MSI GX60 1AC-021US

If you want a system around $1,300, you can ask for one that offers good performance on multimedia creation or 3D gaming prowess, but not both. For the money, the MSI GX60 1AC-021US is the gaming rig for your budding hardcore gamer. It sacrifices some raw multimedia CPU power for the high end AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU, but that tradeoff gives this gaming rig the clout to play high end games at native 1080p HD resolution. Sure, a similarly priced high-end ultrabook is faster editing a photo, but the GX60 will let you see the rain dripping off your game opponent before you beat him at 500-yard distance. That's worth its weight in frankincense and myrrh. Sure, it's a specialized gaming system that trades overall multimedia performance for ultimate gaming speed, but in the immortal words of a certain James "Logan" Howlett, it's the best there is at what it does. Thus, we award it our Editors' Choice for entry-level gaming laptops.

Design and Features
The GX60 is a gaming rig with performance aspirations, so you'd expect a large chassis with extra embellishments it. It measures about 1.75-by-15-by-10.25 inches (HWD), and weighs a hefty 7.42 pounds. It's made mostly of black polycarbonate, with chromed accents on the central power button, trackpad buttons, and the area surrounding the 720p HD webcam. The row of backlit touch-sensitive buttons flanking the power button give it a bit of extra visibility, with red racing stripes going across the top of the keyboard deck.

The Steelseries-branded, chiclet-style keyboard isn't backlit, but the keys are responsive and mostly comfortable to use. However, you may have to do some relearning, as the keys are a little oddly placed. The most unfamiliar (for righties) is the Start key that only exists on the right side of the keyboard. While this is ostensibly done to prevent app switching when in a gaming session, it also means that you may hit the Fn or Alt key instead of Start during day-to-day computing sessions. The keyboard comes with a full numeric keypad, but that also means that the arrow keys are jammed in between the main alphanumeric section and numeric keypad. This could be a problem if you're used to navigating straight down from enter and shift keys to the arrow keys. Again, it's a matter of relearning where things are, but annoying just the same. They're certainly more cramped than the keyboard on the mid-range gaming system Editor's Choice Asus G75VW-DH72 ($1,899).

Since we're picking nits, the trackpad is a bit more recessed than it needs to be, particularly for Windows 8 gestures like brining up the Charms bar or getting to the Start screen. If you get a GX60, get used to using the corners for these functions. Besides, gaming is better with a mouse than a trackpad anyway.

The GX60 comes with an AMD A10-4600M processor, AMD Radeon HD 7970M discrete graphics, 8GB of memory, 750GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, a Killer branded Ethernet adapter, 15.6-inch 1,920 by 1,080 resolution display with matte screen, and a Blu-ray player. The Killer-branded Ethernet adapter is supposed to reduce latency when playing online multiplayer games. Some gamers swear by it. We didn't test the Killer adapter's claims, but if it helps you keep your cool while gaming, more power to you. Ports on the system are plentiful, including a VGA port, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort, three USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 (for a mouse or charging a phone), and a quartet of audio ports. The extra audio ports mean that you can use your gaming headset without having to unplug your external speakers.

The system's 1,920-by-1,080-resolution screen is perfect for gaming as well as viewing Blu-ray and online HD videos. We didn't detect any blurring during extended viewing sessions on the system. The multiple video outputs and AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics can work together to give you a multi-monitor AMD Eyfinity experience. That way you can have the game play surround you to the left and right. The matte coating on the screen helped tame reflections from direct and indirect lighting.

While it's in the same price range, the GX60 gives you a lot more screen real estate than the ultraportable Editors' Choice Maingear Pulse 11 ($1,349) and it's Clevo-chassis brothers, the AVADirect Clevo W110ER ($1129) and former EC Eurocom Monster 1.0 ($1,605). This trio of systems that are built on the Clevo W110ER chassis are limited to a 1,366-by-768 resolution on their 11-inch screens.

Though you'd expect a minimal amount of pre-installed software, the GX60 actually comes with a pretty full set. In addition to the normal Windows 8 build, the GX60 comes with stuff like Skype, Music Maker Jam, PowerDVD 10, TuMetro (a news reader), Office trial, Norton Internet Security (60-day), Evernote, a cookbook app, and Wild Tangent games. In addition to Wild Tangent, the GX60 has a selection of games from the Xbox store pre-installed as well. It's not a deal breaker, but you will find a lot more programs on this mass market gaming rig than you would find on a system from one of the smaller boutique system builders.

Performance
Performance is where the gaming rig lives and dies, and we're pleased to report that the GX60 is one of the systems you'd want on the game grid. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M discrete graphics on the GX60 is good for playable frame rates, even at the higher 1,920-by-1,080 resolution with all the eye candy turned on. This is a must-have if you're going to go all out and run multiple monitors, but it's also a boon for portable play. The GX60 was able to play the Aliens vs. Predator benchmark test at 39 fps and the Heaven benchmark test at 35 fps, both at the highest settings at 1,920 by 1,080. While this isn't the ultra smooth gameplay found on Editors' Choice winning high-end gaming rigs like the Origin EON17-SLX ($4,405), the GX60 will cost you a fraction of the price. Basically, you'll find the ability to play today's games at full resolution without too many of the sliders turned down from max settings to get a playable frame rate.

While the GX60's gaming benchmark scores were excellent, the GX60 did fall a bit behind other systems on the overall PCMark 7 test and the multimedia creation tests like Handbrake and Photoshop CS6. This is due to the system's AMD A10 processor, which isn't as efficient on these tasks. That said, the system is fast enough to keep a gamer happy during the times he's not gaming, particularly if it's his third or fourth system.

The GX60 had decent battery life for a gaming rig. It lasted almost four hours (3:51) on our rundown test. This isn't enough for a cross country flight, but the GX60 is more around the house portable anyway.

At this price point, you'll have to choose whether you're willing to pay for overall performance or for specialized performance (like gaming). At $1,299 you certainly have enough for our Editors' Choice high end ultrabook, the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T ($1,199), but if you prefer gaming over portability and a touch screen, then paying $1,299 for the MSI GX60-021US seems like a bargain compared with systems like the mid-range gaming EC, the $1,899 Asus GV75VW-DH72. You won't get the GV75VW's multimedia prowess, but if you want a specialized gaming rig solely for its 3D chops, then the MSI GX60 is a very attractive choice, and it even is a better rig at the system's native resolution. Because of the $600 price difference, we can't give the midrange crown to the GX60.

