Roughriders’ core must do more

Posted by solar – May 18, 2012

It is incumbent on the Saskatchewan Roughriders to maximize the effectiveness of their incumbents.

Although the veterans have often been overshadowed during an off-season that is most notable for widespread player-personnel moves, the Roughriders’ brass has also underlined the need for change regarding the deployment of some key returnees.

Three names come immediately to mind: Darian Durant, Weston Dressler and James Patrick.

Patrick, who was the CFL’s all-star safety after registering a league-high nine interceptions in 2010, was not as conspicuous during a 2011 campaign in which the Roughriders won but five games.

Due to the emergence of rookie safety Craig Butler, Patrick was frequently used at linebacker or elsewhere in the secondary. Even while playing out of position, Patrick managed to register five interceptions, but his overall impact on the Roughriders’ defence was reduced – largely by design.

One of the myriad problems that plagued the Roughriders of 2011 was the tendency to make the players fit the system. It is a far, far better thing to put the players in positions at which they can be optimally effective.

Now that all-star linebacker Jerrell Freeman has signed with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, Patrick is the Roughriders’ best defensive player.

Recognizing that, the Roughriders are exploring ways to use Patrick at his best position – safety – with more regularity, while still ensuring that Butler receives significant playing time.

The complicating factor is nationality. Patrick is an import. Butler hails from Canada. To create the flexibility that would allow Patrick to play safety in prescribed defensive packages, a ratio change is necessary elsewhere on the roster. Hence the decision to use a Canadian at middle linebacker.

Not long ago, it appeared that an import – Maurice Lloyd or Chris Graham – would likely start in the middle. But now, the Roughriders intend to audition homebrews Shomari Williams, Mike McCullough and Sam Hurl in the hope that a replacement for Barrin Simpson can be found.

If that experiment is successful, the door will be open for Patrick to once again become a ball-hawk and re-establish himself as the quarterback of the defence.

The quarterback, Durant, is also a crucial part of the equation. If the Riders’ fortunes are to be reversed, it is imperative that he recapture his form of 2009 and 2010.

Durant was largely on an island last season, due to the lack of a quarterbacks coach – surely, the affluent Roughriders could have afforded such an employee – and his incompatibility with offensive co-ordinator Doug Berry.

The Roughriders have made it a priority to surround Durant with a structure that enhances the likelihood of him becoming a weapon in 2012. They have appointed a quarterbacks coach, Khari Jones, who was once among the league’s elite pivots. The offensive coordinator, Bobby Dyce, has a well-established rapport with Durant.

At every opportunity, the coaching staff should encourage Durant to use his array of talents. Far too often, he was anchored in the pocket last season, with the consequence being that his running ability was negated.

The system, such as it was, also turned Dressler – one of the league’s premier deep threats – into a possession receiver. Although Dressler reached the 1,000-yard milestone, he averaged a modest 13.4 yards per catch.

Ideally, Dressler will be used in a manner that will allow him to average 20 yards per reception, as he did in 2008 while earning CFL rookie-of-the-year honours.

The time has arrived for the Roughriders to stop asking their home-run threat to bunt. Sure, he can do it, but is that the best way to use Dressler? The sight of him catching seven-yard passes, only to be clobbered, is one of the enduring images from the Roughriders’ disastrous 2011 season.

In the wake of last year’s eyesore, general manager Brendan Taman has overhauled the roster in close collaboration with newly appointed head coach Corey Chamblin.

Chamblin, like any coach, will be judged by his ability to extract the most from his players.

Although Chamblin faces a formidable challenge while assuming the reins of a team that went winless against West Division opposition last season, his transition should be eased by the fact that the retooled roster still includes some cornerstone players.

Once upon a time…

Posted by solar – May 17, 2012

That archaeological sites could employ someone specially to let children connect with their ancient heritage was something I had not imagined. My recent trip to Thessaloniki in Greece changed my perception.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city of Greece after its capital Athens. Like Athens, Thessaloniki or Salonika too is replete with ancient ruins. Roman Agora or the ancient market place on Filipou Street is one largest of such sites. Stepan, whom I thought was a guide, showed me around the place. Later I learnt that his job was to educate school-children about their heritage through these sites. With a doctorate in Archaeology, Stepan’s job includes devising games in cyberspace as well.

