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Label: Technology
Chicano rock pioneers Los Lobos marking 40 years
Label: LifestyleLOS ANGELES (AP) — They are seen as the progenitors of Chicano rock ‘n’ roll, the first band that had the boldness, and some might even say the naiveté, to fuse punk rock with Mexican folk tunes.
It was a group called Los Lobos that had the unusual idea of putting an accordion, a saxophone and something called a bajo sexto alongside drums and Fender Stratocaster guitars and then blasting a ranchera-flavored folk tune or a Conjunto inspired melody through double reverb amps at about twice the volume you’d normally expect to hear.
“They were Latinos who weren’t afraid to break the mold of what’s expected and what’s traditionally played. That made them legendary, even to people who at first weren’t that familiar with their catalog,” said Greg Gonzalez of the young, Grammy-winning Latino-funk fusion band Grupo Fantasma.
To the guys in Los Lobos, however, the band that began to take shape some 40-odd years ago in the hallways of a barrio high school is still “just another band from East LA,” the words the group has used in the title of not one but two of its more than two dozen albums.
As a yearlong celebration of Los Lobos‘ 40th anniversary gets under way, having officially begun on Thanksgiving, much is likely to be made of how the band began as a humble mariachi group, toiling anonymously for nearly a decade at East LA weddings and backyard parties before the unlikely arrival of rock stardom.
That’s, well, sort of true.
For long before there was mariachi in Los Lobos‘ life, there was power-chord rock ‘n’ roll. Before the Latin trio Las Panchos had an impact, there was Jimi Hendrix.
“I actually went to go see him when I was 14 or 15,” says drummer-guitarist and principal lyricist Louie Perez, recalling how he had badgered his widowed mother to spend some of the hard-earned money she made sewing clothes in a sweatshop on a ticket to a Hendrix show.
“I sat right down front,” he recalls, his voice rising in excitement. “That experience just sort of rearranged my brain cells.”
About the same time, he had met a guitarist named David Hidalgo in an art class at James A. Garfield High, the school made famous in the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver” that profiled Jaime Escalante’s success in teaching college-level calculus to poor barrio kids. Soon the two had recruited fellow students Conrad Lozano and Cesar Rosas, both experienced musicians.
“Cesar had played in a power trio,” Perez recalls, while Lozano had been playing electric bass guitar for years.
It was sometime in November 1973 (no one remembers the exact day so they picked Thanksgiving) when the band is believed to have been born.
And the group might have stayed just another garage band from East LA, had it not been for a Mexican tradition called Las Mananitas.
“It’s a serenade to someone on their birthday,” Perez explains, and the group members’ mothers had birthdays coming up.
“So we learned about four or five Mexican songs and we went to our parents’ homes and did a little serenade,” Hidalgo recalled separately.
They were such a hit that they began scouring pawn shops for genuine Mexican instruments and really learning to play them.
Because they were at heart a rock ‘n’ roll band, however, they always played the music a little too loud and a little too fast. That was acceptable at the Mexican restaurants that employed them, until they decided to break out the Stratocaster guitars they had so coveted as kids.
“They said, ‘Well, that’s not what we hired you for,’” Perez says, chuckling.
So they headed west down the freeway to Hollywood, where initially the reaction wasn’t much better.
Saxophonist Steve Berlin recalls seeing the hybrid group showered with garbage one night when they opened for Public Image Ltd. Two years later, however, when they opened for Berlin’s group the Blasters, the reaction was different.
“It was quite literally an overnight success kind of thing,” the saxophonist recalls. “By the next morning, everybody I knew in Hollywood, all they were talking about was this band Los Lobos.”
A few nights later, they asked Berlin if he might jam with them. They were working up some tunes melding punk rock with Norteno, a Latin music genre that uses an accordion and a saxophone, and they needed a sax player.
For his part, Berlin says, he had never heard of Norteno music.
Something clicked, however, and soon he was producing the group’s first true rock album, 1984′s “How Will the Wolf Survive?” At the end of the sessions he was in the band.
The next 28 years would be pretty much the same kind of up-and-down ride as the first 12 were.
The group became international rock stars in 1987 with their version of the Mexican folk tune “La Bamba” for the soundtrack of the film of the same name. They melded 1950s teen idol Ritchie Valens’ rock interpretation with the original Son Jarocho style and sent the song to No. 1.
A two-year tour and a couple albums that nobody bought followed, leaving the group broke and disillusioned.
