Lewis

This woman was dead wrong to put Wes Welker and the rest of the team down like that. And if I was Tom I would have got on her case about those comments.



Tom Brady's wife, Gisele Bundchen , was caught on video with a lot to say after the Giants defeated the Patriots Sunday in the Super Bowl.
According to a video captured by insider.com and posted on thepostgame.com , Bundchen was very unhappy and began ripping on Patriots receivers.
"You [have] to catch the ball when you're supposed to catch the ball," Bundchen can be heard saying in the videos. "My husband cannot [curse word] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times."

Vampire Power Reality Check


[indent]Vampire Power Reality Check: What Tech Gear Sucks the Most Power?

We break down what tech gear costs you the most on your electric bill even when it's not actively being used.

Feb 1, 2012
Bloodthirsty vampires are as fake as the fangs on Robert Pattinson's character in The Twilight Saga, but real vampire power hogs lurk in your home and should make you nervous. If your house is typical, you have dozens of electronic gadgets and other gear sucking up energy unnecessarily, resulting in surprisingly high electricity costs.
Vampire power is industry parlance for standby power consumed by electronics-- such as DVRs, cable modems, or a subwoofer--while they are switched off or not in use. A typical home has as many as 40 devices constantly drawing such standby power, amounting to 5 to 10 percent of residential electricity use, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Here is a look at the tech world's worst offenders and their monthly costs (which can be increased by bad habits). I based cost by multiplying the national average cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour with the average standby energy consumption of each device. Energy figures are derived from a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab study.
Six Worst Offenders


Desktop
You leave your desktop on all the time. A desktop in idle mode consumes nearly the same amount of energy as it does in active mode because its memory, disc, and processor are all still running.
(Vampire cost: $7 month)
Game Consoles
You never turn off your game console after play. Game consoles are like specialized PCs with the same type of components inside. Leaving your game console on is comparable to leaving your computer on.
(Vampire cost: $6 month)
Plasma or LCD TV
Plasma TVs are the most culpable when it comes to vampire power sucking. They consume about two times more energy than LCDs.
(Vampire cost: $5 per month)

Cable (or Satellite) Box with HD DVR
Your DVR--when not recording--still chugs large amounts of energy.
(Vampire cost: $3 per month)
Laptop
If your laptop has a screensaver with images, it consumes more power than an idle laptop.
(Vampire cost: $1.50 month)
VCR/DVD Player
You forget to turn off your DVD player after watching a film, and it stays on the Menu page for days. Your DVD player never rests when left on the Menu constantly reading material on the disc.
(Vampire cost: $1 month)
Take a Bite Out of Energy Waste

Although individually each of these devices doesn't amount to a huge expenditure, all your household devices together can gobble between $100 and $160 per year in electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy says that $4 billion a year in electricity bills is wasted because of vampire power sucking.
The environmental costs are real too. Electricity, when generated by coal, has byproducts--sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. A 100-watt light bulb requires 714 pounds of coal to keep it running for an entire year. This creates 5 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 5 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and 1800 pounds of carbon dioxide as byproducts. Translation? “You’re not only spending more money than you have to, but you’re also contributing to climate change by releasing greenhouse gases,” says Cornell University Professor Joseph Laquatra.
You can fight vampire power in your home in two ways--and neither involves garlic or wooden stakes. First, we'll offer tips on how to use less electricity. The second way is to buy green power strips that can significantly reduce energy waste.
Tips
Vampire hunters say people need to put devices to sleep when they are not being actively used. A sleeping computer, for example, uses significantly less energy than one that is awake. You can change the power management features on your computer, so that it falls asleep, hibernates, or shuts down after a time of inactivity.
Another way to drive a stake into vampire power thieves is to think green at the register and when setting up your tech gear. Purchasing TVs with smaller screen sizes and changing picture settings can save you energy and dollars. A 32-inch LCD set uses about half as much power as a 52-inch LCD. Brighter pictures consume more power, so changing the contrast and backlight settings of your TV reduces light output and can cut energy usage by half.
Gear
Belkin Conserve Smart AVFor those devices that draw large amounts of power when they are off--such as a game console--the best solution is to cut off AC power completely by unplugging them or putting them on an energy saver power strip. Such power strips are designed to cut power to devices that don't need it.
Here is how green power strips work: One outlet on the power strip is the control outlet and always stays on, while the other outlets on the strip go dead when devices aren't being used. The device plugged into the control outlet, such as a PC or TV, is always on. But when the wattage on the control outlet drops below a certain threshold, the power is killed to the remaining outlets on the power strip. For example, when you turn your HDTV off, the power is cut to your game console, sound system, and DVD player.
Sadly, your DVR is one of those devices that needs to stay on in order to refresh the program-guide data, download software, monitor the network for changes to channel lineups, and record at any time.
My colleague Lincoln Spector offers a roundup of vampire-slaying power strips. In addition, I recently wrote about the new Tripp Lite Eco-Surge green power strip that costs $30.
Experts say to do as much as you can, especially when it comes to changing your computer and TV settings, and find ways to power down other gear, because it will pay off in savings of hundreds of dollars in the long run.
PC World[/indent]

