Queen meets IRA victims before landmark handshake

Britain's Queen Elizabeth met relatives of people killed in one of the Irish Republican Army's most notorious bombings on Tuesday ahead of her historic meeting with the paramilitary group's former commander Martin McGuinness.

The meeting with McGuinness on Wednesday, the first between the queen and a senior member of the IRA or its political wing Sinn Fein, will mark a landmark in the peace process 14 years after the IRA ended its 30-year campaign against British rule.

The queen, whose cousin Lord Mountbatten was killed in an IRA attack in 1979, held a private meeting with relatives of the 11 people killed in the 1987 bombing of a war memorial service in Enniskillen at the start of her two-day visit.

Queen Elizabeth II begins her 20th trip to Northern Ireland

That attack sparked a wave of revulsion against the IRA that helped convince its leadership to engage in the peace process.

But relatives said the queen's meeting with McGuinness was premature.

"I don't think she should shake hands with Martin McGuinness tomorrow. I certainly wouldn't shake his hand," said Noel McIlfatrick, whose wife and children were injured and whose brother-in-law Edward Armstrong was killed in the attack.

"It will be difficult for the queen," he said.

Security tight
The IRA ended its campaign in 1998, but small splinter groups have continued to launch attacks against British targets, prompting security concerns that have prevented the queen from publicly announcing trips to the province ahead of her arrival.

The current visit, part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, was the first to be announced in advance since violence broke out in the 1960s.

Security was tight with much of the town closed to traffic and vehicles and onlookers searched by security officials.

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Video: Queen visits Catholic church in Enniskillen? (on this page)

McGuinness, who is deputy first minister of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, is due to meet the queen at an arts event. Officials have refused to say if the meeting will be open to the press, or even if it a planned handshake will be photographed.

The queen has often met senior Unionist politicians, who want Northern Ireland to stay inside the United Kingdom, but not Sinn Fein, the largest party representing nationalists who want a united Ireland.

Pictures: The life of a queen

Sinn Fein, which has become increasingly popular south of the Irish border as the main party opposing an EU/IMF bailout, wants a referendum on whether Northern Ireland should remain part of Britain where its members still refuse to take their parliamentary seats.

The party rejected invitations to attend events during the queen's symbolic visit to the Republic of Ireland last year, the first by a British monarch since Dublin won independence from London in 1921.

There has been relatively little opposition in Northern Ireland to the planned meeting other than a protest by Irish nationalists in Belfast at the weekend which attracted around 300 people.

Hundreds of people cheered as the queen walked through the streets of the Enniskillen, many waving British flags. After meeting the bombing victims, the queen visited a Catholic church, the first time she has done so in Ireland.

"When I arrived in Enniskillen today, I found it difficult to forget what happened," said Robin Eames, the former Anglican Primate of All Ireland, who was in to town on the day of the attack in 1987.

"But I believe the handshake tomorrow is another milestone in peace process in Northern Ireland," he said. "It is a genuine step forward."

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Roccat Savu Review | Gaming Illustrated

Roccat Savu Review

Roccat Savu Review

The Roccat Savu optical mouse is aimed at PC gamers that want a ton of control, sleek design, sick grip and plenty of customization. This mid-sized lightweight mouse sports a 4000 dpi optical sensor and a customizable rear light along with a set of buttons that can be programmed via the included software. The Roccat Savu mouse is a very impressive piece of gaming hardware that stands out for its design, accuracy and special coating grip.

Features

The Roccat Savu mouse sports an optical mouse sensor that boasts an amazing 4000 dpi sensitivity. Dubbed the Pro Optic R3 sensor, it is adjustable to allow you to set it at 400, 800, 1600 and 4000 dpi. It?s designed this way to offer gamers a completely lag-free experience along with super-precise feedback which we found to be wholeheartedly true.

One feature that might not necessarily equate over to performance but does add to the overall beauty of the mouse is the customizable light located in the rear of the mouse. It allows you to pick from any color you want and you can also program it to ?breathe? which makes it change colors based on shades you select.

Another neat feature to be aware of is the special perspiration-resistant coating on the sides that Roccat has named ?No Sweat? which gives an amazing grip to the mouse. The coating is obviously designed to resist sweaty hands, but even if you don?t suffer from that condition, you?ll find the grip to be excellent for simply hanging on and accurately handling the mouse.

