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The CamelBak All Clear UV purification system and Eddy everyday/outdoor bottle offer you two choices in portable liquid haulers. Both bottles consist of all BPA-free and ruggedly-constructed materials.They come with lifetime guarantees that don’t cover damage due to use, just defects – but CamelBak does stand behind their products. Eddy: More Than A Basic Bottle [...]
Sony's?efforts to control what can and can't run on the PlayStation 3 home gaming console may have been blown out of the water for the last time.
Hackers have published a cryptographic key that will make it much easier for owners to modify their devices. However, the move could also make PS3s vulnerable to security breaches and allow users to play pirated games.
A group going by the name of the "Three Musketeers" said they'd had the "LV0" key for a while, but have released it only now after learning that another group of hackers was using it to build and sell firmware called BlueDiskCFW, technology blog Ars Technica reported.
"If it wouldn't have been for this leak, this key would never have seen the light of day," the Three Tuskateers wrote when they released the key, a PlayStationLifeStyle.net post said. ""Only the fear of our work being used by others to make money out of it has forced us to release this now."
With the LV0 key, PS3 users can decode future security updates and change the firmware to fully install and play a game from the console's hard drive instead of the game's disk, for instance.
Some gaming blogs are referring to this as "the final hack" in a long battle between Sony and customers over how the product should, and should not be, used.
"The reveal of the LV0 key basically means that any system update released by Sony going forward can be decrypted with little or no effort whatsoever," wrote Richard Leadbetter in a Eurogamer post. "Options Sony has in battling this leak is limited ? every PS3 out there needs to be able to decrypt any firmware download package in order for the console to be updated."
Sony has yet to comment on the leak, but if the past is any predictor, the company will not pleased.
The electronics maker has a history of coming down hard on hackers who jailbreak its machines, as evidenced by the lawsuit it brought against hacker George Hotz in 2011 after he published PlayStation 3 root keys.
The efforts to sue Hotz backfired. He settled out of court with Sony, but not before the hacktivist group Anonymous had attacked Sony websites in his behalf, and a still-unknown cybercriminal used the Anonymous attack as cover to compromise 70 million accounts on the private PlayStation Network.
Follow Ben on Twitter @benkwx.
Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Don't be so fast to judge a cat by its color, new study warnsPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Yasmin Anwar yanwar@berkeley.edu 510-643-7944 University of California - Berkeley
UC Berkeley researcher finds stereotypes about cats can impact adoption rates
Just like humans, domestic cats are often judged by their color, and the media and folklore help perpetuate these stereotypes. Take the snobbish, aloof, white kitty who promotes "Fancy Feast," and spooky images of black cats, which can be associated with bad luck and witches, especially around Halloween.
Interested in the link between how cat color influences adoption rates, a University of California, Berkeley, researcher surveyed 189 people with experience of cats as pets and found that they were more likely to assign positive personality traits to orange cats and less favorable ones to white and tortoiseshell ones. Orange cats were largely regarded as friendly, white cats as aloof and tortoiseshell cats as intolerant.
The results, published this week in the online issue of Anthrozoos, the official journal of the International Society for Anthrozoology, are noteworthy because feline typecasting can have a negative impact on adoption rates at animal shelters, the study suggests.
"To date there is little evidence that these perceived differences between differently colored cats actually exist, but there are serious repercussions for cats if people believe that some cat colors are friendlier than others," said Mikel Delgado, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at UC Berkeley.
"We hope that this study will be a starting point for further research in what qualities affect adoption and retention of pet cats, and whether there is a genetic or physical basis (such as coat color) for personality differences in cats," she added.
Of an estimated 100 million domesticated cats in the United States, at least one million end up in shelters each year. Many are abandoned because their personalities conflict with their owners' expectations. A 2002 study from UC Davis found that one in four cats are brought to shelters because they did not get along with their owners or other household pets. A common complaint was that they're "too active." That study also found that dark cats are more likely to be euthanized, and that tortoiseshell cats are frequently typecast as having too much attitude or "tortitude."
"Previous research supports the existence of 'black cat' syndrome, where black and brown cats are less likely to be adopted than cats of other colors," Delgado said. "We were interested in whether people's perceptions of the interaction between personality and coat color might play a part."
