SAN DIEGO (AP) — Soldiers often call plastic surgeon Adam Tattelbaum in a panic. They need liposuction — fast.
Some military personnel are turning to the surgical procedure to remove excess fat from their waists in a desperate attempt to pass the Pentagon's body fat test, which relies on measurements of the neck and waist and can determine their future prospects in the military.
"They come in panicked about being kicked out or getting a demerit that will hurt their chances at a promotion," the Rockville, Md., surgeon said.
Service members complain that the Defense Department's method of estimating body fat weeds out not just flabby physiques but bulkier, muscular builds.
Fitness experts agree and have joined the calls for the military's fitness standards to be revamped. They say the Pentagon's weight tables are outdated and do not reflect that Americans are now bigger, though not necessarily less healthy.
Defense officials say the test ensures troops are ready for the rigors of combat. The military does not condone surgically altering one's body to pass the test, but liposuction is not banned.
The Pentagon insists that only a small fraction of service members who exceed body fat limits perform well on fitness tests.
"We want everybody to succeed," said Bill Moore, director of the Navy's Physical Readiness Program. "This isn't an organization that trains them and says, 'Hey, get the heck out.'"
The Defense Department's "tape test" uses neck and waist measurements rather than the body mass index, a system based on an individual's height and weight that is widely used in the civilian world.
Those who fail are ordered to spend months in a vigorous exercise and nutrition program, which Marines have nicknamed the "pork chop platoon" or "doughnut brigade." Even if they later pass, failing the test once can halt promotions for years, service members say.
Failing three times can be grounds for getting kicked out.
The number of Army soldiers booted for being overweight has jumped tenfold in the past five years from 168 in 2008 to 1,815. In the Marine Corps, the figure nearly doubled from 102 in 2010 to 186 in 2011 but dropped to 132 last year.
The Air Force and the Navy said they do not track discharges tied to the tape test.
Still, service members say they are under intense scrutiny as the military trims its ranks because of budget cuts and the winding down of the Afghanistan war.
Dr. Michael Pasquale of Aloha Plastic Surgery in Honolulu said his military clientele has jumped by more than 30 percent since 2011, with about a half-dozen service members coming in every month.
"They have to worry about their careers," the former soldier said. "With the military downsizing, it's putting more pressure on these guys."
Military insurance covers liposuction only if it is deemed medically necessary, not if it is considered cosmetic, which would be the nature of any procedure used to pass the test. The cost of liposuction can exceed $6,000.
Some service members go on crash diets or use weights to beef up their necks so they're in proportion with a larger waist. Pasquale said liposuction works for those with the wrong genetics.
"I've actually had commanders recommend it to their troops," Pasquale said. "They'll deny that if you ask them. But they know some people are in really good shape and unfortunately are just built wrong."
Fitness expert Jordan Moon said there is no reliable and economical way to measure body fat, and troops should be judged more by physical performance so they're not feeling forced to go to such lengths to save their careers.
"We're sending people away who could be amazing soldiers just because of two pieces of tape," said Moon, who has a doctorate in exercise physiology and has studied the accuracy of body fat measurements.
"Ninety percent of athletes who play in the NFL are going to fail the tape test because it's made for a normal population, not big guys," he added.
Marine Staff Sgt. Leonard Langston, 47, blames himself for weighing 4 pounds over his maximum weight of 174 pounds for his 5-foot-7 frame.
"I think we've gotten away with keeping ourselves accountable. Especially the older Marines have let things go," he said after sweating through 75 crunches with others ordered to the exercise program. "And unfortunately, I'm an example of that."
Military officials say the tape test is still the best, most cost-effective tool available, with a margin of error of less than 1 percent.
Air Force Gen. Mark Walsh noted only about 348 of 1.3 million airmen have failed the tape test but excelled otherwise.
Even so, his branch heeded the complaints and modified its fitness program in October. The Air Force obtained a waiver from the Pentagon so airmen who fail the tape test but pass physical fitness exams can be measured using the body mass index.
Marine Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Smith applauded the move. Smith said he has received five Navy achievement medals but has not been promoted since failing the tape test once in 2009.
"They call you names like 'fat bodies,'" Smith said. "They talk a lot of trash to you and put you down quite often."
He launched an online White House petition this summer to talk to leaders about the tape test.
The 1,700 signatures fell short of the 100,000 needed to get a response, but Smith said the Air Force gives him hope other branches might also heed the complaints.
"There's got to be something better for Marines who are working hard but just born like a tree stump," Smith said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to campaign for Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Terry McAuliffe (mih-KAWL'-ihf), on Sunday.
A spokesman for McAuliffe's campaign says Obama will join McAuliffe at a rally in northern Virginia. No additional details were available.
Polls show McAuliffe is ahead of Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia race, one of two gubernatorial contests being held this year. The winner will replace outgoing Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.
First lady Michelle Obama already has campaigned for McAuliffe, and Democrats are hoping that a win for McAuliffe will affirm that Virginia is winnable territory for Democrats.
The event comes as Obama is embarking on a busy six-week stretch of campaigning and fundraising for Democrats.
McAuliffe is the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Mozilla is working on a geolocation data service using cell tower and Wi-Fi signals to give developers what it says will be a more privacy-aware option than current alternatives.
The service, which is in its early stages, would be mobile-focused, though laptops without GPS hardware could also use it to quickly identify their approximate location, the Firefox browser maker announced Monday.
Geolocation data constitutes a crowded space -- commercial players include Neustar IP Intelligence, MaxMind, IPligence and Google. But there is still no large public service option, Mozilla said. Also, Mozilla's standing as an open-source software developer puts it in a better position to grapple with issues around privacy, the company said.
"None of the current companies offering this type of service have any incentive to improve on privacy," Mozilla said in its Wiki page devoted to the project. "In order to do this assessment, we need to understand the technological challenges and get real data," the company said.
