Friday, May 18, 2012

Brazil judge sentences Twitter user

SAO PAULO (AP) ? A federal judge has sentenced a former law student to 17 months in prison for using Twitter to incite prejudice and discrimination against people from Brazil's impoverished northeast.

A court statement says that Judge Monica Camargo converted the sentence against Mayara Petruso to community service and a fine of about $250.

Petruso's 2010 Twitter message urged people to kill northeastern Brazilians in reprisal for Dilma Rousseff's victory in that year's presidential election.

Rousseff enjoyed wide support in the northeast and won a majority of the votes there.

Residents of Brazil's wealthier south often look down on people from the poorer northeast.

The statement says Petruso acknowledged she posted the message because Rousseff won the election.

The court says Petruso can appeal the ruling. Calls to her attorneys went unanswered.

Associated Press

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The Essence Of Science Explained In 63 Seconds

Here it is, in a nutshell: The logic of science boiled down to one, essential idea. It comes from Richard Feynman, one of the great scientists of the 20th century, who wrote it on the blackboard during a class at Cornell in 1964.

Think about what he saying. Science is our way of describing ? as best we can ? how the world works. The world, it is presumed, works perfectly well without us. Our thinking about it makes no important difference. It is out there, being the world. We are locked in, busy in our minds. And when our minds make a guess about what's happening out there, if we put our guess to the test, and we don't get the results we expect, as Feynman says, there can be only one conclusion: we're wrong.

The world knows. Our minds guess. In any contest between the two, The World Out There wins. It doesn't matter, Feynman tells the class, "how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is, if it disagrees with the experiment, it is wrong."

?

This view is based on an almost sacred belief that the ways of the world are unshakeable, ordered by laws that have no moods, no variance, that what's "Out There" has no mind. And that we, creatures of imagination, colored by our ability to tell stories, to predict, to empathize, to remember ? that we are a separate domain, creatures different from the order around us. We live, full of mind, in a mindless place. The world, says the great poet Wislawa Szymborska, is "inhuman." It doesn't work on hope, or beauty or dreams. It just...is.

View with a Grain of Sand

We call it a grain of sand,
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.
It does just fine without a name,
whether general, particular,
permanent, passing,
incorrect or apt.

Our glance, our touch mean nothing to it.
It doesn't feel itself seen and touched.
and that it fell on the windowsill
is only our experience, not its.
For it, it is no different from falling on anything else
with no assurance that it has finished falling
or that it is falling still.

The window has a wonderful view of a lake,
but the view doesn't view itself.
It exists in this world,
colorless, shapeless,
soundless, odorless, and painless.

The lake's floor exists floorlessly,
And its shore exists shorelssly.
Its water feels itself neither wet nor dry
and its waves to themselves are neither singular nor plural.
They splash deaf to their own noise
on pebbles neither large nor small.

And all this beneath a sky by nature skyless
in which the sun sets without setting at all
and hides without hiding behind an unminding cloud.
The wind ruffles it, its only reason being
that it blows

A second passes.
A second second.
A third.
But they're three seconds only for us.

Time has passed like a courier with urgent news
but that's just our simile.
The character is invented, his haste is make-believe
his news inhuman.


Thanks to Maria Popova and her blog "Brainpickings" for noticing the Feynman moment.

"View with a Grain of Sand" from View with a Grain of Sand, by Wis?awa Szymborska. Copyright ? 1976 by Czytelnik, Warszawa. Text copyright ? 1995 by Harcourt Brace & Company. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Trayvon Martin Autopsy: Teen Was Killed By Single Gunshot Fired From 'Intermediate Range'

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Pesky Primate Plans Projectile Pitches

60-Second Science60-Second Science | More Science

Santino the chimp collects and conceals rocks to throw at spectators at his zoo in Sweden. Karen Hopkin reports.

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If you?ve ever spent time watching chimps at the zoo, you?ve probably wondered: what are they thinking? Well, the answer might be simple: could be they?re fixin? to hurl a rock at your head.

One chimp in Sweden actually hides stones and other potential projectiles, and then acts casual before chucking them at visitors?behavior that suggests an unprecedented degree of primate planning and deception. His duplicity is described in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. [Mathias Osvath and Elin Karvonen, Spontaneous Innovation for Future Deception in a Male Chimpanzee]

The chimp, named Santino, had long been known to fling things at annoying onlookers. For years he?s calmly gathered stones and chunks of concrete, stacking them in piles, which he visits when some human particularly irks him.

