Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/1hi9GoBnPa8/this-neat-lego-automaton-can-draw-portraits
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
This Neat Lego Automaton Can Draw Portraits
Wall Street cash bonuses rose in 2012 - New York comptroller
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street cash bonuses rose in 2012 but were still below pre-crisis levels, and the industry is gearing up for more layoffs as it continues to adapt to more regulation and heightened competition, New York's top financial official said.
The securities industry's bonus pool was expected to total $20 billion, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said at a press conference on Tuesday, up 8 percent from 2011 but below levels seen in 2006 and 2007, before the financial crisis.
The estimate is not an exact view of 2012 bonuses because it is based on income tax withholdings and includes bonuses that were deferred from earlier years. The comptroller's office compiles estimates on Wall Street bonuses because of their importance to state and city tax revenues.
The rise in bonuses comes as profits for broker-dealer operations on New York Stock Exchange member firms tripled to $23.9 billion in 2012 compared to $7.7 billion in 2011. It was one of the most profitable years on record, the report said.
"As we all know and acknowledge the securities industry in New York City is a major driver of the city and state economy," said DiNapoli. "It's no secret that if Wall Street is strong all New Yorkers benefit."
In 2012, about 14 percent of New York State tax revenue came from Wall Street, down from 20 percent before the financial crisis, while the industry's contribution to New York City's tax fell from a peak of more than 12 percent to less than 7 percent.
The average cash bonus rose 9 percent to almost $121,900 in 2012, the comptroller said. Although pay in the sector is well down compared to 2006 when the average bonus was over $190,000, it is still way ahead of what most New Yorkers make.
DiNapoli said that the average salary in the securities industry is 5.3 times more than the average salary in the rest of the private sector.
"They're good jobs if you have them and certainly very significant salaries," he said.
The securities industry on Wall Street and elsewhere is still going through a period of major change after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, with increased oversight from regulators. The industry has far fewer employees and is changing it compensation practices to include more deferred bonuses.
Morgan Stanley
DiNapoli said he expects Wall Street to continue to cut jobs in 2013. Employment totaled 169,700 in December 2012, 1,000 fewer than the year before, according to the report. The securities industry in New York has regained only about 30 percent of the 28,300 jobs it lost during the crisis.
"I think we're still in a recovery mode," said Joe Sorrentino, a managing director at Steven Hall & Partners, a compensation consultant to Wall Street firms. "In essence, all they are saying is that things are better than in 2011. That doesn't sound too confident to me."
Still, the report was another sign the industry is stabilizing after the ravages of the crisis.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said earlier that the banking industry's full-year earnings were the second-highest on record at $141.3 billion, an increase over 2011 of $22.9 billion, or 19.3 percent. Bank earnings peaked in 2006 at $145.2 billion.
Much of the earnings growth in 2012 came from banks reducing the amount they set aside for losses on loans, the FDIC said. Banks also saw gains on loan sales and higher servicing income.
"The industry is still adjusting to the current economic and regulatory environment, working through the fall out of the financial crisis," said DiNapoli. "The industry continues to announce layoffs and will likely continue to restructure."
The comptroller's estimate does not include stock options or other forms of deferred compensation.
(Additional reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Nick Zieminski and Bob Burgdorfer)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-cash-bonuses-rose-2012-york-comptroller-200030509--sector.html
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Quantum algorithm breakthrough: Performs a true calculation for the first time
Feb. 24, 2013 ? An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK, and the University of Queensland, Australia, has demonstrated a quantum algorithm that performs a true calculation for the first time. Quantum algorithms could one day enable the design of new materials, pharmaceuticals or clean energy devices.
The team implemented the 'phase estimation algorithm' -- a central quantum algorithm which achieves an exponential speedup over all classical algorithms. It lies at the heart of quantum computing and is a key sub-routine of many other important quantum algorithms, such as Shor's factoring algorithm and quantum simulations.
Dr Xiao-Qi Zhou, who led the project, said: "Before our experiment, there had been several demonstrations of quantum algorithms, however, none of them implemented the quantum algorithm without knowing the answer in advance. This is because in the previous demonstrations the quantum circuits were simplified to make it more experimentally feasible. However, this simplification of circuits required knowledge of the answer in advance. Unlike previous demonstrations, we built a full quantum circuit to implement the phase estimation algorithm without any simplification. We don't need to know the answer in advance and it is the first time the answer is truly calculated by a quantum circuit with a quantum algorithm."
Professor Jeremy O'Brien, director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics at the University of Bristol said: "Implementing a full quantum algorithm without knowing the answer in advance is an important step towards practical quantum computing. It paves the way for important applications, including quantum simulations and quantum metrology in the near term, and factoring in the long term."
The research is published in Nature Photonics.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bristol.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Xiao-Qi Zhou, Pruet Kalasuwan, Timothy C. Ralph, Jeremy L. O'Brien. Calculating unknown eigenvalues with a quantum algorithm. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2012.360
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Samsung?s HomeSync 1TB Android-based media server streams apps to your TV, keeps your data in sync
Samsung?s HomeSync 1TB Android-based media server streams apps to your TV, keeps your data in sync
Samsung makes phones, tablets, and televisions that can run apps. Now the company is also offering a set-top-box that can bring Android apps to your TV, let you stream content from your mobile device to a TV, or keep your data synchronized between devices.
It?s called the Samsung HomeSync, and it?s a home media server with a 1.7 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8GB solid state drive, and a 1TB hard drive.
The HomeSync is expected to ship in select countries starting in April, 2013.
The device features WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet support, 2 USB 3.0 ports for peripherals, a micro USB port for connecting to a PC, and HDMI output for hooking up a TV or monitor.
Under the hood, the HomeSync is running software based on Google Android Jelly Bean, which means you can use it to watch movies on the hard drive or stream videos from YouTube, among other things. It also includes access to the Google Play Store, which should let you download additional apps such as Netflix or Vudu to turn the HomeSync into a pretty powerful media center for your TV.