The Roman Agora or market square, which flourished under Roman rule in 3rd century BC, was a kind of modern day plaza which people used to visit for shopping, dining, debating on political matters, enjoying a steam spa in a public bath, watching musical performances, poetry recitals… all in one area. It was thus a hub of political, social as well as economic life.

The entire site is painstakingly excavated and preserved. A walk behind rows of shops leads to a closed passage-way meant for warehouses. Later, citizens started using it as reservoir for storing water, which had become almost a scarcity during Turkish invasion in the 15th century. From small ducts on the upper side of the wall water used to be poured inside. To the right of the passage outside is a large ground with an open air auditorium in one corner where plays and poetry recitals were performed. The auditorium is still functioning and used for the same purpose. The performers use the same Green Room that their counterparts used in 3rd century BC. The only change is the introduction of lights and mikes.

Rotunda, to the west of Melenikou Street, is yet another 4th century BC structure built by Roman emperor Galerius who intended it to be tomb but later converted into a church and then a mosque under Turkish invasion. The dome is unique for the golden mosaic work from inside.

Of the Byzantine churches scattered around the city, the St. Dmitrios and the Metropolis Church stand out for their beautiful mosaics. At St. Dmitrios’ Church at Ag. Dmitriou one can find candles 3-4 meters long priced at 7, 10 or 15 per candle depending on the length and width. The Metropolis Church on Mitropoleos Street is a feast for the eyes. Huge paintings depicting stories from the Bible cover its walls, pillars and ceiling.

White Tower or Lefkos Pyrgos on Nikiforis Street was actually a prison built by the Turkish invaders in the15th century. Located at waterfront, to its right is the sea and on the left the sprawling city. The walkway connecting White Tower is accessible from any square or by lane.

The experience of being a tourist was great. People are friendly and supportive. The only thing was the language; not many people speak English.

But most shops had ‘Made in China’ labels on everything from jewellery to electronics! Looking for something Greek in Greece was the biggest pain! The biggest surprise was Nargis: the only Indian restaurant in the town. Nargis was Google’s gift to me. Snuggled quietly at the back of A. Svolou Street, it feels like home! The ambience is Indian; from curtains to decoration, brass utensils, icon of Hanuman, Amar Chitra Katha books and, surprisingly, pictures of Nargis. The owner is a Greek who seems to be great fan of Nargis whose pictures are in every nook and corner. A Bangladeshi cook and Indonesian waitress serve spicy Indian food in a restaurant owned by a Greek! The food was good and affordable!

Local antiques club marks 45 years

Posted by solar – May 16, 2012

The Fort Ball Antique Club celebrated its 45th anniversary May 9 at The Hermitage, the home of Elke and Dieter Schneppat. Three former members and 16 members attended the dinner meeting, along with a few guests.

Past presidents who have moved away came to the meeting. They included Shirley Forrest, Bellaire Beach, Fla.; Margaret Mann, Lakeside; and Marnie Jones, Charlotte, N.C. Jones and Forrest also were charter members. Charter members who still belong to the club are Janet Beisner, Edwina Miller and Elke Schneppat.

“I was 27 years old when we started this,” Schneppat said.

Having grown up with vintage objects, she was able to continue and expand her interest through the club. Schneppat said she still enjoys shopping for antiques.

For the anniversary celebration, members enjoyed appetizers and a time of reminiscing on the outdoor patio. Jones has been away from Tiffin for 24 years, but she has fond memories of the friends she has made through the club. She met Dieter and Elke Schneppat when both couples were living in the same apartment complex in Tiffin.

The two women and eight other women had a common interest in antiques, so they formed a chapter of Questers, a national organization for people who collect and restore antiques. The founders decided to limit the number of members to 20 so meetings could take place in homes. They always had a waiting list of women wanting to join.

“It was a group that everybody wanted to be in. It was a vibrant, wonderful group. In fact, it’s the best club I’ve ever been in,” Jones said. “I still love it.”

