Wanting to lose weight is one of the most common issues addressed by hypnotherapists, as well as more traditional counselors. While the issue appears simple on the surface, there are often complex psychological reasons behind an individual?s overeating, sedentary lifestyle or poor food choices.
Thankfully, a great deal of these issues can be worked on at home, by yourself, using the power of self-hypnosis! Here you?ll find some general guidelines to identifying and then working through your unique obstacles to fitness.
Setting the Mood
As with any self-hypnosis session, begin by creating the most comfortable space you can, free of distractions and filled with soothing sensations, sounds and scents.
Identifying the Issues
Using your favorite self-hypnosis induction technique, place yourself in trance. Once you?re there, simply ask your subconscious what is keeping you from your ideal healthy weight. This is not as simple as it sounds. You?ll probably find that, at least in the beginning, your conscious mind ?jumps in? with tons of rationalizations.
You may feel that you?re doomed to be overweight because of a family history. You might have no energy for exercise. You may even feel that you eat and exercise a healthy amount but still can?t keep the weight off.
Throughout this ?conscious mind chatter,? try to discern the messages your subconscious is sending you. The subconscious is like a computer ? it can?t lie. It only repeats information it has been given.
If you truly and subconsciously believe something false regarding your weight, make a note of this and end your session. Write down each false belief as soon as you?re done, making any notes or observations you picked up along the way. Study these beliefs and determine ways to tackle them individually. False beliefs are often easily addressed through self-hypnotic suggestions and conscious affirmations. Write these down as well. Refer to the list in future sessions and keep your affirmations in a handy place where you will see it several times each day. Imagine that you falsely believe that you are ?doomed? to be overweight. Refute this false belief with an affirmation such as ?I am in complete control of my health, appearance and weight.?
Future Sessions and Affrimations
Repeat your affirmations as often as possible. Whenever possible, do this in front of a mirror with a genuine smile on your face and conviction in your voice. Over time, these very true and positive statements will sink into your subconscious mind as fact. Remember to always word affirmations positively (avoid using words like ?can?t,? ?won?t,? ?don?t,? ?not? or ?shouldn?t,?) and in the present tense (?I am healthy? instead of ?I will be healthy?).
In future self-hypnosis sessions, utilize a combination of visualization and commands to retrain your subconscious mind. You may find the ?floating bubble? visualization very helpful, in which you wade through water toward several floating bubbles which represent different goals. In teh case of wight loss, these goals may be a certain number on the scale, a particular size of jeans or a fitness goal such as distance on a treadmill. Whatever your goals are, make them crisp, vivid and realistic.
When using commands, stick with the rules regarding affirmations. Instruct your subconscious using positive statements and the present tense.
Remember that healthy weight loss doesn?t happen overnight. Instead of dangerous crash diets or pills, self-hypnosis provides a gentle, natural and, in the long run, much more effective option. When you change the way you think, your body has no choice but to follow!
Welcome to the Making Your Home Sing Monday linky party! Every day you are doing something to make your house into a home for yourself and your family (if you have one).?
My point with each Monday post is, what are YOU doing or going to do today to make your home sing? It can be an attitude or an action. So have fun, do some blog hopping and if you want, link up!
Topics can include marriage, parenting, encouraging women, organization, cleaning, saving money, our behavior and attitudes, homemaking, homeschooling, recipes....the opportunities are endless.
Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone!!!? Ever caught yourself outside someone's house or outside the church, saying to your tired, fighting, grumpy children "Stop it, we're about to go inside.? Smile and act like we're a happy family and like we actually all LOVE each other!!!!!!"
Ever had a fight with your husband on the way to church?? Ever been annoyed by your children on the way to church?
Ever said some harsh last words in the parking lot with a huge frown on your face, slammed the car door and then walked into the church or into your friend's house with a big happy forced grin as if you hadn't just yelled at your husband or children?
Ever been angry or grumpy and then the minute the phone rings you answer with a sweet, syrupy voice?
Yeah, me neither.
Isn't it amazing how quickly and easily we can throw on a grin and muster up a patient attitude and a sweet voice when we have to?
Isn't it equally amazing how quickly and easily we can shed that sweet attitude and pleasant smile for a negative attitude and an unhappy frown?
Generally we might never be purposely rude to our friends.? But we might be rude to our family.
We would never hang up on someone if we were annoyed with them.? But we might hang up on our family.
We would never raise our voice and yell at someone.? But we might yell at our family.
We would never slam the door because we were mad at our friend.? But we might do that to our family.
We would never ignore our friend and refuse to talk to her.? But we might ignore our family.
If I am being nicer to you than I am to my own family, it's not because I love you so much.
It's because I love ME so much.
It's because I am being selfish and thinking about myself, not about you.? But you are benefiting from my selfishness.? It's because I don't want you to think negatively of me.? It's because I really care what you think and I don't want to lose your friendship.? It's because I love my family to pieces but figure they are stuck with me so unfortunately, I am not always as gracious with them as I'd like to be.
It's also because I know that my family really loves me.? And because of that, I don't pretend around them.? I don't do "fake" around them.? They see the real me whether that me is happy and thrilled and in a good mood, or angry and grumpy and in a bad mood.
