We've already heard plenty about Sony's upcoming mid-ranger, the Xperia SP (codenamed "HuaShan") -- said to be a dual-core mid-ranger packing a 720p screen. And although there's no Sony press conference at this year's Mobile World Congress, we're expecting to see it next week in Barcelona.
Today new reports hint at some interesting build quality details for the SP, including an apparent aluminum-framed chassis (with plastic back) and customizable clear element, similar to the Xperia U. These latest details come from XperiaBlog, which cites a "trusted source" with knowledge of the device, and if accurate it's interesting to see Sony revisiting the transparent element as a design feature.
The screen size is also reported at 4.6-inches, which would put it on par with Sony's late 2012 flagship, the Xperia T. And the rear camera is reportedly a 8MP Exmor RS unit -- a lower megapixel count than the Xperia T, but with a more advanced sensor. Storage is said to clock in at 8GB internal, expandable via microSD. Other stats include measurements of 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98mm and a fairly hefty weight of 155 grams.
MWC is traditionally where Sony shows off its mid-range devices, so we'll hopefully learn more about the Xperia SP in Barcelona in the days ahead.
Same-sex attracted men neglected in AfricaPublic release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Thomas Keilman thke@rcn.no The Research Council of Norway
'The first HIV-related study among African men who are attracted to men was carried out in 2005, fully 25 years into the HIV epidemic. Seven years later there is still very limited research and programming focusing on this group of men,' says Kre Moen, a physician and post-doctoral fellow in medical anthropology at the University of Oslo.
No longer undisputed
'In the international AIDS discourse it has until recently been an undisputed truth that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Africa are hard to reach,' says Moen, who has conducted research within this group of men in Tanzania. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, his doctoral thesis explores how MSM in Dar es Salaam understand themselves, live their lives and deal with issues related to HIV.
'When the study was under planning, I must admit I was under influence of the hard-to-reach discourse,' confesses Moen. Yet, these difficulties failed to materialise in Tanzania, 'It was neither time-consuming nor difficult to establish contact with same-sex attracted men in Dar es Salaam, or to involve such men in research.'
Inaccurate and damaging
In his PhD work, Moen critically examines the hard-to-reach discourse in light of this finding. He argues that it is rooted in a taken-for-granted narrative that circulates broadly without being examined or questioned.
'It is increasingly clear that the hard-to reach narrative is not only inaccurate, but also damaging,' says Moen, 'not the least because it discourages engagement with the men it mischaracterises. It also works to falsely justify the exclusion of African MSM due to their supposed unreachability.
That they have not been included in HIV prevention for such a long time would not be surprising or criticisable if they could not or would not be reached; it would be a logical consequence. But when asserting that MSM in Africa are unreachable, one also asserts that there have been on-going efforts to reach MSM - unfortunately, that is just not supported by the historical record,' says Moen.
Different understandings of homosexuality
Moen is interested in the fact that same-sex relations are understood differently from country to country and over time. Basing preventive work on experience from elsewhere can easily end in failure. In Tanzania, for example, not all MSM identify themselves as 'gay'.
'To be able to create meaningful programmes together with MSM, it is important to understand how same-sex eroticism and relations are shaped and lived locally,' underlines Moen.
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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.
Same-sex attracted men neglected in AfricaPublic release date: 21-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Thomas Keilman thke@rcn.no The Research Council of Norway
'The first HIV-related study among African men who are attracted to men was carried out in 2005, fully 25 years into the HIV epidemic. Seven years later there is still very limited research and programming focusing on this group of men,' says Kre Moen, a physician and post-doctoral fellow in medical anthropology at the University of Oslo.
No longer undisputed
'In the international AIDS discourse it has until recently been an undisputed truth that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Africa are hard to reach,' says Moen, who has conducted research within this group of men in Tanzania. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, his doctoral thesis explores how MSM in Dar es Salaam understand themselves, live their lives and deal with issues related to HIV.
'When the study was under planning, I must admit I was under influence of the hard-to-reach discourse,' confesses Moen. Yet, these difficulties failed to materialise in Tanzania, 'It was neither time-consuming nor difficult to establish contact with same-sex attracted men in Dar es Salaam, or to involve such men in research.'
Inaccurate and damaging
In his PhD work, Moen critically examines the hard-to-reach discourse in light of this finding. He argues that it is rooted in a taken-for-granted narrative that circulates broadly without being examined or questioned.
'It is increasingly clear that the hard-to reach narrative is not only inaccurate, but also damaging,' says Moen, 'not the least because it discourages engagement with the men it mischaracterises. It also works to falsely justify the exclusion of African MSM due to their supposed unreachability.
That they have not been included in HIV prevention for such a long time would not be surprising or criticisable if they could not or would not be reached; it would be a logical consequence. But when asserting that MSM in Africa are unreachable, one also asserts that there have been on-going efforts to reach MSM - unfortunately, that is just not supported by the historical record,' says Moen.
Different understandings of homosexuality
Moen is interested in the fact that same-sex relations are understood differently from country to country and over time. Basing preventive work on experience from elsewhere can easily end in failure. In Tanzania, for example, not all MSM identify themselves as 'gay'.
'To be able to create meaningful programmes together with MSM, it is important to understand how same-sex eroticism and relations are shaped and lived locally,' underlines Moen.
###
[ | 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.
BRITISH independent school Dulwich College International plans to open a campus in Singapore in August next year.
