Cainapalooza (talking-points-memo)

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Cupcake to Ice Cream Sandwich: An Android Timeline (ContributorNetwork)

The new version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, was going to be shown at Samsung's "Google Unpacked" event on October 11. That event has been postponed, out of respect for the memory of Steve Jobs. But when it resumes, it may coincide with the release of what is being called the Nexus Prime, a new flagship smartphone for Google.

Here's a quick, tasty look at Android's previous versions which were named after desserts.

April, 2009: Cupcake (Android 1.5)

Cupcake was the first major update to Google's open-source operating system, which until then was just known as "Android." (The 1.1 update, which came in between the two, should perhaps have been known as "Banana Split," but was too minor to get its own name.) It added animated transitions for switching between different screens, as well as widgets, which are things like weather displays that you can put on your home screen.

September, 2009: Donut (Android 1.6)

Donut improved Android's search features, speeding up searches and letting you search your contacts, web bookmarks and web browsing history. It also added a text-to-speech feature that could read text aloud to you, as well as support for turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps.

October, 2009: Eclair (Android 2.0)

Eclair added a ton of incremental, behind-the-scenes improvements to apps like the keyboard and web browser, as well as an updated user interface. The biggest new feature for Android smartphone owners was the support for animated, interactive "Live Wallpapers," like virtual pets or pools of water with ripples that formed where you touched them. Eclair also added support for multitouch screens, allowing gestures like pinch-to-zoom on smartphone handsets that supported it.

May, 2010: Froyo (Android 2.2)

Froyo, or "Frozen Yogurt," added support for Adobe Flash on the web, as well as building Chrome's V8 engine into the web browser for faster performance on interactive websites. The new and improved Android Market allowed you to update more than one app at a time, as well as set certain apps to automatically update. There were also numerous app performance enhancements, including the ability to install apps to a microSD card instead of the phone's internal memory.

December, 2010: Gingerbread (Android 2.3)

Gingerbread added support for NFC, or Near Field Communication chips, which allow phones like the Nexus S to use Google Wallet for payments and coupon storage. It also improved its support for "native code", allowing for faster games with high-performance graphics, and featured a new, simpler user interface.

February, 2011: Honeycomb (Android 3.0)

Honeycomb was the first version of Android designed just for tablets. It featured an entirely redone user interface made for large screens, which allowed "Fragments," or sidebars, to be displayed to the side of an app's main view. An "Action Bar" and a "System Bar," at the top and bottom of the screen, replaced Android's hardware buttons and let you access app menus and notifications.

October, 2011: Ice Cream Sandwich?

The Android Developer Channel on YouTube was counting down the days until the Google / Samsung presentation. When it resumes, we may have a better idea of when a new dessert sculpture will be coming to the Google campus.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111028/us_ac/10157115_cupcake_to_ice_cream_sandwich_an_android_timeline

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Analysis Questions Flu Shot Effectiveness

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), professor in the School of Public Health, adjunct professor in the Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.

William Schaffner, president, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, professor and chair, Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.

A new report in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases says evidence that the flu shot offers protection in adults aged 65 years or older is lacking. Host John Dankosky and guests discuss the report, the upcoming flu season, and whether seniors should get the flu vaccine.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/28/141800408/analysis-questions-flu-shot-effectiveness?ft=1&f=1007

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Former top Wall Streeter denies insider trading (AP)

NEW YORK ? A former board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of acting as "the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom" for a friend, a billionaire hedge fund founder sentenced this month to 11 years in prison in the biggest insider trading case in history.

The case, built partially on wiretaps used for the first time in insider trading, has offered unprecedented insight into greed at the highest levels of Wall Street. The arrest of Rajat Gupta took it one step higher.

The indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Gupta of cheating the markets with Raj Rajaratnam, the 54-year-old convicted hedge fund founder who was the probe's prime target.

Gupta, 62, quietly surrendered early in the day at the FBI's New York City office, a few blocks north of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstration against what protesters call a culture of corporate greed. His lawyer called the allegations "totally baseless."

Swarmed by photographers, Gupta left the courthouse shortly before 4 p.m.

Gupta, of Westport, Conn., pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and five counts of securities fraud, charges that carry a potential penalty of 105 years in prison. He was freed on $10 million bail, and conditions require him to remain in the continental United States. An April 9 trial date was set.

The indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges Gupta shared confidential information about both Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble at the height of the financial crisis from 2008 through January 2009, knowing that Rajaratnam would use the secrets to buy and sell stock ahead of public announcements.

In a release, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Gupta broke the trust of some of the nation's top public companies and "became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta's breach of duty."

Alluding to the wide scope of the prosecution, he added: "Today we allege that the corruption we have seen in the trading cubicles, investment firms, law firms, expert consulting firms, medical labs, and corporate suites also insinuated itself into the boardrooms of elite companies."

In all, 56 people have been charged in insider trading cases since Bharara took over shortly before Rajaratanam's October 2009 arrest. Of those, 51 have been convicted and 21 sentenced to prison terms ranging from no prison time to 11 years, the longest prison term ever given in an insider trading case.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said Gupta's arrest was the latest to occur in an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 against hedge fund cheats.

"The conduct alleged is not an inadvertent slip of the tongue by Mr. Gupta," she said. "His eagerness to pass along inside information to Rajaratnam is nowhere more starkly evident than in the two instances where a total of 39 seconds elapsed between his learning of crucial Goldman Sachs information and lavishing it on his good friend."

Authorities said they relied on wiretaps for the first time because it became apparent inside traders were employing the tactics of common criminals to evade detection. If the Gupta case goes to trial, taped conversations would be key evidence, as it was in the Rajaratnam trial.

The Rajaratnam probe led to a major spinoff investigation of expert networking firms, with investigators targeting those who enabled corrupt employees at public companies to divulge secrets to hedge fund managers as if their conversations were legitimate research.

Gupta's lawyer, Gary P. Naftalis, said in a statement Wednesday that his client had only legitimate communications with Rajaratnam.

"The government's allegations are totally baseless," he said. "The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of any of these charges and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. ... We are confident that these accusations ? which are based entirely on circumstantial evidence ? cannot withstand scrutiny and that Mr. Gupta will be completely exonerated of any wrongdoing."

Aside from being a former director of the Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs, Gupta is the former chief of McKinsey & Co., a highly regarded global consulting firm that zealously guards its reputation for discretion and integrity.

Gupta was also a former director of the huge consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co., a pillar of American industry and one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average. P&G owns many well-known brands including Bounty, Tide and Pringles.

The Indian-born defendant's name played prominently at the criminal trial this year of Rajaratnam, who was convicted after prosecutors used a trove of wiretaps on which he could be heard coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades.

Jurors heard testimony that at an Oct. 23, 2008, Goldman board meeting, members were told that the investment bank was facing a quarterly loss for the first time since it had gone public in 1999.

Prosecutors produced phone records showing Gupta called Rajaratnam 23 seconds after the meeting ended, causing Rajaratnam to sell his entire position in Goldman the next morning and save millions of dollars.

Rajaratnam also earned close to $1 million when Gupta told him that Goldman had received an offer from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant, prosecutors said.

In one tape played at trial, Rajaratnam could be heard grilling Gupta about whether the Goldman Sachs board had discussed acquiring a commercial bank or an insurance company.

"Have you heard anything along that line?" Rajaratnam asked Gupta.

"Yeah," Gupta responded. "This was a big discussion at the board meeting."

Prosecutors sought to maximize the impact of the Gupta tape by calling Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein to testify that the phone call violated the investment bank's confidentiality policies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil insider trading charges against Gupta on Wednesday.