But then it hits me.? Since when is showing love and kindness "fake?"? Since when is being patient and kind and loving to someone not real just because you're tired or grumpy or really not feeling it?
I am confusing an action with an emotion.? I am confusing showing the actions of kindness and? love with feeling the emotions of kindness and love.
We don't have to feel the emotion to commit to the action.? We are called to love one another, it is love in action.? Jesus never said "I want you to feel like you love each other."? No, we are just called to do it.
When you do the action, you will find that the emotions will come.You don't have to sit around and wait until you feel like being kind or loving or forgiving.? You don't have to wait until you feel like being patient to exercise your patience muscles.? You don't have to wait until you feel love for someone before you respond in love.
That is why I can have control over my emotions.? That is why I can choose to respond in a loving manner when all I really want to do is rip your head off.? This is why I can show grace.
Because none of it depends on my feelings.
You can act in love because we have a God who has unlimited love. ? You can extend grace because we have a God who has unlimited grace.? You can forgive because we have a God who has unlimited forgiveness.
Show love in action today.? Don't wait around for your feelings to catch up.? Just show love in action whether you feel it or not and make your home sing!
What are you doing or going to do today to make your home sing? Please go here for instructions and/or ideas and come back here to link up to join us today! Please do not put your own "Making Your Home Sing Monday" Linky on your blog. As always, please don't forget to link to this post so that others can join the fun!
If you don't want to miss any blog posts, you can follow me or subscribe in your readeror byemail.? You?? can also find me here on? facebook as well!? I'd love to connect with you!
VIENNA (AP) ? Austrian police and firefighters have taken on the role of urban cowboys in a two-day round-up of a herd of cattle that broke out of a fenced-off pasture and decided to go into town.
A police statement says the 43 steers defied attempts by police and volunteer firefighters to recapture them after wandering off Thursday and heading toward the Upper Austrian town of Freistadt. After being chased away from the railway station, they endangered motorists by stampeding onto a two-lane highway before running into a town suburb.
Two firefighters who tried to stop them were injured and needed hospital treatment.
The statement says 18 of the animals remain on the loose Friday. The rest have been corralled or tranquilized.
Barbie Mendez, Waterford at Aventura Apartment Homes; Mari Garcia, Cornerstone Group; North Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo; Don Sanders, Cornerstone Group
The Aventura Marketing Council?s February breakfast meeting showcased Waterford at Aventura Apartment Homes, the Cornerstone Group?s newest community that will be a perfect place to call home ? and exciting new business opportunities in the city of North Miami Beach, where progressive revitalization initiatives are being spearheaded by Mayor George Vallejo and members of the NMB City Council.
AMC Chair Cliff Schulman of Weiss, Serota, Helfman welcomed hundreds of business and community leaders gathered at Florida International University?s Kovens Conference Center along with Don Sanders, Cornerstone Group?s Vice President of Marketing and Training.
Sanders noted that Waterford is conveniently located near Aventura Mall on West Dixie Highway. He explained that it features both midrise and townhome living options, combining affordability and superior amenities with an awesome location. One, two and three bedroom apartment homes with spacious floor plans featuring; open loft-like kitchens, granite countertops, high-efficiency appliances and impressive amenities including a clubhouse, business center, resort-style swimming pool and monthly community social events
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AMC Chair Cliff Schulman, Weiss Serota Helfman
While Cornerstone Group is dedicated to developing and managing over 14,000+ exceptional apartment communities throughout Florida, Mayor Vallejo and members of the City Council are committed to re-igniting business opportunities in North Miami Beach.
?For at least a decade, we were living too much in the past with a political culture presenting challenges, but the voters spoke and said they wanted the city to progress and move forward. I?m happy to report we?re doing whatever it takes to foster economic prosperity. Our team is on a winning streak!?
Vallejo emphasized NMB is rolling out the red carpet for businesses by cutting red tape to streamline licensing, permitting and inspection processes; keeping an open door policy at City Hall, where meetings are always welcome; ensuring the city is wellmaintained; reducing financial burdens; and eliminating wasteful spending. ?We trimmed $7 million out of a $45 million budget and pension reforms will save us $3 million per year. We?ve also reduced our Building Department variance fees by over 90 percent.?
It was a full house for Aventura Marketing Council members
Vallejo went on to speak about new projects that will bring hundreds of millions in tax revenues into the city including a hotel and office project onWest Dixie Highway; and the launch of Marina Palms Yacht Club Residences, expected to ?light the fire? of redevelopment along Biscayne Boulevard, 163rd Street, and West Dixie Highway corridors. He also encouraged AMC members to learn more about the city?s Community Reinvestment Agency, focusing on developing critical areas in partnership with businesses and developers benefitting from tax breaks and other incentives.
?City government has an obligation to make the economic ground fertile so you can go out and do what you do best, which is dream, invent, create, invest and improve your business to improve the lives of your customers. We?re doing our part to create a thriving community, we?ve made great progress in North Miami Beach and now, we?re ?open for business!?
For more information about Waterford at Aventura, visit the leasing center at 19580 West Dixie Highway, phone: 877-816-0109 or visit Waterford@theapartmentcorner.com.