Other features touted by the mouse include an achievement display, high-quality design and manufacturing, the ?Easy-Shift[+]? technology that lets you set two functions for each mouse button and the scroll wheel as well as a software package that lets you customize the mouse out to your heart?s content.

Comfort

Roccat Savu

Roccat Savu

Comfort is everything when it comes to a proper gaming mouse. The Roccat Savu is touted to be a mid-size gaming mouse but we found it to be on the smaller side of mid-size than something we would consider to be truly in the middle of the pack. If you like your gaming mice to be big, then that might be something that takes away from the comfort level of using the Roccat Savu.

That opinion aside, the mouse is wonderfully designed for a nice fit for your hand and the no sweat grip feels amazing from the outset. While we don?t have the problem of having a sweaty hand when gaming, it still feels great to have a perfect grip on the mouse. The grip was probably the most impressive thing aside from the sensitivity and accuracy and shouldn?t be underscored ? it?s a heck of a great feature to have and gives this mouse a really strong competitive advantage over the competition.

Performance

Roccat Savu Optical Mouse

Roccat Savu Optical Mouse

Whether you are playing FPS games, RTS games or even RPG games, having a good, sensitive, accurate gaming mouse is a must. What you will get from the Roccat Savu is something ridiculously accurate that you?ll probably learn to quickly rely on as your most accurate peripheral. This thing didn?t miss a beat, even at the lower dpi settings, no matter what we threw at it. From FPS games like TF2 or an RPG like Skyrim, or clicking like madmen in StarCraft II, the Roccat Savu proved time and again to be super sensitive and mega-responsive.

For those of you that love achievements, there?s a software feature called ?R.A.D.? that will track anything you do with the mouse and hand you achievements based on your actions, such as how many clicks you?ve done to how far your mouse has ?travelled? in distance. It?s a ?nice to have feature? that wasn?t really all that big a deal, but we?re sure some of you might find it interesting.

The EasyShift[+] feature allows you to switch up your button settings to something completely different (and go back again) but it really proved to be one of those nice to have features that you may not end up using all that much.

Overall Impression

The Roccat Savu mouse is a really well designed product that should definitely be highly considered for purchase if you want a new gaming mouse. The pros are that it?s incredibly accurate, very reliable, fully customizable, looks slick and has an amazing grip. The cons are that it?s a shade on the small side for our tastes and some of the touted features such as the EasyShift[+] and the R.A.D. achievements were more tertiary features that at the end of the day weren?t all that important to us.

Overall, the Roccat Savu gaming mouse is a well-engineered product that performs amazingly for all PC game genres. You?d be very well off if you decided to make this mouse your full time device of choice and at a price of about $70 (USD) it?s priced pretty well against the competition.

Overall Ratings ? Roccat Savu Mouse (Hardware)

Performance:

10/10

Comfort:

8/10

Design:

9/10

Price Value & Lasting Appeal:

9/10

OVERALL SCORE:

90%

Sean Gibson has been the owner and Executive Editor of Gaming Illustrated for over nine years. He acts not only as a reviewer, previewer and interviewer for the site, but as an inspiring, all-powerful Emperor.

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The studio behind Minecraft prepares to launch its next game, Scrolls

If you're anxiously awaiting the next big thing from?Mojang, the studio behind?popular sandbox game?Minecraft, the wait is almost over.?Scrolls, the company's newest game, will soon be entering a closed alpha test, with a paid beta soon behind.

Scrolls is a deck-building,?collectible card game; a digital take on popular card games like?Magic: The Gathering. In it, you collect various scrolls in an effort to put together the perfect strategy for defeating your opponents on the battlefield. According to Mojang, the game will include both single-player and multi-player modes, tournaments, and ranked play.

Mojang?told Joystiq that the game was "rapidly approaching the closed alpha," a period where a select group of players will playtest the game and hunt for bugs. Shortly after, the game will enter an "open beta and thusly be open for purchase."

Purchasing the game at the beta stage means you'll be playing an incomplete version of the game, at least at first. But Mojang is sweetening the pot to make it all worth while: Early adopters will get?Scrolls cheaper, with a few yet-to-be-announced bonuses.

[via?Joystiq]

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

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Smartphone apps scan moles for skin cancer, check blood pressure ...

Three tries. More than two years. And roughly $150,000.

That?s what it took for MIM Software to get the Food and Drug Administration?s clearance for a smartphone application that physicians can use to view MRIs and other medical images.

