Last Modified: Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 9:08 p.m.
Both are small-scale farms tucked behind a residential neighborhood that represent a growing reality of small farms on the edge of the city.
Siembra, which in Spanish means "sowing," is emblematic of another national trend with plenty of local momentum: the rise of young farmers.
Owned by Cody Galligan, 34, and his partner, Veronica Robleto, 33, the couple lives on the farm with their two children, Naim, 5 and Sofi, 2.
Galligan and Robleto grew up in South Florida suburbia -- Galligan in a "green-thumb" household where he nurtured a taste for locally grown products.
"I was always interested in connecting with food sources. Anything local -- mangoes and oranges -- felt special to me," Galligan said.
After high school, he volunteered with community gardens, learning from migrants who had brought native plants from places such as Haiti and Guatemala.
But it was not until he and Robleto ventured north to Gainesville that Galligan realized farming could also be their livelihood.
At Micanopy's Sandhill Farm, Galligan got "a crash course in farming," when the owners decided to move and asked him to take over the operation.
After doing that for a while, Galligan decided to invest in his own farm and saw a "serendipitous sign" advertising land for sale in the same spot where the sign for Siembra Farm is today.
"The forces of life pushed me towards this thing," he said.
That was two years ago, and Siembra Farm, which also is a CSA, or community-supported agriculture operation, sells its goods locally and just finished its second season of farming.
'A privileged life'
Galligan does the odd carpentry job during the summer, and Robleto has a part-time job as a program assistant at the University of Florida law school.
But for the most part, they pay their bills through farming. She spearheads the farm's marketing and sales, and he is in the field.
His hours are "sunup to sundown," Galligan said. "It's a privileged life to have in many ways. I'm never watching the clock."
He is mostly self-educated about the entirely organic cultivation of his crops -- he reads a lot online and networks with other farmers.
Robleto said they sell about 60 baskets per week -- which are filled with enough veggies to feed a family of three or four. They say they got most of their customers by word of mouth.
"I feel like the vegetables speak for themselves," Robleto said.
"I pretty much use the veggies we grow," she said. "You can't compare them with anything you buy at the store."
In fact, she rarely has to go to the store because, as Galligan explained, "We trade chicken, meat and eggs with the Crazy Woman Farm."
Farming lures youth
According to Mike Rogalski, head of the young farmers and ranchers committee at the Florida Farm Bureau in Gainesville, operations like Siembra Farm are on the rise in Florida.
At the committee's recent annual meeting, half of the 190 participants were farmers from small operations, and that number has increased.
Small farms also are budding throughout the country.
"We have an incredible number of people in late teens to early 30s who want to farm, who are passionate about it," said Fred Kirschenmann, distinguished fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. "They don't want to raise thousands of acres of corn and soy, but (grow) food to feed people."
Danielle Treadwell, a horticulture professor at UF, said small farms are popular with young people because they are accessible, especially as land becomes increasingly expensive.
"People can afford to buy one to two acres at a time," she said.
Many of these farmers are not in it for the money, Rogalski said, adding that farming can still be a precarious occupation that is dependent on the whims of nature: Tropical Storm Debby wiped out a number of farms in 2012.
"There are some years where they may do very well, and others where they may struggle," Rogalski said.
Kirschenmann said that most of the small farmers could be considered "hobby farmers," because most have another source of income. According to the agricultural census, from 2002 to 2007, 300,000 farms were started and none made more than $10,000 per year.
Many of these small growers have not grown up on farms, distinguishing themselves from the historic trend of farming being a trade passed down from one generation to the next.
"The biggest draw is they're starting to realize the world population is growing; if folks like them aren't willing to step up to the plate and help, we're going be into a huge issue," Rogalski said.
Marty Tatman, the head of the young farmers and ranchers committee for the Farm Bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., said, "Farming is a very important and noble profession. As we see a growing population, we need more innovative farmers to help with that process.
Although the niche for small, organic farming is "huge right now, we see a lot of our young farmers and ranchers going back to the farms they grew up on," Tatman said.
Historical reversal
That reverses the phenomenon of young people leaving family farms as they became harder to manage, Kirschenmann said.
By 2007, 30 percent of commercial farmers were over the age of 65, compared with 6 percent under age 35 -- a reversal of trends in the 1930s.
"As farms got bigger, it became more and more difficult to do it. As a result, the age of farmers kept going up," Kirschenmann said.
The United States could see yet another reversal, as young people enter the profession and the face of farming changes, he said.
"You have to start to look at other issues here: commodity agriculture has been so successful because we've had relatively cheap energy and fertilizers and equipment and adequate amounts of fresh water," Kirschenmann said.
"As you look ahead over next two to three decades," "none of these resources are going to be here. Fertilizers' (prices) are going up. Fresh water resources are being drawn down. We've got more unstable climates. These large, industrial-type farms are not going to be able to operate. Who's going to grow our food?
"Urban agriculture will play an increasingly important role. You are going to have smaller, more diverse farms; family-sized farms operating on the basis of less energy inputs."
LONDON (Reuters) - The government unveiled draft tax breaks on Friday to drive investment in shale gas production, in what it termed the most generous shale incentives in the world.
The new tax allowance for shale gas, which is subject to consultation for three months, would reduce the tax payable on income from shale production to 30 from 62 percent for oil and gas, the UK treasury said in a statement.
The tax break is based on existing allowances for oil and gas production aimed at supporting almost 14 billion pounds of investment next year.
Called shale gas "pad" allowance, it would likely go into the finance bill next year and last for the lifetime of the shale well, a spokeswoman at the treasury said.
A well pad is an area which has been cleared for drilling in oil and gas extraction.
"We want to create the right conditions for industry to explore and unlock that potential in a way that allows communities to share in the benefits," UK Chancellor George Osborne said in the statement.
"This new tax regime, which I want to make the most generous for shale in the world, will contribute to that," he added.
The British government is looking to shale gas to reduce the country's reliance on costly natural gas imports, with the hope of lowering energy bills.
Last month, the British Geological Survey estimated the rocks of the so-called Bowland shale area in northern England held 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas, double the amount of resources forecast previously.
The British shale industry is still in its infancy. IGas and Cuadrilla are already exploring shale gas and other energy firms are watching developments with interest.
However, it is still uncertain how much gas can be extracted and how many shale wells developed.
A report by the House of Commons' Energy and Climate Change Committee said this week "it is impossible to determine reliable estimates of shale gas in the UK unless and until we have practical production experience."
There are also environmental concerns regarding fracking, the technology which involves injecting water and chemicals to break rock formations and extract shale gas, and its potential to trigger earthquakes has led to growing public concern.
To help placate local opposition to shale, the industry will have to provide communities located near exploratory wells with 100,000 pounds of benefits and 1 percent of the revenue from each production site, the government said last month.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by James Jukwey)
If you?re in Sylvan Beach this weekend, don?t be surprised if you?re asked to walk the plank.
Friday through Sunday, The Sylvan Beach/Verona Business Association will host its first Pirate?s Weekend.
