After raising $100M+ last June, Donuts -- a registry for the new top-level domain names that ICANN is ushering in this year (such as .yay or .jobs) -- has announced it has raised a new funding round. The exact figure for its Series B, which is led by existing investor Generation Partners, has not been disclosed but the company said the equity investment is "twice the valuation" of the Series A.
With remembrances of the late prime minister dominating the press, it is easy to forget the economic woes and issues of identity that gripped Britain in the years preceding her rule.
By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / April 9, 2013
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reviews the honor guard at the White House in Washington, as President Jimmy Carter follows, in December 1979.
Gerald Penny/AP/File
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?BRITAIN AT THE CROSSROADS,? blared a Monitor headline in July 1978, less than a year before Margaret Thatcher became the country?s prime minister. ?Are law and order wilting??
Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown
Correspondent
Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?
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?Political, labor storms grow louder in Britain,? warned another, in January 1979.
?Britons? patience ? wears thin,? read a third.
As both tributes to Mrs. Thatcher and attacks on her leadership have poured in since her death, it is easy to forget the near-crisis that gripped Britain in the years preceding her rule, as the economy sagged under the weight of rampant inflation and broad unemployment. During the winter of 1978-79, just before the Tories swept to power, strikes rippled across the public sector ? the infamous British ?Winter of Discontent? ?? ?in response to a government wage cap.
Meanwhile, as nationalist rumblings rose in Scotland and parliament debated stricter limits on immigration, England seemed to be descending into a crisis of confidence about its very Englishness.
As a look through Monitor archives show, this was the deeply divided Britain that Thatcher and her Conservative Party took control of in May 1979 ? beleaguered and world-weary, its patience for government tanking and its economy on shaky ground. ?
As the Monitor?s Takashi Oka reported, ?
In London?s Golden Square, behind fashionable Regent Street, a gardener lovingly tends his neatly trimmed rosebushes surrounding an Everest-high pile of black plastic rubbish bags. A cleaner from one of the smart offices surrounding the square drags over a roll of carpeting to add to the base of the towering pyramid.
Two weeks? worth of uncollected garbage is the most visible sign of the labor discontent that grips strike-weary Britain this winter.? With hundreds of schools closed, more than a thousand hospitals reduced to emergency operations only, and wage demands spreading on numerous fronts, the hard-pressed Labour government, with traditionally close ties to the unions, is facing an increasingly embittered public.
What is the government doing about all this? Why must it mollycoddle the trade unions so? Why doesn?t it show some firmness for a change?
These questions, in essence, sum up the opposition Conservative Party?s challenge to Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Cabinet.?(?Britons? patience with strikes wears thin,? Feb. 8, 1979)
The strikes were just the last spasm of the economic malaise of 1970s Britain, which featured high unemployment and double-digit inflation. In Sept. 1976, Mr. Oka noted that nearly 1.5 million Britons ? 6.2 percent of the working population ? were unemployed (?Soaring joblessness challenges Britain,? Sept. 22, 1976), a number that held roughly as national elections approached (?more than 1.5 million? in ?Sunny Jim and Iron Lady about to face off in Britain,? Sept. 7 1978). Inflation averaged around 13 percent throughout the ?70s, peaking at 25 percent.
Meanwhile, as the parties debated across the aisle in Parliament, Britain also revisited its own place in Europe.
Hamilton, Scotland ? The integrity of the United Kingdom is being challenged.
It is under attack from within by the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and, in a somewhat different context, by the Northern Ireland Unionists.
It is also under attack from without, as the sovereignty of the traditional nation-state is eroded in small ? but not insignificant ? chunks by membership in the nine-nation European Community (EC). ?
Is this old continent, where the modern nation-state was born and where it fought some of mankind?s most disastrous wars, to see its gradual transformation into something neither fish nor fowl, a kind of hybrid in which the trappings of sovereignty remain but much of the content is gone.
And if such a transformation does take place, what will this do to the Britishness of Britain, the Englishness of England??(?Britain at the Crossroads: Nationalist pressure,? July 10, 1978)
If those were the looming questions that faced Thatcher as she took office, however, she had also already earned some of the fierce loyalty that still characterizes her supporters. As Oka reported shortly after Thatcher became head of the Conservative Party in 1975,
The constituency chairman?s voice range out across the hall filled to bursting with Conservative Party faithful.
