LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. producer will.i.am’s collaboration with Britney Spears topped the British pop charts on Sunday as David Bowie notched up his first top 10 single in two decades with his surprise new release.
Launched without warning on Bowie’s 66th birthday, the single “Where Are We Now?” caused widespread media interest, and charted in sixth place despite only having been available for five days.
It was his first new song in almost a decade and produced his best chart performance since 1986, when he reached number two with “Absolute Beginners”, the Official Charts Company said.
Topping the chart was “Scream and Shout” by will.i.am, featuring Britney Spears, giving her a first British number one since 2004.
U.S. country-pop star Taylor Swift‘s “I Knew You Were Trouble” moved up to second, with James Arthur, winner of the British version of the “X Factor” TV talent show last year, dropping from first to third with “Impossible”.
In the album chart, singer Emeli Sandé returned to number one with “Our Version of Events”, which has now spent 48 consecutive weeks in the Top 10.
Last week’s chart-topper “18 Months” by Scottish producer and singer Calvin Harris dropped to second place, and English singer Jake Bugg rose a place to third with his eponymous album.
R&B star Rihanna climbed three to fourth with “Unapologetic”. The only new entry in the top 10 was the soundtrack from the Oscar-nominated film musical “Les Miserables”, which debuted in fifth.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Thirty-five percent of American adults said they have used the Internet to diagnose a medical condition for themselves or someone else, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Women are more likely than men to turn to the Internet for diagnoses. Other groups more likely to do so are younger people, white adults, people with college degrees and those who live in households with income above $75,000.
The study, released by Pew’s Internet and American Life Project on Tuesday, points out that Americans have always tried to answer their health questions at home, but that the Internet has expanded the options for research. Previous surveys have asked questions about online diagnoses, but the Pew study was the first to focus on the topic with a nationally representative sample, said Susannah Fox, an associate director at Pew Internet. Surveyors interviewed 3,014 American adults by telephone, from August to September 2012.
Of the one in three Americans who used the Internet for a diagnosis, about a third said they did not go to a doctor to get a professional medical opinion, while 41 percent said a doctor confirmed their diagnosis. Eighteen percent said a doctor did not agree with their diagnosis. As far as where people start when researching health conditions online, 77 percent said they started at a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo, while 13 percent said they began at a site that specializes in health information.
You can use the rear of the YotaPhone as a clock, or to display wallpapers.
Click here to view this gallery.
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LAS VEGAS — What if your phone had two displays? Announced in mid-December, YotaPhone aims to change how people use their smartphones by bringing together a full-color LCD display on one side of the phone and an e-ink display on the other.
I caught up with Yota Device’s Vladislav Martynov at CES to give the phone a closer look.
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In essence, the two displays on the handset each have their own unique purpose. The front display is used just as you might your traditional smartphone screen to run apps, browse the web or watch videos.
The rear display on the YotaPhone is what makes it stand out. An electronic paper display, it shows content you push to it from the front of the device. Less for interacting with and more for reference information, you can use the display for a map to your next destination, a clock, or a place to keep the boarding pass for your flight handy.
Martynov showed me a few applications designed specifically to use with the screen as well, including an app that shows low long you’ve kept a particular goal, such as not smoking. The company plans to release an API for other developers to make applications that take advantage of the dual-screen functionality as well.
Running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Martynov says that he plans to keep Android as vanilla as possible, something he feels is very important. He also wants to make sure that the phone is on-par with high-end Android smartphones, spec-wise. The current iteration uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8960 platform, and Corning’s 3D Gorilla Glass. It’s also a multi-band LTE handset that can run on LTE networks anywhere in the world.
YotaPhone is expected to go one sale during the second half of 2013.
What uses do you see for an e-ink second screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a psychologist and writer whose work helped explain why women are twice as prone to depression as men and why such low moods can be so hard to shake, died on Jan. 2 in New Haven. She was 53.
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema at the University of Michigan in 2003. Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema's research showed that women were more prone to ruminate, or dwell on the sources of problems rather than solutions, more than men.
Her death followed heart surgery to correct a congenitally weak valve, said her husband, Richard Nolen-Hoeksema.
Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema, a professor at Yale University, began studying depression in the 1980s, a time of great excitement in psychiatry and psychology. New drugs like Prozac were entering the market; novel talking therapies were proving effective, too, particularly cognitive behavior therapy, in which people learn to defuse upsetting thoughts by questioning their basis.
Her studies, first in children and later in adults, exposed one of the most deceptively upsetting of these patterns: rumination, the natural instinct to dwell on the sources of problems rather than their possible solutions. Women were more prone to ruminate than men, the studies found, and in a landmark 1987 paper she argued that this difference accounted for the two-to-one ratio of depressed women to depressed men.
She later linked rumination to a variety of mood and behavior problems, including anxiety, eating disorders and substance abuse.
