Many would tell you that Monster’s lawsuit against Beats and HTC faced long odds from the get-go… and sure enough, it’s falling flat. A Los Angeles court has summarily dismissed the case, which accused Beats of making sketchy deals in order to bot…
The largest analysis yet has found Ebola virus particles present in semen as long as 565 days after recovery from an infection, highlighting the potential role of sex in sparking another outbreak, researchers reported on Tuesday.
The study, published in the Lancet Global Health, involved 429 men seen between July 2015 and May 2016 who were part of the Liberian government’s Men’s Health Screening Program (MHSP), the first national semen testing program for Ebola virus.
Of the participants, 38 men tested positive during the study period. Within this group, 24 men, or nearly two thirds, had semen samples that tested positive for Ebola fragments a year after recovering from disease. Ebola tended to linger longer in men over age 40, the researchers said.
In one case, Ebola was detected at least 565 days after a man recovered from his illness.
“Before this outbreak, scientists believed that Ebola virus could be found in semen for three months after recovery. With this study, we now know that virus may persist for a year or longer,” said Dr. Moses Soka, coordinator of the Ebola Virus Disease Survivor Clinical Care at the Liberian Ministry of Health, who worked on the study.
As part of Liberia’s monitoring program, male survivors aged 15 and older can enroll for monthly tests of their semen. Participants also get counseling on safe sex and condoms at each visit.
“This program provides important insights into how long Ebola remains in semen, a key component to preventing flare-ups of the disease and protecting survivors and their loved ones,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is collaborating with the ministry. Other partners include the World Health Organization, and the Academic Consortium Combating Ebola in Liberia.
Semen samples in the study were tested for genetic fragments known as the viral RNA, but the tests could not tell if the virus was capable of spreading disease.
Sexual contact with an Ebola survivor in March 2015 resulted in the infection and eventual death of a woman from Monrovia, even after Liberia had been declared free of Ebola. Tests of the man’s semen showed the presence of Ebola virus 199 days after he first became ill.
The World Health Organization advises that all male Ebola survivors should be tested three months after the onset of symptoms and then monthly until they know they have no risk of passing on the virus.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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A year after the launch of the Samsung Gear S2, we were expecting a Samsung Gear S3 to show up, and it did appear like clockwork. The thing is, the Samsung Gear S3 is not going to replace its predecessor, but to supplement it. Both products will continue to exist on the market, and you’re going to understand why. The Gear S3 is a larger watch that comes in two […]
Samsung Gear S3: Hands-On Review , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Towns that have colleges have long been viewed as great places to live once you stop punching a time clock. Universities often offer an abundance of free community cultural activities, concerts, art exhibits, running tracks, sporting events to watch and, of course, classes that retirees can take. College towns also often have a rock solid base for part-time jobs, should retirees want one; and many universities have a teaching hospital attached to their medical program ― so you even have top-flight health care at your fingertips. But with some 2,400 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., which college towns are the best? AARP to the rescue.
AARP’s new list, 10 Great College Towns That Also Make Great Retirement Spots, includes Ann Arbor Michigan, home of the University of Michigan. Assuming you can handle the Michigan winters, there are plenty of independent bookstores and sports galore in this city of 117,000 ― not to mention houses you may actually be able to afford to buy. The University of Michigan provides people 65 and older with half-price tuition and annually hosts hundreds of free events. It also participates in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI), which support noncredit educational programs at 119 institutions around the country and caters to people age 50 and up.
Also on the list is Austin, the capital of Texas and home to the University of Texas. Austin is known for its something-for-everyone music scene, says AARP, and there’s a thriving cultural scene in general.
Got a thing for antebellum architecture and Southern charm? Beaufort, home to the University of South Carolina, is history-buffs central. Plus anyone 60 and older who isn’t working full-time gets free tuition at USCB’s two campuses.
For the rest of the AARP list, check here.
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WASHINGTON ― “Don’t offer support” for the “concrete policy positions” of Black Lives Matter protesters, the chief organization charged with electing Democrats to the House of Representatives warned its candidates in an internal memo leaked online on Wednesday.
The document was posted online by Guccifer 2.0, a hacker who has claimed to be responsible for the Democratic National Committee email leak. Guccifer claims the document is from the personal computer of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). A number of cybersecurity firms and Democrats have attributed the leaks to Russian hackers (though Guccifer 2.0 has denied working for the Kremlin).