Following her mother’s example, one of Jones’ daughters used Fort Ball as a model to start a similar club in her town. It has been active for 36 years.

Jones has moved a few times and reduced her antique collection, which consisted mostly of family heirlooms and items from the colonial period.

“When we left Tiffin, we had to downsize and gave the girls a lot of things. Then when I moved to a retirement home, I had to downsize, so the girls got a lot more then,” Jones said.

After her husband died nine years ago, Jones moved to a condominium in Charlotte to be near her middle daughter. The antiques she still owns are electronically catalogued with the date each item was acquired, a description, its family history (if applicable) and the daughter who is to inherit it.

Another past president, Forrest, has been away from Tiffin for 33 years, but she traveled from Florida to attend the anniversary celebration.

The first time she entered The Hermitage, she was 13 years old and part of a group of students who helped to serve a catered meal hosted by George Kalbfleisch.

She remembered the antique club met once a month, as members still do. After about five years, the group broke away from Questers and changed its name to Fort Ball Antique Club.

Two of the programs Forrest presented were about pewter ice cream molds and blue and white Wedgewood Jasperware.

“We always had speakers. Usually, it was ourselves. Each person chose a subject. If they had a collection, they’d bring part of it and talk about the collection. We all learned a lot about the other collections,” Forrest said. “We did a lot of field trips. Every month, we did a field trip. That was a lot of fun.”

Forrest said she joined a club in Florida and worked at a few antique shops, but the business has suffered with the rest of the economy in recent years.

“Antiques have gone up in price. When we used to go, we’d find items for $20. Now it’s more like $220,” Forrest said.

Secretary Janet Beisner presented a brief history and overview of the first 20 years of the club’s programs and field trips. Schneppat assisted by reading the news release about the first meeting and listed the 10 women who started the club. Members enjoyed a scrapbook of former programs and picture albums from the early years.

At the formal dinner, catered by Aramark, a charter member sat at each of the tables to guide the conversation. After the meal, members adjourned to the music room, where the quilt the club made for the bicentennial celebration in 1976 was on display. Beisner guided the discussion by mentioning events of the last 25 years, and many members added their own comments.

Lasers Take Aim At Brain Tumors

Posted by solar – May 15, 2012

After little more than two hours of preparation, Simone DiGiacomo was ready to have a tumor that was lodged 3 inches deep in her brain cooked by a laser.

The 47-year-old Jewett City woman was wrapped almost entirely in blue sheets on a bed in the MRI Integrated Neuro Suite of Yale-New Haven Hospital’s Smilow Cancer Center. The $11 million facility is outfitted with a 3-Tesla magnet strong enough to lift three cars, which allows doctors to see inside the brain in real time.

The doctors use a system that essentially burns a tumor by laser.

Lasers have been used in cancer surgeries since the mid-1970s, but only in the last few years have they been used in brain cancer. The FDA approved the Monteris AutoLITT (laser interstitial thermal therapy) system in 2009. Yale-New Haven is one of six hospitals in the U.S. set up to perform the surgery.

DiGiacomo learned that she had lung cancer in 2010. She went through chemotherapy, and doctors thought the cancer was gone. But last fall, she started to feel weakness on the left side of her body. The cancer had spread to her brain.

The day before Thanksgiving, doctors performed Gamma Knife surgery, which delivers very precise doses of radiation to the tumor. When MRI tests later showed that the tumor continued to grow, DiGiacomo and her doctors had to decide what to do. Because of the tumor’s location, doctors feared that removing it surgically would damage too much healthy brain tissue. Radiation could lead to various neurological symptoms like memory loss.

When her doctors told DiGiacomo about laser surgery, she and her husband decided to take that option. It’s less invasive than traditional surgery, and recovery is a lot quicker.

“This is something we offer to people when there are no other good alternatives,” Chiang said. “No one wants brain surgery, certainly, but if we can make the procedure easier to tolerate and with less risk, then we’ll do that.”

DiGiacomo had worked as a floor manager at Mohegan Sun until she was a laid off a few months before her cancer diagnosis. Her husband, Rick DiGiacomo, said it didn’t take them long to decide to try the relatively new procedure.

