Hasta La Gadget!

BEIRUT, July 12 (Reuters) – The Red Cross appealed on Friday for a halt in the fierce fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels in the Syrian city of Homs, to bring in life-saving supplies to trapped residents.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said thousands of Syrian lives were at risk in the old city of Homs, where Assad’s forces have been pushing a heavy offensive with air and artillery strikes to try to retake rebel areas.

The Red Cross said combatants in the more than two-year conflict were hampering the delivery of aid to beleaguered locals and had failed to secure safe passage for trapped residents trying to flee the area.

“We call on the Syrian authorities to permit delivery in the old city of food and medical supplies,” said Magne Barth, the head of the ICRC delegation in Syria.

“We also call on all the armed groups that are in control of the old city to ensure that civilians who want to leave can do so safely.”

Syria’s uprising-turned-civil war has become increasingly violent, killing more than 100,000 people so far.

International powers at the U.N. Security Council are deadlocked over how to find a diplomatic solution. China and Russia, Assad’s main arms supplier, have blocked efforts to sanction Assad by the United States and Europe, who back the rebels.

Homs is the epicentre of the armed insurgency that grew from popular street protests struggling to end more than four decades of Assad family rule.

Intense battles previously fought in the divided city have flattened several districts and made it increasingly challenging for aid workers to reach trapped civilians.

Combatants on both sides have attacked and killed volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the local partner for the ICRC.

Aside from the thousands who have died, aid groups estimate there are nearly 4 million people displaced by the violence inside Syria, many of them penniless and in desperate need of aid.

“Should we receive the consent necessary, we will pursue our efforts to bring humanitarian assistance into the old city, provided the partners to the conflict agree to a humanitarian pause in the fighting, to ensure safe access for the teams from the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent,” Barth said. (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alison Williams)

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In 2004, Oprah met Kaden, an 11-year-old transgender child who was born a girl. Back then, Kaden explained what it was like feeling as if he had been born in the wrong body and said that he was considering a sex change to permanently change his gender when he turned 18.

Now in his early 20s, Kaden is old enough to decide whether or not to move forward with gender reassignment surgery — but did he? “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” followed up with Kaden late last year to hear what his life has been like since appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” nearly a decade ago.

“Some good things happened, some bad things happened,” Kaden says in the video above. “There was some harassment in school [by] some bullies, but I got through it… I’m really happy with who I am now.”

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Jenny McCarthy will be the co-host of “The View,” Barbara Walters announced Monday.

Walters opened the show with the announcement.

“I’m beyond thrilled to be joining Barbara and the other amazing women at the table,” McCarthy said in a statement.

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WASHINGTON — The consensus across the political spectrum is that GOP leaders would prefer to see comprehensive immigration reform passed, but rank-and-file House Republicans are reluctant to back any proposal that grants a pathway to citizenship, because doing so is the quickest route to a primary challenge from the right. That dynamic, it’s said, will mean a long, slow death for reform.

But the pessimism around immigration reform misses a key difference between 2013 and 2014. The general election won’t be until November 2014, but primaries are held in the spring and summer. The deadlines to get on the ballots for those primaries often come months earlier, meaning that at some point in 2014, the chance of a surprise challenge from the right goes to zero for all House members.

Far from being the death of immigration reform, some think the election year could breathe new life into the effort. The House will undoubtedly recess for August without passing an immigration bill; House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his conference last week they would focus on Obamacare, the IRS and gimmicky votes on government conference spending and public salaries.

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As a part of Microsoft’s HomeOS project, the company will expand with what’s called “Lab of Things”, making the case for researchers giving big boosts to devices in your living space. Microsoft’s “LOT” will work with the public as well, sending out an SDK (Software Development Kit) to creators of software for the expansion of home-based systems in the wild. This system has been deployed during and in conjunction with the first day’s events at this year’s Microsoft Research Faculty Summit event.

As an extension of HomeOS, Microsoft’s Lab of Things will also work to bring “teaching and research on connected homes and drives”. As an extension of Microsoft Research, software is licensed to academic institutions as well as developers aiming to push the environment to homes. Lab of Things (LOT) is aimed at running entire institutions – or homes, of course – from a single dedicated machine.

This single machine runs Microsofts HomeOS and goes by the name of HomeHub. While the system can be utilized to work with systems of many different types, its in home automation, energy management, and healthcare that Microsoft aims for at this time.

HomeOS currently works with devices such as televisions, cameras, routers, printers and PCs. Developers have also connected gaming consoles, surveillance equipment, mobile phones, and medical equipment. The whole system is licensed to developers and prospective institutions for free – for non-commercial use, at this time.

Lab of Things (LOT) is currently available for download as an SDK for users of all types. You can access this SDK at Microsoft Research and hit the ground running – and make sure you let SlashGear know what you’re working on while you’re at it!

VIA: ZDNet

Microsoft “Lab of Things” will connect your devices at home is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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