So they poured their anger and disillusionment into the lyrics and power chords of “Kiko,” the 1992 album now hailed as their masterpiece. A new version, recorded live, was released earlier this year.
The influence of Los Lobos‘ cross-cultural work can be heard to this day in the music of such varied young Latino groups as the hip-hop rockers Ozomatli, the Son Jarocho-influenced alt-music band Las Cafeteras and the Latino pop-rock group La Santa Cecilia, says Josh Kun, an expert on cross-border music.
“All of these bands inherited, wittingly or not, the experimental and style crossing instincts that Los Lobos proved were possible while hanging onto and developing your roots as a Mexican-American group,” said Kun, who curated the Grammy Museum’s recent “Trouble in Paradise” exhibition that chronicled the modern history of LA music.
For Los Lobos, winner of three Grammys, that was just the natural way of doing things for guys, Perez says, who learned early on that they didn’t fit in completely on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“As Mexican-Americans in the U.S. we’re not completely accepted on this side of the border. And then on the other side of the border it’s like, ‘Well, what are you?’” he mused.
“So if that’s the case,” he added brightly, “then, hey, we belong everywhere.”
Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News
First Responders Face Haunting Memories
Label: HealthPolice and paramedics who descended on the scene of the massacre at a Connecticut grade school face haunting memories and nightmares in the days and weeks to come, particularly if they have children of their own, experts say.
Twenty children and seven adults were killed Friday after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, then killed himself.
“How the first responders react depends on how closely they identify with the victims,” said Dr. Charles Marmar, chair of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. “Let’s say somebody has a son or a daughter the same age as the victims — we know that makes a big difference.”
CLICK HERE for full coverage of the tragedy at the elementary school.
After the initial shock of such a violent attack fades, first responders sometimes struggle with flashbacks and sleep disturbances that can take a personal and professional toll.
Neal Schwieterman, a first responder at the 1999 Columbine massacre, still struggles with memories of what he saw there.
“Part of me is still missing from that day,” said Schwieterman, who was a sheriff’s deputy in his last week with the Jefferson County Police Department at the time. “I will never be the same.”
Alex von Kleydorff/AP Photo
Schwieterman rushed to the scene where he evacuated eight carloads of wounded students.
“It’s a grieving process for everyone after this kind of thing, including first responders,” said Schwieterman, who sought counseling to cope with the harrowing day. “It took a complete toll on me, and rightfully so.”
Schwieterman was not a father at the time, but now has a 10-year-old daughter.
“I just can’t imagine,” he said of the Newtown shooting. “It rips your heart out.”
CLICK HERE for live updates on the Connecticut school shooting.
Experts say first responders are surprisingly resilient, with the vast majority recovering from the stress of a horrific scene within days or weeks.
“But some will continue to have symptoms, and those people will probably benefit from some form of counseling,” said Dr. Spencer Eth, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Miami. “Unfortunately, when it comes to police, they sometimes try to act tough even when they’re feeling badly, and that’s an obstacle to getting the help they need to recover.”
The fact that most of the victims in Newtown were children, Eth said, could mean more first responders will need counseling.
“The shock and horror of seeing children killed is more personally distressing than almost any other situation they have to deal with,” he said, adding that first responders in many cases are also responsible for notifying families of the deceased. “Having to notify parents of their child’s death is among the most difficult things they have to do in their professional lives.”
With help, first responders can learn to cope. But they can never forget. Schwieterman, who is now the mayor of Paonia, Colo., still speaks of Columbine with a shaky voice, pausing often to gather himself. And when he heard about the Newtown shooting, he knew his phone would be ringing.
“I’ve had several family members call and ask if I’m doing OK,” he said. “That kind of support helps you through these things.”
Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Police hope motive emerges from evidence in shooter's home
Label: BusinessConn. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance at Saturday morning's news conference. (Jason Sickles/Yahoo News)
NEWTOWN, CT - The Sandy Hook school principal and another staffer were killed after lunging at a gunman who forced his way inside to begin a deadly shooting spree, the regional school superintendent said Saturday.
The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, died along with 4 other adults and 20 children in the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The alleged shooter, 20-year old Adam Lanza, was found dead at the scene, and his mother, Nancy Lanza, was discovered dead at their home.
Newtown school superintendent Janet Robinson told reporters that the two educators and other staff members had put themselves in harms way to protect children once it became clear the school was under siege.
"The teachers were really, really focused on saving their students," Robinson said.
