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Amazon Launches Cloud-Based Business Process Automation …

Amazon just announced the availability of a new service called Simple Workflow Service (SWF), which allows developers to define a series of complex steps in carrying out a business process, then implements and monitors those steps all together, as a service. “This new service gives you the ability to build and run distributed, fault-tolerant applications that span multiple systems (cloud-based, on-premise, or both),” writes Amazon’s Jeff Barr. SWF can also work across mobile devices.

The technology is similar to Beanstalkd, which describes itself as “a big to-do list for your distributed application.” Leena Rao at TechCrunch first reported on the existence of SWF two weeks ago when one of her readers saw it and sent her screenshots. Tonight the service was formally announced, complete with high-profile case studies, infographics and multiple blog posts.

Amazon Web Services customers get a limited number of free workflows they can allocate and Barr’s post discusses pricing at the very end. For example, “You pay $0.0001 for every Workflow execution, and an additional $0.000005 per day if they remain active for more than 24 hours.”

The company launched the new service tonight with three early testimonials, including from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs. They are, as Netflix’s Adrian Cockcroft said on Twitter tonight, “very cool examples.”

As Reto Kramer, General Manager, Application Connection Services, AWS, said in the news release: “By relying on Amazon SWF to handle the coordination of distributed task execution, developers can now focus on building the differentiating aspects of their applications and leave the undifferentiated heavy lifting of building and managing workflow engines to AWS.”

In an article last week called NoOps, AppOps, DevOps, & More – Removing the OS Barrier with PaaS, Part 3.1, Adron Hall references companies like Opscode and Puppet Labs that exemplify a broad shift towards systematic abstraction of business processes. “Improvement of these complex systems is almost always done through abstraction of the complexity and simplification of the creation or deployment of these systems,” he writes. AWS SWF may require an expansion of our understanding of the opportunities available for abstraction.

Automated workflow management, across multiple environments, as a platform for innovation and value creation is a very exciting prospect. It abstracts a layer of detail in order to facilitate the expansion of a developer’s ability to create value on a higher level of abstraction. There may be no higher calling, as platforms go.

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/amazon_launches_business_process_automation_servic.php

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Whitney Houston laid to rest at private burial

The hearse carrying the body of Whitney Houston arrives at Fairview Cemetery for her burial in Westfield, N.J., Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

The hearse carrying the body of Whitney Houston arrives at Fairview Cemetery for her burial in Westfield, N.J., Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

A long line of media vehicles line up to cover the burial of Whitney Houston at Fairview Cemetery for her burial in Westfield, N.J., Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

WESTFIELD, New Jersey (AP) ? Whitney Houston was laid to rest Sunday at a brief private ceremony in New Jersey, the end of a weekend that saw the pop star’s family and friends gather at a star-studded funeral to mourn her loss while celebrating her career.

Fans and onlookers gathered in several places along the route the motorcade took from the Newark funeral home to the cemetery about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away in Westfield, where Houston was buried next to her father, who died in 2003.

The 48-year-old singer died Feb. 11 in California, hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party. No cause of death has been determined.

On Saturday, she was mourned at an invitation-only funeral at the church in Newark where she sang in the choir as a child. She was remembered by the biggest names in the music: Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys sang, and industry mogul Clive Davis was among those who spoke, as was Kevin Costner, Houston’s co-star in “The Bodyguard.”

The funeral was closed to fans, who were not allowed within blocks of the church. Still, many came to Newark to take part in what ways they could, some from as far as Miami and Washington, D.C.

Fans gathered again near the funeral home Sunday morning, and some even slowly ran alongside the hearse as it began the journey to Houston’s gravesite. Several yelled out “We love you, Whitney” as the hearse, which had a black and white headshot of the star in a window, slowly drove away.

Barbara Davis, 53, of Newark, said she had been waiting outside the funeral home since 8:30 a.m., hoping to get a glimpse of Houston’s final trip.

“To be here at her home-going is an honor and a blessing,” Davis told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Also among the crowd was Newark resident Eva Aquino and her two granddaughters, ages 10 and 13. All three stood on a street corner as the hearse passed by, and they used cellphones to snap photos of the procession.

The girls were wearing T-shirts and buttons of Houston that their grandmother had bought from vendors outside the funeral home Saturday.

“We came here and bought all these things of her to cherish the memories,” said 13-year-old Nalani Velez of Kearny.