“The way I think she’d put it is that, when bad things happen, women brood — they’re cerebral, which can feed into the depression,” said Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who oversaw her doctoral work. “Men are more inclined to act, to do something, plan, beat someone up, play basketball.”
Dr. Seligman added, “She was the leading figure in sex differences in depression of her generation.”
Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema wrote several books about her research for general readers, including “Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life.” These books described why rumination could be so corrosive — it is deeply distracting; it tends to highlight negative memories — and how such thoughts could be alleviated.
Susan Kay Nolen was born on May 22, 1959, in Springfield, Ill., to John and Catherine Nolen. Her father ran a construction business, where her mother was the office manager; Susan was the eldest of three children.
She entered Illinois State University before transferring to Yale. She graduated summa cum laude in 1982 with a degree in psychology.
After earning a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, she joined the faculty at Stanford. She later moved to the University of Michigan, before returning to Yale in 2004.
Along the way she published scores of studies and a popular textbook. In 2003 she became the editor of the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, an influential journal.
Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema moved smoothly between academic work and articles and books for the general reader.
“I think part of what allowed her to move so easily between those two worlds was that she was an extremely clear thinker, and an extremely clear writer,” said Marcia K. Johnson, a psychology professor and colleague at Yale.
Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema lived in Bethany, Conn. In addition to her husband, a science writer, she is survived by a son, Michael; her brothers, Jeff and Steve; and her father, John.
“Over the past four decades women have experienced unprecedented growth in independence and opportunities,” Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema wrote in 2003, adding, “We have many reasons to be happy and confident.”
“Yet when there is any pause in our daily activities,” she continued, “many of us are flooded with worries, thoughts and emotions that swirl out of control, sucking our emotions and energy down, down, down. We are suffering from an epidemic of overthinking.”
BALDWIN, Ill. ——
Nowhere is coal's effect more visible than here at Illinois' largest coal-fired power plant, where the train cars are flipped upside down, tracks and all, to feed boilers the size of skyscrapers.
Once reviled as one of the dirtiest coal plants in the U.S., today the Baldwin plant is a different kind of poster child.
Last month, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. completed $1 billion in environmental upgrades at Baldwin and its three sister Illinois plants, a calculated bet that it will emerge as one of the coal plant operators left standing as rivals are clobbered by a depressed electricity market that leaves little money to add federally mandated pollution controls.
Dynegy's move, together with the closures of several coal-fired plants in and around Chicago, should add up to cleaner air for Cook County, which has consistently failed to meet federal health standards for air quality.
The pollution spewing from three massive smokestacks at Baldwin, about a five-hour drive southwest of Chicago, had plagued the city and other downwind communities for decades, contributing to the smog and soot that trigger asthma and other ailments.
"Hundreds of people in the state have died in recent years and thousands have been sickened simply because they had no choice but to breathe the pollution being pumped out by huge coal power plants. What we are starting to see now are the real health benefits of legal enforcement actions taken years ago," said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs for the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.
The closures of the coal-burning Crawford and Fisk power plants in Chicago and the State Line plant just across the border in Indiana mirror a story playing out across the country. The abundance of natural gas, a cheaper fuel than coal, has cut into profits of coal plant operators just as states and the federal government have pressed for expensive pollution upgrades.
The Brattle Group, a financial consulting firm, predicts that one-fourth of the nation's coal-fired electricity will be wiped off the map by 2016; more than 100 coal-fired generating units have been mothballed since 2009. The state's other two major coal plant owners — Ameren Corp.'s generating arm and Edison International's Midwest Generation — largely have been cast off by their parent companies because of poor financial performance. And they have pleaded with regulators for more time to meet pollution standards.
As a result of upgrades, it is more costly to operate Baldwin and Dynegy's other Illinois coal plants in Wood River, Havana and Hennepin than those of competitors. But Dynegy doesn't expect that to be a burden long term. Fewer players making electricity means surviving power plant operators will receive higher payments from grid operators that pay reservation fees for power.
"There's short-term pain until you flush the noncompliers out of the game," said Robert Flexon, Dynegy's president and chief executive.
Longer term, if coal-fired plants keep closing as Dynegy anticipates, it expects to earn $100 million more per year beginning in 2016 in so-called capacity payments from grid operators.
Cleaning up
Dynegy's decision to upgrade its plants was not altogether altruistic. The improvements stem from a 2005 settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice that set deadlines for the company to clean up its plants or close them.
The Baldwin plant, an hour's drive from St. Louis, is massive; its white smokestack plumes can be seen for miles in this flat farming area. Its fuel comes in by rail.
The cars, brimming with 120 tons of coal every 2 1/2 minutes, are flipped over, rails and all, only to return full in an eight-day loop that begins in Wyoming. The amount of coal burned every two months is enough to fill Willis Tower.
