News Stories

[MrTerrorist]

Are beer firms to blame for Native American drink woe?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by konart

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/126746/

PS: now it's already six or eight

Condolences to the victims. And what the fck is wrong with the world today :

Ex-school principal in online vice sex case gets 9 weeks jail

Former teacher turns up in suit, and with lawyer

And I agree with this lawyer :

This case is screwed up. The defense attorney should have the right to be granted private access to information of the girl's identity, if not, hire a private investigator to turn up the information. Of course he should be gagged not to share the information (except for those granted permission by the High Court), though in court he needs the information to be able to defend his clients, and allow the court to make a fair conviction based on all available evidence.

If the girl is called to court to identify the men she had slept with after having slept with so many men, how can the representing justice rely on that to convict the men and assume she can remember all the men she had slept with?

The misrepresentation of age clause is only applicable under contract law. Unless this Indian guy can convince the judge that the "advertisement of sexual service" is an oral agreement enforceable as a joint offer by the pimp and the girl, with an intention to profit from it, the girl is effectively chargeable under the criminal act of misrepresentation, or maybe even fraud to procure monetary compensation for services she cannot yet offer at her age (and without legal permit, of course).

Of course, the prosecution is filibustering this by making use of the first 2 parts of the Evidence Act (Relavancy of Facts & Admissions-Confessions) : if the defence can't get to the girl, and can't get anything out of the girl, they have nothing to defend themselves with.

[ganbaru]

Judge considers adjusting Zimmerman's bond
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-consider...GVzdAM-;_ylv=3

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Endless Soul

Interesting.

I was at Fry's (a U.S. west coast based super electronics store) a few months ago and my friend and I wandered near the TV section. They had a side-by-side demonstration of HD vs. non-HD TV screens. Both were over 50" wide, both were from teh same manufacturer, but one was HD, the other wasn't. The display was set up to play Battle: Los Angeles simultaneously. The regular TV looked as it would when viewed at the theater. With the HD TV, the effects looked fake, and were quite obvious. It looked really bad. Like Galactica: 1980 bad.

HD might be fine for sports and whatnot, but I don't think it works so well for movies.

By the by, if you've never been to a Fry's you should go. They're...interesting.

Endless "Dr. Zee" Soul

Um, all TVs are HDTVs now.

Nobody makes CRTs anymore, and LCD TVs just don't go lower than 1280x720 resolution these days. Sure, you used to be able to find some 854x480 "EDTVs" (mostly by Sony) but they've all been discontinued now.

If there's an electronics store that has TVs for sale, they're mostly LCD (they might have a few plasma displays, but that's a bit rare these days) and all of them are at least 1280x720 resolution (most will probably be 1920x1080). And that's really all an HDTV is, a "high definition television" which is just a fancy way of saying "has at least 720 vertical pixels."

[totoum]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Um, all TVs are HDTVs now.

Nobody makes CRTs anymore, and LCD TVs just don't go lower than 1280x720 resolution these days. Sure, you used to be able to find some 854x480 "EDTVs" (mostly by Sony) but they've all been discontinued now.

If there's an electronics store that has TVs for sale, they're mostly LCD (they might have a few plasma displays, but that's a bit rare these days) and all of them are at least 1280x720 resolution (most will probably be 1920x1080). And that's really all an HDTV is, a "high definition television" which is just a fancy way of saying "has at least 720 vertical pixels."

Yeah I'm not sure if the sales person was clueless or just trying to fool costumers,or maybe endless soul missunderstood?

@ Endless Soul: movies that you watch on the big screen in the theatre are generally made at even higher resolutions than HD so the resolution has nothing to do with what you were experiencing.
What I think you experienced is something similar to what was described in the article, there's modern TVs now that can artificially increase framerates (just like the article talked about The hobbit being shot at twice the framerate of a usual movie) so one TV had that feature and you had the same reaction as the guy in the article.
It's a feature that's nice if you like playing videogames and watch sports but is completely useless if all you do is watch movies.

[SeijiSensei]

Whenever I've looked at televisions in showrooms like Best Buy there are really obvious differences in image quality across brands and models. I don't know whether the stores make any effort to optimize the sets, or whether they just pull them out of the box and hang them on the wall. There can also be a pretty big difference between how a set looks under store lighting and how it would look in your living room at home. i actually bought my Sony Bravia by mail-order from Amazon based largely on reading reviews and what seemed like knowledgeable opinions online at places like AVSForum. When I later looked at the set on the wall in the store, I thought it still looked better than most of its competitors, but some of that could be self-delusion.

[synaesthetic]

The "too fluid" TV may have been a 120Hz TV. They do look a bit "unreal" when playing movies at 120Hz refresh rate, but the higher refresh rate makes games look positively stellar.