“She likes the idea of treating it aggressively,” he said, as he sat in the waiting room. “It’s an additional option that most people don’t have.” They’ve been married for 26 years and have three kids.

Guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a thin probe is inserted through a narrow hole in the skull. When the tip of the probe is inside the tumor, it emits laser energy that cooks the tumor from inside out. Watching on a computer screen, the surgery team can watch the laser kill off the tumor in real time. Once the tissue has coagulated, the tumor is dead and the body reabsorbs the dead tissue, a process that takes about six months.

But getting to the point where the team can set up the laser and turn it on takes a good deal of work.

Before surgery, DiGiacomo performed various speech and movement tasks while in an MRI so that radiologists could map the different functions of her brain. A computer screen above the operating table showed an image of DiGiacomo’s brain. Parts of the brain responsible for motor control were in orange, those responsible for speech in blue.

This navivation system tells Chiang where she can operate without causing neurological damage. She drilled a hole in DiGiacomo’s skull about the width of a pencil lead in the direction of the tumor. The operation would fail if the direction of the laser was off just slightly.

To see if they got the direction right, all but a few members of the surgery team filed out of the operating room and into a neighboring room — outside the magnetic field — where they could see the projected trajectory of the laser on another computer screen.

The line representing the path of the laser missed the center of the tumor. They were off by about a half-centimeter.

Everyone head back into the operating room to take another shot at it. They hit a snag when BrainLab, the computer navigation system that allows Chiang to see DiGiacomo’s brain in real time, crashed. The software was updated a few days earlier and checked out during testing, but, as Chiang pointed out, tests don’t account for all the things a doctor wants to do. New technology’s great, she said, but “we don’t have standards yet; with every problem in [traditional] neuroscience, there’s a standard.”

Find energetic vibes at Willow Stained Glass

Posted by solar – May 14, 2012

A colorful, eclectic mix of fine arts and crafts await Lafayette-area gallery goers at Willow Stained Glass Studio. The 1,500-square-foot display and studio space at 109 S. Main St. exhibits an array of local and regional art work. Paintings, drawings, two- and three-dimensional mixed media works, as well as jewelry, pottery and glass, are displayed from floor to ceiling creating an energetic atmosphere. Artist-owner Michelle Wood-Voglund greets each visitor with a warm, welcoming smile.

Anna Rae Landsman, Melinda Risk, Ross Sexson, Sonia Basaran and Steve Massa are among the 20 artists the gallery currently represents. Wood-Voglund is always looking for new work to exhibit. “I like unusual works of art. Art the gets a reaction. There are so many really outstanding artists in Tippecanoe County that haven’t shown their work. There is also great work being produced by high school students in our area. I have worked with local art teachers and have shown and sold work by some of their students.”

Being an artist herself, Wood-Voglund knows how hard it is for a young inexperienced artist to find a place to exhibit their work. “Interested artists should email me five examples of their work, as well as a brief statement about what they do. If I like the work and it fits with the gallery, I will arrange an interview with the artist and look at the original work.”

Artwork is priced from $4 for handmade cards, to over $2,000 for major paintings. Along with the art, viewers can also sign up for a glass class. Children 6 years and older can attend a 45-minute mosaic class for just $15.

The children choose from pre-cut colors of glass to create their work of art. Adults with little or no experience can attend a three-hour power glass class, and produce a small glass piece. Classes range in size from three to six students.

Besides exhibiting art, and holding glass classes, Willow also does repair work on historic windows. They can repair on-site, or remove the window to do more extensive repairs in their studio.

They hold new work openings, which are free and open to the public two or three times a year, and participate in all gallery walks.

Use GPS and MEMS sensor combo for next-gen positioning and navigation

Posted by solar – May 11, 2012

Over the past decade, GPS positioning was transformed from a specialized high-end technology, mostly used by professionals, to a technology used by consumers on a daily basis. This transformation is the result of two generations of GPS-enabled devices that have commoditized GPS positioning in mass-market devices.  This article looks at the next exciting stage in GPS evolution that solves the problems of non-availability of GPS location information – often when the user needs it most.