"Paraphrasing William Blake," as he put it, he began with familiar words, "I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.? ?
Then, swelling to a climax, ?till Margaret Thatcher is in power,? he thundered, ?in England?s green and pleasant land.?
Cheers, laughter, and applause. All eyes were riveted on the blue-eyed, golden-haired woman in turquoise-blue dress standing beside the chairman.?
?It has been said that we are a middle-class party,? she said ? ?We?re not, you know ? We?re the party of all the people who believe in independence and freedom, who believe in living up to the best of Britain and not the worst.?
?More cheers and applause,? Oka went on. ?It was a rousing partisan speech, as it was meant to be.??
When it comes to light switches, most are pretty bland. There?s the white, the off-white and even the eggshell options. Of course, you could get crazy and put one with cartoon characters on your wall, but even your kids may think you?re crazy.
Legrand wants to make that switch an eye-catching spot, via its new adorne collection. This new line of switches, dimmers, outlets, and wall plates can add a splash of color and/or technology into the room, without having to do an overhaul of your decor.
Perfect for the homeowner, interior designer, and do-it-yourselfer, the adorne series features a total of seven models, each with a unique on/off activation and user experience. A few of the standouts include:
The Touch Switch: Features capacitive touch technology to control lights and has a translucent face that operates just like an iPod.
The Wave Switch: Activates lights with the wave of a hand.
The SensaSwitch: Turns lights on and off when people enter or leave a room.
The Pop-Out Outlet: Pops out when needed to provide three outlets; pushes back in to fit flush to the wall when not in use.
Another interesting option is the adorne Under-Cabinet Lighting System, which puts lighting, power and music in the kitchen, all without cluttering the backsplash. In June, the company also plans to introduce the adorne Wi-Fi Music System, Wireless Video Intercom, and Whole-House Wireless Lighting Controls.
?Historically, consumers and designers haven?t given their light switches a second thought?if anything, they were more concerned with hiding them,? said Mario Gonzalez, vice president of marketing for the adorne Collection. ?Extensive research tells us that homeowners and the architecture and design community are ready for something new and different. Through the launch of adorne, Legrand is enabling consumers to give the same level of design expression to their light switches as with all other decorative products in the home.?
Available in 32 finishes, including cast metals, natural woods, leather, and an array of hues, Legrand will start showcasing the adorne Collection in select lighting showrooms and home improvement stores nationwide starting in May 2013.
Follow Electronic House on Facebook and Twitter.
Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.
Notre Dame study finds Asian carp DNA not widespread in the Great LakesPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christopher Jerde cjerde@nd.edu 574-217-0267 University of Notre Dame
Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy, and Central Michigan University have presented their findings of Asian carp DNA throughout the Great Lakes in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
"The good news is that we have found no evidence that Asian carp are widespread in the Great Lakes basin, despite extensive surveys in Southern Lake Michigan and parts of lakes Erie and St Clair," Christopher Jerde, the paper's lead author and a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, said. "Looking at the overall patterns of detections we remain convinced that the most likely source of Asian carp DNA is live fish."
Some recent reports regarding environmental DNA have suggested that birds, boats, and other pathways, but not live fish, are spreading the bighead and silver carp DNA.
"It's really very telling that the only places DNA has been recovered are where Asian carp have been captured," Jerde points out. "If birds or boats were commonly spreading the DNA, then we should be detecting DNA in other places we have surveyed in the Great Lakes."
According to the USGS, in 2010 commercial fishermen captured a 20 lb. bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 30 miles above the electric barrier meant to block the advancing carp from the Illinois River. Lake Calumet is 7 miles of river away from Lake Michigan. Likewise, in 1995 and twice in 2000, USGS records indicate that bighead carp were captured in the western basin of Lake Erie.
"It shouldn't be surprising that we found evidence of Asian carp in these areas where Asian carp were already known to exist from captures," Lindsay Chadderton, co-author on the paper and Director of The Nature Conservancy's Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species program, said.
