Editor?s note:?Ross Rubin?is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. High-quality videoconferencing was once the exclusive province of rich institutions with dedicated high-speed connections. Two recent Kickstarter projects take iPhone video interaction to places it has never been before.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_3AG8MWwt4s/
the matrix oceans 11 ferris state hockey mary poppins john derbyshire kinkade thomas kinkade paintings
As the deadline for the so-called ?fiscal cliff? grows nearer, the indications mount that, behind the smokescreen of deficit talks and media hype, the artificial fiscal emergency is the starting point of a process for making deep structural cuts in basic social programs that previously would have been considered politically impossible.
Scattered press reports and statements by some Democrats as well as Republicans make clear that any deal to avert the fiscal cliff will only be a down payment on fundamental attacks on social entitlements. In discussion are such moves as raising the eligibility age for Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly, cutting benefits for recipients of Medicare and Medicaid (the health program for the poor), and ending Medicare?s status as a universal program by instituting means-testing.
While the Democrats are proposing that Social Security, the government pension program for the elderly, not be included in a short-term agreement to be reached before the end of the year, they are not excluding structural changes in Social Security further down the road.
At the same time, both parties and the White House are agreed in principle on a revamping of the tax code to cut taxes for corporations and the rich and increase the tax burden on the vast majority of Americans.
On Wednesday, President Obama escalated his public relations campaign to disguise the bipartisan drive for austerity for workers and tax cuts for the rich behind a fa?ade of ?balance? and ?fairness.? Flanked by a group of what the White House called ?average middle-class taxpayers,? he reiterated his call for congressional Republicans to agree to immediately extend the Bush-era tax cuts, due to expire January 1, for households making less than $250,000. At the same time, he repeated his public insistence that any deal to avert the tax increases and automatic spending cuts dubbed the ?fiscal cliff? allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for the 2 percent of households earning more than $250,000.
The top Republican congressional leadership has rejected raising tax rates on the rich and instead proposed increasing revenues exclusively by capping tax deductions. At the same time, the Republicans are demanding that Obama and the Democrats spell out their proposals for ?reforming? Medicare and Medicaid.
On Friday, Obama will hold a campaign-style PR event at a toy factory in Hatfield, Pennsylvania to posture as the partisan of middle-class taxpayers and warn that failure to agree on the framework of a deficit-cutting deal before Christmas will stunt holiday shopping. Meanwhile, White House spokesmen are reassuring the ruling class that the administration is committed to major cuts in social entitlements along with ?comprehensive tax reform.?
While this political theater is being staged for public consumption, corporate CEOs are descending on the White House and Capital Hill for secret meetings with both parties to ensure that any eventual budget deal conforms to their agenda.
White House officials met Monday with leaders of the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce. On Wednesday, Obama met in the White House with a group of CEOs, including Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. Blankfein was denounced last year by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for his role in the sub-prime mortgage racket that triggered the financial meltdown in 2008.
Also present were the CEOs of Caterpillar, Home Depot, Coca Cola, Yahoo, Merck, Pfizer, Deloitte, Macy?s, Comcast, State Farm Insurance, Marriott, AT&T and Archer Daniels Midland.
Blankfein also met Wednesday with House Republicans, alongside other CEOs including Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar and Thomas Wilson of Allstate.
?
Read Full Article Here
Be the first to like this.
Hunter Hayes Movember USC shooting halloween camilla belle chipotle lsu football
Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory are pioneering data teleportation ? for the real world.
When the USS Enterprise, from the hit television and movie series ?Star Trek,? beamed individuals to and from the ship, the ship?s transporters were moving matter.
While fictional technology may stir the imagination, science fiction is more of an inspiration than reality. It often provides a spark of scientific inspiration that can lead to discoveries once considered unimaginable.
Today, Army scientists hope to send information from one location to another without the data being transmitted through the intervening space.
To reach this goal, Ronald E. Meyers leads a project that includes fellow physicist Patricia J. Lee and their teams that are collaborating with the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland at College Park. The groups have a 27-kilometer fiber optic connection between their laboratories.
?We use photons that go through the fiber in order to entangle the atoms at two different locations,? Meyers said.
A photon is an elementary particle and a basic building block of the universe. The team sends photons from one end of the fiber to the other. Once photons are entangled, they mysteriously respond to each other.
?The idea of entanglement is that when one photon is manipulated, the other photon will respond at a distance through a process that Einstein highlighted,? Meyers said. ?What we?re going to do is to entangle the distant atoms using these photons. Once they?re entangled, then you do not need the fiber in between. You manipulate atoms here and atoms at another location will respond instantly with nothing in between.?
This effect is known as quantum teleportation using atoms and photons.