Pricewise, the GX60 would replace the Maingear Pulse 11, but that system is technically an ultraportable gaming desktop EC. However, the GX60 is a better gaming rig than the Pulse 11, especially considering the GX60's frame rates at 1,920 by 1,080 and looking at the comparative 3DMark 11 scores. The MSI GX60 is the gaming laptop we'd recommend at the sub-$1,500 price point. That earns it our Editors' Choice award for entry-level gaming laptops. Since it can play high-end 3D games at its 1,920 by 1,080 native resolution, it's the affordable rig we'd buy to hone our 3D gaming skills.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the MSI GX60 1AC-021US with several other laptops side by side.

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Museum exhibit developed at Harvard SEAS puts evolution at visitors' fingertips

Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
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Contact: Caroline Perry
cperry@seas.harvard.edu
617-496-1351
Harvard University

Massively detailed, interactive Tree of Life visualization at Harvard Museum of Natural History illustrates the processes of evolution

With a quick swipe of the finger, the Tree of Life became a blur of branches flying past, zooming away from the root through deep history until finally, at the end of a twig, the human species Homo sapiens appeared. Engaging with an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences last fall, a young visitor could hardly contain his awe at how far he had traveled: "Whoa, 3.5 billion years agothat's a long time." The boy's mother then pointed to a pair of connecting lines and told him gleefully, "You're related to a banana!"

Now, visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) in Cambridge, Mass., can experience and interact with the same computerized tabletop exhibit, while learning about evolution and the history of life on Earth.

The result of a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation and based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Life on Earth exhibit represents the cutting edge of tabletop computing technology. Its multitouch surface and programming allow museum visitors to zoom and scroll through the Tree of Life, the immense tree diagram biologists use to represent the evolutionary history of millions of related species.

The educational feat of illustrating the accumulation of subtle changes over the course of billions of yearssomething biologists and museums alike have struggled to show in the pastis as notable as the underlying technology.

"We animate the whole process of opening up the tree, showing so many interactions, so many diversifications, and giving a real sense of the magnitude of biodiversity," explains Chia Shen, Senior Research Fellow in Computer Science at SEAS, who led the project from its conception to this culmination in the Evolution hall of the Museum.

Shen, director of the Scientists' Discovery Room Lab at SEAS, is the principal investigator of the multi-institutional Life on Earth project, the goal of which was to develop learning activities to advance the public's understanding of the history of life on Earth and biodiversity, in both formal and informal educational settings.

HMNH has been a longtime partner to the Life on Earth project, accommodating and assisting with the research, observation, and evaluation stages of the activities' development.

The exhibit, which opened at HMNH on March 5 showcases one of the multitouch tables and two activities.

The DeepTree software (video: http://youtu.be/dpo9iK26el8) allows users to fly through the evolutionary relationships of over 70,000 named species and learn how they are related through shared derived traits. The FloTree program (video: http://youtu.be/cb279wqU9QA) is a simulation of evolution in action. Branching lineages of organisms progress up the screen, until some environmental changeyour hand, placed on the tabletopprevents them from interbreeding. These lineages continue to multiply around and above your hand, propagating genetic variations and diverging into new species over many generations. DeepTree and FloTree run on the same exhibit table, highlighting the relationship between life's evolutionary history and the speciation process that underlies this diversity.

As Shen explains, "These are very abstract concepts: divergence, ongoing evolution, shared ancestry. Our main goal is to use visualization to present that information and knowledge correctly to people who are not familiar with these concepts."

In addition to the software programs that run on the table, the user interface itself is crucial to the learning experience. In the chaos of a museum setting, where multiple participants constantly arrive and leave the table, it's important that the interface be able to handle conflicting inputthe clicks and swipes of excited fingersin a meaningful manner.

"One of the advantages of a multitouch table is that everyone can touch it at oncebut that's also a disadvantage if you don't build it into your design. When one person taps something on the screen, we don't want the whole tree to change," explains Shen. "We've designed the interface very carefully to work with the way people really use it."

The FlowBlocks interface (named after Florian Block, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS who was lead author for this portion of the research) is the product of hundreds of hours of user observation. Presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and IEEE Information Visualization conferences last fall, the FlowBlocks interface works on the premise that most touches on the screen should have a start point and an end point.

User operations that change the entire tree display are therefore only enacted with a deliberate drag-and-drop movement. Such an exaggerated motion is also visible to other participants around the table, allowing for a collaborative learning process.

"If you see my arm moving to make a change in the Build-A-Tree game, you can stop me halfway if you don't agree with me," says Shen. "We did that very intentionally."

The team also constantly works on making the table simple to use for all generations of visitors. Noticing that older visitors tend to prefer tapping motions, while younger visitors who are accustomed to touch-screen technology often incorporate swiping motions, the team designed the interface so that both approaches result in intuitive interactions.

Perched at the interface between evolutionary biology, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, and learning sciences, the Life on Earth exhibit results from the collaboration of many sharp minds at Harvard SEAS (Shen, Block, and Brenda Phillips), the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Judy Diamond), the University of Michigan (Margaret Evans), and Northwestern University (Michael Horn, previously a postdoctoral researcher at SEAS). The idea to use the Tree of Life as the focal learning activity for the exhibits and activities originated with James Hanken (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biology at Harvard and now a science adviser for Life on Earth), who described the challenges involved in visualizing the principles and processes of evolution during an auspicious visit to Shen's lab in 2008.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of only four museums in the country to have the Life on Earth exhibit. Other touch tables are on display at the University of Nebraska State Museum and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Field Museum of Chicago will open their Life on Earth touch table in April.

Jane Pickering, Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, greeted some 60 scientists and museum members at the exhibit opening on March 5.

"The Tree of Life is the central organizing principle for biology, but it is not easy for the general public to understand," Pickering said. "This exhibit gives users the opportunity to interact playfully with new technology first hand to explore the Tree of Life and to visualize instantly how all life on Earth is related."