The data would be provided by cell towers, Wi-Fi and IP address information, Mozilla said, and it would not have to be monetized. It could be made available to the public, the company said. And Mozilla is already in a good place to start, given its access to Firefox data on both mobile and desktop PCs.
The experimental service already provides basic service coverage in select locations to some early adopters, Mozilla said. Countries where it is active include the U.S., Brazil, Russia, Australia and Indonesia. People can start giving Mozilla data for the project by installing the company's stumbler application.
Google, meanwhile, is one of the bigger players in geolocation data, though the company has faced legal troubles by sniffing and storing certain data from Wi-Fi networks. Google also operates its Maps Engine Platform for companies looking to build maps to help run their business.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com
Zach Miners, IDG News Service , IDG News Service
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service More by Zach Miners, IDG News Service
NEW YORK (AP) — Candles and flashlights will light up the shore along the East Coast as survivors of Superstorm Sandy pay their respects to what was lost when the storm roared ashore one year ago.
To mark Tuesday's anniversary, residents of coastal neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey that suffered some of the worst flooding are honoring that terrible day in ways both public and private.
On Staten Island, residents will light candles by the stretch of waterfront closest to their homes at 7:45 p.m. in a "Light the Shore" vigil. Along the Jersey Shore, people plan to shine flashlights in a symbolic triumph over the darkness that Sandy brought.
It's a time of healing for many who suffered in Sandy's wake. But the day also brings back frightening memories for people who survived the waves and wind that lashed their homes.
"People are terrified of the ocean, even though we've lived here all our lives," said Lily Corcoran, who lives in the New York City coastal neighborhood of Belle Harbor. "We're all terrified of the water and what it can do."
Sandy made landfall at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2012, sending floodwaters pouring across the densely populated barrier islands of Long Island and the Jersey shore. In New York City the storm surge hit nearly 14 feet, swamping the city's subway and commuter tunnels and knocking out power to the southern third of Manhattan.
The storm was blamed for at least 181 deaths in the U.S. — including 68 in New York and 71 in New Jersey — and property damages estimated at $65 billion.
In Rockaway's Breezy Point, where nearly 130 homes burned to the ground during the storm, residents will plant sea grass on sand dunes. Small businesses on Staten Island are hosting a block party to celebrate their recovery and drum up business.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags on state buildings to be flown at half-staff on Tuesday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to tour some of the hardest-hit areas in New York City. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie planned Sandy recovery events across the state.
In Staten Island, where Sandy roared ashore and killed 23 people, there are still plenty of reminders of the storm. Wallboard and debris are piled on front lawns. Bungalows are covered in plywood. "Restricted Use" signs are plastered on many front doors.
Resident Jean Laurie is about to break ground on a new home that will be constructed on stilts 13 feet in the air. Propped up on the grass on her tiny plot of land, mounted on a piece of poster board, are photographs taken of the devastated neighborhood after the storm.
"This is like our archives," Laurie said. "To let people know that this happened. It was here. And we survived."
Two people, James Rossi and Ella Norris, drowned here during the storm. Residents recently mounted a stone memorial in the grass near the creek to honor them.
"Jimmy walked his dog here every day," Rossi's cousin, Diane Hague, said as she knelt down before it silently on a recent afternoon. "It's fitting that we have something so beautiful to represent the people that we lost."
Verizon gave no details when it announced plans to offer the BlackBerry Z30, but it's finally narrowing things down... well, mostly. The 5-inch BB 10.2 flagship is now poised to reach Big Red sometime this November (the carrier isn't being more specific) for $200 on contract. It's billed as a US exclusive, although BlackBerry's Vivek Bhardwaj tellsCNET that there's nothing precluding more deals. In other words, rival carriers just weren't eager to sell the Z30 -- possibly due to their challenges selling the Z10. While we'd prefer both an exact release date and more network choices, it's clear that Americans won't have to wait much longer if they want the most powerful BlackBerry possible.
WUSTL researchers developing hospital patient early warning system
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
24-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Neil Schoenherr nschoenherr@wustl.edu 314-935-5235 Washington University in St. Louis
A team of Washington University in St. Louis engineers and physicians is combining areas of expertise to prevent hospitalized patients from deteriorating while in the hospital and from being readmitted soon after discharge.
Nearly 20 percent of hospital patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, a $15 billion problem for both patients and the health-care system. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare is reducing its payments to hospitals with excessive readmission rates.
Yixin Chen, PhD, associate professor of computer science & engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a $718,042 grant from the National Science Foundation to mine data from hospital records to improve an early warning system that has been tested at Barnes-Jewish Hospital for several years. He is collaborating with Chenyang Lu, PhD, professor of computer science & engineering; Thomas Bailey, MD, and Marin Kollef, MD, both professors of medicine at the School of Medicine.
With the funding, Chen and his colleagues will develop a large database gathering data from various sources, including 34 vital signs, from routine clinical processes, real-time bedside monitoring and existing electronic data sources from patients in general wards at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Then they will develop algorithms that will mine and analyze the data looking for any signs of potential deterioration or life-threatening event in a patient, such as a heart attack, stroke or septic shock.
First, they will apply their algorithms to the patient data, such as blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation, to identify patients at high-risk for their condition to worsen. Those identified as being at risk will then be attached to a commercial sensor that provides data on vital signs every minute, then transmits the data wirelessly to a server, where a second algorithm will analyze it to predict deterioration. The system will also provide an alert to physicians on the patients' deteriorating condition with an explanation of the cause and suggest possible interventions.
"Our algorithms can detect potential deterioration by finding hidden patterns in large amounts of data," Chen says. "These hidden patterns are hard to be detected manually."
