The 'Internet of Things' pits?George Jetson vs. George Orwell

Red Tape Chronicles

Bob Sullivan, Columnist NBC News

13 hours ago

Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters file

A model in Tokyo poses in an LED dress designed by Swarovski and Hussein Chalayan. One day soon, electronic clothing like this will even be connected to the Internet.

Doors that magically unlock as you approach. Clothes that advise you when they're out of style, then tell your car how to get to the nearest sale. Cough medicine that tells you when it's time to go to the doctor. This magical, futuristic world now called the "Internet of Things" is coming straight from science fiction into your home. Like "the cloud," the "Internet of Things" is largely a marketing term designed to create buzz around a series of not-yet-ready-for-prime time technologies, and also like the cloud, you won't be able to avoid hearing about it soon.

But this time, the stakes are much higher. It?s a full-on cage match between George Jetson and George Orwell.

Maybe it's a miracle to think about high-tech insulin pumps that patients never need to touch, while doctors control them from thousands of miles away. But what happens when a hacker hijacks that insulin pump ? or simply threatens to hijack it, and messages the patient that he'd better pay a ransom to keep it functioning properly? Those runaway gadgets from "The Jetsons" cartoon might not be such a laughing matter in real life.

We already have an Internet of Things ? your PC, laptop, tablet, everything already connected to the Internet. What the "IoT" crowd means by "things" is "everything." They want to attach tiny computers and sensors to just about every object in the world, and make them all talk to each other.

"We have everyday objects we've been interacting with for years, and many of these objects are now gaining intelligence and connectivity," said Jason Johnson, leader of the IoT consortium. "We will create this fabric of connected devices."

The back story
The idea of putting little connected computers everywhere, even floating in the air around us, isn't new. You'll find popular references to "ubiquitous computing" nearly 20 years ago. Since then, there has been one failed effort after another to bring James Bond-like automation to our lives. Take the hobbyist X-10 technology, which let users turn off household lights via remote control ? X-10 gadgets had trouble competing with The Clapper, much less "The Jetsons."

Today, continually shrinking sensors and processors put us on the threshold of the Internet of Things. In fact, some of this futuristic wizardry already has a devoted following. Members of the burgeoning Quantified Self movement use iPhones and wearable sensors like Fitbit to measure their heart rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns, upload that data into spreadsheets, sometimes even share it automatically via Twitter and Facebook. They use the data to find the optimal temperature to go for a run, or the best humidity conditions in which to sleep.

Fitbit

The Fitbit system combines wireless trackers, a Wi-Fi smart scale, smartphone apps and cloud-based information management to help people keep in shape.

Advanced medicine also already employs many of these technologies. For instance, probes with cameras work their way through our circulatory systems into our hearts, sending back detailed pictures to doctors who can make repairs in minutes in situations that would previously proved fatal.

When that kind of technology inevitably gets cheap ? when our pens, cars, toilets and everything else can see and hear us ? many exciting notions become possible. You might never run out of toilet paper, for example. At the same time, you might share uncomfortably up-to-date health information with your doctor.

What could go wrong?
But anyone who's every suffered a dropped phone call, gotten bad directions from a GPS, or even had a printer jam will realize that technology lets us down as often as it lifts us up. So aren't we setting ourselves up for gadget failure hell?

No, says Johnson, for two reasons. First, stepping on the shoulders of other futuristic failures, Internet of Things entrepreneurs know they have to prioritize substance over glitz. And second, the gadgets they sell must have an old-fashioned backup system.

"You must solve a real problem for people," he said. "We have to make sure our products and services aren't just gizmos that will shortly outgrow the gee-whiz factor. We have to have a positive impact on people's lives, making them simpler and more relaxed."

One such gadget, Johnson hopes, is the August Smart Lock ? making it is his day job. The front door lock recognizes who is approaching your home and lets you open the door on command. No need to give the dog walker a spare key; Smart Lock users can grant access to certain people at certain times, even during emergencies.

"It lets you rethink what it means to give access to your home," he said.

Smart Lock has a second important feature: If the power goes out, the homeowner can use an old-fashioned key to get in. For the Internet of Things to work, there must be a plan B when it doesn't work, Johnson says. Anyone stuck in a car with a dead battery and electric windows can appreciate that.

August

The August Smart Lock, which installs over a standard deadbolt, lets you unlock your door over the Internet.