The burial came a day after an emotional, nearly four-hour service at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church that ended with the strains of Houston’s biggest record, “I Will Always Love You,” filling the church.

Her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston wailed, “My baby! My baby!” as she was held up by two women and led out of the church behind the casket bearing her daughter’s body. A few steps behind her was the pop icon’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, also crying uncontrollably as she was comforted by Houston’s close friend, singer Ray J.

Her death marked the end of a life of stunning achievement. Blessed with a voice of great power and beauty, Houston became one of pop music’s most successful artists over a career that spanned nearly three decades and segued into film with hits like “The Bodyguard.”

But her life was not without struggles. An addiction to drugs and a tumultuous union with ex-husband Bobby Brown saw her tumbling from grace.

Both sides of Houston were recalled at the service at New Hope, which was filled with about 300 mourners, including Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Diane Sawyer and Houston’s cousin, Dionne Warwick.

“She was someone with a charmed and a beautiful life, sometimes misunderstood, even by herself,” said her sister-in-law and manager, Patricia Houston. “But a life nevertheless that gave joy, happiness, enthusiasm, peace and beautiful music to millions of people around the world.”

Costner, her co-star in “The Bodyguard,” said that for all of Houston’s beauty and success, she was still yearning for approval from the public and somewhat insecure, a superstar who “still wondered, ‘Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me?’”

“It’s a tree we could all hang from ? the unexplainable burden that comes with fame,” he said. “Call it doubt. Call it fear. I’ve had mine. And I know the famous in the room have had theirs.”

Many who spoke talked about Houston’s unshakable faith in Jesus Christ. They said it got her through some of her most difficult times. Perry recalled a conversation where Houston would look sad when reflecting on her troubles, but then would hasten to add that God was taking care of her.

“The other thing I know for sure ? and this is more important than anything that she’s done in her life ? Whitney Houston loved the Lord,” he said.

Fittingly, music played a major role in the send-off to one of music’s greatest voices.

Stevie Wonder rewrote lyrics to “Ribbon in the Sky” for Houston ? “you will always be a ribbon in the sky,” he sang.

So did gospel’s the Rev. Kim Burrell for “A Change is Gonna Come,” which Warwick said was Houston’s favorite song of all time. R. Kelly brought the New Hope Baptist Church to its feet with a stirring version of “I Look to You,” the title of Houston’s final studio album.

And Keys, her voice breaking at times, dedicated her song “Send Me An Angel” to Houston

Brown briefly appeared at the funeral, walking to the casket, touching it and walking out. He later said in a statement that he and his children were asked repeatedly to move and he left rather than risk creating a scene.

Warwick presided over the funeral, introducing speakers and singers and offering short insights about her cousin; she joked that Houston’s Super Bowl performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” became almost as big as the telephone book.

Over her career, Houston sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs like “Saving All My Love For You,” ”I Will Always Love You,” ”The Greatest Love of All” and “I’m Every Woman.” Her six Grammys were only a fraction of her many awards.

Houston had her first No. 1 hit by the time she was 22, followed by a flurry of No. 1 songs and multi-platinum records. Her last album, “I Look To You,” debuted on the top of the charts when it was released in 2009 with strong sales, but didn’t have the staying power of her previous records. A tour the next year was doomed by cancellations because of illness and sub-par performances.

___

Online:

http://www.whitneyhouston.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-19-Whitney%20Houston-Burial/id-41dfd2b2a15049b2ac91fe3b5df22427

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Writing and PR with Melanie: What Everyone NEEDS to Know About …

One important aspect I learned, while taking my college PR classes, is to not waste space. I know I’ve mentioned it in previous blogs.

I’ll give you a for instance: if you’re turning in a press kit, and it’s in a binder, you should duplicate the cover for both sides — not just one.

My professional advice to you: Your business card is an advertisement of YOU. You are your own logo. If you think of it in this perspective, it would be wise to pay the extra money to have your name and one essential contact info. printed on the back. But — DON’T OVERDO IT! Make the back simple, plain. Basic contact like an email and your name only.

Out of an entire pile of business cards, it would certainly make finding you a lot easier. And more memorable.

Source: http://writingandprwithmelanie.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-everyone-needs-to-know-about.html

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Children and the World of Social Networking Sites – Education …

Every human being needs a societal environment to survive. We human are social in nature and thus we can?t live an isolated life. No one wants to be the monarch of the solitary island. This is the basic reason behind the evolution of the societies. First people started forming families, then colonies, and they develop bigger colonies which we now call cities, states or nations. To live in a social group is also essential for the security and well being of the human kind. But now with the expansion of the cities and with the growing competition, people get less time to interact with each other.

