Hasta La Gadget!

Flipboard is a popular news aggregation app that puts up content in magazine form and now its millions of users have something to look forward to. Version 3.0 of the Flipboard app for iOS and Android has been released and it brings a whole new look and feel for the app. Some new features have been added as well apart from the additional of more than 30,000 topics which can now be followed through the app.

The app provides access to more than 30,000 topics that range from broad to specific, such as music, a particular genre of music, HDR photography etc which can be added to the users’ personal feed. Flipboard is also capable of pulling in content from sources like social networks, RSS feeds and other magazines curated by Flipboard users.

The updated app will now display a Daily Edition which basically is a roundup of top stories on different topics, users will also see an audio track of the day as well as a “parting GIF” when they’re done perusing the Daily Edition.

Flipboard’s new look and feel is complemented by improved typography and full screen images for magazine covers, there’s also a new navigation bar which makes it easier to get to locations like search, notifications, feeds and tiles easily.

Flipboard is available as a free download for iOS and Android.

Major Flipboard Update Brings New Design And More

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The Following post first appeared on FactCheck.org.

In Wisconsin’s pivotal race for governor, both sides are still spinning voters.

• Republican Gov. Scott Walker is crowing about a gain of 8,400 jobs last month, when the actual gain in total jobs was only 300.
• Walker is saying his state now ranks in the “top four” in the Midwest for job creation. But the state’s job gains still lag behind the national average.
• A liberal group is attacking Walker for creating a tax deduction of up to $10,000 for “millionaires … to send their kids to private schools.” But the deduction is for parochial schools, too. And parents of any income level can benefit.
• Ads even suggest Wisconsin voters may find arsenic in their drinking water because Walker approved an open-pit iron mine for a campaign donor. The mine is actually years away from final approval and would be subject to state and federal environmental regulation.
• A business group’s ad attacking Democratic nominee Mary Burke suggests her performance as head of the state’s Department of Commerce was responsible for a loss of 130,000 jobs. In fact, the state gained nearly 50,000 jobs during her tenure.

Walker’s Jobs Record

Walker’s hopes for remaining on the national stage are riding on a lead in the polls so narrow that it’s within the statistical margin of error, and the race is rated as a toss-up. In September we found that both sides were playing “spin the voter” over Walker’s record on job creation, and that hasn’t changed in the final flurry of ads before Election Day.

In a TV spot released Oct. 22, and titled “Continuing Wisconsin’s Comeback,” Walker cobbles together some cherry-picked statistics to embellish his economic record.

• Walker says that “just last month our reforms helped create 8,400 new jobs.” Not quite. As a graphic in the ad makes clear, Walker is only speaking of private-sector jobs. The state’s gain in total employment for September was actually a paltry 300 jobs. The governor is glossing over big drops in local government jobs.
• Walker also says, “Wisconsin now ranks in the top four states in the Midwest for private-sector job growth.” It’s true that Wisconsin ranks fourth among the 10 Midwestern states he lists in his ad in job gains over the most recent 12 months, but it ranks fifth (in both private and total jobs) among the 12 states that make up the “Midwest” under the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition. Walker omits Missouri and Kansas.

The fact is that over Walker’s full term in office, which began Jan. 3, 2011, the state’s job gains have been well below the national average, and rank (in percentage terms) only ninth among all 12 Midwestern states.

Our calculations are based on seasonally adjusted figures for total nonfarm employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Survey, which is the most timely and most commonly used measure of employment at the state and national levels. It is also the source cited by Walker’s ad to support his “top four” claim.

And what those figures show is that as of September, the most recent figures available and the last that will be released before Election Day, the state has gained 4.3 percent in total employment since Walker took office. Meanwhile, the United States as a whole has gained 6.6 percent during the same period.

We’ll note once again that elected officials have only limited influence over the broad economic forces that drive the economy, and frequently claim more credit or receive more blame than they really deserve.

But Walker made a campaign promise in 2010 that if elected he would create 250,000 jobs during his four-year term, and he repeated that pledge when he was inaugurated. So far the state has added less than half that many — 118,700.

Most Recent 12 Months

To be sure, the state’s economy has picked up steam in the most recent 12 months, as has the national economy as a whole. But even during this period, Wisconsin is still below the national average, and ranks fifth among all 12 Midwestern states.

Our calculations put the state’s gain in total employment at 1.5 percent since September of last year. During the same period, the U.S. as a whole gained 1.9 percent.

So Walker is correct when he says in his ad that the state is “not last” — but it’s only in the “top four” among the 10 states Walker uses for his comparison.