Although early warning systems exist, Chen says they are inadequate because they require monitoring by overburdened clinical staff. But the team's early warning system would not require any additional work by patient-care staff because it uses existing data, Kollef says.
Kollef and Bailey have been working on such a system for about eight years in response to a mandate by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that hospitals reduce cardiac arrests and other sudden, life-threatening events in patients on general medical floors by implementing a system of Rapid Response Teams. Because they wanted to expand the early warning system and make improvements, they brought in Chen and Lu for their engineering expertise.
"Being physicians, this is something for which we need a lot of support from the Engineering school," Kollef says. "It's a nice example of taking the clinical side and the engineering side and bringing them together to come up with a solution for a problem that hasn't had a good solution in the past."
Together, they plan to conduct a clinical study to evaluate the proposed system with the goal of using the technology in clinical practice to reduce patient mortality rates and hospital readmissions as well as to improve administration of the U.S. health-care system.
Chen says the data will be kept secure through the hospital's security standards and through a secure VPN connection with state-of-the-art encryption. No personal information will be included with the data.
###
For more information, visit http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~wenlinchen/project/clinical/
The School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis focuses intellectual efforts through a new convergence paradigm and builds on strengths, particularly as applied to medicine and health, energy and environment, entrepreneurship and security. With 82 tenured/tenure-track and 40 additional full-time faculty, 1,300 undergraduate students, 700 graduate students and more than 23,000 alumni, we are working to leverage our partnerships with academic and industry partners across disciplines and across the world to contribute to solving the greatest global challenges of the 21st century.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WUSTL researchers developing hospital patient early warning system
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
24-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Neil Schoenherr nschoenherr@wustl.edu 314-935-5235 Washington University in St. Louis
A team of Washington University in St. Louis engineers and physicians is combining areas of expertise to prevent hospitalized patients from deteriorating while in the hospital and from being readmitted soon after discharge.
Nearly 20 percent of hospital patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, a $15 billion problem for both patients and the health-care system. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare is reducing its payments to hospitals with excessive readmission rates.
Yixin Chen, PhD, associate professor of computer science & engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a $718,042 grant from the National Science Foundation to mine data from hospital records to improve an early warning system that has been tested at Barnes-Jewish Hospital for several years. He is collaborating with Chenyang Lu, PhD, professor of computer science & engineering; Thomas Bailey, MD, and Marin Kollef, MD, both professors of medicine at the School of Medicine.
With the funding, Chen and his colleagues will develop a large database gathering data from various sources, including 34 vital signs, from routine clinical processes, real-time bedside monitoring and existing electronic data sources from patients in general wards at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Then they will develop algorithms that will mine and analyze the data looking for any signs of potential deterioration or life-threatening event in a patient, such as a heart attack, stroke or septic shock.
First, they will apply their algorithms to the patient data, such as blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation, to identify patients at high-risk for their condition to worsen. Those identified as being at risk will then be attached to a commercial sensor that provides data on vital signs every minute, then transmits the data wirelessly to a server, where a second algorithm will analyze it to predict deterioration. The system will also provide an alert to physicians on the patients' deteriorating condition with an explanation of the cause and suggest possible interventions.
"Our algorithms can detect potential deterioration by finding hidden patterns in large amounts of data," Chen says. "These hidden patterns are hard to be detected manually."
Although early warning systems exist, Chen says they are inadequate because they require monitoring by overburdened clinical staff. But the team's early warning system would not require any additional work by patient-care staff because it uses existing data, Kollef says.
Kollef and Bailey have been working on such a system for about eight years in response to a mandate by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that hospitals reduce cardiac arrests and other sudden, life-threatening events in patients on general medical floors by implementing a system of Rapid Response Teams. Because they wanted to expand the early warning system and make improvements, they brought in Chen and Lu for their engineering expertise.
"Being physicians, this is something for which we need a lot of support from the Engineering school," Kollef says. "It's a nice example of taking the clinical side and the engineering side and bringing them together to come up with a solution for a problem that hasn't had a good solution in the past."
Together, they plan to conduct a clinical study to evaluate the proposed system with the goal of using the technology in clinical practice to reduce patient mortality rates and hospital readmissions as well as to improve administration of the U.S. health-care system.
Chen says the data will be kept secure through the hospital's security standards and through a secure VPN connection with state-of-the-art encryption. No personal information will be included with the data.
###
For more information, visit http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~wenlinchen/project/clinical/
The School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis focuses intellectual efforts through a new convergence paradigm and builds on strengths, particularly as applied to medicine and health, energy and environment, entrepreneurship and security. With 82 tenured/tenure-track and 40 additional full-time faculty, 1,300 undergraduate students, 700 graduate students and more than 23,000 alumni, we are working to leverage our partnerships with academic and industry partners across disciplines and across the world to contribute to solving the greatest global challenges of the 21st century.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
People watch the waves batter into the sea wall of a marina in Brighton, south England, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane force winds is lashing much of Britain, causing flooding and travel delays including the cancellation of roughly 130 flights at London's Heathrow Airport. Weather forecasters say it is one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
People watch the waves batter into the sea wall of a marina in Brighton, south England, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane force winds is lashing much of Britain, causing flooding and travel delays including the cancellation of roughly 130 flights at London's Heathrow Airport. Weather forecasters say it is one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Waves batter into the sea wall of a marina in Brighton, south England, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane force winds is lashing much of Britain, causing flooding and travel delays with the cancellation of many flights and trains. Weather forecasters say it is one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Engineers look at the damage as a crane working on redevelopment at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall, near to Downing Street in London, was brought down by high winds, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane-force gusts is lashing southern Britain, parts of France and Netherlands, causing flooding and travel delays with the cancellation of many flights and trains. Weather forecasters say it is one of the worst storms to hit Britain in years. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A car is crushed under a fallen tree as a man pushes a bicycle nearby following a storm, in Hornsey, north London, Monday Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane-force winds is lashing southern Britain, causing flooding and travel delays including the cancellation of roughly 130 flights at London's Heathrow Airport. (AP Photo/PA, Yui Mok) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES , NO ARCHIVES
A man walks in a sidewalk partially blocked by trees outside Strand station in London, Monday Oct. 28, 2013. A major storm with hurricane-force winds is lashing southern Britain, causing flooding and travel delays including the cancellation of roughly 130 flights at London's Heathrow Airport. (AP Photo/PA, Jonathan Brady) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVES
LONDON (AP) — A savage coastal storm powered by hurricane-force gusts slashed its way through Britain and western Europe on Monday, felling trees, flooding lowlands and snarling traffic in the air, at sea and on land. At least 13 people were reported killed.