To establish a link between how cat color influences adoption rates, Delgado and her co-authors used Craigslist to recruit a national sample of cat owners and cat lovers in large U.S. metropolitan areas. Participants were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 7, the personalities of black, white, bi-colored, tri-colored (tortoiseshell or calico) and orange cats based on their tendencies to be active, aloof, bold, calm, friendly, intolerant, shy, stubborn, tolerant and trainable.
While most people surveyed said personality informs their decision about which cat to adopt, the characteristics they ascribed to cats based on their coat color indicated that color consciously or unconsciously played a key role in their final choice of which kitty to take home.
Overall, orange cats and bi-colored cats were characterized as friendly, while black cats, white cats and tri-colored cats were regarded as more antisocial. White cats were considered to be more shy, lazy and calm, while tortoiseshell cats were more likely to be depicted as both more intolerant and more trainable. Black cats were typified as having less extreme character traits, which might contribute to their mysterious reputation.
At the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS), cat coordinator Cathy Marden is all too familiar with the psychology involved in pet adoptions. Staff members and volunteers there try to break down stereotypes at every opportunity, she said, and descriptions of each cat written on the adoption rooms cages highlight the individual's characteristics.
"You can't judge a cat by its color," she said. "If someone comes in to adopt, we encourage them to spend time with all the cats, because it's the personality of that cat not the color that will let you know if the animal's the right fit for you."
Still, reactions to black cats can be so strong, she said, that few adoptions take place at the shelter when there are more than a few black cats in the adoption room. "It's a huge bummer," said Marden, who has blogged on the BEBHS website about the "Top 10 Reasons to Adopt a Black Cat" and about the joys of adopting a monochromatic cat.
Domestic cats are believed to be descended from African wild cats and have coexisted peacefully with humans for 4,000 years. Through literature, movies and other cultural channels, cats have long been characterized as solitary, independent species who are "tolerant of affection only when it suits their needs," according to the study. That said, cats have adapted well to a variety of living conditions, and this has made them successful at cohabiting with humans, the study points out.
###
Other coauthors of the study are Jacqueline Munera at the New College of Florida and Gretchen Reevy at the California State University, East Bay.
[ | 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.
Don't be so fast to judge a cat by its color, new study warnsPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Yasmin Anwar yanwar@berkeley.edu 510-643-7944 University of California - Berkeley
UC Berkeley researcher finds stereotypes about cats can impact adoption rates
Just like humans, domestic cats are often judged by their color, and the media and folklore help perpetuate these stereotypes. Take the snobbish, aloof, white kitty who promotes "Fancy Feast," and spooky images of black cats, which can be associated with bad luck and witches, especially around Halloween.
Interested in the link between how cat color influences adoption rates, a University of California, Berkeley, researcher surveyed 189 people with experience of cats as pets and found that they were more likely to assign positive personality traits to orange cats and less favorable ones to white and tortoiseshell ones. Orange cats were largely regarded as friendly, white cats as aloof and tortoiseshell cats as intolerant.
The results, published this week in the online issue of Anthrozoos, the official journal of the International Society for Anthrozoology, are noteworthy because feline typecasting can have a negative impact on adoption rates at animal shelters, the study suggests.
"To date there is little evidence that these perceived differences between differently colored cats actually exist, but there are serious repercussions for cats if people believe that some cat colors are friendlier than others," said Mikel Delgado, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at UC Berkeley.
"We hope that this study will be a starting point for further research in what qualities affect adoption and retention of pet cats, and whether there is a genetic or physical basis (such as coat color) for personality differences in cats," she added.
Of an estimated 100 million domesticated cats in the United States, at least one million end up in shelters each year. Many are abandoned because their personalities conflict with their owners' expectations. A 2002 study from UC Davis found that one in four cats are brought to shelters because they did not get along with their owners or other household pets. A common complaint was that they're "too active." That study also found that dark cats are more likely to be euthanized, and that tortoiseshell cats are frequently typecast as having too much attitude or "tortitude."