The weekend kicks off with a Pirate?s Grog Pub Crawl at 5 p.m. It starts at Captain John?s and Crazy Clam and could end at any of the eight to 10 participating bars.
Free samples will be offered at each bar, and crawlers will be asked to vote on their favorite grog.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, kids can comb the beach during the treasure hunt. More than 250 toys donated by Dollar General will be buried.
At noon, the Pirates Parade led by ?Captain Jack Sparrow? gets underway. Participants must dress as pirates and ride on pirate-themed floats.
Spectators can get on in on the theme as well, said Elaine DePerno-Brown, Captain John?s owner and association member.
?We?re calling all pirates to head to the beach,? she said.
More than 15 groups have signed up to march, and the grand marshals have been named: John DePerno, Elaine?s father who started the restaurant and a founding village trustee; and former Mayor Edward McCarthy.
At 9 p.m. Saturday, free S?mores will be offered at a bonfire on the beach.
Sunday will offer a Bloody Mary Pub Crawl all day and fireworks over the beach at 9:30 p.m.
If you need a connecting flight to reach your final destination new statistics show that you'd be sensible to avoid booking a journey via China.?
In June, just 18% of departures from Beijing Airport left on time, with Shanghai Airport faring only slightly better with 29%, data from FlightStats reveals.?
Japanese airports on the other hand performed outstandingly in the month, with Tokyo's Haneda Airport recording a 95% success rate and Narita Airport registering 86%, putting them at the top of the international chart. In comparison, London's Heathrow hub had a reasonable level of on-time departures, with 71%.?
China's poor performance was blamed on military restrictions. 'Nearly 80% of China's airspace has been reserved for military use. In other countries, such as the US, the situation is exactly the opposite,' a senior executive of Hainan Airlines told the South China Morning Post.
As for individual airlines, South African Airways was the leading international operator, with 93% of its flights arriving on time, just ahead of Gulf Air on 92%. Among regional carriers, Binter Canarias delivered an incredible 99% of its flights on time.?
A picture shows a derailed wagon on the site of a train accident in the railway station of Bretigny-sur-Orge on July 12, 2013 near Paris.
By Nancy Ing and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News
At least 6 people are dead and more than a dozen are injured after a train crash in the Paris suburb of Bretigny-sur-Orge on Friday afternoon, according to a regional official.
Six of the injured were in very serious condition, Michel Fuzeau, prefect of the Essone region where the crash took place, told reporters at the scene. He said he feared the number of casualties could rise as rescue workers responded on Friday.
The country?s interior minister put the toll higher in the crash?s immediate aftermath, telling the Associated Press that as many as seven people were thought to be dead.
?The death toll is evolving constantly at this point and unfortunately it will probably rise,? Interior Minister Manuel Valls said, according to Reuters. ?At this stage there are seven people dead, several dozen wounded and some of them are serious.?
A photograph taken from social media and posted on the website of French newspaper Le Parisien showed a smashed train car alongside the train station platform in Bretigny-sur-Orge, some 12 miles outside the French capital.
At least six people have died after a train crash outside Paris.
?Most of the people who suffered minor injuries have been taken care of,? local politician Michel Pouzol said, according to Reuters. ?We are going to have to empty the carriages completely to see if there are victims or not.?
An official for France's national railway company, SNCF, told the AP that the train was carrying 385 passengers when the train derailed and four cars piled up while traveling from Paris to Limoges around 5:15 pm local time.
?We do not know the cause of the derailment yet,? Giullaume Pepy, chairman of the SNCF, said at the scene, according to Reuters.
An investigation is in progress to determine the cause of the derailment, SNCF said in a statement. Four cars at the rear of the train derailed, and a middle car was lying on its side near the platform, according to the statement.
France's transport minister is heading to the crash scene, the AP reported.
NBC News? Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for further updates.
This story was originally published on Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:47 PM EDT
This image provided by Human Rights Watch shows NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, centre, attending a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, left, Friday, July 12, 2013. Snowden wants to seek asylum in Russia, according to a Parliament member who was among about a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday in the Moscow airport where he's been marooned for weeks. Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters of Snowden's intentions after the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina)
This image provided by Human Rights Watch shows NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, centre, attending a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, left, Friday, July 12, 2013. Snowden wants to seek asylum in Russia, according to a Parliament member who was among about a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday in the Moscow airport where he's been marooned for weeks. Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters of Snowden's intentions after the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina)
This image provided by Human Rights Watch shows NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, centre, attends a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, left, Friday, July 12, 2013. Snowden wants to seek asylum in Russia, according to a Parliament member who was among about a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday in the Moscow airport where he's been marooned for weeks. Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters of Snowden's intentions after the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. (AP Photo/Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina)
Deputy head of the Russian office of Human Rights Watch, Tatiana Lokshina, speaks to the media at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 12, 2013. Two prominent Russian human rights officials say they plan to meet on Friday with Edward Snowden, the leaker of U.S. National Security Agency secrets, after receiving an invitation calling them to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport. Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport since June 23. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Journalists gather around Genri Reznik, a prominent lawyer and head of the Moscow bar association, at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 12, 2013. Two prominent Russian human rights officials say they plan to meet on Friday with Edward Snowden, the leaker of U.S. National Security Agency secrets, after receiving an invitation calling them to Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport. Reznik said he was invited and would try to attend. He was quoted by Interfax as saying he expected Snowden called for the meeting in order to seek asylum in Russia. Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport since June 23. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A view of Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 12, 2013. A Russian official of Amnesty International says he plans to meet with Edward Snowden, the leaker of U.S. National Security Agency secrets. Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone of Moscow?s Sheremetyevo international airport since June 23 as he negotiates for asylum in another country.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
MOSCOW (AP) ? National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wants asylum in Russia and is willing to stop sharing information as a trade-off for such a deal, according to a lawmaker who was among a dozen activists and officials to meet with him Friday at the Moscow airport where he has been marooned for weeks.
Snowden appeared nervous, but in apparently good health during the meeting behind closed doors in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport, Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov told reporters.
Human Rights Watch provided a photo of Snowden at the meeting, the first new image to appear of the former NSA systems analyst since the Guardian newspaper broke the story of widespread U.S. Internet surveillance based on his leaks.
Whether Russia would be willing to take Snowden up on his request is unclear. The Kremlin has signaled that it wants Snowden out. But granting asylum would be a diplomatically risky move, threatening to worsen Moscow-Washington already strained by U.S. criticism of President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on the country's opposition and Putin's allegation that the U.S. is meddling in Russian affairs.
But it would allow Putin to portray Russia as a principled defender of human rights and openness, despite the fact that it allows its security agencies to monitor the Internet.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told Russian news agencies after the announcement that Russia has not yet received a new bid for asylum and that Putin would continue with his insistence that Snowden stop leaking information.
Both Nikonov and Genri Reznik, a lawyer who participated in the meeting, said Snowden was willing to stop leaks.
