Opening Up the Brain with Ultrasound

The cells lining the brain's blood vessels are tightly packed together?like a good defensive line, they keep bacteria and other blood-borne intruders from getting through, shielding the brain. But this protective layer, called the blood-brain barrier, also thwarts efforts to deliver drugs like chemotherapy agents to the brain, so scientists have long searched for ways to disrupt it selectively to allow treatments in. A startup company called Perfusion Technology is developing a technique to open this barrier by bathing the brain in ultrasound waves.

Ultrasound has been investigated for a decade as a tool for opening the blood-brain barrier. Most techniques, however, rely on specialized equipment to focus the ultrasound waves to a tiny point. They also require an injection with microbubbles to amplify the effect, and an MRI machine to guide the treatment. Al Kyle, president and CEO of Perfusion Technology, which is based in Andover, Massachusetts, says that the company's method is simpler and cheaper. Rather than opening the blood-brain barrier briefly at a single point, Perfusion uses a specially designed headset to expose the entire brain to low-intensity ultrasound waves for an hour-long treatment session.

The company is developing the treatment specifically for patients with brain tumors. A patient could receive the ultrasound during an outpatient session of intravenous chemotherapy, to open the blood-brain barrier and let the drugs into the brain. Kyle says it would be "a kinder and gentler way of delivering therapeutics to the brain" than current invasive methods, such as an infusion pump or a surgical implant. He also believes that his company's approach would be better than focused methods when it comes to treating tumors that have spread to multiple parts of the brain, because it reaches the entire brain at once.  

Although Perfusion is initially developing the technique to treat primary brain tumors, the majority of brain cancers originate elsewhere and metastasize to the brain; in these cases, the technique might help deliver drugs designed for other kinds of cancer into the brain, Kyle says. He further believes the method could someday help treat other kinds of neurological disorders.

Nathan McDannold, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital who has been developing focused ultrasound for drug delivery to the brain, agrees that if Perfusion Technology's method is proved to work it will have advantages, because it doesn't require microbubble agents and expensive equipment. But the company still needs to prove the safety and effectiveness of its approach. The biggest safety concern is bleeding: when a similar ultrasound method was tested on stroke patients several years ago as a way of dissolving clots, it led to excessive bleeding.

Kyle says his company has completed five animal studies over the past few years and has used its ultrasound technique to deliver several large molecules safely to the brain, including the cancer drug Avastin. The company hopes to complete preclinical animal studies in the next year and prepare for initial trials in humans.

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Nation?s Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows

Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government?s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone.

Capturing what appears to be an abrupt change in attitude, the survey shows that the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse has jumped 13 percentage points in just one month. Though there have been encouraging signs of renewed growth since last fall, many economists are having second thoughts, warning that the pace of expansion might not be fast enough to create significant numbers of new jobs.

The dour public mood is dragging down ratings for both parties in Congress and for President Obama, the poll found.

After the first 100 days of divided government, and a new Republican leadership controlling the House of Representatives, 75 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job.

Disapproval of Mr. Obama?s handling of the economy has never been broader ? at 57 percent of Americans ? a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012. And a similar percentage disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the federal budget deficit, though more disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are.

Still, for all the talk from Congressional Republicans and Mr. Obama of cutting the deficit as a way to improve the economy, only 29 percent of respondents said it would create more jobs. Twenty-seven percent said it would have no effect on the employment outlook, and 29 percent said it would cost jobs.

When it comes to cutting the deficit and the costs of the nation?s costliest entitlement programs, the poll found conflicting and sometimes contradictory views, with hints of encouragement and peril for both parties.

Mr. Obama has considerable support for his proposal to end tax cuts for those households earning $250,000 a year and more: 72 percent of respondents approved of doing so as a way to address the deficit.

And, in what he can take as a positive sign for his argument the nation has a duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens, about three-quarters of Americans polled think the federal government has a responsibility to provide health care for the elderly, and 56 percent believe it has a similar duty to the poor.