It was one of the worst storms to hit the region in years. The deadly tempest had no formal name — and wasn't officially classified as a hurricane due to a meteorological standard — but it was dubbed the St. Jude storm (after the patron saint of lost causes) and stormageddon on social networks.
Gusts of 99 miles per hour (160 kph) were reported on the Isle of Wight in southern England, while gusts up to 80 mph hit the British mainland. Later in the day, the Danish capital of Copenhagen saw record gusts up of to 120 mph (194 kph) and an autobahn in central Germany was shut down by gusts up to 62 mph (100 kph).
All across the region, people were warned to stay indoors. Hundreds of trees were uprooted or split, blocking roads and crushing cars. The Dutch were told to leave their beloved bicycles at home for safety's sake.
At least thirteen storm-related deaths were reported, most victims crushed by falling trees. Germany had six deaths, Britain had five and the Netherlands and Denmark had one each. One woman was also missing after being swept into the surf in France.
Two people were killed in London by a gas explosion and a British teen who played in the storm-driven surf was swept out to sea. A man in Denmark was killed when a brick flew off and hit him in the head.
Despite the strength of its gusts, the storm was not considered a hurricane because it didn't form over warm expanses of open ocean like the hurricanes that batter the Caribbean and the United States. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, said Britain does not get hurricanes because those are "warm latitude" storms that draw their energy from seas far warmer than the North Atlantic. Monday's storm also did not have an "eye" at its center like most hurricanes.
London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, cancelled at least 130 flights and giant waves prompted the major English port of Dover to close, cutting off ferry services to France.
Nearly 1,100 passengers had to ride out the storm on a heaving ferry from Newcastle in Britain to the Dutch port of Ijmuiden after strong winds and heavy seas blocked it from docking in the morning. The ship returned to the North Sea to wait for the wind to die down rather than risk being smashed against the harbor's walls, Teun-Wim Leene of DFDS Seaways told national broadcaster NOS.
In central London, a huge building crane near the prime minister's office crumpled in the gusts. The city's overburdened transit system faced major delays and cancellations and did not recover even once the weather swept to the east.
A nuclear power station in Kent, southern England, automatically shut its two reactors after storm debris reduced its incoming power supply. Officials at the Dungeness B plant said the reactors had shut down safely and would be brought back once power was restored.
The storm left Britain in the early afternoon and roared across the English Channel, leaving up to 270,000 U.K. homes without power.
Trains were canceled in southern Sweden and Denmark. Winds blew off roofs, with debris reportedly breaking the legs of one man. Near the Danish capital of Copenhagen, the storm ripped down the scaffolding from a five-story apartment building.
Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport saw delays as strong gusts prevented passengers from using boarding bridges to disembark from planes to the terminals.
In Germany, the death toll hit six, with four people killed in three separate accidents Monday involving trees falling on cars, the dpa news agency reported. A sailor near Cologne was killed Sunday when his boat capsized and a fisherman drowned northeast of the city.
In addition to widespread rail disruptions, both Duesseldorf and Hamburg airports saw many flights cancelled, stranding more than 1,000 passengers.
Thousands of homes in northwestern France also lost electricity, while in the Netherlands several rail lines shut down and airports faced delays. Amsterdam's central railway station was closed due to storm damage.
In France, maritime officials were searching for a woman who was swept into the turbulent Atlantic by a big wave Monday as she walked on Belle Isle, a small island off the coast of Brittany.
"We are focused on the search," Yann Bouvart, of the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture told BFM-TV. He said a helicopter, a boat and an inflatable Zodiac were looking for the woman.
Amsterdam was one of the hardest-hit cities as the storm surged up the Dutch coast. Powerful wind gusts toppled trees into canals in the capital's historic center and sent branches tumbling onto rail and tram lines, halting almost all public transport. Commuters faced long struggles to get home.
Ferries in the Baltic Sea, including between Denmark and Sweden, were canceled after the Swedish Meteorological Institute upgraded its storm warning to the highest possible level, class 3, which indicates "very extreme weather that could pose great danger."
Trains were canceled in southern Sweden, and many bridges were closed between the islands in Denmark.
London Mayor Boris Johnson praised emergency workers for doing an "amazing job" trying to keep London moving. He said his thoughts, along with those of all Londoners, were with the victims and their loved ones.
___
Cassandra Vinograd in London, Sarah DiLorenzo and Elaine Ganley in Paris, Malin Rising in Stockholm, Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
Earlier this month we got to hear Kelly Clarkson‘s new Xmas single Underneath the Tree, the first from her forthcoming holiday album Wrapped In Red and today we get to check out the ENTIRELY adorable lyric music video for the song. I believe a proper music video is still on the way but in the meantime, we get to check out this supercute animated lyric video for Underneath the Tree. The more I hear this song, the more I like it. I have a feeling that Kelly‘s Wrapped In Red album is going to be a must-own holiday album for every pop music fan. Check out the video above and see how cute it turned out. Are you feeling this Xmas song from Kelly? Is this an album that you think you may want to own?