Police on Saturday said evidence recovered at gunman Lanza's home may provide a motive for the massacre.
State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance declined to provide specifics about the evidence but said, "we're hopeful it will paint a complete picture."
Authorities say Lanza killed his mother at their home Friday morning before driving to Sandy Hook.
[Related: Follow the latest updates from our reporters in Newtown]
Armed with two semi-automatic pistols, Lanza rapidly sprayed bullets in hallways and classrooms. Lanza killed himself before police officers could reach him.
Lt. Vance said all the bodies were removed from the school overnight. A medical examiner is expected to release the names of the victims later today.
Police have assigned a trooper to support each victim's family in the days ahead. Vance asked reporters to respect the families' grief and privacy.
"This is an extremely heartbreaking thing for them to endure," Lt. Vance said.
Police were expected to release the names of the victims Saturday afternoon. Some names were already being disclosed by family members, including teachers Lauren Rousseau, 30, and Vicki Soto, 27.
It will likely take investigators two more days to process the school crime scene where it is believed Lanza fired as many as 100 rounds from his guns.
"It's going to be a slow, painstaking process," Lt. Vance said.
NKorea rocket launch shows young leader as gambler
Label: WorldPYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A triumphant North Korea staged a mass rally of soldiers and civilians Friday to glorify the country’s young ruler, who took a big gamble this week in sending a satellite into orbit in defiance of international warnings.
Wednesday’s rocket launch came just eight months after a similar attempt ended in an embarrassing public failure, and just under a year after Kim Jong Un inherited power following his father’s death.
The surprising success of the launch may have earned Kim global condemnation, but at home the gamble paid off, at least in the short term. To his people, it made the 20-something Kim appear powerful, capable and determined in the face of foreign adversaries.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans, packed into snowy Kim Il Sung Square, clenched their fists in a unified show of resolve as a military band tooted horns and pounded on drums.
Huge red banners positioned in the square called on North Koreans to defend Kim Jong Un with their lives. They also paid homage to Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
Pyongyang says the rocket put a crop and weather monitoring satellite into orbit. Much of the rest of the world sees it as a thinly disguised test of banned long-range missile technology. It could bring a fresh round of U.N. sanctions that would increase his country’s international isolation. At the same time, the success of the launch could strengthen North Korea’s military, the only entity that poses a potential threat to Kim’s rule.
The launch’s success, 14 years after North Korea’s first attempt, shows more than a little of the gambling spirit in the third Kim to rule North Korea since it became a country in 1948.
“North Korean officials will long be touting Kim Jong Un as a gutsy leader” who commanded the rocket launch despite being new to the job and young, said Kim Byung-ro, a North Korea specialist at Seoul National University in South Korea.
The propaganda machinery churned into action early Friday, with state media detailing how Kim Jong Un issued the order to fire off the rocket just days after scientists fretted over technical issues, ignoring the chorus of warnings from Washington to Moscow against a move likely to invite more sanctions.
Top officials followed Kim in shrugging off international condemnation.
Workers’ Party Secretary Kim Ki Nam told the crowd, bundled up against a winter chill in the heart of the capital, that “hostile forces” had dubbed the launch a missile test. He rejected the claim and called on North Koreans to stand their ground against the “cunning” critics.
North Korea called the satellite a gift to Kim Jong Il, who is said to have set the lofty goal of getting a satellite into space and then tapped his son to see it into fruition. The satellite, which North Korean scientists say is designed to send back data about crops and weather, was named Kwangmyongsong, or “Lode Star” — the nickname legendarily given to the elder Kim at birth.
Kim Jong Il died on Dec. 17, 2011, so to North Koreans, the successful launch is a tribute. State TV have been replaying video of the launch to “Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il.”
But it is the son who will bask in the glory, and face the international censure that may follow.
Even while he was being groomed to succeed his father, Kim Jong Un had been portrayed as championing science and technology as a way to lift North Korea out of decades of economic hardship.
“It makes me happy that our satellite is flying in space,” Pyongyang citizen Jong Sun Hui said as Friday’s ceremony came to a close and tens of thousands rushed into the streets, many linking arms as they went.
“The satellite launch demonstrated our strong power and the might of our science and technology once again,” she told The Associated Press. “And it also clearly testifies that a thriving nation is in our near future.”
Aside from winning him support from the people, the success of the launch helps his image as he works to consolidate power over a government crammed with elderly, old-school lieutenants of his father and grandfather, foreign analysts said.