?Keep people?s taxes and give them medical benefits,? Richard Sterling, an independent voter of Naugatuck, Conn., said in a follow-up interview.

In what Republicans can take as a positive sign as they seek a more limited government, 55 percent of poll respondents said they would rather have fewer services from a smaller government than more services from a bigger one, as opposed to 33 percent who said the opposite, a continuation of a trend in Times/CBS polls.

And slightly more Americans approve than disapprove of a proposal by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to change Medicare from a program that pays doctors and hospitals directly for treating older people to one in which the government helps such patients pay for private plans, though that support derived more from Republicans and independents. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll that found 65 percent opposed Mr. Ryan?s plan, suggesting results can vary based on how the question is asked.

Twice as many respondents said they would prefer cuts in spending on federal programs that benefit people like them as said they would favor a rise in taxes to pay for such programs.

Yet more than 6 in 10 of those surveyed said they believed Medicare was worth the costs. And when asked specifically about Medicare, respondents said they would rather see higher taxes than see a reduction in its available medical services if they had to choose between the two.

Given the choice of cutting military, Social Security or Medicare spending as a way to reduce the overall budget, 45 percent chose military cuts, compared with those to Social Security (17 percent) or Medicare (21 percent.)

The opposition by Tea Party supporters to raising the level of debt the nation can legally carry was shared by nearly two-thirds of poll respondents, including nearly half of Democrats; administration officials say blocking the government from raising that limit could force it to default on its debt payments.

For the most part, Americans split sharply along party lines when it comes to whom they trust most on the deficit, Medicare and Social Security.

But with 70 percent of poll respondents saying that the country was heading in the wrong direction, the public was not exhibiting warm feelings toward officeholders of either party.

Most Americans think neither Mr. Obama nor the Congressional Republicans share their priorities for the country. Mr. Obama?s job approval remains below a majority, with 46 percent saying they approve of his performance in office, while 45 percent do not. And support for his handling of the military campaign in Libya has fallen since last month: 39 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove. In a CBS poll in March, 50 percent approved and 29 percent disapproved.

Republicans have their own challenges. More than half of poll respondents, 56 percent, said they did not have a favorable view of the party, as opposed to 37 percent who said they did. (The Democratic Party fared somewhat better: 49 percent did not have favorable views of it and 44 percent did.)

As the House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, becomes the face of his party in Congress, more disapprove of his job performance (41 percent) than approve of it (32 percent); 27 percent said they did not have an opinion of him.

The displeasure with officeholders of both parties is reminiscent of the mood that prevailed in November, when anti-incumbent sentiment swept Democrats out of power in the House and diminished their edge in the Senate.

Frustration with the pace of economic growth has grown since, with 28 percent of respondents in a New York Times/CBS poll in late October saying the economy was getting worse, and 39 percent saying so in the latest poll. ?They?re saying it will get better, but it?s not,? Frank Tufenkdjian, a Republican of Bayville, N.Y., said in a follow-up interview. ?I know so many people who are unemployed and can?t find a job.?

The nationwide telephone survey was conducted Friday through Wednesday with 1,224 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

Posted on 11th Apr 2011 at 10:50 by David Hing with 12 comments

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP for the iPad is like nothing else you have ever played. Described as ?a 21st century interpretation of the archetypical old school videogame adventure? it uses beautifully crafted pixel-scapes to do for video gaming what the impressionist painters did for art.

A collaborative project from indie studio Capybara, rock musicians and art from the Superbrothers themselves, Sword and Sworcery EP is a essentially a point and click adventure game that sees you cast as a warrior out to destroy an ancient evil. To do that you?ll need to solve puzzles, fight bears and collect an artefact called the Megatome ? so far, so adventure-game. What sets is apart from the likes of Kings Quest however are the lashings of surrealism, abstraction and poetry that somehow never slips into infuriating pretentiousness.


The real star isn?t the music or the mysticism, however, but the visual style. It?s absolutely perfect, causing us to frequently stop playing for a moment or two just to admire the scenery ? no mean feat considering the outstanding visual quality of most modern games. The landscapes are rich and detailed and invoke a near painterly quality. There?s a rare sense of artistry to Sword and Sworcery that we?ve not seen in a long, long time.