Short URL: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/?p=57066
Two big headlines from the DHS release of actuarial findings on expansion options Wednesday. They project that 1) The "private option" saves $670 million to the state bottom line over ten years. 2) The "private option" not only doesn't cost the feds more than traditional Medicaid expansion, it's cheaper ? by almost $600 million over ten years.
That first one is not surprising. We've been explaining why expansion is revenue positive for the state for some time, and the "private option" doesn't change that (DHS projects that traditional expansion would save the state a little less?$610 million over ten years).
But #2 is a bit of a doozy. Most outside observers have speculated that the "private option" will be significantly more expensive. When Arkansas first got the go-ahead for the new framework, Arkansas Medicaid director Andy Allison wrote to Cynthia Mann, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid Services, "Cost effectiveness is the obvious hurdle for folks who didn't expect this" (e-mail acquired by the Times via FOIA request).
DHS challenged the consensus about cost last week with its release of general findings that it could be close to a wash; the fully enumerated projections this week suggest significant federal savings.
Of course we cannot know for sure, but predictions about federal costs matter a great deal. If the "private option" costs significantly more, it's hard to justify it over a traditional Medicaid expansion (outside of political necessity). It also might create a significant problem for the federal government if other states want to hop on board the "private option" bandwagon. Some started worrying about billions in additional costs.
DHS is swooping in now with an actuarial study that says not so fast. If they're right, then the case for the "private option" could be even stronger than the case for Medicaid expansion. But their arguments go against the general consensus about the costs of the government paying for health coverage through private companies instead of directly. They've been greeted with some skepticism outside the state so far.
I interviewed Allison yesterday to try and tease out where these numbers came from and why they think they're on to something that the consensus view has missed. After the jump, see a summary of DHS's key arguments, plus a response from a health economist who remains skeptical.
Let's look at the core components behind the theory of DHS and their actuaries. We'll start with the basics and then get to the core theory behind their findings which, if accurate, would be a game-changer.
1) Obviously, all of the numbers are only as good as the actuaries who compiled them. The Insurance Department contracted with Optum, an actuarial company in Arizona. "This firm has experience consulting both private firms engaged in the exchange as well as for a long period of time Medicaid programs and managed care programs," Allison said. "They're very used to developing these sorts of estimates. I have found them to be even conservative." In addition to standard actuarial methods and experience nationally in the public and private sectors, they also had the most recent three years of comprehensive claims data from DHS.
2) The baseline difference that Optum found between private rates and Medicaid rates was around 24 percent. They also projected that private rates would go down further under the "private option," by around five percent, because of competition and because of better health plan management. The competition is achieved not through lots of consumer choices in the marketplace, but through a competitive bidding process for the carriers. The rules haven't been set yet, but the plan will be something like this: consumers only get the premium paid for if they pick one of the two cheapest plans (the same competitive bidding structure will exist for the 138-400 population getting subsidies on the exchange). Since almost everyone will do that, there will be intense competition among the carriers to be one of the cheapest two. Again, this means not that many options for consumers if they want to be subsidized, but it's a mechanism to make them extremely price sensitive. As for plan management, Allison offered the example of the small cost sharing allowed by the law. It will be "tailored and focused" by private insurers in a way that's "just too awkward for the state to try to do," he said.
3) The biggest, and likely most controversial factor, is that they assume that under a traditional Medicaid expansion, Medicaid rates and private rates would be the same. That's why they apply a 24 percent up-charge to the Medicaid rates under a "traditional expansion" counter-factual: we know that Medicaid rates are cheaper than private rates, but Allison says that if we expanded Medicaid, that would cease to be true.
"Much more in reimbursement would need to be made available to providers and to the system to increase and secure access for this new population," he said. Not only higher than before, but higher even than Medicare ? all the way up to private rates. "We're suggesting that you can't continue to cross-subsidize in a world of full insurance."
Some of this may be specific to Arkansas ? which has a low differential between public and private rates now and also has extremely stingy Medicaid, so that there is "a missing market in the state." But Allison is also arguing that the trend of private and public rates moving toward each other is what we should expect to see if places move toward universal coverage. That trend is observable in other states who already cover this population, he said, as well as reports from private insurers developing bids for exchanges looking ahead to 2014. Whether private rates go down or public rates go up is "a bit of an open question" but "the point is that they need to be the same."
If you've been following the healthcare debate and the "private option" debate, you will recognize how radical ? or at least new ? this argument is. It a priori assumes that the gross cost of insuring the expansion via Medicaid or the "private option" is about the same (which means a "private option" is cheaper overall because of #2 above). That would change everything! As Allison said, "If it's the same number either way then this question of cost comparability ? cost effectiveness ? for the private option versus some kind of traditional Medicaid is moot."
"It just didn't occur to folks," he said. "It didn't occur to me or anyone else. It's not a discussion we've had in the country because a pure buy-in like this really wasn't imagined until the last couple of months."
The key point here is that achieving the access mandated by law for the large expansion pool requires upping reimbursement rates (this is precisely why private insurance has better access now). Allison believes that previous estimates failed to take this into account. Allison wrote to CMS director Cynthia Mann on March 7 (email acquired by FOIA request): "CBO seems to have made some sort of naive assumption, apparently, that existing average provider reimbursement rate differentials (Medicaid FFS versus private carrier rates) would be the same with and without all the new coverage."