Hoping their chemistry returns for another hit, Eminem teamed up with Rihanna for his new song, "The Monster."
Previously, the duo found success with the 2010 tune, "Love the Way You Lie" off of Slim Shady's seventh album, Recovery.
The new track will be included on Em's upcoming album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, which hit stores on November 5th.
In the chorus, Ri-Ri sings, "I'm friends with the monster that's under my bed/ Get along with the voices inside of my head/ You're trying to save me/ Stop holding your breath/ And you think I'm crazy/ Yeah, you think I'm crazy/ Well that's not fair." Check it out in the player below.
If you ever get an uncomfortable feeling about how many eyes are on you as you wander in cyberspace, there's a new tool that will bring the lurkers out of the shadows. Mozilla's Lightbeam add-on for the Firefox browser displays three different views of tracking activity. Much of it you may find innocuous, but you might want to take further steps to tell some third-party trackers to take a hike.
Firefox creator Mozilla has released a tool to show which companies are monitoring your online browsing activity in its mission to make the Web more transparent.
Lightbeam, available as a free Firefox browser extension, shows which third-party companies are tracking your browsing activity, and how they are connected. Those third parties often represent brands and advertisers that want to share your data or display targeted ads.
Who's Watching?
The aim of the tool, according to Mozilla, is to highlight the first- and third-party sites you interact with, including the parts of the Web that are hidden from plain view. Third parties typically place a small piece of code called a "tracking cookie" on your computer, which they use to watch how you bounce from page to page.
Lightbeam allows you to take an in-depth look at how third parties collide with your online activity using three distinct visualizations.
The Graph option displays an interactive representation of every website you've visited, and how various third-party services connect to each of those.
The List view details the first and most recent times you interacted with a site; lists how many sites you've visited and the third-party sites you've connected to; and notes the number of connections each site you've accessed has with the others on the list.
The Clock view allows you to examine the number and types of connections you've made with websites over 24 hours.
You have the option of sharing your data with the Lightbeam database, which aims to build a wider picture of how first- and third-party sites intersect. Mozilla put the Lightbeam code on Github as an open source project, to let developers "hack, expand and improve" it.
"It's important to provide users with transparency regarding cookies. That said, exactly how important it is for users to be aware of cookies depends upon the particular user," Alan Chapell, president of Chapell and Associates, told TechNewsWorld. "Some care a great deal about this stuff, while others don't care as much."
Lightbeam is the latest version of Collusion, a personal project created by Mozilla developer Atul Varma in 2011 to visualize user browsing and online data collection. Mozilla collaborated with students from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design to create visualizations for the browser extension. Lightbeam was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
Privacy Concerns
One clear consequence of Lightbeam is that it may encourage Web users to consider their privacy online. Over time, third-party marketing firms can build a wealth of information about you, which they may then sell to advertisers. Those advertisers can then use that data to display ads targeted toward your interests and demographic. Third parties also could transfer data on your browsing activity to government agencies.
"Potential dangers involve having your information spread out across the Web and in companies' databases that you don't even know about. You don't know how they're using such information," Adi Kamdar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told TechNewsWorld.
"We've seen stories where marketers end up predicting that someone is pregnant, for example, so they send information about their pregnancy, which is something that they or their family members may not know about," he pointed out.
"This data can reveal sensitive political information about people," Kamdar observed.
"Users should understand how their information is being used online," noted the EFF's Dan Auerbach. "However, it is also our role as technologists to ensure that people are protected automatically, and right now we are failing that with respect to user privacy."
Covering Your Tracks
There are a number of steps you can undertake to prevent third parties from tracking your online movements.
"Using something like Lightbeam is a great step to knowing exactly what sort of third parties are tracking you," said Kamdar. "There are some browsers that block these cookies and do a really good job of making sure these third-party requests don't happen without your consent. Some examples are Ghostery and Do Not Track Me."
Users often can go to tracking companies' websites and opt out, he added.
"Browsing histories contain incredibly sensitive information like sexual orientation and financial information," said Auerbach, who noted ad blocking tool Disconnect as one way to block tracking cookies.
Not all Web tracking is inherently intrusive. Cookies are often used to save users time by automatically filling forms and storing preferences. They're used to store items in shopping baskets on retail sites and to keep you logged in on your favorite social networks. Website owners use them to see how often you visit their domains for stat tracking.
However, there aren't too many downsides to making third-party tracking requests more transparent to users, maintained Kamdar. "It reveals how pervasive tracking is on the Web. Once people realize going to a website gives your presence away -- not just to that website, but to 10 other parties -- they're going to be more privacy-aware and more aware of the circumstances of their Web browsing."
Study finds new genetic error in some lung cancers
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Robbin Ray robbin_ray@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-4090 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
May offer target for therapies in patients
BOSTON A fine-grained scan of DNA in lung cancer cells has revealed a gene fusion a forced merger of two normally separate genes that spurs the cells to divide rapidly, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Colorado Cancer Center report in a new paper in the journal Nature Medicine. Treating the cells with a compound that blocks a protein encoded by one of those genes NTRK1 caused the cells to die.
The finding suggests that the fusion of NTRK1 to other genes fuels the growth of some lung adenocarcinomas (a form of non-small cell lung cancer), and that drugs that target NTRK1's protein product could be effective in patients whose lung tumors harbor such fusions.
"Treatment with targeted therapies is now superior to standard chemotherapy for many patients with lung cancers that harbor genetic changes including those with fusions involving the gene ALK," says Pasi A. Jnne, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber, the senior co-author of the paper with Robert C. Doebele, MD, PhD, of CU Cancer Center. "We know of several other genes that are fused in lung cancer and that offer attractive targets for new therapies. Our discovery places lung adenocarcinomas with NTRK1 fusions squarely within that group."
