Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301114798?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Study suggests voice-to-text 'just as dangerous' as texting while driving
If you thought you were driving safe when activating your voice-to-text service or starting up Siri, a survey by the Texas Transportation Institute suggests it might dull your reactions just as much as finger-based typing. The study compared traditional text messaging with voice-to-text and found that drivers still took about twice as long to react compared to when they weren't trying to communicate. According to Christine Yager, who led the research, "eye contact to the roadway" also suffered, regardless of which texting method was used.
In fact, voice-to-text often took longer than manual input, due to the need to correct typing discrepancies while using the software: "You're still using your mind to try to think of what you're trying to say, and that by proxy causes some driving impairment, and that decreases your response time." The bigger issue is that the drivers apparently felt safer when using voice-based entry, even though test results proved that response times were just as negatively affected. "It is important to educate the public that even these seemingly new distractions are still distractions, and it will help people be safer when they get into the vehicle," Yager added.
Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation
Source: Reuters
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Why NASA Is Firing Cell Phones Into Space
Today, in NASA Is the Best: The space agency this week took a handful of cheap but powerful smartphones, slapped them to a gigantic rocket and blasted them into low-earth orbit to see how they'd fare. The project, called PhoneSat, is one of those wacky experiments that seems at first to have nothing to do with science. But it's not a stunt.
The phones ? ordinary Nexus Ones, the kind made by HTC and once sold by Google ? are being tested as a kind of prototype satellite, and they provide a glimpse of a possible future where ordinary commercial technology that we take for granted winds up powering and controlling larger sensing devices (or even becoming full-fledged research platforms themselves). Smartphones are already remarkably well-equipped for space: They're small. They've got powerful batteries and processors. They have gyroscopes and accelerometers, and high-quality cameras. For a budget-conscious organization like NASA that's increasingly turning away from manned space missions, PhoneSat makes a lot of sense. The three devices orbiting earth right now are cutely named Alexander, Graham and Bell, respectively, in a nod to the man commonly credited with inventing the telephone. After about 10 days from Sunday's launch, the phones will re-enter the atmosphere, burning up in the process (ouch).
Even more interesting than the hardware NASA's using is the software -- and how it was developed.
"The satellites almost came out of the box ready-made," said Bruce Yost, one of the project's lead scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. "But all the things that made it interesting are software. The intent is to be like the software community: Build, test, break, rebuild, and keep the cycle going and see if you can spiral your way to success."
Thanks to Google's open-source Android OS, each PhoneSat includes a specially developed app that helps the phones transmit information back to earth from orbit. At regular intervals, the devices beam down data about their health and status, and take up to 100 photos of their surroundings at a time, Yost said. The app then automatically selects the best shots (ones with the earth's horizon in them) and broadcasts them wirelessly to the ground, where any amateur radio operator can pick up the signal.?
Because each hobbyist receives a different piece of the same photo, it takes a group effort to recompile the whole thing -- a bit like building a jigsaw puzzle. The hobbyists upload what they've got back to NASA, where all the data that's coming in is built into a composite. So far, some 200 packets of data have been recorded, said Jim Cockrell, another project lead.
Researchers are still a long way from totally replacing big pieces of orbital machinery with tiny iPhones or Android handsets, although one of the three phones that went up Sunday is equipped with a working solar panel array, just like their bigger cousins. It's a promising sign of how much we can accomplish just by taking advantage of the tools we've already got to hand. Watch the phones' positions change in real-time here.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-nasa-firing-cell-phones-space-092555029--politics.html
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Centene tops estimates on new, expanded Medicaid contracts
(Reuters) - Health insurer Centene Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it added more states under its Medicaid contracts and expanded its coverage in existing ones.
The company raised its full-year forecast for premium and service revenue to $10.1 billion to $10.4 billion, and reiterated its profit forecast of $2.60 to $2.90 per share.
"We believe we are well positioned for profitable growth in 2014 and beyond," CEO Michael Neidorff said in a statement.
Net income fell marginally to $23 million, or 42 cents per share, in the first quarter from $24 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.
Premium and service revenue rose 53 percent to $2.54 billion, mainly driven by the expansion of contracts in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, and contract additions in Kansas, Missouri and Washington, the company said.
Analysts were expecting a profit of 37 cents per share, on revenue of $2.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Health benefits ratio, a measure of medical expenses expressed as a percentage of premium revenue, rose to 90.4 percent from 88.2 percent a year earlier.