This study builds upon a growing area of research to find invasive species when they are at low abundance and when they can be potentially managed.
"Catching these fish by net, hook, or electrofishing is ineffective when the fish are at low abundance that's why we were asked to deploy this eDNA approach in the first place," David Lodge, director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative and author on the paper, said. "If we wait for the tell-tale signs of Asian carp jumping out of the water, then we are likely too late to prevent the damages. Environmental DNA allows for us to detect their presence before the fish become widespread."
"When we first discovered DNA from Asian carp at the Calumet Harbor and Port of Chicago, we were concerned that Asian carp may already be widespread in the Great Lakes," Andrew Mahon, co-author and assistant professor at Central Michigan University, said . "But because of our collaborations with State and Federal partners, we now have a better picture of the Asian carp distribution, and we are optimistic that with continued vigilance, it will be possible to prevent Asian carp becoming established in the Great Lakes."
###
This work is part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project funded through the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help develop a program of invasive species surveillance of the Great Lakes. This research grew out of a formal partnership between the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy, one of the world's largest and most established conservation organizations. The mission of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative is to conduct innovative research that helps to solve complex environmental problems regarding invasive species, land use, and climate change, focusing on their impacts on water resources.
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. For more information or to watch a video, visit http://nature.org/carpscience. The Notre Dame-TNC partnership is designed to develop science-based solutions to environmental problems.
The Institute for Great Lakes Research (IGLR) at Central Michigan University is committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. IGLR partners with other institutions and agencies to leverage our expertise and training and takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes basin.
The Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) is one of the world's top fisheries journals and is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. It publishes perspectives, discussions, articles, and rapid communications, relating to current research on cells, organisms, populations, ecosystems, or processes that affect aquatic systems. The journal seeks to amplify, modify, question, or redirect accumulated knowledge in the field of fisheries and aquatic science. CJFAS is published by Canadian Science Publishing and is part of the prestigious NRC Research Press journal collection. ?(Disclaimer: ?Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) publishes the NRC Research Press journals but is not affiliated with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). Papers published by CSP are peer-reviewed by experts in their field. The views of the authors in no way reflect the opinions of CSP or the NRC. Requests for commentary about the contents of any study should be directed to the authors.)
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Notre Dame study finds Asian carp DNA not widespread in the Great LakesPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christopher Jerde cjerde@nd.edu 574-217-0267 University of Notre Dame
Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy, and Central Michigan University have presented their findings of Asian carp DNA throughout the Great Lakes in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
"The good news is that we have found no evidence that Asian carp are widespread in the Great Lakes basin, despite extensive surveys in Southern Lake Michigan and parts of lakes Erie and St Clair," Christopher Jerde, the paper's lead author and a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, said. "Looking at the overall patterns of detections we remain convinced that the most likely source of Asian carp DNA is live fish."
Some recent reports regarding environmental DNA have suggested that birds, boats, and other pathways, but not live fish, are spreading the bighead and silver carp DNA.
"It's really very telling that the only places DNA has been recovered are where Asian carp have been captured," Jerde points out. "If birds or boats were commonly spreading the DNA, then we should be detecting DNA in other places we have surveyed in the Great Lakes."
According to the USGS, in 2010 commercial fishermen captured a 20 lb. bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 30 miles above the electric barrier meant to block the advancing carp from the Illinois River. Lake Calumet is 7 miles of river away from Lake Michigan. Likewise, in 1995 and twice in 2000, USGS records indicate that bighead carp were captured in the western basin of Lake Erie.
"It shouldn't be surprising that we found evidence of Asian carp in these areas where Asian carp were already known to exist from captures," Lindsay Chadderton, co-author on the paper and Director of The Nature Conservancy's Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species program, said.
This study builds upon a growing area of research to find invasive species when they are at low abundance and when they can be potentially managed.
"Catching these fish by net, hook, or electrofishing is ineffective when the fish are at low abundance that's why we were asked to deploy this eDNA approach in the first place," David Lodge, director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative and author on the paper, said. "If we wait for the tell-tale signs of Asian carp jumping out of the water, then we are likely too late to prevent the damages. Environmental DNA allows for us to detect their presence before the fish become widespread."
