Afghans, Pakistan may use talks to ease tensions: Turks (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) ? Afghanistan and Pakistan have a chance at talks in Istanbul to end a blame game over a series of militant attacks that have deepened their mutual mistrust, officials from the Turkish host government said on Monday.

Presidents of the three countries meet on Tuesday as Afghanistan enters a critical phase in its transition, with the United States planning to pull its combat troops out by the end of 2014, and some Western countries already withdrawing theirs.

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have been plagued by regular bouts of recriminations during the decade-old Taliban insurgency, with Afghan officials publicly airing suspicions that Pakistani intelligence is supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani network, an insurgent group allied to the Taliban.

Noting a deteriorating regional environment, a Turkish official said: "Now is perhaps the time to try to reverse the course."

"We sense that they have a genuine wish to talk to each other because they realize this trend is not helping either of them," the official said before the summit of the three presidents, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's Asif Zardari and their Turkish host Abdullah Gul.

There has been a flurry of speculation about drawing the Taliban and Haqqani group into negotiations to end the fighting in Afghanistan.

Underlining suspicions that Islamabad is backing the Taliban, Karzai has said he should be talking to Pakistan in any negotiations.

Significantly, Pakistan's military chief General Ashfaq Kayani will meet his Afghan counterpart on the sidelines of the what will be the sixth summit between the three leaders.

The tri-lateral meeting will be followed by a regional conference on Afghanistan to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and their counterparts from France and Germany, among others.

Many Afghans believe Pakistan is supporting the Taliban in order to regain influence in Kabul once Western forces leave.

A war of words escalated after the assassination in Kabul on September 20 of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was heading a peace commission.

Afghan officials believe the suicide attack was ordered by Taliban leaders who, they say, are based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and that the bomber was Pakistani.

Pakistan has also come under intense pressure from Afghanistan and the United States over allegations that its military's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) has close ties with the Haqqani group.

The Haqqani group, which operates within Afghanistan, with a rear base in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, has been blamed for a string of high profile attacks including one on the U.S. embassy in Kabul in September.

Pakistan has vehemently denied the allegations, and officials accuse Afghanistan of deflecting attention away from its own failures. They have also called on Afghanistan and U.S. forces there to act decisively against anti-Pakistan militants operating from Afghan territory.

Pakistan's discomfort became more acute when Karzai signed a strategic partnership with its arch-rival India earlier this month, stoking old Pakistani fears of encirclement by unfriendly neighbors on its western and eastern borders.

Turkey, a Muslim member of NATO, hopes both sides will speak frankly at the Istanbul meeting to overcome misunderstandings. The hosts want to revive some spirit of cooperation with an agreement they hope will be signed in Istanbul.

"We are also hoping to have those two countries sign modest cooperation protocols," the official said. Details had to be sorted out. "But we hope to be able to get them into that state of mind," he said.

The later conference, which will be attended by 14 countries from the region and 13 involved in helping Afghanistan, is also expected to agree on a document that will contain confidence building elements, he said.

(editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/wl_nm/us_afghan_pakistan_summit

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The Sweet Smell of Chocolate: Sweat, Cabbage and Beef

chocolate smellWhat do you smell?: The distinctive and alluring aroma of chocolate sets off some surprising sensory signals, according to new "sensomics" research. Image: iStockphoto/AndrisTkachenko

Chocolate may be the most sought-after treat among trick-or-treaters on Halloween, with little hands grasping for all of the milk- and dark-chocolate morsels they can collect, but the details of its taste and aroma profiles have long eluded scientists.

And new science is revealing why cocoa's potent sensual properties have been so difficult to pin down. A recent analysis found that the individual aroma molecules in roasted cacao beans (the primary ingredient of chocolate) can smell of everything from cooked cabbage to human sweat to raw beef fat. Together, more than 600 of these flavor compounds melt together in just the right combination to yield the taste and scent of what we all call chocolate, according to Peter Schieberle, a food chemist at Munich Technical University and director of the German Research Center for Food Chemistry, who presented the data at this year's meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver.

