They say necessity is the mother of invention, but laziness has probably inspired many a wonderful creation too. After his roommate complained about having to hand wash all of his clothing, Pu Qingliang, a 21-year-old mechanical design and manufacturing student, put the skills he learned to good use by designing a collapsible, portable automatic washing machine.
     |
All Critics (73) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (9)
The film is touching, filled with taste and care, but not enough to avoid being coy and sentimental.
On the surface, this indie does sound like standard-issue material, but its dynamics are far more complex than its simple exterior.
What Maisie Knew gives the audience a ground-eye view of its mesmerizing title character, a plucky, charismatic New Yorker who navigates downtown bars and building lobbies with the street savvy of a pro.
The result is a film that deeply engages us on multiple levels. Not only do we wonder what Maisie knows and how she knows it, we want to get this seedling to a place where she won't have to be transplanted every day.
It's a study of human nature, not at its worst, but at its most typically pathetic, and it goes to show that the more things don't change, the more they stay lousy.
Intimate, unnerving and entirely addictive.
This is a film that deals in subtle details, and its value lies in the way the filmmakers draw out small moments of surprise or truth from the familiar scenario.
It's far from the first story of a child dealing with the consequences of parental break-up -- but it may be one of the best.
The worthwhile subject matter becomes trivialized.
A wonderful modernized re-telling of the 1897 Henry James short story.
It's an intimate, well-acted and nuanced film that provides a fresh angle on an all-too-familiar struggle.
Onata Aprile is never showy and always authentic, a rare find in a child actor. In fact, she is one of the most self-possessed actors I've seen of any age.
A movie that's much easier to admire than to actually enjoy, no matter how well done or acted.
Onata Aprile's short career should blossom as people react to her subtle performance here.
Despite the big-name adults around her, it's the unknown Onata Aprile who is the star of this movie.
Gazing on Maisie, you want to know what she knows. That you can't is at once your dilemma and your opportunity, what adults must engage in order to be adults.
Despite a sensitive, mature performance from Onata Aprile as Maisie, the girl remains withdrawn and opaque throughout. In telling this sad story from her perspective, it never quite plugs in to what Maisie felt.
No quotes approved yet for What Maisie Knew. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_maisie_knew_2012/
Casts of 'Pitch Perfect' and 'Glee' lead second wave of nominees for the August 11 show.
By Gil Kaufman
Demi Lovato
Photo: Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709826/teen-choice-awards-nominations-pitch-perfect-glee.jhtml
jet crash in virginia beach nicki minaj beez in the trap video
By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An Iranian ship laden with arms seized by Yemeni authorities in January may also have been bound for Somalia, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday.
Yemeni forces intercepted the ship, the Jihan 1, off Yemen's coast on January 23. U.S. and Yemeni officials said it was carrying a large cache of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, being smuggled from Iran to insurgents in Yemen.
The confidential U.N. report, by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, cited Yemeni officials as saying that it was possible diesel carried aboard the ship could have been intended for shipment to Somalia.
The group, which tracks compliance with Security Council sanctions, raised concerns in the report about the flow of weapons to Islamist al-Shabaab militants since the U.N. Security Council eased an arms embargo on Somalia's fragile Western-backed government earlier this year.
The report did not explicitly say that weapons on the ship were headed for Somalia, but one U.N. Security Council diplomat said that if it was true that the diesel was intended for Somalia, it could not be ruled out that other items on the ship, including weapons, might also have been intended for there.
A Western diplomat said the fact that there were 16,716 blocks of C4 explosive on the Jihan 1 suggested a connection between Iran and al-Shabaab in Somalia, as Huthi rebels, unlike al-Shabaab, were not known to use C4.
The U.N. missions for Somalia and Iran did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Iran has vehemently denied past suggestions by Western diplomats of Iranian links to arms supplies to the militants.
The U.N. experts wrote that according to Yemeni security officials, the arms and ammunition were well-packed in small containers concealed inside several large compartments filled with diesel fuel.