"When we first discovered DNA from Asian carp at the Calumet Harbor and Port of Chicago, we were concerned that Asian carp may already be widespread in the Great Lakes," Andrew Mahon, co-author and assistant professor at Central Michigan University, said . "But because of our collaborations with State and Federal partners, we now have a better picture of the Asian carp distribution, and we are optimistic that with continued vigilance, it will be possible to prevent Asian carp becoming established in the Great Lakes."
###
This work is part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project funded through the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help develop a program of invasive species surveillance of the Great Lakes. This research grew out of a formal partnership between the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy, one of the world's largest and most established conservation organizations. The mission of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative is to conduct innovative research that helps to solve complex environmental problems regarding invasive species, land use, and climate change, focusing on their impacts on water resources.
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. For more information or to watch a video, visit http://nature.org/carpscience. The Notre Dame-TNC partnership is designed to develop science-based solutions to environmental problems.
The Institute for Great Lakes Research (IGLR) at Central Michigan University is committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. IGLR partners with other institutions and agencies to leverage our expertise and training and takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes basin.
The Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) is one of the world's top fisheries journals and is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. It publishes perspectives, discussions, articles, and rapid communications, relating to current research on cells, organisms, populations, ecosystems, or processes that affect aquatic systems. The journal seeks to amplify, modify, question, or redirect accumulated knowledge in the field of fisheries and aquatic science. CJFAS is published by Canadian Science Publishing and is part of the prestigious NRC Research Press journal collection. ?(Disclaimer: ?Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) publishes the NRC Research Press journals but is not affiliated with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). Papers published by CSP are peer-reviewed by experts in their field. The views of the authors in no way reflect the opinions of CSP or the NRC. Requests for commentary about the contents of any study should be directed to the authors.)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Tuesday on what would be the first U.N. treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar international arms trade after Iran, North Korea and Syria blocked its adoption by consensus.
Assembly spokesman Nikola Jovanovic told The Associated Press on Monday that the resolution to adopt the treaty requires support from a majority of the 193 U.N. member states. Since the treaty had strong support when it was brought before U.N. members last Thursday, its approval is virtually certain ? unless there are attempts to amend it before the vote.
Many countries, including the United States, control arms exports. But there has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $60 billion global arms trade. For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime.
Hopes of reaching agreement at a U.N. negotiating conference were dashed in July when the U.S. said it needed more time to consider the proposed accord ? a move quickly backed by Russia and China. In December, the U.N. General Assembly decided to hold a final negotiating conference to agree on a treaty and set last Thursday as the deadline.
After two weeks of intensive negotiations, there was growing optimism as the deadline approached that all 193 member states would approve the final draft treaty by consensus ? a requirement set by the United States. This time, the U.S. was prepared to support the final draft treaty. But Iran, North Korea and Syria objected.
Iran said the treaty had many "loopholes," is "hugely susceptible to politicization and discrimination," and ignores the "legitimate demand" to prohibit the transfer of arms to those who commit aggression. Syria cited seven objections, including the treaty's failure to include an embargo on delivering weapons "to terrorist armed groups and to non-state actors." And North Korea said the treaty favors arms exporters who can restrict arms to importers that have a right to legitimate self-defense and the arms trade.
Both Iran and North Korea are under U.N. arms embargoes over their nuclear programs, while Syria is in the third year of a conflict that has escalated to civil war and is under U.S. and European Union sanctions. Amnesty International said all three countries "have abysmal human rights records ? having even used arms against their own citizens."
The General Assembly had left open the possibility of a vote on the treaty if it failed to achieve consensus.
Jovanovic said the assembly will meet at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Tuesday when the first order of business will be a report from the chair of the negotiations, Australian Ambassador Peter Woolcott. That will be followed by the vote.
The draft resolution, obtained by AP, would adopt the Arms Trade Treaty that was put to members last Thursday.
If approved, the resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as depositary of the treaty, to open it for signature by member states on June 3. It calls on all nations to consider signing and then ratifying the treaty "at the earliest possible date."