Experts say that what is unclear, however, is whether Kim will continue to smoothly solidify power, steering clear of friction with the powerful military while dealing with the strong possibility of more crushing sanctions. The United Nations says North Korea already has a serious hunger problem.
“Certainly in the short run, this is an enormous boost to his prestige,” according to Marcus Noland, a North Korea analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Noland, however, also mentioned the “Machiavellian argument” that this could cause future problems for Kim by significantly boosting the power of the military — “the only real threat to his rule.”
Successfully firing a rocket was so politically crucial for Kim at the onset of his rule that he allowed an April launch to go through even though it resulted in the collapse of a nascent food-aid-for-nuclear-freeze deal with the United States, said North Korea analyst Kim Yeon-su of Korea National Defense University in Seoul.
The launch success consolidates his image as heir to his father’s legacy. But it could end up deepening North Korea’s political and economic isolation, he said.
On Friday, the section at the rally reserved for foreign diplomats was noticeably sparse. U.N. officials and some European envoys stayed away from the celebration, as they did in April after the last launch.
Despite the success, experts say North Korea is years from even having a shot at developing reliable missiles that could bombard the American mainland and other distant targets.
North Korea will need larger and more dependable missiles, and more advanced nuclear weapons, to threaten U.S. shores, though it already poses a shorter-range missile threat to its neighbors.
The next big question is how the outside world will punish Pyongyang — and try to steer North Korea from what could come next: a nuclear test. In 2009, the North conducted an atomic explosion just weeks after a rocket launch.
Scott Snyder, a Korea specialist for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote recently that North Korea‘s nuclear ambitions should inspire the U.S., China, South Korea and Japan to put aside their issues and focus on dealing with Pyongyang.
If there is a common threat that should galvanize regional cooperation, “it most certainly should be the prospect of a 30-year-old leader of a terrorized population with his finger on a nuclear trigger,” Snyder said.
____
Jon Chol Jin in Pyongyang, and Foster Klug and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Follow Jean H. Lee on Twitter: (at)newsjean.
Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Matt Damon fracking film in Berlin festival lineup
Label: LifestyleBERLIN (Reuters) – The Berlin film festival on Thursday announced the first movies of its 2013 lineup, and among the main competition entries will be U.S. director Gus Van Sant‘s drama starring Matt Damon and centering around the controversial shale gas industry.
“Promised Land” will have its international premiere at the annual cinema showcase, although it is scheduled to be launched first in the United States.
According to online reports, “The Bourne Identity” star Damon was originally down to direct the movie tackling the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for shale gas, which has raised concerns over its environmental impact.
The film reunites the actor and film maker after Van Sant directed Damon in the acclaimed 1997 drama “Good Will Hunting”.
Damon was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his performance and won a screenplay Oscar along with co-writer Ben Affleck for a movie that helped launch their Hollywood careers.
Also in the main competition in Berlin is “Gloria”, directed by Chilean film maker Sebastian Lelio, Korean entry “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” directed by Hong Sangsoo and Romanian picture “Child’s Pose” by Calin Peter Netzer.
There will be a world premiere for “Paradise: Hope”, the final installment of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, while out of competition in Berlin is 3D animation film “The Croods”, featuring the voice of Nicolas Cage.
And under the Berlinale Special heading comes documentary “Redemption Impossible”.
The 63rd Berlin film festival runs from February 7-17.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Confused by medication guides? You’re not alone
Label: HealthNEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The information sheets that come stapled to certain prescriptions picked up at the pharmacy are too complex and difficult for people to understand, according to a new study.
“Anyone who’s seen these are not going to be surprised by the fact that they’re difficult to read,” said Michael Wolf, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medication guides are attached to drugs that the agency considers to have “serious and significant public health concerns,” according to the report.
Patients are supposed to read the guides before taking the drugs to learn about risks, side effects, potential interactions with other drugs and why the medication should be taken as prescribed.
“You want to make sure that message is effective. Otherwise it can do major harm,” Wolf told Reuters Health.
In previous studies, Wolf and his colleagues found several problems with the guides, including patients not understanding their content and – in many cases – not even receiving them along with their medication.
The number of drugs required to be accompanied by a so-called med guide increased from 40 in 2006 to 305 last year. That led the researchers to look into whether the guides had gotten easier to understand.
For the new study, the researchers first analyzed 185 medication guides in April 2010, which represented the majority of those available on the FDA’s website at the time.