Samsung says you can also link up to 8 accounts to the HomeSync so you can synchronize data across your devices or access shared or private storage. In other words, you can keep your music and movie collection on the HomeSync?s 1TB hard drive and use each of your family?s phones to access a different set of media files for each user.
Samsung hasn?t yet revealed how much the HomeSync will cost.
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- key specs
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- TypeAudio / video player
- Video servicesNetflix, Amazon, YouTube, Other
- Audio servicesLast.fm, Pandora, Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify, Other
- Video codec supportAVI, DivX, h.264 / AVC, MPEG-4, WMV
- Audio codec supportAAC, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA
- Video outputsHDMI (1?outputs, v1.4)
- Audio outputsvia HDMI, TOSLINK (optical)
- Released04/01/2013
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Bump Watch! Jessica Simpson Flaunts Her Growing Belly
Jessica Simpson shows off her baby bump! Check out more pics of your favorite stars on the scene
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Gunmen attack Indonesian military chopper in Papua (AP)
Gunmen attack Indonesian military chopper in Papua
By JEFREY PATTIRAJAWANE | Associated Press
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) ? Unidentified gunmen shot at an Indonesian military helicopter in the restive province of Papua on Friday as the crew was trying to evacuate the bodies of eight soldiers killed in attacks the day before.
Three crew members were wounded in Friday?s attack on the Super Puma helicopter, which was forced to abort its mission and rush the injured to a hospital, said Lt. Col. Jansen Simanjuntak, an army spokesman.
Eight soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the area on Thursday. The area is a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region for more than 40 years.
In the deadliest attack Thursday, about 20 assailants armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of soldiers walking to Ilaga Airport in Puncak district to collect communication equipment, killing seven, Simanjuntak said.
Two civilians also were shot in the attack, but their fate was unclear, he said. He said earlier that the two had been killed.
About an hour before that attack, gunmen stormed an army post in Tinggi Nambut, a village in neighboring Puncak Jaya district, and fatally shot one soldier and injured another before fleeing into the jungle, Simanjuntak said.
Indonesian military spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said the same group was responsible for both attacks.
?They are believed to be old players who always try to disturb the situation there,? Sitompul said in Jakarta, the capital.
Simanjuntak identified the assailants as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.
Senior Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the incidents were ?very irresponsible acts by the armed groups in Papua,? adding that ?the government very strongly condemns such brutal incidents.? He said the perpetrators would be captured and prosecuted.
The former Dutch colony of Papua in the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that has since been dismissed as a sham. A small, poorly armed separatist organization known as the Free Papua Movement has battled for independence since then.
Source: http://www.asiaworks.com/news/2013/02/22/gunmen-attack-indonesian-military-chopper-in-papua-ap/
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Pluto moon vote helps the case for Vulcan
M. Showalter / NASA / ESA
An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, surrounded by four smaller moons. P4 and P5 will be getting new names. One of them might be called Vulcan.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
The organizer of a contest to name Pluto's two tiniest moons can't guarantee that either one of them will be called "Vulcan" ??but if the name nominated by the original captain on the "Star Trek" TV show retains its lead in the voting, planetary scientist Mark Showalter promises to argue the best case he can.
"My starting position is that we should work with the names that received the most votes," Showalter told NBC News on Friday.
The "Pluto Rocks" voting is due to conclude at noon ET Monday, to be followed by a 1 p.m. Google+ Hangout sponsored by the SETI Institute, the place where Showalter works. Right now, Vulcan holds a commanding lead with about 140,000 of the 370,000 votes cast. But even if Vulcan holds onto that edge, don't expect Showalter to declare immediately that Vulcan is the choice.
"There will not be an announcement on Monday," he said.
For one thing, it's not totally up to Showalter to make the nomination. He's just one of the leading scientists on the discovery teams for P4 and P5, the two moons that were found in 2011 and 2012. All the members from each of the teams will have to agree on the names to be submitted to the International Astronomical Union for approval. Even then, the IAU could voice concerns about the names they submit, leading to alternate suggestions. Showalter said he's actually seen that happen in the case of the Uranian moon that ended up being called Cupid.
Kirk ... takes ... command
Vulcan wasn't on Showalter's initial list of prospects, but he added it to the ballot at the urging of William Shatner, the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk on the original "Star Trek" series in the late 1960s. Shatner favored the name because it was the fictional home planet of Kirk's pointy-eared science officer, Mr. Spock. "Let's hope the IAU thinks Vulcan is a good name," Shatner wrote in a tweet to his 1.35 million Twitter followers.
Showalter said Shatner's endorsement definitely skewed the results. "Early on, it's pretty clear there were some Trek fans who seem to have resorted to augmented voting technologies," Showalter said. But he's convinced that the groundswell of support for Vulcan is genuine, and he said he's "come up with a pretty good case" for using the name.
"I want people to feel that their vote counted," Showalter said.
The IAU's guidelines for Pluto's moons stipulate that they should be named after Greek or Roman gods who have some connection to the mythological underworld. Those guidelines worked for Pluto's three other moons, Charon (ferryman of the dead), Nix (goddess of darkness) and Hydra (a many-headed monster).
Vulcan has a family relationship to the underworld, in that he was Pluto's nephew. And in his capacity as the god of fire, Vulcan tended to hang out in the depths beneath Mount Etna and other volcanoes, rather than on the heights of Mount Olympus. That may not be Hell, exactly, but it's certainly the underworld.
Showalter admitted that it might be tricky to have the god of fire associated with one of the coldest places in the solar system. "It may well be there's a consensus that it's a great name, but not a great name for a moon of Pluto," he said. Also, the name Vulcan has been associated with a hypothetical planet that was thought to circle the sun within Mercury's orbit. The 19th-century French astronomer who discovered Neptune, Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, spent fruitless years looking for it. Pluto's moon is in an entirely different place, but Showalter sees that as a potential plus.