In the study, researchers performed next-generation DNA sequencing tests which read the individual elements of the genetic code over long stretches of chromosomes on tumor samples from 36 patients with lung adenocarcinomas whose tumors did not contain any previously known genetic alterations that could be found with standard clinical tests. In two of those samples both from women who had never smoked investigators found that a key region of the NTRK1 gene had become fused to normally distant genes (to the gene MPRIP in one patient; and the gene CD74 in the other).
NTRK1 holds the blueprint for a protein called TRKA, which dangles from the surface of cells and receives growth signals from other cells. The binding of NTRK1 to other genes causes TRKA to issue cell-growth orders on its own, without being prompted by outside signals.
In the laboratory, investigators mixed NTRK1-inhibiting agents into lung adenocarcinoma cells harboring NTRK1 fusions. The result was a dampening of TRKA's activity and the death of the cancer cells.
Investigators then designed a new test using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to detect NTRK1 fusions and tested an additional 56 tumor samples. In total, three of 91 tumor samples which had no other sign of cancer-causing genetic abnormalities, had fusions involving NTRK1.
"These findings suggest that in a few percent of lung adenocarcinoma patients people in whose cancer cells we had previously been able to find no genetic abnormality tumor growth is driven by a fusion involving NTRK1," Jnne says. "Given that lung cancer is a common cancer, even a few percent is significant and translates into a large number of patients. Our findings suggest that targeted therapies may be effective for this subset of lung cancer patients."
"This is still preclinical work," Doebele says, "but it's the first and maybe even second and third important steps toward picking off another subset of lung cancer with a treatment targeted to the disease's specific genetic weaknesses."
###
The co-lead authors of the study are Aria Vaishnavi, BS, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Marzia Capelletti, PhD, of Dana-Farber. Co-authors include Anh Le, BA, Severine Kako, Sakshi Mahale, MS, Kurtis Davies, PhD, Dara Aisner, MD, PhD, Amanda Pilling, PhD Eamon Berge, MD, and Marileila Varella-Garcia, PhD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine; Mohit Butaney, Dalia Ercan, and Peter Hammerman, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber; Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Gregory Kryukov, PhD, of the Broad Institute; Jhingook Kim, MD, of Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; Hidefumi Sasaki, MD, of Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan; Seung-il Park, MD, PhD, of Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; Julia Haas, PhD, and Steven Andrews, PhD, of Array BioPharma; Doron Lipson, PhD, Philip Stephens, PhD, and Vince Miller, MD, of Foundation Medicine.
The research was supported by the Colorado Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, the National Institutes of Health, and the Boettcher Foundation's Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program, the Cammarata Family Foundation Research Fund, and the Nirenberg Fellowship at Dana-Farber.
About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Boston Children's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute and on Twitter: @danafarber.
About University of Colorado Cancer Center
The University of Colorado Cancer Center is Colorado's only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. NCI has given only 41 cancer centers this designation, deeming membership as "the best of the best." CU Cancer Center is headquartered on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and is a consortium of three state universities (Colorado State University, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Colorado Denver) and six health delivery institutions: University of Colorado Health System (including University of Colorado Hospital, Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies and Memorial Hospital), Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver Health, Denver VA Medical Center, National Jewish Health and Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study finds new genetic error in some lung cancers
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Robbin Ray robbin_ray@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-4090 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
May offer target for therapies in patients
BOSTON A fine-grained scan of DNA in lung cancer cells has revealed a gene fusion a forced merger of two normally separate genes that spurs the cells to divide rapidly, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Colorado Cancer Center report in a new paper in the journal Nature Medicine. Treating the cells with a compound that blocks a protein encoded by one of those genes NTRK1 caused the cells to die.
The finding suggests that the fusion of NTRK1 to other genes fuels the growth of some lung adenocarcinomas (a form of non-small cell lung cancer), and that drugs that target NTRK1's protein product could be effective in patients whose lung tumors harbor such fusions.
"Treatment with targeted therapies is now superior to standard chemotherapy for many patients with lung cancers that harbor genetic changes including those with fusions involving the gene ALK," says Pasi A. Jnne, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber, the senior co-author of the paper with Robert C. Doebele, MD, PhD, of CU Cancer Center. "We know of several other genes that are fused in lung cancer and that offer attractive targets for new therapies. Our discovery places lung adenocarcinomas with NTRK1 fusions squarely within that group."
In the study, researchers performed next-generation DNA sequencing tests which read the individual elements of the genetic code over long stretches of chromosomes on tumor samples from 36 patients with lung adenocarcinomas whose tumors did not contain any previously known genetic alterations that could be found with standard clinical tests. In two of those samples both from women who had never smoked investigators found that a key region of the NTRK1 gene had become fused to normally distant genes (to the gene MPRIP in one patient; and the gene CD74 in the other).
NTRK1 holds the blueprint for a protein called TRKA, which dangles from the surface of cells and receives growth signals from other cells. The binding of NTRK1 to other genes causes TRKA to issue cell-growth orders on its own, without being prompted by outside signals.
In the laboratory, investigators mixed NTRK1-inhibiting agents into lung adenocarcinoma cells harboring NTRK1 fusions. The result was a dampening of TRKA's activity and the death of the cancer cells.
Investigators then designed a new test using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to detect NTRK1 fusions and tested an additional 56 tumor samples. In total, three of 91 tumor samples which had no other sign of cancer-causing genetic abnormalities, had fusions involving NTRK1.