On average, the guides were about 2,000 words long, none of the guides had a review section or brief summary and only one met “suitability” guidelines frequently used as the standard for medical education materials.
Then, Wolf and his colleagues asked 449 adults at two Chicago clinics to read three medication guides then answer a series of questions about the drugs, including how they should be stored and their possible side effects. The participants were allowed to refer back to the guides during the test and were not rushed to answer the questions.
On average, the participants were only able to correctly answer half of the questions.
People with the lowest literacy level did the worst, answering only about a quarter of all the questions correctly. That compared to people with the highest level of literacy, who answered about 65 percent of the questions correctly.
The researchers add, however, that the results are limited, because they only tested three medication guides and people may not pay as close attention to the material if they’re not actually taking the drugs.
But, Wolf said, in general people failed the test.
“It was highly educated and lowly educated people. It didn’t make a difference. Everyone struggled,” said Wolf.
In their analysis, Wolf and his colleagues found the guides were typically written for someone at an 11th or 10th grade reading level.
They write in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that the Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to make information available to the public in a clear and understandable way. The Act, however, does not provide a way to measure what is understandable.
Some researchers have suggested that materials be written for people with a 4th to 8th grade reading level.
“If you’ve ever tried to create things at a 4th grade reading level, it’s incredibly difficult. And I don’t know if the evidence is clear as to what grade level is the target,” said Wolf.
There are a few possible solutions to the problem, including creating a uniform guide, which the researchers say is something the pharmaceutical industry and a private institution are working together to develop.
Wolf told Reuters Health that his team is also working with the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to create a how-to guide for medical organizations to make educational materials easy to understand.
He added that they’re also testing a new medication guide prototype in a clinical trial.
Until better guides become available, Wolf said patients should not be afraid to ask their doctors and pharmacists questions.
“Have that conversation when they’re getting it prescribed to them, but understand the pharmacist is available,” he said.
The FDA did not respond to a request for comment.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Y19pZ0 Journal of General Internal Medicine, online December 2012.
Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News
20 children, 6 adults killed at Conn. school shooting
Label: Business
Twenty children died today when a heavily armed man invaded a Newtown,
Conn., elementary school and sprayed staff and students with bullets.
The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, 20, was found dead in the school.
Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children died in the school and two more died
later in a hospital. Six adults were also slain, bringing the total to
26.
In addition to the casualties at the school, a body was also found in the shooter's home, officials said.
Among the dead was Lanza's mother, although it's not clear where she was killed.
In the early confusion surrounding the investigation, federal sources
initially identified the suspect as Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24.
He is being questioned by police.
LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting
Sources said the shooter was armed with a Glock semi automatic handgun
and a Sig Sauer semi automatic handgun, law enforcement sources told ABC
News. Additionally, .223 caliber shell casings--a rifle caliber--were
also found at the scene. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest when he
opened fire in the elementary school.
First grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29, locked her 14 students in a class
bathroom and listened to "tons of shooting" until police came to help.
"It was horrific," Roig said. "I thought we were going to die."
She said that the terrified kids were saying, "I just want Christmas…I don't want to die. I just want to have Christmas."
A tearful President Obama said there's "not a parent in America who doesn't feel the overwhelming grief that I do."
The president had to pause to compose himself after saying these were
"beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10." As he continued
with his statement, Obama wiped away tears from each eye.
He has ordered flags flown as half staff.
The alert at the school ended when Vance announced, "The shooter is deceased inside the building. The public is not in danger."
The massacre prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all its schools
and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today. Authorities
initially believed that there were two gunmen and were searching cars
around the school, but authorities do not appear to be looking for
another gunman.
It's unclear how many people have been shot, but 27 people, mostly
children, are dead, multiple federal and state sources tell ABC News.
That number could rise, officials said.
CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.
It is the second worst mass shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by
the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 when 32 were killed before the
shooter turned the gun on himself. Today's carnage exceeds the 1999
Columbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.
The Newtown shooting comes three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts
opened fire in a busy Oregon mall, killing two before turning the gun
on himself.
Today's shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which
includes 450 students in grades K-4. The town is located about 12 miles
east of Danbury.
State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41 a.m. and immediately
began sending emergency units from the western part of the state.
Initial 911 calls stated that multiple students were trapped in a
classroom, possibly with a gunman, according to a Connecticut State
Police source.
Lt. Paul Vance said that on-duty and off-duty officers swarmed to the
school and quickly checked "every door, every crack, every crevice" in
the building looking for the gunman and evacuating children.
