Titian: Master of seduction | The Economist

Titian: Master of seduction | The Economist: Sexual libertinism was taken for granted so that when “Venice” was painted above a door in other European cities, it usually led to a brothel. There was fierce competition among young painters. Titian responded by becoming the first to use live models and to paint naked women lying down, as with the “Venus of Urbino” (pictured). His art was influenced and enhanced by the city’s palpable atmosphere of excitement.

Model planes to take to the skies this weekend

Model planes to take to the skies this weekend:

Model airplane pilots from all over Oregon will take their creations to the sky this weekend. The 8th annual International Miniature Aircraft Association air show is back.

"Dark Knight Returns, Part 1" Debuts Action-Packed Animated Trailer

"Dark Knight Returns, Part 1" Debuts Action-Packed Animated Trailer: The full trailer has arrived for "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1," the first installment of Warner Bros.' animated adaptation of the 1986 Frank Miller miniseries, set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on Sept. 25.

Hands-On With Outlook.com, Microsoft's Snazzy New Challenge to Gmail

Hands-On With Outlook.com, Microsoft's Snazzy New Challenge to Gmail: Microsoft has openly admitted that Hotmail isn't so hot, and that webmail needs a major makeover. But now the company is leap-frogging over its Hotmail property via an all-new webmail client, dubbed Outlook.com. With a fresh coat of Metro and a bunch of innovative features, Outlook.com could actually take on Google's Gmail giant.

Discovering science

Discovering science: Similarly, scientists are always questioning their data: both the data that supports their own conclusions and the data that doesn’t. I was disgusted by a Fox news clip implying that science was untrustworthy because scientists were questioning their theories. Of course they’re questioning their theories. That’s what scientists are supposed to do; that’s how science makes progress. But it doesn’t mean that those theories aren’t the most accurate models we have about how the world, and the universe itself, are put together. If we’re going to understand our world, and our impact on that world, we had better base our understanding on data and use the best models we have.

Hulu Plus now available on Apple TV

Hulu Plus now available on Apple TV: Apple quietly added support for Hulu Plus to the Apple TV on Tuesday, bringing the TV- and movie-watching service to paid subscribers.

Your Website Comes From 1,000 Places. Here's How to Map Them

Your Website Comes From 1,000 Places. Here's How to Map Them: Over the past decade, the business of loading a webpage has become devilishly complicated. Websites are now really a cocktail of services delivered by advertising networks, authentication services, security services, and content delivery partners. But DeepField -- a startup based in Ann Arbor, Michigan with an impressive internet pedigree -- aims to make sense of it all.

Google Upgrades Gmail Video Chat With Hangouts | PCWorld Business Center

Google Upgrades Gmail Video Chat With Hangouts | PCWorld Business Center: Google will begin replacing on Monday Gmail's existing video chat system with a new, better one based on the Hangouts feature from its Google+ social networking service, the company said on Monday.

The swap will improve the quality and performance of Gmail video chats, and, if users have Google+ accounts, they will be able to communicate with multiple people -- up to nine participants as long as all have Google+ accounts. So far, Gmail's video chat feature has allowed only for one-to-one sessions.

Other new features for Gmail users who also have Google+ accounts will be the ability to watch YouTube videos simultaneously, collaborate on Google documents and do screen sharing.

In addition, the change also expands the scope of people Gmail users can video chat with beyond their Gmail contacts to now include people in their Google+ circles.

Another improvement is that Gmail video chat sessions will no longer be limited to computer browsers but rather be possible as well on Android and iPhone tablets and smartphones.

Google will roll out the new Hangouts video chat in Gmail gradually over the coming weeks, starting with personal Google Accounts and then moving to Google Apps, the cloud-based collaboration and e-mail suite for organizations that includes Gmail.

A big step forward this week for Oregon health care reform

A big step forward this week for Oregon health care reform:

Gov. John Kitzhaber and his health care chiefs have spent the past two years trying to convince anyone who will listen that they can fix some of the health care system's most vexing problems: out-of-control costs and less-than-stellar results. Starting this week, it's time to prove it.