Big Brother
Potentially comical failures ? what if your toilet paper sensor battery goes dead? ? are not the biggest potential obstacle for the Internet of Things, however.

The NSA is.

If you are even the slightest bit worried about the federal government reading your email, how concerned will you be that it could create a database of every bowel movement? Far fetched? Imagine what the National Institute of Health could do with such data.

Every one of these computer things will collect data that could end up in the hands of law enforcement, marketing companies, or even hackers, and at the moment, there is little to stop that. This worries Kevin Mahaffey, who runs mobile security company Lookout Inc.

"There are two possible ways this works. A world where everything you do is surveilled, and everything is potentially hacked by someone,? Mahaffey said. "But the alternative way is a world where you as an individual can control this data. And that's a pretty exciting world, a world where you can have the benefit of the technology, but not some Orwellian dystopia, where even in your own home you aren?t safe from the Internet-connected pen."

One privacy nightmare ? the reselling of bathroom data to drug companies, an insulin pump hacker attack, or a law enforcement incident involving home automation or monitoring ? could derail the Internet of Things for years, Mahaffey warns.

Johnson acknowledges this, but he believes companies in his space can rise to the challenge of balancing convenience with privacy.

?All the Internet of Things companies, we're capturing a lot of data about users,? Johnson said. Government regulations and industry policies should restrict usage of the data, but communication with consumers will also be key. ?We need to be very cognizant of the sensitivity of that data and how we make users aware of how this data can be used ? It's important they understand what?s going on.?

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663301/s/2df996a2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cinternet0Ethings0Epits0Egeorge0Ejetson0Evs0Egeorge0Eorwell0E6C10A462818/story01.htm

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Poll shows split in approval for outgoing Mayor Villaraigosa

As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaves office, the city's voters are deeply split over his tumultuous eight-year tenure, according to a new USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll.

Villaraigosa will turn over the reins of the city Sunday night to Eric Garcetti in a markedly different environment from the euphoric one that greeted him in 2005, when he was elected the first Latino mayor in the city's modern history. He came into office with soaring marks ? nearly two-thirds of the city's voters viewed him favorably.

Voters surveyed in recent days do not look as kindly upon him, with 47% giving him a favorable rating and 40% disapproving of his time in office.

"The mayor's leaving office with some very mixed voter opinions of his accomplishments," said Jeff Harrelson, a partner at M4 Strategies, the Republican firm on the bipartisan polling team that conducted the survey for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and The Times. Still, he said, "it's not overall all that bad for someone whose time in office included a national recession."

Villaraigosa's two terms in office coincided with high unemployment and the crash of the housing market across the nation, both of which hit California and Los Angeles particularly hard.

"Given the length and the severity of the state's and region's recession, these are very good numbers for an outgoing mayor," said poll director Dan Schnur, head of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former GOP operative.

Demographic and partisan divides drove poll respondents' feelings about Villaraigosa. Latinos, younger voters and Democrats tended to have more favorable views of Villaraigosa; less favorable views came from whites, Republicans, older voters and those who had lived in the city for three decades or more.

The contrast among white and Latino voters was the starkest. Villaraigosa was effectively tied among white voters, whereas 58% of Latinos viewed him favorably and only 33% viewed him unfavorably.

Several Latino poll respondents who approved of the mayor's performance said Villaraigosa's ethnicity did not affect their views.

"That doesn't matter to me," Adriana Navarro, a 43-year-old grocery store supervisor, said in a follow-up interview.

The Winnetka resident, a Democrat, said she especially appreciated the improvements under Villaraigosa in public transportation and development in downtown Los Angeles, which she enjoys visiting.

"He did a lot of good things in the downtown, and I like that because I'm a downtown girl," Navarro said.

As expected, Villaraigosa did as well among Democrats as with Latinos, with 58% viewing him favorably.

"As his term has gone on, he's become more visible on the national stage," said Amy Levin of Benenson Strategy Group, the Democratic firm that worked on the poll. "There's more of a partisan split going on here than there has been in the past."

Republicans widely viewed Villaraigosa unfavorably. In interviews, some said that was due to their perception that he paid greater attention to raising his profile ? chairing the Democratic Party's 2012 presidential convention, making the rounds on cable television to support President Obama and self-aggrandizing, they said ? than to his duties at home.