Besides highlighting the Goldman allegations that came out during the Rajaratnam trial, the indictment also accused Gupta of providing Rajaratnam in January 2009 with a tip that P&G was not going to meet sales growth expectations for the fiscal year. As a result, prosecutors said, Rajaratnam told a portfolio manager about the tip and certain funds sold short about 180,000 shares of P&G stock.

Daniel Alpert, managing partner at the investment bank Westwood Capital LLC, said Gupta, who did not benefit financially, demonstrates that passing information to friends is just as dangerous as trading on secrets.

"There is not a single person out there who doesn't know he is playing at the edges of propriety when he is doing it, and few who don't feel a pang of guilt after having done so," Alpert said.

"This has many of the same attributes as organized crime prosecutions," he said. "Until you throw the kingfishes in jail, there is unlikely to be any deterrent effect."

___

AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_us/us_hedge_fund_insider_trading

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Fujitsu Emerald and Jade Automotive Graphics Processors are now ...

Listing No.: 112683
Listing added: October 26, 2011 2:00 pm

INTEGRITY Real-Time Operating System & Board Support Packages Power Leading-Edge Automotive Driver Assistance and Infotainment Applications

Langen, Germany and Santa Clara, USA ? 26 October 2011 ? Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU) today announced that Green Hills Software, the largest independent vendor of embedded software solutions, will provide a full-featured support package for Fujitsu?s (FSEU) Emerald and Jade graphics processors, which are targeted primarily at driver assistance and automotive infotainment applications. The Green Hills offering includes the high reliability INTEGRITY? real-time operating system (RTOS) and board support packages (BSPs) that enable developers to reduce time-to-market.

Fujitsu?s Emerald processor delivers a novel 360-degree wraparound view in automotive applications and is particularly well suited for virtual instrument clusters. Using Fujitsu?s system, the driver sees images from four cameras that are combined to appear as if taken from a bird?s-eye view. These video images are projected onto a virtual 3D-curved surface and are displayed with much less distortion than in conventional systems. This makes it easier for drivers to recognise obstacles around their vehicles.

The Emerald chip utilises an ARM? Cortex?-A9 processor core, which has an integrated ARM-Neon-SIMD engine, and features four video input ports that enable simultaneous processing of different high-resolution video images. Fujitsu?s Jade chip incorporates an ARM926EJ-S CPU core, together with an enhanced version of the Coral PA graphic processor and a number of external interfaces. It is optimised for applications such as on-board and mobile navigation systems, graphical dashboard systems, HUD (head-up display) units and rear-seat entertainment systems.
Initial market feedback for the Green Hills board support package has been extremely positive.

Markus Mierse, GCC director at Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe comments, ?Modern semiconductor devices are extremely complex, forcing vendors to add more and more value to their products that enables the design-in and development of competitive customer products. A strong partnership between hardware and software vendors is essential to be successful.?

He continues, ?Green Hills Software and Fujitsu, both market leaders across various embedded and automotive applications, have developed a consistent partnership over many years. The latest products of this cooperation are the Green Hills INTEGRITY board support packages created to support Fujitsu?s new graphic SoCs from the ?Jade? and ?Emerald? product families. This now allows customers to build their products based on a system solution, which is an important advantage for automotive applications. We are very confident that both companies will benefit from this cooperation with a strengthened position in the market.?

Christopher Smith, vice president marketing, Green Hills Software, commented, ?Driver assistance and information systems constitute the most visible area of advance for consumers. Fujitsu has created a family of devices that push the bar higher and, together with Green Hills Software?s INTEGRITY RTOS and BSPs, will enhance the driving experience further.?

The Green Hills Software board support packages for Fujitsu?s Emerald and Jade graphics processors were developed at Green Hills Software?s European Technical Center in the Netherlands. They are available now.

Image
For a high resolution image to accompany this release, please visit https://clientftp.hotwirepr.com/(username: fseu / Password: Fujitsu)
Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU)
ist ein f?hrender Lieferant von Halbleiterprodukten. Das Unternehmen bietet fortschrittliche Systeml?sungen f?r die Bereiche Automotive, Digital-TV, Mobile Kommunikation, Networking und Industriesegmente. Die enge Zusammenarbeit der Entwickler aus den FSEU Design Centern ? spezialisiert auf Mikrocontroller, Graphics Controller, Mixed Signal, Wireless, Multimedia ICs, ASIC Produkte und Softwareentwicklung ? mit den Marketing- und Sales-Teams aus ganz Europa tr?gt dazu bei, den Kunden-Anforderungen bei der Entwicklung von Systeml?sungen gerecht zu werden. Dies wird durch eine breite Palette von hochkomplexen Halbleitern, IP-Bausteinen, Modulen und Software unterst?tzt.
F?r weitere Information: http://emea.fujitsu.com/semiconductor
Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe GmbH
Rainer Reitz
Pittlerstr. 47
63225 Langen
06103-6900

http://emea.fujitsu.com/semiconductor

rainer.reitz@de.fujitsu.com

Pressekontakt:
Hotwire
Saskia Stolper
Friedensstrasse 6-10
60311 Frankfurt
saskia.stolper@hotwirepr.com
+49 (0)69 25 66 93-50

http://www.hotwirepr.com

Related posts:

1. Fujitsu Semiconductor Announces Changes in its Senior Management Structure Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU) is pleased to announce the following changes in its senior management structure, effective April 1st 2011. In a planned succession, Mr. Brendan Mc Kearney, previously Executive Vice President, has assumed the role of President, Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe. Mr. Joji Murakami, who previously held that position, has moved to the new position [...]...
2. Fujitsu and Autotalks Partner to Provide Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Processor Technology Partnership enables delivery of automotive grade processor in 2012 Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU) and Autotalks today announced that they have reached an agreement to co-operate on Autotalks? communication processor, to be developed by Autotalks and manufactured by Fujitsu Semiconductor. The combined efforts of the two technology leaders will provide OEMs and Tier1s with the [...]...
3. Fujitsu Semiconductor and ARM Sign Strategic Partnership Comprehensive Licence Agreement ?using cutting-edge IP such as Cortex-A15 to expand global business Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe today announces that its parent company Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited has signed a comprehensive licence agreement with ARM for ARM IP products. This strategic agreement will enable Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe to offer platforms featuring the latest ARM technology including the Cortex?-A15 processor, graphics [...]...
4. Fujitsu Presented with Differentiation Excellence Award by Frost & Sullivan for CGI Studio Fujitsu CGI Studio is set to play major role in designing new generation automotive HMI Fujitsu Semiconductor?s CGI Studio received the 2011 Frost & Sullivan Europe Product Differentiation Excellence Award in the automotive human machine interface (HMI) market. It was presented to Fujitsu Semiconductor Embedded Solutions Austria GmbH (FEAT) for CGI Studio, a software platform [...]...
5. Fujitsu Launches World?s Fastest CMOS DAC for Next-Generation Optical Transport Systems ?single-die solution for data conversion at 2Tbps to and from analogue to digital Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe (FSEU) announces its first- generation 8-bit, 4-channel DAC in 40nm CMOS technology. With a sampling rate range of 55 ? 65 GSa/s per channel, small footprint and low power (0.75W/channel), this technology supports long-haul optical transport systems providing data [...]...