In a letter to the secretary-general dated Friday, Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant asked the U.N. chief to circulate the draft resolution to all U.N. members on behalf of Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the United States and the United Kingdom.
By the time the draft resolution was circulated Monday, treaty supporters had collected a total of 64 co-sponsors and they were trying to add more countries before Tuesday's vote.
The draft treaty would not control the domestic use of weapons in any country, but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms, parts and components and to regulate arms brokers. It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
The final draft made the human rights provision even stronger, adding that the export of conventional arms should be prohibited if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.
In considering whether to authorize the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists or organized crime. The final draft would allow countries to determine whether the weapons transfer would contribute to or undermine peace and security.
The draft would also require parties to the treaty to take measures to prevent the diversion of conventional weapons to the illicit market.
South Korean Army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday. North Korea said Wednesday that it had cut off a key military hot line with South Korea that allows cross-border travel to a jointly run industrial complex in the North.
Ahn Young-joon/AP
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North Korea's edgy game of war talk continued?at ever higher volumes today with the announcement that it will cut off the last military hot line with South Korea.
Skip to next paragraph Robert Marquand
Staff writer
Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?
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?Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications,? said the regime, according to the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.
The severed line of communication comes as the North, under young and new President Kim Jong-un, has said it is moving into its highest military alert status and has threatened to target Hawaii and Guam with rockets, after last month conducting its third nuclear test.?
The escalating rhetoric has brought a new agreement between US and South Korean officials that would dictate military action should the North cross the border, shell islands, or harm shipping in the kind of low-level actions Pyongyang has attempted in recent years.?
US military officials called the North Korean statement ?bellicose.??Many have expressed doubt that North Korea?s rockets have the range to reach US bases in Guam and Hawaii, but a few, including the?editor of Jane?s Defense Weekly, estimated they could reach US military bases in Japan, according to USA Today.?
Yesterday the small, poor state that is anchored by devotion to the Kim family dynasty, and is now nearly entirely dependent on China for basic sustenance but has also devoted considerable resources to its military, repeated a longstanding threat to turn Seoul into a ?sea of fire,? among other similarly colorful threats.
Earlier this year, the North said it would no longer answer?a hot line at the Demilitarized Zone. The hot line that the country is now threatening to shut down linked the two Koreas at the?Kaesong industrial park, created in the North during the warming winds of unification in the 2000s. The economic complex has long been a symbol of the potential for North-South cooperation.?
The New York Times today notes the North?s threat on the hot line follows comments from?Park Geun-hye,?the newly elected president of South Korea, that North Korea needed to end its nuclear threats in order to gain better traction with the South:
?If North Korea provokes or does things that harm peace, we must make sure that it gets nothing but will pay the price, while if it keeps its promises, the South should do the same,? she said during a briefing from her government?s top diplomats and North Korea policy-makers. ?Without rushing and in the same way we would lay one brick after another, we must develop South-North relations step by step, based on trust, and create sustainable peace.?
Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, a veteran Korea-watcher once based in Seoul, tells The Christian Science Monitor that Pyongyang's main grievance appears to be recent United Nations sanctions targeted at the North.
Mr. Snyder argues that the meaning of the North?s sudden blustery behavior will only become clearer ?once the question of the consolidation of [Kim Jong-un?s] power becomes clearer.?
Agence France-Presse today said that a significant meeting among party elites and power brokers in the closed world of Pyongyang is about to take place.
"They will discuss how to handle the nuclear issue, inter-Korean relations and North Korea's longstanding demand for a peace treaty with the United States," Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told AFP.
Comparisons between the new Kim and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the patriarch of North Korea, are flowing freely, since there is a resemblance between the two. But Snyder notes that too little is yet known of the young Kim, who took over from his father Kim Jong-il last year, and that his youth is not necessarily a plus in such a high-stakes game.
?Right now the song is the same, but the volume is a lot louder. We don?t know his risk tolerance yet ? does he understand the game he is playing??