The first generation of devices that appeared in the early years of the past decade, consisted of aftermarket personal navigation devices (PNDs) which enabled turn-by-turn navigation at a price point that facilitated mass-market penetration. The next stage of the revolution was marked by the appearance of the smartphone. Smartphones today offer various positioning capabilities, and heavily rely on the GPS functionality for accurate positioning and turn-by-turn navigation applications. GPS-enabled smartphones not only extend turn-by-turn navigation applications to pedestrians and cyclists as well as drivers, but offer positioning capability to any smartphone application, from local restaurant location to ‘live’ star maps and augmented reality. And beyond smartphones, low-cost positioning technology is appearing in other consumer products such as cameras for geotagging photographs. But the reach and scope of such applications could be significantly extended if the limitations of GPS performance in indoor and dense urban or forest environments could be overcome.

The appearance of the smartphone also led to changes not immediately visible to consumers. Two major trends are obvious when examining the shifts in the components that comprise modern handsets and smartphones. The first trend is the deployment of chips that converge several functions into a single integrated circuit (IC). Commonly referred to as “combo-chips”, there are numerous combinations available today in the market including Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS.  The other trend is the massive use of MEMS based sensors.  Advances in MEMS technology in the past few years enabled implementation of multiple low-cost MEMS based sensors in the handset platform.  For example, many smartphones today typically contain three motion sensors–a MEMS accelerometer, electronic compass and MEMS gyroscope–which, when used together, provide a means of accurately tracking the linear and angular position, velocity and acceleration of the handset.  Until now, MEMS sensors were typically stand-alone chips (ICs), each performing a single function, but the future trend will be convergence and integration of motion sensors into a single package, together with sufficient processing capability to intelligently combine data from the individual sensors and provide meaningful motion vectors directly to the application.

The use of MEMS sensors enables mobile handset platforms, for the first time, to measure parameters that are related to the platform position and movement in the real world.  Such types of measurements are often referred to as “inertial measurements”.  The use of inertial measurements (or INS–inertial navigation systems) is well-known and established in the world of GPS and radio-navigation.  Inertial navigation is often used to improve radio-navigation or complement it in environments where radio navigation is hard or impossible. Examples for such situations in GPS receivers are dense-urban areas, underground or indoor locations.

Orcutt man hoping invention will help regrout the world

Posted by solar – May 10, 2012

Michael Taylor has been regrouting ceramic tile surfaces from Los Angeles to the Bay Area for 19 years. And for most of that time he’s been looking for a better tool to help him do it.

This week the Orcutt resident will unveil his new Regrout Tool at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. It’s a specialized hand-held “miniature jackhammer” he developed after burning through an endless number of engraving tools and bits over the past two decades.

“I had the idea in 1994,” Taylor said, adding he began removing grout from everything from kitchen countertops to antique mosaic artwork with hand engravers because nothing else would work. “The reason I wanted my own tool is this tool (a hand engraver) could only run about 45 minutes. It was underpowered, too.”

The patented tool is being manufactured in China and is already on the market in Europe with more than 50,000 models sold. Taylor and his Chinese manufacturing representative, Shines Zeng of ZHZ Hardware Ltd., will be marketing the tool to large American hardware buyers at the show.

What makes the Regrout Tool different is its large heavy-duty motor, a larger piston and shank, and carbide tips, Taylor explained. He said the tool works well on grout widths from one-eighth inch to one-sixty-fourth inch.

Taylor said he developed the tool after burning through 800 to 900 engravers during his nearly two decades in the business.

“I used to buy those by the case — 24 at a time,” he said of the engravers, which he would have to rotate several on a single job. “These — I’ve used one for 15 jobs so far. It can run eight hours a day without overheating.”

Taylor said the tool works well on all grout, chipping it away instead of grinding it like popular rotary tools. He said chipping also doesn’t fill the air or a user’s lungs with grout dust, which can lead to silicosis, a respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica dust.

The 53-year-old Taylor and his wife Rita, who have raised their five children in Orcutt, have poured all of their spare time and money over the past two years into developing the tool.

He approached three tool manufacturers in Los Angeles and explored the possibility of another in Mexico before taking his idea overseas.