"Maybe we'd be doing Le Verrier a favor by saying that when he was looking for the ninth planet inside Mercury's orbit, he was looking in the wrong direction," Showalter joked.
Some have said the name Vulcan should be reserved for a planet beyond our own solar system. In response, Showalter points out that there's no IAU procedure for giving names to extrasolar planets (beyond generic designations such as?Kepler-37b or Gliese 163c). That situation may change if planet-naming ventures such as Uwingu take hold. But in the meantime, Showalter feels that Vulcan should at least be given a fair shot at solar system fame.
Another moon to name
So it's virtually a sure thing that Showalter will try making the case for Vulcan. But what about the other Plutonian moon?
Right now, Cerberus is hanging onto the No. 2 spot in the voting, and unless Styx or some other name comes from behind in the next few days, Showalter will argue the case for Cerberus as well. That name fits perfectly with the mythological underworld theme, because Cerberus was the three-headed hound that guarded the gates of the underworld.
One drawback is that there's already an asteroid named Cerberus, and the IAU doesn't want newly named celestial bodies to be confused with previously named objects. Showalter said there are at least two ways around that issue: One is to argue that the asteroid and the moon wouldn't be confused. The precedent for this is Io, a mythological name that refers to a Jovian moon as well as an asteroid. Another way out is to change the spelling slightly ? say, to the Greek name Kerberos. One precedent for this is the Plutonian moon Nix, which uses an alternate spelling to avoid confusion with the asteroid Nyx. (By the way, there's already an asteroid named Vulcano, but that name is considered different enough from Vulcan,)
Opening the moon-naming process up to a vote has been a lot of work, even if it's a non-binding vote, and Showalter said he doubts that he'll do it again. But he's gratified by the response: The contest?attracted hundreds of thousands of votes from scores of countries around the world, generated more than 30,000 write-in suggestions for names, and gave Pluto fans and "Star Trek" fans lots to think about.
What would Spock think about all this? Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played the alien on the original "Star Trek" show, said via Twitter that "'Vulcan' is the logical choice."?I can imagine Spock saying that, but I can also imagine him uttering just one word. ...
Spock said, "Fascinating," a lot! Here are the times he said it. Enjoy!
More about Pluto and its moons:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Orange Acquired Dailymotion For $168 Million By Buying Out Remaining 51% Stake [Update: Orange Confirms]
Back in January 2011, Orange acquired 49 percent of Dailymotion for $78 million (?59 million), and declared that they wanted to buy out the remaining 51 percent. But Dailymotion had to wait two years before further talks. By spending $80.6 million (?61 million) for the remaining stake, Orange acquired 100 percent of Dailymotion for $168 million (?127 million).Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-Yl_ktB8SqU/
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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.
The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.
Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.
"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients _ there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."
Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.
The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.
Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.
FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.
Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.
FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug.
Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.
Kadcyla was co-developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech and ImmunoGen Inc., of Waltham, Mass. ImmunoGen developed the technology that binds the drug ingredients together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.
Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. slipped 8 cents to $14.22 in afternoon trading. They have traded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.
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Artist Tom Whalen Collaborates With Petersen Automotive Museum ...
Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has once again collaborated with artist Tom Whalen for an extraordinary print for their upcoming exhibit: ?Fins ? Form Without Function?. Since 1994 P.A.M. has been dedicated to the exploration and presentation of the automobile and its impact on American life and culture using Los Angeles as the prime example. Encompassing more than 300,000 square feet, its exhibits and lifelike dioramas feature more than 150 rare and classic cars, trucks and motorcycles.
Covering four floors, the facility features permanent exhibits on the first floor that trace the history of the automobile.? Visitors are invited to walk through, not by, exhibits and dioramas and experience settings of early Los Angeles where the world?s first shopping district was designed.
Tom?s 2012 Piece ? Aerodynamics can be purchased HERE.
The second floor presents five rotating galleries with state-of-the-art displays of race cars, classic cars, vintage motorcycles, concept cars, celebrity and movie cars, and auto design and technology.
A spectacular all-glass penthouse conference center, Founder?s Lounge and kitchen, comprise the fourth floor, which is one of five venues available for special events and function.
Here is what Tom posted on his website about this year?s project.
?The folks at Petersen Automotive Museum recently invited me to illustrate another exhibit poster for them. 
?Fins : Form Without Function? opens February 23, 2013 and runs through February 2014.? Petersen Automotive Museum is located? at 6060 WILSHIRE BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CA 90036.? You can also contact them by phone at 323-930-CARS.
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
The Mississippi Delta Tornado Outbreak: February 21, 1971
Click image to enlarge
On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971, a surface low was over Central Texas near Waco. The low had caused severe weather overnight in the Hill Country. A warm front extended east from the low across northern Louisiana, Central Mississippi and into Alabama. South of the boundary, winds were southerly and dewpoints were in the middle 60s at moist air surged northward.
At Jackson, Mississippi, thunderstorms were occurring with a temperature of 68F and a dew point of 66F. At New Orleans, it was 71F over 67F.
In the upper atmosphere, a highly amplified pattern was in place across the U.S. with a huge full latitude trough extending from North Dakota to New Mexico. The trough was progressing eastward. Ahead of it, a diffluent pattern aloft was in place over the Lower Mississippi Valley. This upper divergence would be a key factor in a significant tornado outbreak.
At the National Weather Service in Jackson, forecasters knew it was going to be a bad day. But Sundays in Mississippi were a sleepy time. Forecasts and statements highlighted the threat, but radio stations were broadcasting recorded programs. Most didn?t have a NOAA Weather Wire teletype drop anyway. Some had the Associated Press wire. The news departments in most television stations were not staffed. There was no NOAA Weather Radio.
