Images of a Hard-Hitting Disease

It is estimated that football players can receive as many as 1,500 hits to the head in one season. Not every blow results in immediate injury, but a growing body of research suggests that repetitive hits can lead to serious, long-term brain damage. More than 20 NFL players have so far been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease, after their deaths.

Researchers at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (BU CSTE) are now using sophisticated imaging techniques to detect signs of this damage in living patients, work that could lead to a better understanding of the phenomenon, and help identify at-risk athletes. CTE is currently diagnosed through examining a patient's brain tissue under a microscope.

In February, the BU researchers examined the brain of Dave Duerson, a retired pro football player who committed suicide after suffering from symptoms tied to repetitive brain trauma, including memory loss, poor impulse control, and erratic behavior. Duerson, who played 11 seasons in the NFL, became the 14th player diagnosed with CTE out of the 15 NFL players the center has studied.

"CTE is becoming a widely recognized disease; it is part of the expanding knowledge of traumatic brain injury that has exploded in the last few years," says Julian Bailes, professor and chairman of the department of neurosurgery and the director of the Brain Injury Research Institute (BIRI) at West Virginia University, the only other institute studying the disease. "We don't yet know how big the problem really is?is it a few percent of players that have the disease, or more than that?" Bailes says.

In collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the BU researchers recently conducted a pilot study, which involved imaging the brains of five professional athletes known to have experienced repetitive head trauma, and five age-matched nonathlete subjects without any history of head trauma. A similar, but much larger, three-year study is expected to start this summer.

CTE is marked by the progressive degeneration of brain tissue and the accumulation of tau protein, which provides structural support for the microtubules that transmit molecules between cells and neurons, down the axonal tracks. It's thought that repetitive hits to the head cause these microtubules to stretch, swell, and fall apart, so the cell can't function and the tau protein starts clumping together.

The researchers used different imaging techniques to detect these changes in the brain. They used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a variation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to examine the complex network of nerve fibers that connect different brain areas. DTI tracks the movement of water molecules through the brain, so researchers can create a detailed picture of the axons by analyzing the direction of water diffusion.

The researchers saw fewer axonal connections between neurons and fibers in the pilot study subjects who had a history of head impacts. "It was very apparent when we put the images side by side that the athletes have advanced atrophy or areas where fiber tracks have disappeared," says Christopher Nowinski, codirector of CSTE and co-founder and president of the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Waltham, Massachusetts, that studies brain injury in athletes and was involved with the project.

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The Caucus: Can Newt Gingrich Control Newt Gingrich?

The problem for Newt Gingrich does not appear to be a lack of self-awareness. But self-awareness is not the same thing as self-control.

During his appearance on NBC?s ?Meet the Press? on Sunday, Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker, clinically diagnosed what he called his own ?great weakness? as he pursues the presidency: a lack of personal and political discipline.

?One of the most painful lessons I?ve had to learn, and I haven?t fully learned it, obviously, is that if you seek to be the president of the United States, you are never an analyst, and you are never a college teacher because those folks can say what they want to say,? Mr. Gingrich said.

And yet, the frank admission was even more striking because it came at the end of an interview in which Mr. Gingrich proved himself completely unable to follow his own advice. He slammed the Republican Medicare proposals in Congress, declared the city of Detroit ?destroyed? by food stamps and implied that he supported the individual mandates at the heart of President Obama?s health care overhaul.

What was supposed to be the beginning of a conversation with the American people about Mr. Gingrich?s big ideas became a nightmare of political damage control. And on Tuesday the week got worse, with reports that Mr. Gingrich ? who urges fiscal discipline for the country ? owed as much as $500,000 to Tiffany?s.

On Monday, as he began a 17-stop introductory tour of Iowa, Mr. Gingrich was forced to retract his comments about the individual mandate by condemning ?Obamacare? in a hastily prepared video statement. That was followed by repeated apologies for undercutting Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the architect of the Republican Medicare proposals. Late Tuesday, Mr. Gingrich apologized directly to Mr. Ryan in a phone call, an aide to Mr. Gingrich said.

