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Fred the baboon has been targeting cars in pursuit of food in Cape Town

A baboon known for raiding cars and attacking tourists in Cape Town has been captured and will be put down, South African officials say.

They say they took the “difficult decision” to kill the baboon, named Fred, after he became more aggressive.

In 2010, the monkey attacked and injured three people as it searched for food in the city.

City officials blamed Fred’s violence on “misguided efforts” by tourists to try to befriend and feed the animal.

“The decision to have him (Fred) euthanised was not taken lightly and not without extensive discussions between all role-players involved,” Cape Town’s Baboon Operational Group said in a statement.

“This baboon’s aggression levels had recently escalated to the point where the safety of tourists, motorists and other travellers along the road past Smitswinkel Bay was being threatened,” it added.

There are some 400 baboons roaming Cape Town’s outskirts, particularly the popular scenic route to the Cape of Good Hope.

Baboons are a protected species in South Africa but their aggressive pursuit of food has led to conflicts with residents and complaints from tourists.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Apple’s demonstrations may not have exactly made its Digital AV Adapter seem like a must-have accessory for the iPad 2, but the folks from Firemint may well change your mind with their upcoming update for Real Racing 2 HD. Not only will it let you output full 1080p video instead of just mirroring the iPad 2′s display (and aspect ratio) on your TV, but it will even let you use your iPad 2 as a secondary display — in this case, to display a map of the track. Unfortunately, there’s no word on a release date for the update, but you can get a pretty good taste of what’s in store in the video above.

Real Racing 2 HD update might just make you get an AV adapter for your iPad 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fans anxious for another Mass Effect comic run will get their wish soon, according to coverage of a Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) panel over on Newsarama. There, Dark Horse representative Jeremy Atkins revealed that the company will “publish another Mass Effect series later this year.”

With Mass Effect 3 set to launch at the tail-end of 2011, we anticipated more tie-ins — EA loves its transmedia promotions, after all. Sadly, no other details were offered on the proposed third Mass Effect mini-series.

New Mass Effect comic series from Dark Horse coming ‘later this year’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile subscribers at this point are preparing for what could be a new, blue overlord, and now you can count Audi among the ranks of those wondering what’s next. Yesterday the company with the rings signed on with the company with the magenta to power its Audi Connect system on US cars. It’ll launch first with the 2012 Audi A7, where it will provide the wireless data pipe through which the car’s MMI infotainment system will pull down Google Earth imagery, Local Search POIs, Sirius Traffic information, and even act like a Quattro hotspot for folks in the back seat. Audi’s not specified how much this service will cost, but “not free” sounds like a safe bet for now.

Continue reading Audi Connect signs contract with T-Mobile, surprised like the rest of us by the AT&T thing

Audi Connect signs contract with T-Mobile, surprised like the rest of us by the AT&T thing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Helmet cam aficionado? Contour’s ContourGPS currently has the greatest range of connectivity options, and one of those options, Bluetooth, is finally good for something. The company has just flipped the switch and deployed its Viewfinder app that we last saw at CES, which allows iOS devices to pull live video from the camera, even if it’s still stuck to the side of your head and covered in mud. Users can also tweak camera settings in real-time, which is a huge step forward over the previous process that required tethering the cam and booting up some software. However, there is a catch: to use the device you have to install a little card, called a ConnectView, into your camera. This sucker will set you back $29.99, though we’re told the upcoming Android release of the app will be able to do without. Unfortunately, that version won’t be along until an unfortunately vague “Spring,” but the iOS flavor is a free download right now in the App Store.

Continue reading Contour launches Viewfinder App, lets your iPhone talk to your ContourGPS (video)

Contour launches Viewfinder App, lets your iPhone talk to your ContourGPS (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More iPhone 5 metal back, 4-inch screen, NFC rumors is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The BBC’s Frank Gardner describes amateur video of protests on Sunday

The US has condemned Syria’s use of “disproportionate force” to suppress demonstrations calling for greater freedom and an end to corruption.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor urged Damascus to allow protests to take place peacefully.

Earlier, troops were deployed in the southern city of Deraa as thousands marched for a fourth successive day.

So far at least six people have been killed in clashes with the security forces, including an 11-year-old boy.

Mundhir Masalmi died on Monday after suffering tear gas inhalation a day earlier, an activist told the Associated Press.

Although the demonstrators have not demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, the unrest is the most serious challenge to his rule since he succeeded his father, Hafez, 11 years ago.