By early afternoon, sunshine had driven surface temperatures to near 80 degrees across the Mississippi Delta. Instabilities were sky high and the diffluent pattern aloft made for an explosive situation. Just before 3 p.m. CST, an F5 tornado touched down near Delhi, Louisiana. It roared northeast, crossing the Mississippi River into Mississippi. Eleven people died in Louisiana, and another thirty six in Mississippi. The town of Inverness was completely obliterated. Twenty one people died there.
Around 4 p.m., a family of tornadoes started in Issaquena County, Mississippi. It would produce damage along a 160 mile path all the way to north of Oxford. F4 damage was caused along much of the path. The town of Cary was destroyed and eleven people died in the area. A total of fifty eight fatalities were reported with these tornadoes. Thirteen people died in an F4 tornado that cut a 70 mile path of destruction through Warren, Yazoo and Holmes County.
A total of 121 fatalities were reported in Mississippi and Louisiana, making it one of the deadliest tornadoes outbreaks in United States history.
Alabama got lucky in this outbreak, as the storms pushed across the state during the overnight hours, when instability was lower. Additional tornadoes were reported in North Carolina the following day.
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Category: Alabama's Weather, Weather History
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Can we protect against dangerous space rocks?
A meteor explosion over Russia injured hundreds of people today (Feb. 15), just hours before an asteroid about half the size of a football field gave Earth an extremely close shave, catapulting the need to protect our home planet from hazardous space rocks into the spotlight.?
The two events raise questions about our preparedness for?dangerous encounters with asteroids, and by sheer coincidence one group of scientists has just unveiled plans for a novel system to vaporize asteroids in space that threaten Earth.
"We have to come to grips with discussing these issues in a logical and rational way," UC Santa Barbara physicist Philip M. Lubin said in a statement Thursday (Feb. 14), the day before the Russian meteor explosion.
"We need to be proactive rather than reactive in dealing with threats. Duck and cover is not an option," Lubin added. "We can actually do something about it, and it's credible to do something. So let's begin along this path. Let's start small and work our way up. There is no need to break the bank to start."
The hazards of asteroid impacts are starkly clear in Russia, where more than 900 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged by the shockwave from the meteor's explosion in the atmosphere, according to press reports. [Russian Meteor Explosion Injures Hundreds (Video)]
Lubin and his colleagues have conceived of a system they call DE-STAR, or Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and exploration. The concept: harness power from the sun and convert it into a massive phased array of laser beams that can deflect or evaporate?asteroids hazardous to Earth.
"This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek," Gary B. Hughes, a researcher at California Polytechnic State University, said in a statement. "All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we'd need ? scaling up would be the challenge ? but the basic elements are all there and ready to go."
The scale the team has in mind is quite astounding ? ranging from one system the size of a desktop device to one measuring 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter ? and the capabilities would improve with each expansion.
DE-STAR 2, for example, would be about 330 feet (100 meters) in diameter, or about the size of the International Space Station, and could nudge comets or asteroids out of their orbits, the team said. Such a system would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, as it would need to be constructed in orbit from smaller pieces, Hughes said in an email to SPACE.com.
Taking a modular approach, the orbital system would keep getting bigger. The researchers envision DE-STAR 4 to be 100 times as big as DE-STAR 2 and say it would be capable of vaporizing a menacing 1,640-foot-wide (500-m) asteroid within a year by beaming it with 1.4 megatons of energy each day.
Hughes added that today's events ? the Russian meteor blast and the unprecedented close approach of asteroid 2102 DA14 ? "should remind us that there are asteroids and comets that cross Earth's orbit which pose a credible risk of impact."
"If we acknowledge the threat of impact, and the potential for severe disturbances to Earth and society, we should be compelled to investigate realistic approaches for mitigating the risk of impact," Hughes said in an email to SPACE.com. "DE-STAR is one such realistic approach, being based on sound concepts and an existing technological base. An orbiting DE-STAR 2 system would allow rapid reaction to smaller threats. A larger system could defuse any threat if detected sufficiently in advance."
The team thinks their ideas could have implications for?asteroid mining?and deep space travel, too. The DE-STAR systems could be a valuable tool for evaluating an asteroid's composition and figuring out which lucrative, rare elements it might hold, such as lanthanum, which is used in the batteries of hybrid cars. And a gigantic system that the team has imagined, DE-STAR 6, could serve as a massive orbiting power source, allowing interstellar travel without a warp drive.
"The ability to focus energy on a distant target would allow acceleration of interplanetary spacecraft," Hughes said. "Our calculations indicate that a 1,000-kg (2,200-pound) spacecraft could be accelerated to Mars and arrive in 15 days. Continuous acceleration could send a spacecraft to relativistic speeds, a tantalizing prospect for interstellar travel."
The team is currently preparing a manuscript on DE-STAR to submit for peer review.
Follow SPACE.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-targeting-system-could-vaporize-dangerous-space-rocks-215440387.html
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Kate Gosselin Joins 'Wife Swap' with Kendra Wilkinson
Remember back in the good old days when learning about a new Kate Gosselin project didn't automatically elicit a cringe? When she was best known for being a funky but relatable mom of eight children instead of being a Hollywood social climber? We do too, and we want those days back.
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Engineering College Pursues Water Technology Innovation Cluster
The University of Arizona has taken the lead in joining the growing number of U.S. regions planning their futures around water-based economies by creating water technology innovation clusters.
Water clusters build networks of universities, governments and businesses that serve as catalysts for economic development and protection one of the world?s most precious resources.
In the University's latest show of support for a regional water cluster, the College of Engineering on Jan. 31 hosted a workshop featuring keynote speaker Sally Gutierrez, the Environmental Protection Agency's new director of the highly successful cluster "Confluence" in Cincinnati, Ohio.
"There is no doubt in my mind that you have the assets here in Arizona," said Gutierrez, who was the director for eight years of the EPA?s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, which employs more than 400 environmental and chemical engineers, chemists, microbiologists, economists, hydrologists and other staff focused on water.
"You have a great infrastructure," she said. "Many programs already exist at the University of Arizona and in the surrounding communities."
