anyone doing their duty for our country in Cyprus will be protected."

But those among the 59,000 British residents of Cyprus not working for the U.K. military or government could still be out of pocket.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-17-EU-Britain-Cyprus/id-536cfd36f9a54f23b78e1658c6d7ad1d

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Green Tea May Reduce Cancer Risk

A number of studies validate lifestyle and other modifiable factors to promote a long and healthy lifespan:

? Cambridge University (United Kingdom) researchers report that healthy lifestyle choices can extend lifespan by 14 years. In a study of 20,000 men and women, ages 45 to 79, conducted for 13 years, Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues found that those study subjects with the lowest number of healthy behaviors were four-times more likely to die, most notably from cardiovascular disease. Specifically, the team found that study participants with the lowest healthy lifestyle scores had the same risk of dying as someone with the highest healthy lifestyle scores who was 14 years older. The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was smoking cessation, associated with an 80% improvement in lifespan. The second most significant change was increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Thirdly, moderate drinking; and fourthly, staying physically active, rounded out the four most beneficial lifestyle choices to extend lifespan.
? US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia USA) researchers studied data collected on 23,153 German men and women, ages 35 to 65 years, who participated in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam study. The team found that four lifestyle factors -- namely never smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or less, exercising 3.5 hours a week and eating a healthy diet ? slashed the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer by a staggering 80%.

Lifestyle choices including not smoking, eating fresh foods, engaging in regular exercise, minimizing psychological stress, and drinking in moderation are basic tenets of the anti-aging lifestyle. By embracing these concepts, not only might we extend how long we may live, but how well. A prolonged healthspan -- the length of time that we are able to live productively and independently ? is, in many ways, as important as an extended lifespan.

Source: http://www.worldhealth.net/news/green-tea-may-reduce-cancer-risk/

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