"Previous research supports the existence of 'black cat' syndrome, where black and brown cats are less likely to be adopted than cats of other colors," Delgado said. "We were interested in whether people's perceptions of the interaction between personality and coat color might play a part."
To establish a link between how cat color influences adoption rates, Delgado and her co-authors used Craigslist to recruit a national sample of cat owners and cat lovers in large U.S. metropolitan areas. Participants were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 7, the personalities of black, white, bi-colored, tri-colored (tortoiseshell or calico) and orange cats based on their tendencies to be active, aloof, bold, calm, friendly, intolerant, shy, stubborn, tolerant and trainable.
While most people surveyed said personality informs their decision about which cat to adopt, the characteristics they ascribed to cats based on their coat color indicated that color consciously or unconsciously played a key role in their final choice of which kitty to take home.
Overall, orange cats and bi-colored cats were characterized as friendly, while black cats, white cats and tri-colored cats were regarded as more antisocial. White cats were considered to be more shy, lazy and calm, while tortoiseshell cats were more likely to be depicted as both more intolerant and more trainable. Black cats were typified as having less extreme character traits, which might contribute to their mysterious reputation.
At the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS), cat coordinator Cathy Marden is all too familiar with the psychology involved in pet adoptions. Staff members and volunteers there try to break down stereotypes at every opportunity, she said, and descriptions of each cat written on the adoption rooms cages highlight the individual's characteristics.
"You can't judge a cat by its color," she said. "If someone comes in to adopt, we encourage them to spend time with all the cats, because it's the personality of that cat not the color that will let you know if the animal's the right fit for you."
Still, reactions to black cats can be so strong, she said, that few adoptions take place at the shelter when there are more than a few black cats in the adoption room. "It's a huge bummer," said Marden, who has blogged on the BEBHS website about the "Top 10 Reasons to Adopt a Black Cat" and about the joys of adopting a monochromatic cat.
Domestic cats are believed to be descended from African wild cats and have coexisted peacefully with humans for 4,000 years. Through literature, movies and other cultural channels, cats have long been characterized as solitary, independent species who are "tolerant of affection only when it suits their needs," according to the study. That said, cats have adapted well to a variety of living conditions, and this has made them successful at cohabiting with humans, the study points out.
###
Other coauthors of the study are Jacqueline Munera at the New College of Florida and Gretchen Reevy at the California State University, East Bay.
[ | 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.
A furore caused when two German theatres painted white actors black is being taken apart by Berlin?s English Theatre in a series of plays on multiculturalism. But a funding cut is threatening it with closure, staff told The Local.
When the Schlosspark theatre cast a white actor as a black man in its production of ?I'm not Rappaport? earlier this year, it sparked huge public outcry ? particularly when the director defended his decision by saying they could not find a black actor who could speak good enough German.
Shortly afterwards the Deutsches Theater staged ?Innocence?, a play by Dea Loher one of Germany's most reputed modern play-writes. It tells the story of two illegal immigrants from Africa, who were played by white German actors - again in blackface.
The English Theatre in Berlin (ETB) has decided to rework ?Innocence? and bring it back to the stage ? this time without blackface.
It will be followed by a discussion about the changing face of Germany and the role that race plays in the arts ? with the Deutsches Theater director John von D?ffel and two of the organisers of the protests against blackface, Julia Lemmle and Sithembile Menck.
'Black face must only be used for a reason'
Daniel Brunet, who translated and directed the play, told The Local it was just one part of a series that he hoped would ?re-open the dialogue about the use of blackface in Germany and to let people air their grievances.?
He said, ?If a director is going to use a symbol connected with so much pain and suffering, it needs to be abstract, removed, and for a reason.? In another English Theatre play ? Neighbours ? a black actor plays a minstrel, a white man who in 19th-century America would dress up as a crudely stereotypical black person and perform and which has since come to personify the racism of the time.
?We showed him putting on, and taking off, his [black] make-up. The character was playing a character in the play,? said Brunet. The black characters in Innocence are to be played by two Afro-German actors, Ernest Hausmann and Moses Leo.
Hausmann, from Hamburg, said he went to see ?Innocence? when it was at the Deutsches Theater. ?The whole idea of German directors trying to express foreigners is getting boring, it's ignorant,? he told The Local.
