Are you a big Conan O'Brien fan? Then you are certainly going to want to install the Team Coco app on your Android handset or tablet from the Google Play Store. You've seen us pass along some hilarious videos made by Team Coco and here is your chance to carry some video clips with you. Excerpts from the show include great celebrity guests, sketches and musical highlights. You can even view full episodes. Hit the sync feature to see exclusive content and conversations sent?in real-time while the show is on the air.Other information includes upcoming guests and celebrities due to appear in future episodes along with the musical guests. The big news with the app now is that the Android version had only supported tablets until now. Now that the Team Coco Android app supports both phones and tablets, it finally catches up with the iOS version of the app which has been available for both the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad.
At first, the Google Play Store closed the app-gap sharply with the Apple App Store in terms of the sheer number of apps. Now comes the next wave with Android apps catching up to iOS apps in terms of functionality. We see that with the Team Coco app which now supports Android phones rather than just tablets, and with the updated Android version of the CNN app which now includes the live CNN feed that Apple iPhone users have enjoyed for some time.
Tennis player Martina Navratilova was honored Tuesday, March 6, as a recipient of the annual Seagram's Seven Crowns of Sport awards for her achievements. At left is Vince Partridge, a Seagram's executive. DMN staff photo by John F. Rhodes
Dallas Cowboys all-pro defensive tackle Randy White and recent Avon women?s tennis winner Martina Navratilova were honored Tuesday, March 6, as recipients of the annual Seagram?s Seven Crowns of Sport awards for achievements in their respective sports.
"I feel a little uncomfortable with the title," Mary Roach explains. The term "science writer" has never quite fit. "I think of myself as more of a gateway drug to science for people who don't think science is interesting." It's a point well taken. After all, in spite of having penned several best-selling titles on the subject, the author doesn't really have much in the way of a background, entering the book writing game with a BA and assorted magazine articles to her name. But while Roach lacks any sort of formal training, what the writer does possess is an uncanny talent making complex scientific concepts accessible to the layreader, distilling them to their most basic -- and often disgusting -- core.
It's a skill that has made for a good deal of required reading, including 2010's Packing For Mars, which ought be on the list anyone with even the remotest interest in space travel. Even with that in mind, however, the book's not likely to win NASA any new recruits in the near future, focused largely on the sorts of impact manned space travel has on the human body. It's an impact that, naturally, involves its share of bodily fluids. "Any machine or piece of equipment that works here on Earth in Earth gravity doesn't necessarily work in zero gravity," explains Roach. "It has to be rethought, re-tinkered, completely redesigned, and that includes the toilet." We'll leave some of that to your imagination -- and to Roach's book -- but let's just say that Packing for Mars uses the word "popcorn" in ways you'd likely never imagined. After the break, watch as a particularly animated Roach gets deep and dirty with the oft-unexamined impacts of going into outer space.
Strong auto sales, hiring gains and a continued housing recovery helped the U.S. economy grow throughout the country in January and February, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed says 10 of its 12 banking districts reported moderate or modest growth, while Boston and Chicago districts reported slow growth.
Consumer spending increased in most regions, although growth slowed in many districts and much of the increases were driven by auto sales. Many districts said that consumers pulled back slightly on spending outside of autos after seeing taxes rise and gas prices increase. Some also expressed concerns about federal spending cuts that started on March 1.
Housing markets showed more strength in nearly all parts of the country, while manufacturing showed modest improvements in most regions. And most districts reported some improvement in individual jobs markets.
The report, called the Beige Book, provides anecdotal information on economic conditions through February 22. The information will be used as the basis for the Fed's policy discussion at the March 19-20 meeting. Many economists believe Fed officials will take no new steps when they meet.
In January, the Fed stood behind aggressive steps it launched in December to try to reduce unemployment. It repeated that it would keep its key short-term interest rate at a record low at least until unemployment falls below 6.5 percent. And the Fed said it would keep buying Treasurys and mortgage bonds to help lower borrowing costs and encourage spending.
The unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in January when the Fed last met.
The economy has shown improvement since then, even as Americans paid higher taxes and automatic government spending cuts loomed. On Jan. 1, nearly all Americans who draw a paycheck began paying higher Social Security taxes and income taxes rose for the highest earning workers.
The tax increases and broader budget debate in Washington haven't slowed financial markets.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed Tuesday at a record high and kept rising Wednesday. The index of 30 big corporations has more than doubled since hitting a low during the financial crisis in March 2009.