Also Tuesday, his spokesman was reduced to a ?no comment? on the Politico article about Mr. Gingrich?s jewelry debts. In less than three days, Mr. Gingrich?s lack of discipline cleared the way for a torrent of criticism, most of it from members of his own party.

?He?s done. He didn?t have a big chance from the beginning, but now it?s over,? said Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, adding that Mr. Gingrich appeared ?contradictory and incoherent? during the NBC interview. ?It?s deadly.?

Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, a Republican, chided Mr. Gingrich on Tuesday for the criticism of Mr. Ryan?s budget proposals.

?When you have a conservative fighting for real change, the last thing we need is a presidential candidate cutting him off at the knees,? Ms. Haley said.

Bill Bennett, the conservative pundit and radio talk show host, offered Mr. Gingrich the following blunt advice during his show on Tuesday.

?My advice to you to salvage your candidacy is to say, ?I blew it,? ? Mr. Bennett suggested. ??People misunderstood me because I misspoke. I said the wrong words and I?m sorry.? I think that?s your only shot or I think you are done, Newt. I honestly do. You have got to deal with this because it?s not working. What you are doing is not working.?

And perhaps worst of all, an angry Iowa voter confronted Mr. Gingrich, saying that his comments about Mr. Ryan?s budget were ?unforgivable.? With cameras running, the man asked why Mr. Gingrich didn?t get out of the presidential race ?before you make a bigger fool of yourself.? He added, ?You?re an embarrassment to our party.?

By Wednesday, a week after he officially declared his candidacy with a video that urged Americans to ?look reality in the face,? Mr. Gingrich had started blaming the news media, and in particular, David Gregory, the host of ?Meet the Press.?

?I don?t think I realized until after Sunday?s ?Meet the Press? how big a threat my candidacy is to the Washington establishment,? Mr. Gingrich said on Mr. Bennett?s radio show. In a separate interview with the radio host Bob Gallagher, Mr. Gingrich said, ?We?re in a phase here where, if you are a conservative, you better expect gotcha press.?

The barrage appeared unlikely to relent anytime soon. On Tuesday morning, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal was titled ?Gingrich to House G.O.P.: Drop Dead.? Mr. Gingrich told Mr. Bennett that the headline was ?baloney.?

And the story about the jewelry debts threatened to expose another side of Mr. Gingrich?s problem with personal discipline. The revelation came from financial disclosure forms that his wife, Callista, was required to submit as an employee of the House Agriculture Committee. They showed a ?revolving charge account? at Tiffany?s of $250,000 to $500,000.

?I can?t comment on that,? his spokesman, Rick Tyler, said in an interview on Tuesday.

But Mr. Tyler disputed the narrative that Mr. Gingrich had had a terrible week. He noted that Mr. Gingrich last week playfully sent a Twitter message about when he would actually announce his candidacy, and that the humor was well received.

?I think we dominated with positive coverage for a solid week,? Mr. Tyler said. ?I think that was a great start. We had all kinds of good things going through Sunday.?

Mr. Tyler compared the last several days for Mr. Gingrich to a star baseball player who disappoints the crowd during his first time up to the plate in an early-season game.

?Reggie Jackson once said they don?t boo nobody,? Mr. Tyler said. ?Right now, they are booing Newt. We will hit a home run, and they will all be fans again.?

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A Worldwide Nuclear Slowdown Continues

The bad news from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues to reverberate around the world, dimming nuclear energy's future and boosting the fortunes of low-carbon power sources. Last week's decision by Japan's prime minister to scrap plans for 14 new reactors is just the latest sign of a global nuclear slowdown, and the technology faces renewed scrutiny even in countries with pronuclear governments, including the U.S., China, and France.