Sword and Sworcery?s music is still exemplary, however. The sound design has been meticulously crafted, fitting perfectly with the gameplay and creating an absorbing atmosphere that genuinely hooks you in to the moment. The sounds and music towards the end of our first session built a huge amount of tension and it was only after the threat ? which we won?t name to avoid spoiling it ? passed that we realised that our eyes were stinging due to lack of blinking.

A major drawback of most iPad and iPhone games is that they fail to make the most of the touchscreen interface or try to shoe horn in an ineffective d-pad. Point and click games seem like an assured win for touch-screens however, so Sword and Sworcery is a natural fit. It doesn?t limit itself to the conventions of the genre though, using screen-tilting mechanics regular switches from landscape to portrait to keep things interesting. In landscape mode you?re able to move around with your sword and shield equipped, while turning to portrait position opens your Megatome ? a combination spell book and help guide.


Sword and Sworcery isn?t all hard-core art-game, however ? there are points of genuine humour and awesome subtlety. At one point, for example, you have to travel into your dreams to find a lost key, which involves following a bear which dances like Ricky Gervais in the Office. It?s a moment which, like the game as a whole, feels beautifully surreal and yet oddly poignant.

Verdict: Sword and Sworcery could be a landmark in history of mobile gaming, proving to be the first title we?ve seen on the iPad platform which so wonderfully blurs the line between gaming and ambient art. Pensive, intelligent and wonderfully rich, you can feel the deep love and adoration for gaming that has gone into this project and it shines from its every pixel.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP is developed by a whole host of talented artist and is available for the iPad via the AppStore.

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Nation?s Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows

Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government?s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone.

Capturing what appears to be an abrupt change in attitude, the survey shows that the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse has jumped 13 percentage points in just one month. Though there have been encouraging signs of renewed growth since last fall, many economists are having second thoughts, warning that the pace of expansion might not be fast enough to create significant numbers of new jobs.

The dour public mood is dragging down ratings for both parties in Congress and for President Obama, the poll found.

After the first 100 days of divided government, and a new Republican leadership controlling the House of Representatives, 75 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job.

Disapproval of Mr. Obama?s handling of the economy has never been broader ? at 57 percent of Americans ? a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012. And a similar percentage disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the federal budget deficit, though more disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are.

Still, for all the talk from Congressional Republicans and Mr. Obama of cutting the deficit as a way to improve the economy, only 29 percent of respondents said it would create more jobs. Twenty-seven percent said it would have no effect on the employment outlook, and 29 percent said it would cost jobs.

When it comes to cutting the deficit and the costs of the nation?s costliest entitlement programs, the poll found conflicting and sometimes contradictory views, with hints of encouragement and peril for both parties.

Mr. Obama has considerable support for his proposal to end tax cuts for those households earning $250,000 a year and more: 72 percent of respondents approved of doing so as a way to address the deficit.

And, in what he can take as a positive sign for his argument the nation has a duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens, about three-quarters of Americans polled think the federal government has a responsibility to provide health care for the elderly, and 56 percent believe it has a similar duty to the poor.

?Keep people?s taxes and give them medical benefits,? Richard Sterling, an independent voter of Naugatuck, Conn., said in a follow-up interview.

In what Republicans can take as a positive sign as they seek a more limited government, 55 percent of poll respondents said they would rather have fewer services from a smaller government than more services from a bigger one, as opposed to 33 percent who said the opposite, a continuation of a trend in Times/CBS polls.

And slightly more Americans approve than disapprove of a proposal by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to change Medicare from a program that pays doctors and hospitals directly for treating older people to one in which the government helps such patients pay for private plans, though that support derived more from Republicans and independents. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll that found 65 percent opposed Mr. Ryan?s plan, suggesting results can vary based on how the question is asked.

Twice as many respondents said they would prefer cuts in spending on federal programs that benefit people like them as said they would favor a rise in taxes to pay for such programs.