Business related tags: Automotive, Emerald, Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe, graphic processros, Green Hills Software, infotainment, Jade

Source: http://www.volta.net/companies/fujitsu-emerald-and-jade-automotive-graphics-processors-are-now-supported-by-green-hills-software-112683/

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Impatient Nexus S Owners Can Play With Ice Cream Sandwich Now

Google has already confessed that the Nexus S would get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, but if you're not the type to wait -- and really, who is these days? -- you can load up a mostly complete version of Android 4.0 right now. Yep, thanks to some intrepid folks on the xda-developer forums, you too can enjoy Ice Cream Sandwich on the Nexus S before its official release. Before you dive into the deep end though, be aware that your device has to be rooted before you can take part.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UlV0onljgkU/

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Robert Naiman: Shalit Is Free. Lift the Siege of Gaza Now.

In the world of principle and international law, the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza -- which until now blocks Gazans from traveling to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and blocks Gazans from exporting, farming, fishing, and otherwise earning their living -- is a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bars the use of "collective punishment" against a civilian population living under occupation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross -- a key guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention -- has stated this clearly. As Voice of America reported:

The International Committee of the Red Cross says Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip breaks international law. The humanitarian agency said Monday that the blockade violates the Geneva Convention, which bans 'collective punishment' of a civilian population.

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 -- on the Red Cross website -- says: "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.... Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited."

"Protected persons" are defined in Article 4: "Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals."

But whether we like it or not, in the world of practical affairs, other things matter besides principle and law.

In practice, the issue of the Gaza blockade has been entangled with issue of the captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. As the Washington Post has noted, "The blockade was widely seen as a punitive measure driven in large part by the outrage that Shalit's abduction in 2006 generated in Israel."

Hamas officials have said that Israel pledged to lift the Gaza blockade as part of the prisoner exchange that freed Shalit. Egyptian officials have also indicated that lifting the blockade was part of the deal. But Israeli officials have said that Israel did not agree to lift the blockade.

Whether lifting the blockade was part of the deal or not, Shalit's release should cause the international community to urgently revisit the issue of the Gaza blockade.

First, there is never a bad time to revisit a serious violation of international humanitarian law, and the ongoing denial of the basic human rights of 1.6 million people.

Second, although the captivity of Shalit was not a legitimate justification for the blockade, it was a key justification nonetheless. That key justification has been removed.

Third, as press reports have indicated, in achieving the prisoner exchange deal that had long eluded them, both Israel and Hamas were responding to changed dynamics in the region as a result of the Arab Spring. Both Israel and Hamas compromised longstanding positions to achieve the deal; both Israel and Hamas responded to pressure from Egypt and others to compromise to achieve the deal.

This development naturally begs the question: given these changed dynamics, what else could be achieved as a result of new pressure on the parties to compromise? Could a lifting of the blockade be achieved? Is there any good reason why the international community should not try to achieve this?

Lynn Pascoe, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, has just made exactly this argument to the Security Council:

A senior United Nations official has called on the Israeli government to lift the siege that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for five years. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East and the Palestine Issue that the prisoner exchange agreement should lead to further steps towards ending the closure of Gaza, where a significant portion of the population are food insecure and dependent on humanitarian assistance.

"We reiterate our call on Israel for more far-reaching steps to ease its land closures and facilitate the entry of construction materials into Gaza, free movement of people in both directions and exports from Gaza, with due consideration for Israel's legitimate security concerns," he said.

To his everlasting credit, when Gilad Shalit was released from captivity, he used his megaphone to press for the release of prisoners, peace and reconciliation. "I will be very happy if all these prisoners are freed so that they can go back to their families, loved ones, territories -- it will give me great happiness if this happens," Shalit told Egyptian TV. "I hope this deal will help with the conclusion of a peace deal with the Israelis and Palestinians and I hope that cooperation links between the two sides will be consolidated."

The international community should follow Gilad Shalit's noble lead. Lift the siege of Gaza now.

?

Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/gaza-blockade_b_1032718.html

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Libya "liberated" but Gaddafi still unburied (Reuters)

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) ? A day after Libyans declared a "liberation" that consigned Muammar Gaddafi to the "garbage bin of history," hundreds again filed past his rotting corpse in a grim display that has raised questions about the nation's new direction.

With their Western allies expressing quiet unease that Gaddafi was battered and shot after his capture on Thursday, then put on show for days in a market cold store, the rebel factions which ended his 42-year rule were still wrangling over the body, amid wider negotiations on dividing up power.

The killing of the 69-year-old in his hometown of Sirte ended a nervous, two-month hiatus since the motley rebel forces of the National Transitional Council overran the capital Tripoli and ended eight months of war -- though Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent Saif al-Islam is still at large.

The death of the fallen strongman allowed the NTC to trigger mass rejoicing by declaring Libya's long-awaited "liberation" on Sunday in Benghazi, the seat of the revolt. But it has also turned a harsh spotlight on a lack of control from the center over disparate armed groups and on jockeying for power among local commanders as negotiations begin in earnest to form an interim government that can run free elections.

"Leaders from different regions, cities, want to negotiate over everything -- posts in government, budgets for cities, dissolving militias," said one senior NTC official in Tripoli, though he defended this as a healthy expression of freedom.

"Is that not democracy?" he asked. "It would be unusual if they did not after Muammar favored only a few places for 40 years. There is no reason why it cannot be peaceful."

In Misrata, Libya's long-besieged third city whose war leaders are pushing for a big role in the peace, fighters handing out surgical masks against the stench were still ushering hundreds of sightseers into the chill room where the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mo'tassim and his former army chief lay on the floor, their flesh darkening and leaking fluids.

BURIAL DELAY

Officials at one point declared the show was over, closed the gates and started turning people away. "That's enough," said one of the guards, "He's been causing us as much trouble dead as he did alive." But, within an hour, there was a change of plan as dozens more sightseers arrived and were shown in.

Nonetheless, the attempt to discourage more visitors may indicate progress on reaching a deal to bury the bodies.

The Islamic law that NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said during Sunday's liberation announcement should be upheld in the new Libya would dictate a swift burial within the day.

But NTC officials said negotiations were going on with Gaddafi's tribal kinsmen from Sirte and within the interim leadership over where and how to dispose of the bodies, and on what the Misratans might receive in return for cooperation.

The killings near Sirte, after cellphone video footage was taken showing the captive Gaddafi being beaten and mocked by fighters apparently from Misrata, are also a matter of controversy -- at least outside Libya. The United Nations human rights arm has joined the Gaddafi family in seeking an inquiry.

Abdel Jalil told a news conference on Monday that the NTC had formed a committee to investigate. He also indicated that the interim authorities still held to an official line that Gaddafi may have been killed in "crossfire" with his own men, a view many NTC officials themselves seem ready to discount.

"Gaddafi was killed during the clashes with his supporters while arresting him," Abdel Jalil said, adding that whoever killed him may have had something to hide.

"Those who have an interest in killing him before prosecuting him are those who had an active role with him," said Abdel Jalil, who like many of the new leadership formerly held positions of authority under Gaddafi.

Adding to concerns about Libya turning over a new leaf on respect for individuals, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the NTC to probe an "apparent mass execution" of 53 people, apparently Gaddafi supporters, whom it found dead, some with their hands bound, at a hotel in Sirte.

FEW QUALMS

Few Libyans seem troubled about either how Gaddafi and his entourage were killed or why they are being exposed for so long in what seemed a grim parody of the lying in state often reserved for national leaders.

"God made the pharaoh as an example to the others," said Salem Shaka, who was viewing the bodies in Misrata on Monday. "If he had been a good man, we would have buried him.

"But he chose this destiny for himself."

The killing of fallen autocrats is far from a novelty. In Europe in living memory, similar fates befell Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989 and Benito Mussolini, who had created modern Libya as an Italian colony a decade before he died in 1945.

