Galaxy Nexus, Viper and Optimus Elite now available on Sprint

Sprint Android phones

Today sees the launch of three new smartphones on Sprint's network. First up is Google's current flagship device, the Galaxy Nexus. Sprint has the CDMA/LTE variant, which is very similar to the Verizon LTE version currently doing the rounds in the U.S. There's the same 720p HD SuperAMOLED display and 1.2GHz dual-core CPU that GNex owners have been enjoying since late 2011, and we're sure Sprint customers will be eager to get their hands on their very own version of the current Android flagship.

Next up is the LG Viper, an entry-level 4G LTE device for customers looking for a good all-round LTE smartphone. Inside you'll find a 1.2GHz dual-core processor along with NFC, Google Wallet and hotspot capability on top of a 4-inch WVGA NOVA display.

Finally, there's the Optimus Elite, which we got to play with just a few days ago at its launch event.  It's definitely an entry-level device, with a 3.5-inch HVGA display and 5MP camera. But if you're not looking for anything too fancy from your Android smartphone experience, you could definitely do a lot worse.

Hit the source link find out more on each of these new handsets.

Source: Sprint

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WINGStand Portable Stand for iPhone and iPad and other Bluetooth Devices Review

As I’ve mentioned before, the thing I haven’t liked about the iPads I’ve owned is the on-screen keyboard.? The virtual keys don’t lend themselves to touch typing.? None of the keyboard cases I’ve tried were what I’ve been looking for, because they have cramped, undersized keyboards, often with a non-standard layout.? The best keyboard I’ve [...]

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Quora Is Raising At A $400M Valuation, With D?Angelo Putting In His Own Money

Screen Shot 2012-04-21 at 7.24.05 PMIt's really beautiful outside. Like so beautiful if San Francisco is like this more often it will become really expensive to live here. Also, Quora is raising money according to the multiple people in the past week. From what I've heard, the startup wants to raise between $30 to $50 million in its Series B, at a $400 million valuation -- an amount which strangely enough seems modest in light of the billion dollar rounds being thrown about willy nilly.

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How Technology Can Solve The Financial Industry?s Deficit Of Trust

Wall-Street-BullTo say Wall Street currently suffers from a deficit of trust would be an understatement. In the last few years alone, the government had to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion, Madoff and Stanford bilked investors of billions, and ex-Goldman executive Greg Smith?s damning op-ed in the New York Times gave everyday people a glimpse into Wall Street?s profits over people mentality.

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'True Blood' Stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer Are Expecting ...

Cupid's Pulse, celebrity couples, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, True Blood, baby, expecting, pregnancy

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. Photo: Access Hollywood

Sookie and Bill are having a baby.? According to UsMagazine.com, True Blood costars and real-life couple?Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer?are expecting their first baby.? Paquin and Moyer met in 2007 when True Blood began filming, and a short two years later Moyer popped the question. The couple was married in Malibu in August 2010.? That same year, Paquin told Marie Claire she wanted to put off having kids.? ?I have trouble planning anything more than brunch with my friends.? But when the time?s right, we?ll do it.?? This will be Paquin?s first child, although Moyer has two children from a previous marriage, Billy and Lilac.

How do you handle children from separate marriages?

Cupid?s Advice:

Having older children from a past marriage could be an uncomfortable situation when bringing a new baby into the picture.? Here are a few tips on how to do it:

?1.?Don?t force anything: Forcing your children to meet or even have a relationship with siblings they are not related to can be a touchy situation.? Pushing your children into something they don?t want to do will ultimately push them away.? Allow your children to make to choice on their own.

2.?Allow them to become friends: Similar to not forcing your children to meet the others, you don?t want to force them into friendship.? Let them become friends on their own, and they will form greater bonds.

3.?Act as one family: Don?t separate your children into groups based upon marriages.? Bring all of your children out as one happy family.? Go to the beach together and have family dinners?together. Whatever it is that you do, do it together as family.

How do you handle children from separate marriages? Share your stories below.


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Himalayan glaciers could be growing, new study finds

A new study published in Nature Geoscience has discovered Himalayan glaciers that are not shrinking at all. They could be getting larger.

Glaciers and sea ice around the world are melting at unprecedented rates, but new data indicates that this phenomenon may be lopsided. It seems that some areas of the Himalayan mountain range are melting faster than others, which aren't melting at all, a new study indicates.