A rate increase in Medicaid would require legislative action but Allison suggested that a rate increase to meet access needs was easier to achieve politically than you might think ? and presumably access requirements mandated by federal law in order to get the match rates could force the legislature's hand.
The theory goes that in a competitive market with near-universal coverage, the price will move toward what is required to achieve the minimum required level of access. That could move Medicaid rates up or private rates down or a little bit of both.
"Look at this from the provider's point of view, from the healthcare system's point of view," Allison said. "Partly what is implied here is that the system itself is not quite big enough. There's two issues ? there's how many certified professionals and how many facilities." How they adjust to the new pool of consumers is "a market decision. And that market decision, from their point of view, we don't think is any different depending on who's paying them."
The key to making the "private option" work is that the medically needy people in that pool will go to Medicaid, so there will be a separate high-risk pool (and in fact, some healthy people currently in Medicaid will move to the exchange). "We are explicitly protecting the exchange from the highest risks among that group because the top high-risk 10 percent would likely be withheld," Allison said.
That leaves "a large, stable, and healthy population that could actually stabilize and significantly reduce adverse selection" in the exchange, Allison said. "What it takes to create a competitive insurance market like an exchange is to seed that large group?that marketplace?with a large, stable, and ideally relatively healthy population. That is precisely what the Arkansas option would do." Allison described it as a "perfect antidote" to the potential for higher private premiums suggested by a recent study from the Society of Actuaries. (This is an appealing frame for Republican lawmakers: private option protects us from Obamacare! Silly, but politically valuable.)
Boston University health economist Austin Frakt said that the DHS predictions were possible but should be greeted with healthy skepticism.
These numbers are really hard to know for sure. The probability that everything will work out just perfect that it's going to be a cost savings or cost neutral ? it's just hard to know. I think it's an interesting and innovative plan. It's got some great things in it for beneficiaries, great things in it for providers. It's obviously of tremendous political value and that can't be ignored. It definitely comes with some risk of increased costs to the federal government. ... I'm not fully swayed by the analysis that it will be cost neutral or cost savings.
You can (and should!) read more of Frakt elaborating on his questions about the Arkansas plan's costs here on the Incidental Economist blog.
That said, Frakt suggested that those risks of federal costs might be worth it "as long as it's understood that [increased costs] could happen." He also noted that other states might follow the lead of Arkansas and the numbers might work out differently. "It's hard to believe that every state would be able to save money with it," he said. The key is that we go in to this experiment with our eyes open about cost uncertainty. (Cue the joke that the sneaky reason for the "private option" is driving up the costs of Obamacare.)
In the end, I find the experimentation argument pretty convincing, and you have to think that's part of what is motivating HHS. The "private option" will be at least as good for beneficiaries, so if HHS is willing to take a little financial risk to try an approach that could plausibly turn out to be better, that seems like a good thing. As Allison wrote to me, "we could easily end up learning more about Medicaid in the next ten years than the previous 50 combined." That doesn't guarantee better policy but it's a start.
And we can't forget the political reality: right now, the "private option" is the only way forward to getting health coverage for more than 200,000 Arkansans.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California | Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:17pm EDT
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - The first crossing of the United States by a solar-powered plane is expected to start in just over a month, its creators said on Thursday, as they make final preparations for an attempt two years from now at the first round-the-world flight without any fuel.
Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard and project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg, whose Solar Impulse made its first intercontinental flight from Spain to Morocco last June, aim for their plane to take off from near San Francisco in early May and land at New York's John F. Kennedy airport about two months later.
With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and weighing the same as a small car, the Solar Impulse is just a test model for the team as they build a new aircraft they hope will circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay -- backers who want to test new materials and technologies while also gaining brand recognition.
Unveiling the current plane at a news conference at Moffett Field on San Francisco Bay, Borschberg highlighted the cramped conditions of the cockpit in the Solar Impulse.
"That's a bad economy seat - you would not fly on this airline," he joked. "The next one should be good business class."
While the current plane was set up for 24-hour flights, the next one would have to allow for up to five days and five nights of flying by one pilot - a feat never yet accomplished.
Meditation and hypnosis were part of the training for the pilots as they prepare to fly on very little sleep, Borschberg said, adding that some sort of autopilot system would have to be built on the next plane to allow for some rest.
The plane runs on about the same power as a motor scooter, he explained, powered by 12,000 solar cells built into the wing that simultaneously recharge the batteries - with storage equivalent to that of a Tesla electric car.
The plane has already flown a 26-hour flight, back in 2010, to prove continuous flight was possible with charging taking place in the day and battery power working at night.
Piccard, asked about the downside of solar-powered flight, agreed that there is a price paid for the small carrying capacity and massive wings.
"In that sense, it is not the easiest way to fly," he said. "But it is the most fabulous way to fly, because the more you fly, the more energy you have on board."
The first stop for the Solar Impulse as it crosses the United States will be Phoenix, followed by Dallas and then one of three cities: Atlanta, Nashville or St. Louis. It will then stop outside Washington D.C. before heading on to New York.