"Yemeni officials indicated that this arms consignment was to be delivered to the Huthi rebellion in north Yemen," the report to the Security Council's sanctions committee said. "However the Monitoring Group investigated if some of the Jihan 1 cargo could have been intended for delivery in Somalia."
"When asked about this, security officials confirmed that the diesel could have been bound for Somalia," the report said. "Members of the crew have also divulged to a diplomatic source who interviewed them in Aden that the diesel was bound for Somalia."
The potential Somalia connection was not raised in a recent report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Iran that monitors compliance with the U.N. sanctions regime against Tehran.
AL-SHABAAB REMAINS STRONG
The latest experts' report said Yemen was the top source of arms in Somalia.
The group wrote that authorities in Puntland - a semi-autonomous region of Somalia which has a fractious relationship with Mogadishu - had said that one reason they had passed a law banning Yemeni petroleum imports wthe ease with which arms were smuggled in diesel containers like the ones on the Jihan 1.
"Additional evidence indicates the involvement of an individual entity based in Djibouti as part of a network that supplies arms and ammunition to al-Shabaab in Somalia," it said.
The report said that al-Shabaab remained strong, even though it had been driven out of a number of cities and towns.
"The military strength of al-Shabaab, with an approximately 5,000-strong force, remains arguably intact, in terms of operational readiness, chain of command, discipline, and communication capabilities," it said. "At present, al-Shabaab remains the principal threat to peace and security in Somalia."
The monitoring group said it was concerned about the possible export from Somalia of know-how in the manufacture of suicide vests and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to Kenya and Uganda. It said it had analyzed a suicide vest discovered in Kenya in March, which was similar to ones used by al-Shabaab.
This, the group said, "suggests a transfer of know-how between al-Shabaab in Somalia and al-Shabaab members or its sympathizers operating in Kenya."
Although piracy off Somalia's coast had decreased, it said some of the demobilized pirates were providing private security services to unlicensed fishing vessels off Somalia's coast.
"Puntland officials estimate that tens of thousands of tonnes of illegal catch has been fished from Puntland's coastline between 2012 and 2013 by hundreds of illegal fishing vessels," the report said.
"The vessels are predominantly Iranian and Yemeni owned and all use Somali armed security," it said.
The Monitoring Group said it was investigating reports that illegal fishing vessels were also being used to smuggle weapons.
While the reports were unconfirmed, the group had established "other connections between the illegal fishing networks and networks involved in the arms trade and connected to al-Shabaab in northeastern Somalia," the report said.
The Monitoring Group said Puntland officials estimated that as many as 180 illegal Iranian and 300 illegal Yemeni vessels were fishing in Somali waters, along with a small number of Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and European-owned vessels.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arms-ship-seized-yemen-may-somalia-bound-un-070758360.html
July 1, 2013 ? Dog owners everywhere feel a pang of anxiety as the Fourth of July approaches. Will their pooch simply hide under the bed when fireworks go off or run for the hills? If you're the owner of a dog with noise phobias, what can you do?
University of Washington psychologist James Ha, a specialist in animal behavior, has several suggestions, each with its own set of pros and cons.
Ha, an associate professor with a side business as an animal behavior consultant, says there are three main ways to handle noise phobias: management, treatment and drugs.
Management involves removing the dog from the situation. Owners might put their pets in the basement with loud music on so they don't hear the fireworks. Others may take their dog to a kennel far removed from potential fireworks. Many kennels offer special Fourth of July programs.
If you choose the kennel-in-the-country option, Ha says it's important that your dog is already comfortable with the kennel; for example, it should be a kennel you use regularly when you're on vacation. Don't just drop dogs off at a new kennel on the Fourth of July and expect them to be happy.
Treatment options can include special wraps that apply gentle acupressure, or counterconditioning to replace an undesirable response to a stimulus (fear) with a positive one.