“They wanted $100,000 up front to give it a whirl,” Taylor said of the domestic manufacturers.

So he got a provisional patent for a grout removal tool and developed the prototype with ZHZ Hardware.

The National Hardware Show, a launching pad for products in the $343 billion U.S. home improvement markets, will feature more than 1,000 new products and inventions including Taylor’s Regrout Tool.

“This is our launch. It’s the first time the tool has been made available to hardware buyers,” he said. “Everyone you would want to meet will be there — Home Depot, Lowe’s, OSH, Sears. They’ll all be there.”

Like any inventor, Taylor is hoping his Regrout Tool will land on the shelves of one of those big box stores and turn into his family’s gold mine.

Planet Earth Live criticised for lack of live action

Posted by solar – May 9, 2012

The public broadcaster faced a backlash when the 70-minute programme failed to deliver any real time footage of the “magnificent creatures” shown in previews.

One viewer said: “Enjoyable, but I’m still waiting for live pictures of any creature that isn’t a human being.”

Sunday night’s episode featured little more than 20 minutes of live footage during which presenters Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury spoke to the camera from their respective locations in Kenya and Minnesota.

The majority of the show comprised pre-recorded footage of lions, elephants, bears, whales and monkeys.

The BBC advertised the grand nature series as a “global wildlife event” which would feature “real animals” in “real time”.

Teams of experts and documentary makers were despatched to monitor the activity in their designated patch and report back on the day’s events during the series’ live thrice-weekly programme.

Producers had hoped to emulate the success of series’ such as Springwatch and Authumnwatch which chart the progress of specific wildlife during changing seasons and proved incredibly popular.

But within minutes of the first instalment of the eight part series being broadcast, the BBC’s Points of View message boards were deluged with complaints. Moderators were forced to amalgamate at least 17 threads which focused on the programme.

The BBC said it had received a total 118 complaints.

One viewer wrote on the Digital Spy website: “The bulk of the live action was Richard Hammond in a tent, in the dark, in the rain. It might as well have been in the field at the back of my house rather than one of the world’s great places.”

Another asked: “Why fly the presenters to all these places and set up camp when it could have been done in a studio in London?”

Among the hundreds who took to online message boards to complain, many noted that the only animals to appear live were two buffalo which wandered close to Hammond’s makeshift studio in the Masai Mara game reserve.

“The presenter may be live but that’s about it, what’s the point? Shameful way of waste the license fee,” one said.

Another added: “As far as I recall the only ‘live’ wildlife in the programme was a couple of buffalo caught in a thermal imaging camera.”

Others complained about the choice of presenters, with many questioning why television naturalists such as Chris Packham, Kate Humble and Simon King were not involved.

Hammond, in particular, proved an unpopular choice. The presenter, more famed for racing cars in Top Gear, was described as “maddening” and “annoying” by wildlife lovers.

One viewer said: “I don’t think Richard Hammond is a suitable presenter for wildlife documentaries.” Another said: “Hammond should stick to cars.”

A BBC spokeswoman acknowledged that there was little live animal action but said the presenters were there to comment on the day’s news and stories and to provide analysis.

She added: “A lot of it had been filmed that day on location and the footage was clearly signed as pre-packaged.

“We consider the series to be a multi media experience so the twitter feed and website is key to the live action.”

She acknowledged that many of the complaints were about the choice of presenters but insisted that they had been chosen because they were “popular” and that they were surrounded by wildlife experts.

Facebook Buys Ambient Social Location App Glancee: Why?

Posted by solar – May 8, 2012

After the recent $1 billion acquisition of social photography app – Instagram, Facebook has just bought another app – Glancee. The purchase was confirmed by Glancee on Friday. However, the deal is confidential and there are no words on the acquisition amount. Just there is a note over Glancee Web site that reads – “Glancee is joining Facebook”.

Glancee is a location based app, similar to Highlight – a much-popular location based app. It uses Facebook account as login and user’s current locations to pop-up people who are physically located near the user’s location with mutual friends or common interests.