However, some of the anti-Gaddafi rebels' Western allies have expressed disquiet about the treatment of Gaddafi after his capture and after his death and worry Libya's new leaders will not uphold their promise to respect human rights.

"They were not pleasant images," said British Prime Minister David Cameron, an early supporter of the rebellion.

"Everyone understands that is not what should have happened. It should have ended in a trial and should have ended in Gaddafi facing justice," Cameron told parliament in London.

In France, the other main driving force in NATO backing for the rebels, the foreign ministry was asked at a news briefing if there was concern about the future of democracy in Libya. An official noted that Abdel Jalil had spoken of "moderate" Islam:

"We are confident in the Libyan people, who have courageously set themselves free of 42 years of dictatorship, to construct a state of law, conforming to the principles and universal values shared by the international community," the ministry said. "We will be vigilant about human rights."

As their Tunisian and Egyptian neighbors whose uprisings inspired Libyans to rebel held or contemplated free elections, fellow Arabs also voiced distaste at Gaddafi's treatment, even though sympathy for the fallen strongman was in short supply.

"Forty-two dark years under a merciless dictator has naturally left the Libyan people very damaged," said Mahmoud Nofal, a 36-year-old bank employee in Cairo. "It has driven them mad for revenge. The rotting body is just emblematic of the rotten political and social environment under Gaddafi."

The NTC wants the bodies buried in a secret location to prevent the grave becoming a shrine for Gaddafi loyalists. But authorities in Misrata do not want them under their soil.

(Reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Samia Nakhoul in Dubai and Matt Falloon in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; ; editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/wl_nm/us_libya

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More Evidence Links Tanning Beds to Higher Skin Cancer Risk (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Roughly 10 percent of Americans continue to use indoor tanning beds, but new research suggests that doing so increases their risk for three common skin cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.

In conducting the study, researchers tracked the tanning bed use of more than 73,000 nurses -- first during high school and college, and then when the women were between 25 and 35 years of age.

The study found that tanning beds increased skin cancer risk over time, with a "dose-response effect." That means the more visits to the tanning salon, the higher the woman's risk for skin cancer.

Compared with women who didn't use tanning beds, the risk for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma jumped 15 percent for every four visits to an indoor tanning bed each year. The risk for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, also increased by 11 percent.

Exposure in youth seemed most hazardous. "Use during high school/college had a stronger effect on the increased risk for basal cell carcinoma compared with use during ages 25 to 35," noted study author Dr. Mingfeng Zhang, a research fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston in a news release.

Numerous studies conducted over the past few years have shown strong associations between tanning bed use and skin cancer. In March of 2010, a advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended a ban on indoor tanning by minors, and last February the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement supporting such a ban.

The study authors agreed that the findings have public health implications for prevention of all three types of skin cancer.

"[They] can be used to warn the public against future use of tanning beds and to promote restrictions on the indoor tanning industry by policymakers," said Zhang.

The researchers said they plan to investigate the link between skin cancer and tanning bed use over a longer timeframe.

The study was slated for presentation on Monday at the International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. Findings presented at medical meetings have not undergone peer review and are usually considered preliminary.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides more information on the dangers of indoor tanning.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111024/hl_hsn/moreevidencelinkstanningbedstohigherskincancerrisk

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Shark kills American diver off western Australia (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia ? A great white shark killed an American recreational diver on Saturday in a third fatality in recent weeks off southwest Australia that has shaken beach-loving residents and sparked fears of a rogue predator targeting humans.

Australia averages fewer than two fatal shark attacks a year nationwide.

The state government has promised to hunt the killer and is considering more aircraft surveillance off west coast beaches as whales migrating in larger numbers attract more sharks.

The first sign that the 32-year-old American man, whose name and hometown have not been released, was in trouble as he dived alone was when a stream of bubbles erupted on the ocean surface beside his 25-foot (8-meter) dive boat, police said.

His two horrified companions on the boat saw his lifeless body surface and a 10-foot (3-meter) great white swim away, Western Australia Police Sgt. Gerry Cassidy said.

The shark struck 500 yards (meters) north of the picturesque tourist haven of Rottnest Island, which is 11 miles (18 kilometers) west of a popular Perth city beach where a 64-year-old Australian swimmer is believed to have been taken by a great white on Oct. 10.

Authorities cannot say whether the American was killed by the same shark that is believed to have taken Bryn Martin as he made his regular morning swim from Perth's Cottesloe Beach toward a buoy about 380 yards (350 meters) offshore.

But an analysis of Martin's torn swimming trunks recovered from the seabed near the buoy pointed to a great white shark being the culprit. No other trace of Martin has been found.

"It's a cloudy old day today which is the same as we had the other day with Cottesloe, and they're the conditions that sharks love," Cassidy said.

The American had a work visa and had been living in a Perth beachside suburb north of Cottesloe for several months.

The tragedies follow the death on Sept. 4 of 21-year-old bodyboarder Kyle Burden, whose legs were bitten off by a shark described as 15 feet (4.5 meters) long at a beach south of Perth. Witnesses were unsure of the type of shark.

Perth, the capital of Western Australia state and one of Australia's largest cities, is renowned for its white sand beaches, but the best surfing locations are further south in the wine region of Margaret River.

While great whites trail the migration of whales between Antarctic and northwest Australian waters, the west coast has not been widely regarded as a shark danger zone for humans.

Premier Colin Barnett, the leader of the state government, took charge of the official response on Saturday, telling reporters that the shark will be hunted and killed if possible.

He said fisheries officers will spread bait in the area of the attack to try to catch the shark.

While great whites are protected under Australian law, Barnett said his government would consider increasing the numbers of other sharks that commercial fishermen can catch, following reports that shark numbers have increased.

He said his government was also looking at increasing aerial shark patrols over popular beaches.

"I think all West Australians need to take special care in going to the beach and swimming, particularly if they go diving," he said.

Barnett said he did not expect the fatalities would damage the state's tourism reputation or diminish people's enjoyment of the beaches.

Barbara Weuringer, a University of Western Australia marine zoologist and shark researcher, urged against a shark hunt, saying there was no way of telling which shark was the killer without killing it and opening its stomach.

"It sounds a little bit like taking revenge and we're talking about an endangered species," Weuringer said Sunday.

She said the increase in shark attacks could reflect the human population increase in the southwest. A more productive response would be to bring forward shark spotting flights from their November start date.

But a southwest coast-based diving tourism operator has called on the state government to kill sharks that pose a threat to humans.

"We suggest the Department of Fisheries treat sightings of great whites close to shore or aggressively approaching boats in inshore waters as an opportunity to dispatch that individual shark and prevent the risk of future attack," Rockingham Wild Encounters director Terry Howson told Perth's Sunday Times newspaper.

Great whites can grow to more than 20 feet long (6 meters) and 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilos). They are protected in Australia, a primary location for the species.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oceania/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_shark_attack

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MAKE | Skill Builder: Tabletop Gaming ? Modeling Tips and Tricks

My Eldar Howling Banshees behind a barricade I made from Stimudents and popsicle sticks

In the early aughts, I ran a popular and well-regarded tabletop wargame modeling and converting site called 40K Konversions. It was dedicated to all forms of modeling related to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. For those who don?t know, ?conversions? are wargame miniatures that have been altered in some way, from swapping legs or heads to creating whole new figures by parts swapping, sculpting on new features, and so on. Unfortunately, my site is no longer accessible. I went through my articles from the site and have put together some of the best tips and tricks that I published. Some are specific to sci-fi/40K gaming, others can apply to many forms of modeling. Feel free to add your own tips in comments. I?ll be moving this over to Make: Projects at the end of the month and will be folding in your tips and suggestions. -Gareth

Vehicle Parts

• Use 1/35th scale military models (for close-enough 28mm game model compatibility).
• Buy old kits at eBay auctions. Any sort of kits are fodder: Car model, railroad buildings, and of course, sci-fi and military models if you?re doing sci-fi gaming.
• Many thrift and deep-discount stores sell model kits for super-cheap. Star Wars, Star Trek, and military models have great parts that can be used.