Ha and two researchers from Tufts University in Boston recently published a paper on the effectiveness of a product called Anxiety Wrap for calming dogs during thunderstorms. Ha says there are many similar products that all work essentially the same.
"The Anxiety Wraps work for some dogs and they work for acute situations, or short-term situations," Ha said of the research, which was funded by the company that makes Anxiety Wrap. "The distinction is, most dog bites and aggression is related to fear and anxiety -- of children, of cars, of men -- it's a chronic thing. So the Anxiety Wrap is not going to work on those situations. It's not a magic solution for all forms of anxiety."
However, Ha says the method that works every time to relieve dogs of anxiety is counterconditioning. But it's not exactly easy.
"It's tedious, it's time consuming, but it fixes the problem. This is the technique that actually makes the problem go away," Ha said.
Counterconditioning involves presenting the scary stimulus but at a level that doesn't completely freak out your dog, then rewarding the dog for behaving. In a nutshell, "Set off a lot of fireworks, then give your dog a lot of hot dogs," he said.
For example, get a recording of fireworks and play it, but not too loud. If your dog gets anxious but doesn't completely go bonkers, then reward it with a spoonful of peanut butter, a piece of steak or liver, or your dog's favorite treat. Ha suggests doing this two or three times a day. After about three times the dog will begin to get anxious, then calm down and start looking around for the food treat. After about a week, most dogs have been conditioned to accept the noise.
The third solution is to have your veterinarian prescribe an anti-anxiety drug. Ha says such drugs work well in dogs for acute, one-time situations.
"They're very effective, but just like humans, you have to find the right one, you have to find the right dose" Ha said.
Drugs also help lower some dogs' anxiety threshold enough to work on counterconditioning. Once the counterconditioning has worked, then you can take your dog off medication. Ha says he rarely sees a dog so anxious that it needs to be on meds for the rest of its life.
"If all you're talking about is a few nights, the dog is happier, the dog is better off by not exhibiting anxiety, by not biting or snapping," Ha said.?
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/J1kucToxKG4/130701151454.htm
michael buble Jenni Rivera Alive Facebook Down bo jackson bo jackson hanukkah justin tv
Microbes exposed to a small amount of silver become more vulnerable to antibiotic attack. Karen Hopkin reports.
Subscribe via iTunes
If you?re plagued by werewolves, reach for the silver. And more mundane health problems may also respond well to the silver solution. Because a new study shows that microbes exposed to a pinch of the precious metal become more vulnerable to antibiotic attack. The research is in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez et al, Silver Enhances Antibiotic Activity Against Gram-Negative Bacteria]
Silver?s long been a medical treatment. Hippocrates himself applied it to open wounds. But its use as a cure for contagion fell by the wayside with the discovery of penicillin, and the source of its bug-blasting abilities remained a mystery. Until now.
Researchers treated E. coli bacteria with small amounts of silver. They found that the metal messes with the bugs? proteins, wreaking havoc on their metabolism. It also generates reactive chemicals that attack the microbes from within. All this weakens the bacteria?s defenses, which allows other, more conventional antibiotics to slip in and do their work. Even killing microbes that were formerly antibiotic resistant.
Mice with fatal infections were also saved with a silver and antibiotic combo, and at doses that did the sick rodents no harm. This silver was delivered by injection. For werewolves, the preferred silver delivery system is still the bullet.
?Karen Hopkin
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/biology/~3/G7LGt6QgqWk/episode.cfm
This guy here ? What.A.Pistol. Just when we thinking we?re about done with home improvements/yard work/sprucing up the patio Ox decides to take flying leap (literally) from the top railing of the patio to the road below ? to catch a dog four times (at least) his size.
So now ? not as a design element but to keep Oxford from unintentionally killing himself ? we are adding two rows of stainless steel wire (or something similar and hopefully not ugly) from post to post. The things we do for our pets.
Nangou. Almost done. 20 rows and bind off to go. Thinking of an I-Cord BO in the pink cashmere because I just cannot get enough of that pop of pink against the blue gray. We?ll see.