On Sunday, troops fired live ammunition and tear gas at demonstrators who set fire to the offices in Deraa of the ruling Baath Party and the telecommunications company Syriatel, which is part-owned by Mr Assad’s cousin. Raed al-Kerad, 23, was killed and dozens of others were injured.

Despite the heavy presence of riot police and heavily armed soldiers the next day, thousands of people chanting “No more fear!” marched through the city once more for the funeral of Mr Kerad.

The security forces appeared to adopt less heavy-handed tactics than in previous days, however, and they did not confront the mourners. Though at one point a small group was chased by police, and five were arrested.

Soldiers had earlier been deployed at the entrances to Deraa. People going in and out of the city had their identity cards checked.

There were also demonstrations on Monday in the nearby agricultural town of Jassim, where people chanted “This is peaceful” and “God, Syria, freedom”, and in the towns of Nawa and Inkil, during which marchers held placards saying “freedom”, according to the Reuters news agency.

Later, Mr Vietor said reports indicated the Syrian authorities had in recent days “used disproportionate force against civilians, and in particular against demonstrators and mourners in Deraa”.

“We call on the Syrian government to allow demonstrations to take place peacefully. Those responsible for the violence over the weekend must be held accountable,” he told reporters in Washington.

Human Rights Watch meanwhile said Syria should “cease use of live fire and other excessive force against protesters”.

“The Syrian government has shown no qualms about shooting dead its own citizens for speaking out,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director.

“Syrians have shown incredible courage in daring to protest publicly against one of the most repressive governments in the region, and they shouldn’t have to pay with their lives.”

The government has sent senior officials to Deraa to try to calm the tensions. It has also released the 15 children whose detention for writing pro-democracy graffiti triggered the first protest on Friday.

The protesters have also demanded the release of political prisoners, the closure of the secret police headquarters in Deraa, the dismissal of the governor, and a public trial for those responsible for the killings.

Syria has been ruled under emergency laws for nearly 50 years, and the Baath Party is known for brutally suppressing dissent.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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T-Mobile officially unveiled the T-Mobile G2X, their version of the LG Optimus 2X.  The device packs a dual-core Tegra 2 at 1 GHz, a four-inch capacitive touchscreen, and HSPA+ 4G connectivity.  Also on board are an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash and 1.3 MP front facing camera — with T-Mobile’s Qik powered video chat baked into the OS.

It’s running on Android 2.2, and looks to be chock full of third party extras, ranging from the Tegra Zone to T-Mobile TV.  No price was discussed, but we’re to expect it "this Spring".  Hit the break for the full presser. [Businesswire]

T-Mobile G2X officially announced posted originally by Android Central

Sponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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But for those who haven’t [subscribed], arriving at this blog via links won’t count against your ration of free nytimes.com views. As I understand it, for example, you can come in via my automated Twitter feed; and of course clicking on links at Mark Thoma or other blogs will also work.

Of course, in thinking about this, you have to wonder if there are going to be additional unintended consequences for the Times. For example, its home page is going to lose a lot of value, because each click now has a significant “cost.” However, if you were to browse another site… say, one some third party set up that linked to the Times’ articles, you could click those links without that cost. Your basic economics has to say that this harms the Times’ own site while opening up opportunities for third parties to collect that traffic. It would be interesting if a Nobel Prize winning economist… such as Paul Krugman… decided to make that point to the geniuses in upper management at the NY Times.

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Lovers shmovers — as much as I love my husband, I’ve never really gotten into the pinkness of Valentine’s Day. It’s not that I don’t like the holiday, I just don’t like the way the retail industry has been telling us to celebrate it. I’ll never turn my nose up at chocolate, but I’m a little freaked out by those heart-shaped boxes filled with mystery truffles (yes, I am the person in the family who takes a nibble off each one to determine the internal flavour and then leaves them in the box).

I don’t like receiving flowers for any occasion. I don’t want to eat dinner in a crowded restaurant. I don’t want to feel like there has to be champagne or sex or strawberries dipped in chocolate in order to feel like I did Valentine’s Day “right.”

In our house, we kick it old school, and when I say “old school,” I mean that we still celebrate the holiday the way we did when we were kids. Before we were focused on finding Mr. or Ms. Right or stressed out about making dinner reservations. It’s a grand excuse of a day to eat candy, but this is what I’m doing instead of dressing up and going out for the night with a few extra ideas that stress doing random acts of kindness… since isn’t that what love is all about?