Doctors Cheating On Exams


[indent]Exclusive: Doctor cheating warnings expand to dermatology

Doctors studying to become dermatologists have, for years, shared exam questions by memorizing and writing them down after the test to become board certified, CNN has confirmed. Reports of the use of what are known as "airplane notes" comes after revelations last month that radiology residents around the country for years also have used what are known as "recalls" to prepare for the written exam, which is one step in becoming certified by the American Board of Radiology.


In the wake of the CNN story, the group that oversees 24 medical specialties issued a statement condemning the use of the recalls.
The American Board of Medical Specialties said on its website that, "It should be made abundantly clear that recalling and sharing questions from exams violates exam security, professional ethics and patient trust in the medical profession. When it happens, the practice should be addressed swiftly and decisively. Whether someone is providing or using test questions, ABMS Member Boards enforce sanctions that may include permanent barring from certification, and/or prosecution for copyright violation."


CNN has confirmed the practice also exists with dermatology, where the recalls are known as "airplane notes," because residents write down as much as they can remember on the plane after taking the test.
In an anonymous e-mail to the American Board of Dermatology in 2008, a resident wrote: "The board needs to know that there is an organized effort year after year to, by verbatim, reproduce each and every question of the official ABD certifying examination minutes after its completion. So-called "airplane notes"...are well known to dermatology residents and are compiled, typed up and quietly distributed among residency programs across the country."


The resident, now a practicing dermatologist, wrote, "Each year, minutes after the certifying exam is complete, there is an almost ceremonial meeting of examinees at a local hotel or restaurant there in Chicago. A feverish and collective effort is made by examinees from many programs to reproduce on paper as many questions as they can -- verbatim -- that they had just encountered. This is then integrated into an updated "airplane notes," which then has questions from the year before, and the year before that, etc., in an organized fashion. These are even professionally bound at Kinko's at times."


In a response to the e-mail, the board's executive director, Dr. Antoinette Hood, wrote: "The board takes every precaution to discourage this practice amongst graduating residents: maintaining strict security of items, minimizing the number of previously used questions, and requiring an honor code statement (signed two separate times) declaring that information will not be shared. Unfortunately we have no mechanism for enforcing the honor code or controlling interpersonal communications that occur after an examination. The real issue is how do we police professionalism and how do we identify the offenders?"


Hood said she has addressed this issue for several years during the board's annual meeting by telling dermatology residents the practice is not allowed.
"I've never seen airplane notes, but I've heard about it," Hood said.
"We really try to do something to prevent it from happening," Hood said. "It's a high stakes examination and people are naturally very anxious about it and that brings out the potential worst in people."
Asked if she considered this cheating, Hood said, "Yes, but I can't prove it - period."


The board has warned residents that using airplane notes is illegal, because test questions are copyrighted.
"There are legal consequences to this practice, as the questions of the American Board of Dermatology are protected by copyright laws, and any reproduction, not approved by the board, illegal. But, of much greater importance, this practice is unethical and violates our professionalism and ethical standards, which are the basis for the trust given us by our patients," one board newsletter obtained by CNN reads.


Dermatology residents confirm the practice has been widespread, but the value of the actual airplane notes varies depending on the accuracy of the memorization.
The dermatology board scrambles the approximately 300 questions from test to test to make it more difficult to memorize them. About 20% of the questions each year are recycled from old tests, compared with about 50% for the written exam in radiology.
"We scramble the questions so that discourages the rote memorization," Hood said.


After a phone interview, Hood agreed to an an on-camera interview with CNN to discuss the recalls. But she abruptly canceled the interview two days beforehand, saying she had changed her mind.
While the use of airplane notes and recalls has been discussed for years in dermatology and radiology, they are not widely known outside those professions.
Dr. Gary Becker, executive director of the American Board of Radiology, said using recalls was cheating.
"I am saying it's cheating. It's a violation of our policy," Becker said.
The allegation of cheating ... smears the entire specialty with a broad and unjustified brush.