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Specifically, the Karakoram mountain range is holding steady, and may even be growing in size, the study, published in the April 2012 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, suggests.

"The rest of the glaciers in the Himalayas are mostly melting, in that they have negative mass balance, here we found that glaciers aren't," study researcher Julie Gardelle, of CNRS-Universit? Grenoble, France, told LiveScience. "This is an anomalous behavior."

Karakoram mountains

The Karakoram mountain range spans the India-China-Pakistan border. It is home to the world's second highest peak, K2, and has the highest concentration of peaks over 5 miles (8 kilometers) high in the world. It is home to about half of the volume of the Himalayan glaciers.

The researchers used satellite photos to analyze the extent of the ice in about a quarter of the total range ? about 2,167 square miles (5,615 square kilometers). The photos were taken in 1999 and 2008. The researchers used two computer models to translate the images, revealing the elevation of the glaciers and estimating the extent of the ice.

They found that the glaciers are holding steady and based on the numbers might actually be gaining mass. But Gardelle warns this doesn't mean global warming and glacier melt isn't happening elsewhere.

"We don't want this study to be seen as questioning the planet's global warming," she told LiveScience. "With global warming we can get higher precipitation at high altitudes and latitudes, so thickening isn't out of the question." [10 Global Warming Myths Busted]

Glacier growth

Glaciers grow and shrink based on how much snow falls and the temperatures in the area. Why this area isn't showing the melt seen in other areas is still a mystery. "For now we don't have any explanation," Gardelle said. "There's been a study reporting an increase in winter precipitation, this could maybe be a reason for the equilibrium, but that's just a guess."

Because of its location and physical characteristics of the glaciers themselves, it was been exceptionally difficult to study the glaciers in this region. Usually satellite photos are combined with physical readings of the ice extent, and Gardelle says they'd like to get the physical data in the future to validate their findings.

Previous estimates had suggested the Himalayan mountain range as a whole was contributing about 0.04 millimeters per year to sea-level rise. These numbers now need to be adjusted to account for the anomaly of the Karakoram region, and are probably more like negative 0.006 millimeters per year, the researchers say.

"Evidently, extrapolation and analogy have failed in this significant region," Graham Cogley, a researcher from Trent University, in Canada, who wasn't involved in the study wrote in an accompanying essay in the same issue of Nature Geoscience.

"It seems that, by a quirk of the atmospheric general circulation that is not understood, more snow is being delivered to the mountain range at present and less heat," Cogley wrote. "Gardelle and colleagues have demonstrated that the mass balance of Karakoram glaciers is indeed anomalous compared with the global average."

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Cameron offered air tanker as VIP jet

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Internal medicine physician specialists release policy paper on reforming Medicaid

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jacquelyn Blaser
jblaser@acponline.org
202-261-4572
American College of Physicians

American College of Physicians says stakeholders across health-care spectrum must work together to protect Medicare for future generations

(New Orleans) A dozen recommendations to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to high-quality, coordinated care were provided today by the American College of Physicians (ACP). The new policy paper, Reforming Medicare in the Age of Deficit Reduction, was released at Internal Medicine 2012, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

"This position paper considers the potential advantages and disadvantages of proposals to reform Medicare in an attempt to quell rising Medicare/health care costs. Options such as transforming Medicare into a premium support program, increasing the Medicare eligibility age, and applying income-based Medicare premiums are discussed." Virginia L. Hood, MBBS, MPH, MACP, president of ACP said "We have long supported efforts to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to affordable, high quality, coordinated care, so want to have evidence that a revised system would meet these criteria."

The Medicare program is a defined benefit, where enrollees receive guaranteed financial contributions for a package of health benefits. Some proposals to reform the Medicare system would transform the Medicare program to a defined contribution (or premium support) program, where beneficiaries would receive a finite amount of financial assistance to purchase health insurance.

"Too little is known today about the impact of a Medicare premium support on patient access to care for a risky decision to be made to transition away from the current guaranteed benefit structure," cautioned Dr. Hood. "Rather than rushing a decision, we propose testing a premium support program on demonstration project basis, with strong protections to ensure that costs are not shifted to enrollees to the extent that it hinders their access to care. Until we have reassuring data from pilots, ACP can't support adoption of this model, just as physicians would not recommend a new treatment to our patients without data from clinical trials on potential benefits and harms."