But lately Santino has gotten more cunning. For one, he?s taken to concealing his arsenal beneath little heaps of hay that he carries out from his enclosure. And his attacks are also more stealthy. Santino used to pitch a fit before pitching a stone. But now he acts all nonchalant, even thoughtfully munching an apple before letting the missiles fly.

The researchers say the data show that chimps are capable of social planning and deception. Unless, of course, that?s just what the chimps want us to think.

?Karen Hopkin

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]


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The Way To Teach Your Dog - Free Pets to Good Home

It is usually stated that one of the biggest pressure relievers would be to have is really a animal, especially a pet dog. Puppies are usually brought to therapeutic services to ease individuals and carry them joy. Obviously, in case you have ever endured a new dog dog at home, you no doubt know that it will deliver just as much stress since it does smiles. The perfect time to get started on instruction your pet dog begins after it is nonetheless a pup. Nonetheless, whatever the age, instilling efficient learning your pet dog is very valuable now and in the long run. They are some methods that exist the most entertainment from the pet via dog training.

Does your pet dog draw around the leash? This is probably the most common complaints managers have about their canines, and it?s also unbelievably an easy task to solution. Head over to your local pet offer retail store and grab a funnel just for a few money ? harnesses dramatically lessen tugging, to make walks satisfying yet again!

If you are training your doggy good friend, use what is known primary support. Main encouragement uses something which is natural for your pet to really like being a compensate forever habits. Principal reinforcements consist of employing meals as treats and rubbing your dog?s stomach. This will likely teach your puppy ways to get something he already desires.

Enabling your dog to socialize is a vital component of education. Some adverse animal behaviors come about when dogs have not been unveiled in new folks (which include children), other wildlife, or various adjustments. Helping your dog turn out to be comfortable with new activities reduces the chance that your puppy will concern or work assertively inside a new condition.

Training your pet dog can actually provide numerous challenges in addition to rewards. Adhering to these tips and tricks for coaching your dog persistently can lead to a much better-behaved canine. Time put in now to put into practice these methods implies you will see more hours to take pleasure from the business of man?s closest friend.

I recommend you visit my site in Spanish on how to educate http://comoeducaraunperro.com/. Find more useful information, especially tips for raising a dog, clic here.

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Advancements in pet chipping helps reunite pets and families ...

I immediately felt a pang of anxiety. And then one of confusion. Exactly what was I supposed to do with this information? It appeared on my smartphone because I recently got a new puppy and, while Riley was under the ether being spayed, the veterinarian?s assistant recommended inserting a chip for identification purposes.

My previous dog?s identification had consisted of a nylon collar and metal tag; the chip sounded Big Brother-ish, if not unnecessary. But the assistant assured me that ?everyone? does it these days, so that lost or stolen pets can be readily identified if brought to a shelter or veterinarian?s office. A scanning wand would be waved over my golden retriever?s back, her ID number would pop up, and we would be notified of her whereabouts.

Gazing into Riley?s molten brown eyes, the assistant said, ?Wouldn?t you want to be sure that she comes home?? I signed the paperwork immediately.

Unbeknown to me, along with the chip came a year?s free ?premium? membership from?HomeAgain, the largest provider of pet chips in the United States. By registering Riley with HomeAgain, I had unwittingly become one of 850,000 PetRescuers who receive regular electronic alerts about missing animals in their area.

While pet-chip technology has been around for nearly two decades, the industry has recently taken a commercial turn, spawning new ventures, including membership programs and social networking. What was once a simple process ? inject a tiny transponder the size of a grain of rice between a pet?s shoulder blades and pay a one-time registration fee ? has become a big business, with annual charges for benefits ranging from online distribution of customized lost-pet notices to discounted flights for missing pets found hundreds of miles away.

Gary MacPhee, the general manager of HomeAgain, which is a subsidiary of Merck & Company, said, ?We wanted pet owners to belong to our organization and we thought we could add value with our services.?

HomeAgain?s Web site features cautionary tales from pet owners (like the self-recriminating video, ?We Didn?t Even Know Gucci Was Gone,? about a missing miniature schnauzer) and alarming statistics: one out of three dogs and cats will be lost during its lifetime.