Earlier, there were community gatherings where people of the same community or sometime from different community come together for a defined purpose. That time more physical interaction was there. Now a day people are so busy that they even don?t know who their next door neighbors are.

The Internet is thus a vital tool to the people worldwide to stay connected with each other. The discovery of the social networking sites can be called a revolutionary step in the evolution of the humankind. Though these sites people can not only connect with their friends and loved ones, but also can share their photos, can pass comments, and also can create platform for the purpose of discussion. This blogging, tagging and photo posting is not limited to the adults and the teens only, but there are a good number of child users of these sites.

Different research studies prove that a good number of children are flaunting age requirements on different adult social networking sites. This sometime creates even life threats to these under aged users.

These sites have set certain age criteria for the users; but as there is no practical way of verifying the age, the children can put wrong age and can easily access the login id. Some scientists fear the fact that under age children using these sites may suffer from damage of brain tissues in a very early age. Some other researchers argue that there is no solid proof of children suffering from any physical problem who use these sites from a very early age. Whatever may be the result, but parents should be conscious about their children?s use of social networking sites. Being parents we should always keep an eye on our children activities.

The Internet is basically a virtual world where the chances of being deceived are very high. While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives. In many cases it?s seen that children easily rely on anyone and this sometime attracts the evil minded people to take advantage of their innocence. Thus teach your child not to disclose any personal information while working on the Internet. Moreover, show your child the positive use of the Internet. It can be used to gain information and at the same time we also can enlarge our sphere of knowledge through it. Communication is the crux of parenting. You need to talk to your kids, or rather, listen to them.

Source: http://education.ezinemark.com/children-and-the-world-of-social-networking-sites-7d33e17ecddb.html

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Study: Schizophrenia’s Hallucinated Voices Drown Out Real Ones (LiveScience.com)

A new finding in brain science reveals that the voices in a schizophrenia patient’s head can drown out voices in the real world ? and provides hope that people with the disorder can learn to ignore hallucinatory talk.

The new research pulls together two threads in earlier schizophrenia studies. Many scientists have noticed that when patients hallucinate voices, neurons in brain regions associated with processing sounds spontaneously fire despite there being no sound waves to trigger this activity. That’s an indication of brain overload.

But when presented with real-world voices, other studies showed, hallucinating patients’ brains often failed to respond at all, in contrast with healthy brains. These studies pointed to a stifling of brain signals.

By analyzing all of these studies together, biological psychologist Kenneth Hugdahl of the University of Bergen in Norway found the simultaneous over-stimulation and dampening of brain signals to be two sides of the same coin. The findings help explain why schizophrenia patients retreat into a hallucinatory world. Now, Hugdahl wants to use this knowledge to help patients reverse that tendency. [Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind]

“What if one could train the patient to shift attention away from the inside voices to voices coming from outside?” Hugdahl said.

Hearing voices that aren’t there

To understand how this training would work, it helps to follow Hugdahl’s logic back to the beginning. Schizophrenia is incredibly complex, he told LiveScience. The disorder is marked by delusions, hallucinations, breakdowns in thought processes ? as many as 35 separate symptoms, presenting differently in every patient.

Hugdahl and his colleagues decided to work toward understanding just one of these symptoms: hallucinations, the most universal mark of schizophrenia (about 70 percent to 80 percent of schizophrenia patients hallucinate). In research published in 2009, the scientists asked hallucinating patients to listen to sounds through headphones while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. These scanners measure oxygenated blood flow to different brain regions. More blood flow suggests more activity in a given region.

The headphones played two syllables simultaneously, one in the left ear and one in the right ear. For example, the right ear might hear “pa,” while the left heard “ta.” Patients weren’t told the tones were different, but were asked to report what they heard.

Healthy patients generally report hearing the syllable played in the right ear, because the brain is wired for fast transmission of signals from the right ear to the left temporal lobe where speech sounds are processed.

In the absence of outside sound, schizophrenia patients’ left temporal speech regions showed hyperactivity, a testament to the real-seeming voices they were hearing in their heads. Hugdahl expected that the addition of real-world sound would only increase the activity in the left temporal lobe, given that more stimulus usually means more activation. But that’s not what happened.