In Walker’s defense, the state’s unemployment rate improved in September to 5.5 percent, which is slightly better than the national average of 5.9 percent. Wisconsin is currently tied with Virginia for the 17th lowest jobless rate among all 50 states.

But it’s also true that despite the gains under Walker, nearly 23,000 fewer people were employed in September than at Wisconsin’s high point, which was June 2007. Unlike the country as a whole, the state has yet to regain all the jobs lost during and after the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

So the state’s economic performance under Walker is neither as good as he would have voters believe, or as bad as his Democratic critics were still claiming as recently as Oct. 13 in an ad saying Wisconsin job growth under Walker is “dead last in the Midwest.” As we’ve seen, it’s not.

Tax Break for ‘Millionaires’

On the other side, the liberal, pro-Democratic Greater Wisconsin PAC released an ad Oct. 24 claiming that Walker has given “millionaires a new, $10,000 tax deduction to send their kids to private schools.” (The narrator emphasizes the word “their.”) That’s true but misleading. The tax break is available to any parent with a child in private or parochial school, not just “millionaires.”

In 2013, Walker signed “Act 20″ (the massive state budget bill), which contained section 1304g, providing a deduction from state income taxes for private school tuition. Actually, the deduction is up to $4,000 (per pupil, per year) for elementary school tuition and $10,000 (per pupil, per year) only for secondary school tuition.

But, you don’t have to be a “millionaire” to claim the deduction. Wisconsin’s state income tax starts at 4 percent of taxable income up to $14,540 for married couples, and goes up in steps to a maximum of 7.65 percent on income over $320,250. So plenty of middle-income parents can take advantage.

The benefit also can be claimed for “religious-based” education, so thousands of parochial school parents will benefit. In the Diocese of Madison, which covers 11 of the state’s 72 counties, for example, there were 7,437 students enrolled in 44 Catholic schools during the 2012-2013 school year, and the average tuition for elementary school was $2,170 for the first student.

The tax break took effect for tuition paid in 2014. Walker’s Democratic opponent, Mary Burke, has said she would eliminate it.

Poisoned Water?

The same attack ad makes the claim that Walker’s friends got “a massive strip mine after they made secret donations to help him” totaling $700,000. “We could get arsenic in our drinking water,” the narrator says.

A second ad, from the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, plays on the same theme. “Scott Walker risked contaminating our drinking water with arsenic and lead” after the mining company “secretly gave $700,000 to a group actively supporting Scott Walker.”

It remains to be seen how great a risk the mining project might present. And Walker states that he wasn’t aware of the $700,000 donation until it came to light in August of this year.

There’s no question that Walker benefited from the gift to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, whether he knew the source or not. The Club for Growth spent $9.1 million supporting Walker during recall elections in 2011 and 2012 that drew national attention.

It’s also no secret that in 2013 Walker supported and signed a bill sought by the mining company, Gogebic Taconite, that was the source of the recently disclosed gift. Gogebic Taconite wanted changes to state mining law to clear the way for a $1.5 billion open-pit iron mine, which Walker says he backed because of the jobs and economic benefits it would bring.

It’s also true that arsenic and lead are among the many “trace elements” that can be found in waste water from metal mining, according to the Montana-based Center for Science in Public Participation. However, at the moment the iron mine project is in the very early stages of permitting. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, granting a permit “can take several years” and would require an environmental impact statement. The project would be subject to both state and federal regulation, the latter under the federal Clean Water Act.

So we judge it to be premature to be accusing Walker of slipping arsenic into the state’s drinking water.

Burke ‘a Disaster’

A last-minute ad from a state business group attacks Burke, the Democratic candidate, for her record as head of the state’s Department of Commerce under Walker’s predecessor.

“She admitted her agency sat on the sidelines and failed to attract new businesses,” the ad says. It also quotes an email from Burke’s predecessor at the department as saying, “She’s a disaster.” And it goes on to say, “Maybe that’s why Wisconsin lost 130,000 jobs when [James] Doyle was governor.” It is sponsored by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Issues Mobilization Council.

We find this ad to be misleading. Wisconsin actually gained jobs during Burke’s tenure as commerce secretary, which started Feb. 7, 2005, and ended in November 2007. The state gained 49,500 jobs during that time.

The big job losses came only later. The month after Burke left the Doyle administration marked the official start of the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression. It lasted from December 2007 until June 2009. The collapse of the housing bubble and the subsequent financial crisis wreaked havoc nationwide, not just in Wisconsin.