[Kokukirin]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

The "too fluid" TV may have been a 120Hz TV. They do look a bit "unreal" when playing movies at 120Hz refresh rate, but the higher refresh rate makes games look positively stellar.

120Hz? Considering that most programs are recorded in 30Hz or less, that's a hell lot of interpolation. Actually, I am not sure if there is any point in raising frame rate beyond ~60Hz.

[Solace]

The "too fluid" image isn't really the Hz, but the processing engine that "smooths" the image.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Kokukirin

120Hz? Considering that most programs are recorded in 30Hz or less, that's a hell lot of interpolation. Actually, I am not sure if there is any point in raising frame rate beyond ~60Hz.

Well, if your refresh rate can keep up with your framerate when gaming things just look a lot better and you don't get screen tearing. That's why most games have a "vsync" option which locks the framerate in at a maximum of 60FPS (or 59FPS if you have a strange monitor like mine).

But good gaming PCs can easily drive games in the 120FPS range, so a 120Hz monitor makes them look awesome.

[Rahan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Whenever I've looked at televisions in showrooms like Best Buy there are really obvious differences in image quality across brands and models. I don't know whether the stores make any effort to optimize the sets, or whether they just pull them out of the box and hang them on the wall.

In France, "they" say the settings of most TV are intentionally messed up to make the other TV (the most profitable to the store) look better in comparison.
Although obviously, no one ever had a proof of that.

[ganbaru]

Blind China activist makes mystery "escape"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...83Q19Y20120428

http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/04...videoChannel=1

[TinyRedLeaf]

It's not really news but, still, the topic bears thinking about.

In the capital of the forgetful

By Louis Theroux
Phoenix, Arizona
(April 25, Wed)

NANCY Vaughan is a charming and lively conversationalist, a friendly host and, at nearly 90, still has much of the sparkle and attractiveness that must have turned many heads when she was in her heyday as a model in New York.

But she also has trouble remembering her own name, or the fact that she is married (62 years and counting), or indeed, much of the time, some of the basics of the English language.

Nancy is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.

On a sunny late autumn day, I visited Nancy and her husband, John, at their home in Phoenix, Arizona. We made friendly conversation in the kitchen and for moments, I could have believed that she was mentally well. Her smile is still engaging; she is physically fit, and she can sometimes carry on brief exchanges. When I asked if she had any problems with her memory, she said an emphatic "no".

But when John posed the question directly, "Nancy, what is your name?", she looked a bit baffled. Asked for her surname, Nancy said "Bread", a little uncertainly. I wondered whether this might be her maiden name, but was told that was Johnson.

Nancy and John's life has become surreal and stressful in many ways. John has taken to wearing a name tag with his name on it to help Nancy identify him. He has also stuck a copy of their wedding photo up in the kitchen so that, in her confused moments, he can prove to her that they are married.

John cares for Nancy full-time. They have no children, so there is no family help take the strain, and they are not in the financial position to have Nancy go into a care home. Aged 88, John is the full-time carer for someone with many of the same needs as an adult-sized toddler.

John and Nancy are by no means exceptional. There is a slow-moving tsunami of dementia advancing towards us as our population ages.

It's reckoned that one in eight Americans aged 65 and over has Alzheimer's — the most common cause of dementia. Nearly half of the over 85s has the disease. As medical science has become better and better at prolonging our lives, the mental side of things hasn't kept pace.

Nowhere is this more in evidence than in Phoenix. For years, Phoenix has been a mecca for America's elderly, who are attracted by the year-round sun and dry desert heat.

Now, increasingly, it is a kind of capital of the forgetful and the confused. Not coincidentally, Phoenix is also pioneering the way dementia sufferers are cared for and treated.

One of the top destinations for people in need of round-the-clock care is Beatitudes, a gated retirement complex, which has, tucked among its many buildings, a memory-support annex. Most of the residents at Beatitudes have seriously impaired memories, to the point where they can no longer look after themselves, are quite often confused, and occasionally have delusions.

Beatitudes staff use medication as little as possible. They try to be flexible and adapt to the quirks of the residents and the symptoms of their condition, letting them wander the corridors at night should they feel urge, letting them bathe, eat and sleep on their own schedule, and offering them snacks and chocolate at any time of the day or night.

I spent the best part of two weeks at Beatitudes, observing their practices first-hand.

CONTINUED ON BBC NEWS

Louis Theroux is an English broadcaster best known for his documentaries in the television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, his BBC2 Specials and When Louis Met... His career started off in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family such as his father, Paul Theroux and brother Marcel Theroux. He currently works with the BBC producing his documentaries and popular TV series.

The comments at the bottom were... sobering.