LEGO, old Robotix and other building system parts can be had for cheap at yard sales, thrift, and discount stores. Some pieces from these sets (especially Robotix) made great parts for Warhammer vehicles, buildings, and terrain.

Cockpit Controls and Industrial Parts

• Old computers and printers can yield an infinite number of tiny parts and wires for detailing vehicle cockpits, comm centers and for use as building materials. Inkjet cartridges are ready-made power transformers. Just flip ?em over, buzz off the raised lettering with a Dremel tool, prime black, and drybrush in metallic colors and add some rust. You;re done! Don?t forget to plug up the ink holes on the tops, or run wires out of them.
• Cockpit instruments can be added by creating them in a drawing program and reducing them to size for printing. Base the paper instrument sheet on thin styrene. This method works fine on cockpits that can?t really be scrutinized up close. For even more realistic controls, cover the above paper controls with a piece of clear acetate and cover that with another sheet of styrene with holes drilled out above the instrument displays. You?ll be amazed how convincing this looks. If you don?t have clear acetate, you can paint white glue over the instruments. It will dry clear.
• You can also use 1/35th scale WWII instrument decals. From inside your vehicle cockpit, no one is going to be able to read the teeny letters.
• Electronics solder makes great wiring.

How to scratch-build vehicle safety belts

Cloth Seat Covers and Safety Belts
Cloth first aid strips make very realistic seat covers and safety belts. Just use sizes greater than the coverage you need and cut to size. The cloth material responds to paint surprisingly well too. Masking tape works great, too. A with some fuse wire, tweezers, and lots of patience, you can make buckles, too.

The infamous blue/yellow two-part epoxy putty, aka ?green stuff.? A Games Workshop sculptor once described working in this medium as akin to sculpting in stale bubblegum.

Adding Armor
Don?t spend several bucks a plate for extra vehicle armor. You can easily make your own by cutting thin pieces of styrene sheeting to size. Or even card stock. Simulate weld lines around the plating with Green Stuff or auto body filler.

Here?s a nice video build of a looted Ork tank for 40K using a 1/35th scale M3 Grant WWII tank model

Sanding Gun Barrels
Don?t sand the seam of a plastic gun barrel with a flat piece of sandpaper, it?ll leave flat spots, or an uneven sand. Make a tube out of sandpaper and twist and turn the barrel inside of it.

Realistic Gun Barrels
Always drill out your gun barrels using a pin vise. It adds so much realism. For guns that have side port holes, drill these out first.

Reshaping Hands

• It?s not easy to do, but you can reshape plastic model hands by putting them in boiling water and while the plastic is still soft, close the fingers around a weapon (or whatever) gently with needle-nose pliers.
• You can also reshape arms, hands and legs by heating them over a candle, holding the part HIGH enough that it softens, but does not melt and then shaping it before it dries. This is not easy to do and takes practice. Cut notches on the opposite side of where you want the arm or leg to move to aid in the process. Fill any remaining gaps with Green Stuff. Practice on models you don?t care about before you try this on models you do.

Creating Fur
Apply static grass to your model with white glue. When dry, apply a coat of spray matte vanish. Trim grass if necessary. THEN prime and paint to desired colors.

A very handsome urban base, created with kitty litter, chunks of plastic, and some screen material

Basing Models
If you want your models to be truly unique, try basing them with real rocks! We got this tip from Benjamin Durbin of BatReps. He writes: ?I buy slate from a hardware store, at about 3 bucks for a 50 lb bag? I?m sure it?s meant to be used in flower gardens or something. I don?t recall the last time I bought something at the hardware store that wasn?t 40K related. I use vice grips to break down the slate chunks into roughly 40k sized bases.?

Ben is also fond of basing some of his models in plain ol? American sand. He writes: ?It?s irregular (big grains, little grains, light grains, dark grains) so it looks great ?right out of the box.? You don?t have to paint it. You don?t even have to pre-paint the base. Just put glue everywhere and dunk it into sand. And the best part is, sand is available in large quantities, for free, at your local playground. (Please do not approach the children.)?

It?s amazing to us how many people follow the GW party line and base their models in golf course green (a.k.a. Goblin Green). We don?t think it looks natural. Mixing different shades of green flocking (you can get other shades at the hobby store) and a few pieces of railroad ballast will make a much more natural-looking base.
For urban basing, you can make bricks and rubble out of Green Stuff, styrofoam, bitz, etc. You can also buy ready-made 1/35th-scale WWII rubble in some hobby stores.

If you?re basing Necromunda models, for Emperor?s sake, don?t use grass! Use an urban motif. Sand glued onto the bases and then glue applied over the sand (to seal it) makes a durable base. Paint black and then drybrush in grays, black and other dark colors to represent the ash-laden, muck and rubble-covered floor of the underhive.

You can even use hobby ballast to represent grass. Mix fine-grain ballast with hobby sand (or fine sand from your yard). Underglue and overglue for durability. Prime black or dark green and then drybrush in different lighter shades of green to represent grass. You end up with a very durable base, which from a distance, looks like grass.
For another deathworld look, cover the base with a mixture of model train coal and iron ore (available at hobby stores) and ballast (ditto).

Use a combination of the techniques above (sand basing, hobby ballast, rubble) and combine with some static grass (sold through Games Workshop or hobby stores).

Gluing

• For more precise control of glue application, coil a piece of thin wire around a toothpick, with the wire coming off of one end. Put a pile of superglue or white glue on a piece of paper and dip the wire in the glue. As the wire gets crusty, snip off the tip and uncoil a bit more from the rod.
• Tape up (w/masking tape) model parts before gluing to check the fit. When satisfactory, apply superglue along the seams. When dry, sand smooth.
• Fill small gaps in models with white glue. Apply glue with wire applicator (in small doses so that skin doesn?t form) and then smooth out glue with a moistened cotton swab.

Painting Tips

• Take pots of your expensive minitaures/hobby paints to your local paint store. Have them match acrylic house paint to your colors. This is better for large terrain coverage (Chaos Black, Goblin Green, Codex Grey) than for use on figures. Miniature paint is especially formulated for miniature use, so the properties of the paint are slightly different.
• Don?t be afraid to experiment with other brands of acrylic modeling and craft paints. One brand, called Plaid, that?s sold in most craft stores and craft areas of department stores has been reported by some modelers to be nearly indistinguishable from Citadel Colours. The paints cost from US$.50 ? $.90 for 2 Oz. (up to four times the amount of Citadel paint) and they?re slightly thicker, so they go even farther when thinned.
• Save small clear plastic sauce containers from take-out food. Great for mixing paint, glue and sand mixture, holding basing flock, etc. With lids, paints, etc. can be stored without drying out.
• BlueTac (poster putty) can be used to temporarily hold models and bitz to cardboard or other painting surface. BlueTac can be found in most stationary stores. It?s meant to attach posters to walls without (allegedly) marring them. You can also use a tiny ball of BlueTac for keeping doors closed on vehicles that are prone to opening.
• Paint stirring sticks (free at paint stores) make great holders of small bits while you paint them. Use BlueTac or two-way tape to hold the items down while you paint.
  Silly Putty can be used for quick-and-dirty masking/frisket material. Put it on the areas you don?t want painted. It will remove without leaving any residue. Works for both brush and airbrush work.
• There are all sorts of ?family recipes? for stripping off old paint. Spic ?n Span in warm water is one of them. It?ll remove acrylic paint from plastic models within a few hours, and take enamels off if left on overnight. Some swear by Easy Off oven cleaner. PineSol is another popular method (for use on metal minis). Experiment with any of these before you subject your minis.
• A quick and dirty way to transfer paint from a pot to a palette or mixing cup is to use an old large-bristled brush. Since you don?t have to be fussy about the brush, you can really load it up with paint and then scrape it off on the side of the cup. Just make sure to thoroughly clean the brush before grabbing paint from another pot.
• If you have trouble (like we do) keeping track of which Citadel paints you have on hand, print out the Citadel Paint Chart on the Games Workshop site and use the order boxes in front of each color to inventory what you have and need.