It’s true that Burke criticized her own agency for sitting on the sidelines and failing to attract more businesses to the state — as she was leaving government, and after she had reorganized the agency.

But Burke was given little to work with while she was in office, as the very news story that the ad cites as its authority made clear. The story quoted business association executive Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, as saying both Burke and her predecessor “did well with the resources they had, but they have probably one of the weakest tool sets of any state commerce secretary in the country when it comes to incentives, tax breaks, flexible training dollars.”

It’s also true that Burke’s predecessor as commerce secretary told an aide to the governor that Burke was “a disaster.” The remark was in an email dated Sept. 3, 2006, and it only surfaced on Oct. 16. What the ad fails to mention is that the author, Cory Nettles, states that he has no memory of writing the email, and that the remark does not reflect his current view of her tenure as commerce secretary. “Let me be clear, I have a lot of respect for Mary Burke,” Nettles told a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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By Matt Duckor

By now, you’ve heard of the negroni. Note that I didn’t say “probably”. By now, every last cocktail drinker on Earth has crossed paths with the classic cocktail, famously made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. I’ve evangelized on behalf of the cocktail countless times, extolling its uniquely bitter flavor profile and extremely easy-to-remember recipe.

But not everyone likes the classic negroni.

“It’s too bitter,” some say.

“Too much booze,” others exclaim.

That’s okay–because there’s an entire universe of Campari-based cocktails beyond the classic negroni that solve all of these problems, while maintaining the spirit of the drink.

Welcome to the world of negroni variations.

Almost immediately after the negroni became the cocktail of the moment a few years ago, an entire subset of drinks made with similar ingredients and adhering to an equal-parts formula gained popularity. I mean, there are whole Pinterest boards dedicated to the subject!

Some are classics, some are new, but all of them are delicious. Here, a list, organized by problems you might have with the negroni:

You’re Not a Fan Boozy Cocktails: Equal parts of three different, highly boozy spirits isn’t a recipe for the faint of heart. Luckily, there’s the Americano. A classic cocktail in its own right, the Americano replaces gin with soda water, making it the perfect cocktail for hot days.

You Can’t Deal With Bitter Drinks: If you find Campari a bit too bitter for your liking altogether, the White Negroni substitutes in Suze, the bittersweet French liqueur made from the gentian root. Couple that with the use of Lillet Blanc instead of sweet vermouth and you’ve got a cocktail that’s not only beautifully clear in appearance, but less, well, intense for those that want the spirit of a negroni without the bite.

You’re on Permanent Vacation: If you can’t stand the idea of not having rum in your drink–you constantly dream of Mai Tai’s and beachfront property, perhaps–the Kingston Negroni is here to solve your problems. Just swap out gin for your favorite Jamaican rum.

You Must Have Bourbon In Everything: You need bourbon. Always. Meet the Boulevardier.

You Need More Smoke in Your Cocktail: For the mezcal-obsessed among us, there’s the Smoky Negroni. Substitute your favorite mezcal (more on that here) for gin and mix with equal parts sweet vermouth and Campari. Done.

You Can’t Stand Three-Ingredient Cocktails: For many, the simple recipe is one of the main things the classic negroni has going for it. But, maybe you’ve got a well-stocked bar to burn through or you’re just looking for something a bit more complex–either way, you’ll likely want to try the Negroni Leoni. This modern cocktail dials back the Campari and replaces gin with a good amount of rum and a touch of mezcal for smoke.

You Can’t Not Drink Tequila: Maybe you just can’t get down with a cocktail unless it’s got the familiar bite of tequila associated with it. Fear not, the Tequila Negroni is here. Using blanco tequila, this drink retains both the equal parts mixture and accompanying ingredients that make the classic negroni a go-to.

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By Cari Nierenberg, Contributing writer
Published: 10/29/2014 03:51 PM EDT on LiveScience

Cleaning out the colon is sometimes necessary— for example, before a medical procedure, such as a colonoscopy. But some people do it in the belief that the process will rid their colons of excess toxins that have accumulated over time from the foods they eat, the air they breathe, the water they drink and the lifestyles they lead.

Colon-cleansing enthusiasts believe that periodically cleaning from the inside out removes waste stuck to the colon walls. This waste buildup also supposedly produces toxins that enter the blood and may be slowly poisoning people, contributing to a variety of symptoms — fatigue, bloating, irritated skin and weight gain — and health problems, from depression and allergies to arthritis and cancer.

Cleansing proponents promote two ways to clean the colon. One method involves taking bowel-clearing laxatives, powders or supplements; using enemas; or drinking herbal teas topurportedly release colon waste and discharge toxins. But using this method might feel more like frequently running to the bathroom with diarrhea.