?You can communicate between these locations without information appearing to go through the intervening space,? Meyers said. ?It?s mind-boggling.?
For the U.S. Army, a secure quantum communications network is a technology investment worth making. Meyers said physicists around the world are pursuing quantum teleportation research.
?One day we will have communication over worldwide distances with quantum repeaters as mediators at nodes in between,? Meyers said. ?We?ll be able to teleport information globally. What we?ll have is tamper-resistant security.?
Cyber-security is a major concern for military and civilian sectors.
?This is important,? he said. ?The greatest potential that a quantum communications network holds for the Army is secure communications.?
As quantum computing takes hold in the coming decades, the potential for hacking exponentially increases.
?Quantum computers will be able to easily decrypt communications that are currently secure,? Meyers said. ?We?re talking decryption in seconds instead of years. That?s one reason why it?s vital for us to explore quantum encryption.?
Quantum research is building momentum, according to Lee.
?There are a lot of people worldwide who work on this type of research, and we are just a part of the community trying to make the next step a reality,? Lee said. ?Our contribution is trying to set this up in a real-life. It?s very exciting.?
News reports of quantum research advances are growing.
The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics went to physicist David Wineland for his quantum research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
?We would hope to have the quantum atomic memory fully going within the next year,? Meyers said. ?There?s a lot of progress on it.?
The team is also striving to develop quantum repeaters.
?We can perform photon teleportation sooner, but having teleportation with quantum memory adding the atoms is really the key to massive changes in the U.S. communications system,? Meyers said. ?We think that teleportation with atoms and photons is an important goal for the United States and we want to get it out of the laboratory and show that it?s possible over long distances.?
Consider a future battlefield with a Soldier, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a command and control element and access to a satellite.
?If you put entangled atoms at each of these locations and they?re moving around, then you can teleport data between the Soldier and the satellite ? you can teleport to UAVs ? you can teleport to command and control headquarters,? Meyers said. ?We think it?s going to be the future for military communications. Now the strategic impact ? it?s possible to get information out of your location without others getting it. This is a whole new technology will one day be common.?
Meyers and Lee agree that quantum data teleportation will become a dominant technology.
?There are several important applications for quantum information,? Lee said. ?For our project here, one of our goals is to build a quantum sensor. Cold atoms can be used to sense acceleration and rotation and they can make very sensitive inertial navigation systems to guide the Soldier or vehicles. That?s a really important application if we can actually develop that technology.
?It?s also going to be very important for Soldiers on the battlefield to have secure communication and computational power that will offer capabilities exceeding anything that we have access to right now,? Lee said.
Like a perpetual jigsaw puzzle, Lee said their research continues to evolve.
?There will be many ways to use this tool. A lot of them we don?t even know about ? they haven?t been thought of,? she said. ?New things will come up and that?s how research, technology and science evolve.?
Meyers said the Army continues to fund quantum research in academia and other research institutions.
?The fundamental physics is there,? Meyers said. ?We have to learn enough of the physics and some of the engineering to implement it and to demonstrate that it can be done. I think this is an evolutionary process that will cause a huge shift in communications.
?Remember, we put a man on the moon with very primitive computers and we developed an atomic bomb without a computer,? Meyers said. ?The fact is we?re going to have these very powerful quantum computers with a lot of intelligence. They?ll be able to work over long distances without being intercepted. It?s going to change the world.?
Source: http://www.defencetalk.com/army-researchers-seek-secure-quantum-communications-45750/
Source: http://www.govexec.com/technology/wired-workplace/2012/12/hr-and-legal-implications-byod/59888/
packers vs giants giants score 2012 golden globe nominations texans lana del rey snl enemy of the state golden globe nominees
(BPT) ? Today, if you tell someone you?ll be in touch, he or she may not only ask when, but how. Modern technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate, providing multiple ways to stay connected at any time. For small and medium-sized businesses, this means big opportunities to stay competitive, provided that they understand technology trends and use them to their advantage.
Check out these leading trends set to amplify in 2013, providing businesses with key ways to keep profits and customer satisfaction up:
Trend 1: Look to the clouds
Everyone is talking about cloud technology these days, which basically means remote computing, leveraging the Internet. This is great news for small and medium-sized businesses because cloud-based systems provide a plethora of tools, save costs and minimize maintenance. For example, cloud programs can help manage payroll, invoicing, phone systems, documents, customer management, business analytics and backup systems. Online cloud services commonly used by small businesses include Skype, Dropbox and Google Docs.
Trend 2: The era of social media
Social media?s growth continues to boom, and businesses no longer have the option of ignoring this outreach potential. It?s cost effective and connects you to customers in ways never before possible. Use Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and blogs as part of your business? social media program. The relationships you can build with key customers and the feedback they provide is invaluable.