The increase in medical expenses reflected a higher level of flu costs during the first quarter, and a higher level of medical costs in new business, the company said.
Insurers take a hit from the flu because of an increase in claims related to visits to doctors and hospitals.
Centene was hit by high costs at its Medicaid contracts in Texas and Kentucky last year as higher utilization of its services in the states ate into profit.
The insurer intends to exit Kentucky from July 5.
Several other health insurers providing Medicaid services in the two states had also experienced high medical costs.
Shares of the St. Louis, Missouri-based Centene closed at $45.35 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/centene-profit-tops-estimates-contracts-103237644--finance.html
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Deal of the Day: 46% off Incipio FAXION Case for iPhone 5
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/etXVMR-4Irk/story01.htm
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Five of the best new mobile games
Let?s start with a game that is truly family friendly. In Mr. Crab, you control the titular hat-clad character as he ascends to the top of each rotational level, rewarded with a shower of confetti. Anchoring the game are strategically placed arrows, which make the gameplay far less dizzying than it could have been. Along the way, Mr. Crab is tasked with rescuing smaller crabs, collecting multi-colored pearls, and using clams or birds as springboards. While the settings vary, the gameplay mechanics stay consistent. Also, don?t let Mr. Crab?s cuteness factor deceive; this game is pretty difficult, but loads of clawtastic fun.
Also on Appolicious
Founded by Anna Jarvis in 1908, Mother?s Day is just around the corner. Zinio?s tribute to mothers offers magazines for the wonderful diversity that is ?mom.?
The major appeal in Warner Brothers?s fighting game is getting to pit famed DC Comics heroes and villains against each other. You start off with The Flash and less popular characters (Lex Luthor, Cyborg, Nightwing), and can select up to three for your fighting squad. Characters level up with the victories and eventually you unlock Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. The game uses fantastic touch and swipe controls for attacks and special moves, a combat control scheme first introduced in the popular Infinity Blade series. While it?s another game suffering from in-app purchase syndrome, you?ll marvel at the game?s brilliant graphics (even if it takes up 500 MB).
Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts
Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps.
Source: http://www.appolicious.com/games/articles/13415-five-of-the-best-new-mobile-games
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Monday, April 22, 2013
Commentary: San Marcos should invest in early education | San ...
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EDITOR?S NOTE: In the run-up to the May 11 school bond election, the San Marcos Mercury has invited a cross-section of community members to weigh in on the proposed $77 million capital improvement program, $12.7 million of which would build a new pre-K campus on the site of the former Bowie Elementary School. Early voting starts April 29.
by ELIZABETH MORGAN RUSSELL, SUE W. WILLIAMS and ELIZABETH BLUNK
A record 3.8 million children entered school as a kindergartner in 2011 but too many of these five-year-olds arrived at kindergarten unprepared to achieve the educational goals established set by their state and federal standard-setters.
| ??Research proves it. Research demonstrates that high-quality pre-k increases a child?s chances of succeeding in school and in life. Children who attend high-quality programs are less likely to be held back a grade, less likely to need special education, and more likely to graduate from high school. They also have higher earnings as adults and are less likely to become dependent on welfare or involved with law enforcement. ??Today?s Kindergarten is yesterday?s first grade. In many states, today?s kindergarten is yesterday?s first grade. With more ?academics? being presented in kindergarten, children must learn the pre-academic foundations for formal reading before they enter kindergarten. In pre-k, children become familiar with books, new words and ways to use language, numbers, and problem-solving strategies. They also learn the social skills they need to get the most out of school ? how to pay attention in class and interact with peers. ??Start behind, stay behind. Children who enter school behind their peers often stay behind. For example, children who do not recognize the letters of the alphabet when they enter kindergarten demonstrate significantly lower reading skills at the end of first grade. Eighty-eight percent of children who are poor readers in first grade will still be poor readers by fourth grade. Seventy-four percent of children who are poor readers in third grade remain poor readers when they start high school. ??Preparation. Nearly half of all kindergarten teachers report that their children have problems that hinder their success. For example, 46 percent of teachers feel that at least half of the children in their classes have difficulty following directions, 36 percent feel that half the children have problems with academic skills, and 34 percent find that more than half of their children have difficulty working independently. Children unprepared for kindergarten tax the resources of the entire system. ??It?s benefits all kids. Classrooms where all children are prepared have higher learning productivity and classroom efficiency. More able children perform more capably in the classroom and enhance the learning of other children. Teachers spend more time working directly with children and less on classroom management. Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts |
In a large national study, 30 percent of kindergarten teachers estimated that one-half of the children in their classes did not meet the teachers? expectations for kindergarten readiness.