The UA, home to several research centers and institutes dedicated to water quality and environmental sustainability and teeming with water and environmental experts, already is a global leader in climate, environmental, water and energy sustainability research.
The region has a head start in establishing a water cluster, Gutierrez said, thanks to the research and lab resources at the University coupled with abundant business incubator and development resources, innovative technology companies, water utilities doing a good job of ramping up conservation programs, forward-thinking state policymakers, and a green Tucson infrastructure.
The UA already is collaborating with Pima County on a future water campus, an integral part of the county?s investment in the largest project it has ever undertaken: the Regional Optimization Master Plan, which will enable the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department to meet regulatory requirements while protecting the county's environment and water supplies for decades to come.
"Pima County's collaboration with the University will benefit our community by joining UA's world-class researchers with the daily operations of a state-of-the-art wastewater reclamation facility," said Jackson Jenkins, director of the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department.
The partnership between the UA and Pima County will help bring together water and energy experts, the public, government and private corporations to work on technology development and education in water and energy sustainability.
"With facilities that can be created at such water campuses, research and testing can happen in a real live wastewater treatment facility, and researchers and companies will be able to get proof that their ideas work," said Glenn Schrader, College of Engineering associate dean of research and graduate education, whose office organized the workshop with EPA.
In addition to collaborating on the Water Campus, Schrader added, "We're highly motivated to form a regional water cluster because water management requires the involvement of infrastructure, policy planning, education and more, and because water clusters increase the opportunities to move beyond research and development to demonstration, deployment and education."
U.S. water clusters exist, or are being formed, not only in Ohio but also in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Each water cluster has immediate potential for injecting $50 to $100 million into local economies, Gutierrez told Pima County water officials, industry partners, business incubators, community activists, UA researchers, administrators and faculty attending the workshop.
Gutierrez indicated that that the EPA has a goal of fostering a network of regional water clusters and welcomes the start-up efforts in Tucson. She shared the tri-state water cluster model under way in southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana. But in a nod to the uniqueness of the arid Southwest, she acknowledged that each region has its own set of needs, opportunities and challenges and suggested that the Southwest look to Israel for inspiration.
Tucson reuses about 9 percent of its water, impressive considering that only 1 percent is reused nationally. In contrast, however, Israel reuses 75 percent of its water. Similarly, Israel uses drip irrigation on 90 percent of its cropland, while Arizona, with nearly 70 percent of its water use in agriculture, uses subsurface irrigation on less than 3 percent of it cropland.
"When you look at what Israel has been able to accomplish, you see the exciting opportunities for innovation," said Gutierrez.
"We are far from winning the war of demand on our water supply throughout the world," she said, noting that an increasingly warm climate, population growth and waste continue to drain the world's finite reserve of fresh water. In fact, in a world where more than 80 percent of the wastewater is neither collected nor treated, global food demand ? and the water to produce it ? is expected to rise 70 percent by 2050, according to the United Nations.
Discussions on establishing a water cluster in the Tucson area will continue in the near future, Schrader said, not just with local governments, utilities and corporations, but also with water cluster representatives in Australia, the Middle East and Israel.
Said Schrader: "By marshaling the University's immense brain power and facilitating investment in water sector research, we can distinguish our region's water management systems while also spurring the development of technologies that can be exported to other water-challenged areas around the world."
Source: http://uanews.org/story/engineering-college-pursues-water-technology-innovation-cluster
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
UIC Debt Collection Totals: FLORIDA
   Implemented January 13, 2013
| OFFSET COUNT |
NET COLLECTION AMOUNT |
TOTAL AMOUNT OF DEBT REFERRED |
PERCENT OF DEBT COLLECTED |
|---|---|---|---|
| $ | $ |
  Last Updated:  February 12, 2013
Source: http://fms.treas.gov/debt/uic_florida.html
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Namibia?s Most Horrifying, Fascinating Wildlife
The downside of ground crickets is their repellence makes it hard to appreciate the brilliance of the species? adaptions Photo by Philip Bateman
It?s time. Time for their glittering armor and their orgiastic cannibalism, their rhythmically gyrating jazz-antennas and their fearsomely acrobatic, get-Hugh-Hefner-his-smelling-salts sex. Time for the stinking green blood they squeeze from their joints, and the weaponized vomit they smear over their bodies.
What it?s time for, as autumn approaches in the Kalahari, is the armored ground cricket. Never heard of it? That?s hardly surprising. These little lookers haven?t generally made the A-list of African wildlife at which generations of Roosevelts and Hemingways have aimed their elephant guns and Leicas. But if armored ground crickets face some rather formidable marketing challenges, they?re also ridiculously, absurdly fascinating.
Like many visitors to southern Africa, my three fellow road-trippers and I first ran across these crickets literally. As in, with a car. Crunch. Well?crunch?more than one. Crunch, crunch. Woops. Crunch. Watch it there, little fellas! Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch. All this before we?d left the parking lot of a lodge south of Windhoek (the capital of Namibia, a country that despite any recently amplified cricket-related anxieties should be at the top of every African travel itinerary).
We pulled onto the open road and this drumbeat of crunching death accelerated to a blood-curdling, Jiffy-Pop pace. Utterly revolted, we pulled over almost immediately and turned off the ignition. Wandering into the silence of the windswept highway, we came face-to-spiny-face with our victims: fat, bristling with eponymous armor, and about two inches long, plus antennas.
Hideously mangled by an earlier car, one cricket?let?s call him, oh, Chester, shall we??struggled mightily, and with much antenna-waving, to right himself. We paused for a moment of obligatory liberal-arts-grad reflection on the trail of casual destruction that even the best-intentioned among us will leave in the world. Meanwhile, other crickets ambled over and stood in a somber arc around the grievously wounded Chester. Heads bowed, jazz antennas momentarily subdued, they seemed?somehow?to share the somber moment. Then they all, simultaneously, began to eat Chester alive.