"It carries one pilot and zero passengers, but it carries a lot of messages," Piccard said. "We want to inspire as many people as possible to have that same spirit: to dare, to innovate, to invent."
Piccard has a pioneering legacy to maintain. His grandfather helped his father, Jacques, build a revolutionary submarine that Jacques co-piloted on the deepest-ever dive. Bertrand said he believes the basic idea behind this spirit is to find out what you deeply believe, and then try the opposite.
"Innovation is not about new ideas, it's about getting rid of old ideas."
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Rep. Don Young, the gruff Republican veteran who represents the entire state of Alaska, apologized Friday for referring to Hispanic migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview.
"I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska," Young said in a statement after lawmakers from both political parties called on him to apologize.
"There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words," Young said. "That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I'm sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform."
The 79-year-old Young, the second-most senior Republican in the House, issued a statement late Thursday seeking to explain his remark after using the derogatory term to describe the workers on his father's farm in central California, where he grew up.
Young, discussing the labor market during an interview with radio station KRBD in Ketchikan, said that on his father's ranch, "we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes." He said, "It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It's all done by machine."
"Wetbacks" often refers to Mexican migrants who have entered the country illegally, and Hispanics consider the word, which can be used to disparage all Hispanics, to be highly pejorative.
Young's explanation on Thursday wasn't good enough for lawmakers from either political party. His use of the word drew swift criticism from fellow Republicans working to temper the party's hardline positions on illegal immigrants and to improve GOP standing among Hispanic voters.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Young's remarks were "offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds." Boehner said he didn't care why Young said it; "there's no excuse, and it warrants an immediate apology."
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said the party offers a "beacon of hope" for those seeking liberty around the world and that Young's remarks "emphatically do not represent the beliefs of the Republican Party."
"Shame on Don Young," said Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas. "It is deeply disheartening that in 2013, we are forced to have a discussion about a member of Congress using such hateful words and racial slurs."
Arturo Carmona, executive director of Presente.org, an online Latino advocacy organization, said Young should resign.
In his statement on Thursday, Young said he had "used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect."
He added that during the interview, he had "discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship" and said the country must tackle the issue of immigration reform.
Among his jobs before entering politics were teaching school to indigenous Alaskans and working as a tugboat captain in the Yukon. Since entering Congress in 1973, Young has been known for his hot temper, his salty language and his independent streak.
As resources committee chairman in the late 1990s, he took on environmentalists and the Bill Clinton administration in pushing for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and logging in Alaska national forests. He headed the transportation committee during much of the George W. Bush administration, during which he defied his own party's anti-tax positions by supporting an increase in the federal gas tax to help pay for bridge and highway construction.
It was under Young's chairmanship that the "bridge to nowhere," which was actually two proposed Alaska construction projects, became a symbol for questionable special projects inserted into spending bills.
He also is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which is looking into whether he failed to report gifts on his annual disclosure forms, misused campaign funds and lied to federal officials. The investigation comes from an earlier Justice Department probe into whether Young accepted gifts in return for political patronage. Young has said that Justice cleared him of those charges.
"I've been under a cloud all my life," he told reporters in Juneau Thursday. "It's sort of like living in Juneau. It rains on you all the time. You don't even notice it."
Young said he plans to run for re-election next year, saying he doesn't know anyone who can do a better job than he does in representing the state.
___
Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
It's been a long time coming, and now the Android-powered, Kickstarter-funded OUYA video game console is finally heading to backers. Sure, the final retail units for non-backers won't be available until June, but around 50,000 lucky folks who pledged over $99 to OUYA's massively successful campaign will be receiving their units in the coming days. We've already heard what developers have to say about it, but this week we got our first hands-on with the miniature, Tegra 3-powered game console we've been hearing so much about since last summer.
Is it the "best Tegra 3 device on the market," as OUYA's claimed? Let's find out!
NEW YORK (AP) ? FX says it's spinning off a new cable network aimed at young adult viewers.
Launching Sept. 2, FXX will join big brother FX along with the movie-oriented FXM as the brand's trio of channels.
The company says Thursday that the lineup for FXX will consist of original series, movies and acquired series targeting adults 18 to 34, a slightly younger audience than FX attracts. The new channel will be anchored by the comedies "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "The League," two veteran series that until now have been telecast on FX.
Coming to FX this July is a new drama series titled "The Bridge." Starring Demian Bichir and Diane Kruger, it centers on two detectives hunting down a killer operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? NASCARChairman Brian France said Tuesday the contact between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin as they battled for the win at California over the weekend was just the kind of throwback racing he expects out of his drivers and the new Gen-6 car.
"I have said repeatedly, every minute, that contact, especially late in the race when you are going for a win, that's not only going to happen ? that's expected," France said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Both of them did exactly what I think you would do when you really, really want to win. Getting some contact, trying to race extra hard to win the race, that's what we're about."
Hamlin suffered a compressed fracture of the L1 vertebra in his lower back, and Joe Gibbs Racing said Tuesday night he'll be out a minimum of six weeks.
France, who spoke to AP hours before JGR announced Hamlin would not require surgery but needed time to heal, did not think anything was done intentionally by Logano to harm Hamlin.