Publisher's Notebook: Your N-R: Alive, well and still focused on community | The News-Review - NRtoday.com

Publisher's Notebook: Your N-R: Alive, well and still focused on community | The News-Review - NRtoday.com: I am fortunate to be under the same roof and excited to share in their future and in the future of this 145-year-old business that is alive and well.

Jeff Ackerman was named publisher of The News-Review in June. He can be reached at 541-957-4263 or jackerman@nrtoday.com.

Waze socializes navigation

Waze socializes navigation: The Waze navigation app for iOS sets itself apart from other apps with a strong social-networking element.
[Read more]

Olympic Badminton Players 'Don't Drink Beer and Cook Out'

Olympic Badminton Players 'Don't Drink Beer and Cook Out': We catch up with Howard Bach, who with doubles partner Tony Gunawan is the United States' best chance in ages at a medal in badminton.

Howard Bach wants you to know something about badminton: It’s not a sissy sport.

Oh yeah, everyone has played something they call badminton, usually with a beer in one hand and meat grilling nearby. That is to badminton as your daily commute is to the Indianapolis 500. Real badminton will kick your ass. The best players hit a shuttlecock more than 200 mph, and chasing it requires the speed of a sprinter and the stamina of a distance runner. Bach has on many occasions sent fellow Olympians in other sports stumbling away after 10 minutes on the court at the Olympic Training Center.

Wired: How big a story will it be if you medal in London?

Bach: That would be another Cinderella story. That would be another miracle on ice, except for, you know, in badminton.

Path unveils 2.5: Larger photos, movie sharing, and a 'nudge'

Path unveils 2.5: Larger photos, movie sharing, and a 'nudge': Social-networking app for family and close friends adds new sharing features to Android and iPhone apps.
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Info on the Roseburg Blast? There's an app for that

Info on the Roseburg Blast? There's an app for that:

Set to launch in August, people with smart phones will be able to download an app that will take you on a vitual tour of the Roseburg blast in the downtown area.

Four short links: 25 July 2012

Four short links: 25 July 2012:

1. Bank of England Complains About AR Bank Notes — After downloading the free Blippar app on iPhone or Android, customers were able to ‘blipp’ any ten-pound note in circulation by opening the app and holding their phone over the note. An animated Queen, and other members of the Royal Family, then appeared on the screen and voiced opinions on the latest football matters.


2. Kittydar — open source computer vision library in Javascript for identifying cat faces. I am not making this up. (via Kyle McDonald


3. Quantified Mind — battery of cognitive tests, so you can track performance over time and measure the effect of interventions (coffee, diet, exercise, whatever). (via Sara Winge)


4. Jellyfish Made From Rat Cells (Nature) — an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart. Very cool, but the bit that caught my eye was: the team built the medusoid as a way of understanding the “fundamental laws of muscular pumps”. It is an engineer’s approach to basic science: prove that you have identified the right principles by building something with them.

Twitter to release tool that exports users' tweet history

Twitter to release tool that exports users' tweet history: Following the path of Facebook, Twitter's CEO says the company is developing a new feature that will let users download all tweets they ever posted to the social network.
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Apple sells record 17 billion iPads in latest quarter

Apple sells record 17 billion iPads in latest quarter: Apple sold the most iPads ever in a single quarter.
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CNET got it's RSS feed headline wrong. That should be 'million' not 'billion'.

Hotel cardkey locks said to be vulnerable to bypass hack

Hotel cardkey locks said to be vulnerable to bypass hack: Locks used in more than 4 million hotel rooms can be defeated with some inexpensive hardware and some software, a security researcher demonstrates for Forbes.
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Police: 3 hurt in hashish lab explosion in rented room

Police: 3 hurt in hashish lab explosion in rented room:

At least three people were injured at the Douglas Inn in downtown Roseburg Monday afternoon in what police believe was an explosion during a hash manufacturing process.