The US-South Korea military agreement follows a recent scrapping by the North of the historic legal armistice that effectively ended the Korean war in the 1950s. It came on the anniversary of the infamous sinking of the Choenan Navy vessel in 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors, something that has had powerful emotional resonance in the South. (The Choenan was raised from the ocean floor, and forensics by the South claim the vessel was torpedoed by the North, something the North denies.)?
USA Today quotes an Asia-watcher who feels the key to dealing with Pyongyang runs through Beijing:
US diplomats should talk to their Chinese counterparts and say, "Your ally North Korea is acting in a very belligerent and destabilizing way," said [Richard] Bush, who heads the Brookings Institution Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. "They're acting in ways that are contrary to the principles you [China] have laid out. The situation is somewhat dangerous. You need to restrain your ally."
The launch of Vine last month really brought iPhone
video and sharing apps to the fore, and recently I've been testing not only Vine, but competitors like Pincam, Lightt, and now Directr. While Vine lets you shoot 6-second mini movies, it offers little to nothing in the way of editing and enhancing video. Pincam adds Instagram like filters and lets you specify "Highlights" to which your movie gets trimmed, but Directr brings even more game to the genre, with the goal of creating a real mini-movie with multiple scenes. The app can produce more-captivating mini-digital movies than most of its peers, though it still suffers some limitations characteristic of this newly minted class of app.
Setup and Signup On first run, Directr asks you to allow it to send you push notifications, something not necessary with Pincam. Next, and also unlike Pincam but like Vine, you have to sing up for an account, either creating one with an email address or by connecting your Facebook account. I chose the latter method, which is quicker, simply requiring you to tap a Log In button on a Facebook page. After that, I was switched back to the Directr app, which showed me a big "WELCOME!" message. But I wasn't done with setup yet: I had to then choose a username for the app/service.
Using Directr After you've set up your account, Directr takes you through a simple six-page tutorial. As soon as you exit this, you'll see that the app isn't just about your own movies?it's about discovering those from other users, too, ? la Flickr. But not only viewing them: You can actually "direct" other users' movies. The well-designed, clear interface makes this and most what you do in this app perfectly clear.
So what does this "directing" involve? The concept will be familiar to users of recent releases Apple's iMovie, whose Trailers feature has you insert your own video clips into a template of shot types, such as close up, group shot, action shot, and so on. In the biz, this is called a storyboard. When you choose "Direct It" from someone else's movie, it actually means that you'll use your own clips in the template used by their movie. It's definitely a great way to build more compelling video stories, rather than just sending a single clip, even one that's been somehow enhanced.
A Directr representative told me that the preset storyboard templates are designed by professional filmmakers, who also pick appropriate background music. He also noted that most users go the preset template route rather than starting from a blank slate.
Whenever you start shooting video inside Directr, the app does something I've been craving desperately for in a video app but haven?t seen until this: A graphic telling you to hold the phone sideways! How often have we shot mobile video holding the phone in a way more conducive to phone calls than to shooting video. When you upload one of these tall clips to YouTube, it looks awful, with big black bars on each side of the worst kind of pillarbox.
Once you turn the phone on its side, you'll see another example of Directr's ingenuity: A circular control that you can move around to set the focus point. Tapping this starts recording. My first clip only needed 1.7 seconds, and had the helpful text, "Wave to the camera" which I used to instruct my PCMag coworker model/victim, Jill Duffy.
When you've shot all the project's required clips, you tap Finish, and the app will go through a "Printing" phase, which took a couple minutes for my 4-clip test movie. This uploads your movie to Directr's server for processing, which also puts it on your profile page. This, of course, means that you can complete a movie project if you're somewhere without data service, for example, abroad on vacation. After printing is finished, you can watch your creation either on the iPhone or on the Directr site. The movies starts and ends with discreet Directr promotions.
If you're not starting from someone else's video, you tap the Plus button at bottom center, which prompts you to choose one of the preset storyboards or a blank template. As mentioned, most users start with a template, but when you start blank, you have three choices as to length: one, three, or five shots. You get more choices of your own when you start on your own like this: You can type in scene captions and overlay captions.