Yet more than 6 in 10 of those surveyed said they believed Medicare was worth the costs. And when asked specifically about Medicare, respondents said they would rather see higher taxes than see a reduction in its available medical services if they had to choose between the two.

Given the choice of cutting military, Social Security or Medicare spending as a way to reduce the overall budget, 45 percent chose military cuts, compared with those to Social Security (17 percent) or Medicare (21 percent.)

The opposition by Tea Party supporters to raising the level of debt the nation can legally carry was shared by nearly two-thirds of poll respondents, including nearly half of Democrats; administration officials say blocking the government from raising that limit could force it to default on its debt payments.

For the most part, Americans split sharply along party lines when it comes to whom they trust most on the deficit, Medicare and Social Security.

But with 70 percent of poll respondents saying that the country was heading in the wrong direction, the public was not exhibiting warm feelings toward officeholders of either party.

Most Americans think neither Mr. Obama nor the Congressional Republicans share their priorities for the country. Mr. Obama?s job approval remains below a majority, with 46 percent saying they approve of his performance in office, while 45 percent do not. And support for his handling of the military campaign in Libya has fallen since last month: 39 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove. In a CBS poll in March, 50 percent approved and 29 percent disapproved.

Republicans have their own challenges. More than half of poll respondents, 56 percent, said they did not have a favorable view of the party, as opposed to 37 percent who said they did. (The Democratic Party fared somewhat better: 49 percent did not have favorable views of it and 44 percent did.)

As the House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, becomes the face of his party in Congress, more disapprove of his job performance (41 percent) than approve of it (32 percent); 27 percent said they did not have an opinion of him.

The displeasure with officeholders of both parties is reminiscent of the mood that prevailed in November, when anti-incumbent sentiment swept Democrats out of power in the House and diminished their edge in the Senate.

Frustration with the pace of economic growth has grown since, with 28 percent of respondents in a New York Times/CBS poll in late October saying the economy was getting worse, and 39 percent saying so in the latest poll. ?They?re saying it will get better, but it?s not,? Frank Tufenkdjian, a Republican of Bayville, N.Y., said in a follow-up interview. ?I know so many people who are unemployed and can?t find a job.?

The nationwide telephone survey was conducted Friday through Wednesday with 1,224 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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Apple reportedly to beat Google in cloud music race

According to a report by Reuters, Apple has finished work on an online music storage service and is going to beat Google to the punch in the race to get to the cloud.

Sources close to the matter indidcate that Apple?s plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection. Music labels are hoping to secure deals before the service is launched, three of the sources said. Apple has not told its music partners of when it intends to introduce its music locker, they said.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Google had been expected to launch a music service as a feature of its Android mobile operating system as far back as last Christmas, but it seems to be no further ahead.

?They keep changing what they?re asking for,? said a label executive who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential.

Both Apple and Google want to offer services that give music fans more flexibility to access their media wherever they are, rather than tying them to a particular computer or mobile device. And both companies have made acquisitions to help them win the race.

In late 2009, Apple bought Lala, a cloud-based music company, but closed it down in April 2010. This fuelled speculation that it would launch an Apple-branded cloud service.

Earlier this month, Google bought Canadian mobile music company PushLife and bought Simplify Media last May. While both acquisitions seem to indicate google?s push to offer a cloud-based service, they shut down Simplify Media shortly after purchasing it.

Amazon isn?t about to sit idly by, however.

It launched a music locker service earlier in April, but failed to acquire new licensing agreements when doing so, leading to threats of legal action from some music companies. At the time, Amazon argued that its Cloud Drive service does not need licenses, and said uploaded music belongs to the users. Amazon has since held talks with some labels to reach agreements to an enhanced service, meeting with label executives as early as last week.

The three companies are battling for control of new digital media platforms through which users will access their media, mainly music and videos.

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Apple preparing to launch cloud-based music service

Apple is preparing to launch its long-rumored cloud-based music service, according to two anonymous sources cited by Reuters. Details are still sparse, but the service will supposedly allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server and then stream the media with another connected device, such as the iPhone.