Consumer confidence rose in February from January, according to surveys by both the Conference Board and the University of Michigan. Factories and service companies both grew at the fastest pace in at least a year, according to surveys issued Friday and Tuesday by the Institute for Supply Management.
And payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that U.S. businesses added 198,000 jobs in February. The private survey also revised January's hiring figures to show companies added 215,000 jobs that month, 23,000 more than what had initially been reported.
The figure suggests that the government's February jobs report, to be issued Friday, may come in above economists' forecasts. Analysts expect it will show the economy added 152,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent in January.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- The largest teachers union in Kansas is warning of a "war" on educators as the Republican-dominated Legislature considers a proposal that would narrow contract negotiations between teachers and public school districts.
The proposal, which is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday, would reduce the number of issues that teachers' groups could negotiate with local school boards. For example, teachers would still be able to negotiate such things as pay and sick leave, but no longer on how they are evaluated.
Supporters of the legislation recently asked for suggestions from the union after a backlash and have slowed the measure's progress, but they are still determined to reduce teachers' bargaining rights, said Karen Godfrey, president of the 25,000-member Kansas National Education Association.
"This bill, as it's written, is incredibly harmful to the way we operate now in school districts," Godfrey told The Associated Press on Monday, a few days after she issued a scathing analysis of the legislation and called it part of a "war on teachers in Kansas."
The bill will be reviewed Wednesday in the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee.
The committee's chairman, conservative Overland Park Republican Rep. Marvin Kleeb, said he's open to suggestions for changes from all parties. Kleeb said the bill's backers hope to encourage innovation in public schools by giving local districts more operational flexibility.
Groups representing school boards and superintendents ? past allies of the KNEA in education funding issues ? are backing efforts to rewrite the bargaining law. Also, a task force appointed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback recommended changes in January, saying rewriting the law would help local boards "determine what works best locally to drive efficiencies."
The KNEA stepped up criticism last week when the bill emerged from Kleeb's committee, and a few members of local school boards who oppose the bill joined the union during a news conference Monday. The teachers union contends there's no real need to change the bargaining law and believes some backers of the bill want to weaken the KNEA, which is one of the most vocal critics of Brownback and his allies.
Kleeb said he's disappointed in the KNEA's reaction, saying its criticism is overblown. He noted that groups representing superintendents and school boards have been interested in rewriting the law for years, though with Democratic governors and less conservative lawmakers, the idea hasn't gotten much traction.
Kleeb said any changes proposed by the teachers union would be considered. But, he added: "I think I'm going to be surprised if they want to make anything work. ... They really seem to be taking a hard line."
KNEA and its allies see no other option but a hard line. Kleeb's committee crafted the measure after the House approved a separate bill to prohibit KNEA and other public employee unions from automatically deducting union dues from members' paychecks to finance political activities.
The bargaining bill would limit the issues that must be negotiated to pay, holidays, sick leave, personal leave and the hours teachers work outside their classes. School boards could still opt to negotiate over other issues affecting teachers' duties, but that list would not include how teachers are evaluated or how many classes they must teach each day.
Kansas has about 34,400 full-time teachers in its public schools, according to the state Department of Education. Teachers are not allowed to strike under Kansas law.
Late last week, Godfrey called the bill's consideration "a pivotal moment in Kansas history" and issued a statement under the headline, "There is a war on teachers in Kansas."
She also said the KNEA was surprised and disappointed by support for the bill from some school superintendents and the Kansas Association of School Boards. They worked with the bill's supporters before Kleeb's committee endorsed a version last week. House GOP leaders routed it back to committee for another hearing as protests intensified.
"We as Kansans are going to have to decide whether we are going to embrace democracy, collaboration, openness, or whether we're going to accept the sham of democracy or the silencing of dissenting voices," Godfrey said during a news conference late last week. "We will not compromise in our advocacy for quality public schools for every child."
But Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the school boards association, said the group always has felt that the bargaining law "went too far" and has wanted to give boards more flexibility for years.
"What's changed is the Legislature is more interested in dealing with them," Tallman said.
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The bargaining bill is Sub for HB 2027.
Online:
Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org
Kansas National Education Association: http://www.knea.org/
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Follow John Hanna on Twitter at www.twitter.com/apjdhanna
5 March 2013Last updated at 13:27 ETBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News Continue reading the main story
Scientists say they have published the most detailed brain scans "the world has ever seen" as part of a project to understand how the organ works.
The aim of the project is to determine how a person's brain structure influences their talents and behaviour.
Researchers involved in the so called Human Connectome Project have published the scans of 68 adults in the study.
They eventually hope to scan 1,200 people and also collect details of their behavioural traits and DNA.