###

See it yourself: The Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the four museums of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture consortium, is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Mass., a 7 minute walk from the Harvard Square T station. The Museum is handicapped accessible. Museum hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, 361 days per year. Admission is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors and students; and $8 for youth 3-18. Harvard ID holders and one guest are admitted free with ID. For general information please call (617) 495-3045 or visit http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

---

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

Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Caroline Perry
cperry@seas.harvard.edu
617-496-1351
Harvard University

Massively detailed, interactive Tree of Life visualization at Harvard Museum of Natural History illustrates the processes of evolution

With a quick swipe of the finger, the Tree of Life became a blur of branches flying past, zooming away from the root through deep history until finally, at the end of a twig, the human species Homo sapiens appeared. Engaging with an exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences last fall, a young visitor could hardly contain his awe at how far he had traveled: "Whoa, 3.5 billion years agothat's a long time." The boy's mother then pointed to a pair of connecting lines and told him gleefully, "You're related to a banana!"

Now, visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) in Cambridge, Mass., can experience and interact with the same computerized tabletop exhibit, while learning about evolution and the history of life on Earth.

The result of a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation and based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Life on Earth exhibit represents the cutting edge of tabletop computing technology. Its multitouch surface and programming allow museum visitors to zoom and scroll through the Tree of Life, the immense tree diagram biologists use to represent the evolutionary history of millions of related species.

The educational feat of illustrating the accumulation of subtle changes over the course of billions of yearssomething biologists and museums alike have struggled to show in the pastis as notable as the underlying technology.

"We animate the whole process of opening up the tree, showing so many interactions, so many diversifications, and giving a real sense of the magnitude of biodiversity," explains Chia Shen, Senior Research Fellow in Computer Science at SEAS, who led the project from its conception to this culmination in the Evolution hall of the Museum.

Shen, director of the Scientists' Discovery Room Lab at SEAS, is the principal investigator of the multi-institutional Life on Earth project, the goal of which was to develop learning activities to advance the public's understanding of the history of life on Earth and biodiversity, in both formal and informal educational settings.

HMNH has been a longtime partner to the Life on Earth project, accommodating and assisting with the research, observation, and evaluation stages of the activities' development.

The exhibit, which opened at HMNH on March 5 showcases one of the multitouch tables and two activities.

The DeepTree software (video: http://youtu.be/dpo9iK26el8) allows users to fly through the evolutionary relationships of over 70,000 named species and learn how they are related through shared derived traits. The FloTree program (video: http://youtu.be/cb279wqU9QA) is a simulation of evolution in action. Branching lineages of organisms progress up the screen, until some environmental changeyour hand, placed on the tabletopprevents them from interbreeding. These lineages continue to multiply around and above your hand, propagating genetic variations and diverging into new species over many generations. DeepTree and FloTree run on the same exhibit table, highlighting the relationship between life's evolutionary history and the speciation process that underlies this diversity.

As Shen explains, "These are very abstract concepts: divergence, ongoing evolution, shared ancestry. Our main goal is to use visualization to present that information and knowledge correctly to people who are not familiar with these concepts."

In addition to the software programs that run on the table, the user interface itself is crucial to the learning experience. In the chaos of a museum setting, where multiple participants constantly arrive and leave the table, it's important that the interface be able to handle conflicting inputthe clicks and swipes of excited fingersin a meaningful manner.

"One of the advantages of a multitouch table is that everyone can touch it at oncebut that's also a disadvantage if you don't build it into your design. When one person taps something on the screen, we don't want the whole tree to change," explains Shen. "We've designed the interface very carefully to work with the way people really use it."

The FlowBlocks interface (named after Florian Block, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS who was lead author for this portion of the research) is the product of hundreds of hours of user observation. Presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and IEEE Information Visualization conferences last fall, the FlowBlocks interface works on the premise that most touches on the screen should have a start point and an end point.

User operations that change the entire tree display are therefore only enacted with a deliberate drag-and-drop movement. Such an exaggerated motion is also visible to other participants around the table, allowing for a collaborative learning process.

"If you see my arm moving to make a change in the Build-A-Tree game, you can stop me halfway if you don't agree with me," says Shen. "We did that very intentionally."

The team also constantly works on making the table simple to use for all generations of visitors. Noticing that older visitors tend to prefer tapping motions, while younger visitors who are accustomed to touch-screen technology often incorporate swiping motions, the team designed the interface so that both approaches result in intuitive interactions.

Perched at the interface between evolutionary biology, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, and learning sciences, the Life on Earth exhibit results from the collaboration of many sharp minds at Harvard SEAS (Shen, Block, and Brenda Phillips), the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Judy Diamond), the University of Michigan (Margaret Evans), and Northwestern University (Michael Horn, previously a postdoctoral researcher at SEAS). The idea to use the Tree of Life as the focal learning activity for the exhibits and activities originated with James Hanken (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biology at Harvard and now a science adviser for Life on Earth), who described the challenges involved in visualizing the principles and processes of evolution during an auspicious visit to Shen's lab in 2008.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of only four museums in the country to have the Life on Earth exhibit. Other touch tables are on display at the University of Nebraska State Museum and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Field Museum of Chicago will open their Life on Earth touch table in April.

Jane Pickering, Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, greeted some 60 scientists and museum members at the exhibit opening on March 5.

"The Tree of Life is the central organizing principle for biology, but it is not easy for the general public to understand," Pickering said. "This exhibit gives users the opportunity to interact playfully with new technology first hand to explore the Tree of Life and to visualize instantly how all life on Earth is related."

###

See it yourself: The Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the four museums of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture consortium, is located at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Mass., a 7 minute walk from the Harvard Square T station. The Museum is handicapped accessible. Museum hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, 361 days per year. Admission is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors and students; and $8 for youth 3-18. Harvard ID holders and one guest are admitted free with ID. For general information please call (617) 495-3045 or visit http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

---

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/hu-med032513.php

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Dutch Catholic Girls Abused At Home, In Church

AMSTERDAM -- A commission investigating abuse of children linked to Dutch Roman Catholic institutions says girls were sexually abused by members of the clergy in their homes and in church, while they suffered physical abuse and intimidation at the hands of nuns at homes for young women.

The report follows a previous study focused on boys, which found boys were especially vulnerable to sexual abuse in boarding schools.

The commission, led by former Hague mayor Wim Deetman, was funded by the Catholic church. In preliminary conclusions in December 2011 it estimated that up to 20,000 children were molested at Catholic boarding schools between 1945 and 2010, and "several tens of thousands" faced abuse of some kind.

Monday's follow-up study focused more on Catholic girls and young women, who in addition to boarding schools were often sent to homes for unwed mothers run by nuns if they became pregnant without being married.