"These findings suggest that in a few percent of lung adenocarcinoma patients people in whose cancer cells we had previously been able to find no genetic abnormality tumor growth is driven by a fusion involving NTRK1," Jnne says. "Given that lung cancer is a common cancer, even a few percent is significant and translates into a large number of patients. Our findings suggest that targeted therapies may be effective for this subset of lung cancer patients."
"This is still preclinical work," Doebele says, "but it's the first and maybe even second and third important steps toward picking off another subset of lung cancer with a treatment targeted to the disease's specific genetic weaknesses."
###
The co-lead authors of the study are Aria Vaishnavi, BS, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Marzia Capelletti, PhD, of Dana-Farber. Co-authors include Anh Le, BA, Severine Kako, Sakshi Mahale, MS, Kurtis Davies, PhD, Dara Aisner, MD, PhD, Amanda Pilling, PhD Eamon Berge, MD, and Marileila Varella-Garcia, PhD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine; Mohit Butaney, Dalia Ercan, and Peter Hammerman, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber; Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Gregory Kryukov, PhD, of the Broad Institute; Jhingook Kim, MD, of Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; Hidefumi Sasaki, MD, of Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan; Seung-il Park, MD, PhD, of Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; Julia Haas, PhD, and Steven Andrews, PhD, of Array BioPharma; Doron Lipson, PhD, Philip Stephens, PhD, and Vince Miller, MD, of Foundation Medicine.
The research was supported by the Colorado Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, the National Institutes of Health, and the Boettcher Foundation's Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program, the Cammarata Family Foundation Research Fund, and the Nirenberg Fellowship at Dana-Farber.
About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Boston Children's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute and on Twitter: @danafarber.
About University of Colorado Cancer Center
The University of Colorado Cancer Center is Colorado's only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. NCI has given only 41 cancer centers this designation, deeming membership as "the best of the best." CU Cancer Center is headquartered on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and is a consortium of three state universities (Colorado State University, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Colorado Denver) and six health delivery institutions: University of Colorado Health System (including University of Colorado Hospital, Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies and Memorial Hospital), Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver Health, Denver VA Medical Center, National Jewish Health and Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
As we all know, Linux, BSD, and a host of other operating systems have been "free" for years, if not for their entire existence. Sure, there are for-cost distributions backed with support, but the fact remains that you can grab an ISO off a mirror site and install a Unix-based OS on any hardware you like, physical or virtual. With Apple's announcement that OS X Mavericks will be a free upgrade, we can add the Mac OS to that list -- though you still technically need Apple hardware to run it.
Hackintoshes aside, this is an interesting move for Apple, as it leaves Microsoft Windows as the last for-cost operating system holdout in the desktop space. Microsoft's business model will make it hard for the company to follow suit, as it doesn't have the advantage of profiting directly from the hardware sales underlying its OS. But it seems to me that Microsoft will have to reduce the price of Windows substantially to counter this move by Apple. It's hard to justify $100 plus for a Windows operating system upgrade when the competition gives it away in a seamless online upgrade.
This move by Apple may also legitimize desktop Linux in the minds of many casual users. I know, I know -- we've been hearing about the Year of Desktop Linux for, well, more years than I can remember, but it's never materialized. Yet we now have three major choices for desktop operating systems, and only one will cost you.
For those who don't wish to pony up for Apple hardware, the cost of Windows may very well push them toward at least trying Linux. Many desktop-focused distributions are making it easier than ever to transition to Linux. Coupled with the widespread disdain for Windows 8's interface, it may be enough to truly open up desktop Linux to the wider mind share it's always needed to succeed.
A convoy of United Nations vehicles at the Lebanon-Syria Masnaa border crossing on October 1 as a chemical weapons disarmament team awaits entry into the country.
AFP/Getty Images
Norway has turned down a U.S. request to take on the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, saying it lacks the capabilities to carry out the task.
The country's foreign ministry said it had given "serious and thorough consideration" to the U.S. request but that "due to time constraints and external factors, such as capacities, [and] regulatory requirements," it would be unable to fulfill the request.
Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said his country didn't have a port that could take the weapons and that Norway lacks the capacity to treat some of the waste products that would result from disarming the munitions.
Brende, speaking in a webcast, said Washington and Oslo had jointly concluded that "Norway is not the most suitable location for this destruction."
As NPR's Tom Bowman reported on Thursday, the issue of who will destroy the weapons has become a thorny one for the U.S. as it seeks to eliminate the chemical weapons threat in Syria.
MADRID (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) recently tracked over 60 million calls in Spain in the space of a month, a Spanish newspaper said on Monday, citing a document which it said formed part of papers obtained from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Spain's government has so far said it was not aware its citizens had been spied on by the NSA, which has been accused of accessing tens of thousands of French phone records and monitoring the phone of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Spain on Friday resisted calls from Germany for the European Union's 28 member states to reach a "no-spy deal", similar to an agreement Berlin and Paris are seeking, though Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the country was looking for more information.
El Mundo newspaper on Monday reproduced a graphic, which it said was an NSA document showing the agency had spied on 60.5 million phone calls in Spain between December 10, 2012 and January 8 this year.
The newspaper said it had reached a deal with Glenn Greenwald, the Brazil-based journalist who has worked with other media on information provided to him by Snowden, to get access to documents affecting Spain.
El Mundo said the telephone monitoring did not appear to track the content of calls but their duration and where they took place.
Spain's European secretary of state and the U.S. ambassador in Spain were scheduled to meet on Monday, after Rajoy said on Friday he too would seek more details from the ambassador.
"We'll see once we have more information if we decide to join with what France and Germany have done," Rajoy told a news conference in Brussels on Friday.
"But these aren't decisions which correspond to the European Union but questions related to national security and exclusive responsibility of member states. France and Germany have decided to do one thing and the rest of us may decide to do the same, or something else."
Snowden is currently living in Russia, out of reach of U.S. attempts to arrest him.