Our shock and their meal were interrupted by the appearance of that rare Namibian beast?another car. We jumped aside and watched this vehicle flatten what remained of Chester and everyone else at his family-style dinner party. Soon, more crickets clambered over to feast on the dead and the undead-but-too-injured-to-flee. What we were watching was the genesis of a cricket pancake?a continually growing road-pie of ?spikes and spines and waving legs in a welter of gooey blood,? as Bill Bateman describes it. Bateman is a behavioral ecologist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa who, though he?s studied rhinos, hyenas, and kangaroos, keeps a special place in his heart for ground crickets. He first encountered ?their long solemn faces and gently waving antennae? as he watched them rip a beetle to pieces on a South African dune. ?I fell in love immediately.?
The cricket road pies, which spread like oil patches across Namibia?s highways, result not just from the crickets? penchant for roadside dining but from their extraordinary numbers. Park yourself on a chair outside, wait a few minutes, look over your shoulder, and you?ll likely see an armored ground cricket climbing steadily toward your neck to give you a friendly antenna-tickle. Walking isn?t any safer (not least for the crickets). Every 10th step you take will end with a sickening crunch underfoot.
The downside of ground crickets?aside from blood- and antenna-caked Reeboks?is that their general repellence makes it hard to appreciate the brilliance of the species? adaptions. (There are actually a number of species, and we apparently saw the flagship model, Acanthoplus discoidalis.) But in fact it?s their vividly noxious behavior that makes them so interesting to scientists.
Take the cannibalism. We never saw the crickets eat anything but one another. Nor did we ever see anything eat crickets, except other crickets. This, we joked, was perfection: the biological equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.
But crickets do eat other things, such as flowers and wild grasses. They also eat baby birds, although sometimes they just eat the bills off. And crickets eat crops, particularly the sorghum and millet that are staples of southern African diets.
When the cricket population peaks and food runs out, the crickets start to swarm?a group march in search of fairer pastures. The crickets are desperately seeking protein and salt. When you?re walking a lot?these crickets can?t fly?you?re going to get the munchies, and what?s saltier, more protein-filled, or more convenient than a nearby colleague? The ethos of the swarm, according to Bateman, is that of the French Foreign Legion: ?marche ou cr?ve? (march or die). Each cricket?s hind legs are ?literally being nipped at from behind.? If you?re not on the move, you?re on the menu.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=963d0aa1f78875373c8e5ff53f9c3a1e
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Health News - Test Predicts Thyroid Cancer and Leads to Surgery ...
Madison, Wisconsin - A blood test given to the children of parents who have a genetic disorder that causes thyroid cancer may have prevented further tragedy for a family already ravaged by the disease.
Joyce Walmer's father had thyroid cancer. So did her uncle. Her sister has endured three surgeries to remove tumors from her thyroid and adrenal glands. Joyce herself had surgery twice for the same reason, performed by UW Hospital and Clinics surgeon Herbert Chen, MD, who was now telling her that her children ? 8-year-old Kiara, 4-year-old Robert and 2-year-old Lilianna - would be in for the same, if no action were taken.
"Joyce's children have multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) 2A, which is an inherited syndrome," says Dr. Chen. "If the parent has the gene" - which Joyce did ? "there is a 50 percent chance the children will get it."
MEN2 is a rare hereditary condition, occurring in roughly one in 35,000 people in the United States. It is caused by a mutation in the RET gene, which provides instruction for producing a protein that is involved in cell signaling and is needed for the normal development of several kinds of nerve cells.
People with MEN2 have one functioning RET gene and one that triggers cells to divide abnormally, causing tumors in the endocrine system and other tissues. MEN2A, identified in Joyce and her children by the aforementioned blood test, leads to medullary cancer of the thyroid, pheochromocytoma (tumors in the adrenal gland) and hyperparathyroidism, which causes excessive calcium in the blood and can lead to kidney damage.
According to Dr. Chen, adrenal gland tumors and hyperparathyroidism were eventual possibilities for Robert, Kiara and Lilianna. Medullary thyroid cancer was a short-term inevitability.
"If they have the MEN2A mutation," Dr. Chen says, "they're going to get medullary thyroid cancer."
"I was kind of in shock," Joyce says. "(Given the family history) I maybe expected one of them to have it. But I didn't expect all three."
Shock soon relented to a peculiar kind of relief for Joyce. With MEN2A confirmed, the course of treatment was obvious. Her children would have surgery to remove their thyroid glands.
"The hope is to remove the thyroid prior to the development of cancer," says Dr. Chen.
Three young children. Two months ? October and November. Three surgeries. It was a lot to take in, but a familiar scene for Joyce.
"I've been there. I knew what to expect. Had I not known, it would have been scarier," Joyce says. "I felt safe with Dr. Chen because he knew what he was doing, and we were on top of it."
Any apprehensions evinced by Joyce's children were eased by a hospital staff that took the time to answer any and all questions about the surgical process.
"The staff was so good with the kids," Joyce says. "They would get right down to their level and explain everything, especially before surgery. They let the kids play with their instruments, so they were more comfortable."
Kiara's surgery came first, on October 31, followed two weeks later by Robert and then Lilianna, two weeks after that. Tests revealed surgery to be a judicious choice. Both Robert's and Kiara's thyroid glands were cancerous. Lilianna is still awaiting her test results.
"We didn't even think Robert had cancer," Joyce says. "It can happen so quickly."
All three children will be monitored closely in the coming years to make sure any trace of cancer in the thyroid doesn't spread to the adrenal and parathyroid glands. But Dr. Chen says by removing the thyroid glands, the children have avoided the most immediate and dangerous problem.
"The tumors that can develop in the adrenal and the parathyroid are benign tumors that present symptoms but are very treatable with surgery," he says. By removing the thyroid, the children should "be able to live normal lives."