Most of the molecules that comprise a food's aroma are volatile, which means they transform into gases easily at room temperature. These volatile compounds are inhaled along with the air we breathe, bringing them into contact with the 900-plus odorant receptors in the upper half of the nostril. In the early 1990s scientists Linda Buck and Richard Axel began the work that would show each odorant receptor recognized one particular compound and was linked to a specific olfactory neuron in the nostril. As a volatile aroma compound latches onto an odorant receptor, it triggers the firing of the olfactory neuron (Buck and Axel won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery). Complex aromas form when multiple volatile compounds trigger their respective olfactory neurons at the same time. The brain identifies flavor by measuring how frequently the different neurons fire.

"By the time you put four chemicals together, your brain can no longer separate them into components. It forms a new, unified perception that you can't recognize as any of those individual aromas," says Gary Reineccius, a food scientist at the University of Minnesota.

Processed foods such as chocolate, beer and tea contain thousands of aroma compounds. This multiplicity of molecules creates a mosaic of odor in the brain as each individual molecule contributes a hint of scent to the final flavor. Just as our brains can often assemble a whole picture from seeing just a sketch of an image, Schieberle and colleagues found that humans can recognize chocolate aroma using only 25 of its 600-plus volatile compounds. Of these, many are also found in much less appetizing items, including cooked cabbage, raw beef fat and human sweat, which are in turn also composed of many different volatile compounds.

Even so, not one of these 25 key compounds can be pegged as a "chocolate" aroma. "The mixture smells completely different from the individual constituents," Schieberle says. "At the moment, there is no way to predict how the final mixture will smell."

Schieberle calls the study of individual aroma and flavor molecules "sensomics," which sifts through the countless potential aroma compounds for those molecules of particular importance to human taste and smell. Schieberle's work has identified which aroma compounds from roasted cacao beans could bind to odor receptors in humans. None of them, it turned out, smell anything at all like the sweet, rich scent we identify as chocolate.

To figure out exactly which molecules contributed to chocolate aroma, Schieberle and colleagues had to pick apart chocolate aroma one molecule at a time. First, the researchers identified those volatile compounds that would react with human odor receptors and were present at high enough levels to register in the brain, which yielded 25 different molecules. These molecules included 2- and 3-methylbutanoic acids (both produce a sweaty, rancid odor), dimethyl trisulfide (cooked cabbage) and 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine (potato chips). Then, they blended these rather un-chocolatey aroma molecules in different combinations and asked human study subjects to smell them. The blend that contained all of the 25 volatile aroma molecules could reliably fool the nose and brain into thinking it had smelled chocolate.

These 25 compounds are what Schieberle refers to as chocolate's chemical signature?those volatile compounds in chocolate that trigger human olfactory nerves in just the right combination "causing a signal in the brain to say 'this is chocolate,'" Schieberle says.

What we think of as "chocolate" smell is due in large part to the way in which the food is made?a process that includes both fermentation and roasting. Foods that are processed by fermentation, roasting or grilling such as wine, coffee and steak, respectively, generally contain the most aroma molecules. It is this process's conversion of otherwise odorless compounds into volatile aroma-bearing ones that helps explain this type of food's popularity. Natural, raw foods like fruits and vegetables also have an appealing aroma and taste, although their flavor profile is much simpler and usually dominated by one or two major molecules.

"That chemical really creates that flavor, and everything else kind of smoothes it and makes it pleasant," Reineccius says of these less complex foods. The combination of volatile aroma compounds as well as the sugars and salts that we taste during chewing combine to create flavor. "Some of our simpler flavors are strawberry and raspberry because they're just what nature happened to provide to keep itself living." The replication of these flavors by food chemists has previously been a process of trial and error.

The goal of his work, Schieberle says, is not to develop artificial chocolate flavorings. Rather, his goal is to find ways to tweak the cacao bean fermentation and roasting process to develop even better tasting chocolates. A recent discovery in his lab, made earlier this year, has taken a small step in this direction. Cacao beans processed in the so-called Dutch style, which adds alkali salt during roasting, have a milder, more pleasant flavor. After deconstructing the molecular makeup of this form of chocolate, the researchers knew that it contained molecules that had a pleasant "mouthfeel." And by adding a tiny bit of glucose to the cacao beans during the Dutch roasting process, Schieberle and colleagues, did not increase the sweetness of the final product, but instead created a more velvety mouthfeel in the final chocolate.