• Valentines: you know those cards that come 24 to a box that you buy in any drugstore in America? The ones you sent to everyone in your class back when you were in elementary school? Take those and send them out to 24 friends. It will (1) make them laugh to see those tiny cards again and (2) reconnect you in a tangible way where Facebook and phone calls fail.

• Letters: and speaking of letters, take Valentine’s Day to pick one random person you encounter on your daily errands and write their boss to tell them what a great job they do. I did this for Steve who brings the carts back to the food store from the parking lot, and his boss shared it with him. I got on his Christmas card list after that and he said that it made his day.

• Phone Calls: take Monday to call three people you’ve been meaning to talk to but keep running out of time each night. Those conversations are going to be a lot more meaningful and fulfilling in the long run than a dragged out dinner in a crowded restaurant. Order in and use the time you save to catch up with those friends and family members.

• Facebook: take a half hour to peruse your memory for old friends from the past and see if they’re on Facebook. Use this day that is set aside to think about love to reconnect with a friendship that slipped away.

• Bake: instead of stressing about which goodies you’ll receive, bake a big batch of cookies. You’ll get to eat some yourself, and then you can give the rest away to friends or co-workers.

• Just Do It: did you know that this week — the 14th until the 20th — is Random Acts of Kindness week? There is an entire website dedicated to helping you find a way to make a small difference in another person’s life.

So, if you also don’t go the traditional route of dinner, champagne, and roses, how do you like to celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens and Lost and Found. Her novel about blogging is Life from Scratch.

Original for BlogHer

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via alexa.com

Here are the top sites on the web for health as represented by Alexa Rank. Physicians are you happy with this? Here is where your families go to find out information on their health BEFORE they will communicate with you, as of last year. Note this does NOT include the health presence of Wikipedia and Google, which we should consider review and use of appropriate content for our patients.

To Your Best Health,

The Personal Medicine Team

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Call it “America’s Most Wanted: Healthcare Edition.” In an attempt to ramp up efforts to catch criminals charged with healthcare fraud and abuse, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services announced its new Most Wanted Fugitives List on Thursday.

The list is a compilation of the baddest of healthcare bad guys; according to a press release, those featured have accounted for more than $124 million in fraud. Among the most nefarious individuals, three–Miami-based Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez–are accused of submitting bogus Medicare claims totaling roughly $110 million through HIV infusion clinics, as previously reported in FierceHealthcare.

Susan Bendigo of California, meanwhile, allegedly sent unlicensed nurses to treat Medicaid patients, knowing that only licensed nurses were allowed to treat such individuals. She collected $10 million out of $17.1 million actually billed to Medi-Cal.

“With our Most Wanted Fugitives List, OIG is asking the public’s help in tracking down fugitives,” Inspector General Daniel Levinson said, according to the release. “The public has a stake in the fight against fraud, waste and abuse.”

The list comes on the heels of an announcement by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week touting other increased fraud prevention efforts focused primarily in Medicare.

As of press time, the OIG could not be reached directly for comment.

To learn more:
- here’s the OIG press release
- check out the Most Wanted website

Related Articles:
HHS steps up fight against Medicare fraud
Feds recover record $2.5B from healthcare fraud
Miami Medicare fraud leaders turn selves in
Miami docs, medical workers charged with Medicare fraud
Busted: 94 charged with $251 million in false Medicare claims

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Here’s a thing we didn’t know we wanted until the internet showed it to us: a hand-cranked, clockwork Pac-Man sculpture. Its creator, Jonathan Guberman, hopes to create a fully playable mechanical Pac-Man machine called “Pac Machina” — but this proof of concept is cool enough for the time being.

Continue reading Hand-cranked mechanical Pac-Man gobbles up our heart

Hand-cranked mechanical Pac-Man gobbles up our heart originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Picture this: You’re at the airport. You remembered your refillable water bottle and got it through security by draining its contents in the security line (can’t take ‘em through full). But when you go to refill the thing once you’ve reached the gate, either:

• the water fountain runs so low you can’t possibly fill your bottle. Shoot, you can barely take a sip! or,
• there is no water to be had because you’re at one of those spread-out airports with a billion different security entrances, and there’s no water fountain anywhere near your gate.

There are, however, stores selling bottled water in just about every direction.

So what do you do?