That news comforts Joyce, who, despite the encouraging prognosis, nonetheless pledges to stress to her children the importance of being active participants in their health care as they grow.
"You can't let it go. If you let it go, it will turn into something worse," she says with understandable wariness. "When they get older, I have to make sure they keep up."
University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority
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Mississippi Tornado Wrecks Homes, Injures Dozens
Residents of Hattiesburg, Miss., begin a day of surveying damage, removing felled trees, and cleaning up debris left by a twister that hit the area Sunday night, tearing through one of the city's main streets.
Officials said at least 10 people were injured during the mayhem, but thankfully no deaths have been reported.
Greg Flynn, spokesman for the state's Emergency Management Agency, said a single tornado that traversed Forrest, Marion, and Lamar counties damaged hundreds of homes.
"The problem is, it was so strong that there's so much debris that there's a lot of areas they haven't been able to get to yet," Flynn said.
The University of Southern Mississippi campus was among the areas hit hard by the storm.
Campus police declared a state of emergency and asked anyone not on campus to stay away. The twister snapped trees in two, blew out windows, and ripped off part of the roof of the Alumni House.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is visiting Hattiesburg Monday to survey the damage.
Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2013/February/Mississippi-Tornado-Wrecks-Homes-Injures-Dozens-/
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Keep a Laundry Basket in Your Car for Easier Grocery Transport
When you go grocery shopping, put a laundry basket in your trunk before you leave. It makes it easy to bring in all your stuff in one pain-free trip.
Even if you don't have one already, cheap laundry baskets only cost about $8. Pick one up at your local retailer (or online) and carry your groceries home pain-free.
When you go grocery shopping, put a laundry basket in your trunk before you leave | Reddit
Photo by Sean Freese.
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Studio 1050...: New info in the family tree
I may have some new info on my immigrant ancestor, Johann Hinrich L?bker and his first wife, Christine Meier, courtesy of a guy named Brendon on the Ancestry.com message board for Erie County, New York.
Johann Hinrich--or Hinrich, as he usually appears in the census and other documents--immigrated from Schleswig-Holstein in 1846, and according to the 1899 Compendium of Biography, he was a "prosperous shoemaker for many years" in New York.
We know he was in New York state until 1855, when he and his family--wife Rosine Klein and eldest daughter Rosina C--moved to Wisconsin. According to my cousin Kathryn, he lived at least part of the time in Eden, New York, south of Buffalo in Erie County. Apparently he's listed in the records of the Evangelical Lutheran church there, although I haven't been able to raise an answer about that from anyone at the church just yet.
Kathryn also had info from my dad that somehow had eluded me: Hinrich had a first wife who came over from Schleswig with him, named Christine Meier. She died in Buffalo in 1853 of "Bright's disease," a chronic kidney condition now known as nephritis. That info is from a death certificate either Kathryn or my father had.
But until recently, I hadn't been able to locate any other information in any online records about Hinrich, Rosine or Christine during their time in New York. With as many as nine years to account for, that seemed odd.
So I posted an inquiry on Ancestry and hoped for the best. Over the weekend I got a reply:
New York, State Census, 1855, Erie, Boston
Image 8 of 33
Years residing in this city or town - 5
Henry Lipker age 51, b. Germany, Shoemaker, Alien, owner of land
Rosina age 32, b. Germany
Catherine age 10/12 - puts birth Aug. 1854, Erie
Boston is another small community south of Buffalo and east of Eden. (Hey, sounds like a good name for a book!) "Henry" obviously is an Angicization of Hinrich, and "Lipker" is both the phonetic spelling of the name as my family pronounces it, and the way the family's name was (mis)spelled in the 1860 US Census. This guy seems to be the only shoemaker listed in the town (and it was a small place in 1860--only 46 pages in the census) and my great great grandfather was a shoemaker.
According to this information, Henry and his family had been living there for five years, his wife is Rosina (same as Hinrich's second wife) and his daughter's birth month matches up with that of Rosine and Hinrich's eldest daughter, Rosina C. Given the German fashion of calling people by their middle names, the "Catherine" in the record could easily be Rosina C(atherine). "Henry Lipker" was still classified as an alien in 1855--Hinrich wasn't naturalized until 1857.
Based on all of that, I'm willing to call this a match.? I believe "Henry Lipker" is Hinrich L?bker, my great great grandfather.
Now here's where it gets interesting. There's also a shoemaker listed in Boston (Erie County), New York in the 1850 U.S. Census. He has the right birth year, a wife named Christine (same as Hinrich's first wife) who has the right birth year, and they have a 16-year-old son (!!) named Christian, who came over with them.
?
The shoemaker in the 1850 census has the same neighbors (what looks like "Kester") as "Henry Lipker" in the 1855 NY Census. The guy in 1850 owns the property on which he lives, and in the 1855 New York Census, "Henry Lipker" had owned his property for five years.
?
But again, as near as I can tell, he's the only shoemaker in that small town.
?
This one is less certain, but I'm willing to accept it. And if this IS my great great grandfather, then his having a son named Christian bridges a gap I've had in my tree for years.?
?
There's a Christian Luebker in my tree who was born in Schleswig in 1833, but for whom neither I nor anyone I've invited to join my family tree can identify parents. The "Christian Lepty" in the 1850 census posits a birth year of 1834, but he also could have been born in 1833, having already celebrated his 16th birthday in the last half of 1849, well before June 1, 1850, the official date of the census.
?
Anyway, if this IS the same Christian L?bker/Luebker who ended up starting a family in Chicago, it may explain why my grandfather moved there for a while and could link my branch of the L?bker/Lubker/Luebker family to a branch where we previously knew of no connection.
I have the Ancestry DNA test kit waiting for me at home--I guess I better send in the sample and see if that helps shed any light!
Source: http://studio1050.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-info-in-family-tree.html
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Injured Utah athletes' families fear future without insurance | The Salt ...