"Injuries can happen throughout any race on any lap, and fortunately they are seldom," France said. "That's just part of racing."
NASCAR announced Tuesday no penalties were warranted after California ? not against Tony Stewart for scuffling with Logano after the race, and series officials saw nothing to indicate Logano or Hamlin were trying to intentionally wreck each other as they raced for the win. In addition, NASCAR officials have given no thought to policing blocking, which is what Logano did to Stewart on the final restart to trigger the post-race confrontation.
"There are no conversations internally inside of NASCAR to look at blocking as a violation or a penalty as some other forms of motorsports do," Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said. "As good as the racing has been, as exciting as it's been, I don't know that we need to jump in the middle and screw it up."
Stewart parked his car near Logano's and angrily approached him after Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. There was some shoving, but crew members intervened before any punches landed. Logano threw a water bottle at Stewart.
Darby said the incident didn't escalate to a level where NASCAR had to take action.
"A few years ago we backed away from micromanaging drivers' emotions, you would hope in today's world that if somebody didn't win a race, they would be upset about it," Darby said. "I don't know that we've actually got a rule book that describes every push in the chest or kick in the shin. If two guys get into a hell of a fight, we're going to have to react. But a couple of guys blowing off some steam and slapping at the air is not going to get anybody in a whole lot of trouble."
France noted that drivers are encouraged to show their emotion and settle disputes ? which is all Stewart was doing on Sunday.
"We have no problem, and frankly encourage drivers to go up to one another to discuss whatever they think they need to that happened in the race," France said. "And then every once in a while there will be some emotions, and that's what happened Sunday and crews stepped in between them and we don't think it rose to some level of anything."
France said NASCAR will intervene when feuds go too far and when emotions run too high.
"We're not going to allow a boxing match to take place every time they have a disagreement," France said. "But on the other hand, we're not going to prevent the emotional exchanges that occur after a race. Everyone has the right to walk up to someone and say, 'What the? What happened there? What did you do that for?' And they explain themselves and usually work it out."
It remains to be seen where the Logano and Hamlin feud goes from here, although Sunday was viewed as a racing incident.
The two former teammates have feuded since the closing laps of the season-opening Daytona 500 and it escalated after contact from Hamlin sent Logano spinning into the wall two races ago at Bristol. Logano angrily confronted Hamlin after the race before being pulled away by crew members.
The two moved their feud to Twitter for at least the second time this season and then came Sunday's race.
They were racing side-by-side on the last lap for the win when they banged into each other. Both cars spun and Hamlin's hit head-on into an inside wall not protected with energy-absorbing SAFER barriers.
He spent Sunday night in a Southern California hospital, where he was diagnosed with an L1 compression fracture in his lower back. He saw Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates on Tuesday, and Petty determined the driver will not need surgery but needed a minimum of six weeks to heal.
NASCAR is off this weekend, so Hamlin could miss only five races if the healing process meets Petty's estimate. But the next five weeks include stops at Martinsville Speedway and Richmond International Raceway, where the Virginia-raised driver has a combined six Sprint Cup victories.
Hamlin also races in his annual charity event at RIR, and will now have to sit that out, too.
Darby did not think Logano intentionally wrecked Hamlin.
"It was the last lap of the race, and the last time they were both going to see turns three and four. They were side-by-side. If somebody was of the mindset to retaliate, they probably would have been lined up nose-to-tail and somebody would have drove into the other car and spun him around," Darby said. "In this case, that is so far from the opposite, that it never even crossed anybody's mind that I'm aware of that paid attention to the race."
Meanwhile, NASCAR is still going over data from Hamlin's accident and will need to meet with officials from the University of Nebraska, home to the engineering school's Midwest Roadside Safety experts, and IndyCar before making any recommendations on whether a SAFER barrier should be installed where Hamlin hit.
When NASCAR first began installing SAFER barriers following the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt, the priority were locations where cars frequently hit the wall. Officials at Nebraska also make recommendations not to install the barriers at certain points at a facility because of various issues, including the potential for a car to sling-shot back into traffic after impact.
Track officials usually follow the recommendations.
Tom Gideon, senior director of safety research and development at NASCAR, said where Hamlin hit was not an area that cars frequently make impact.
"Each point on the track we look at the application and you don't want to put (barriers) in places where the angle of impact may not be appropriate for a SAFER barrier," Gideon said. "We also look at the possibility of impact and the frequency of impact, and when you look at the frequency of impact, especially at oval tracks, it's reasonable to think they are going to be with outside walls."
NASCAR doesn't race at Auto Club Speedway again this season, but IndyCar's October finale is scheduled at the track. IndyCar officials said the series is working with NASCAR, Nebraska and the Fontana track officials to study the accident and see if "any changes need be addressed prior to our race at Fontana."
Imagine a world where you can control every aspect of your home wirelessly from your smartphone. The Philips Hue Connected bulb ($199.95 list; 3-bulb starter kit) brings that vision one step closer to reality, allowing you to wirelessly control your lighting. But it's not just about control, it's about customization. The Philips Hue app for Android and iOS is surprisingly powerful, letting you adjust intensity, set custom colors, color combinations, and schedules. There's an undeniable wow factor from the moment you screw in your first bulb, but there's also some genuine convenience and utility. Unfortunately, the system is prohibitively expensive at $60 per bulb or $200 for the starter kit with three bulbs.