ACP also commented on proposals to advance the age when persons would be eligible for Medicare from age 65 to age 67, suggesting that this could open up a "coverage gap" unless alternative programs to provide coverage for people who would have to wait two years longer to become eligible for Medicare. For instance, Congress could give people between the ages of 55 and 67 the option of buying into Medicare.

"As an alternative to proposals to shift costs to beneficiaries, many of whom cannot afford to pay more, Medicare should adopt policies to reform payment and delivery systems that get at the true drivers of rising Medicare costs," continued Dr. Hood.

ACP specifically offered these recommendations for ensuring Medicare's solvency, reducing costs, and maintaining access to affordable care for beneficiaries:

  • The Medicare program must lead a paradigm shift in the nation's health care system by testing and accelerating adoption of new care models that improve population health, enhance the patient experience, and reduce per-beneficiary cost.
  • To improve the way health care is delivered and ensure the future of primary care, the College recommends that Medicare accelerate adoption of the patient centered medical home model and provide severity-adjusted monthly bundled care coordination payments, prospective payments per eligible patient, fee-for-service payments for visits, and performance assessment-based payments tied to quality, patient satisfaction and efficiency measures.
  • ACP does not support conversion of the existing Medicare defined benefits program to a premium support model. However, ACP could support pilot-testing of a defined benefit premium support option, on a demonstration project basis, with strong protections to ensure that costs are not shifted to enrollees to the extent that it hinders their access to care.
  • ACP supports policies to ensure that Medicare Advantage plans are funded at the level of the traditional Medicare program.
  • The Medicare eligibility age should only be increased to correspond with the Social Security eligibility age if affordable, comprehensive insurance is made available to those made ineligible for Medicare.
  • ACP supports continuing to gradually increase Medicare premiums for wealthier beneficiaries as well as modest increases in the payroll tax to fund the Medicare program.
  • Congress should consider giving Medicare authority to redesign benefits, coverage and cost sharing to include consideration of the value of the care being provided.
  • ACP supports combining Medicare Parts A and B with a single deductible under specified circumstances.
  • Supplemental Medicare coverage Medigap plans should only be altered in a manner that encourages use of high quality, evidence-based care and does not lead Medicare beneficiaries to reduce use of such care because of cost.
  • Medicare should provide for palliative and hospice services, including pain relief, patient and family counseling, and other psychosocial services for patients living with terminal illness.
  • The costs of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program should be reduced by the federal government acting as a prudent purchaser of prescription drugs.
  • Congress should amend the authority for an Independent Payment Advisory Board in specified ways, including giving Congress the right to approve or disapprove the board's recommendations by a simple majority.

"Many of the reforms proposed by members of Congress and the various deficit reduction commissions would either directly or indirectly increase the financial burden for which Medicare beneficiaries are responsible," Dr. Hood concluded. "Increasing cost-sharing responsibilities on Medicare beneficiaries many of whom are retired and must survive on a fixed income may encourage more cautious use of services but not necessarily those that are most appropriate for their health. Also, there is no guarantee that such changes will slow the nation's rising health care costs, which are driven by technological advancements, growth in prices for health care services, and a number of other factors. ACP is concerned that any Medicare reform efforts must ensure a balance between maintaining access to medically necessary care and reducing wasteful and limited value care."

###

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 132,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jacquelyn Blaser
jblaser@acponline.org
202-261-4572
American College of Physicians

American College of Physicians says stakeholders across health-care spectrum must work together to protect Medicare for future generations

(New Orleans) A dozen recommendations to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to high-quality, coordinated care were provided today by the American College of Physicians (ACP). The new policy paper, Reforming Medicare in the Age of Deficit Reduction, was released at Internal Medicine 2012, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

"This position paper considers the potential advantages and disadvantages of proposals to reform Medicare in an attempt to quell rising Medicare/health care costs. Options such as transforming Medicare into a premium support program, increasing the Medicare eligibility age, and applying income-based Medicare premiums are discussed." Virginia L. Hood, MBBS, MPH, MACP, president of ACP said "We have long supported efforts to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to affordable, high quality, coordinated care, so want to have evidence that a revised system would meet these criteria."