July 23, 1962: Telstar Provides First-Ever TV Link Between U.S., Europe

July 23, 1962: Telstar Provides First-Ever TV Link Between U.S., Europe: President Kennedy is scheduled to be the first image beamed across the Atlantic but he's late, so Europe gets part of a Cubs-Phillies game instead.

Four short links: 23 July 2012

Four short links: 23 July 2012: If you’d raised a kid on AdBlocker, and then at age 15 she saw the ad-filled Internet for the first time, she’d think her browser had been taken over by malware.

Duplicate music woes? Let iTunes Match clean up the mess! | Common Sense Tech - CNET News

Duplicate music woes? Let iTunes Match clean up the mess! | Common Sense Tech - CNET News: If you've found yourself with multiple copies of the same songs, iTunes Match provides an inexpensive and useful way to restore order to your music collection.

PayPal Here Is More Than a Square Imitator - NYTimes.com

PayPal Here Is More Than a Square Imitator - NYTimes.com: The PayPal app also lets you accept checks just by photographing them, front and back, the way some banks’ apps now do. At that point, the check is as good as deposited; you can actually tear up the check if you like.

PayPal’s other twist: When you sign up, one additional click gets you an optional MasterCard debit card. What’s attractive about this card is that your PayPal Here sales land in its account immediately; you can use it to withdraw cash from an A.T.M., or you can use it to buy stuff for you or your business. You get 1 percent cash back on credit purchases with this card.
I’ll admit it; copycats make me cranky. Some company goes to the immense effort and cost of developing a revolutionary idea that changes the game — and others slide in on the first company’s coattails. It’s just tacky.

In this case, though, I’ll grudgingly hand it to PayPal: the card-photographing, check-scanning and debit-card features genuinely give this Square ripoff some improvements that offer real utility.

Ten stellar keyboard shortcuts | Macworld

Ten stellar keyboard shortcuts | Macworld: Among computer users, there are two types of people: mousers and keyboarders. I’m the latter. I like to use keyboard shortcuts as often as possible to save time and to keep my hands on my keyboard. Here are ten of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for the applications I use most.

The iPad has revolutionized the NFL

The iPad has revolutionized the NFL: America's most hard-hitting sport has been changed by the delicate touch interface of Apple's iPad.
[Read more]

A Brief History of Money - IEEE Spectrum

A Brief History of Money - IEEE Spectrum: In the 13th century, the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan embarked on a bold experiment. China at the time was divided into different regions, many of which issued their own coins, discouraging trade within the empire. So Kublai Khan decreed that henceforth money would take the form of paper.

It was not an entirely original idea. Earlier rulers had sanctioned paper money, but always alongside coins, which had been around for centuries. Kublai’s daring notion was to make paper money (the chao) the dominant form of currency. And when the Italian merchant Marco Polo visited China not long after, he marveled at the spectacle of people exchanging their labor and goods for mere pieces of paper. It was as if value were being created out of thin air. 

Kublai Khan was ahead of his time: He recognized that what matters about money is not what it looks like, or even what it’s backed by, but whether people believe in it enough to use it. Today, that concept is the foundation of all modern monetary systems, which are built on nothing more than governments’ support of and people’s faith in them. Money is, in other words, a complete abstraction—one that we are all intimately familiar with but whose growing complexity defies our comprehension.


Reflections of a Newsosaur: What’s next for newspapers?

Reflections of a Newsosaur: What’s next for newspapers?:
“News is the most valuable commodity in the world”

Not so very long ago, the newspaper business was a snap:  Build the largest possible audience, sell the most possible ads, charge the highest possible rates, print the fattest possible papers and pump out the biggest possible profits.  

This enviable model worked exquisitely for generations, because publishers had little, if any competition.  But it is now clear, as attested by the 50% drop in newspaper advertising since 2005, that the old ways can no longer succeed.   

So, most publishers – after arguably procrastinating far too long – are faced with choosing the best possible going-forward strategy for their mature, if not to say declining, businesses. 