“Presidential candidates have struggled to respond to tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement,” reads the memo, sent by a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staffer in November. “While there has been little engagement with House candidates, candidates and campaign staff should be prepared. This document should not be emailed or handed to anyone outside of the building. Please only give campaign staff these best practices in meetings or over the phone.”
Black Lives Matter has become a force during the 2016 election by repeatedly calling on presidential candidates to address the systemic inequalities faced by black Americans. The movement has offered policy suggestions, held demonstrations and interrupted presidential campaign speeches in order to call attention to anti-black racism.
Pelosi’s office declined to comment on the leak.
The memo, which describes BLM as a “radical movement” that aims to “end ‘anti-black racism,’” lists several suggestions for how Democratic congressional candidates should handle an encounter with a Black Lives Matter activist.
“If approached by BLM activists, campaign staff should offer to meet with local activists,” the memo reads. “Invited BLM attendees should be limited. Please aim for personal or small group meetings.”
“Listen to their concerns,” it continues. “Don’t offer support for concrete policy positions.”
The memo includes advice on what, exactly, to say to Black Lives Matter activists. It recommends avoiding phrases like “all lives matter” and warns not to bring up “black on black crime,” since the “response will garner additional media scrutiny and only anger BLM activists.”
House Democrats were also advised to say that police violence requires a national conversation, and to acknowledge that “a history of systemic racism continues to confront the daily lives of African Americans.”
There have been a number of policy recommendations from various organizations committed to improving black life, including many groups and activists connected to Black Lives Matter. Among these recommendations are police demilitarization; the elimination of police profiling; decriminalizing sex work and marijuana; funding schools instead of prisons; and pushing for workers’ rights.
Read the entire memo below:
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Following the death of screen icon Gene Wilder on Sunday, many of those who knew the comedy legend or were simply touched by his talent have paid tribute to the actor on social media.
The members of Coldplay are the latest in a long line of celebrities to memorialize Wilder, but instead of taking the more traditional route, the band let their music do the talking.
On Tuesday, Coldplay shared a video on Twitter of a cover of “Pure Imagination,” a song from Wilder’s best-known film, 1971’s “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
In the clip, you can hear frontman Chris Martin sing the song’s wondrous chorus, as confetti starts to rain down upon an audience, presumably at one of the band’s recent concerts during their international A Head Full of Dreams tour.
“Come with me and we’ll be in a world of pure imagination,” Martin coos at the tail end of what sounds like the band’s hit song “The Scientist.”
Watch Wilder sing “Pure Imagination” below:
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Pinch-to-zoom is the go-to gesture for zooming into a picture on any device with a touchscreen, however, no matter what device you have this gesture has been useless on Instagram ever since the service was launched many years ago. That’s because Instagram has never allowed users to zoom in on photos inside its app, but that changes today. Instagram has announced today that its users on iOS can now zoom in on photos inside the app.
Instagram users on iOS can now pinch-to-zoom in on both photos and videos in the main feed. This feature will also work on pictures in profile pages as well as on the Explore tab.
It’s great that the company is finally enabling one of the most basic smartphone features in its app but it’s just limited to iOS right now. Instagram is yet to confirm when this feature is going to be available for Android users, though it goes without saying that pinch-to-zoom support will eventually be added to the Android app as well.
Instagram has made significant changes over the past few months, including but not limited to a completely revamped icon, longer videos, as well as a Stories feature that it copied from Snapchat. Support for zooming in is a change that will certainly be welcomed by users across the globe.
iOS Users Can Now Zoom In On Instagram Photos , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Now more than ever it seems budgets of colleges and universities in America are stretched thin. As is true in many states, cuts to budgets in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Kansas have led to millions less for public universities. Meanwhile, Moody’s predicted the rate of private college closures would triple from 2015 – 2017 due to fiscal problems. We’ve already seen the recent shuttering of institutions like Burlington College (Vt.) and Dowling College (N.Y.), and there are surely more to come.