Hue Bulbs and Setup The Hue bulbs are conical in shape, with a glass end and a tapered aluminum body that terminates in a standard light bulb connector. They feel more substantial than your typical light bulb, but are about the same size and virtually indistinguishable once screwed into a socket. Unlike fluorescent or incandescent lightbulbs, the Hue bulbs utilize LEDs. Philips rates the lifespan of each bulb at up to 15,000 hours, and despite the Wi-Fi connectivity, claims that each bulb uses 80 percent less power than a traditional incandescent bulb. ???
With each starter pack you get three bulbs and a wireless bridge. You can add up to 50 bulbs to a single bridge, but keep in mind that starter kit bulbs are permanently tied to their packaged bridge?that means you can only add bulbs to your starter kit using the single bulb packs.
Setup is simple and straightforward, and there's very little networking knowledge required. First you screw in your bulbs and turn them on?they'll light up without a wireless connection like any lightbulb. Next you connect the wireless bridge to your Wi-Fi router using the included ethernet cable. Then download the free iOS or Android app and follow the on-screen prompts for pairing the Hue bulbs and bridge with your phone or tablet. To control the Hue bulbs wirelessly, you must leave your power switches turned on. Keep in mind you can still turn Hue bulbs on or off using your regular light switch if you don't have your mobile device handy, but you just won't be able to adjust color or light intensity.?
Controlling and Customizing Your Hue Using the Hue app, you can control and customize the color and intensity of each individual lightbulb. This can extend from simply turning lights on and off with your smartphone, or recreating a scene from your last vacation. Philips pre-loads a number of readymade "scenes," like a sunrise, or color profiles, like "relax," which can stimulate desired moods. Each scene is a real picture, and you can even upload your own photos to use with Hue. Selecting a picture brings up an overlay with icons representing each bulb. You can drag each bulb independently to any point on the picture, and the bulbs will then mimic the color of your chosen point. This all happens in real time, so you can watch the color changes and get exactly the tone and intensity you're looking for.
Preset color profiles were hit or miss in my tests. I really enjoyed the "relax" setting, which created a pleasant and dimmed warm light. The "energize" setting, on the other hand, made me feel like I was under the harsh fluorescent tubes of a drab office. You can also control each bulb individually, without using scenes or color profiles, so you can set an infinite number of color combinations and intensities. You can also label each bulb, and control which scenes apply to which bulbs.
Aside from changing the color and intensity of each bulb, you can also set timers for individual bulbs. I particularly liked this feature, as I could set my bedroom light to turn on gradually before my alarm went off, making for a less jarring wake up call. This feature is currently only available to iOS users.
As versatile as the color controls are, the app itself isn't the most intuitive to use. For example, associating specific bulbs with specific scenes isn't immediately apparent?you have to dig down into the editing menus for each scene?and that lead me to a lot of inadvertent color shifts during my tests. Adjusting individual bulbs also requires you to rotate your smartphone into landscape orientation, which brings up a color gradient selection that's otherwise hidden.?The closest competitor we've tested is the Belkin WeMo + Motion, which lets you use your phone or tablet to turn almost any appliance on and off, set timers, and even set motion detection rules. It's a bit clunkier, however, and the app could use a lot more work. It also only controls on or off, as opposed to the Hue's ability to control things like color or brightness.
There are also a few features missing from the app that I'd like to see added in the future. For one, presets should be shareable between household members or even other Hue owners. Aside from labels, you should be able to easily group your bulbs by room, instead of manually setting scenes for each room. A more robust schedule system with recurring alarms or calendar features would also be a welcome addition. These aren't deal breakers, but for such an expensive product, I'd like to see Philips expand the feature set of the app.
One of the hidden beauties of the Hue system is its vibrant developer community. The official app from Philips has plenty of features to play with, but there's an ever-growing selection of homegrown apps that expand the functionality of Hue. The Hue software is open source, which is great for encouraging third-party app development. Many of these apps can be found in the Apple App Store, like Hue Disco, which can?synchronize your Hue bulbs to music playback.
The Lighting of the Future, if You Can Afford it I like pretty much everything about the Hue?except the price. At $60 a bulb, hooking your home up with Hue is a serious investment. You could argue that the 15,000 hour lifespan (compared with the 1,000 hour lifespan of typical incandescent bulbs), which is approximately 15 years of light, and the energy savings make up for the initial outlay, but it's still a tough pill to swallow up front. Pricing aside, the Hue not only adds the convenience of wireless control, but it adds an element of wonder with its ability to easily recreate scenes and moods that were once confined solely to pictures. If I could afford it, I would replace every light bulb in my house with Hue bulbs.
This is the third of the six-part "Inspired to Strive" series, in which business leaders of middle-market companies share their stories of success. "Inspired to Strive" is sponsored by CIT.
See more Inspired to Strive >>
It is hard to believe that New Jersey, a state where only 3 in 8 days are sunny, is the second largest solar energy producing state, after California.
While New Jersey lacks California's large population and sunnier weather, the state has developed other strategies to harness solar power.