"Due to both the time needed for integrating the lessons learned from Fukushima in new reactor designs and the likely hesitations of the public and decision makers, the deployment of nuclear power will be delayed," says Jan Horst Keppler, principal economist at the Nuclear Energy Agency, a Paris-based arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

What has not changed, says Keppler, are the drivers that were fueling new reactor construction: concerns over energy security and climate change. In the past, nuclear technology has been perceived as the cheapest option. But with nuclear on hold, governments are looking to accelerate renewable-energy development, and the latest cost estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Agency provide support for that position.

The agency's Annual Energy Outlook, released this month, estimates that new reactors starting up in 2016 will produce power at a cost of $114 per megawatt-hour. Onshore wind turbines, geothermal, and biomass power plants all beat that price, according to the agency's figures (as do gas-fired power plants that capture and sequester their carbon emissions underground).

The potential for renewable energy technologies to scale, meanwhile, was affirmed this month by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which issued a special report predicting that renewable sources could satisfy up to 80 percent of global energy needs by 2050.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also highlighted nuclear energy's comparatively troubled position last week with his call for a high-level debate on nuclear energy's costs, risks, and benefits. "Twenty-five years after Chernobyl and in the aftermath of Fukushima, I believe it is high time to take a hard look at ... strengthening nuclear safety and security," he told reporters at a press conference in Geneva last Wednesday. The discussion by world leaders is scheduled for September's General Assembly meeting in New York.

Japan is taking the hardest look at nuclear, as Tokyo Electric Power?Fukushima Daiichi's operator?continues to wrestle with dangerous radiation levels in its bid to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools at its stricken plant. Last week it was revealed that nuclear fuel in one reactor had melted and sunk to the reactor's bottom, and that Tokyo Electric Power had withheld radioactivity readings in the first days of the crisis, keeping the government and public in the dark and putting plant workers at risk.

Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, is looking to renewable power and energy efficiency to replace some nuclear energy. But in the short term, he faces a power-supply crisis that got worse last week when two reactors at the coastal Hamaoka nuclear plant, southwest of Tokyo, were shut down at Kan's request pending tsunami-protective upgrades.

Chubu Electric Power, the utility that owns Hamaoka, may struggle to meet peak demand this summer without the reactors, which generate over 3,600 megawatts of power. Tokyo Electric is counting on 1,000 megawatts from Chubu to meet its own summer peak, and even with that help, it is facing at least a 5,000-megawatt supply shortage this summer, according to the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.

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AppleCare reps told not to help users remove MacDefender malware

As much as Mac OS users like to believe that their platform is impervious to malware, it?s really not. The number of attacks, as admitted by Apple, have been increasing. However, Apple customer service representatives have been told not to help remove spyware and malware.

Those who create malware that targets Macs employ a method called social engineering, where users are tricked into clicking on and installing Trojan horse programs. The most recent is the MacDefender, which pretends to be a Mac anti-virus program but once installed reportedly launches pornographic websites.

The report adds that the software also asks users to purchase an upgrade by entering their card details, which is presumed to be a faux upgrade that could lead to fraudulent credit card charges.

Ed Bott of ZDNet spoke to an anonymous AppleCare representative and was able to find out that they are instructed not to help users remove malware to manage expectations for future problems.

AC: We have a team of people who go though all case notes and find new issues that are popping up a lot and send notices to all of AppleCare. Our notice for Mac Defender is that we?re not supposed to help customers remove malware from their computer.

The reason for the rule, they say, is that even though MacDefender is easy to remove, we can?t set the expectation to customers that we will be able to remove all malware in the future. That?s what antivirus is for.

Luckily, disabling and removing the bogus MacDefender application is easy. If you have been infected and want to make sure it no longer resides on your system, simply follow the steps in our previous blog post.