Better understanding chocolate's alluring aroma can also help with tasting technique. Let the chocolate dissolve on your tongue, Schieberle says, so that you can taste the full array of flavor compounds. As the chocolate melts in your mouth and you exhale, some of the volatile molecules will once again pass over your odor receptors, letting you get another whiff before the chocolate melts away.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=ac5c2c654893afb9f4dd3da64a2fed1b

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Why the 'paranormal' is merely normal

Paramount Pictures

The recently released movie "Paranormal Activity 3" focuses on the boundary between dreaming and waking - which psychologist Richard Wiseman says is prime territory for perfectly normal "paranormal" experiences.

By Alan Boyle

Halloween is the peak time to dwell on ghosts, spooky noises, weird premonitions and other "paranormal activities" ? but despite that label, such phenomena are totally normal. You can even create them yourself.

That's the message of Richard Wiseman's latest book, "Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There."?Wiseman, who?began his career as a magician and is now an experimental?psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire,?reveals the tricks of the paranormal trade ? including the methods used by on-air psychics to make themselves seem, well, psychic. (To try?them out, download Wiseman's "Instant Superhero Kit.")?

Wiseman wishes normal people had a better understanding of the psychology behind seemingly paranormal activities.


"There's an enormous problem," he told me today, "actually more in America than in Britain, because the?level of belief in the States is huge. We're talking about more than three-quarters of the population believing in some sort of paranormal phenomena ? even with the rise in technology and science over the past 20 years or so. It's really quite staggering."

There are so many stories about chilling premonitions of doom, or alien visitations, or high-tech studies of haunted houses. Surely there must be some reality behind all those scary tales. It turns out that there is, but Wiseman says you don't have to turn to supernatural explanations. Here are five examples:

1. Selective memory: Can dreams predict future events? Actually, psychologists have found that people tend to have far more dreams than they consciously remember.?A significant event ? say, a death or dramatic change of fortune ? can?trigger the memory of a past dream that may?seem to relate to that event.?Also, you're more likely to hear about the one seemingly prophetic dream than about the many other dreams that went nowhere. In this?essay for The Guardian, Wiseman delves more deeply into the selective nature of dream recall.

The ?fact that we often?hear only what we want to hear, or remember only what fits our expectations, also plays into psychic readings. Wiseman refers to this as "fishing and forking": The?psychic?throws out some generalities as a fishing expedition, watches?to see?which of those observations you pick up on, and then follows that fork in the road to build up the reading. The Skeptic's Dictionary outlines the process here.

2. Ideomotor action: Sometimes zombies really are in control of our brains ? but those zombies are our own mental processes that buzz along beneath our consciousness. For example, experiments have shown that unconscious muscle movements can guide your hands to rock a table during a seance, or?move a Ouija board pointer to spell out a message, or twist a dousing twig to point to an underground water source (or not). But?it works only if your zombie brain?can?process the results of the motor movements.?If you're blindfolded, the effect is spoiled. The Straight Dope provides further discussion of the Ouija connection.

3. Sleep paralysis: For thousands of years, tales have been told about strange beings who visit in the middle of the night and have their way with sleepers. In the old days, these were demons known as succubi and incubi. Nowadays, they're aliens or ghosts (like the ghosts in the "Paranormal Activity" movies). Such experiences are associated with a psychological phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, in which the brain hovers at the edge of consciousness but keeps the mind-body connection turned off (except for the connection to the genitalia, which may explain why those succubi?were so sex-crazed). "The body paralyzes itself," Wiseman said.

Researchers recently reported that they were able to train volunteers to experience out-of-body experiences as well as alien encounters during their semi-waking states.