"He spent more time out of the office than in the office, always on TV, always at sports games," said Don Gray, who lives in West Los Angeles and identified himself as a "strong Republican."

"Villaraigosa's a very good talker, and he can be likable to a certain extent, but when it comes to actually putting your foot down and doing what's necessary, he shakes."

Villaraigosa won the highest marks for his work on public transportation and public safety, and his lowest grades on education, the city's gaping budget deficit and job creation.

His standing on education marked a repudiation because one of the hallmarks of Villaraigosa's tenure was his effort to shake up the city's schools. Twenty-two percent of poll respondents said schools had declined the most during the last eight years, making it their greatest concern.

Villaraigosa sought unsuccessfully to take over the schools, took a strong stance against the city's teachers union, shaped the school board through his support of candidates and took over some of the city's most struggling campuses, with mixed results.

Navarro, who gave Villaraigosa a "very favorable" rating, said that during his tenure she was most disappointed in the performance of the city's schools. Her two children both attended public school, and she saw steady declines in services, from music education to after-school tutoring.

"A lot of the sports got cut. Now we have to pay; the parents need to pay and donate time for the programs to continue. We have to raise money," she said.

Schnur, of USC's Unruh Institute, noted that many voters do not realize that the mayor has no formal authority over the schools. Funding was slashed in recent years by lawmakers in Sacramento.

Typically, perceptions of mayoral tenures are most affected by economic conditions, which are largely out of mayors' control. In Villaraigosa's case, his two terms were hobbled in some voters' minds by the national recession.

Alexandria Polsky-Bethune, a self-described moderate Democrat who gave Villaraigosa a "very unfavorable" rating, said many of her classmates at Cal State Northridge have graduated but not been able to find work.

"I'm worried," said the 21-year-old communications major, who will start her senior year in the fall. "Most of them move back home with no jobs. I love my family, but I don't plan on moving back home."

The poll, which interviewed 500 registered voters by telephone, was conducted June 24-26. The survey has an overall margin of error of 4.4 percentage points in either direction, with a higher margin of error for subgroups.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-poll-villaraigosa-20130630,0,6805531.story?track=rss

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Atheists unveil monument by Ten Commandments

STARKE, Fla. (AP) ? A monument to atheism now sits near a granite slab that lists the Ten Commandments outside a courthouse in a conservative north Florida town.

The New Jersey-based group American Atheists unveiled the 1,500-bound granite bench Saturday as a counter to the religious monument in what's called a free speech zone.

Group leaders say they believe it's the first such atheist monument on government property.

About 200 people attended the event. Most were atheists, but a few protesters attended as well, including a group with signs that said, "Yankees Go Home."

The atheists sued to try to have the Ten Commandments removed but dropped the case when they were told they could have a similar monument.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/atheists-unveil-monument-ten-commandments-191931088.html

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Plants Perform Molecular Mathematics

Image: Nigel Cattlin/Getty

• 

  How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...

  Read More??

As if making food from light were not impressive enough, it may be time to add another advanced skill to the botanical repertoire: the ability to perform ? at least at the molecular level ? arithmetic division.

Computer-generated models published in the journal eLife?illustrate how plants might use molecular mathematics to regulate the rate at which they devour starch reserves to provide energy throughout the night, when energy from the Sun is off the menu. If so, the authors say, it would be the first example of arithmetic division in biology.?

But it may not be the only one: many animals go through periods of fasting ? during hibernations or migrations, for example ? and must carefully ration internal energy stores in order to survive. Understanding how arithmetic division could occur at the molecular level might also be useful for the young field of synthetic biology, in which genetic engineers seek standardized methods of tinkering with molecular pathways to create new biological devices.

?This is a new framework for understanding the control of metabolic processes,? says Rodrigo Guti?rrez, a plant-systems biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, who was not involved in the work. ?I can immediately think of applying it to other problems.?

Divide and survive
Plants make the starch reserves they produce during the day last almost precisely until dawn. Researchers once thought that plants break down starch at a fixed rate during the night. But then they observed that the diminutive weed Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant favored for laboratory work, could recalculate that rate on the fly when subjected to an unusually early or late night.

To Alison Smith and Martin Howard of the John Innes Center in Norwich, UK, and their colleagues, this suggested that a more sophisticated molecular calculation was at work. The team hypothesized the existence of two molecules: one, S, that tells the plant how much starch remains, and another, T, that informs it about the time left until dawn.?