Tool Tips

• Paper clamps (aka binder clips) make great modeling spring clamps. Make sure to place card or something else between your work and the clamp jaws so that you don?t mare the surface. Clothes pins make great glue clamps too.
• Shop the beauty isle of your local drug store! In the manicure section, you?ll find all sorts of sanding supplies. Get yourself a four-way sanding file, which has four grits for sanding and buffing. They even often have small, spongey wet-dry sanding blocks! And manicure scissors make a great modeling tool, too.
• A walnut cracker, the kind that has curved jaws, makes an excellent bottle opener for stubborn paint and glue pots.
• A large old butcher block makes a great modeling surface. You can cut on it, paint on it, tack things down on it. Once it gets funky, just get out the ol? belt sander and re-surface it!
• A fabric cutting wheel (about ten bucks in a fabric store) is a very useful tool for cutting thin card and styrene sheeting. The blade is very sharp and teamed up with a steel ruler, will produce perfect and quick cuts.

The art of the sprue

Sprues

• Save your sprues! These can be used for all sorts of modeling bitz.
• You can ?re-size? sprue plastic by heating it over a candle and pulling on it. With practice, you can even bend it to form rings, rounded rectangles and other shapes.
• Be careful! The fumes are noxious and you don?t want to set the plastic to flame.
• You can make a handy glue applicator tool from sprue. Stretch a pencil-length of sprue using the method above, pulling on one end until it?s very narrow. Sand the narrow tip to a point. Now you have a tool for precise glue application. Sand excess glue from the end when needed. As the tip gets gunky, re-heat and re-stretch.

The building to the right was built from the thin styro material that some models came. The base is made from the FedEx box they shipped in. The ?stink pipe? chimney is made from a soda straw. A large impact crater can just be seen behind the building. It was made with blue insulation board (as was the gaming table itself). The street lights are from a scrounged model railroad kit. The top barrels on the barricade are desiccant canisters that come in some medicine bottles.

Buildings
You can make nearly every structure imaginable with little more than styrofoam packing material, shipping box cardboard, cereal boxes, and various cans, bottles, and food trays rescued from your garbage. Develop a terrain maker?s eye and you?ll be amazed at what you?ll see in everyday junk.
Look at the shapes of styrofoam or paper-based packing pieces used to secure electronics equipment (and other products) in their shipping cartons. Some of these pieces are ready-made buildings, just flip ?em over, paint (with acrylics only), and detail. We?re making a factory complex out of the four styro pieces that secured the speakers for our bookshelf stereo system. You couldn?t find a more perfect futuristic-looking industrial building shape. Some spent ink jet printer cartridges will serve as the power generators for the complex.

Pipes and Wires

• Flexible soda straws make perfect pipes complete with curved (elbow) sections. Don?t just use the straw as-is, either. You can cut the straight pieces to any length and use the ?elbow? part by itself to make all sorts of twisting and turning pipe ?runs.?
• Paint brush or other clear-plastic tubes (like the one?s used to protect brush tips) can also be used as piping. The one for the Citadel tank brush makes a great drain pipe. Paint it black, drybrush in Boltgun, wash in Chestnut ink for some rust, and you?re all set. Having some nice luminous green goo dripping out of it is a nice touch too.
• If you want more flexible tubing, you can use fish tank or other tubing you can get at a hardware store.
• To add viscous goo running out of pipes, glue a piece of thin wire to the end of the pipe. Dip it in sticky white glue (that?s been left out for awhile) and let it dry. Dip in white glue again (repeat, like you?re making a dip candle), until you get the desired shape and thickness. When dry, paint with the colors you want your liquid to be.
• For water running out of pipes, use clear sprue material. Heat it up and shape it so that it looks like it?s running out of the pipe. Careful you don?t burn yourself!
  Guitar strings make great conduit-like cable runs.
• Solder is also perfect for snaking cables along building walls, inside vehicles, etc. Use very thin plasticard to make the straps that would hold conduit wire onto a wall. Another old wargamers trick is to use the thin metal wrap found around champagne corks to make metal straps.

Water, Gas, Oil, etc. Storage Tanks

• All sorts of pill bottles, deodorant applicators, and food containers can be used to simulate industrial storage tanks. Develop an eye for seeing what can become of these things with a little bit of primer, paint, rust detailing and glued-on bitz.
• Plastic toilet tank floats make killer large ball-type storage tanks. Some nice feet, a catwalk and a great paint job and you?re in business. Readily available at building demolitions, junkyards or a couple of bucks at a home store.

Gather up some asthma medicine packaging, a deodorant container, some sand, white glue, some tubing and a nice paint job and a few decals you?ve got yourself an alien fuel depot. [Sadly, I don't remember who contributed this to my site.]

Towers, Masts, Gangways, etc.

• You can easily make VERY cool looking tower structures (for power lines, flood lights, antenna, etc.). Simply draw the design of each side of the tower to scale on a piece of paper. Use hash lines on your plans to indicate which tower uprights connect to the other sides, so you won?t get confused as to which sides need both uprights built and which don?t. Use plastic or brass rod and cut them to the proper dimension. Use little blobs of BlueTac to hold the parts directly onto the paper plans while you glue. Save time and materials but making tripod-type towers instead of four-sided ones ? and they look cooler too!
• Gang railing can be built the same as above. When railing is complete, attach to industrial deck plates as outlined below. If you lazy, you can buy already-made gang rails pretty cheaply from Evergreen or Plastruct.

Industrial Deck Plates
Safety deck plating gives everything that essential industrial look, and it couldn?t be easier to make. For the floor/deck base, you can use plasticard, cardboard, balsa, whatever you want. Cut metal screen material (ideally the diamond-shaped kind) to deck size. (We got a pack of sculpture modeling screen for a few bucks in a craft store. It?s perfect.) Spread a film of glue on the base and glue down the screen material. Now, using very thin card stock (thin food packaging and FedEx Letter envelopes work great), cut out a frame that will go around the edges of the deck. Glue this on. When everything is dry, prime in black and drybrush in Boltgun. Voila. Very convincing industrial decking.

The inside of my command bunker, build from styrofoam shipping material. The floor is made from screen mesh. The two command consoles were pieces from the Robotix toy line. They were putty gray. I painted them in suitably 40K metal, rust, with green screen displays.

Corrugated Metal Siding and Roofing
Thin corrugated cardboard makes perfect metal siding and roofing when properly painted. You need the cardboard that has the corrugations exposed. You can sometimes get this in shipping material (we got a lifetime supply of it with some furniture we bought), but you can also get it in craft stores. Make sure to get the thin board with the small corrugation for proper scale.