In an effort to stand out among more than 4,000 post-secondary institutions in America, schools have invested in everything from new dormitories and modernized IT infrastructure to college apps and on-campus food. The challenge of meeting rising operating costs while making key capital investments to remain competitive is complex, and the choices that are made can have long-standing ramifications.
At Simmons College, we are celebrating a significant capital investment that represents a unique public-private partnership with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and community organizations in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. The partnership is the result of a five-year engagement process that involved obtaining legislative approval, meeting the requirements of state and local environmental and construction regulations, and securing additional contracts and approvals to deliver the new, state-of-the-art Daly Field Athletics Complex. Opening ceremonies will take place on September 9th and 10th.
The project replaces a derelict public space that lacked upkeep for over 20 years and was deemed unplayable for inter-scholastic competition by the state with state-of-the-art, environmentally sound, NCAA compliant soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and softball fields and tennis courts–providing a home field for Simmons sports teams and for a Brighton High School football team that rosters student athletes from all across Boston and had no home field for more than 20 years. The facility will be open to anyone in the community to use during 75 percent of playable hours, with the rest of the time reserved for Simmons College, Brighton High, and the local little league.
Our investment of $13.5 million in this project was a sizable one for a relatively small school like ours with a modest endowment and capital budget. How and why did we decide to go forward with the project? We relied on our long-established core values.
Core value #1 – We are at our best when students are first. The investments academic institutions make are often attributed to improving the student experience. The Daly Field project not only provided our outdoor athletics teams with the first home field in the College’s 115-year history, but it also afforded the opportunity for our student athletes to serve as mentors and role models to high school aged young women from an underserved population–an invaluable learning and enrichment opportunity that we know can change lives.
Core value #2 – We prepare students for life’s work. Studies have shown that young women who play sports are more likely to graduate from college, find a job, and be employed in male-dominated industries. Additional research shows that among senior women business executives, 94 percent played sports and more than half played at a university level. We realized that an investment in our athletics program is central to our College’s mission and core value #2: to ready our students for successful careers.
Core value #3 – We cross boundaries to create opportunities. As a small, women’s private college, we engaged what might be viewed as unlikely partners to ensure the project’s success. We worked closely with an inner-city public high school, neighborhood organizations like the Brighton Board of Trade, state and local politicians, a community little league, and many more to see this project through. We reached beyond our traditional partnerships to establish solid new relationships with a variety of community stakeholders, and Simmons College is stronger as a result.
Core value #4 – We make a collective investment in community. Knowing that the general public, high school athletes, and little leaguers would be joining our athletes in playing on these fields, we made significant safety and lasting environmental choices. We eschewed crumb rubber, which has been linked to incidents of cancer, and are making Daly Field the first publicly accessible field in New England with all natural coconut shells and cork as the infill on the synthetic turf. We remediated arsenic in the soil and removed asbestos pipes, and we installed a filtration system for the runoff into the Charles River. We also installed a Brock pad underlayment system beneath the turf, which is estimated to reduce the occurrence and impact of concussions by as much as 50 percent. We proudly made these investments because our college cares deeply about the health and well being of the current and future members of our community.
As President of Simmons College, I am well aware of the budget strains under which American colleges and universities are operating. As college administrators contemplate future investments, I encourage them to rely on what their institution stands for as the basis for their decision-making. If universities stay true to their mission and values, these seemingly complex investment decisions can become simpler.
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In 1997, a crew of North Carolina buffoons pulled off one of the largest cash robberies in American history, stealing $17.3 million from an armored-car company and blowing it on tacky luxury goods. They were caught five months later. In 2016, the so-called “hillbilly heist” is the subject of a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
The Huffington Post has an exclusive clip from “Masterminds,” which marks the latest endeavor of “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess. The conspirators want to sell out their honcho (Galifianakis), so they hired a hitman (Sudeikis) to handle the job. Watch him settle in to negotiate the terms with one of the thieves (Wilson).
“Masterminds” opens Sept. 30.
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This Post originally appeared on the blog ScreenCraft. ScreenCraft is dedicated to helping screenwriters and filmmakers succeed through educational events, screenwriting competitions and the annual ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship program, connecting screenwriters with agents, managers and Hollywood producers. Follow ScreenCraft on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Disney’s live action retelling of The Jungle Book is finally on Blu-ray and DVD, offering a chance for adults and children alike to rediscover one of the most cutting edge films ever made.