“We found, to my big surprise, that they didn’t report hearing the right ear sounds when they were hallucinating,” he said. “We didn’t see activation in the left temporal lobe either.”

A brain paradox

This was a paradox. How could the brain be overreacting to nothing and yet shutting down when real sounds came along? To find out if this paradox was real, Hugdahl and University of Bergen researchers Kristiina Kompus and Rene Westerhausen (who is ?also affiliated with Bergen’s Haukeland University Hospital) dug through earlier studies on schizophrenia to see if other researchers had found the same thing. They found 11 studies that had compared the brains of schizophrenia patients with those of healthy people while listening to external sounds, and 12 studies that looked at the brains of hallucinating schizophrenia participants. No one had ever put two and two together, though ? examining the brains of hallucinating patients while they listened to external sounds, for example.

The brain-scan results supported Hugdahl and his colleagues’ earlier findings: The paradox appears to be real.

“It obviously must mean that when the hallucinations are taking place in the brain, they interfere with the perceptual system, the system which is there to perceive external stimuli,” Hugdahl said.

Training the brain

Hugdahl and his colleagues reported their findings in the October 2011 issue of the journal Neuropsychologia. Now they’re taking the research further. It’s possible, Hugdahl said, that the simultaneous hyperactivation and quieting of the brain signals is the work of two neurotransmitters, the chemicals that send signals in the brain. One, GABA, is the major inhibitor of the brain: It calms things down, dampening activation. An excess of GABA could be to blame for the lack of response to real-world voices. [10 Stigmatized Health Disorders]

A second neurotransmitter, glutamate, could be the cause of the hallucinations in the first place. Glutamate is an excitatory chemical that gets the brain buzzing. Extra glutamate in the right spot could overactivate the left temporal lobe, triggering false but all-too-real-sounding voices in the mind.

Funded by a prestigious 20 million Norweigen Kroner ($3.5 million) European Research Council Advanced Grant, the researchers are now conducting brain scans with a tool called magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which will allow them to measure levels of GABA and glutamate in various brain regions in schizophrenia patients.

If the finding holds, it could open doors to new drug treatments for schizophrenia symptoms, Hugdahl said. In the meantime, he and his colleagues are trying something outside of the realm of pharmacology. They want to train patients to ignore internal voices and listen to words from the real world.

To do this, the research team has developed an iPhone app that works just like the original dual-hearing experiments. Schizophrenia patients wear headphones that play them a different speech sound in each ear, just as in the original experiments. For 10 or 15 minutes, twice a day, they practice ignoring the sounds to the normally dominant right ear and report the sounds they hear in the weaker left ear.

Only two patients have started this training so far, with one more set to begin next week. At least 20 or 30 will need to complete the training before Hugdahl and his colleagues can tell if the exercises help patients control their attention to competing voices. If it works, it will be a “major breakthrough,” Hugdahl said. Early signs are providing some hope.

“The first patient we tested said something very interesting, she said that after she had been using this training for a couple of weeks, she had the feeling that the voices were not controlling her as much as before,” Hugdahl said. “She had the feeling that now she could withstand the voices. She was more in control, it was not the voices that were in control. And that’s a major achievement.”

Correction: This article was updated at 5:30 pm ET to reflect the correct grant amount for Hugdahl’s work. It is 20 million Norwegian Kroner, not 20 million Euros.?

You can follow LiveScience?senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience?and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120208/sc_livescience/studyschizophreniashallucinatedvoicesdrownoutrealones

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Anfield cat becomes Internet hit (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? A cat that invaded the famous Anfield turf for three minutes during Liverpool’s 0-0 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Monday has become an internet celebrity.

Several Twitter sites claiming to be the real deal sprung up within hours of the moggy’s Lionel Messi-like slalom across the pitch during the first half.

One, @AnfieldCat, had already attracted 17,368 followers early on Tuesday while video footage of the feline’s antics were proving popular on the internet.

The latest post on the Twitter site had a gentle dig at Liverpool’s city rivals: “Everton rumoured to be interested in signing me, Bill Kenwright too paw to stump up the money.”

Liverpool fans, known for their humour, serenaded the tabby moggy on the night with the chant “A cat, a cat…a cat, a cat, a cat” to the tune of the Kop battle cry “Attack..Attack”

The cat eventually sauntered off and was last seen in the arms of an Anfield steward.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120207/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_soccer_england_liverpool_cat

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