Go thirsty? Buy the dreaded bottled water for 1,900 times the cost of tap in a single-use plastic bottle? No, you don’t. Why? Because now there’s another option in town – a water-refilling station, designed just for that reusable water bottle you remembered to bring. It goes by the name Global Tap, and it looks like this:

Now don’t get too excited yet, because so far it’s only in one airport in one U.S. city in the U.S. Not surprisingly, that city is San Francisco, a real city of firsts.

A good alternative to bottled water
This on-the-go drinking water innovation is a multi-faceted victory for residents and visitors. Offering local tap water is an economically and environmentally friendly alternative to weakly regulated bottled water, which comes at an inflated cost to both consumers and the environment.

Because it’s under-regulated, it’s hard to know what you’re drinking when you buy bottled water. They just don’t tell you – and no wonder, since almost half of all bottled water comes from municipal sources, and when we tested its contents several years ago, it wasn’t exactly pure. EWG recently examined 173 bottled water labels on the market to see if they provided basic information about their product, such as where the water came from and how it was treated. Only three brands were able to provide complete answers to these questions – questions that municipal water sources – like the one supplying San Francisco’s Global Tap dispensers – are required to answer by law.

Almost one-fifth of bottled waters do not list the location of their water source. (The industry acknowledges that 47 percent of bottled water is municipally sourced.) And then it’s sold at up to 1,900 times the price of tap water. Two words: no thanks.

Drink that filtered tap water – at home AND on the go
Filtered tap water continues to be the best choice for consumers in terms of quality, transparency and cost. San Francisco’s economical solutions to environmental and health issues should inspire communities across the country looking to ensure access to clean water.

So when you leave home, don’t fall off the green wagon! Grab that refillable water bottle (not the BPA-containing plastic one) and refill – wherever you are. If you’re lucky enough to be in San Francisco – Global Tap just made it a little easier.

Learn more and weigh in
Find out more about this new program and where these water-refilling stations are located around town — they’re not just at the airport. And take a few minutes to tell the SF Public Utilities Commission, a key backer of this program — what you think of the new water-refilling stations and where you’d like to see more of them. Just click here to start their survey.

[Photo courtesy of Global Tap]

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As Bloomberg reports, the latest settlement includes a lawsuit that had been scheduled for trial last week–until GSK agreed to settle at the eleventh hour. And it comes on the heels of a big legal charge–$3.4 billion–that GSK took against 2010 profits, in part to cover new Avandia claims. GSK has been facing claims that the diabetes drug, now withdrawn in the EU and restricted in the U.S., caused heart attacks and other cardiovascular troubles.

The individual settlement amounts seem to suggest that plaintiffs haven’t successfully demonstrated their heart attacks were indeed caused by Avandia. ”An average of $46,000 per case is a modest price to pay, in the grand scheme of things,” UBS analyst Gbola Amusa told Bloomberg. “If Avandia definitively had caused heart attacks, Glaxo would have been forced to pay” as much as $1 million a case, he said.

Meanwhile, GSK updated Avandia’s label to include safety restrictions ordered by the FDA last fall. After a review of data linking the drug to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, the agency decided to severely limit its use. The new label warns doctors and patients that Avandia should only be used after other diabetes treatments have failed, the company said.

- read the Bloomberg story
- check out the Triangle Business Journal news

Related Articles:
GSK inks last-minute settlement in Avandia suit
GSK takes profit-negating $3.4B legal charge for Q4
Avandia loss to hit GSK profits, but rivals benefit
GSK settles bulk of Avandia suits for $460M

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While the initiative, known as PREP (Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships), aims for 33 percent readmission reductions by 2014, according to Chicago Breaking Business, the IHA was light on details. The association did mention hospital partnerships with experts from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine, as well as a BCBSIL contribution of up to $1 million annually to help IHA with, among other things, technical assistance, according to a press release.

“This partnership is an outstanding example of how the provider and payer communities can work together to transform healthcare in Illinois,” IHA president Maryjane Wurth said in a statement. “PREP has great potential for both improving the quality of healthcare provided to Illinoisans, and reducing costs.”

Both efforts come on the heels of the Commonwealth Fund’s 2009 report card in which Illinois ranked 44^th nationally for Medicare 30-day readmissions as a percentage of readmissions at 20.3 percent. According to BCBSIL Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Sarran, the state could save $150 million just by reducing that number to 17.5 percent, the national median.