?It was 2008 when we first tried,? said Mark Cain, the Ohio firm?s chief technology officer. ?They didn?t know what questions to ask and neither did we. . . . But at some point, they had to be thinking, ?How many more people will be lined up behind these guys?? ?

His was, in fact, among the first apps cleared by the FDA. And since then, medical applications have flooded on to millions of smartphones, offering consumers the chance to check their heart rate, identify a pill in their medicine cabinet or even scan moles for skin cancer. Soon, if a firm called AliveCor gets its way, they may even be able to get an EKG by pressing iPhone to chest.

The gee-whiz factor can both astonish and alarm.

A defect in apps that essentially turn your phone or tablet into a medical device could prove problematic or even life-threatening: The app may not work as it should. For instance, what if lighting or contrast issues distort an X-ray that?s viewed on an iPhone or iPad?

That?s why federal regulators lurched into action a year ago, offering their thinking on how to police this vast new frontier. Just as they were putting the finishing touches on a plan, lawmakers intervened. The Senate moved to put the plan on hold after tech firms convinced lawmakers that more government oversight would stifle innovation and cost jobs.

Last week, Congress gave the FDA the green light to proceed with a push to define exactly which apps require government attention. But lawmakers also ordered the Obama administration to come up with a strategy that balances public interest with innovation in the years to come. The task is daunting, given the warp speed of technology.

It?s a classic showdown between Washington regulators charged with safeguarding the public?s health and a free-wheeling tech industry that prizes agility and first-to-market bragging rights.

?There are two completely different mind-sets,? said Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the Innovative Policy Institute. ?The app people think: Where is there a need and how do I fill it? And the FDA thinks: Where is there a problem and how can I control it??

Mobile apps, with their extraordinary reach, have the power to transform health care. Half of cellphone users in the United States have smartphones such as the iPhone or Android software-based devices, which can deliver care to their hands and potentially do so at a lower cost. Using smartphones and wireless tablets as diagnostic tools or monitoring devices could also cut back on emergency room visits.

For software developers, especially cash-strapped start-ups, there?s an enormous amount riding on whether the FDA steps up enforcement ? and exactly how it plans to do it, industry analysts said.

?The FDA approval process adds months, if not years, and potentially millions of dollars to what it takes to bring a solution to the market,? said Liz Boehm, a director at ExperiaHealth, a consulting firm. ?That development process would put many of these guys out of business.?

Medical apps exploded onto the scene in 2010 and have grown by about 150 percent each year since, according to MobiHealth News, which tracks Apple?s iTunes store, where many apps debut. Consumers can choose about 13,000 of these apps; 5,000 more are marketed to medical professionals.

The offerings range from very basic ? and free ? apps that calculate body mass index to more sophisticated ones that make use of pricey supplemental devices. The pharmaceutical firm Sanofi has an app for diabetics that registers glucose levels with the help of a meter that attaches to iPhones. IHealth offers an app that records blood pressure using a cuff that plugs into an iPhone, and WiThing has one that tracks weight and body-fat percentage using the company?s WiFi-enabled scale.

A survey by the Pew Internet Project found that 11 percent of adults with cellphones downloaded an app last year to help them manage their health. That same year, the mobile health-apps industry generated an estimated $718 million worldwide, seven times more than the previous year, according to Research2Guidance, a consulting firm.

While the FDA currently regulates certain medical software, the agency wants to update its thinking now that smartphones have juiced the apps market.

A year ago, the agency proposed policing only a subset of those apps: ones that use supplemental attachments to transform a mobile platform into a medical device (such as AliveCor?s EKG app) and others that act as accessories to an already regulated medical device (such as MIM Software?s app).

Rather than overseeing all medical apps, agency officials said they want to limit regulation to a slice of the market and take a pass on low-risk apps, such as calorie counters, according to Bakul Patel, an FDA policy adviser.

?We are taking a proactive step by saying that from the FDA perspective,? Patel said. ?We?re not concerned about all those other apps.?

Software makers, on the other hand, see an agency that currently regulates next to nothing in the mobile apps space taking a sudden interest in regulating more. The FDA proposal, they say, is vague and leaves many questions unanswered. For instance, given that apps can be updated daily, does a software developer have to seek FDA approval for each update?

Among the critics is a group called the Health IT Now Coalition. It represents health-care providers, patient advocates and health insurance companies, including Aetna, which last year bought iTriage ? an app that helps consumers evaluate medical symptoms and find the proper care.