"In cases of physical violence without sexual abuse, both new and previous complaints point toward primarily female perpetrators, mostly nuns who worked as educators or caregivers," Deetman wrote in his conclusions.

"In heavy cases of sexual abuse, the perpetrators were primarily male."

The commission has already turned over to police only the handful of abuse cases it has uncovered that it thinks may be prosecutable. It recommends mediation for the rest.

In a response, the umbrella organization of the Dutch Catholic Church and religious institutions apologized.

"Not only the doers are blameworthy, but also those who were to ensure things went properly in the homes and institutions where the girls were sheltered," they said in a statement. "Violating the physical and spiritual integrity of any person, especially that of children, is under all circumstances repulsive."

They said they would now consider how exactly to offer mediation and help to victims.

In February, newspaper NRC Handelsblad estimated the Church has so far committed to pay around (EURO)30 million ($40 million) in damages to victims identified by the commission.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/dutch-catholic-church-girls-abused-at-home_n_2853164.html

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Low T3 syndrome predicts unfavorable outcomes in surgical patients with brain tumor

Public release date: 12-Mar-2013
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Contact: Jo Ann M. Eliason
jaeliason@thejns.org
434-982-1209
Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group

Charlottesville, VA (March 12, 2013). In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and the United States (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard University) have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms. Details of this study are furnished in the article "Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a pilot study. Clinical article," by Adomas Bunevicius, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Low T3 syndrome is a term used to describe the finding of low blood serum concentrations of T3, which can be accompanied by abnormal T4 (thyroxine) to T3 conversion and high concentrations of reverse T3 (rT3) without any obvious sign of thyroid disease. Previous reports have shown that the finding of low levels of T3 in critically ill patients and patients undergoing surgery for some disorders is widespread and associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes. To see if this was true for patients undergoing brain tumor surgery, Dr. Bunevicius and colleagues performed perioperative thyroid function tests. (Surgery is the most common treatment for brain tumors.) The researchers also examined whether there was an association between low T3 syndrome and symptoms of anxiety and depression, which in patients harboring brain tumors are common complications and are associated with poor prognoses.

The researchers evaluated thyroid function profiles in 90 patients (median age 55 years, 71% women) on the morning of brain surgery and again on the following morning. If patients were found to have a free T3 level of 3.1 picomoles per liter (pmol/L) or less, they were given a diagnosis of low T3 syndrome. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used pre- and postoperatively to identify cases of anxiety and depression. The Glasgow Outcome Scale was used at the time of hospital discharge to determine clinical outcomes.

The researchers identified a high prevalence of low T3 syndrome in this patient cohort: 38% of patients before brain tumor surgery and 54% of patients after surgery. In a comparison of preoperative and postoperative thyroid hormone profiles, the researchers found significant decreases in the concentrations of free T3 and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as well as in the T4 to T3 conversion; they also found significant increases in the concentration of free T4 (all p

There were significant improvements in postoperative scores for symptoms of depression and anxiety, when compared with scores obtained preoperatively. The researchers found a four-fold increased risk of preoperative symptoms of depression in patients with preoperative low T3 syndrome. The association between these two factors was verified in a univariate regression analysis and in a multivariate regression analysis in which adjustments were made for sociodemographic and clinical factors.

The researchers note: "this is the first study to examine perioperative thyroid axis function in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery." The primary finding of the study is that low T3 syndrome is a clear biomarker for unfavorable clinical outcomes in this patient group. Diagnosis and preoperative management of low T3 syndrome should therefore be a consideration in patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor. Adds Dr. Adomas Bunevicius, the first author, "Thyroid hormone concentrations can easily be investigated in routine clinical settings. The tests are inexpensive and readily available worldwide. Thyroid hormone concentrations can be potentially relevant for risk stratification in patients undergoing surgery for brain tumors."

###

Bunevicius A, Deltuva V, Tamasauskas S, Tamasauskas A, Laws ER Jr., Bunevicius R. Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a pilot study. Clinical article. Journal of Neurosurgery, published online, ahead of print, March 12, 2013; DOI: 10.3171/2013.1.JNS121696.

Disclosure: This research was funded by a grant (MIP-10315) from the Research Council of Lithuania. The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper.

For additional information, please contact:

Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager
Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group
One Morton Drive, Suite 200
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Email: jaeliason@thejns.org
Telephone 434-982-1209
Fax 434-924-2702

For 68 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery has been recognized by neurosurgeons and other medical specialists the world over for its authoritative clinical articles, cutting-edge laboratory research papers, renowned case reports, expert technical notes, and more. Each article is rigorously peer reviewed. The Journal of Neurosurgery is published monthly by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include Neurosurgical Focus, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. All four journals can be accessed at http://www.thejns.org. Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 8,300 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada, or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org.

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

Public release date: 12-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jo Ann M. Eliason
jaeliason@thejns.org
434-982-1209
Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group

Charlottesville, VA (March 12, 2013). In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and the United States (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard University) have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms. Details of this study are furnished in the article "Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a pilot study. Clinical article," by Adomas Bunevicius, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Low T3 syndrome is a term used to describe the finding of low blood serum concentrations of T3, which can be accompanied by abnormal T4 (thyroxine) to T3 conversion and high concentrations of reverse T3 (rT3) without any obvious sign of thyroid disease. Previous reports have shown that the finding of low levels of T3 in critically ill patients and patients undergoing surgery for some disorders is widespread and associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes. To see if this was true for patients undergoing brain tumor surgery, Dr. Bunevicius and colleagues performed perioperative thyroid function tests. (Surgery is the most common treatment for brain tumors.) The researchers also examined whether there was an association between low T3 syndrome and symptoms of anxiety and depression, which in patients harboring brain tumors are common complications and are associated with poor prognoses.

The researchers evaluated thyroid function profiles in 90 patients (median age 55 years, 71% women) on the morning of brain surgery and again on the following morning. If patients were found to have a free T3 level of 3.1 picomoles per liter (pmol/L) or less, they were given a diagnosis of low T3 syndrome. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used pre- and postoperatively to identify cases of anxiety and depression. The Glasgow Outcome Scale was used at the time of hospital discharge to determine clinical outcomes.