The researchers built mathematical models to show that, in principle, the interactions of such molecules?could indeed drive the rate of starch breakdown such that it reflected a continuous computation of the division of the amount of remaining starch by the amount of time until dawn.

For example, the models predicted that plants would adjust the rate of starch breakdown if the night were interrupted by a period of light. During that period of light, the plants could again produce starch. When the lights went out again, the rate of starch breakdown should adjust to that increase in stored starch, the models predicted ? a result that the researchers confirmed in Arabidopsis plants.

The team then trawled the literature looking for Arabidopsis mutants with known handicaps at different steps along the starch-degradation pathway. These showed that the models were compatible with the behavior of these mutants, which result in a higher than usual amount of starch remaining at the end of the night.

Simple principles
To find proteins that might be interacting directly with their hypothesized S/T computation system, the researchers also subjected these mutants to an unexpectedly early night ? a situation that would normally cause plants to slow starch degradation. They found one mutant that could not alter the rate at which it consumed starch in response to this situation. That suggests that the mutated gene, called PWD,?normally regulates this response, and may be an important player in the plant?s molecular calculations.?

Guti?rrez says that the concept of biological arithmetic division provides a simple modeling principle that can stimulate new ways of looking at metabolism, although he is not yet convinced that plants execute division in the way suggested by the model. ?Whether the plant is really doing that, I?m not sure,? he says. ?But it?s a fascinating approach.?

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plants-perform-molecular-mathematics

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Judy Reyes: My Daughter Will ?Probably Be a Director?

"She does the lines and then we switch roles and she goes, 'No! Don't say it like that. This is impossible!' She'll probably be a director," she adds.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/XjMuMQXxMqs/

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Save Surprising Kitchen Scraps To Grow Infinite Food

If you want to put homegrown fruits and vegetables on the table, you don't have to go out and buy seeds; you can generate all the food you want with old kitchen scraps.

We've covered how to grow onions from old onion bottoms, and entire heads of romaine from lettuce hearts, but Andy Whiteley at Wake Up World didn't want to stop there. His post shows you precisely how to regrow lemongrass, potatoes, garlic, and more from kitchen scraps that most of us throw away or compost. It even works with pineapples:

To re-grow pineapples, you need to remove the green leafy piece at the top and ensure that no fruit remains attached. Either hold the crown firmly by the leaves and twist the stalk out, or you can cut the top off the pineapple and remove the remaining fruit flesh with a knife (otherwise it will rot after planting and may kill your plant). Carefully slice small, horizontal sections from the bottom of the crown until you see root buds (the small circles on the flat base of the stalk). Remove the bottom few layers of leaves leaving about an inch base at the bottom of the stalk.

Plant your pineapple crown in a warm and well drained environment. Water your plant regularly at first, reducing to weekly watering once the plant is established. You will see growth in the first few months but it will take around 2-3 years before you are eating your own home-grown pineapples.

For more information and tips on what you can grow from discarded food, be sure to hit up the source link.

16 Foods That'll Regrow from Kitchen Scraps | Wake Up World via The Kitchn

Photo by Vitamin (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/oOadHRUF_jw/save-surprising-kitchen-scraps-to-grow-infinite-food-537447587

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'Mad Men' stars in not-so-'60s roles

TV

Ree Hines TODAY contributor

16 hours ago

They look sleek, sexy and dapper in their 1960s finery, but the cast of "Mad Men" isn't always so polished. In fact, sometimes when the stars who bring Don Draper, Roger Sterling and the rest of the characters to life aren't playing the roles they're most famous for, they're barely recognizable.

Before you say "so long" to the Sterling Cooper & Partners gang for the season on Sunday night, take a look at our roundup of some of the (not-so-) familiar faces.

AMC / NBC

Jon Hamm as Don Draper on "Mad Men" and Abner on "30 Rock."

Don Draper's made some serious mistakes on "Mad Men" this season, but thankfully, the look on the right isn't one of them. No, that's just John Hamm spoofing old-timey, distasteful comedies in an "Alfie and Abner" skit from a live episode of "30 Rock."

AMC / Netflix

John Slattery as Roger Sterling on "Mad Men" and Dr. Norman on "Arrested Development."

If it looks like Roger Sterling has seen better days in the second shot, that's because the actor who plays him, John Slattery, took on the part of a washed up, dirty doctor in the recent return of "Arrested Development."