A second method is called colonic irrigation or colon hydrotherapy, in which a practitioner flushes out the colon by sending gallons of water into the body through a tube inserted into a person’s rectum. This procedure can cost about $80 to $100 per session.

But does colon cleansing flush out toxins, as its supporters suggest, or does it flush money down the drain?

Medical professionals say that the body comes well equipped with its own built-in mechanisms to eliminate harmful substances: the liver and kidneys. In fact, colon cleansing that is done to help remove toxins is an unnecessary and potentially dangerous practice, especially colon hydrotherapy.

“Every week, someone asks me whether colon cleansing is safe and whether a person should be doing it,” said Dr. Jacqueline Wolf, a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the author of “A Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Stomach” (Harlequin, 2011).

She typically tells her patients there is little research on colon cleansing methods, and that most physicians don’t believe in these treatments or advise their use. [The Poop on Pooping: 5 Misconceptions Explained]

Wolf said people’s curiosity about cleansing possibly stems from the idea that the bowel is a dirty place, and that getting rid of waste is a good idea. She said she usually doesn’t recommend colon hydrotherapy, but has suggested it for a few people to use as colonoscopy preparation when traditional methods have failed. She’s also recommended it for patients who had severe constipation, before there were strong drugs that could help remedy this problem.

“We don’t know enough about colon cleansing to know the real truth,” Wolf told Live Science. “It’s an area we should learn more about.”

Wolf outlined some of the potential side effects and dangers of colon cleansing methods.

1. Colon cleansing can cause side effects.

“We don’t have real data on either the healthy or unhealthy side effects from cleansing methods,” Wolf said. Most of the known side effects come from case reports described in the medical literature and not from research studies, of which there are few.

Colon cleansing with laxatives, herbal formulations or enemas might increase a person’s risk of becoming dehydrated if the individual does not drink enough fluids, Wolf said.

Inducing diarrhea can also change people’s electrolyte levels. Shifting levels of sodium might cause lightheadedness, and low potassium levels may cause leg cramps or abnormal heart rhythms, Wolf said.

Some herbal cleanses have also been linked with liver toxicity and aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder.

Case reports suggest colon hydrotherapy may cause abdominal cramping, stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. More-severe complications may include perforating the bowel, serious infections, electrolyte imbalances, kidney problems and heart failure.

2. There’s little scientific evidence that colon cleansing actually removes toxins from the body or improves health.

A review study published in 2001 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology concluded that there were no rigorous studies to support the practice of colon cleansing as a way of improving or promoting general health.

And because cleansing products and methods rarely name the specific toxins they supposedly remove from the body, there’s been no research measuring how effective cleansing practices may be at actually eliminating these substances, or demonstrating the health benefits of removing them, Wolf said.

3. Cleansing is not an effective strategy for weight loss.

A person who does a cleanse may initially lose a few pounds, but that is a temporary loss, resulting from the removal of water weight and stool, and not from a permanent loss of fat. Although it could be motivating to see results on the scale for a few days, cleansing is not a long-term solution to a weight problem, Wolf said. [5 Experts Answer: Is There Such Thing as a Healthy Juice Cleanse?]

4. Colon cleansing and colonic irrigation are not safe for everyone.

Wolf said she would worry about people with kidney disease or heart problems trying colon cleanses, because these individuals already have trouble maintaining fluid balance in their bodies, and the electrolyte shifts could be an issue. She said she would also tell people with gastrointestinal problems, such as Crohn’s disease (a condition involving inflammation in the GI tract), ulcerative colitis (which involves inflammation in the large intestine), and recurrent diverticulitis (in which a person develops inflamed pouches in the wall of the colon) to avoid colonics.

Colon hydrotherapy is also risky for people with connective tissue disorders, such as Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, because of the possible risk of a puncturing a hole in the bowel, as well as anyone who had prior colon surgery or severe hemorrhoids.

Pregnant and breast-feeding women should also steer clear of colon cleanses.

5. Cleansing’s effect on gut bacteria is unknown.

Trillions of bacteria live in the colon, and eliminating them or changing the population of beneficial and harmful bacteria in that organ could be a problem.

“A colon cleanse would never get rid of all the bacteria, but research is increasingly finding that a lot of bacteria in the colon is very healthy,” Wolf said. Some of the good colon bacteria play a role inkeeping bad bacteria at bay.