4. Cold spots and infrasound: Ghostbusters often report feeling "cold spots," or suddenly becoming anxious, or getting weird readings on high-tech sensors when a specter makes its presence known. Wiseman said such sudden changes are due to natural rather than supernatural causes. Ten years ago, he and his colleagues used an array of thermal cameras and air movement detectors to figure out what was behind a "haunting" at Hampton Court Palace, near London. It turned out that?chilly drafts blowing through cracks in the palace's concealed doorways created the?unsettling sounds and the plummeting temperatures.

Low-frequency sounds, created by changes in the weather or even appliances such as air conditioners, can also create a sense of uneasiness in listeners, even if they can't consciously sense the sound.? Wiseman conducted an experiment on the effects of "infrasound" during a concert and found that 22 percent of the listeners?felt chills or other unusual sensations when they?listened to music that was laced with the low-frequency tones.?

5. Hyper-vigilance: All these effects are accentuated when visitors think they're in a haunted house. "Basically, when we become afraid, we become very vigilant. ... It feeds on itself," Wiseman said. He and many other scientists believe that such?hyper-vigilance came in handy when our ancestors were in the midst of a mammoth hunt or a host of unseen threats. The same hard-wired instinct may explains why we seek out an eek?by visiting?a haunted house or watching a scary movie. "It's the way we've evolved," Wiseman said.

Although Wiseman doesn't see anything supernatural?in paranormal activities, he does see a lot of value in studying them. "Trying to understand why people have these experiences is very instructive," he said. In fact,?research has shown that some?concepts, such as mind-reading and out-of-body experiences, are rooted in solid neuroscience.?Just as science fiction can give rise to real-life innovations, so can tales of the paranormal.

"Whenever science has done well, so has the?paranormal. ...?You get this interesting relationship," Wiseman said.

More Halloween tales from the Cosmic Log files:


Check out Wiseman's "Paranormality" website for?more about the book, plus lots of spooky photos and videos.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/31/8565902-why-the-paranormal-is-just-normal

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Superintendents skeptical of new finance system | WE Blog | Wichita ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Kansas superintendents were understandably skeptical of the new school-finance plan that a Brownback administration official outlined at an education summit last week in Wichita. ?I think it's a shell game,? Fairfield ...

Source: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2011/10/superintendents-skeptical-of-new-finance-system/

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LG finally ready to release Optimus Gingerbread update to Europe

 

Android Central

The long wait is finally, almost, at an end for users of LG's Optimus line as they have today released details of the European rollout of their much awaited Gingerbread update for the "three premium smartphones" in the lineup.

It's important to remember that the dates provided by LG, refer specifically to unlocked, unbranded versions of the devices. Those bought from carriers may have to wait a little while longer. The good news though, is that for the Optimus 2X, the update starts from November 1. The Optimus 3D, and the Optimus Black will follow shortly after, followed by a global rollout. No specific dates have been provided though for outside of Europe. 

The dates are:

  • LG Optimus 2X - From Nov. 1 for open models in Europe
  • LG Optimus 3D - From week commencing21st Nov. 21 for open models in Europe
  • LG Optimus Black - From week commencing Nov. 28 for open models in Europe

Thanks powerbart!

More: LG Facebook page


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/JL-NNRwR1Bc/lg-finally-ready-release-optimus-gingerbread-update-europe

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Ex-Culture Minister Elected As New Ireland?s New President

Irish poet and human rights activist Michael Higgins has been elected Ireland?s president for the next seven years.

Election officials said Saturday that Mr. Higgins won nearly 57 percent of the vote in the final count.

The 70-year-old former culture minister for the Labor Party defeated independent businessman and reality television celebrity Sean Gallagher, and Sinn Fein?s candidate, former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

Gallagher, who was his main rival, conceded victory Friday.

McGuinness, who is deputy first minister of British-ruled Northern Ireland and was running on a ticket of unity for the island, has sent his congratulations to Mr. Higgins.

The left-wing politician will succeed Mary McAleese, who spent 14 years in the largely ceremonial post.

The Irish president wields no government power beyond the ability to refer potentially unconstitutional legislation to Ireland?s Supreme Court. He also represents the country abroad.

The new president will be inaugurated November 11.

Voter cast ballots Thursday to elect the president and vote on two referendums. They voted in favor of giving the government authority to cut the pay of judges. But the referendum on giving lawmakers the power to conduct fact-finding inquiries was narrowly defeated.