It is just the start of a laborious process that strips the coal of toxic pollutants. Truckloads of lime are shipped to the plant each day to supply the sulfur dioxide scrubbers. After the coal is burned, the resulting coal gas is piped to the building-size scrubbers, each containing 20 nozzles that spray a mixture of limestone and ash to chemically remove the sulfur dioxide.
The pollutants bind to the slurry mixture, drop to the bottom and are recycled, while the coal gas pushes through to two smaller buildings called "bag houses," essentially giant filters that catch tiny particles that would otherwise enter the air.
To avoid nitrogen oxide emissions, the coal is burned at a lower temperature.
All told, improvements since 1998 have reduced 93 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 85 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 88 percent of particulate matter emissions, according to Dynegy.
"All that's really coming out that stack now is carbon dioxide and water vapor," Dave Glosecki, Baldwin's maintenance director, told a group during a recent plant tour.
But the Highland Park native who had attended North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka and as a 13-year-old had created an online public encyclopedia for a school competition got into trouble as an adult.
The prospect of the trial was too much for him, his family said. Swartz, 26, committed suicide inside his New York apartment, authorities said Saturday.
In a statement sent through a spokesman, his family said Swartz hanged himself the day before out of worry that he faced more than 30 years in federal prison.
“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable — these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter,” the statement in part read.
Along with developing an early version of rich site summary, or RSS, technology, Swartz is credited with co-founding the popular Reddit website that allows users to vote for their favorite news stories of the day.
Increasingly active in efforts to make information more readily available on the Internet, he also founded Demand Progress, a lobbying group that advocates for civil liberties and government reform.
In that role, Swartz led a successful effort to stymie the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, which sought to restrict access to websites that illegally shared copyrighted property. The bill was eventually withdrawn after widespread protests.
“He refined advocacy for the progressive and open-information movement,” said David Moon, program director for Demand Progress. “He was ultimately pretty brilliant at that.”
On Saturday, Swartz’s death spurred an outpouring of sympathy and tributes throughout social media, many of which hailed his multiple accomplishments at a young age.
Several commenters heaped scorn upon federal prosecutors in Massachusetts for indicting Swartz in 2011. He was accused of downloading millions of academic journal articles and breaking into a university closet to plug into the school’s computer network, which prompted charges of computer fraud, wire fraud and other crimes. Swartz had pleaded not guilty.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts declined to comment, citing the family’s privacy.
Moon, who met Swartz in 2010 and last saw him about a month ago, declined to speak in detail about the circumstances surrounding his death.
“The stresses he was facing was obvious, and those who know him can attest to that,” Moon said.
Tribune wire services contributed.
Saho@tribune.com
cdrhodes@tribune.com
CBS’s televised broadcast of the People’s Choice Awards will also be aired on Xbox 360, Microsoft’s gaming and entertainment-streaming console.
Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers in the United States can tune in and interact with the festivities starting at 8 p.m. EST with the red carpet event. The ceremony begins at 9 p.m. EST.
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Using the console’s controller, viewers will be able to answer polls and trivia questions and give their two cents about the red carpet shenanigans, the show and performances in real time.
The People’s Choice Awards honors celebrities and their work in music, film and TV. Performers on tap include Christina Aguilera, Jason Aldean and Alicia Keys.
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Notable attendees are Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris O’Donnell, Marisa Tomei and The Wanted.
Xbox also offered streams last year for the presidential debates and Video Game Awards.
People have cast more than 400 million votes in the many People’s Choice Awards categories via the show’s website, Facebook app and Twitter.
See if you can guess the popular television slow in each slide of the gallery. If you need to peek at the answer, simply use your cursor to highlight the text following the word “Answer.” The title will appear like magic — oooOOOooooo!
Click here to view this gallery.
Image courtesy of YouTube
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, have reconciled and are no longer planning to divorce, the couple said in separate posts on social media sites.
Bryant, widely considered one of the greatest players ever in the National Basketball Association, and his wife filed for divorce in December 2011 after 10 years of marriage.
But they had been seen out together in recent weeks, leading to speculation about a possible reunion. They have two daughters, aged 10 and 6.
“I am happy to say that Vanessa and I are moving on with our lives together as a family,” Bryant wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Vanessa Bryant posted a statement on her Instagram page that read: “We are pleased to announce that we have reconciled. Our divorce action will be dismissed.”
In 2003, Bryant was accused of sexual assault by an employee at a Colorado hotel. He denied the allegations, and charges were dropped after the woman refused to testify.
Vanessa Bryant, who married the Lakers star in April 2001, stayed with her husband during that scandal.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Peter Cooney)
Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News
With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.
There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.
“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.
Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.
While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.
There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.
In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.
“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”
There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.
In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.
As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.
According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.
Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.
Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.
The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.
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