Industrial Garage Doors
You can make very convincing roll-up garage doors with corrugated cardboard. Orient the card so that the corrugations are horizontal. Make a U-shaped frame for the two sides and the top with card (or plasticard). Add a handle (made with stretched sprue), drybrush in metallic colors and you?re done.

Metal Fencing and Window Covering
We wait each Christmas for clementines to come into season, not only because they?re really good, but because the plastic mesh material that covers the little crates is perfect for making metal 40K fencing. Just prime black, db Boltgun, wash in Chestnut ink, mount onto some plastic H-beam, base, and you have a great looking fence terrain piece. You can also use this material to make metal mesh-covered windows.

Steel-Reinforced Windows
Cut rectangular pieces of screening material (either diamond-shaped or square screen look good) so that they completely cover the windows you want to ?reinforce.? Make sure there?s enough around the edges for gluing. Prime the screen black and db with Boltgun Metal. Glue the screening in place inside the building. If you want, you can back the screening with black-painted card (or black construction paper), so that one can?t see inside the building (assuming you won?t be detailing the interior.

Sandbags
Very nice sandbags can be made with Green Stuff. Roll out a ?snake? of Green Stuff about the thickness of your pinky finger. Slice off a section about 1/2? long and shape it into a sandbag. Now, use a piece of bandage gauze to lightly press some texture into the bag?s surface. Using a scribing tool or the tip of a hobby knife, scribe a seam around the edges of the bag. You?re done. If you want a sandbag emplacement, gently press the bags into each other into stacks before they dry. For added realism, when they are dry, drill tiny holes into a few bags and white glue some sand running out of the holes and below the bag on the base.

Spent Shell Casings
Tooth picks, pot sticks, dowels cut to appropriate length and painted with appropriate color (Burnished Gold, Brazen Brass, etc.) make convincing casings. A small black line can be painted towards one end to simulate the typical grooves found in shell casings. Who cares if Bolters use caseless ammo? Spent shells are just too cool to pass up.

Battle Damage

• Spray paint on styro. The solvent will melt parts of the styrofoam. You can control the process somewhat by ?masking? areas you don?t want damaged by covering it in white glue.
• Superglue on styro has a similar effect (see above).
• Bullet holes can be drilled with a pin vice.
• Holes can be nicked in with a hobby knife.
• Battle damage can be inflicted with a heated-up nail (held with pliers and an oven mitt and done only with adult supervision, if you?re a kid).
• Use radiating lines of black and gray paint from the point of damage to simulate blast heat.
• Smoke and fire can be effectively simulated with colorized cotton. The cotton that comes in medicine bottles is near perfect size. Daub the cotton overall in shades of red, yellow and orange to simulate flames, paying more attention to one end. You can do this with a brush, but the most effect method is putting thinned paint into a spray bottle. The hotter you want the fire to appear, the redder you paint. When that?s dry, daub overall in black (and gray) paint, paying more attention to the opposite end from the more red/orange-heavy end. The ?hotter? end is the bottom, the darker end the top. You can even store your cotton damage markers inside of vehicle hatches and pull them out when the vehicles are hit.

Rivets

Barbed Wire

• The Games Workshop barbed wire is beautiful (and sharp!), but it?s way too expensive. You can make your own for nearly nothing with square-patterned window screen material. First you need to prime the screen in black, then drybrush with Boltgun and add a little Chestnut ink wash for rust. When dry, cut the screen so that you have one long strip of wire with barbs coming off of each side, like this: +++++++++++ Now, twist your wire around four pencils to get the desired coil shape, and you?re done.
• Watch out, this barbed wire is really sharp, too. If you want, you can also touch up the bare metal on the edges of the barbs.
• You can easily make tripod posts for your barbed wire too. Cut three equal lengths of thin wooden dowel. Paint to desire wooden post look (you can use brown and black inks like wood stain). Lightly tie the three posts together with thin twine and then spread them out into a tripod shape. Drop some white glue in the crotch of the posts and let dry. Now all you have to do is drape your barbed wire through the tripods and you?re done.

Concrete

• Mix water and white glue with fine sand to desired thickness (more sand for a heavier stucco look, less sand for regular concrete). Brush liberally onto styrofoam building elements. Brush with black primer (don?t use spray!) and dry brush with a succession of lighter and lighter grays and finally a light touch of white.
• When modeling concrete battlements, bunkers, etc. a lot of people overlook pour seams. Most military emplacements of this nature are quickly constructed and appearance is not a concern. Seams between successive concrete pours are usually visible. You can add this realism by using some Celluclay (mix with a little white glue if you have trouble getting it to stick) or even beads of white glue (applied on a horizontal surface, of course). These pour lines pick up the drybrushing and look great. Make sure not to make the pour lines too consistent.

Marble
If you want to create fancy looking stone, you can use the same technique used for faux-marbling in the macro world. Paint your surface in Skull White then use a small crumpled up rag to dab into a light gray (or blue) paint. Dab this onto paper to get most of it off and then dab onto your ?stone,? covering a lot of it, while letting the base color show through. Next, do the same with a much lighter gray (or blue) and less coverage (keep that rag crumpley!). When done, you can even use a small bird feather or detailing brush to add dark gray, dark blue and or black veins. A few white or light blue veins will add some depth. If done right, this creates convincing marble worthy of the Emperor?s Palace.

Here?s a basic how-to on easy, effective blast crater construction

Craters

• Try the ?AOL method? of terrain construction: use an AOL CD (or other useless CD or CD-ROM). Cover the center hole with thin card stock. Build up the rim of the crater with bits of styrofoam (or outright carve a crater ring from a single piece of styro). Cover the styro with glue and cover that with sand, kitty litter, or other suitable terrain material. Prime (with black acrylic). Paint, add lichen, etc. to taste.
• Very nice looking craters can be made by molding Celluclay to desired shapes, and when dry, covering with a sand/glue/water mixture, and then hobby gravel. Since this process uses a lot of Celluclay, it only makes sense for small blast craters.
• A quick and easy way to make craters is to crumple newspaper into tube shapes and masking tape them onto a circular base (AOL disc, cardboard, whatever). Cover much of the paper with the masking tape until you get a nice crater shape. Cover the entire surface with plaster cloth (plaster-impregnated cloth found in medical-supply, drug and hobby stores). When dry, finish as detailed above. You can also use the same basic technique with paper mache.

Make model trees with Steve Delaney

Trees

• Cut up plastic X-mas trees. Artificial Christmas trees can be found at yard sales and thift stores for next-to-nothing. The branches can be cut to make excellent-looking gaming trees.
• Painted bottlebrushes. When your kitchen bottlebrush isn?t doing much in the way of cleaning bottles anymore, you can cut/shape it to the proper size and then paint and base it.
• Real tree twigs or roots with lichen foliage make very convincing trees. Roots look more realistic because they have more branchings. You can leave them their natural color or control their look with painting. Build up the lichen in small bits, don?t just use big wads of it. This will give you more control and make a more realistic-looking tree.
• You make a bunch of convincing hardwood trees by twisting equal lengths of wire (I use the type from a flower shop) together. Splay out and shape the wires on the top for branches and the wires on the bottom for roots. Cover the wire with Sculpey, Celluclay, spackle/filler, whatever is handy. Drag a toothpick or sculpting tool through the ?bark? when it?s partially dry to add texture. When dry, paint and then apply model railroad ground foliage foam or lichen. Base as desired. For tropical trees, you can use the same method, but wrap masking tape (or plaster cloth) around the branches and trunk (instead of the clay, etc.) to simulate palm tree-type bark.
  For palm leaves, you can use paper (colored green), creased down the center and cut along the edges to represent fronds. Another method (that we prefer) is to sandwich the wire of each palm tree branch with wide masking tape. Then you can cut the tape into leaf shapes and then cut along the edges to make fronds. Make sure tape is very well attached with edges sealed together. Paint. The tape makes a nice texture and is more durable than paper.