?The English Theatre production will be far more authentic, visually it will be better and moreover it will concentrate on the questions raised by the text ? those of guilt and hopelessness,? he said.
The piece tells the stories of a group of seemingly unrelated characters existing at the fringes of society. Other productions in the series, which started in August and so far comprises of four plays, explore issues of immigration and racial identity.
?I imagine the German production (of ?Innocence?) had reason for choosing to cast white actors,? said Brunet, a New Yorker, but said he found blackface offensive.
Berlin senate is cutting the theatre's funding
The mix of ethnicities regularly treading the boards at the English Theatre is one of the organisation's shining points in a largely white theatrical city.
This could come to an end if the city authorities cut the theatre's funding as planned in 2013, leaving the capital city, and its 150,000 or so English speakers, without a theatre dedicated to offering them accessible productions.
The Berlin government told the ETB the ?100,000 grant it uses to pay its rent and staff wages would not be coming in 2013, leaving the theatre in a bind.
?At any one time, there are around 40,000 people in Berlin with an American passport,? said Brunet. ?And the ETB takes Berlin's rich, creative scene and makes it accessible for all of the city's inhabitants,? he added.
Shutting down arts centre that the director believes has been ?at the heart of Berlin ex-pat culture for the past 23 years,? would also threaten the Thikwa theatre run by a mixed disabled and able-bodied team, which operates alongside it.
An educational force in the city
If it were to close, the chances of it re-opening would be slim, said Brunet ? he argued it was a lot easier to keep an institution going, no matter how financially troubled, than to start all over again.
Theatre staff have launched a petition which they plan on presenting to Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit before December. Just because the senate want to cut funding, does not, the petition letter states, ?mean that it will close its doors without a whimper.?
Both Hausmann and Brunet hailed the educational benefits of having an English-language theatre in the city. Over the 23 years that it has been open, thousands of German school children from across Berlin and Brandenburg have been coming regularly to watch productions.
?The city needs it, especially for educational reasons,? said father-of-one Hausmann. ?Not everyone can afford to go to London if they want to see an English play,? he added.
Innocence starts on October 22. The ETB and The Local have three pairs of tickets to give away to give away for the opening performance. Email The English Theatre Berlin to be in with a chance.
Chen Long crushes Wang Zhengming in Men?s Singles round-of-16 at Yonex Denmark Open 2012
China?s young and aggressive shuttler Chen Long easily advanced into Men?s Singles quarter-final after putting up strong show against his team-mate Wang Zhengming in round-of-16 clash at the Yonex Denmark Open 2012 on Thursday, October 18, in Denmark.
The World Number Three Long, who has been placed at number two in Men?s Singles draw in the tournament, unleashed his impressive shots from the opening points and won the battle in a dominating fashion without losing any set.
Long was in remarkable form on court while playing against his lower ranked compatriot and after just a little wobble in starting set he did not find any considerable trouble and won the match in straight sets in 40 minutes.
In the meanwhile, the un-seeded Zhengming failed to play positive badminton as he could not put up strong show in front of his aggressive team-mate and remained unable to cope up with the pace of rallies.
Zhengming stayed behind his rival throughout the contest and crashed out without snatching any set from his opponent.
In the first game, both Chinese players showed a spectacular performance to the local crowd by playing attacking badminton.
The cracking sounds of strokes could not heard anywhere in the huge indoor arena at Odense as both players employed powerful smashes and strong pushes but remained close until the break.
After the mid-game interval, Long injected more power into his smashes and also started to employ deceptive shots from front court and rear-court areas.
Long remained positive and aggressive in the whole second half of opening game and won it with a close margin of 21-19.
It was a smooth sail for Long in the second game as he played with complete control and moved his rival in all corners of the court which helped him to take a good lead in opening half.
In the concluding phase, the in-form Long continued playing impressive badminton and easily ended up the set with a 21-14 score on the board.
The lofty Long won this pre-quarter-final battle in straight games of 40 minutes with a reasonable margin of 21-19 and 21-14.
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Public release date: 23-Oct-2012
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