The film has earned more than $911 million at the global box office to date and stars Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) as the voice of Baloo, Sir Ben Kingsley (Learning to Drive, The Walk) as Bagheera and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as the voice of mother wolf Raksha. Scarlett Johansson (Avengers: Age of Ultron) gives life to Kaa, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) provides the voice of alpha-male wolf Akela, Idris Elba (Beast of No Nation) roars as the voice of Shere Khan, and Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter) lends his iconic voice to King Louie.
The Jungle Book Reimagined special feature in this release features director Jon Favreau sitting down with producer Brigham Taylor and visual effects supervisor Robert Legato to discuss the film and reflect on the years they devoted to the reimagining of this timeless tale. You will quickly discover how Rudyard Kipling’s original stories and the classic animated film influenced their unique approach, you will witness the technical wizardry that enabled the team to create a believable and thrilling movie-going experience, and you will learn how they borrowed a page from Walt Disney’s innovation playbook to make it all happen.
We’ve pulled three essential and amazing screenwriting lessons that screenwriters can utilize in their own scripts.
Director Jon Favreau discussed his initial journey into finding the vision of what this live action retelling of both a classic Rudyard Kipling novel — and of course the beloved animated Disney feature of 1967 — would be. The studio initially gave him a treatment that was much more geared towards the darker side of the original novel. It had a PG-13 vibe to it with more violence, no music, etc.
Favreau was a fan of Disney’s animated version. Obviously it wouldn’t work to have just a live-action retelling of that animated script and he didn’t want to focus on the darker edge of the novel. So it was about finding the sweet spot between the two.
When you’re adapting source material like novels, short stories, and graphic novels, that’s exactly where screenwriters need to start. Finding that sweet spot, which is basically the core of the concept, story, and characters. The great adaptations of cinema have accomplished that while offering slightly different context and perspective. In the case of The Jungle Book, the filmmakers and screenwriters did a masterful job of finding the core of what they and audiences loved most about both the book and the animated classic, and combined them to create a whole new experience that felt both different and familiar.
That’s the key to adaptations and that’s the key to how remakes and reimaginings should be. And that is why Favreau’s The Jungle Book will stand as both one of the greatest remakes and as one of the greatest adaptations we’ve seen on the screen.
Favreau talks about the history of Walt Disney and his development process. When they were making this live action The Jungle Book, they went back to the Disney archives and discovered that Walt and his development team had a stenographer present in all meetings so that the development process they were going through could have an archival record. Favreau was amazed to learn that much of the discussions about story, characters, and technology were the very same discussions that were happening in his development process.
And what Walt Disney and Jon Favreau had in common in that sense was that they were both trying to break new ground and were developing cutting edge storytelling and technology. With Walt, they used cell animation. With Jon, they used computer graphics to realize these animals in photo-realistic fashion.
Screenwriters can learn from this. It’s not enough to go with the flow of the industry and just try to fit in with what everyone else is doing. You don’t create memorable stories and movies by doing that. You have to always be ready and willing to take chances and break new ground. You have to push the boundaries of storytelling and screenwriting to break through and make a true dent in the future of cinema.
Favreau and his producers talked about the sleight of hand that is necessary to give the audience the most emotional experience you can — despite the forefront of the technology that is used to create the animals Mogli interacts with, the special effects which created that world, etc.
When you focus on the emotions that the characters are going through and get the audience to invest in that, then everything else doesn’t matter. There is little to no scrutinizing about the more fantastical elements at play.
Screenwriters can learn from this by injecting true emotion into each and every moment of their script amidst the fantastical elements of action, suspense, thrills, scares, and hijinks that are found in any given genre. When you present characters that are caught up in emotional windstorms during these settings, the script becomes more believable in the end. The reader and the audience aren’t distracted by the logic beyond that character feeling remorse, anger, hatred, jealousy, insanity, love, devotion, sacrifice, or whatever emotional arc is presented.
You can write fun roller coaster rides while still attaching that emotion to give such scripts as much story and character depth as any critically acclaimed drama.
Jon Favreau’s stunning live-action reimagining of Walt Disney’s animated classic is now available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On-Demand.
Bonus features include:
BLU-RAY & DIGITAL HD:
DVD
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