Google has been expected to launch a similar streaming service for Android devices since late last year, but the company has been stuck in negotiations with record labels. "They keep changing what they're asking for," said an unnamed label executive. The search giant wanted to launch a basic locker service and a store similar to iTunes, but it's now exploring licensing for a subscription service.

Because the search giant's efforts are stalled, Apple is poised to release its offering first, but it hasn't shared a release date. Amazon beat both companies to the punch by launching its "Cloud Drive" late last month. The service lets you store music, videos, photos and documents on Amazon's servers (5GB free, 20GB to 1TB at $1 per GB). Your data can be access through a web browser on another system or with a native Android application.

Amazon launched its service without securing licenses from the recording industry and although that moved angered some labels, Apple plans to pull the same stunt. Reuters' sources say that Apple hasn't signed any new licenses, nor has it told music partners when the service will launch.

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It?s not just the iPhone, Android stores your location data too

You may have heard about the way that the iPhone is tracking your every move. Well, it turns out that Android phones do this as well, and likely for the same reasons.

Developer Magnus Eriksson has created what he calls an Android location service data dumper. This is an app that searches Android phones for a location data file similar to the one iPhones use to store location data.

Following the latest days internet outrage/overreaction to the revelation that iPhone has a cache for its location service, I decided to have look what my Android devices caches for the same function.

This is a quick dumper I threw together to parse the files from the Android location provider.

The file contains what he refers to as ?coarse? location data. That is to say data obtained by cellphone tower location and not a more accurate GPS data location.

Here is a sample set of data from the cache.cell file that records cellular locations in the Android file system. You can see that it contains a set of entries that record a latitude and longitude as well as a time stamp.

$ ./parse.py cache.cell
db version: 1
total: 41

key accuracy conf. latitude longitude time
240:5:15:983885 1186 75 57.704031 11.910801 04/11/11 20:03:14 +0200
240:5:15:983882 883 75 57.706322 11.911692 04/13/11 01:41:29 +0200
240:5:75:4915956 678 75 57.700175 11.976824 04/13/11 11:52:16 +0200
240:5:75:4915953 678 75 57.700064 11.976629 04/13/11 11:53:09 +0200
240:7:61954:58929 1406 75 57.710205 11.921849 04/15/11 19:46:31 +0200
240:7:15:58929 -1 0 0.000000 0.000000 04/15/11 19:46:32 +0200
240:5:75:4915832 831 75 57.690024 11.998419 04/15/11 16:13:53 +0200

The file is only accessible on devices that have been rooted and opened up to installation of unsigned apps. This is similar to the way that the iPhone used to store the data before it was made available to developers using the iPhone?s background API for location sharing.

Now however, the iPhone data is exposed to casual access using an application called iPhone Location Tracker that is similar in intent to the app that Eriksson has created for Android phones.

We spoke to Eriksson about the way that the data from the Android OS and from iPhones is being used by their respective creators. He explained that when an application requests location information, it doesn?t always need a pinpoint spot so the OS just uses cell towers to get a general location.

The phone then sends the cell tower info to Google and in return gets a set of coordinates.

He mentions that it?s likely that the data is transmitted and received in the same way by Apple.

This is corroborated by Adam Swindon, the creator of the CDMA version of the iPhone Tracker, who says that the data from a separate field within the Apple location data file, LocationHarvest, points to the possibility that the information is sent periodically to Apple.

I think the names of the tables could be another clue towards how the data is being used. I have only ever seen the harvest tables containing a few entries with very recent timestamps, therefore they might be used as a queue for data to be sent to Apple. Once sent it could be archived in the other table, and the harvest table cleared.

Due to the strong evidence that this behavior is extremely similar between the Android and iOS operating systems, it?s likely that the inclusion of months worth of this data is most likely an oversight or error on Apple?s part and not intentional. Instead it?s likely that the Apple system was originally intended to behave the way that Google?s system does.