My dad has vascular dementia where your memory goes down in stages and over the last 12 months since having to put him into a home we've watched him disappear from us almost completely. My advice to anyone who has a relative or friend with this disease is keep going and enjoy your time with that person. Hearing that "old story" for the umpteenth time isn't so bad as you will miss hearing it when they are lost to you and it's just a shell that looks and sounds like them with a totally different personality to the one you have known and loved. RIP dad and know we will look after your shell properly until it passes away.
Ian H, Bury St Edmunds

My husband has Alzheimer's and I have no family to turn to for help. I would just like to say that there is no one out there to help the carer of the Alzheimer's person and it is very very hard trying to cope on your own when I am 5ft 1in and my husband is 6ft 6in and does become very aggressive. I get so desperate for some kind of support. I am just told to ring the police!
Lyn Nailer, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

I work as a hospital cleaner in a geriatric ward. A lot of of them never have visitors. Despite their dementia, they all do remember well that they have a family that is never here for them. They call their names into emptiness, get angry and cry at the thought of abandon. That does not help them "organize" their thoughts and they drown further away from reality.
Luc, Montreal, Canada

[MrTerrorist]

Israel ex-security chief says leadership 'misleading public' on Iran

With various members of the Israeli military and intelligence community criticizing the PM, those this suggest the PM is using this whole Iran affair thing to win an upcoming election or something?

[SeijiSensei]

I suspect Bibi also hopes to replace Barack Obama, whom he clearly dislikes both politically and perhaps personally as well, with his old buddy Mitt Romney. Romney's comment in a primary debate last December that "Before I made a statement [about the Palestinians], I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say: ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do?’" raised quite a few eyebrows among seasoned diplomats.

In the past an insecure international situation has generally been seen as beneficial to the Republicans. This time around I think Obama has actually defused the "Democrats are soft" perception after the assassinations of Bin Laden and other high-level al-Qaeda commanders. It's still the case, though, that no matter how strongly Obama puts himself behind Israel (starting around 07:45), he's still criticized by the right, even when he endorses positions, in particular a return to 1967 boundaries with land swaps, that all Presidents of both parties have held for decades. The continual drumbeats about Iran seem tailored to encourage fear in the American public about a possible confrontation in the Middle East. Just this week Republicans in the House conducted a hearing over possible Iranian cyberattacks against the United States. It doesn't take much insight to see why Republicans might want to orchestrate events such as these as we head into an election.

The place of Israel in American domestic politics has become more problematic with the rise of evangelical Protestants as a powerful force within the Republican party. Christian evangelicals see the defense of Israel as insurance that the "Promised Land" will be in friendly hands when the "Rapture" arrives. Republican politicians, and the State of Israel itself, have cynically pandered to these views. I doubt Jewish neo-conservatives like Elliot Abrams really expect the "End of Days" to happen any time soon.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I suspect Bibi also hopes to replace Barack Obama, whom he clearly dislikes both politically and perhaps personally as well, with his old buddy Mitt Romney. In the past an insecure international situation has generally been seen as beneficial to the Republicans. This time around I think Obama has actually defused the "Democrats are soft" perception after the assassinations of Bin Laden and other high-level al-Qaeda commanders. It's still the case, though, that no matter how strongly Obama puts himself behind Israel (starting around 07:45), he's still criticized by the right, even when he endorses positions, particularly a return to 1967 boundaries with land swaps, that all Presidents of both parties have held for decades.

The 1967 boundaries are ridiculous, how can you trust some radicals not to build their own rocket array, carry it to the top of the Golan Heights then unleashing upon the innocent and moderates in Israel?

[Haak]

I thought the Golan heights was a seperate issue. Is that included in Palestinian talks too?

[Ithekro]

I have a feeling that was just an example, but as far as I know the Golan Heights are a seperate issue since the Palestinians aren't in that region for any part of their country.

That area is Syria and the local world seems upset with them right now, so Golan will remain with Israel.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The 1967 boundaries are ridiculous, how can you trust some radicals not to build their own rocket array, carry it to the top of the Golan Heights then unleashing upon the innocent and moderates in Israel?

gave it another generation, there won't be any moderates left in Israel.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Haak

I thought the Golan heights was a seperate issue. Is that included in Palestinian talks too?

The talks were said to be about "occupied territories", and Golan Heights is one of them. And the 1967 boundaries included those hills.

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

gave it another generation, there won't be any moderates left in Israel.

It is quite difficult to see. Israel is seen to be the ultimate refuge for the Jews after the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were treated like a real edict.....many racists, not just Muslim ones, used that as a pretext to vilify the Jews. Given that number of Jews brought in by the Aliyah, I don't think all of them can be that easily radicalised, though they will fight to their deaths to defend that land.