The Medicare program is a defined benefit, where enrollees receive guaranteed financial contributions for a package of health benefits. Some proposals to reform the Medicare system would transform the Medicare program to a defined contribution (or premium support) program, where beneficiaries would receive a finite amount of financial assistance to purchase health insurance.

"Too little is known today about the impact of a Medicare premium support on patient access to care for a risky decision to be made to transition away from the current guaranteed benefit structure," cautioned Dr. Hood. "Rather than rushing a decision, we propose testing a premium support program on demonstration project basis, with strong protections to ensure that costs are not shifted to enrollees to the extent that it hinders their access to care. Until we have reassuring data from pilots, ACP can't support adoption of this model, just as physicians would not recommend a new treatment to our patients without data from clinical trials on potential benefits and harms."

ACP also commented on proposals to advance the age when persons would be eligible for Medicare from age 65 to age 67, suggesting that this could open up a "coverage gap" unless alternative programs to provide coverage for people who would have to wait two years longer to become eligible for Medicare. For instance, Congress could give people between the ages of 55 and 67 the option of buying into Medicare.

"As an alternative to proposals to shift costs to beneficiaries, many of whom cannot afford to pay more, Medicare should adopt policies to reform payment and delivery systems that get at the true drivers of rising Medicare costs," continued Dr. Hood.

ACP specifically offered these recommendations for ensuring Medicare's solvency, reducing costs, and maintaining access to affordable care for beneficiaries:

  • The Medicare program must lead a paradigm shift in the nation's health care system by testing and accelerating adoption of new care models that improve population health, enhance the patient experience, and reduce per-beneficiary cost.
  • To improve the way health care is delivered and ensure the future of primary care, the College recommends that Medicare accelerate adoption of the patient centered medical home model and provide severity-adjusted monthly bundled care coordination payments, prospective payments per eligible patient, fee-for-service payments for visits, and performance assessment-based payments tied to quality, patient satisfaction and efficiency measures.
  • ACP does not support conversion of the existing Medicare defined benefits program to a premium support model. However, ACP could support pilot-testing of a defined benefit premium support option, on a demonstration project basis, with strong protections to ensure that costs are not shifted to enrollees to the extent that it hinders their access to care.
  • ACP supports policies to ensure that Medicare Advantage plans are funded at the level of the traditional Medicare program.
  • The Medicare eligibility age should only be increased to correspond with the Social Security eligibility age if affordable, comprehensive insurance is made available to those made ineligible for Medicare.
  • ACP supports continuing to gradually increase Medicare premiums for wealthier beneficiaries as well as modest increases in the payroll tax to fund the Medicare program.
  • Congress should consider giving Medicare authority to redesign benefits, coverage and cost sharing to include consideration of the value of the care being provided.
  • ACP supports combining Medicare Parts A and B with a single deductible under specified circumstances.
  • Supplemental Medicare coverage Medigap plans should only be altered in a manner that encourages use of high quality, evidence-based care and does not lead Medicare beneficiaries to reduce use of such care because of cost.
  • Medicare should provide for palliative and hospice services, including pain relief, patient and family counseling, and other psychosocial services for patients living with terminal illness.
  • The costs of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program should be reduced by the federal government acting as a prudent purchaser of prescription drugs.
  • Congress should amend the authority for an Independent Payment Advisory Board in specified ways, including giving Congress the right to approve or disapprove the board's recommendations by a simple majority.

"Many of the reforms proposed by members of Congress and the various deficit reduction commissions would either directly or indirectly increase the financial burden for which Medicare beneficiaries are responsible," Dr. Hood concluded. "Increasing cost-sharing responsibilities on Medicare beneficiaries many of whom are retired and must survive on a fixed income may encourage more cautious use of services but not necessarily those that are most appropriate for their health. Also, there is no guarantee that such changes will slow the nation's rising health care costs, which are driven by technological advancements, growth in prices for health care services, and a number of other factors. ACP is concerned that any Medicare reform efforts must ensure a balance between maintaining access to medically necessary care and reducing wasteful and limited value care."

###

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 132,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


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You Can Buy Stocks on Facebook Soon [Stocks]

If you've been too lazy to figure out the stock market or have been wary of fees and brokers that come with trading, you will love this: coming this summer, you'll be able to buy a company's stock directly on Facebook. It's like Likes but like uh, real. More »


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