This is the behavior that John Gruber has speculated was the initial intent of Apple in regards to how long they keep location data in their system.

After a period of time, 12 hours for cellular data and 48 hours for WiFi data, has passed, the location data is renewed by a new request from Google. It is also limited to a maximum number of entries so that the database doesn?t grow too large.

Swindon says that the location file pulled from his phone contained roughly 13,000 entries related to cellular network tracking. By contrast the Android file is limited to only 50 entries in the cellular location database.

The size of the database on the iPhone is what Eriksson attributes the accuracy of the location maps created by the iPhone location data file to. Normally the data would be much more crude, but with a lot more data sampling to work with, the map grows more detailed and more accurate.

This means that the only reason that the Apple system yields such detailed results is that it has far more data than it?s supposed to have in it?s database.

Why that system does not behave the way that the Android location recording system does and simply dump out older entries is a mystery at this point. Gruber points to unofficial channels to suggest that it is a bug that will be corrected and looking at the evidence, we tend to agree.

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Political Memo: Ryan, Pushing Budget, Resists Talk of Higher Office

?We need a viable Republican candidate for president,? pleaded the woman, Nancy Champion, a retired schoolteacher. ?Will you run against him??

Mr. Ryan grinned, blushed and promptly tried to change the subject, telling his audience: ?She?s not related to me. She wouldn?t say that if she was.? But no, he added, he does not intend to join the Republican nominating contest and try to run against Mr. Obama.

He simply wants to debate him.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Ryan has emerged as one of the president?s most visible Republican rivals in a budget fight that will help frame the nation?s politics for the next year and beyond. In January, he delivered the official response to the State of the Union address, and this month he has become a leading face of the opposition with a 2012 spending plan that calls for deep cuts and the gradual privatization of Medicare.

So far, the dueling arguments are playing out on vastly different stages.

?He?s got the bully pulpit,? Mr. Ryan said, walking out of Clinton?s Village Hall on Tuesday afternoon. ?But I think he?s bigger than this. I think he?s bigger than this moment, I think he?s bigger than his speech last week. I think he?ll come to realize that ? at least that?s my hope.?

When the president delivered his rebuttal to the Republican plan last week in Washington, he invited Mr. Ryan to sit in the front row, where the congressman watched the president sharply criticize his proposal and outline the Democratic position. At the end, Mr. Ryan declared, ?What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner-in-chief.?

Yet as he traveled this week through his district across southern Wisconsin, which Mr. Obama narrowly won in 2008, Mr. Ryan took a cooler approach and said both sides should try to seek more ?mutual respect.?

?I?m trying not to get into some partisan bickering war with the president,? Mr. Ryan told an audience. ?I don?t see what purpose it serves to do that.?

It remains an open question whether the call for civility will last when the debate resumes in Washington. Until then, it comes as little surprise that Mr. Obama attracts more attention to his side of the debate.

The president is making his case ? the deficit must be cut, but the social safety net of Medicare must not ? in high-profile town meetings this week from Virginia to California.

And Mr. Ryan is making a counter case ? tax cuts are needed to stir economic growth, and Medicare is on an unsustainable path ? as he travels through towns like North Prairie, Delavan and Clinton, population 2,162.

If Mr. Obama delivers his argument with all the presidential polish of a Broadway show, the presentation by Mr. Ryan is closer to an act on the community theater circuit as he hits 19 town meetings over the course of a two-week Congressional recess. He draws applause when he explains that Medicare would not immediately end for older citizens and that the plan would affect only people younger than 55.

The Republican budget blueprint passed the House last week on a strict partisan vote. The party?s potential presidential candidates have praised the plan and given Mr. Ryan accolades for confronting the issue. But they have stopped short of fully embracing it, particularly the Medicare provisions.

As Mr. Ryan climbed into the front seat of a Chevy Suburban to ride to his next stop, he paused for a moment when asked if the Republican position was being heard as loudly as the Democratic one. He said all Republicans shared a responsibility for explaining solutions to the nation?s debt burdens, but he conceded that it was more challenging for his party to break through.