(Reporting by Sarah White and Emma Pinedo, Editing by Tracy Rucinski and Alistair Lyon)
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The Ugandan shilling was flat on Monday and expected to trade in a tight range ahead of October inflation data this week, with some traders forecasting a surge in prices that could pressure the central bank to raise its key interest rate.
At 0923 GMT commercial banks quoted the currency of east Africa's third-largest economy at 2,525/2,530, unchanged from Friday's close.
"Inflation is likely to edge up but it's the level of increase that will likely determine whether the central bank will tighten its stance," said David Kamugisha, trader at Stanbic Bank.
"If the increase in prices is significant then Bank of Uganda (BoU) might be forced to increase the CBR (central bank rate)."
Inflation data is due to be released on October 31.
An increase in the CBR would push up already high borrowing costs and support the local currency, which has traded on a largely strong footing this year, underpinned mostly by companies' sluggish appetite for hard currency.
This month the central bank kept the CBR at 12 percent despite a surge in headline annual inflation to 8 percent last month, from 7.3 percent in August.
"If this week's auction draws inflows the shilling could be biased toward a stronger side but the 2,520-2,530 range is likely to hold," a trader at a leading commercial bank said.
On Wednesday the central bank is due to sell 145 billion shillings worth of Treasury bills of all maturities.
Created by the founders of Russia’s biggest social networking platform, Telegram is a new messaging app that offers speed, security and features such as secret chats with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages.
Brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who launched VK (originally called VKontakte) in 2006, began working on Telegram 18 months ago as a research project because they wanted to create something that was “really secure and fun at the same time.” The importance of Telegram was underscored when Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA and PRISM were first made public in June.
“It made a lot of people really scared and concerned about the current situation. We are certainly among many, many people who started to think about ways to fix the problem,” Pavel told me in a phone interview.
Durov has had his own run-ins with Russian legal authorities. An investigation into a traffic incident Durov denied involvement in was halted for the second time earlier this month, but not before the offices of VK and Durov’s home were both searched. VK was also put on a blacklist earlier this year by Russia’s State Telecom Regulator. Though the organization later claimed the blacklisting was an accident, some analysts said it was a government attempt to intimidate online activists. (During our phone interview, Durov noted that he was using a Russian SIM card and that there was a good chance our conversation was being recorded by the Russian legal authorities.)
Gaining Trust By Being Non-Profit And Open
Telegram is based on a custom data protocol called MTProto built Nikolai Durov, a mathematician. The app’s secret chats, a separate feature from its ordinary chats, use end-to-end encryption. They cannot be forwarded and can be set to self-destruct after a certain amount of time. One key difference between Telegram’s secret and ordinary chats is that secret chats are not stored in the app’s cloud, which means you can only access messages from their device of origin.
Telegram wants to earn users’ trust by operating as a non-profit, open platform initiative.
“The first thing that we wanted to make clear is that nobody has to trust anybody. We don’t take people’s trust for Telegram for granted,” says Pavel Durov.
Durov says there are currently about 100,000 daily active users and he hopes users and developers will take advantage of Telegram’s open API and protocol.
That way, Durov explains, “we will be able to invite everyone to review the messaging algorithm that we use on Telegram and inspect the source code of the app. We can earn trust from them, that end-to-end encryption is something that can be done on the client side. This way, any interested person can check that the app does exactly what it claims to and doesn’t send information to other sources or does anything else that is insecure.” Telegram’s founders say the app will remain non-profit because that enables them to avoid commercial and legal pressure. If they eventually need funds to scale up, Telegram will ask for donations from users or make additional services available as in-app purchases. These could include a virtual number that can be used instead of a real mobile number, ensuring more confidentiality.
Nikolai Durov oversaw the scaling up of VK’s platform as it grew to 50 million daily unique users over seven years. Pavel says the lessons the brothers learned during VK’s development means they will be able to make sure Telegram remains secure even if its user base rapidly expands.
In December Telegram was downloaded over 100,000 times in one day by users in the Middle East, compared to its usual average of 2,000 downloads per day. Based on Twitter chatter, the Telegram team figured out that English-speaking users in the region were downloading the app because they were interested in its group and media sharing capabilities. Unlike WhatsApp, which limits group chats to 50 members, Telegram currently allows up to 100 members.
Philosophy
Telegram’s team wants the messaging app to stand out by offering speed and security, as well as reliance on crowd-sourcing and community-driven efforts.
“VK is famous for its competitions among third-party developers who build alternative versions of VK on its open API,” says Durov. “I hope Telegram will be able to rely on the community even more than VK since it’s a non-profit project that hopefully will be able to attract people who share the idea behind it.”
Another lesson Telegram’s team learned from its experience with VK is to stay clear of Russia’s government. The app rents data centers and servers around the world, including in London, San Francisco, Singapore and Helinski.
“As a foreign company and offshore entity we will not be obliged to comply with the rules of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and countries like that,” says Durov.
If Telegram received requests from government or legal organizations, it would not be able to provide data for end-to-end encrypted chats anyway because the encryption keys are generated on each user’s device and not the server.
“Anyone could look into our documentation and the source code of the app and make sure that we are not trying to fool anyone. The NSA, for that matter, could do the same thing and see that we cannot provide them with any data for purely algorithmic, mathematical reasons,” he adds. “I think that is a way to refuse data requests without openly breaking local rules in America or any other country.”
Telegram is the first project by Digital Fortress, a new company founded by the Durov brothers. The next project will involve voice communication, though Durov is still not sure if it will be developed as a separate project or as a new feature for Telegram. Current priorities for Telegram’s small engineering team include enabling users to permanently delete accounts.
“We will come up with solutions to really ensure people that of the complete deletion of their data,” says Durov. “We have to consider several options and chose the best one to do that in a transparent way.”
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Share