The researchers identified a high prevalence of low T3 syndrome in this patient cohort: 38% of patients before brain tumor surgery and 54% of patients after surgery. In a comparison of preoperative and postoperative thyroid hormone profiles, the researchers found significant decreases in the concentrations of free T3 and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as well as in the T4 to T3 conversion; they also found significant increases in the concentration of free T4 (all p

There were significant improvements in postoperative scores for symptoms of depression and anxiety, when compared with scores obtained preoperatively. The researchers found a four-fold increased risk of preoperative symptoms of depression in patients with preoperative low T3 syndrome. The association between these two factors was verified in a univariate regression analysis and in a multivariate regression analysis in which adjustments were made for sociodemographic and clinical factors.

The researchers note: "this is the first study to examine perioperative thyroid axis function in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery." The primary finding of the study is that low T3 syndrome is a clear biomarker for unfavorable clinical outcomes in this patient group. Diagnosis and preoperative management of low T3 syndrome should therefore be a consideration in patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor. Adds Dr. Adomas Bunevicius, the first author, "Thyroid hormone concentrations can easily be investigated in routine clinical settings. The tests are inexpensive and readily available worldwide. Thyroid hormone concentrations can be potentially relevant for risk stratification in patients undergoing surgery for brain tumors."

###

Bunevicius A, Deltuva V, Tamasauskas S, Tamasauskas A, Laws ER Jr., Bunevicius R. Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a pilot study. Clinical article. Journal of Neurosurgery, published online, ahead of print, March 12, 2013; DOI: 10.3171/2013.1.JNS121696.

Disclosure: This research was funded by a grant (MIP-10315) from the Research Council of Lithuania. The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper.

For additional information, please contact:

Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager
Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group
One Morton Drive, Suite 200
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Email: jaeliason@thejns.org
Telephone 434-982-1209
Fax 434-924-2702

For 68 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery has been recognized by neurosurgeons and other medical specialists the world over for its authoritative clinical articles, cutting-edge laboratory research papers, renowned case reports, expert technical notes, and more. Each article is rigorously peer reviewed. The Journal of Neurosurgery is published monthly by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include Neurosurgical Focus, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. All four journals can be accessed at http://www.thejns.org. Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 8,300 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada, or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/jonp-lts030613.php

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New income tax plan emerging in Kansas House | Wichita Eagle

TOPEKA, Kan. ? A powerful Republican lawmaker said Monday he has a proposal to reduce Kansas' personal income taxes that would also allow the state sales tax to drop as scheduled, avoiding the GOP governor's plan to stabilize the state budget by maintaining the current sales tax rate.

Rep. Richard Carlson, chairman of the House Taxation Committee, wants to allow the income tax rate to drop annually but only if state revenues grow by at least 2 percent each year. Gov. Sam Brownback's proposal calls for cutting income tax rates by a specific amount every year regardless of how much money the state is bringing in.

Carlson said his plan also would allow Kansas' sales tax to drop as scheduled, starting in July, as promised three years ago when lawmakers temporarily hiked the sales tax to help fill a budget gap. The governor's plan would keep the sales tax where it is - but Carlson said he doubts the House would approve canceling the decrease.

"We feel there's going to be difficulty in passing the extension of the sales tax," said Carlson, who shared details of his plan with The Associated Press on Monday, a day before he planned to present the plan to his committee.

Carlson also is proposing that the state divert $370 million from highway projects over the next two years if legislators can't trim spending enough elsewhere in the budget.

Both his and the governor's plans follow the massive income tax cuts that were enacted last year to stimulate the state economy but are now projected to create a budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins in July. Carlson, of St. Marys, said he tried to craft a plan that could pass the House, where GOP leaders have been cool to canceling the sales tax decrease.

The governor also wants to eliminate two popular income tax deductions for homeowners to prevent budget problems. Carlson said he'd like to phase out all individual income tax deductions as tax rates dropped, rather than targeting specific breaks.

Brownback's goal is to position the state to phase out personal income taxes. Last year, the state reduced individual income tax rates, cutting the top one to 4.9 percent from 6.45 percent, and exempted the owners of 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses from income taxes. However, the reductions created a projected budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.

Both the budget gap and the desire for additional income tax cuts led Brownback to propose keeping the sales tax at its current 6.3 percent rate, rather than letting it drop to 5.7 percent in July. Also, he wants to eliminate income tax deductions for homeowners' property taxes and the interest on their mortgages.

The Senate is expected to debate tax legislation this week. Its Assessment and Taxation Committee approved a bill containing the governor's plan, except for his proposal to scrap the property tax deduction.

Sen. Les Donovan, a Wichita Republican and chairman of his chamber's tax committee, said the emergence of a new plan in the House is a positive sign. The final version of any tax legislation is likely to be drafted by negotiators for the two chambers.

"At least we have something - a target," Donovan said.

But Rep. Tom Sawyer of Wichita, the ranking Democrat on the House tax committee, wasn't impressed with Carlson's plan. Like other critics of last year's cuts, he argues that they favored the state's wealthiest residents over its poorest ones, and he said Carlson's proposal does nothing to correct the problem.

Also, he said, continued reductions in personal income taxes will handcuff the state's efforts to finance public schools and force local districts to boost property taxes at a time when local levies already have been rising.

"We've got a property tax problem in Kansas, not an income tax problem," Sawyer said.

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Online:

Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org

Source: http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/11/2711790/apnewsbreak-new-kan-income-tax.html

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Fox mobile apps add TV Everywhere streaming, 24-hour sports network due this fall

Fox has been quietly busy over the last few days, unveiling plans for a 24-hour sports network that may be the biggest challenger to ESPN's throne, and adding new features to its mobile apps. Fox Sports 1 is scheduled to launch Saturday August 17th, loaded with content including NASCAR, soccer (Champions League, Europe League and World Cup in 2018 and 2022), weekly UFC fights, college football, college basketball and in 2014, pro baseball. The bad news? According to the LA Times, for Fox Sports 1 to live Speed TV will die this fall, while Fuel TV is expected to be replaced by Fox Sports 2 while Fox Soccer is turned into an entertainment channel. One tweak it will bring is the "double box" commercial format that keeps the game on while ads play, which is expected to be used frequently on the new channel. It will have a suite of studio shows to compete with the sports leader as well, and even a Fox Sports Go "mobile experience" on iOS, Android and the web with live video streaming and news/stats for authenticated subscribers.