About the author:

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The VOA is the Voice of America

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/eurasiareview/VsnE/~3/IH8aLDSu7q0/

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Investing in Higher Education?Loans

by Steve Varvis on October 30, 2011

Last Wednesday (October 26, 2011) best selling business author Daniel Pink visited Fresno Pacific for our annual Business Forum. About 1000 business, education, and community leaders turned out at 7:30 AM to hear him speak on the topic of his most recent book, Drive. At noon he spoke to the business faculty and students, along with some of the events financial sponsors and other community leaders. Between these two events, he spoke in College Hour to the undergraduate student body on how to think about preparing for the future, what attitudes and discipline are needed for succeeding in college, personally and professionally. It was one of the best I have heard on the topic, perfectly calibrated to the student body (see his The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You?ll Ever Need).

What I want to relay here was his answer to a question from a student regarding whether it is advisable to take out loans for college. Pink paused, thought for a moment and then gave one of the most succinct and insightful answers I have heard. He first said it depends. Taking out loans for many things that are not needed can be just plain harmful, bad for one?s financial position, and personally debilitating. On the other hand, he said, some debt is an investment. A moderate debt that leads to future possibilities may be a good investment. Pink pointed out that some say that on average a college graduate makes about $600-700,000 more than a high school graduate. Hence a debt of $50,000 may be a good investment rather than a bad financial decision.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote in this space that the average income of a college graduate over a high school grade is actually closer to $1 million (see the post on The Value of a University Education). FPU students average about $24,000 in student loans by the time they graduate. Compared to Pink?s estimate they are in an even better position. And we can think about this?in more practical ways. The student who graduates with this average FPU amount, will pay back the equivalent of the cost of a moderately priced car, and do so over 10 years instead of 5 or 6. And instead of the car declining in value with every mile driven, the student?s potential continues to rise as he or she builds on their university education with experience in their professions.

No one likes debt. Pink noted the dangers. But sometimes borrowing can be a wise financial decision, especially when it leads to better and more creative future for us and those communities within which we work and serve.

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Source: http://blogs.fresno.edu/stevevarvis/2011/10/30/investing-in-higher-education-loans/

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Telikin Touch

Type
All-in-one, Touchscreen All-In-One
Processor Family
Intel Atom
RAM
2 GB
Storage Capacity (as Tested)
320 GB
Graphics Card
Intel GMA 3150
Primary Optical Drive
Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW
Operating System
Linux
More

The Telikin Touch is an 18-inch all in one PC centered on communication: it's got a simple to use touch interface, so it doesn't have the steep learning curve for a neophyte computer user. The Telkin Touch is built into a standard looking all in one PC chassis, with webcam and an 18-inch widescreen. The Telikin Touch was initially designed to be a "senior friendly" PC with a touch interface so users wouldn't need to use the keyboard and mouse. However, the system's information retrieval and social networking features should appeal to the general population and families too.

?The Telikin Touch is built around a white and clear plastic all in one chassis with an Intel Dual Core D525 processor, 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 320GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and a 1,600 by 900 resolution 18-inch display. The system includes a webcam for video conferenceing, a standard wired USB mouse and keyboard, and is pre-loaded with a Linux-based operating system. The Linux operating system inherently protects the end users from Windows-based threats like malware, though of course this means that end users will have less access to store-bought software. To that end, Telikin has pre-loaded the system with an Office-compatible suite of programs, as well as lifetime updates to the pre-loaded programs and operating system.

Telikin also has preloaded a primary interface that feeds the user news, weather, calendar info, web browsing, video chat, address book, email, DVD playback, CD playback, and tech support. Phone and email tech support is free for the first 60 days, and $9.95 a month afterward. The system can support up to three separate logins, so you can keep emails and video chat records private. The Telikin Touch also has built in support for HP printers, in case the user needs to print things like online boarding passes or mailing labels. The Telikin Touch has a MSRP of $799 and is available now.

Stay tuned to pcmag.com for a review of the Telikin Touch.

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Product not yet reviewed by PCMag editors

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