Given this, it is also probable that Apple is pushing the Mac App Store as the only safe place to get software.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/05/19/applecare-reps-told-not-to-help-users-remove-macdefender-malware/

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Lionhead: second-hand console games more costly than PC piracy

Asus increases Eee Pad Transformer production

When the Asus Eee Pad Transformer arrived in the US late last month, it was quickly sold out. Rumors suggested that the device was low in volumes due to component shortages or even because of quality control issues but Asus declared that finding a unit was hard due to demand, not supply. Either way, the company has confirmed it is steadily increasing the number of units shipped so that you can actually find a device to buy.

"We are ramping production every week to address the supply concerns, including almost daily air shipments into North America," an Asus spokesperson told Engadget. "We expect the supply line to improve significantly over the coming weeks."

In related news, Asus has confirmed that the Transformer will be getting Android 3.1 (codenamed Honeycomb) in June. The update will be sent over-the-air early next month.

The Eee Pad Transformer sets itself apart from the tablet competition with an optional chiclet-style keyboard dock that essentially transforms the device into a netbook. Besides making the device much more convenient to type on and handle productivity tasks, it also extends battery life from around 9.5 hours to 16 hours thanks to a second battery within. The actual device costs $400 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model, although the dock will set you back an extra $150. Still, the price is very competitive given that this is one of the few tablets available with Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb).

The Transformer has a 10.1-inch 1280×800 IPS Gorilla Glass capacitive touchscreen display, a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear and 1.2MP front cameras, a Micro SD expansion slot, and HDMI out. You'll also find speakers and audio jacks, USB 2.0, 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, as well as a G-sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, e-compass, and GPS. It also comes with Asus' Waveshare interface, which includes MyNet (streams media to networked devices), MyLibrary (digital bookstore) and MyCloud (cloud storage and remote access tool).

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43855-asus-increases-eee-pad-transformer-production.html

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Microsoft: 1 out of every 14 downloaded programs is malware

Microsoft has revealed that 1 out of every 14 downloaded programs is later confirmed as malware. The data comes from the software giant's SmartScreen Filter team.

SmartScreen Filter was originally introduced in Internet Explorer 7 by extending the browser's phishing filter to include protection from socially engineered malware. Every website and download is checked against a local list of popular legitimate websites. If the site is not listed, the entire address is sent to Microsoft for further checks, but if it has been labeled as an impostor or harmful, IE7 will show a screen prompting that the site is reported harmful and shouldn't be visited. From there, you can visit your homepage, visit the previous site, or continue to the unsafe page.

In IE8, if you attempt to download a file from a location reported harmful then the download is cancelled. In IE9, the protection against malware downloads is extended with SmartScreen Application Reputation, which warns you if you are downloading an application without a safe reputation from a site that does not have a safe reputation.

Microsoft also announced that the feature now blocks between 2 million and 5 million attacks a day for IE8 and IE9 users. Since the release of IE8, SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion attempted malware attacks.

The company says that IE9 users are choosing to delete or not run malware 95 percent of the time from the new Application Reputation warnings. That leaves 5 percent that are still being clicked-through, despite being told the downloaded programs could be infected.

Internet Explorer 9 was released on March 15, 2011. Even if you barely use IE, you should still upgrade, if only for the improved security features.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43858-microsoft-1-out-of-every-14-downloaded-programs-is-malware.html

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Gears of War 3 racks up over 1 million pre-orders

TNW Quick Hit:

The popular Gears of War franchise has lost none of its commercial viability. News broke today that demonstrates this: Gears of War 3 has stacked up some 1 million pre-orders thus far, making it, according to Major Nelson, the ?Fastest Pre-Ordered Title in Platform History.?

Eat your heart out, Halo.