Speaking of "authenticated" cable and satellite subscribers, the broadcaster also updated the free Fox Now second screen apps on iOS and Android, adding access to stream full episodes of its TV shows wherever you are -- as long as you have a membership with a participating provider. That list currently consists of Mediacom and Verizon FiOS, but it may grow in the future. The Fox Now apps still have other features, with synced content, Twitter streams and behind the scenes info, so New Girl and Bones fans may still have a reason to check them out.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Comments

Source: Fox Sports 1

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/fox-now-fox-sports-1/

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Palestinian militants likely killed Gaza baby, the U.N. says

JERUSALEM (AP) ? An errant Palestinian rocket, not an Israeli airstrike, likely killed the baby of a BBC reporter during fighting in the Hamas-ruled territory last November, a U.N. report indicated, challenging the widely believed story behind an image that became a symbol of what Palestinians said was Israeli aggression.

Omar al-Masharawi, an 11-month-old infant, was killed on Nov. 14, the first day of fighting. An Associated Press photograph showed Omar's anguished father, Jihad al-Masharawi, clutching his slain child wrapped in a shroud. Palestinians blamed Israel, and the image was broadcast around the world and widely shared on social media.

Now a report from the U.N. office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the baby was "killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel."

Gaza's rulers, the militant Islamic group Hamas, whose fighters fired most of the rockets into Israel during the conflict, had no response Monday.

BBC officials declined to comment, and Jihad al-Masharawi said he couldn't discuss the issue. An Israeli military spokesman said they could not confirm or deny whether they hit the al-Masharawi house.

Matthias Behnke, head of OHCHR office for the Palestinian territories, cautioned he couldn't "unequivocally conclude" that the death was caused by an errantly fired Palestinian rocket. He said information gathered from eyewitnesses led them to report that "it appeared to be attributable to a Palestinian rocket."

He said Palestinian militants were firing rockets at Israel not far from the al-Masharawi home. Behnke said the area was targeted by Israeli airstrikes, but the salvo that hit the al-Masharawi home was "markedly different."

He said there was no significant damage to the house, unusual for an Israeli strike. He said witnesses reported that a fireball struck the roof of the house, suggesting it was a part of a homemade rocket. Behnke said the type of injuries sustained by al-Masharawi family members were consistent with rocket shrapnel.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said it still held Israel responsible for Omar's death.

The PCHR has condemned Hamas fighters and other militants in the past for errantly-fired rockets that have killed Palestinians, including during the November clash.

A researcher said the group interviewed family members, neighbors and security officials before they concluded that an Israeli strike killed the baby. She requested anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.

The baby was killed hours following the eruption of fighting after Israel killed a top Hamas militant leader in an airstrike, in response to incessant rocket fire by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes, saying it targeted militant centers and fighters in Gaza. Palestinian militants indiscriminately fired hundreds of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel.

During the 8-day conflict, about 160 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.

The U.N. report did not name the al-Masharawi family in its one-sentence statement about the incident. Behnke, the U.N. official, said the report referred to the incident.

The report discussed the incident in the context of Palestinian militants disregarding civilians, both by firing rockets from crowded Palestinian areas and by aiming them indiscriminately into Israel.

In the same report, the authors also criticized Israel for appearing to disregard civilians while pursuing militants and military targets, and for targeting civilian sites, like hospitals, bridges and media offices.

Among many cases, they noted an 84-year-old man and his 14-year-old granddaughter were killed by an Israeli military strike on Nov. 21 while they were in their olive orchard on Gaza's eastern border. They also cited an Israeli airstrike on a crowded Gaza City neighborhood that killed 12 people, including five children and four women.

___

Online: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.35.Add.1_AV.pdf

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-palestinian-militants-likely-killed-gaza-baby-143224704.html

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HBT: Mattingly?knows seat is hot? |? Greinke ailing

Don Mattingly is entering the final season of his contract and the Dodgers manager told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times that he doesn?t expect to get an extension before Opening Day.

Not only that, but Mattingly explained that if the Dodgers and their record $230 million payroll don?t live up to the high expectations this season he would understand if ownership wanted him gone:

If we don?t win and we?re healthy, they really should look at it. This team has a lot of talent. My job, and my coaches? job, is to get them to play the game right. If we can?t get them to play the game right, they may have the wrong voice. There?s a ton of talent here.

You don?t hear many managers say that type of thing and it?ll be awfully easy to trot out those quotes if the Dodgers get off to a slow start. In his first two seasons Mattingly went 82-79 and 86-76, failing to make the playoffs in both years.

It?s also worth noting that the Dodgers have a 2014 option on Mattingly that they haven?t exercised yet despite the manager asking them to do so. So if the team gets off to a good start or makes a deep playoff run they aren?t at risk of losing him either.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/11/don-mattingly-knows-the-dodgers-high-expectations-have-his-job-on-the-line-this-season/related/

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Conclave chatter dominates Vatican soccer league

ROME (AP) ? Vatican-sponsored soccer league matches went ahead as scheduled this weekend on a hill overlooking St. Peter's Basilica. For the 16 teams of seminaries, missionaries and oratories, however, the pre- and postgame talk veered from purely sports and spiritual topics to the coming conclave to elect a new pope.

The conclave directly affected the tournament, with the coach of a Brazilian team absent because he was chosen to drive two cardinals to Assisi on Sunday ? one of the final days of respite before the cardinals enter the conclave Tuesday.

"It didn't go so well today," Aldemir Francisco Belaver, the captain of the Collegio Pio Brasiliano seminary said after a 4-1 loss to Redemptoris Mater, a team featuring seminarians and priests with the Mater Neocatechumenal movement. "It wasn't easy without our coach."

Redemptoris fans ? which consisted exclusively of priests and seminarians clad in black ? had no pity, though. They banged on drums and chanted "Re-demp-toris Mat-ER" to the beat of "We Will Rock You."

According to the Brazilian tradition of only using first names for soccer players, the Brazilian captain goes by simply "Belaver" when he plays. And in keeping with the soccer rivalry between Brazil and Argentina, he had only one request for the papal election.

"No Argentines!" he said.

Geraldo Maia, a Brazilian priest with Collegio Pio watching from the stands, was more democratic.

"We're hoping for a Brazilian winner, or at the very least someone from North or South America," he said. "Forza Brazil in football and in the papacy!"

The matches are held at St. Peter's Pontifical Oratory on a field named for former American Cardinal Francis Spellman.