Ladders

• Balsa strips can be cut to make wooden ladder verticals and rungs.
• Plastic or balsa strips can be used for the verticals and staples can be used for the rungs.
• HO-gauge train tracks make nice ladders, too. Remove the metal tracks and use the remaining plastic part as the ladder.

Hills

• Paper mounds taped down to a base with masking tape, covered with plaster-impregnated gauze and then painted and flocked.
• Scraps of styrofoam packing material shaped into hills with knife, soldering iron and/or foam cutter.

Rocks, Stone, Gravel

• Large rock and slag piles from cut-to-shape styrofoam bits.
• Kitty Litter is a great, low-cost alternative to modeling gravel and model train ballast.
• Use real stones! Find ones in your yard that will ?scale? properly. You can paint them if their coloring doesn?t work at 40K scale. Prime black and drybrush with successive layers of lighter and lighter gray with a final Skull White very light drybrushing.
• Celluclay can also be molded to desired rock shapes and then, when dry, painted as described above.

Mud Spatter
You can produce very realistic mud spatter on troops, vehicles and buildings using a mixture of white glue, flour, blown paint and a bit of water (just enough to keep it workable). When you have your mixture, load it onto an old toothbrush and then fan the bristles in the direction of the model (along the bottom of the tracks on a tank, for instance).

Flock
Sawdust makes great terrain flock. You don?t need to paint it beforehand. Just get fine sawdust, glue onto terrain piece and then paint in different shades of green (Dark Angels Green, Goblin Green, etc.). It works best if you spray the colors on.

Tall Grass

• Unwound twine works great. Make holes in terrain, spot of glue, push folded-in-half length of twine into holes with brush handle (pen tip, tooth pick, whatever). Drybrush to desired colors.
• Theatrical crepe hair (found in costume shops). Spread white glue on terrain, glue small clumps of crepe (the fewer at a time, the better). Drybrush desired color.

Tank stowage made from rolled up Kleenex and white glue

Rolled Tarps, Tents, Bed rolls, etc.

• Rolled Kleenex works well. Roll it up and then wet it with thinned out white glue. When dry, paint and apply to your model.
• Very thinned rolled up Green Stuff. Use tissue on outside for fabric effect. Roll Green Stuff out between pieces of plastic sandwich wrap so it doesn?t stick to rolling pin.
• Medical gauze can be used as cammo netting. Wet it in a thinned glue solution, while it?s still wet, apply it to your vehicle, building, etc. Paint.

The post card for my now-deceased (sniff, sniff) 40K modeling site. I used to give this out at cons.

Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/10/skill-builder-tabletop-gaming-modeling-tips-and-tricks.html

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Voting starts in Argentina (Reuters)

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) ? Voting started in Argentina on Sunday as center-left President Cristina Fernandez appeared ready to win a blowout re-election victory that could lead to more state intervention in the economy.

The combative 58-year-old leader has had a dramatic comeback from low approval ratings that dogged her for much of her first term. She has been helped by an economy growing at about 8 percent annually and a field of feeble opposition candidates.

Polls show Fernandez taking a landslide victory on Sunday, with enough votes to avoid a runoff. That would give her a mandate to continue with policies that have riled pro-market farmers and business leaders. She may also regain the control of Congress that she lost in the 2009 mid-term election.

The sharp-tongued former senator has nationalized private pension funds, raised taxes on soy exports and kept quotas on wheat and corn shipments. Growers say such interventionist measures dampen much-needed investment in agriculture, which is the country's top source of hard currency.

Fernandez won more than 50 percent of the vote in an August primary that served as a giant opinion poll because all parties had already chosen their candidates.

Surveys say she has since widened her lead over rivals such as Hermes Binner, a socialist provincial governor who is a distant second in most polls.

To win re-election on Sunday, Fernandez needs at least 45 percent of the vote or just 40 percent with a lead of 10 percentage points over her closest rival.

Fernandez vows to dedicate her second term to the memory of her husband, Nestor Kirchner, who preceded her as president and whose sudden death last year sparked a wave of public sympathy. "Strength Cristina!" became her supporters' rallying cry after his death.

Kirchner is credited by many for getting Argentina's economy on its feet after a devastating 2001/02 financial crisis. Fernandez plans to "deepen" their economic model in her second term.

Fernandez often tears up when speaking about "him," not needing to say Kirchner's name for people to understand.

"I am sure of the support that Cristina has because she made history along with her beloved Nestor," 35-year-old office worker Cesar Brunelli said while walking to his polling station in a Buenos Aires suburb.

"The opposition has a lot to learn about politics," Brunelli said.

'PRESERVING POWER'

An elegant dresser with a taste for high heels, Fernandez struggled with approval ratings of about 20 percent in 2008, when her feud with farmers exploded in massive protests. Profits driven by high grains prices have since calmed growers, and many rural areas voted for Fernandez in the primary.

Twenty-four Senate seats are up for grabs on Sunday and 130 seats in the lower house. Most political analysts expect Fernandez to win back congressional control.

Speculation has grown in recent weeks that Fernandez, who has no clear successor, could try to reform the constitution to allow her to run again in 2015. The constitution can only be changed with a two-thirds majority in Congress.

Other South American leaders -- from Colombia to Ecuador to Venezuela -- have in recent years changed laws to give them more time in power. Some experts say just keeping the option open would allow Fernandez to avoid becoming a "lame duck" in her second term.

"Keeping alive the possibility of a constitutional reform, while controversial, is a sound strategy to preserve power," said Ignacio Labaqui, a Buenos Aires-based analyst with emerging markets consultancy Medley Global Advisors.

Argentina is now one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and despite double-digit inflation, voters who remember the hyperinflation of the late 1980s and the 2001/02 crisis say things could be far worse.

"Inflation is a big problem, but we've always had inflation," said Nadia Berra, 29, a Buenos Aires hotel manager who remembers "inflation" being one of the first words she learned when she was little.

"Cristina is the least bad option out there," Berra said.

(Additional reporting by Jorge Otaola; Editing by Kieran Murray and Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111023/wl_nm/us_argentina_election

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AP sources: Bachmann staff in New Hampshire quits (AP)

EXETER, N.H. ? Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is losing her New Hampshire staff. As many as five staffers formally left Bachmann's campaign this week, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said Friday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose internal workings of the campaign.

Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart disputed reports of a staff shakeup, saying: "We have a great team in New Hampshire. We haven't been notified that anyone's left the campaign."

Still, Stewart said that she hadn't been able to reach the top New Hampshire staff to confirm they were still on board. She said she had reached some junior staffers who didn't say they were leaving.

Campaign finance reports show that Bachmann, who has fallen in polls and struggled to raise money, had five paid staff in New Hampshire as recently as late September.

The Republican presidential contender has largely ignored the first-in-the-nation primary state in recent months. She has been focused on Iowa and South Carolina, where her social conservative message has more appeal.

Bachmann has visited New Hampshire twice since launching her presidential campaign in June, and Stewart acknowledged a greater focus on Iowa, where Bachmann was born and where she won the GOP's presidential straw poll in August.

Her Iowa staff is small. The paid Iowa team consists of her caucus campaign director, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, as well as two staff and a communication director who had been an Iowa aide to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty until he left the race two months ago.

___

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_el_pr/us_bachmann_new_hampshire

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