Nationwide, states have reported that 20 percent to 50 percent of young children arrived at school ?unprepared to learn?. Kindergarten readiness ? what children know and can do when they enter kindergarten ? is crucial to children?s academic success. Children who are ready for school are more likely to experience academic success from kindergarten through high school and they are less likely to have school adjustment problems, become delinquent or drop out of high school.
Costs associated with a lack of school readiness, according to Jerome Bruner, an award winning economist, include child education costs (e.g., special education, grade retention, school drop out), child human service costs (e.g., juvenile delinquency, mental health care), and adulthood costs (e.g., adolescent parenting, welfare dependency, lost economic activity, and costs of incarceration). These social costs exceed $260 billion annually.
Conversely, investments in comprehensive early education and family involvement programs can greatly reduce these social costs because high quality, early education prepares children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Research has indicated that society benefits from investments in early education.
For example, every dollar invested in the Perry Preschool comprehensive, family-focused early care and education program yielded more than $16 in savings by the time the original participants were age 40 years. The savings accrued due to fewer contacts with the legal system, fewer demands on the welfare system, more tax-paying, employed adults, as well as a greater number of financially secure families, according to Lawrence J. Schweinhart and colleagues, creators of the Perry Preschool program.
James Heckman, a University of Chicago professor who won the Nobel prize in Economics in 2000, puts the return on investment at $7-$10 for each dollar invested in high quality early education programs. Heckman describes this as a return on investment in young children?s growth and development as opposed to later paying for their remediation.
High quality early education programs foster kindergarten readiness because opportunities are provided for young children to master the components of readiness in ways that fit and appropriately challenge young children?s competence in the areas of physical-motor, social-emotional, language and communication, and intellectual development. Additionally, methods that can be adapted to fit each child?s learning needs and style dominate the high quality, early education program curriculum.
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, family involvement is an essential component of a high quality early care and education programs. As noted by Claudia Galindo and Steven B. Sheldon in 2011, ?Decades of studies, reviews, and syntheses confirm this [positive family-teacher relationships help determine children?s school success] and have concluded that parents and family members are powerful influences on student achievement across grades?.
Pertinent to San Marcos CISD wherein 80 percent of students are Hispanic and 63 percent qualify for free or reduced cost meals, recent research has provided ?conclusive evidence that minority and low-income parents are deeply interested [in] and connected to their children?s education? according to Maria Teresa de la Piedra, Judith Munter, and Hector Giron.
Contrary to myths that minority parents lack interest in their children?s education, Hispanic families want their children to succeed in school, and they also value early education opportunities for their young children. Researchers have found Hispanic families to possess comparatively higher educational expectations for their children, more positive perceptions of school outreach, and the highest levels of parental involvement in their child?s education when compared to other ethnic groups.
Locally, in an initiative between San Marcos ISD and the Family and Child Development Program of Texas State University, faculty are examining the impact of parental involvement, as well as the contribution of tutoring of young children in math and literacy by college students, as part of a study known as Caminitos.
The eventual ?pay-off? for society?s investment in universal, high quality, family focused early education is huge in terms of both human and physical capital, according to the Brookings Institution.
The projected federal costs of universal preschool education by 2080 would be about $59 billion; however, ?the impact of a high-quality, universal preschool policy on economic growth?.could add $2 trillion to annual U.S. GDP by 2080.?
If this eventual pay-off were to be re-invested in education, this could benefit school districts nationwide, including SMCISD, in terms of enrolling greater numbers of children ready to succeed in school, purchasing state-of-the art curriculum materials, and increasing teacher pay and benefits to retain the best teachers.
The writers are faculty in Texas State University?s School of Family & Consumer Sciences. Professor SUE WILLIAMS coordinates the school?s Family and Child Studies graduate program. ELIZABETH M. BLUNK, a family and child development associate professor, holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction with emphasis in Early Childhood Education. ELIZABETH MORGAN RUSSELL is an assistant clinical professor and graduate advisor for family and children development.
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Source: http://smmercury.com/2013/04/22/commentary-why-san-marcos-cisd-should-invest-in-early-education/
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