The season runs from February to May and the winner takes home the "Saturno" trophy, consisting of an old-fashioned priest's hat with a wide, circular brim ? like the planet Saturn's rings ? on top of a soccer ball and a pair of black spikes.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI was once presented a copy of the Saturno trophy, as was Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the camerlengo, or chamberlain, presiding over the Holy See during these days with no pope.

Bertone, a big football fan and supporter of the Clericus Cup when it began seven years ago, is said to keep the trophy in his office. While not officially labeled the Vatican league, the Clericus Cup is supported by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Council for Culture.

"It may not be official but it's known as the Vatican World Cup," league communications chief Felice Alborghetti said.

Only three different teams have been crowned champion in the first seven editions, with last season's honors going to the North American Martyrs.

"This year all 16 teams are papabile because the league is very balanced," Alborghetti said, using the Italian word for papal candidates.

The matches last one hour and rules differ slightly from those of professional club soccer. Teams are allowed one time out and, besides the traditional yellow and red card, the referee brandishes a blue card, which gives errant players a 5-minute suspension.

But referee Zazza Fiorenzo, a layman, has rarely seen unsportsmanlike play.

"Here we're all protected," Fiorenzo said, with a nod in direction of the Vatican grounds.

Last weekend's matches were canceled out of respect for Benedict's resignation, but league officials insist games will go ahead next weekend even if a pope is elected in the coming days.

In the meantime, each team is looking for that extra bit of tactics that might lead to a miraculous title.

Collegio Spagnolo, a new team of Spanish seminarians, recently received a video message from Vicente del Bosque, coach of the Spanish national team ? the reigning World Cup and European champions.

Anthony Naah, a deacon from Ghana and the 28-year-old captain for the Sedes Sapientiae seminary team based in the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere, was hoping for a spiritual boost if cardinal and countryman Peter Turkson, viewed by many as the top African contender for pope, is elected.

"It's not impossible," Naah said. "There's a lot of talk about him. We saw him two weeks ago when we celebrated mass together. It would really be something great for our faith."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conclave-chatter-dominates-vatican-soccer-league-181953628--spt.html

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Less Is More for Veep's Chief of Staff Bruce Reed

Understated. Self-effacing. Nonthreatening. Refreshingly old-fashioned.

Don't let these cool descriptors from friends and colleagues fool you: As the vice president's chief of staff, Bruce Reed plays Mr. Fix-It, guiding Joe Biden's role as a driving force behind the Obama administration's agenda.

With the White House wrestling Congress over gun control and tax-and-spending priorities, Reed's deep ties to the Oval Office and reputation for getting along with both parties make him a central character in some of Washington's biggest political battles.

Those who know Reed say his low-key style and consensus-oriented approach to deal-making are the keys to how he's managed time and again to bridge an ever-widening gap between Democrats and Republicans ? even when it rankles partisan Democrats who see concessions to the GOP as selling out.

"It gets characterized from an ideological perspective, meaning centrist vs. leftist. Bruce would probably see it more as, 'Are you a reformer and willing to make changes to accomplish the same goals?'" said Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who co-wrote a policy book with Reed after they served together in the Clinton administration.

It's a trait that meshes well with the pragmatic, do-what-you-can approach to governing of President Barack Obama's administration. Reed's former and current colleagues say his method is also in sync with Biden's freewheeling but driven personality.

Once considered a potential liability to Obama, Biden has evolved into a serious heavy hitter whose broad portfolio of issues is never far removed from the president's top priorities. It was Biden, not Obama, who finally cut the New Year's deal with the Senate that averted the so-called fiscal cliff. White House officials credit Reed, who turns 53 this month, with steering Biden away from political pitfalls, helping him gauge which battles to fight and just how far to push.

But Reed's influence extends far beyond the vice president's quarters and deep into the West Wing. He's considered a full-fledged member of the economic team, joining the treasury secretary and others when the National Economic Council meets. Last year, he was tapped by Obama's then-chief of staff, Bill Daley, to help coordinate the State of the Union address. When Biden negotiates with Republicans in Congress, Reed is often the only other person on the phone.

And when Obama's most senior advisers meet every morning at 7:40 to set the day's agenda, Reed is there. These mornings, it's Reed who keeps Obama's team up to date on one of the administration's top priorities: gun control.

When the president tasked Biden with crafting a series of proposals to respond to a scourge of mass shootings, the role of chief architect fell to Reed, who cut his teeth on gun issues as Clinton's domestic policy adviser. The ensuing proposal includes broadly supported measures like universal background checks, but also a controversial ban on assault weapons.

It quickly became clear the ban would face near-insurmountable obstacles in Congress. That led many to question whether the White House proposed the ban to placate those demanding tough action, but was ready to drop it if necessary to strike a deal. A Senate panel plans to vote on the ban Tuesday, though it has virtually no chance of passing the full Senate. While Biden and Obama say the ban deserves a vote, both have avoided describing it as a must-have.

"Nobody needed to tell me. I saw Bruce's fingerprints all over it," said former Clinton adviser William Galston, who met Reed in the late 1980s working on Al Gore's first presidential campaign. "Bruce is not afraid of the politics of aspiration, but he has a healthy awareness of the distinction between the best and the attainable. He will not counsel people to fall on their sword."

So far, there have been few outcries from the left over the prospect that the White House will abandon the assault-weapons ban ? perhaps because even many Democrats are on the fence and fear being cast as infringing on lawful gun ownership.

On other issues where Reed has sought consensus with Republicans, the backlash has sometimes been quite public.

Credited with coining the phrase "end welfare as we know it," Reed bore the wrath of liberals when he helped Clinton in 1996 secure a welfare overhaul ? negotiated with Republicans ? that ended some guarantees for poor Americans. A handful of Clinton officials resigned in protest.

Still, even those on the losing end of policy disagreements say Reed somehow manages to keep it from getting personal. Peter Edelman, one of the officials who resigned, said even when consensus proved elusive, Reed treated his adversaries with respect.

"In all the years I worked with him, I only saw him lose his temper once at me," said Paul Weinstein, an economist who has worked for Reed in various roles since the 1980s. The rare outburst came in 1992, near the end of Clinton's campaign, when Weinstein told Reed he needed to step away from the campaign to finish his Ph.D. "Bruce just lost it on me," Weinstein said. "When I tell people I saw him lose his temper, they practically fall over backwards because they don't believe it."