A photo from the scene shows a line of distressed children being led out of the school.
Three patients have been taken to Danbury Hospital, which is also on lockdown, according to the hospital's Facebook page.
"Out of abundance of caution and not because of any direct threat
Danbury Hospital is under lockdown," the statement said. "This allows us
simply to focus on the important work at hand."
Newtown Public School District secretary of superintendent Kathy June
said in a statement that the district's schools were locked down because
of the report of a shooting. "The district is taking preventive
measures by putting all schools in lockdown until we ensure the safety
of all students and staff," she said.
State police sent SWAT team units to Newtown.
All public and private schools in the town were on lockdown.
"We have increased our police presence at all Danbury Public Schools due
to the events in Newtown. Pray for the victims," Newtown Mayor Boughton
tweeted.
State emergency management officials said ambulances and other units were also en route and staging near the school.
A message on the school district website says that all afternoon
kindergarten is cancelled today and there will be no midday bus runs.
Also Read
Cuban lawmakers meet to consider economy, budget
Label: WorldHAVANA (AP) — Cuban lawmakers are holding the second of their twice-annual sessions with a year-end report expected on the state of the country’s economy.
Legislators are also to approve next year’s budget.
Cuban leaders have sometimes used the parliamentary gatherings to make important announcements or policy statements.
Observers will be watching for word on the progress of President Raul Castro‘s economic reform plan and efforts to promote younger leaders.
The unicameral parliament will reconvene in February with a new membership following elections. It is then expected to name Castro to another five-year term.
State-run media said Castro presided over Thursday’s session.
It was not open to international journalists.
Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Verizon Offering $5 Shared 4G Plan for Samsung Galaxy Camera
Label: TechnologyImagine the powerful Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, except that it can’t make phone calls and its backplate has been replaced by a digital camera — handgrip, zoom lens, and all. That’s basically the Samsung Galaxy Camera in a nutshell, and whether it’s a small, awkwardly-shaped Android tablet or a digital camera that you can play Modern Combat 3 on depends on how you look at it.
When the Galaxy Camera launched last month, it was only available in white, and cost $ 499 on AT&T’s network with a month-to-month data plan. But on Dec. 13, it launches on Verizon’s network, in both white and black. The Verizon Galaxy Camera costs $ 50 more up front, but in return it has 4G LTE instead of HSPA+, and Verizon is offering a “promotional price” for the monthly charge: Only $ 5 to add it to a Share Everything plan, instead of the usual $ 10 tablet rate.
A 4G digital camera
While it’s capable of functioning as an Android tablet (or game machine), the biggest reason for the Samsung Galaxy Camera’s 4G wireless Internet is so it can automatically upload photos it takes. Apps such as Dropbox, Photobucket, and Ubuntu One offer a limited amount of online storage space for free, where the Galaxy Camera can save photos without anyone needing to tell it to. Those photos can then be accessed at home, or on a tablet or laptop.
Most smartphones are able to do this already, but few (with the possible exception of the Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 920) are able to take photos as high-quality as the Galaxy Camera’s.
Not as good of a deal as it sounds
Dropbox is offering two years’ worth of 50 GB of free online storage space for photos and videos, to anyone who buys a Samsung Galaxy Camera from AT&T or Verizon. (The regular free plan is only 2 GB.)
The problem is, you may need that much space. The photos taken by the Galaxy Camera’s 16 megapixel sensor take up a lot more space, at maximum resolution, than ordinary smartphone snapshots do. Those camera uploads can eat through a shared data plan, and with Verizon charging a $ 15 per GB overage fee (plus the $ 50 extra up-front on top of what AT&T charges) it may make up for the cheaper monthly cost.
On top of that, the Galaxy Camera’s photos are basically on par with a $ 199 digital camera’s — you pay a large premium to combine that kind of point-and-shoot with the hardware equivalent of a high-end smartphone.
It does run Android, though, right?
The Galaxy Camera uses Samsung‘s custom software for its camera app, and lacks a normal phone dialer app. Beyond that, though, it runs the same Android operating system found on smartphones, and can run all the same games and apps.
Some apps don’t work the same on the Galaxy Camera as they do on a smartphone, however. Apps which only run in portrait mode, for instance, require you to hold the camera sideways to use them (especially unpleasant when they’re camera apps). And while it can make voice and even video calls over Skype, it lacks a rear-facing camera or the kind of speaker you hold up close to your ear. So you may end up making speakerphone calls and filming the palm of your hand.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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