The information is made freely available to neuroscientists in their quest to unlock the secrets of the human brain.
The project leader, Prof David Van Essen of Washington University in St Louis, told BBC News that sharing the data with the international community of researchers would spur rapid advances in brain science.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
We hope to uncover how interactions between different regions of the brain might control people's behaviour?
End QuoteDr Tim BehrensOxford University
"We are very optimistic that as the community delves in and begins working on these data sets, they will reveal new insights into the brain circuits of healthy adults," he said.
Subjects involved in the project have their brain scanned for a total of four hours. For part of that time, they carry out a battery of tasks, which include arithmetic, listening to stories, gambling and moving parts of their body.
Volunteers also engage in tests that assess their skills and abilities. In addition, DNA samples are taken.
The scans are essentially a wiring diagram for each person's brain.
They show how different parts are connected by nerve fibres and also the thickness of the bundles, which is thought to be an indication of the importance or strength of a particular connection- a so-called "structural map".
Scanning can also show which parts of the brain are activated for particular tasks - known as a "functional map".
With all this information, researchers will be able to see if an individual's brain wiring is related to their skills, such as musicality, sociability and aptitude for science or maths.
Neural circuitry
According to Oxford University's Dr Tim Behrens, who is collaborating with Prof Van Essen, the study will "uncover which neural pathways are important in determining human behaviours".
The eventual aim of the project is to understand how the healthy human brain is wired and how differences between individuals make each person unique - shaping their personalities and their capacity to think and feel.
Prof Van Essen is excited by what may be revealed.
The BBC's Pallab Ghosh gets a look at how his brain is wired
"We have the highest quality data of the entire human brain that the world has ever seen. The question is that with more cutting edge (scanning) methods, how much can we decipher the circuits that give us our distinctive capabilities?" he said.
By learning more about how the healthy human brain works, the research will inevitably be of use to those studying brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
This could lead to a transformative set of developments that could accelerate our knowledge of the brain?
End QuoteProf Van EssenWashington University
Among those who will be delving through the data is Ed Bullmore, a professor of psychiatry at Cambridge University. He believes that psychiatric problems, such as schizophrenia, drug addiction and obsessive compulsive disorder are generally arise from irregular brain development.
Dementia
"We'll have a better opportunity to understand these disorders once we have a better grip on normal brain development", he told BBC News.
The research data is also likely to help those seeking to stem or slow down dementia. The study will undoubtedly lead to better ways of identifying those most at risk from their brain scans.
An important aim of the ?26m ($40m), five-year, US-government-funded project is to share the data with scientists across the world.
Those behind the project were inspired by the way that the sharing of information gleaned by the Human Genome project has spurred the acceleration of genetic science. But this concept has been lower to take hold in brain imaging, and the associated emerging field of neuroinformatics.
The problem has been the sheer complexity of the data and the ensuing processing and analysis of the information.
For example, the images just released of the 68 subjects take up about two terabytes of computer memory, which is two thousand billion bytes, enough to fill several hundred DVDs.
The Human Connectome Project has therefore developed a database called ConnectomeDB to make sharing of brain images much easier.
"In my optimistic view, I believe this will spur an acceleration in neuroinformatics which will be able to acquire and analyse data [from brain scans] in more powerful ways than has been possible up to this point.
"This in turn could lead to a transformative set of developments that could accelerate our understanding of the brain," Prof Van Essen told BBC News.
Autoridades en Seffner, Florida, cerca de Tampa, est?n investigando un segundo hoyo, que de manera repentina se abri? en el suelo, y que ser?a muy similar al que hace unos d?as devor? a un hombre de 36 a?os mientras dorm?a.
Este segundo socav?n, de apr?ximadamente unos 10 pies de profundidad, se abri? en el jard?n de una casa al lado de una cerca divisoria entre dos propiedades.
Autoridades del condado de Hillsborough confirmaron que el pozo no ocasion? da?os estructurales en las propiedades, ni p?rdidas humanas, pero si preocupa porque est? localizado a s?lo dos millas del que trag? a Jeff Bush, indic? el peri?dico USA Today.
Los expertos aseguran que miles de pozos similares se forman, de manera repentina en el suelo de Florida, y que responde a las caracter?sticas geol?gicas del estado.
La casa de Jeff Bush fue demolida por las autoridades este fin de semana sin poder recuperar el cuerpo de la v?ctima. La familia Bush est? pidiendo un ?ltimo esfuerzo para lograr traer el cuerpo a la superficie, pero las labores de rescate se dieron por finalizadas el s?bado en la noche.