"He said he was informed of this condition and that he can easily accept it. He does not intend to damage the United States' interests given that he is a patriot of his country," Nikonov said. However, it is unclear whether Snowden still is holding onto potentially sensitive information about U.S. intelligence operations.
Snowden is believed to have been stuck in the transit zone since June 23, when he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong, where he had gone before his revelations were made public. He had been expected to transfer in Moscow to a Cuba-bound flight, but did not get on the plane.
A brief video of the meeting's opening shown on the Russian news site Life News showed Snowden speaking, then being interrupted by a flight announcement on the airport's public-address system.
"I've heard that a lot in the past weeks," Snowden said, smiling ironically.
Snowden made an initial bid for Russian asylum, but Putin said he would have to agree to stop leaking before asylum would be considered. Snowden then withdrew his bid.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua recently have offered him asylum, but it is unclear if he could fly to any of those countries from Moscow without passing through airspace of the United States or its allies. Some European countries allegedly refused to allow Bolivian President Evo Morales to fly through their airspace on his way home from Moscow last week because of suspicions that Snowden was on his plane.
In a text of his opening statement at the meeting released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, Snowden said he wanted to accept all asylum offers and travel to the countries that have made them "to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders."
He also denounced the United States for what he said was pressuring its allies to block him from their airspace. Snowden could be hoping that Washington would not risk trying to block a flight he was on if he had Russian asylum.
In the short term, he could also be seeking Russian asylum simply as a way of being able to get out of the airport and move freely.
How long a decision would take is unclear. Anatoly Kucherena, a member of a Kremlin advisory body who was at the meeting, said the process could take two to three weeks. But Putin's imprimatur could accelerate the process, as it did when French actor Gerard Depardieu was granted Russian citizenship in a matter of a few days.
The activists at the meeting included Sergei Nikitin, head of Amnesty International's Russia office, and Tatiana Lokshina, deputy head of the Russian office of Human Rights Watch. Also taken into the meeting room was Russia's presidential human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.
They came after an email in Snowden's name was sent on Thursday. On Facebook, Lokshina posted the text of the email, which says in part that Snowden wants to make "a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward in my situation."
Hundreds of journalists flocked to the airport, but were kept in a hallway outside the meeting area which was behind a gray door marked "staff only." It was not clear if Snowden would have to come out that door or if he could exit by another route.
Russia has said it cannot extradite him because by remaining in the transit zone he is technically outside Russian territory.
Although the meeting left Snowden's fate still uncertain, it at least confirmed where he was; speculation had swirled that he had been spirited out of the country.
"We found for ourselves that he is real, he's no phantom," said Kuchurena.
Given Infinity's cosmic scope, a tie-in with Guardians of the Galaxy seems like a natural fit ? and it's happening starting in October, as revealed Wednesday by Marvel.com.
The tie-in begins in Guardians of the Galaxy #8 (click on the above to see the full cover) ? also the first issue on the book for artist Francesco Francavilla, recently of Hawkeye and Batwoman.
"Guardians of the Galaxy will give me the opportunity to draw something I haven't done before at Marvel: some good old sci-fi fun," Francavilla told Marvel.com. "More than a challenge I'd call [this an] opportunity."
It's the first time working together for Francavilla and Guardians series writer Brian Michael Bendis. "I've been a fan of Brian for a while so I definitely feel lucky that we have the opportunity to work together on something and luckier that this something is Guardians of the Galaxy," Francavilla told the publisher's site.
Keep reading Newsarama for more pre-Comic-Con news.
Lac-Megantic, Canada: The US rail company at the center of Canada's worst train disaster in recent history on Tuesday blamed firefighters for the deadly derailment, as police indicated they believe it could be a case of criminal negligence.
The death toll from the explosion on Saturday of the runaway train in the middle of the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic meanwhile rose to 15, with about three dozen others still reported as missing.
"We are very hopeful we will find more bodies," said provincial police Inspector Michel Forget, as investigators combed through the debris of homes and businesses in the town, east of Montreal near the US border.
Forget said negligence -- not a deliberate act of setting the train loose -- could have played a role, but that the criminal probe would proceed along with a Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigation.
Someone must have told Meredith Vieira that we miss her. On Tuesday, NBCUniversal announced that the TV journalist will be returning to daytime with her own syndicated talk show, The Meredith Vieira Show. In a press statement, Vieira, 59, explained how her previous TV experiences have led to this new venture.
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This report details the visit of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services ('the committee') to Beijing and Shanghai from 5 May to 11 May 2013. The purpose of the visit was to improve the committee's understanding of the Australia?China relationship in financial services and, in particular, the opportunities that exist to strengthen these ties and to address areas of bilateral concern.
The committee's visit was part of the annual parliamentary committee visit to the People's Republic of China. The visit operates on an annual rotational basis between standing and joint parliamentary committees. Nominations were accepted from standing committees in 2012 and from joint committees in 2013. The visit is awarded through a competitive nomination process, with a decision made by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The committee was notified on 4 March 2013 that its nomination was successful. Committee members lodged expressions of interest to travel, and arrangements for the visit were made through the International and Community Relations Office (ICRO). The Department of Finance and Deregulation funded the visit.
Rotek Racing has put plans to enter the World Touring Car Championship with the ex-Arena Motorsport Ford Focuses on hold.
The VLN squad bought the ex-Arena machines earlier this year and had planned to race them later in the season ahead of a full campaign in 2014.
But with the WTCC confirming it will run to new regulations in 2014, Rotek is now considering its options
American tin-top racer Robb Holland, who is the only driver confirmed for the programme so far, is concerned that factory efforts such as Citroen's could push costs up.
"We're trying to figure it out and we've done a bunch of testing," he said.
"The issue is the new rules package being [introduced] for 2014. It's a struggle to find new investment with the focus more on the manufacturers than independents.
"The big question is, with the manufacturers coming in, what happens to budgets? At the moment they are very reasonable."
Holland believes the key will be how much help the older cars, such as the Focus, are given to be able to compete with the new machines.
"I don't think the WTCC knows exactly which way to go," he added. "If they don't performance balance the cars I don't think the team will have any interest in competing.
"I still think it's the right championship to be in, but it's got to make sense for independents."
BTCC OUTINGS
Holland also confirmed he is hoping to appear in the British Touring Car Championship this year, driving one of Tony Gilham's Team Hard Vauxhall Insignias.
The American, who raced at the Snetterton and Croft rounds last season, is one of four drivers set to test the ex-James Cole machine this week.
He hopes to race at Snetterton next month and take in one further round, if his VLN endurance commitments allow.
"Tony and I agreed at the beginning of the year we'd do at least a couple of races," said the 45-year-old.
"Snetterton is likely and I'd like to do another round; it depends on the schedule."
Here in the 21st century, soldiers can be sitting in a room in New Mexico while piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle halfway around the world in Afghanistan. Back in the early 1980s this kind of reach was still largely the stuff of science fiction. But the incredibly rapid development of computing power and satellite communications during this period assured futurists that it would become fact before long.