?The issue here is that they?re really using a process for approval of these mobile apps that was basically created when the 5 ?-inch floppy disk was the latest technology,? said Joel White, the group?s executive director.

Dirk Hobbs, chief executive of Medical Voyce Sciences and Multimedia, said the FDA?s plan is ambiguous and he doesn?t know whether the apps his firm is developing would be regulated. The apps aim to speed communication among medical professionals in different facilities.

?This is just going to slam the brakes on an innovative sector that includes tons of small businesses like mine,? said Hobbs, who expressed his concerns to Sen. Michael F. Bennet, D-Colo.

Bennet and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, wrote a provision, inserted in a broader FDA funding bill, that would have delayed the FDA proposal by forcing the agency to first reach agreement with other regulators about how to handle these apps.

This week, in a compromise reached by House and Senate lawmakers, Congress allowed the FDA to press ahead. But it also directed the agency to work on a report with other regulators that would lay out an appropriate framework to promote innovation and protect patient safety.

Former FDA deputy commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who researches medical trends as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said he?s disappointed. If consumers can track their blood-sugar levels using pen and paper, he said, why should the government have to clear an app that does the same thing more reliably?

Gottlieb said that software developers should be suspicious because regulators have a tendency to tighten their grip on industries as they develop. ?If they perceive a power vacuum,? he said, ?they?ll step in and regulate more and more.?

Some in the tech industry do not perceive a threat. They say they?ve been expecting the FDA to regulate some apps and are eager for the agency to reveal which ones.

A group called the mHealth Regulatory Coalition ? which represents established firms such as Qualcomm as well as start-up software developers ? was formed in 2010 to deal with mobile health care regulatory issues. Its leaders argue that uncertainty breeds anxiety and drives away potential investors.

?We started telling the FDA that they?re going to stifle innovation if they don?t start clarifying where the lines will be drawn,? said Bradley Thompson, the group?s general counsel. Other technology groups ? including the West Wireless Health Institute and the Application Developers Alliance ? have taken a similar position.

In a recent meeting with industry representatives, Jeffrey E. Shuren, head of the FDA?s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, assured the group that the final plan would include more details than the draft, some attendees said. The agency may even create a Web site with generic examples of apps that would be exempt, Shuren told them.

In the end, the FDA?s plan may indeed sink some software makers whose products can?t withstand federal scrutiny, said Lisa Suennen, co-founder of Psilos Group, a health-care-focused venture capital firm.

?But while regulation puts an extra burden on young companies, those that can get through it will have a huge competitive advantage,? Suennen said. ?You can?t have every Tom, Dick and Harry claiming that their medical app adds value without having to prove it.?

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Vancouver's Province pulls animation satirizing Enbridge : Canada's ...

You are here: Home / Media / Vancouver?s Province pulls animation satirizing Enbridge

Posted by admin on June 25, 2012 ? 3 Comments?

Image: Screenshot of Enbridge parody adA BoB short

The Vancouver Province has pulled from its website an animation created by its editorial cartoonist, Dan Murphy, that satirizes Enbridge?s massive ad campaign in support of its Northern Gateway pipeline.

In the original ad, Enbridge claims that the pipeline is ?a path to our future,? while families and fish frolic in sylvan settings to placid music. In the parody (see below), a fictional official comments with increasing distress as the ad is repeatedly interrupted with giant oil splotches.

Wayne Moriarty, The Province?s Editor-in-Chief, says the animation was removed at the request of Enbridge ?because it contains copyrighted material.? He admits that use of the material might be protected under fair use laws, but says the newspaper chose not to pursue the matter. He points out that The Province has run editorials critical of the pipeline, and insists that the decision to pull the satire has nothing to do with the $5 million campaign, which is running in his paper and The Vancouver Sun (both of which are owned by The Pacific Newspaper Group), among many other media outlets.

Moriarty denies a rumour that Murphy has been fired because of the cartoon. Murphy was not available for comment. His cartoon, however, may trump the original yet. The Enbridge ad, posted on its youtube channel, has drawn just 260 views. Murphy?s take, posted on the third-party channel below, has received 632 views ? so far.

- Frank Moher

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Bizarre alien planets get cozy with each other ( video)

A duo of planets some 1,200 light years from earth have been spotted passing within 1.2 million miles of each other, closer than any other known pair of planets, a new study has found.?

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / June 21, 2012

An artist's conception shows the newfound alien planet Kepler-36c as it might look from the surface of Kepler-36b.

David Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Enlarge

It is science fiction made fact: Astronomers have discovered two alien planets around the same star whose orbits come so close together that each rises in the night sky of its sister world like an exotic full moon.

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The newfound planets are 1,200 light-years from Earth and an unprecedented find, researchers said. They differ greatly in size and composition but come within just 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers) of each other, closer than any other pair of planets known, according to a new study.

One of the newly discovered?alien planets, called Kepler-36b, appears to be a rocky "super-Earth" 4.5 times as massive as our planet. The other, Kepler-36c, is a gaseous, Neptune-size world about eight times as massive as Earth. The two planets meet up every 97 days in a conjunction that would make each dramatically visible in the other's sky.

?These two worlds are having close encounters,? said co-lead author Josh Carter, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in a statement.

At their closest approach, the two planets are separated by five times the distance between the Earth and the moon. How such different bodies ended up in such similar orbits may be tough for current theories of?planet formation?and migration to explain, researchers said.

"This is unprecedented," co-lead author Eric Agol, of the University of Washington, told SPACE.com via email. "They are as different in density as Earth and Saturn (the highest and lowest density planets in our solar system), yet they are 30 times closer than any pair of planets in our solar system." [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

Strange neighbors

The two known planets in the Kepler-36 system ? which is located in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan) ? were detected by NASA's?Kepler Space Telescope.

Kepler is staring continuously at more than 150,000 stars, watching for telltale brightness dips caused when planets cross in front of the stars from the telescope's perspective. Since its March 2009 launch, Kepler has flagged more than 2,300 potential alien planets; while only a small fraction have been confirmed to date, mission scientists think more than 80 percent of them will end up being the real deal.

Kepler-36c, which is about 3.7 times wider than Earth, likely has a rocky core surrounded by a substantial atmosphere filled with lots of hydrogen and helium, researchers said.

Kepler-36b, on the other hand, is a?super-Earth?just 1.5 times wider than our planet. Iron likely constitutes about 30 percent of its mass, water around 15 percent and atmospheric hydrogen and helium less than 1 percent, researchers said.

Though they're very different in size and makeup, the two planets travel on surprisingly similar paths around their host star. Kepler-36c orbits once every 16 days, at an average distance of 12 million miles (19 million km). Kepler-36b orbits each 14 days and sits about 11 million miles (18 million km) from the star.

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Being Familiar With Self Improvement And Its Benefits - Latest Film ...

Probably the most important things you need to find out inside your search for bettering oneself, can be your perception. There are many ways you can adjust, boost and alter your thought of oneself that can therefore, aid you in all the other adjustments you intend to make with yourself and in your daily life. This article incorporates tips on steps you can take to create a stage even closer exactly where you want to be.

A single significant part of self improvement is figuring out how to properly deal with your time and effort. Robust time management skills can help you attain your goals quicker to get more of what you want out of existence. In addition to that, but managing your time intelligently can reduce your current stress levels by making daily life far less hectic and hurried.

Your own improvement depends on your own personalized obligation. You should presume responsibility of as well as for your self. You are able to not decrease a pathway of blaming everybody else for the emotional express or situation in everyday life. Certain, sometimes you can pin the blame on other individuals, but we could not blame them for how you react to the situation.

In relation to personal development inside the expert discipline, make certain you constantly offer any beneficial suggestions that you might consider. This is significant simply because you might have an idea that no-one has developed well before and you may become a hero by providing a brand new perspective.

On your own assurance in the course of self improvement time periods will manage to benefit from the harmonious connection to your primary self. If you?re in track along with your brain, physique, and soul, you?ll discover it easier to shield oneself in opposition to obstacles in your key thinking and values. This can help you reinforce the influence of your thinking, and your confidence within them.

Acknowledge and assess the range involving the recent reputation as well as your personal development goals. Personal development fails to take place right away, so it?s best to make an honest assessment of how far you will need to check out achieve your objectives. This allows you to generate a path that is customized for your personal lifestyle and desired goals.

Consider Lord inside your period of need. Being a spiritual person can transform your way of contemplating in many different techniques. If you expand spiritually, your well being general will change. Although many might imagine in different ways whilst depressed, being psychic can work wonders for the spirit and mind.

With a little luck this informative article presented you an opportunity to take into consideration ways to boost oneself and your character. By using these quick and simple tips, personal development should come organic as well as simple for you. With a little luck you will acquire a far better way of life and psychological prospect. You are going to certainly discover a noticable difference in your own life by means of personal development.

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