American College of Radiology



Dr. James Borgstede, the radiology board's president-elect, said said the test-taking culture has changed since he took the exam in 1978.
"Right now, in radiology, jobs are hard to find. Board certification is very, very important. When I took the exam, you could still practice without being a board-certified radiologist. Now, that's virtually impossible," Borgstede said.
"So, a high-stakes examination, and the other thing is it's a difference in culture.



These individuals sort of view us as a system, and them as outside the system, and there's this issue of sort of stick it to the man. You know, that we're the system, and they can do this and it's acceptable. We tell them it's not acceptable."
Becker said that despite the use of the recalls, the public is protected because of the overall training and an intensive oral exam that residents must undergo to become certified.


Next year, the board is rolling out a new exam for the first time in more than 10 years. Instead of two written tests and one oral exam, the first exam will be a "core exam" taken after three years of residency training, and the second certifying exam will be taken 15 months after graduation. The oral exam is being eliminated.
Meanwhile, The American College of Radiology, which does not certify radiologists, posted a statement on its website after the CNN story aired.


"The most troubling aspect of this report is the implication that all radiologists who pass these examinations are 'cheaters.'The allegation of cheating not only involves an unspecified and unidentified number of individuals, but smears the entire specialty with a broad and unjustified brush," the statement said.
"Whether one considers the sharing of mentally recalled questions to be unethical, or simply a type of study aid, board certification represents significantly more than passing an exam, and should not be impugned simply on the basis of examination methodology," it said.


Asked whether the group considered recalls cheating, a spokesman said it had no comment beyond the statement.
Other medical specialties contacted by CNN said they had not experienced that kind of systemic use of recalls.
The American Board of Family Medicine has sent investigators into test review company classes to ensure they aren't teaching from old test questions.
"When we've investigated these groups and (gone) through these classes, we've never found old exams," said board spokesman Robert Cattoi.


The board only re-uses "a very small number of questions" from old exams, he said. The American Board of Orthopedic Surgery re-uses about 20% of old questions each year.
"We know of no similar recall registry of questions such as was in your piece (about) the radiology residents," said the board's executive director, Dr. Shepard Hurwitz.
CNN[/indent]

Vampire Power Reality Check


[indent]Vampire Power Reality Check: What Tech Gear Sucks the Most Power?

We break down what tech gear costs you the most on your electric bill even when it's not actively being used.

Feb 1, 2012
Bloodthirsty vampires are as fake as the fangs on Robert Pattinson's character in The Twilight Saga, but real vampire power hogs lurk in your home and should make you nervous. If your house is typical, you have dozens of electronic gadgets and other gear sucking up energy unnecessarily, resulting in surprisingly high electricity costs.
Vampire power is industry parlance for standby power consumed by electronics-- such as DVRs, cable modems, or a subwoofer--while they are switched off or not in use. A typical home has as many as 40 devices constantly drawing such standby power, amounting to 5 to 10 percent of residential electricity use, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Here is a look at the tech world's worst offenders and their monthly costs (which can be increased by bad habits). I based cost by multiplying the national average cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour with the average standby energy consumption of each device. Energy figures are derived from a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab study.
Six Worst Offenders


Desktop
You leave your desktop on all the time. A desktop in idle mode consumes nearly the same amount of energy as it does in active mode because its memory, disc, and processor are all still running.
(Vampire cost: $7 month)
Game Consoles
You never turn off your game console after play. Game consoles are like specialized PCs with the same type of components inside. Leaving your game console on is comparable to leaving your computer on.
(Vampire cost: $6 month)
Plasma or LCD TV
Plasma TVs are the most culpable when it comes to vampire power sucking. They consume about two times more energy than LCDs.
(Vampire cost: $5 per month)

Cable (or Satellite) Box with HD DVR
Your DVR--when not recording--still chugs large amounts of energy.
(Vampire cost: $3 per month)
Laptop
If your laptop has a screensaver with images, it consumes more power than an idle laptop.
(Vampire cost: $1.50 month)
VCR/DVD Player
You forget to turn off your DVD player after watching a film, and it stays on the Menu page for days. Your DVD player never rests when left on the Menu constantly reading material on the disc.
(Vampire cost: $1 month)
Take a Bite Out of Energy Waste