A musical background track is automatically added to your movie. But soundtrack is currently a weak point in the app: you can't choose your music, either by mood or by using an MP3 of your own, and the music the app chooses for you obliterates any audio from the clips you've included in a project.
Don't want to go it alone? Directr doesn?t limit your lone phone to being the only source of video; you can Add Directors. I must note that I ran into a bug in the app at this point, a forever spinning timer wheel. But in another attempt, the feature worked trouble-free.
In addition to the lack of music customization, a couple other gaps show up in Directr's video-editing prowess. You can't use clips already shot on the phone, there's no clip trimming, and there are no fun Instagram-like filters like you get with Pincam. Nor can you start and stop recording for a stop-motion result like you can with Vine. Of course, some of these are choices on the part of the developer, rather than true shortfalls. A definite area for improvement is stability?a bugaboo for just about all video-editing software even up to the pro level. The app quit or stopped responding a few times during my testing, but I was always able to get back on track.
Sharing On the movie's page, there are very clear buttons for Facebook, Twitter, save to camera roll, copy link, email, and SMS. But Directr, unlike Vine, has a hearty web presence, where users can view and comment on your creations.
No matter what type of sharing you do, your movie appears on the Directr site, but thankfully, you can make it private if you're not comfortable having it exposed to the world. The web presentation lets viewers comment and "heart" your movies. The site appears to use HTML5 video rather than Flash, but one drawback was that I couldn't view them full screen.
Lights, Camera..Direct! As I've said with previous iPhone video-editing-and-sharing apps, it's a nascent category, and like the rest, Directr, while extremely promising and already a blast to use, lacks maturity. Happily, its makers tell me that a new version is coming in the next few weeks, which we can expect to address some of the shortcomings mentioned here. Directr, even in its current form, is a force for good in the world of mobile video, encouraging better practices for creating more-compelling digital mini-movies. Though the app earns an above average PCMag rating, I'm still waiting for a mobile video app with all the qualities of an Editors' Choice.
The boys of summer are back - here's how to best follow Major League Baseball on your Android smartphone
The 2013 Major League Baseball season is upon us. The first game was played Sunday night and the remainder of the games started Monday afternoon. It’s the beginning of a long season, but one beloved by so many across the country. It remains America’s pastime and provides an incredible activity for many to do during the spring and summer.
Whether you want to follow your favorite team or every team because of fantasy baseball, we’ve got some must have apps for you. Check them out, let us know what you think, and most importantly, play ball!
Private health insurance exchanges, like those created by the Affordable Care Act or in Medicare Advantage, have historically failed to control cost. Part of the reason is the basic economic issue of individuals lacking real market power and actually choosing the ?best? insurance option, which is?extremely complicated. Another problem is lobbying related.
Whenever you needlessly create private middlemen you also create another layer of lobbyists. You don?t just have providers lobbying for higher prices, you now have private insurances companies lobbying for them as well. Because of their business design these middlemen are even better at lobbying and/or rallying their customers to lobby. This dynamic makes what we have seen happen in Medicare Advantage more likely to occur. From CNN:
CMS had initially proposed a 2.3% reduction in what the government pays the insurance companies that provide the plans ? a move that would have saved the government money but potentially would cost the public more.
However, CMS on Monday announced a 3.3% increase instead.
Insurance companies were upset by the proposed cut, and spent the public comment period time lobbying legislators and running ads against it.
The idea is that exchange insurance companies are going to drive down the price by competing over a share of the pie. While they do some of that, they also get together to lobby to make the whole pie bigger.
Photo by Phalinn Ooi released under Creative Commons License
After raising $100M+ last June, Donuts -- a registry for the new top-level domain names that ICANN is ushering in this year (such as .yay or .jobs) -- has announced it has raised a new funding round. The exact figure for its Series B, which is led by existing investor Generation Partners, has not been disclosed but the company said the equity investment is "twice the valuation" of the Series A.
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Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
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Private health insurance exchanges, like those created by the Affordable Care Act or in Medicare Advantage, have historically failed to control cost. Part of the reason is the basic economic issue of individuals lacking real market power and actually choosing the ?best? insurance option, which is?extremely complicated. Another problem is lobbying related.