The school, Dulwich's seventh in Asia, will be situated on a 5-hectare site in Bukit Batok West. By the completion of the school to its maximum capacity of 2,500 students, total expenditure is expected to exceed $400 million, the college said yesterday.
Dulwich College currently has campuses in London, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Seoul and Zhuhai.
The school, which will cater to children aged 2-18, will be distinctive because of its emphasis on the learning of Mandarin. Children aged from 2-7 will have a full bilingual education where they will be taught by two teachers in English and Mandarin. In the junior school years till age 11, they will have daily Mandarin classes.
Amazon's Lending Library is a great treat for Kindle-owning Prime members: You get nearly 300,000 books to read for free. Browsing the selection on a Kindle is easy enough, but Amazon doesn't offer a direct link to these titles on its site. To get to it, you need to jump through a little hoop.
PCWorld reader Danner discovered the filter method to browse Amazon's Lending Library from your web browser:
At Amazon.com, click the down arrow next to the search box to change from "All" to "Books." Then click Go.
Scroll down on the left navigation section and click "Prime Eligible."
Finally, in the following page, click the "Kindle Edition" header.
Voila! Now you can sort the list to your liking (e.g., by customer review or most reviews) and save them to a list if you like. You'll still need to check out a book directly from the Kindle, but browsing all the titles may be easier on a larger device.
Update: And here's a direct link to the search (thanks blissomatic and allanhecox!)
If you've been wondering what all the Google this, Glass that fuss is all about, Mountain View's revealed what it'll be like to actually wear the virtual specs with a new video, now that it's announced limited availability. In it, we get to see how the search giant's integrated all its apps and functions in the upcoming wearable computer, how you're likely to use it, and what the results might be. To activate the device, users say "ok, glass," then it's off to the races.
From there, we see a hot air balloonist and ballet dancer initiate video recording and send an email or text with a voice command, which are likely to be jobs one and two for most users. Then, a (hopefully not distracted) stunt plane flyer joins a Google hangout mid-flight and sends real-time video to other members of the group, showing the Google+ and social interaction aspects of Project Glass. Image search is shown off by an ice sculptor, who selects various perspectives of a tiger for some inspiration.
The lost and confused are shown navigating their way through New York streets, the Golden Gate bridge, an airport and a ski hill to highlight Google's latest Maps and Now goodies, while a tourist all-too-happy with his Thai meal learns the word for delicious in that language using Google Translate. Finally, there's oodles of first person video from a fencer, horse jumper, trapeze artist, ping pong player and fire juggler, to name a few. All that gives us a sneak preview of the many, many YouTube videos likely to come from the device when it arrives -- though we'd hate to drop, burn or stab it by accident, given the cost. You'll find the video right after the break.
NASA(HOUSTON) ? NASA reported Tuesday morning that it lost its main communications link with the International Space Station for two hours. It blamed the problem on a computer glitch.? The six astronauts on the station, it said, were fine, and still able to talk, at least intermittently, with controllers through Russian ground stations before the problem was solved.
A statement posted Tuesday morning by NASA said:
?This morning, at approximately 9:45 a.m. EST, the International Space Station experienced a loss of communication with the ground. At that time, flight controllers in Houston were updating the software onboard the station?s flight computers when one of the station?s data relay systems malfunctioned. The primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer, but was not allowing the station to communicate with NASA?s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites.?
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Two hours later NASA issued a quick update via Twitter: ?Communications have been restored with the space station effective 11:34AM Central.?
The problem came up while new software was being sent to the station?s main computer.? ?The computer basically burped, for lack of a better word,? said Josh Byerly of NASA. The astronauts were able to reconfigure their computers and solve the problem, he said.
There are six crew members on board ? Americans Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn; Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitiskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko; and Canadian Chris Hadfield.
Nasa ground controllers have re-established contact with the International Space Station less than three hours after a computer failure briefly interrupted communication.
Flight controllers in Houston were updating software on the ISS when one of its data relay systems broke down.
The ISS had been able to make contact intermittently via Russian stations.
Nasa normally speaks and sends data to the station from Houston, via three communications satellites.
Interruptions in both communication and control have happened a few times in the past, the space agency said.
The primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer, but it was not letting the station communicate with Nasa's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, the US space agency said.
The problem occurred at about 09:45 EST (14:45 GMT).
'Not terrible'
The ISS marked its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation on 2 November 2010. Since Expedition 1 in 2000, the space station has been visited by 204 astronauts.
The current crew is made up six men: two Americans, three Russians and a Canadian.
Former astronaut Jerry Linenger, who was aboard the Russian space station Mir during a dangerous fire in 1997, told the Associated Press news agency that a loss of communication with the ground "is not a terrible thing" as long as there is no crisis going on.
"You feel pretty confident up there that you can handle it," he said. "You're flying the spacecraft.''
In the past few weeks the space station has been purposely simulating communications delays and downtimes to see how the crew on a future Mars mission would handle the interruptions, NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said.
Tuesday's loss of communication was not part of those tests, but may prove useful, he added.
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Public release date: 21-Feb-2013
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Amazon's Lending Library is a great treat for Kindle-owning Prime members: You get nearly 300,000 books to read for free. Browsing the selection on a Kindle is easy enough, but Amazon doesn't offer a direct link to these titles on its site. To get to it, you need to jump through a little hoop. 