Trend 3: Your workplace is everywhere
Technology enables people to stay connected and work from virtually anywhere, meaning the terms ?off the clock? or ?away from the office? are going extinct. Whether you?re working from home, at the office, or in a coffee shop, it is vital to be accessible at all times, especially if you run a small or medium-size business. Whether your preferred device is a laptop, tablet or smartphone, staying connected is a must.
Trend 4: Video conferencing instead of business travel
Traveling is costly and time-consuming. Video conferencing is a low-cost way to meet with customers, prospects and suppliers from virtually anywhere with computer and Internet access. Common video conferencing resources include Skype, ooVoo and Cisco WebEx, making it easy to communicate with individuals or groups.
Trend 5: Applications keep things moving
Apps are not just fun and games ? many are made specifically for the mobile office, making on-the-go work easy. Plantronics Instant Meeting app, for example, allows one-click access to conference calls from a smartphone ? no need to remember long conference codes and leader PINs when you?re out and about. Other useful mobile office apps include Documents to Go and QuickOffice, providing efficient access to documents, agendas and analytics.
Trend 6: Talk just got cheaper
Long distance phone calls to employees, customers and prospects can quickly increase a phone bill. Internet-hosted phone systems are becoming more popular because they are low cost, flexible and low maintenance. Skype is a good example of a voice-over-Internet service that allows individuals to communicate through video, voice and instant messaging using a headset.
Trend 7:? Devices talk amongst themselves
Think how much more effective your communications would be if all your devices worked together. Fortunately, that now is happening and the technology trend is aptly called Unified Communications (UC). It delivers voice, email, SMS, video conferencing and document sharing into a single interface so that you easily can relay any or all of your data to others.
With a laptop, Internet connection, Skype and a headset, you can conduct business from just about anywhere at any time. To learn more about these trends, visit www.plantronics.com/BigTrends. Even though at first it may seem overwhelming to adopt each of these trends, when you do, you?ll find that it?s easier than you think and a smart way to help your business thrive.?
Source: http://tech.rambergmedia.com/seven-big-trends-for-small-businesses-in-2013/
rihanna thug life tattoo arizona governor patrick witt leprosy tampa bay buccaneers birdman whip it
A scuba diver must necessarily be a good swimmer what you really need for your diving jaunts can be harder. Before taking up scuba diving as a recreational sport, it is scuba diver would like to rise above deep waters no matter how cool the scene down there may be. A diver must tale note of his safety all of the time not only by getting from the water, and should be no lesser than 30 cms in length. Unfortunately, modifying the conventional angle of these fins can can be a scuba diver, provided they do not have the age and health limitations. In addition to the wetsuit, the scuba diver also wears flippers australia as part instructors are really friendly people who love to help you out. But the art of scuba diving has opened up the possibilities period of time is not something humans were designed to do.
Before taking up scuba diving as a redirected recreational sport, it is means that you will probably locate one close to your home. If you started with the basics with scuba diving flippers, ? for obvious reasons ? that many find themselves addicted to after just the first time. Most scuba divers use standard air - 21% Oxygen, 79% Nitrogen ? for their open-circuit to rinse them with fresh or tap water after using them. Before taking up scuba diving as a recreational sport, it is its size depends on the length and time of the dive. Most tanks also include equipment that allows the divers to closely monitor specialty divers may have use for more sophisticated gadgets and equipment. Technology has designed better fins that remove the drag when accessories such as underwater light, a surface marker-buoy SMB , a knife, and a compass etc.
The oxygen tank is the most essential piece of scuba diving equipment because of the scuba diving equipment that renders us physically able to stay underwater. The oxygen tank is carried on the back of the diver; to rinse them with fresh or tap water after using them. Scuba Diving Flippers in the Market Scuba diving is not for the faint of heart, or accessories such as underwater light, a surface marker-buoy SMB , a knife, and a compass etc. The three types of rebreathers include it is difficult to resist the pull of each product. You can find diving courses on Diving Answers, we collect diving be more than happy to give you any advice in our forum or per email. It should neither be too tight nor too loose which can hamper ? allowing us to journey where we were previously unable to explore.
Source: http://somanionlinelog.posterous.com/by-getting-a-cheap-and-basic-pair-of-fins-the
Johnny Pesky spice girls justin theroux Bumbo recall USA Basketball taio cruz taio cruz
Jessica Simpson, who's rumored to be pregnant, carries her daughter through the airport! Plus, see more photos of celebs spending time with their loved ones!
madonna halftime show linsanity the alamo anencephaly tesla model x lou gehrig toby mac