Although individually each of these devices doesn't amount to a huge expenditure, all your household devices together can gobble between $100 and $160 per year in electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy says that $4 billion a year in electricity bills is wasted because of vampire power sucking.
The environmental costs are real too. Electricity, when generated by coal, has byproducts--sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. A 100-watt light bulb requires 714 pounds of coal to keep it running for an entire year. This creates 5 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 5 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and 1800 pounds of carbon dioxide as byproducts. Translation? “You’re not only spending more money than you have to, but you’re also contributing to climate change by releasing greenhouse gases,” says Cornell University Professor Joseph Laquatra.
You can fight vampire power in your home in two ways--and neither involves garlic or wooden stakes. First, we'll offer tips on how to use less electricity. The second way is to buy green power strips that can significantly reduce energy waste.
Tips
Vampire hunters say people need to put devices to sleep when they are not being actively used. A sleeping computer, for example, uses significantly less energy than one that is awake. You can change the power management features on your computer, so that it falls asleep, hibernates, or shuts down after a time of inactivity.
Another way to drive a stake into vampire power thieves is to think green at the register and when setting up your tech gear. Purchasing TVs with smaller screen sizes and changing picture settings can save you energy and dollars. A 32-inch LCD set uses about half as much power as a 52-inch LCD. Brighter pictures consume more power, so changing the contrast and backlight settings of your TV reduces light output and can cut energy usage by half.
Gear
Belkin Conserve Smart AVFor those devices that draw large amounts of power when they are off--such as a game console--the best solution is to cut off AC power completely by unplugging them or putting them on an energy saver power strip. Such power strips are designed to cut power to devices that don't need it.
Here is how green power strips work: One outlet on the power strip is the control outlet and always stays on, while the other outlets on the strip go dead when devices aren't being used. The device plugged into the control outlet, such as a PC or TV, is always on. But when the wattage on the control outlet drops below a certain threshold, the power is killed to the remaining outlets on the power strip. For example, when you turn your HDTV off, the power is cut to your game console, sound system, and DVD player.
Sadly, your DVR is one of those devices that needs to stay on in order to refresh the program-guide data, download software, monitor the network for changes to channel lineups, and record at any time.
My colleague Lincoln Spector offers a roundup of vampire-slaying power strips. In addition, I recently wrote about the new Tripp Lite Eco-Surge green power strip that costs $30.
Experts say to do as much as you can, especially when it comes to changing your computer and TV settings, and find ways to power down other gear, because it will pay off in savings of hundreds of dollars in the long run.
PC World[/indent]

Phone jailbreaking should stay legal, Web freedom advocates say





By Doug Gross, CNN
updated 5:38 PM EST, Wed January 25, 2012 | Filed under: Mobile


Advocates say 'jailbreaking' gadgets like the iPhone should be legal if no copyrighted material is affected.

Fresh from a victory that saw a pair of online-piracy bills shelved, Web-freedom advocates are now fighting to preserve their right to jailbreak their iPhones.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a key player in the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act, is urging people to ask the U.S. government to declare that hacking their own smartphone, tablet or other device is not a crime.
"Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential," the group says on its website. "Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that's been approved by the manufacturer.
"Modifying a device to run independent software -- known as jailbreaking -- is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users."

"Jailbreaking" a phone gives users the ability to download unauthorized apps from any source. It's particularly popular on iPhones because of Apple's famously closed environment, which only allows apps bought from its own stores to be used on the phones.
Jailbreaking also allows an owner to unlock their phone and switch mobile carriers. Apple's phones, and its iPads, typically come with an exclusive contract with a mobile provider (originally only AT&T in the United States, although Verizon and Sprint versions have been added).
In July 2010, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a ruling that exempted jailbreaking from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) -- the same law used last week to shut down file-sharing site MegaUpload.
Under DCMA, Apple had the right to request a $2,500 government fine for "circumvention of technological measures."

That could be interpreted to extend to jailbreaking, since the iPhone's iOS software is copyrighted.
Apple had never actually fined one of its customers, but maintained its right to do so and filed an objection to the copyright office's ruling while it was in the planning stages.
The EFF is asking the copyright office to extend the 2010 exemption, which will otherwise expire this year, and add tablets like the iPad to it. They're also asking for a specific exemption for video-game consoles.
The group is specifically asking "people who depend on the ability to jailbreak to write, use, and/or tinker with independent software (from useful apps to essential security fixes)" to contact the office.
The Software Freedom Law Center, another group working on the issue, is asking that exemptions be extended to all personal computing devices.

"People must have the right to control the software running on devices they own," said Aaron Williamson, a lawyer with the group. "That right is essential to the continued development of free and open source software and is foundational to our privacy, security, and freedom, online and off."
Apple did not respond to a request for a comment for this story.
In the past, the company has said that jailbreaking, which voids an iPhone's warranty, can introduce bugs and other problems.
"Apple's goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone, and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience," a company spokeswoman said in response to the Copyright Office ruling in 2010. "The vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones."