Windows Phone Cake Contest: Bake a Cake, Win a Windows Phone

Redmond-based software giant Microsoft is not shy to boast about Windows Phone?s start screen. Microsoft?s Michael Stroh for example described the start screen as ?pretty sweet.? And speaking about things that are pretty sweet, Windows Phone fans shared pics of cakes that present the smartphone?s start screen via Windows Phone?s Facebook page.

And that got the Windows Phone team thinking ? why don?t we turn this into an opportunity to give away some stuff? So the Windows Phone team decided to run a competition that can be resumed in a just a few words: bake a cake that focuses on Windows Phone and you could win a Windows Phone.

The Windows Phone Team announced via its blog and via its Facebook page that if you create a Windows Phone-themed cake, take a pic of the aforementioned cake, then submit the pick on the Cake Contest Facebook page, you have the chance to win cool new Windows Phone (the team did not specify what model Windows phone).

Please note that you must be the one who baked the cake in the image; it doesn?t matter if it is an old image, it only matters that you baked it. You should also note that the all entries for the contest must be received by May 30th. The community will be asked to vote on these entries; the voting ends on June 6th. The three entrants that receive the most votes during this period will be rewarded with a new Windows Phone.

That?s right! Microsoft will give away three Windows Phones as part of the Windows Phone Cake Contest. The three most popular Windows Phone-themed cakes will be rewarded with a Windows Phone.

If you want to find out more about the rules of the Windows Phone Cake Contest, Microsoft posted them on SkyDrive here.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Phone, Facebook, cake, contest

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Golden Gate Bridge marks 75 years since opening against steep odds

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Golden Gate Bridge was a larger than life engineering project undertaken against dangerous odds and it opened 75 years ago on Sunday against vehement protest, at the cost of 11 lives.

One of the most astonishing and admired man-made wonders of the world, gracing millions of postcards, featured in countless films, the bridge was not at first welcomed with open arms.

Ferry operators and environmentalists opposed it, and many engineers doubted such a daring leap over a treacherous Pacific Ocean strait could be built. The military worried a collapsed Golden Gate span could block access to the Bay in war time.

Some San Franciscans even fought against it because they thought a bridge might ruin the view, according to historians.

Kevin Starr, author of "Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge," said 2,000 related court cases were filed over nearly a decade.

But Starr said litigation and regulatory scrutiny largely concluded in the 1920s allowed builders to move quickly once bank funding was nailed down in 1932, in an early form of public-private cooperation.

"President Obama talks about shovel-ready projects," Starr said in a phone interview. "This was shovel ready."

The less than two decades between conception and completion means the Golden Gate compares well with the new quake-proof second span of the Bay Bridge a few miles away, he said. That $6.2 billion project is due to be done in 2013, 24 years after a deadly earthquake literally jolted the authorities into action.

Yet building the Golden Gate, at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion in current dollars, was a Herculean task. While the idea took hold in the prosperous 1920s, by the time ground was broken the Depression had left many people desperate for jobs.

"Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears; Damned by a thousand hostile sneers," was how the head engineer for the bridge, Joseph Strauss, described the bridge in a poem he wrote to mark its completion in 1937. He died less than a year later.

Even the bridge's arresting dark orange color was an accident, first used as a primer while designers decided what to paint it. The Navy had argued for black with yellow stripes, to ensure it could be seen in a strait hostile to mariners, with dense fog, heavy winds and strong ocean swells.

In the end, bridge authorities decided they liked the color - known as International Orange - and stuck with it.

FORM AND FUNCTION

Starr speculated that some early opposition from locals may have been due to the original styling, which was likened to an "upside-down rat trap", before it was altered to the sweeping suspension bridge design.

"Its elegance is derived from its structural efficiency," Paul Giroux, from the American Society of Civil Engineers, said at a panel discussion hosted by San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. "It's a perfect blend of form and function."

Construction began in 1933, 14 years after Strauss was first approached. Bank of America archivist David Mendoza said it took a personal appeal from Strauss to Amadeo Giannini, founder of the then-San Francisco-based bank, to secure funding.

"Strauss was worried it might not get built," Mendoza said of that fateful meeting, now commemorated on a plaque.

After opening on May 27, 1937, thousands of people walked, roller-skated and stilt-walked across. Cars came the next day.

Celebrations for the 50th anniversary became infamous for the frightful swaying of the bridge under the weight of 300,000 people. This time round, the bridge will be closed to cars and pedestrians during a fireworks show that will cap a day of festivities along the bay waterfront on Sunday.

Beyond the revelry and Tributes, the bridge's dark side will lurk in the background: An estimated 1,400 people have jumped off the bridge to end their own lives, a grim reality brought to the attention of many people with a 2006 documentary film, "The Bridge," by Eric Steel. The filmmaker secretly captured more than 20 suicides from the bridge.

"Four seconds drop and you're done," Starr said. "A few people have survived, but not many."

The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District is now studying the costs and feasibility of draping nets along it to catch any jumpers, a twist on the nets deployed during construction, which saved the lives of 22 workers.

Of the 11 men killed from falls during construction, ten were killed after a net failed under stress from a fallen scaffold when the bridge was near completion.

Safety was a serious concern during construction, with hard hats widely used for the first time and workers forced to drink sauerkraut juice if they arrived at work hung over, Starr said.

Living memory is limited. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the last two known surviving builders, Jack Balestreri and Edward Ashoff, died in April, within a week of each other.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; editing by Todd Eastham)

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India disappointed with Pakistan?s decision to not ink liberalised visa pact - Indiatalkies.com

New Delhi, May 26: India has expressed disappointment with Pakistan?s decision to not ink the liberalised visa pact during the Home Secretary-level talks held in Islamabad.

?The visa agreement had to go ahead because it was ready in any case. It had been negotiated, finalized and both sides had attached great importance to having this visa agreement signed. So, we have gone there fully prepared to sign it,? said Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

India and Pakistan on Friday agreed to enhance cooperation between their investigative agencies on issues of mutual concerns, including the 26/11 attacks during the Home Secretary-level talks.

The two sides, however, failed to ink the much-anticipated liberalised visa regime, merely agreeing to do it an early date after Islamabad insisted on political participation.

At the meeting between Home Secretary R K Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Siddique Akbar, the two nations agreed that terrorism poses continuing threat to peace and full normalisation of bilateral relations.

A joint statement issued by India and Pakistan after the two-day talks said they agreed to sign a new visa agreement at an early date. (ANI)

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One more place to play Farmville or one more reason to quit Facebook?

Perhaps there aren't enough places for you to play Words With Friends or FrontierVille, who are we to judge? Maybe what the world needs right now is playable Angry Birds in your Facebook news feed. Instead of just an invitation to join Cow Clicker, maybe you need to be able to play it straight from the homepage. Well, now you can. And that's all we have to say about that.

One more place to play Farmville or one more reason to quit Facebook? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 May 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Justin Bieber wanted for questioning in scuffle

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Biden says end to wars gives US new flexibility (The Arizona Republic)

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Is Chinese herbal medicine safe?

By Leanne Hudson First published: May 27th, 2012

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Critics are calling for better regulation of this centuries-old industry.

You want to avoid colds and flu and you read somewhere that Chinese herbs can help. You buy a remedy online or visit a practitioner. After all, it's a registered, regulated industry, right? Well, sort of. What you might not know is that in April, Australian customs officials seized Chinese medicines that contained potential allergens, toxins and ingredients obtained from protected animal species.

Stringent regulation needed

Apart from in Victoria, there is no government regulatory body for the industry. That will change on July 1, the date the government requires all Chinese medicine practitioners to register and meet minimum standards
of education, training and English. "We welcome national registration," says Judy James, CEO of the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association (AACMA). "It's been in place in Victoria since 2001, but we've lobbied for 30 years."

There are about 4000 practitioners in Australia. About 1200 are in Victoria, leaving almost 3000 who aren't accredited unless they choose to join an association such as the AACMA, which has its own strict standards. But there is nothing to stop anyone from saying they are a Chinese medicine practitioner. Regulation should stop that, but for some the proposed standards are not high enough.

"There are currently medical boards for 10 health professions," says Dr Steve Hambleton, president of the Australian Medical Association. "They set strict standards for practitioners. For instance, GPs must complete almost 50 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) activities per year." These are approved by the Australian Medical Council. If they don't complete the activities, a practitioner can't re-register, so they can't practise. The Chinese Medicine Board of Australia is proposing 20 hours of CPD per year. "It should be on a par with the other professions," Dr Hambleton says. He believes regulation of the industry will offer some protection to the public, but could give kudos to a therapy that has yet to fully prove itself. He also questions how something with such varying levels of evidence can be regulated. "Good and poor evidence exists," he says. "We have an open mind. Many modern drugs come from herbs. The most effective antimalaria drug ? artemether ? comes from a plant. But we need more scientific evidence." James believes more than 2000 years of continuous use is evidence enough. "There is a body of well-established literature that backs up the use of Chinese medicine, and guides diagnosis and treatment," she says. "Over centuries, it has developed into a complex theoretical framework. It's coherent and internally consistent. Evidence has been gathered over many years of practical and clinical testing in the field, as well as clinical trials."

An evolving form of health care

"It's 2000 years of anecdotes, not strong, scientific evidence," Dr Hambleton says. "Experience is important, but it doesn't beat double-blind, randomised, controlled tests." And what about those toxic ingredients? James says the fact that they were discovered proves current regulations are working. "Those products were not approved for sale in Australia," she says. "The Therapeutic Goods Administration strictly regulates what can be sold. The items seized were manufactured overseas. We can't control them, but we can control what enters our market and that's what happened."

For James, Chinese medicine is a living and evolving form of health care that, if carried out by a qualified practitioner, can be finely tuned to address an individual's health problems. She thinks such individualisation
of treatment is one reason why some research may not do Chinese medicine justice. "It's not one herb fits all," she says. "Double-blind clinical trials work well for single ingredients, but Chinese medicine is about complex combinations of herbs tailored to an individual's needs. If you're in the hands of a qualified practitioner ? which regulation will ensure ? it is a safe form of treatment."

For Dr Hambleton, Chinese medicine is a grey area: "I'd like to see more evidence and I want people to understand what evidence is available. If you're still happy to spend money on Chinese medicine, fine, but you deserve to know what level of evidence backs up the claims."

Read our fact sheets on alternative medicines.

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