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dale Lawrence, left, works on rehabilitation with Matt Hansen, right, at Neuroworx in South Jordan on Feb. 6, 2013. Lawrence was a wrestler at Wasatch High School in Heber when he was injured and paralyzed.
UHSAA ? Families of injured athletes fear a policy change that would eliminate catastrophic insurance.
Heber City ? These hands once squeezed Xbox controllers and braced falls from skateboards, folded and threw newspapers, grabbed tight to wrestlers and slammed them to the mat.
But now when Dale Lawrence gingerly lifts his left hand off the joystick that controls his wheelchair to softly greet a stranger, the simple action indicates progress, the result of two hard years of physical therapy.
Three times a week, the former Wasatch High wrestler makes the 45-minute trip from this quiet Utah valley to South Jordan for a few hours of exercise and workouts with machines that pump electrodes into his body. By the time early February comes around, the 20-year-old has exhausted the 15 sessions his family?s insurance covers each year.
That?s when catastrophic insurance takes over.
"They pick up what mine doesn?t," his mother, Kelly Giles, said of the policy the Utah High School Activities Association has carried since the mid-1990s. "Otherwise he wouldn?t be able to go back because we wouldn?t be able to afford it."
Lawrence, whose vertebrae snapped into his spinal cord during wrestling practice in January 2011, is one of roughly 15 people who have benefited from the UHSAA?s policy since it was put in place. This spring, the UHSAA?s Board of Trustees will decide whether to renew that policy amid concerns about rising premiums.
If the board elects to discontinue the policy, some worry it could create gaps in coverage for future athletes and students as individual schools and districts try to shoulder the load. Others simply say the $1 million policy isn?t enough to cover a lifetime of injuries.
???
Paying the premiums ? When the sponsorship that covered the UHSAA?s premiums dissolved, the association picked up the tab for its members. In recent years, half the revenue from football and basketball endowment games has covered most of that cost, while the association subsidizes the difference.
But two major claims ? first Lawrence?s injury, then the paralysis suffered by South Summit football player Porter Hancock in an October 2011 game ? have resulted in a jump in premiums from $90,000 to more than $130,000 in the past year. The cost ? about $3.50 per student ? has begun to drain the UHSAA?s endowment fund, leaving leaders to question whether the money should be spent on other things.
story continues below
"What a tremendous blessing and benefit it?s been to those families, but the premium continues to go up because of those payouts," UHSAA director Rob Cuff said. "It?s a great benefit. On the other hand, is it cost effective and can we service the students in a way that can affect more than just the ones who by chance get injured?"
The money could be put toward sportsmanship, student leadership initiatives or any number of other uses, Cuff said.
Board members are just beginning to examine the issue, and a vote likely won?t happen until sometime in March.
Region 14 trustee Matt Flinders, who represents South Summit, said he believes some districts would opt not to take on the cost of the insurance if the UHSAA stopped providing it. He said the association must find a way to continue the coverage, even if that means requiring districts and families to pay a portion of the cost.
"We can?t say we couldn?t buy this because we had to pay for some software," Flinders said.
?
Hit too hard? ? Lawrence loved football and wrestling, but it wasn?t his everything.
As a running back at Wasatch, he painted a superhero?s mask on his face with eyeblack, earning the nickname "Super Dale."
On the mat, Lawrence practiced more than he wrestled, he said. In seventh grade, the first time he put on a singlet, he misheard a coach?s instruction to exhibition wrestlers and never bothered to weigh in the entire year.
After that, he wrestled on and off with varying levels of enthusiasm, but he was excited to get back his junior year. He was a junior varsity captain and was winning more than he was losing while fluctuating between the 145- and 152-pound classes.
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/tribpreps/55766460-190/lawrence-policy-insurance-dale.html.csp
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Sunday, February 10, 2013
SMP at Home: A Valentine-Making Party for Kids | Style Me Pretty
February 10th. 2013 by Jess | Filed Under | 2 comments
2 comments
Filed Under: At Home
? The Blog
Vendors: White Loft Studio
Colors: Blush
? copper
? Ivory
? Peach
? Pink
? Red
Tags: Balloons
? Children
? Crafting
? Darts
? Glitter
? Kids
? Party
? valentine
? Valentine's Day
Here at SMP we know Valentine?s day is sweeter when you can share it with the whole family, so we came up with this pint-sized party for your little ones to join in the fun! We envisioned a cozy afternoon party where kids could create handmade valentines for all their friends and enjoy some pink & red-hued treats at the same time. The fabulous Heidi of White Loft Studio was there to capture every adorable detail, from the oversize heart-shaped balloons with glittering copper ribbons to the mini mailboxes to take to school and return full of valentines. And to help you set up your own party, we want to show you our inspiration, our ideas for fun-to-make valentines with rock candy or balloons, and our kid & mom-approved recipes!
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Looking for more glittery, blushing Valentine?s goodness? ?Head over to last Sundays?s Valentine?s Day bash for the grown-ups!
Photography: Heidi of White Loft Studio? / Design & Styling: Style Me Pretty? / Location:?Heidi of?White Loft Studio?s House ?/ Kids? Table & Chairs: Pottery Barn Kids ?/ Vintage Pink Depression Glass Plates, Serving Dishes, & Coupe Glasses:??Style Me Pretty?s Personal Collection ?/?Oversize Heart Balloons: ?Balloons123 ?/ Copper Confetti: Save on Crafts ?/?Copper Straws:?Fun Paper Straws?/ Copper Tins: Jess? personal collection ?/ Glassware:?Crate & Barrel?/ Glass pitcher: Crate & Barrel? / Children?s Valentine Apron: Sur La Table ?/ Pink Rainboots: Zappo?s ??/ Mini Mailboxes: Tin Toy Arcade /
Though we legitimately love them, Crate and Barrel is an advertiser on Style Me Pretty.
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Source: http://www.stylemepretty.com/2013/02/10/smp-at-home-a-valentine-making-party-for-kids/
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