In the 1980s, kids who scoured the library for anything and everything futuristic (as I did) might have come across this vision of war in the future. According to the 1981 book, Future War and Weapons, by Neil Ardley the future of war was computerized, it was remote, and it had plenty of lasers ? albeit for communication, rather than space warfare.
Just as the computer is invading our peace-time lives today, it will be at the heart of fighting forces in the future. Computer control will greatly improve the performance of military machines. Modern fighter aircraft, for example, would spin out of control without onboard computers to help pilots to fly them. But the most important use of the computer in war will be in the command post.
Silicon Valley did its part to help make this dream a reality. Today popular history remembers the region for its role in developing personal computers, but it was those onboard computers for fighter planes that Ardley mentions which helped establish the region as a computerized force to be reckoned with.
As Thomas Heinrich explains in his 2002 paper titled "Cold War Armory: Military Contracting in Silicon Valley," during President Reagan's 1980s defense build-up the region was taking in about $5 billion annually from defense contracts :
[During the Cold War] Santa Clara County (which was first dubbed Silicon Valley in 1971) produced all of the United States Navy's intercontinental ballistic missiles, the bulk of its reconnaissance satellites and tracking systems, and a wide range of microelectronics that became integral components of high-tech weapons and weapons systems. Aircraft like the F-16 tactical fighter could not fly, much less engage in combat, without transistors, integrated circuits, and microprocessors that collected and processed flight data, linked the plane to external command, control and communication systems, and guided "smart" bombs and missiles to their targets.
Ardley explains that those commanding the armies of tomorrow won't need to be physically close to the fighting. Advancements in communications technology will assure the good guys that they have the upper hand.
Here you can see military commanders at work in a future conflict. Their base is situated far from the fighting in a secret location. The command room is built deep underground to escape destruction in an enemy attack. Nevertheless, because it is vital to victory, the base is still heavily guarded and strongly protected.
The commanders sit before a huge computer. Information about the battle is being constantly fed into the computer. Aircraft and satellites in space overhead send back pictures of the war zone, and soldiers and observers report on their own and enemy positions and progress. In addition, radar or laser signals track the movements of the forces. Radio or laser beams link the battlefield via satellites to the command computer.
Laser beams can carry immense amounts of information; the entire contents of the largest encyclopedia, for example, can be transmitted in only a second. The computer takes in all the information from the battle and displays a map of the conflict as well as any pictures the commanders choose. They see immediately what is happening in the battle as they issue commands. Terminals linked to the computer give vital information to the forces, showing them the exact positions and strengths of enemy units.
Because the computer knows the positions of all the forces in the battle, it checks all commands to make sure that enemy units are fired upon and that the commanders' own forces are not placed in danger. Furthermore, the computer can suggest courses of action that will make the best use of the forces and advise against unwise decisions.
Overseeing military operations from afar is nothing new. But with each passing year, remote warfare becomes increasingly sophisticated. In many ways, it feels like this age of robotic warfare ? ostensibly fought with fewer American boots on the ground ? snuck up on us. But we don't need to look much further than the pages of 1980s kids books (or movies) to see that the computerized war of tomorrow has been promised for generations.
TOKYO (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile provider and a pioneer of the mobile Internet, is one of just a few holdouts among the world's big mobile carriers not offering Apple Inc's iPhone to its 60 million customers.
It is paying heavily for that obstinacy - with a net 3.2 million users jumping ship to its two domestic rivals over the last 4-1/2 years - but is determined to protect the walled garden of services it has built around its own smartphones.
"We're trying to develop a lifestyle system," NTT DoCoMo CEO Kaoru Kato told Reuters in an interview this week.
While customers and even some executives increasingly clamor for it to relent and sign an iPhone deal, DoCoMo is showing no signs of softening towards Apple.
"The biggest problem is the impact on the services that we offer," Kato said.
DoCoMo's broad offering of exclusive features, however, is no longer attracting what has become the iPhone generation. It is expected eventually to either reach a deal with Apple or risk losing its crown at the top of its industry.
"Unit sales are doing quite well this year but they're still losing customers to other networks," said Hiroshi Yamashina, senior telecoms analyst at BNP Paribas. "If that's the case then they really have no choice but to go for the iPhone."
Japanese consumers favored DoCoMo's mode of integrated system back when it launched the world's first large-scale mobile web access service and introduced streamed TV to cellphone users. But its wide array of features - while retaining its share of fans - is not considered sufficient to counter the appeal of the iPhone.
"Its photo service, for example, is very difficult to use and I'm not sure anyone still bothers in the age of Instagram and Flickr," said Yamashina.
WALLED GARDEN
DoCoMo's resistance contrasts with holdouts in other markets that are giving in this year to the demand for iPhones.
T-Mobile US Inc's CEO said its April release of the iPhone filled a "huge void" in its line-up.
China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest mobile carrier by number of subscribers, is moving to upgrade its service with 4G technology to allow the 10 million of its customers who already own the iPhone to connect to its network, rather than being restricted to WiFi.
DoCoMo's stubbornness is particularly noteworthy in Japan, where the iPhone not only has established itself as the kingpin in the smartphone market, with a 42 percent share in the last three months of 2012, but is fending off Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy series, which has found popularity in other major global markets. Samsung has 46 percent of Western Europe's smartphone market, but has reached only one-fifth of iPhone's sales in Japan.
DoCoMo's stance may also reflect strict contractual obligations imposed by Apple. While negotiations between the two have been a strictly guarded secret, Kato's predecessor made comments at a shareholder meeting last year suggesting the U.S. company was demanding iPhones make up half of its handset sales.
DoCoMo's requirement that its company logo be imprinted on all its devices also conflicts with style-conscious Apple's insistence that its products be left as manufactured.
For now, DoCoMo hopes to retain customers with smartphones running Google Inc's more flexible Android operating system. Its marketing efforts this summer are focused on Sony Corp's Xperia A and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4.
DoCoMo has moved 830,000 Xperia A handsets since their mid-May launch, already close to its target of 1 million by autumn, but the S4 is lagging with less than half of Xperia's total.
But DoCoMo is still hemorrhaging customers to its rivals, with monthly data on Friday showing a net loss of 146,900 existing users to other carriers in June, the 53rd consecutive month of such losses.
But with DoCoMo's total subscriber numbers up 630,000 in the first six months, as it gets a lift from overall smartphone demand even without the iPhone, and with its profits strong, it may opt for a waiting game with Apple.
There are no signs the iPhone's popularity might soon wane in Japan, while the breadth and reliability of DoCoMo's network could be a selling point.
"At some point, SoftBank and KDDI will reach a saturation point for iPhone sales," said an executive at a rival mobile carrier. "Apple may have no choice but to look to DoCoMo to sell more iPhones. Perhaps DoCoMo is just waiting."
(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Jeremy Laurence)
Samsung executive David Eun, who survived the San Francisco plane crash, described himself on his Twitter profile as being an 'all-American Korean' a 'pensive optimist' and a frequent flier. Eun tweeted his experience after he found himself bracing for life as something went terribly wrong in the landing. "I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal ...