?We don?t have the presidential candidates right now,? Mr. Ryan said. ?The field hasn?t materialized yet, so we?re out there doing it ourselves.?

It is not that Mr. Ryan?s proposal, which he calls ?The Path to Prosperity,? has not received considerable attention. For months, he has been delivering PowerPoint presentations on the plan, explaining the urgency of cutting trillions from the budget in hopes of escaping, as he explains it, ?a tidal wave of debt.?

Mr. Ryan tugs at the BlackBerry that is attached to his belt and aims a red pointer at the numbers of the country?s escalating debt. He has been holding these town meetings since he was elected to Congress a dozen years ago, but the police officers standing by the doors and the standing-room-only crowd illustrate that the implications are now far higher.

?I don?t want to get in a shouting match with 10 people at once,? he said at one point, when a man in a corner of the room tried to take an opposing view on corporate taxes.

But he received far more praise than grief.

Voters not only asked whether he would consider running for president, but also if he would try to win a Senate seat. He has told friends that he does not intend to do that, either, because being a junior senator would be a step down from being chairman of the Budget Committee.

For now, at least, he may not be debating the president ? at least in a side-by-side setting ? but there is no question that it is Mr. Ryan?s plan that is at the center of the debate.

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Debate Over ?Birther? Bills Among States? Lawmakers

Many legislators, however, have proved quite reluctant to turn the issue ? a sure winner with the conservative base, even before Donald Trump adopted it as a talking point ? into concrete legislation. So-called birther bills have foundered or fallen dormant in at least five states and are still being debated in more than a half-dozen others. In Arizona, where both legislative chambers passed one such bill, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed it this week, calling it ?a bridge too far.?

But now, Oklahoma, a deeply conservative state, could be the first to put its doubts into law, through a bill that would require all candidates, from Town Council hopeful on up, to provide certified proof that they meet the legal requirements for office. A vote was expected by next week.

Supporters of the measure, and others like it from Georgia to Montana, protest that they are not ?birthers,? as doubters of Mr. Obama?s natal provenance have been dubbed, sometimes derisively. They say that they simply want to clarify the status of all candidates and that Mr. Obama?s case has only sharpened the issue and illuminated what they call a glaring hole in the statutes.

?It?s not a birther bill, it?s a common-sense bill,? said a lead sponsor, State Senator Rick Brinkley, a Republican from suburbs of Tulsa. ?If you?re going to file for office, you should be willing to substantiate that you meet the qualifications.?

A New York Times/CBS News Poll released on Thursday found that 57 percent of adults surveyed nationwide said Mr. Obama was born in the United States, versus 25 percent who said he was born in another country. 

But digging deeper into the numbers shows striking disparities along party lines and regions of the country. Among Republicans, for instance, 33 percent said they think Mr. Obama was born in America, while 45 percent said the birth occurred in another country. The nationwide telephone poll, conducted April 15-20 with 1,224 adults and a margin-of-sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, said that majorities in all regions of the nation think the president was born in the United States, but those majorities were smaller in the South and Midwest than in the Northeast and Far West.

Numerous investigations have concluded that Mr. Obama was, in fact, born in Hawaii in 1961, as he has always maintained. Just this week, on the morning news show ?Good Morning America? on ABC, George Stephanopoulos just this week produced a copy of the president?s certificate of live birth, copies of which are widely available on the Web, causing potential presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, to say that the issue appeared settled. As far back as 2008, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging that proof.

But what had been a wispy tale of purportedly buried documents and cover-ups, dismissed by many mainstream members of both parties, now appears to have legs as the political season lurches toward 2012. Debates in state capitols have been reframed in the dry language of good government ? a simple effort to clear the air, supporters say, for confused voters. And because many of the bills failed this year, supporters are renewing their legislative battle plan for next year, when it would be debated in the heart of a presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump, the real estate developer who hints at presidential ambitions, has kept the issue alive, suggesting in recent interviews that he is unsure about Mr. Obama?s bona fides. Divergent views among Republican governors have heightened a new sense of debate. After Ms. Brewer vetoed the Arizona bill, for example, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a Republican, said he would sign a similar bill enthusiastically, should it reach his desk.