According to the?American Humane Association, last year more than seven million dogs and cats went missing; only about 17 percent of lost dogs and 2 percent of lost cats ever find their way back from shelters to their original owners. More than 10 million pets are euthanized every year because their owners can?t be found. HomeAgain?s Web site has a ticker counting pet recoveries tracked to chip technology; as of late April, it clocked 1,016,843 such reunions.

But not all pet owners are sold on chips. Mary Ellen Feeley of Riverside, Conn., agreed to have a chip inserted in her Labrador retriever, Maggie. When she recently added a golden retriever, Dusty, to her household, she opted out. ?I thought the chip was more of a scare tactic when we got Maggie,? she said. ?I have never heard of any of my friends relying on the chip to find their dog. The collar tag, as antiquated as it might be, seems like a reliable methodology.?

Indeed, most recoveries are still done by collar tag, said Tom Sharp, an?American Kennel Club?official. ?It?s more likely that your dog will wind up on your neighbor?s property than in the local animal shelter,? he said. ?But a chip is still the only way to permanently identify your dog as belonging to you.?

Since 1995, the kennel club has offered its own nonprofit chip service,?Companion Animal Recovery. Until 2005, the service had a partnership with HomeAgain, which produced the chips; when that contract expired, the two organizations parted ways. ?They wanted to increase their revenue through annual fees and add-ons, so we split up,? Mr. Sharp said.

Today the kennel-club service charges a one-time fee of $19.95, which enrolls a pet in its database for life (HomeAgain charges $39 for enrollment). Kennel club customers can also pay a one-time fee of $15 for lifetime membership in its lost-pet recovery program, which includes a 24-hour hot line. HomeAgain charges $17.99 a year for its package of benefits; its newest feature is an?iPhone?and?Android?app that lets users upload photos of lost pets and delivers alerts with a bark or meow.

Some pet owners find the alerts distressing, and confess to not opening them or to unsubscribing from them. Others shrug them off. ?I would rather get three e-mails a day about lost pets in my neighborhood than 20 e-mails from stores I rarely shop at,? said Mr. Sharp of the kennel club.

Mr. MacPhee acknowledges that not every HomeAgain customer appreciates such services; after the free first year, about half decline to renew the membership (the registration information remains active in the company?s database). But he anticipates increasing the PetRescuer network to three million people by 2013 ? partly by enrolling people who do not actually own pets. (They can submit their e-mail and ZIP code, and request to be notified about lost pets within a 5-, 10- or 25-mile radius of their home.) ?Early triage is the No. 1 thing that gets pets found,? he said. ?The distribution of information is really what helps find your animal.?

Yet some pet experts think the chips provide a false sense of security. Claudia Devita, a Fairfield County, Conn., breeder, urges clients to understand the system?s limitations. ?There is no quick cure to finding a lost dog, even with a chip,? she said. ?Your dog has to be lucky enough to be returned to a place that has a scanner to check the number on the chip and then a way of contacting you. The only foolproof way to keep your pet safe is with making sure the dog is either walked on a leash or kept inside a yard with a fence.?

Indeed, unreliable or incompatible scanner technology remains a nagging issue for chip providers. A chip is essentially a tiny transponder that uses radio frequency waves to transmit data, including registration and vendor contact information.

Each chip can be activated by a hand-held scanner, but competing companies use different frequencies to send signals. Several chip vendors now produce universal scanners, and give them to animal shelters at low cost or free, but there is no guarantee that a particular chip will be recognized.

?The government has not mandated that all pet organizations acquire universal scanners,? said Mr. Sharp of the American Kennel Club. ?So it?s still possible that a pet?s chip won?t be read properly if he turns up at a shelter.?

As for me, I can?t bring myself to delete or ignore the lost-pet alerts that pop up regularly on my smartphone. The latest one: ?Farrah is missing,? described a 4-year-old female cat, weighing 12 pounds, with a black-and-white tuxedo coat. Her mug shot was adorable, and the online map showed a little green marker with a tiny paw print near my neighborhood. I?m rooting for her safe return.

More New York Times:?http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/fashion/pet-chips-have-become-big-business-but-do-they-work.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

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