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandbergs last minute switch saved her from San Francisco plane crash
Calcutta News.Net - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Chief operating officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, escaped Saturday's disastrous Seoul-to-San Francisco flight, as she switched to a United flight returning from a Korean business trip. Sandberg switched flights so her family could use miles, which saved her from crashing aboard Asiana with Facebook executive David Eun. According to the New York Daily News, the powerful web executive was ...
Floridas Zimmerman trial infiltrated by social media
Pioneer Press - Sunday 7th July, 2013
SANFORD, Fla. -- Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting garnered worldwide attention when the man who fatally shot him wasn't arrested for weeks -- a backlash fueled largely by social media. Now, social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have permeated George Zimmerman's trial both inside and outside the courtroom. A witness who testified via Skype was inundated with calls from ...
Social Media Plays Role In Zimmerman Trial
CBS 4 - Sunday 7th July, 2013
George Zimmerman glances back at the back of the courtroom during his trial in Seminole circuit court June 26, 2013 in Sanford, Florida. (Photo by Jacob Langston-Pool/Getty ...
San Fran Plane Crash Survivors Post Updates On Social Media
CBS 4 - Sunday 7th July, 2013
MIAMI (CBS4) - Moments after a Asiana Airline's Boeing 777 crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, survivors immediately used social media to share information and post pictures from the scene. Some of the survivors posted pictures of passengers as they escaped from the plane as it went up in ...
Facebook COO I was supposed to be on Asiana flight
Washington Times - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Facebook ?s chief operating officer, said she had planned to take the flight that crashed in San Francisco on Saturday that left two people dead and at least 180 more injured.';Taking a minute to be thankful and explain what ...
Social media free speech rights complicated for workers
USA Today - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Do employees have free-speech rights to publicly criticize their bosses or workplaces, especially in the social media age? The answer: ...
Facebooks Sandberg avoids plane crash
News.com.au - Sunday 7th July, 2013
FACEBOOK Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg was meant to be on the Asiana Airlines plane that crashed in San Francisco but switched flights at the last ...
Social media infiltrates Zimmerman trial
The Miami Herald - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Trayvon Martin's shooting death garnered worldwide attention in part because of a backlash fueled by social media. Now, social media is permeating virtually every aspect of the trial for the man who shot ...
Pressure mounts on BBC over sexist gaffe by presenter
Reuters - Sunday 7th July, 2013
By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC faced mounting pressure on Sunday to take action against one its most high-profile sports presenters for criticising the appearance of France's Marion Bartoli who won this year's Wimbledon ...
Crims use social media to track cops
Herald Sun - Sunday 7th July, 2013
SENIOR police have warned officers that criminals are using Facebook and other social media to befriend them and tap into secret ...
Embracing feminism More women keeping maiden name after marriage says Facebook study
The Independent - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Married women in their 20s are far more likely to have kept their maiden name than women in their 60s, with experts claiming it is a sign that the younger generation is increasingly embracing ...
Facebook admits year-long data breach exposed 6 million users
SINA - Sunday 7th July, 2013
Facebook Inc has inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers over the past year, the world's largest social networking company disclosed late Friday. Facebook blamed the data leaks, which began in 2012, on a technical glitch in its massive archive of contact information collected from its 1.1 billion users worldwide. As a result of ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From his home in the English town of Leicester, former business administrator Elliot Higgins trawls through sometimes hundreds of online videos a day from Syria's civil ...
Bay Area Tech Titan Survives Asiana Crash At SFO Facebook COO Almost On Board
CBS 5 - Sunday 7th July, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ? Two titans in the tech world have much to be thankful for after Saturday?s tragic crash at San Francisco International Airport. Former Googler, now Samsung exec David Eun was on that flight and numbers among the survivors. He tweeted late Saturday morning: ?I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I?m ok. ...
Qld cracks down on wild Facebook parties
SBS - Saturday 6th July, 2013
People who organise out-of-control parties via Facebook in Queensland could face jail time and hefty fines under tough new laws.Police Minister Jack Dempsey says new legislation to be put to cabinet will allow police to fine party hosts and their parents up to $18,150.They could also face up to three years' jail.Mr Dempsey said the laws were designed to go after those who encourage ...
Facebook exec escapes disaster in Asiana Air jet?s crash-landing
Tribune Review - Saturday 6th July, 2013
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, was supposed to be aboard the Asiana Air jetliner that crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday ...
Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg planned to be on crashed flight
Baltimore Sun - Saturday 6th July, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO -- Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook?s chief operating officer, was scheduled to be on the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, but switched to ...
The stars out and about and on Twitter CELEBRITY SPOTTING with Simon Wilson
Hispanic Business Magazine - Saturday 6th July, 2013
CLIFTON chart-topper @jakebugg isn't the most prolific of tweeters so all we had from his two sets at Glastonbury was a simple Glasto! on Thursday as he arrived then on Saturday: Just wanna thank everyone for their support! Had an amazin' time yesterday, Thank you! Other Notts musicians had more to say with West Bridgford indie band @Dog_Is_Dead posting this photo of them on stage: ...
The flight not taken Facebook exec was almost on crashed plane
MSNBC - Saturday 6th July, 2013
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, shown here during a technology summit in June, says she would have been on the Asiana Airlines 777 jet that crashed Saturday if it weren't for another airline's frequent-flier program. In the wake ...
Now They Think That Twitter Is Dodging Taxes
Forbes - Saturday 6th July, 2013
Twitter could become the latest high profile company to come under scrutiny for its tax arrangements after reporting UK profits of less than ?100,000. The abbreviated accounts of the company, which is tipped to float on the New York stock market for ?7billion, indicate that the company may be using corporate structures in Ireland to close deals with UK advertisers. Such a set up, ...
Alberta politicians see Twitter as latest battlefield of ideas
Edmonton Journal - Saturday 6th July, 2013
The written test to earn a learner?s driving licence in Alberta is 30 questions long. To pass, you must answer at least 25 of them correctly. Each week this summer, test your knowledge on a couple of questions. These are from the two Class 7 practice tests available on the Alberta Transportation website, used with permission. To take the full practice tests, go to transportation.alberta.ca ...
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. >> More than two dozen people were injured Thursday when fireworks malfunctioned at an annual 4th of July show northwest of Los Angeles.
An accidental detonation occurred about 9:20 p.m. at an event called the Fireworks Extravaganza located in a large community park in Simi Valley, said police Cmdr. John Parks.
It wasn't clear how many people were in attendance but Parks said the event usually attracts several thousand revelers.
Twenty people were taken to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, authorities said. Another eight were treated at the park where emergency crews set up a triage area. A bomb squad was at the park to deactivate the remainder of the fireworks.
A video clip show on KCAL-TV shows a pair of firework blasts at or near the ground. It wasn't known how close people were to the blast's origin. Another clip posted on YouTube shot from a distance shows three ground-level bursts. The fireworks continue for almost another minute before stopping.
"There was a big boom, everybody started running down the street, people were screaming," Justice Allen, 17, of Simi Valley told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/12pQlBz). "Everybody was just terrified. People hid in bushes."