Video: How to Destroy a Building With Light | Wired Design | Wired.com

Video: How to Destroy a Building With Light | Wired Design | Wired.com: After modeling the storyboard on proprietary software and testing it on the mini-Boardwalk Hall, Montreal-based Moment Factory took the show to Atlantic City. Over two weeks, team members installed 12 projectors, each shining with 20,000 lumens, and 12 servers to run them. With four projectors on a pair of towers in front of the building, and the rest mounted on it, there were still spots where they didn’t shine, so the team included hundreds of LED fixtures that blend seamlessly into the show. To that they added 15 surround-sound speakers and five subwoofers to broadcast an original score. The price for such an elaborate setup was in the millions; even the windows were hung with a special mesh fabric to keep the image sharp.

It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a pair of lawn chairs?

It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a pair of lawn chairs?:

An Oregon man and an Iraqi adventurer have taken to the sky in a pair of lawn chairs Saturday morning, suspended from helium-filled party balloons. The duo is hoping to land somewhere in Montana the next morning.

The magic of the Nights | TLS

The magic of the Nights | TLS: The original, authentic, real Ur-text of the Arabian Nights (aka Alf Layla wa-Layla, or the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, or just the Nights) is a mythical beast. There are far more than a thousand and one nights, for the thirty-four-and-a-half stories in the fourteenth or fifteenth century “core” body of the Nights were soon supplemented by other tales in Arabic and Persian, from the culture of medieval Baghdad and Cairo, and then in Hindi and Urdu and Turkish, tales carried by pilgrims and crusaders, merchants and raiders, back and forth by land and sea. And then came the narratives added by European translators, as well as the adaptations (in paintings and films) and retellings by modern novelists and poets. There is no agreed-upon table of contents. As Marina Warner points out, at the start of this enchanting book, “the stories themselves are shape-shifters”, and the Arabian Nights, like “one of the genies who stream out of a jar in a pillar of smoke”, took on new forms under new masters. The corpus lacks not only parents but a birthplace; Persia, Iraq, India, Syria and Egypt all claim to have spawned it. So the Thousand and One Arabian Nights are not only not a thousand and one but not (just) Arabian.

Zeta Woof: Breakfast

Zeta Woof: Breakfast: Pancakes, waffles, biscuits, crêpes; eggs over easy, scrambled with cheese, sunny side up; bacon, sausage, ham; blueberries, whipped cream, home made syrup and blackberry jam.

Bizarro world! Print comics boom as digital sales rise | Comic-con - CNET Blogs

Bizarro world! Print comics boom as digital sales rise | Comic-con - CNET Blogs: The problem, he says, is the Direct Market system that relies on Diamond Comics Distributors, a company that has a virtual monopoly in North America for distributing comics from publishers to your local comic book shop. "There are so many grenades bouncing around on deck that if we lose even 5 percent of the stores, it could force Diamond under."
He also criticized Comixology for re-creating the Diamond system with digital comics. "Comixology is just another Diamond," he said. "From my perspective, we're in a closed ecosystem. We have to stop being a typewriter factory."

News Corp. debates giving up 'digital savior,' The Daily

News Corp. debates giving up 'digital savior,' The Daily: The media giant is trying to figure out whether it can turn losses around on its iPad publication, according to The New York Times.
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Bizarro world! Print comics boom as digital sales rise

Bizarro world! Print comics boom as digital sales rise: The common wisdom is that as a medium goes digital, the physical sales plummet. But when it comes to comic books, the common wisdom needs a new guru.
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NEIL GAIMAN Returns To SANDMAN In 2013 | Video

NEIL GAIMAN Returns To SANDMAN In 2013 | Video: In a surprise announcement at San Diego Comic Con 2012, the legendary writer reveals that he will tell the one remaining untold Sandman story - what happened to Morpheus to lead him to be captured in The Sandman #1. J.H William will be the artist.