But that is perhaps not the most impressive single statistic. The beta for the game has been a crushing success on its own. A huge 1.29 million gamers played some 11 million multiplayer matches during the beta. Other stats, as reported by Microsoft, include:

- 145 different countries participated in the beta
- 249 years worth of matches played
- More than 11 million matches completed
- More than 927 million kills recorded
- More than 131 million executions performed
- More than 23 million deaths by chainsaw
- Nearly 23 BILLION bullets fired
- 4.9 billion ribbons and 291M medals earned
- 435K people earned the Beta exclusive Thrashball Cole skin to use in the retail game when it launches in September
- 234K people earned the Beta exclusive Gold Retro Lancer to use in the retail game when it launches in September

We promised to cover the Xbox platform more, and as we have begun to do so we have become impressed with the sheer momentum that its ecosystem can generate. Gears of War 3, an Xbox exclusive, is shattering records for all console games, even those available on multiple platforms.

Of course, the Gears franchise is arguably the most popular for the console, rivaling the perennial classic Halo, which helped with much of the Xbox world?s success. Sound off in the comments: have you picked up a copy, and if so, why?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/05/18/gears-of-war-3-racks-up-over-1-million-pre-orders/

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Google confirms fix for Android OS security flaw

We reported yesterday how 99% of Android handsets are vulnerable to impersonation attacks. Well, it seems that a fix is currently being rolled out for all affected users.

The flaw potentially could enable attackers to hijack tokens used to access calendars, contacts and a number of other services available within Google?s Android operating system.

A Google spokesperson told computerworld that the flaw, which had only recently been identified by a team of German researchers, was being fixed and a server-side patch was being rolled out that addresses the problem for all versions of Android OS.

The official Google statement read:

?Today we?re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/05/18/google-confirms-fix-for-android-os-security-flaw/

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On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

As you can imagine, we get lots of natty little bits and pieces sent into the bit-tech offices. Annoyingly, though, much of it is just a little too small or a little too silly to write about in a full page review. As a result, I?m trying to resurrect the On Our Desk series of articles that we used to cover all these little bits of gadgetry.

So without further ado I?ll tell you about the Mionix Propus 380 mouse mat, on which my CM Storm Inferno has been happily sitting for the last few days.

The first feature that grabbed me about the Propus 380 is that it looks good. It was actually its unusual shape and sleek, unfussy design that prompted me to pick it out from the pile of gaming mouse mats we?ve got sitting in the labs in the first place; it certainly looks like it means business.

On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

Once out of the packaging, I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality on show. The edges of the Propus 380 are very precisely cut, with no rough edges in sight. The upper tracking surface is also very firmly bonded to the rubber base of the mat; it certainly doesn't feel like the Propus 380 would suffer from the kind of delaminating or edge-peeling you may have seen on older mouse mats.

The surface of the mat is made from extremely fine-grained plastic, results in some very quick mouse movements. In fact, I was actually able to move my mouse almost too quickly compared to the cloth covered mat that the Propus 380 replaced, with very little drag or friction between the mouse and mat. Once I was used to it, though, the lack of friction meant that my mouse movement felt very precise, and that fatigue was less of a problem during long gaming sessions.

Measuring 380 x 260mm, the mat is wider than it is tall, but this means there?s plenty of room for large sweeping movements if you run your mouse with low sensitivity. If you don?t need all that width, though, then you can rotate the mat through 90 degrees. What's more, in this orientation, the indents in the upper and lower edge of the mat help it to butt up nearly with your keyboard.

On Our Desk - Mionix Propus 380

If you?re into your LAN gaming, then the fact that the Propus 380 doesn?t roll up could be an issue. It does have a degree of bend in it, but it'll crease if you push it too far. For most people, though, this is unlikely to be a problem, and it also means the edges of the mat won?t curl with time.

Of course, a gaming orientated mouse mat is a luxury; most decent mice these days will track quite happily without any mouse mat at all. The Propus 380 is a great piece of kit, though. It feels well made, and has a surface that provides very smooth and quick tracking for a laser mouse. At £17 it couldn?t be called cheap, but at least you feel like you?re getting £17 worth of kit; it?ll definitely be staying on my desk for the foreseeable future.

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