The annual July Fourth celebration has been sponsored by the city and the local Rotary Club for the past 43 years.
Simi Valley is about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, the Washington State Liquor Board filed draft legal pot rules with the state code reviser. The rules are more thorough than a previous draft released by the board, and overall, I think they are great. I remain quite pleased that we placed legal pot in the hands of the state's official rum-running agency. Here are some features of our new pot rules:
Outdoor growing allowed: Believing growers can secure a fenced field as effectively as a corrugated metal warehouse, and that eastern Washington outdoor will lower the price of pot, the liquor board reversed course and allowed legal cannabis to directly photosynthesize sunlight.
Unadulterated hash sales banned: Sticking to the ridiculous claim that hash does not "contain marijuana" and thus doesn't qualify as a "marijuana-infused product," the board intends to disallow retail sales of unadulterated cannabis concentrates. But wait! Drop a minuscule amount of other crap into that concentrate and the liquor board believes the product suddenly "contains marijuana" and can be sold at retail.
Adulterated hash sales promoted: Based on that silly-ass logic, expect to purchase concentrates in novel adulterated forms. Hash oil will include a drop of glycerin, ethanol, or propylene glycol to make certain the oil "contains marijuana." Hash will include a grain of sand, a drop of water, or the cheapest allowable filler a processor can purchase to make certain the product "contains marijuana." For nostalgia's sake, I prefer a single dog hair adulterate my legal hash.
Washington pot is organic: The only fertilizers, pesticides, and other pot production helpers allowed must be listed by the state Department of Agriculture or the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) as allowed in organic production under federal rules. However, pot products may not be labeled organic unless those federal rules allow it.
Retail license lottery and arbitrary application window: Legal pot license applications will be accepted for 30 days only. In the case of retail licenses, the board will limit the number of licenses on a per-county basis after first calculating the number of licenses required by major cities within those counties. The state intends to create a retail license lottery to "fairly" distribute the opportunity to apply for a pot license in desirable locations. Even with scant pot shop plans, buy a winning lotto ticket and you may become the hottest investment of the day.
Food serving sizes: A single dose of ganja food is set at 10 milligrams of THC. A marijuana-infused product may contain no more than 100mg THC. Say good-bye to the unexpected coma-inducing mini-brownie.
Concentrate serving sizes: Since adulterated concentrates are marijuana-infused products, it appears that each package of hash oil may contain no more than 100mg of THC. If an adulterated concentrate is 50% THC, each package must weigh 0.2 grams or less. So expect to buy adulterated concentrates in pellet-sized packs.
Pesticide disclosure: Consumers must be provided information about their pot that includes the pesticides and growing medium used, the type of extraction processes employed, and the levels of 6 major cannabinoids and acids?THC, THC acid, CBD, CBD acid, CBN, and CBG.
No landlord self-incrimination: A rule requiring landlords to attest to federal law violations was nixed.
Restricted pot shop hours: Legal pot can be bought between 8 a.m. and midnight, four hours less than legal liquor. "I believe that this is an issue which impacts 24 hour nightlife cities like Seattle adversely, with very little impact on the rest of the state," said board member Chris Marr. "Is the sale of marijuana at 1 a.m. as much of a public safety threat as the sale of alcohol at 1 a.m.?"
Punishment by plant destruction: Licensees who violate the rules will be fined. But pot growers who violate the rules a second or third time will have 25-50% of their crops destroyed. This is intended to affect small and large growers equally, where a seemingly-steep monetary fine may be overlooked by large growers.
Medical pot will sprout the system: Licensed growers will have a 15-day "don't ask, don't tell" phase in which they may source outside seeds and starts.
Zoning definitions improved: Licensees may not site within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, transit centers, libraries, child care centers, recreation centers, or game arcades. What constitutes such features was a bit murky. Following very specific and helpful suggestions from Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, the liquor board clarified these definitions.
Financiers must reside here: There was some question about whether the rules allowed for out-of-state investors to cash in on our legal pot system. The board clarified this to say nobody can profit from pot investing unless they live here.
State tracking system: Legal pot licensees must submit monthly reports to the liquor board that include sales, purchases, inventory on hand, etc. The liquor board intends to issue a request for proposals to create a software system into which licensees will upload this data.
No individual license cap: Liquor board member Chris Marr suggested a cap on the number of licenses an individual may possess, but that is not in the rules. "In the absense of a cap," says Marr, "it will be possible and even probable that a few well-qualified, well-capitalized applicants will create an oligopoly market with all its potential downsides: branding, advertising, and marketing, the ability to influence prices, and so on. [...] This will be a decision which will characterize our system for years to come."
No licensee pot limits defined: The rules do not mention how much pot licensees may possess, something initiative drafter Alison Holcomb says the law requires. "The requirement serves a number of practical purposes," Holcomb tells The Stranger, "and a significant political one: in light of DOJ's crackdown on large-scale operations in California, wouldn't it be advisable to give the federal government notice of the sizes under consideration here in Washington before applicants invest time, energy, and money in creating operational plans that may be rendered moot?"
Anti-kid packaging: Marijuana-infused products must be sold in child-resistant packaging, which may not contain child-appealing imagery like cartoons and toys.
On the whole, the rules are sensible, informed, well-intended, and thorough. I've witnessed other state agencies?mainly the Department of Health?deal with pot and it has always left me with a salty taste in my mouth. The liquor board, in comparison, is a shot of smooth bourbon: mature, to the point, mostly non-judgmental, doing its job and doing it well. Except for the part about banning the retail sale of unadulterated hash?which is downright stupid if not erroneously pedantic?this is a pretty good set of rules for the legal pot industry.
Yesterday's liquor board meeting can be watched here.
As America celebrates this week?s anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the federal government deserves a Declaration of Incompetence. Washington seems to get almost nothing right. Subjected to monarchic tyranny until 1776, America now suffers the abuses and usurpations of bureaucratic ineptitude.
? President Barack Obama?s signature achievement has become a scrawl. After three years of rehearsal, the Affordable Care Act, known as ?Obamacare,? is not ready for prime time. On Tuesday, Team Obama postponed the employer mandate by one year, conveniently past the 2014 midterm elections.
The Government Accountability Office reported in June that, among the federally facilitated exchanges in 34 states, ?on average, about 85 percent of their total key activities? required by Oct. 1 ?were not completed.?
?Rate shock? is erupting, as the hilariously named Affordable Care Act proves a masterpiece of false advertising.
Manhattan Institute scholar Avik Roy, M.D., compared existing health insurance with coverage planned for California. ?For the typical 25-year-old nonsmoking Californian, Obamacare will drive premiums up by between 100 and 123 percent,? he explained in Forbes. For a male nonsmoker in California, ?Obamacare will increase individual-market premiums by an average of 116 percent.?
? Accused spy Edward Snowden is America?s most wanted fugitive. So, surely, federal prosecutors filled their extradition papers with extra care.
Wrong!