CCI VIDEO: Gaiman, Vertigo Announce New "Sandman" Miniseries

CCI VIDEO: Gaiman, Vertigo Announce New "Sandman" Miniseries: Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his groundbreaking series, Neil Gaiman returns to "Sandman" in November for a miniseries illustrated by JH Williams III.

Summer's Biggest Solar Storm (And Northern Lights Show) to Hit Earth Friday

Summer's Biggest Solar Storm (And Northern Lights Show) to Hit Earth Friday: A giant solar flare shot out of a sunspot today, hitting Earth with a powerful burst of x-ray and ultraviolet radiation. Solar researchers expect a small geomagnetic storm to follow and strike Earth this weekend, causing minor technical malfunctions and major northern lights shows.

'It's always awesome waking up to a shirtless crackhead with a knife'

'It's always awesome waking up to a shirtless crackhead with a knife':

Vancouver's Shaun L. Turner was shocked with a Taser and later booked into the Clark County jail on first-degree burglary and resisting arrest charges.

How your iTunes predicts your politics

How your iTunes predicts your politics: An analysis of data suggests that music preference may be closely correlated with your political leanings. Yes, if you're a Pink Floyd fan, you must be a Republican.
[Read more]

When Telstar met JFK

When Telstar met JFK: Fifty years ago today, the little Telstar satellite relayed the first TV transmission across the Atlantic. It wasn't long before President Kennedy had his black-and-white electrons beamed from the U.S. to Europe.
[Read more]

SRS Audio Essentials 1.0.1f4 - Improve and expand your Mac's audio.. (Demo)

SRS Audio Essentials 1.0.1f4 - Improve and expand your Mac's audio.. (Demo): With SRS Audio Essentials, the next generation of SRS audio software for Mac has arrived!! Audio Essentials is downloadable software that delivers home theater quality sound on your Mac.

<cite>Ultima IV</cite> Being Remade as Free-to-Play <cite>Ultima Forever</cite>

Ultima IV Being Remade as Free-to-Play Ultima Forever: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was one of those games that defined a generation of gamer. Now, Bioware Mythic is bringing it to online gamers as the free-to-play Ultima Forever.

When We First Met – The Tale of the Infinity Gems | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

When We First Met – The Tale of the Infinity Gems | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources:

HP Memristors Will Reinvent Computer Memory 'by 2014'

HP Memristors Will Reinvent Computer Memory 'by 2014': HP is two and half years away from offering hardware that stores data with memristors, a new breed of electrical building-block that could lead to servers and other devices that are far more efficient than today's machines, according to report citing one of the technology's inventors.

Heads up, LinkedIn users: 93% of recruiters are looking at you

Heads up, LinkedIn users: 93% of recruiters are looking at you: The professional network leads the list as the top social media site scoured by professional recruiters to track down job applicants.
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Police: Man bites cop after ER won't give him cocaine

Police: Man bites cop after ER won't give him cocaine:

A Roseburg man that police had to shock with a Taser in a grocery store in late May is back in jail, this time for allegedly attacking several people Monday, including a police officer.

Computer Watches Humans Play Connect Four, Then Beats Them

Computer Watches Humans Play Connect Four, Then Beats Them: A computer scientist has detailed how artificial intelligence systems can successfully win at boardgames after watching two minute-long videos of humans playing.

Home brew turns to business for local man | Business | KPIC CBS 4 - News, Weather and Sports - Roseburg, OR

Home brew turns to business for local man | Business | KPIC CBS 4 - News, Weather and Sports - Roseburg, OR: He now owns a brewery in Tenmile, and last week, he opened Draper's Draft House on Jackson Street in Roseburg. "I just wanted somewhere comfortable to be able to serve my beers and some other micro-brews," Sam told KPIC News.

Netflix streaming tops 1 billion hours in month for first time

Netflix streaming tops 1 billion hours in month for first time: Netflix's digital streaming service hit a major milestone last month: more than 1 billion hours viewed in a month.
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You want to know why that is? Because I started The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes on NetFlix just this month. So there.