AMC / CBS

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson on "Mad Men" and Cynthia Parks on "Picket Fences."

Peggy Olson's grown into quite the copywriter at Sterling Cooper & Partners, but way before that, actress Elisabeth Moss hit the small screen when she was still small. She made her first appearance in the quirky dramedy "Picket Fences" in 1992.

AMC / 20th Century Television

Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell on "Mad Men" and Connor on "Angel."

Even Pete Campbell -- or rather Vincent Kartheiser -- had a fresh-faced look on TV back in the day. Long before joining "Mad Men," Kartheiser played Connor, the non-vamp son of the fang-bearing lead, on "Angel."

AMC / FOX

Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris on "Mad Men" and Saffron on "Firefly."

If you're a fan of Joan Harris' just-so hair, tailored dresses and crimson lipstick, then Christina Hendricks' turn on "Firefly" might not interest you. But if you want to see Hendricks' range (and don't mind seeing her in far fewer clothes), then be sure to catch both of her decade-old episodes.

AMC / Capri Films

Jessica Pare as Megan Draper on "Mad Men" and Jennifer on "Suck."

Yikes! Megan Draper goes from Don's secretary to wife on "Mad Men," but actress Jessica Pare went from alive to undead in the movie "Suck."

AMC / NBC

Alison Brie as Trudy Campbell on "Mad Men" and Annie Edison on "Community."

When actress Alison Brie isn't playing the part of Pete's long-suffering wife, Trudy Campbell, she's laughing it up as the brainy and beautiful Annie on the sitcom "Community."

AMC / Warner Bros. Pictures

Jared Harris as Lane Pryce on "Mad Men" and Moriarty in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."

Rest in peace, Lane Pryce. Fans of the fallen character can see actor Jared Harris back in action in the 2011 film "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," playing the ultimate match for the sleuth -- the devious Professor Moriarty.

The season six finale of "Mad Men" airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/mad-men-stars-not-so-60s-roles-6C10411625

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Jeb: Papa George doesn?t think we?ve had enough Bushes in White House

Jeb Bush (Wilfredo Lee/AP File)

In an interview with Matt Lauer ahead of the opening of George W. Bush's presidential library in April, former first lady Barbara Bush was asked how she felt about her son Jeb, the former governor of Florida, being a possible presidential candidate in 2016.

"We've had enough Bushes," Barbara Bush replied bluntly.

Her husband doesn't agree, at least according to Jeb.

In an interview that aired on Sunday's ?This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Jeb Bush, who served two terms as governor of Florida, was asked what his father thought about his potential candidacy.

"What about your dad?" ABC's Jonathan Karl asked the former Florida governor. "Has he offered you any advice? Does he think you should run?"

"I think we've got a split ballot amongst the Bush Sr. family," Jeb Bush, 60, said with a laugh. "Pretty sure that's the case."

Jeb's brother, former President George W. Bush, has said he thinks Jeb should run for president.

Jeb, considered among several early contenders for the Republican nomination in 2016, has not ruled out a run for the White House, but says he won't decide until at least 2014.

"My thinking is not to think about it for a year," Jeb Bush said last month. "Life teaches you that you need to make decisions in the right time?not too early, not too late. ... I'll check in maybe a year from now, 15 months from now, something like that."

Earlier in the ABC interview, Jeb was asked about his 89-year-old father's failing health.

"I think it was hard at first for my dad to transition to being immobile," Jeb Bush said. "[But] I think he's found the right balance. I think he's in a good place, he's mentally alert, he's funny as all get out. He's spiritually in a place that we should all envy. He's more comfortable with his age. And that makes me happy."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/george-hw-bush-jeb-bush-white-house-131938993.html

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AT&T to hire more than 1,800 employees in Texas

AT&T is seeking applicants for more than 1,800 jobs that are now open throughout Texas, US. The positions include technicians to help with U-verse installation, customer service representatives for the company's call centres and openings at retail stores. AT&T is filling these positions immediately. AT&T also recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment plan to expand and enhance its mobile and fixed IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its mobile network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, AT&T plans to expand LTE coverage by end of 2014, as well as expand the AT&T wired IP and AT&T fibre network by end of 2015.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TelecompaperGeneral/~3/R1IJrHir0NI/atandt-to-hire-more-than-1800-employees-in-texas--949314

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