Scientists don’t know if colon cleanses and colon hydrotherapy disrupt the bacteria in the colon or cause an imbalance in the microbiome, Wolf said. “It hasn’t been studied,” she said.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

• 5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health
• 11 Surprising Facts About the Digestive System
• 5 Things Your Poop Says About Your Health

Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

If you’ve ever played a free-to-play game like Candy Crush, Plants vs Zombies 2 or Clash of Clans and defied the “free” part by parting with your cash, don’t be ashamed. I’ve never met anyone who actually buys items on any free-to-play, but then again I’ve never met anyone who’s lost money in Vegas, either.

I’m not ashamed to admit yes… yes I have… bought items in free-to-play games (I’ve also lost money in Vegas). Trust me, I feel the appropriate amount of shame and self-loathing. But don’t judge too harshly. If you haven’t spent money on these games, odds are you will pretty soon.

Why? Because these innocently fun and entertaining programs are built on mountains of research of the mind’s inner workings. These games know what makes us tick, and they know exactly how to get us to say yes.

Free-to-play games are now everywhere in dozens of varieties. But no matter what the flavor, they all use the same mechanisms to get us to part with money.

How do they do it?

Ego Depletion

One of the bases for the popularity and power of these games is the concept of Ego Depletion. Ego Depletion “refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draw upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up…. A depleting task requiring self-control can have a hindering effect on a subsequent self-control task, even if the tasks are seemingly unrelated.”

Free-to-play games rely on this phenomenon to slowly wear down our reserves of self-control, making it that much more likely that the more we play, the closer we’ll come to making a purchase. They capitalize on the finite nature of our willpower by continually surfacing or making purchase options omnipresent. Eventually, it’s very likely that we’ll submit to one of these offers. Ego depletion at work.

It’s a sad fact that all acts of self control draw on the same finite resource even if the acts are completely unrelated. On a diet? If you cave and spend money on a freemium game you’re that much more likely to have that cookie later. Tough call!

Reciprocity

“Reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest model; conversely, in response to hostile actions they are frequently much more nasty and even brutal.”

This theory applies perfectly to an enjoyable, free-to-play game. Because we are being given the game for free (an innately friendly and pleasant action) subconsciously we feel strongly compelled to reciprocate with a friendly action of our own, and pay the nice developers back. The instinct is so strong, that we feel compelled to reciprocate even if the original action was unrequested.

Intermediate Currency, The Slow Earn and the Bulk Discount

Across the board, all free-to-play games use Intermediate Currency and Bulk Discounts, and all allow you to earn currency while playing.

Using an intermediate currency provides several powerful tools to the free-to-play gaming company. First, people tend to find it difficult to assess the value of unfamiliar items, so the price obscuring makes it easy to forget how much “actual” money they’ve spent. Second, the pricing structure of a game typically evolves and becomes more costly as the user progresses. Further, by allowing people to earn currency (albeit very, very slowly) and offering bulk discounts the game cloaks the true cost of playing.

Price Shrouding

Obscuring pricing information is a sophisticated concept called Price Shrouding that was first discussed in 1957. If “real” money were used (no successful free-to-play game developer does this) then the consumer would see be able to accurately gauge the cost of ownership. Ensuring that the actual cost remains a very fuzzy concept keeps consumers naive and spending.

Progressive game inflation is slow and almost always obscured, giving the user no information of how costly goods will be later in the game. The assumption is that by then the user will be too invested in the game to stop. That assumption is usually correct.

Illusory Discomfort

Zynga’s Roger Dickey coined the term “fun pain” to describe the common situation in which a player is stuck in an uncomfortable position and then given the option of solving the problem by purchasing in-game currency. It has proven a safe assumption that the majority of players will be willing to spend money in order to end the discomfort.

Zynga certainly knows a thing or two about successful free-to-play games, making nearly a billion dollars in revenue in their first four years.

Play on

After seeing how not so casual these casual, free-to-play games are you might be tempted to to paint the game developers with a pretty negative brush. But before you start putting paint to canvas consider this: The industry tried the traditional pay-to-play model and watched it collapse as consumers became increasingly unwilling to pay enough to make making these games profitable. Plus, for the lucky few able to resist Ego Depletion, Price Shrouding, and the rest of the tricks it really is possible to play these games completely free.

Software, especially highly engaging, well-polished games like these are costly to make and market. Free-to-play may be with us for the long term unless consumers again make the choice to pay for their mobile games up front. Even then, the free-to-play model has proven so successful, tapping into what drives us as consumers and even what drives us as humans, I don’t see it disappearing any time soon.

—

Joseph Farrell
Chief Strategy Officer
www.biteinteractive.com
themobilesurge.com
@JosephEFarrell