Google to Shut Down iGoogle

Google to Shut Down iGoogle: Google is doing some spring cleaning in the middle of summer, announcing it will shutdown five more services, including iGoogle. Fans of Google's widget-based homepage have a little over year to find a replacement.

I Heart Robotics: Business Plan: 3D manufacturing

I Heart Robotics: Business Plan: 3D manufacturing: This blog post presents a case study in the use of 3D printing technology for manufacturing. The information is primarily geared towards entrepreneurs looking to bootstrap their business without dealing with conventional sources of funding. If you have VC funding, you should just buy a 3D printer since it will probably cost about as much as you were going to spend on a foosball table.

LukeW | Evolving E-commerce Checkout

LukeW | Evolving E-commerce Checkout: Checkout is the lynchpin of e-commerce. It’s how customers buy and retailers get paid. Yet despite years of evolution, only a few changes have significantly impacted checkout conversion online. Knowing what worked, what didn’t, and what might can help improve checkout forms today and reveal what the future of digital shopping could be tomorrow.

Newly Discovered Particle Appears to Be Long-Awaited Higgs Boson

Newly Discovered Particle Appears to Be Long-Awaited Higgs Boson: Prepare the fireworks: The discovery of the Higgs boson is finally here. Early in the morning on July 4, physicists with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced they have found a new particle that behaves similarly to what is expected from the Higgs.

Marvel NOW Relaunches The Marvel U

Marvel NOW Relaunches The Marvel U: Marvel Comics gets aggressive with their post-AvX relaunch as "Marvel NOW" introduces five months of new series debuts, the return of the original X-Men, widespread digital tie-ins, character redesigns and more.

iOS App Review: Apple's Podcasts is welcome, but underwhelming

iOS App Review: Apple's Podcasts is welcome, but underwhelming: People new to podcasting will find this podcast manager from Apple useful and relatively easy to operate. But with its occasionally quirky interface and lack of features such as iTunes and subscription syncing, Podcasts is only a modestly capable first step.

July 3, 1999: Gobbling Up a Pac-Man Record | This Day In Tech | Wired.com

July 3, 1999: Gobbling Up a Pac-Man Record | This Day In Tech | Wired.com: The world record was set by 33-year-old Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, during a U.S.-Canada clash over the Fourth of July weekend. Mitchell took more than six hours to complete the game at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.

To achieve the game’s maximum score of 3,333,360 points, Mitchell navigated 256 boards (or screens), eating every single dot, blinking energizer blob, flashing blue ghost, and point-loaded fruit, without losing a single life.

“It was tremendously monotonous,” said Mitchell, a father of three and president of Rickey’s World Famous Sauces, a manufacturer of Louisiana hot sauces.

Author Claims Electric Vehicles Are a Green Illusion

Author Claims Electric Vehicles Are a Green Illusion: To hear automakers and environmentalists tell it, electric vehicles (EVs) are the greenest and cleanest solution to personal mobility. But in his book Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, author Ozzie Zehner argues that EVs are more symbolism and marketing than environmental and fossil-fuel saviors.

Researchers a step closer to 'printing' new blood vessels

Researchers a step closer to 'printing' new blood vessels: Bioengineers jump a major hurdle by building 3D printed templates of filament networks to create vasculature. They say the trick is sugar.
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Spray-on Rechargeable Batteries Could Store Energy Anywhere

Spray-on Rechargeable Batteries Could Store Energy Anywhere: A team of mechanical engineers has published a paper demonstrating its latest invention -- spray-on rechargeable batteries that could be combined with solar cells to create self-sufficient, energy conversion-storage devices.

Entrepreneurs: Please do your homework on the competition

Entrepreneurs: Please do your homework on the competition: One of the biggest stumbling blocks that trips up most entrepreneurs is their lack of market and competitive research.
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'Leap second bug' causes site, software crashes

'Leap second bug' causes site, software crashes: The addition of an extra second to the world's atomic clocks was apparently too much for some popular Web sites and software platforms to take.
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