Hong Kong?s records listed Edward Joseph Snowden. However, Justice Department documents demanded Edward James Snowden and Edward J. Snowden. Washington also failed to include Snowden?s passport number or, for days, to invalidate his passport.
These goofs kept Hong Kong from holding Snowden. So, off he flew to Moscow, to languish in Sheremetyevo International Airport until he found asylum elsewhere
? According to the House Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department?s inspector general ?found that the number of known or suspected terrorists admitted to the Witness Security Program is unknown, that DOJ has lost track of two suspected terrorists in the program, and that critical national security information is not being shared with other agencies,? including the FBI. Such confirmed or assumed terrorists in witness protection, who previously were on the federal no-fly list, never had their new names added to it. Thus, ?several known or suspected terrorists have been able to board commercial airplanes in the United States.?
-- Meanwhile, in 2011, the Internal Revenue Service mailed 23,994 tax refunds totaling $46,378,040 to ?unauthorized? aliens ? all supposedly at the same Atlanta address. That year, according to a Treasury inspector general?s report cited by CNSNews.com, the IRS sent 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874 to one address in Oxnard, Calif., and 2,408 such checks equal to $7,284,212 to an address in Raleigh, N.C.
? IRS agents spent some $108 million on official credit cards over the last two years. An internal audit showed that this bought ?multiple lunches, dinners and related alcohol purchases? as well as ?diet pills, romance novels, steaks, a smartphone and baby-related items, such as bottles, games and clothing.? One revenue officer?s taxpayer-funded card financed subscriptions to pornography websites.
Even worse, the Washington Times editorialized, ?The IRS didn?t bother to cancel credit cards of employees who quit or retired, meaning the party could continue long after the government ?service? ended.?
The overarching problem here is a government that, at worst, hammers the freedoms and rights of the American people ? witness what the IRS and Justice Department do with increasing relish. At best, Washington is so busy attempting everything (from fixing sugar prices to banning incandescent light bulbs to subsidizing bird-killing windmills) that it barely accomplishes anything.
Hapless bureaucrats blunder upward. Among them, only serious criminals ever face accountability. Federal employees do pretty much what they please -- for life.
In a perfect world, Obama would take ownership of this massive federal enterprise and, at least, make it set priorities. But even that may ask too much of him. Sounding like the late, great free-market hero Milton Friedman, Obama?s consigliere David Axelrod recently got to the heart of the matter: ?Part of being president is that there?s so much beneath you that you can?t know, because the government is so vast.?
Deroy Murdock is a Fox News contributor, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with Stanford University?s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Email Deroy.Murdock@gmail.com. Distributed by Scripps at www.shns.com.
How the brain creates the 'buzz' that helps ideas spreadPublic release date: 5-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
How do ideas spread? What messages will go viral on social media, and can this be predicted?
UCLA psychologists have taken a significant step toward answering these questions, identifying for the first time the brain regions associated with the successful spread of ideas, often called "buzz."
The research has a broad range of implications, the study authors say, and could lead to more effective public health campaigns, more persuasive advertisements and better ways for teachers to communicate with students.
"Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they're seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves but to other people," said the study's senior author, Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and author of the forthcoming book "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect." "We always seem to be on the lookout for who else will find this helpful, amusing or interesting, and our brain data are showing evidence of that. At the first encounter with information, people are already using the brain network involved in thinking about how this can be interesting to other people. We're wired to want to share information with other people. I think that is a profound statement about the social nature of our minds."
The study findings are published in the online edition of the journal Psychological Science, with print publication to follow later this summer.
"Before this study, we didn't know what brain regions were associated with ideas that become contagious, and we didn't know what regions were associated with being an effective communicator of ideas," said lead author Emily Falk, who conducted the research as a UCLA doctoral student in Lieberman's lab and is currently a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "Now we have mapped the brain regions associated with ideas that are likely to be contagious and are associated with being a good 'idea salesperson.' In the future, we would like to be able to use these brain maps to forecast what ideas are likely to be successful and who is likely to be effective at spreading them."
In the first part of the study, 19 UCLA students (average age 21), underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans at UCLA's AhmansonLovelace Brain Mapping Center as they saw and heard information about 24 potential television pilot ideas. Among the fictitious pilots which were presented by a separate group of students were a show about former beauty-queen mothers who want their daughters to follow in their footsteps; a Spanish soap opera about a young woman and her relationships; a reality show in which contestants travel to countries with harsh environments; a program about teenage vampires and werewolves; and a show about best friends and rivals in a crime family.
The students exposed to these TV pilot ideas were asked to envision themselves as television studio interns who would decide whether or not they would recommend each idea to their "producers." These students made videotaped assessments of each pilot.
Another group of 79 UCLA undergraduates (average age 21) was asked to act as the "producers." These students watched the interns' videos assessments of the pilots and then made their own ratings about the pilot ideas based on those assessments.
Lieberman and Falk wanted to learn which brain regions were activated when the interns were first exposed to information they would later pass on to others.
"We're constantly being exposed to information on Facebook, Twitter and so on," said Lieberman. "Some of it we pass on, and a lot of it we don't. Is there something that happens in the moment we first see it maybe before we even realize we might pass it on that is different for those things that we will pass on successfully versus those that we won't?"
It turns out, there is. The psychologists found that the interns who were especially good at persuading the producers showed significantly more activation in a brain region known as the temporoparietal junction, or TPJ, at the time they were first exposed to the pilot ideas they would later recommend. They had more activation in this region than the interns who were less persuasive and more activation than they themselves had when exposed to pilot ideas they didn't like. The psychologists call this the "salesperson effect."
"It was the only region in the brain that showed this effect," Lieberman said. One might have thought brain regions associated with memory would show more activation, but that was not the case, he said.
"We wanted to explore what differentiates ideas that bomb from ideas that go viral," Falk said. "We found that increased activity in the TPJ was associated with an increased ability to convince others to get on board with their favorite ideas. Nobody had looked before at which brain regions are associated with the successful spread of ideas. You might expect people to be most enthusiastic and opinionated about ideas that they themselves are excited about, but our research suggests that's not the whole story. Thinking about what appeals to others may be even more important."
The TPJ, located on the outer surface of the brain, is part of what is known as the brain's "mentalizing network," which is involved in thinking about what other people think and feel. The network also includes the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, located in the middle of the brain.
"When we read fiction or watch a movie, we're entering the minds of the characters that's mentalizing," Lieberman said. "As soon as you hear a good joke, you think, 'Who can I tell this to and who can't I tell?' Making this judgment will activate these two brain regions. If we're playing poker and I'm trying to figure out if you're bluffing, that's going to invoke this network. And when I see someone on Capitol Hill testifying and I'm thinking whether they are lying or telling the truth, that's going to invoke these two brain regions.
"Good ideas turn on the mentalizing system," he said. "They make us want to tell other people."
The interns who showed more activity in their mentalizing system when they saw the pilots they intended to recommend were then more successful in convincing the producers to also recommend those pilots, the psychologists found.