“Over time, these savings will go back to the taxpayers and businesses in Illinois, as well as the state [Medicaid], the federal government [Medicare], employers, and individual policy holders in the form of lower healthcare costs,” Wurth said. “More important will be the improved health and safety of patients, and the satisfaction hospital and physician partners receive from being able to deliver improved care.”

To learn more:
- here’s the IHA/BCBSIL joint press release
- read this Chicago Breaking Business article

Related Articles:
Illinois hospitals launch quality initiative
Illinois launches healthcare quality data site

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• House is set to pass PATRIOT Act extension: “The House on Tuesday night was expected to pass a bill to renew for one year certain controversial sections of the USA PATRIOT Act that would otherwise expire this month.”
• Patriot Act Extension: A Matter of Timing?: “The House will likely vote this evening to extend three key portions of the Patriot Act, the contentious antiterrorism law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.”
• House to pass Patriot Act extension: “The House is expected to approve a short-term extension of expiring parts of Patriot Act Tuesday night, forcing the Senate to tackle questions of how to deal with the counterterrorism surveillance law in the longer term.”

Turns out the conventional wisdom was wrong. The House could not conjure up enough votes to pass the extension. While a majority did vote for it, the rules required a 2/3 vote to pass and supporters of the extension fell 13 votes short — getting 277 in favor and 148 against. You can check out the roll call for the 148 Reps who didn’t just roll over.

Of course, this is hardly the end and it’s still widely expected that these provisions will get extended in one way or another. It appears that we don’t have any politicians interested in pointing out that these provisions go way beyond what is necessary and legal, so, of course, they’ll just get extended again at some point. Still, for a brief moment, it’s nice to see that not everyone in Congress would just role over and play dumb at hearing “Patriot Act.”

In case you were wondering about the three specific provisions, Wired has a good summary:

• The “roving wiretap” provision allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps from a secret intelligence court, known as the FISA court, without identifying the target or what method of communication is to be tapped.

• The “lone wolf” measure allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason — even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist. The government has said it has never invoked that provision, but the Obama administration said it wanted to retain the authority to do so.

• The “business records” provision allows FISA court warrants for any type of record, from banking to library to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation.

Contrary to the claims of fear-mongering politicians, none of these provisions are necessary at all. They’re all about being able to spy on Americans with little or no oversight. The fact that they were allowed at all in the first place was in part due to the fact that it was post 9/11 and there was a “sunset clause” that would have them go away. It’s time Congress let them go.

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THOR!

I was commissioned by Craig Kyle and Kevin Feige at Marvel Pictures to create a special print for the cast and crew of the upcoming Thor movie. I even got to visit the set, read the script and check out all the story boards and concept art – such an incredible experience.

ALL movie posters should look this sweet!

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Kaiapo Indians took their protest against the Belo Monte dam to the National Congress in Brasilia

Hundreds of indigenous Brazilians are protesting in the capital, Brasilia, against the construction of what will be the world’s third biggest hydro-electric dam.

An indigenous leader delivered a petition opposing the project signed by more than half a million people.

Environmentalists say the dam in the Amazon river basin will harm the world’s biggest tropical rainforest.

Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Lobao said construction would begin soon.

Mr Lobao said the population which would be affected by the Belo Monte dam would be compensated and resettled.

But indigenous leader Raoni said he was convinced the dam would bring “bad things” to his tribe’s villages.

‘There’ll be war’

“We don’t want Belo Monte because it will destroy our rivers, our jungle and our way of life,” he added.

“We don’t want Belo Monte because it will destroy our way of life”

Raoni, Kaiapo tribe

Another tribal leader said he and his tribe had not been given enough information about the project.

Ireo Kayapo said that if his tribe were to be driven from its land, “there’ll be war and blood will be spilled”.

Wearing their traditional headdresses, tribal leaders delivered a petition signed by more than 600,000 people demanding the government scrap the $10bn project.

Licences still have to be granted for the actual building of the plant, but last month Brazilian environment agency Ibama gave the go-ahead for the clearing of the land at the site of the planned dam.

The government says the Belo Monte dam is crucial for development and will create jobs, as well as provide electricity to 23 million homes.

The 11,000-megawatt dam would be the biggest in the world after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.

It has long been a source of controversy, with bidding halted three times before the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco was awarded the contract last year.

Celebrities such as the singer Sting and film director James Cameron have joined environmentalists in their campaign against the project.

They say the 6km (3.7 miles) dam will threaten the survival of a number of indigenous groups and could make some 50,000 people homeless, as 500 sq km (190 sq miles) of land would be flooded.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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