“We started Glancee in 2010 with the goal of bringing together the best of your physical and digital worlds. We wanted to make it easy to discover the hidden connections around you, and to meet interesting people. Since then Glancee has connected thousands of people, empowering serendipity and pioneering social discovery.

We are therefore very excited to announce that Facebook has acquired Glancee and that we have joined the team in Menlo Park to build great products for over 900 million Facebook users. We’ve had such a blast connecting people through Glancee, and we truly thank our users for being a part of the Glancee community,” reads a note on Glancee’s Web site.

The app hasn’t received much spotlight, but Facebook might have noticed the future potential in Glancee. Working in real-time, the app let you explore Facebook profiles of people located nearby. Think of moving into a new place and exploring the Facebook profile of your neighbors. Subsequently, send a friend request notifying your presence in the neighborhood.

As mentioned earlier, Highlight is more famous than Glancee. According to AppData, Highlight is relatively 3 times more popular than it. The current believing is that Facebook failed to buy Highlight, so it turned towards its best alternative, in order to put a stop at another Instagram growing under the hood.

“We are thrilled to confirm that Facebook has acquired Glancee. The acquisition closed today. We can’t wait for co-founders Andrea, Alberto and Gabriel to join the Facebook team to work on products that help people discover new places and share them with friends,” said Facebook in a statement released on Friday.

Reportedly full-time employees of Glancee are also joining Facebook team. However, at the moment, the social networking giant has shut down the location based app. Glancee is no longer available at the App Store or Google Play Store. It is expected to get back on the track after receiving a major update from Facebook.

EU offers energy partnership with China

Posted by solar – May 4, 2012

The European Union on Thursday agreed to set up an energy “partnership” with China ensuring “open” access to each other’s markets.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said during a signing ceremony with China’s premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang that “to be effective, this will also require guaranteeing ‘a level playing field’, including open and non-discriminatory access to our respective markets.”

Energy ministers from the 27-state EU as well as China’s highest energy officials attended the talks, but neither side held a news conference, despite harsh criticism from the Brussels press corps on World Press Freedom Day.

The EU has created an internal electricity market for more than 500 million people and 20 million companies. China was interested in opening up its own market, Barroso said as the two sides agreed to the exchange of expertise and technical support.

Barroso however reiterated that the EU wanted to see greater access to the Chinese market.

“Negotiating a bilateral investment agreement and ensuring access to procurement markets are important elements in our trade relations that will also enhance our cooperation in the energy markets in the long-term,” Barroso said. “I trust our Chinese partners and friends share this point.”

During his three days in the European capital, Vice Premier Li signed a farm and an investment fund deal with Belgium while also attending the launch of a “sustainable urbanisation” scheme reflecting “the widening of the agenda” in EU-China relations, as one EU diplomat put it.

Agreed at a February EU-China summit, the hands-on scheme involving mayors, environmentalists and experts, aims to help the two sides build energy-efficient green cities as China addresses a historically unprecedented challenge of morphing from rural nation to land of mega-cities.

“Europe has an important place in the world. The harmonious development of the world needs a strong prosperous China,” said Li, who is expected to replace Premier Wen Jiabao next year, said at the launch of the scheme.

“The China-EU partnership is one of the most important in the world,” he added. “We’re ready to contribute to solving the European debt problem. We’re committed to working with the EU and promoting our ties to a higher level.”

Belgian and EU leaders said they had brought up the issue of human rights during the talks but there was no explicit mention of the case of dissident Chen Guangcheng.

Meanwhile the Brussels-based International Press Association (API) railed against the Commission’s failure to meet the press.

“A free media, free speech, and the accountability of our leaders is part of our democracy,” the API said in a statement. “However we must question this now as once again the EU institutions appear to roll back or hide those fundamental principles in deference to other regimes.

“We can accept of course that today the Chinese do not wish to meet the media, they can’t be forced. But we deeply regret that our EU leaders, in some sense of misplaced courtesy, or diplomatic nicety, feel they too should not.”

Though the EU is China’s largest trading partner — trade between the two is worth more than one billion euros per day — a host of problems remain to be resolved, from a row on rare earths and EU carbon emissions to complaints from European firms of lack of access to China’s markets.