"As I'm looking at an idea, I might be thinking about what other people are likely to value, and that might make me a better idea salesperson later," Falk said.
By further studying the neural activity in these brain regions to see what information and ideas activate these regions more, psychologists potentially could predict which advertisements are most likely to spread and go viral and which will be most effective, Lieberman and Falk said.
Such knowledge could also benefit public health campaigns aimed at everything from reducing risky behaviors among teenagers to combating cancer, smoking and obesity.
"The explosion of new communication technologies, combined with novel analytic tools, promises to dramatically expand our understanding of how ideas spread," Falk said. "We're laying basic science foundations to addressimportant public health questions that are difficult to answer otherwise about what makes campaigns successful and how we can improve their impact."
As we may like particular radio DJs who play music we enjoy, the Internet has led us to act as "information DJs" who share things that we think will be of interest to people in our networks, Lieberman said.
"What is new about our study is the finding that the mentalizing network is involved when I read something and decide who else might be interested in it," he said. "This is similar to what an advertiser has to do. It's not enough to have a product that people should like."
###
Co-authors of the study are Sylvia Morelli, a former graduate student in Lieberman's lab who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University; Locke Welbourn, a UCLA graduate student in Lieberman's laboratory; and Karl Dambacher, a former UCLA undergraduate research assistant.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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How the brain creates the 'buzz' that helps ideas spreadPublic release date: 5-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stuart Wolpert swolpert@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0511 University of California - Los Angeles
How do ideas spread? What messages will go viral on social media, and can this be predicted?
UCLA psychologists have taken a significant step toward answering these questions, identifying for the first time the brain regions associated with the successful spread of ideas, often called "buzz."
The research has a broad range of implications, the study authors say, and could lead to more effective public health campaigns, more persuasive advertisements and better ways for teachers to communicate with students.
"Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they're seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves but to other people," said the study's senior author, Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and author of the forthcoming book "Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect." "We always seem to be on the lookout for who else will find this helpful, amusing or interesting, and our brain data are showing evidence of that. At the first encounter with information, people are already using the brain network involved in thinking about how this can be interesting to other people. We're wired to want to share information with other people. I think that is a profound statement about the social nature of our minds."
The study findings are published in the online edition of the journal Psychological Science, with print publication to follow later this summer.
"Before this study, we didn't know what brain regions were associated with ideas that become contagious, and we didn't know what regions were associated with being an effective communicator of ideas," said lead author Emily Falk, who conducted the research as a UCLA doctoral student in Lieberman's lab and is currently a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "Now we have mapped the brain regions associated with ideas that are likely to be contagious and are associated with being a good 'idea salesperson.' In the future, we would like to be able to use these brain maps to forecast what ideas are likely to be successful and who is likely to be effective at spreading them."
In the first part of the study, 19 UCLA students (average age 21), underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans at UCLA's AhmansonLovelace Brain Mapping Center as they saw and heard information about 24 potential television pilot ideas. Among the fictitious pilots which were presented by a separate group of students were a show about former beauty-queen mothers who want their daughters to follow in their footsteps; a Spanish soap opera about a young woman and her relationships; a reality show in which contestants travel to countries with harsh environments; a program about teenage vampires and werewolves; and a show about best friends and rivals in a crime family.
The students exposed to these TV pilot ideas were asked to envision themselves as television studio interns who would decide whether or not they would recommend each idea to their "producers." These students made videotaped assessments of each pilot.
Another group of 79 UCLA undergraduates (average age 21) was asked to act as the "producers." These students watched the interns' videos assessments of the pilots and then made their own ratings about the pilot ideas based on those assessments.
Lieberman and Falk wanted to learn which brain regions were activated when the interns were first exposed to information they would later pass on to others.
"We're constantly being exposed to information on Facebook, Twitter and so on," said Lieberman. "Some of it we pass on, and a lot of it we don't. Is there something that happens in the moment we first see it maybe before we even realize we might pass it on that is different for those things that we will pass on successfully versus those that we won't?"
It turns out, there is. The psychologists found that the interns who were especially good at persuading the producers showed significantly more activation in a brain region known as the temporoparietal junction, or TPJ, at the time they were first exposed to the pilot ideas they would later recommend. They had more activation in this region than the interns who were less persuasive and more activation than they themselves had when exposed to pilot ideas they didn't like. The psychologists call this the "salesperson effect."
"It was the only region in the brain that showed this effect," Lieberman said. One might have thought brain regions associated with memory would show more activation, but that was not the case, he said.
"We wanted to explore what differentiates ideas that bomb from ideas that go viral," Falk said. "We found that increased activity in the TPJ was associated with an increased ability to convince others to get on board with their favorite ideas. Nobody had looked before at which brain regions are associated with the successful spread of ideas. You might expect people to be most enthusiastic and opinionated about ideas that they themselves are excited about, but our research suggests that's not the whole story. Thinking about what appeals to others may be even more important."
The TPJ, located on the outer surface of the brain, is part of what is known as the brain's "mentalizing network," which is involved in thinking about what other people think and feel. The network also includes the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, located in the middle of the brain.
"When we read fiction or watch a movie, we're entering the minds of the characters that's mentalizing," Lieberman said. "As soon as you hear a good joke, you think, 'Who can I tell this to and who can't I tell?' Making this judgment will activate these two brain regions. If we're playing poker and I'm trying to figure out if you're bluffing, that's going to invoke this network. And when I see someone on Capitol Hill testifying and I'm thinking whether they are lying or telling the truth, that's going to invoke these two brain regions.
"Good ideas turn on the mentalizing system," he said. "They make us want to tell other people."
The interns who showed more activity in their mentalizing system when they saw the pilots they intended to recommend were then more successful in convincing the producers to also recommend those pilots, the psychologists found.
"As I'm looking at an idea, I might be thinking about what other people are likely to value, and that might make me a better idea salesperson later," Falk said.
By further studying the neural activity in these brain regions to see what information and ideas activate these regions more, psychologists potentially could predict which advertisements are most likely to spread and go viral and which will be most effective, Lieberman and Falk said.
Such knowledge could also benefit public health campaigns aimed at everything from reducing risky behaviors among teenagers to combating cancer, smoking and obesity.
"The explosion of new communication technologies, combined with novel analytic tools, promises to dramatically expand our understanding of how ideas spread," Falk said. "We're laying basic science foundations to addressimportant public health questions that are difficult to answer otherwise about what makes campaigns successful and how we can improve their impact."
As we may like particular radio DJs who play music we enjoy, the Internet has led us to act as "information DJs" who share things that we think will be of interest to people in our networks, Lieberman said.
"What is new about our study is the finding that the mentalizing network is involved when I read something and decide who else might be interested in it," he said. "This is similar to what an advertiser has to do. It's not enough to have a product that people should like."
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Co-authors of the study are Sylvia Morelli, a former graduate student in Lieberman's lab who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University; Locke Welbourn, a UCLA graduate student in Lieberman's laboratory; and Karl Dambacher, a former UCLA undergraduate research assistant.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
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Public release date: 5-Jul-2013
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