Democratic strategist Kiki McLean, who has known Reed for more than two decades, said his sense of humor is striking considering his unobtrusive manner. "Bruce is not the guy who will stand on the table and sing, but he is the guy who will lean over and whisper something so you have to hold your sides to keep from bursting out laughing," she said.

Raised in Coeur d'Alene, a small Idaho town near the Washington state border, Reed followed his mother, Mary Lou Reed, a Democrat and former Idaho state senator, into politics. He moved east for school, studying English at Princeton University before becoming a Rhodes Scholar and earning a master's degree at Oxford University. An avid baseball fan, Reed proposed to his wife, attorney Bonnie LePard, at a Pittsburgh Pirates game; they have two children.

He wrote speeches for then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., starting in 1985, then joined the Democratic Leadership Council, a now-defunct group that sought to push the Democratic Party toward the political center. He served for all eight years in the Clinton White House, where he was often the public face of the administration's policies on education, guns and welfare reform. Later, he ran the Simpson-Bowles commission, tasked with forging a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal.

That deal never made it to a vote in Congress, but Reed impressed lawmakers from both parties. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, a vocal critic of Obama, recalled how Reed would flesh out a lawmaker's idea, providing the analysis and figures needed to fully evaluate it.

"It happened again and again," Crapo said. "Even if it wasn't necessarily something he would support from his personal political perspective, he was very focused on helping the individual member."

It's been just over two years since Biden tapped Reed to be his chief of staff, and his cautious and meticulous manner often serves as a counterweight to the more verbose and unrehearsed Biden. In that short time, Biden has played a leading role in winding down the war in Iraq, negotiating a fiscal-cliff deal with Senate Republicans, nudging Obama toward an embrace of gay marriage and spearheading Obama's push on gun control.

Reed declined to be interviewed for this story. But Galston, the former Clinton adviser, said Reed values clarity of expression above almost all else.

"He edits documents the way a sculptor works with a block of marble: by subtraction," said Galston. "You get rid of what you don't want, and what's left is what you have in mind."

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/less-more-biden-chief-staff-085006814.html

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Facebook and HTC team up for 'Myst' smart phone: report

The Facebook phone rumors roil onward. The latest has Facebook and HTC releasing a device called the Myst.?

By Matthew Shaer / March 8, 2013

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage for a media event at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., March 7, 2013. A Facebook phone is reportedly on the way.

Reuters

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No, Facebook phone rumors are nothing new. In fact, they've been percolating for about three years now, in one form or another.?But there's a reason why they're so indelible: Facebook, and its shareholders, know that the future of the largest social network in the world lies in its mobile strategy. It makes sense that eventually, Facebook, no matter what CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, will try its hand at the hardware game.?

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The latest Facebook phone rumor comes courtesy of the tech site Unwired View, which reports that HTC and Facebook are collaborating on a device known as the Myst (not to be confused with the popular computer game of the same name). The details are as follows: The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system, a 4.3-inch high-res display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor,?1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5-megapixel camera.?

It's worth noting that these aren't exactly high-end specs. There are plenty of phones out there already with bigger screens, faster processors, and much better cameras. So if the Unwired View report is correct, expect a mid-range smart phone.?

But the Myst, Unwired View notes, will "ship with a full complement of FB software pre-loaded, such as a new version of the Facebook app, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, among others." So maybe all that integration will make the phone attractive to at least a few of the billion-odd Facebook users out there.?

Over at TechCrunch, Darrell Etherington notes that the Facebook app is already plenty popular, and easy to download onto a non-Facebook-branded phone. Ditto for Instagram. However, Etherington continues, "a relatively inexpensive device with the software already on-board is a way for Facebook to target directly the market where it needs to start seeing more growth."?

In related news, at a press conference yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a fresh look for the News Feed. The new News Feed ? say that ten times fast ? will be heavy on multimedia and customization. The idea, Zuckerberg explained, is for Facebook to become a kind of??personalized newspaper."?

For?more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QLun-Sk5kAw/Facebook-and-HTC-team-up-for-Myst-smart-phone-report

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Yahoo's CEO gets $1.1M bonus after 5 months at helm

NBC News staff and wire reports ? ? ? 17 hrs.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer received a $1.1 million bonus for her first five-and-half months running the Internet company, during which time the company's stock gained 46 percent.

The award disclosed Wednesday in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission supplements Mayer's annual salary of $1 million and $56 million in long-term stock compensations that she received after Yahoo Inc. lured her away from Google Inc. to become its CEO last July. The amount included $14 million in stock to offset the loss of money that she would have received had she remained at Google.

The 37-year-old Mayer is eligible for an annual bonus of up to $2 million. Yahoo adjusted last year's bonus to reflect that Mayer spent less than half the year as CEO.

Related story: Is telecommuting dead? Don't count on it, experts say

To put this into perspective, the highest-paid CEO in America last year, according to CNBC, was Honeywell International's David Cote, who received average compensation of $25 million. Cote has been with Honeywell since 2002.

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co awarded CEO Alan Mulally performance bonuses worth almost $12 million. Mulally has been at the helm of Ford since 2006 and has led the company's turnaround.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/yahoos-marissa-mayer-gets-1-1m-bonus-after-5-months-1C8775298

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PFT: Redskins reach three-year deal with Paulsen

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When it comes to obtaining public funding for an NFL stadium, the best approach is to not approach the voters directly.? In Miami, the plan making its way through the legislature would, if successful, result in a public referendum.

Thus, getting the bills passed has been much easier than the voter-circumvention strategy employed elsewhere, such as Minnesota.

Via the Associated Press, three legislative committees in Florida have approved a bill that would guarantee $3 million per year for 30 years to help pay for an upgrade of SunLife Stadium, which is owned by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.? If the bill becomes law, the voters will then become involved.

Some lawmakers nevertheless oppose the effort.? ?The NFL is conning us, vote against this madness,? Rep. Bill Hager, a Republican representing Delray Beach, told the AP.

Nationwide, the trend among voters is to reject such measures.? In Miami, current polling conducted not by the Dolphins indicates that opposition is significant.

That?s why the Dolphins need to make an extra-big splash in free agency this year.? They need to create the kind of excitement that will increase supporters of the effort and motivate them to show up and cast ballots at the appropriate.

Still, unless and until the Dolphins have the leverage that comes from a potential relocation of the franchise, the locals will remain ambivalent, at best.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/09/logan-paulsen-strikes-three-year-deal-with-redskins/related/

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