Here in Oklahoma, where Mr. Obama won just over a third of the vote in 2008 ? one of his worst state losses ? Senate Bill 91 passed last month with overwhelming and even bipartisan support. People in both parties say they are confident that the House will go along by its deadline next week (though the bill would need to return to the Senate for a procedural vote). After that, lawmakers said they assumed that Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, would sign it. A spokesman for Ms. Fallin said the governor would not comment until the bill was on her desk and she could review it.

Legislators backing credentials bills in other states are closely watching what happens here, and said success in even one place would be a victory for all.

?If one state passes, and the Obama administration basically ignores the requirement and does not qualify for the ballot in that state, that would send a very strong signal that we have a situation in the United States where someone who is not eligible is occupying the White House,? said Mark Hatfield, a Republican state representative in Georgia whose ballot bill failed to get through. If Oklahoma does not go forward, and an override of Ms. Brewer?s veto in Arizona does not materialize, Mr. Hatfield said, ?then other states, including Georgia, have a duty to step up.?

Democrats in Oklahoma, meanwhile, were divided. The minority floor leader in the House, for example, Chuck Hoskin, said he would probably vote yes. Asked in an interview whether he was concerned about embarrassing the leader of his own party, Mr. Hoskin said he thought Mr. Obama?s failure to win over Oklahomans in 2008 was the real embarrassment.

?The current president failed to carry even one of the 77 counties,? he said. ?Which is more embarrassing ? to have a law passed requiring a birth certificate, or not being able to win one of 77 counties??

But down the hall, an assistant Democratic floor leader in the House, Al McAffrey, called the bill an embarrassment.

?But this is Oklahoma ? we embarrass ourselves all the time,? he said.

Some lawmakers elsewhere around the country said the fight to clarify the rules, whether sparked by birther talk or not, was overdue. They said that doubt among voters over whether candidates are what they represent themselves to be was a growing problem, dangerous for democracy.

But even some Republicans who have backed certification bills said they really did not believe there was any doubt about the president.

?Barack Obama is a natural citizen, born in Hawaii,? said Mike Kelly, a Republican representative in the Missouri Statehouse and a co-sponsor of a candidate certification bill that Mr. Kelly said looked doomed for this year. ?I know there are people out there who don?t believe he is ? this is about trying to calm those people down.?

Marjorie Connelly contributed reporting from New York.

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Microsoft Browser Would Offer Personalization along with Privacy Protection

Today, many websites ask users to take a devil's deal: share personal information in exchange for receiving useful personalized services. New research from Microsoft, which will be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in May, suggests the development of a Web browser and associated protocols that could strengthen the user's hand in this exchange. Called RePriv, the system mines a user's behavior via a Web browser but controls how the resulting information is released to websites that want to offer personalized services, such as a shopping site that automatically knows users' interests.

"The browser knows more about the user's behavior than any individual site," says Ben Livshits, a researcher at Microsoft who was involved with the work. He and colleagues realized that the browser could therefore offer a better way to track user behavior, while it also protects the information that is collected, because users won't have to give away as much of their data to every site they visit.

The RePriv browser tracks a user's behavior to identify a list of his or her top interests, as well as the level of attention devoted to each. When the user visits a site that wants to offer personalization, a pop-up window will describe the type of information the site is asking for and give the user the option of allowing the exchange or not. Whatever the user decides, the site doesn't get specific information about what the user has been doing?instead, it sees the interest information RePriv has collected.

Livshits explains that a news site could use RePriv to personalize a user's view of the front page. The researchers built a demonstration based on the New York Times website. It reorders the home page to reflect the user's top interests, also taking into account data collected from social sites such as Digg that suggests which stories are most popular within different categories.

Livshits admits that RePriv still gives sites some data about users. But he maintains that the user remains aware and in control. He adds that cookies and other existing tracking techniques sites already collect far more user data than RePriv supplies.

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