Petra Solar, a solar energy technology company that pairs its "smart energy modules" with other vendors' solar panels, has emerged as one of the success stories of the New Jersey's solar power revolution.
Instead of focusing on developing solar panels and solar farms, the company has come up with unique technology to distribute and control solar power gathered by the panels in the most optimized way possible.
It combines its smart-grid technology modules with traditional solar panels, which are mounted on roofs or even utility poles in 30 minutes, and works with utility companies rather than individual residential projects.
In 2009, Petra Solar has inked a mammoth $200 million contract with PSE&G, the largest utility company in New Jersey, to distribute and install its solar energy solution all throughout the state.
Rachid Sefrioui, president of Petra Solar with years of experience in investing and in the solar energy field, explains how the company became the leader in the industry, its expansion from Jersey to the Middle East, and what the future holds for solar energy in the video below.
Seattle Police investigate a dented pickup at the scene of a two dead traffic accident in northern Seattle neighborhood Monday March 25, 2013, in Seattle. A pickup truck driver crashed into four pedestrians crossing a Seattle street on Monday, killing two and critically injuring two others _ a woman and the infant she was carrying, police said. (AP Photo/Seattle Times, Ken Lambert)
Seattle Police investigate a dented pickup at the scene of a two dead traffic accident in northern Seattle neighborhood Monday March 25, 2013, in Seattle. A pickup truck driver crashed into four pedestrians crossing a Seattle street on Monday, killing two and critically injuring two others _ a woman and the infant she was carrying, police said. (AP Photo/Seattle Times, Ken Lambert)
A pickup struck four pedestrians crossing a Seattle street Monday, March 25, 2013, killing two and critically injuring two others _ a woman and the infant she was carrying, police said. The driver, sitting, Mark W. Mullan, 50, of Seattle, was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of vehicular homicide, jail records showed. (AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Ken Lambert)
SEATTLE (AP) ? A suspected drunken driver slammed into a family at a crosswalk in a crash that critically injured a newborn child and his mother and killed his grandparents, who had recently moved to Seattle from the Midwest to be near their grandson.
Karina Schulte, 33, and her 10-day-old son were in critical condition Tuesday afternoon, said Liz Hunter, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Grandparents Dennis Schulte, 66, and Judith Schulte, 68, died at the scene Monday.
Judith Schulte's sister, Susan Morton, said the retired Indiana couple was walking Monday afternoon with their daughter-in-law and the baby when they were stuck.
Karina Schulte "had the baby in a sling on the front. He just hit all four of them," said Morton, of Cottonwood, Minn., in a telephone interview.
Mark Mullan, 50, was ordered held on $2.5 million bail during a court hearing Tuesday. He is being held on investigation of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. Prosecutors have until Thursday to formally charge him.
In court documents, a Seattle police officer investigating the crash said he smelled alcohol on Mullan's breath and that Mullan showed impairment on sobriety tests. A preliminary test showed a breath alcohol level of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08, the officer said in court documents. His license was suspended at the time of the crash at an intersection in a residential neighborhood, according to the documents.
Mullan told police he was unable to see the pedestrians because the sun was in his eyes, according to court documents.
"He does not have a valid license," said Brad Benfield, a spokesman with the Department of Licensing.
It was unclear Tuesday whether Mullan had legal representation. A message left with an attorney who represented him in a drunken driving case in December was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Mullan didn't answer reporters' questions as police led him away from the scene of the crash in handcuffs Monday. Police said he stopped after the crash and was cooperative. A phone number listed for Mullan was disconnected.
Morton said Karina Schulte, who is from Chile, works as a pediatric nurse specialist and is dedicated to her work.
Dennis and Judith Schulte were both longtime high school teachers; she taught English and was a head guidance counselor for years, while he taught math. They had moved to Seattle from Kokomo, Ind., in February to witness the birth of their first grandson. They had planned to spend six months in Seattle to be near their son and his family. They were renting an apartment near the intersection where they were killed.
"They were so elated. This is their only grandchild," Morton said. "They wanted to be there when he was born. They got to hold him and be there with him for 10 days."
Museum exhibit developed at Harvard SEAS puts evolution at visitors' fingertipsPublic 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.
Museum exhibit developed at Harvard SEAS puts evolution at visitors' fingertipsPublic 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.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Using the Hue app, you can control and customize the color and intensity of each individual lightbulb. This can extend from simply turning lights on and off with your smartphone, or recreating a scene from your last vacation. Philips pre-loads a number of readymade "scenes," like a sunrise, or color profiles, like "relax," which can stimulate desired moods. Each scene is a real picture, and you can even upload your own photos to use with Hue. Selecting a picture brings up an overlay with icons representing each bulb. You can drag each bulb independently to any point on the picture, and the bulbs will then mimic the color of your chosen point. This all happens in real time, so you can watch the color changes and get exactly the tone and intensity you're looking for.
Aside from changing the color and intensity of each bulb, you can also set timers for individual bulbs. I particularly liked this feature, as I could set my bedroom light to turn on gradually before my alarm went off, making for a less jarring wake up call. This feature is currently only available to iOS users.
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Public release date: 25-Mar-2013
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