The latest Akamai report on the state of the internet is out, and thankfully DDoS attacks have dropped since the last one. What's more, China's reign as the number one perpetrator was cut short by Indonesia, which almost doubled its first-quarter malicious traffic from 21 percent to 38 percent. ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/58MApnkVvcE/Regular 3D printers (from pens to desktop models) debut quite frequently these days, but a new machine named Freeformer was created with industrial-grade manufacturing in mind. The device was designed by German company ARBURG and employs a proprietary process called ARBURG Plastic Freeforming or -- we swear this acronym's not a typo -- AKF. It takes 3D CAD data and uses it to make functional parts out of liquid plastic without the need for molds. The Freeformer has a stationary nozzle that relies on piezo technology to spray plastic in layers on a moving platform, and it does so until the entire shape is done. Unlike many other 3D printers, though, this one can create geometrically complicated items with a combination of soft and hard materials. Not only that, but it can produce these in small batches, too. The first Freeformer units will be available commercially early next year, but we bet they won't be included in anyone's list of affordable 3D printing machines. Folks in Germany, however, can check it out at the K Trade Fair in Düsseldorf, where it'll remain on display until October 23rd.
Mark Waid made headlines in 2010 when his keynote speech for that year's Harvey Awards addressed the then-nascent idea of "digital comics" and how they'd relate to the traditional print market. Three years later -- and with Waid continuing to write for print and digital publishers, in addition to running a digital publisher and co-owning two stores selling print comics -- he revisited the topic to admit that, maybe, he got things wrong.
"I still have no regrets about soapboxing over the New Ways, about the role screen-based portables can have as outreach tools," Waid writes in an essay titled "How I Fumbled the Ball," adding "in all honesty, the Old Ways weren’t doomed. Had you told me three years ago that comics sales in America would be up by significant numbers when all other forms of print media were shedding readers at a brutal pace, I’d have been the one to call you a heretic. Yet here we are."
STORY: Mark Waid Advises New Creators 'Quality of Work Is All That Matters'
Instead of the traditional model where digital sales negatively impact analog media, the comic industry has seen a surprisingly healthy coexistence, Waid explains. "A year or two ago, when readers (new, old and lapsed) began reporting that reading comics online spurred them into stores, we considered that to be anecdotal evidence that there was a positive symbiotic relationship between the two," he writes. "Today, we have hard data to back that up; every shred of evidence goes to show that one does not 'steal' from the other."
As someone with business interests in both digital and print worlds, Waid's looking to take that coexistence one stage further by installing a kiosk for digital purchasing in one of his brick and mortar stores. "It’ll be strange, offering both physical goods and downloads for sale under the same roof," he admits. "It may not yield results, but if it doesn’t, the next experiment will, or the one after that." After all, he writes, "the audience is out there."
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Robert Redford
Robert Redford expressed empathy for President Obama and frustration with Beltway gridlock as the government shutdown reaches its 16th day.
"I don't envy [Obama's] position," he said during an interview that aired on CNN's New Day morning show on Wednesday. "I think he's a good man. I think he's an intelligent man, a compassionate man who can't function in that environment."
"It is so paralyzed, and the worst of it is that it's paralyzed by intention. There's a body of congressional people that want to paralyze the system. I think what's unfortunately underneath it is racism involved, which is really awful," he continued.
Redford then elaborated: "It's not just racism. I think it's a group of people that are so afraid of change and they're so narrow-minded that when -- you see, some people when they see change coming get so threatened by change they get angry and terrorized and they get vicious."
The comments came as Redford is making the press rounds for his man vs. nature tale All Is Lost, which features the actor as a sailor stranded in the ocean and fighting for survival.
The actor has previously expressed frustration with the administration and partisan gridlock.
On the issue of partisanship on climate change he told The Hollywood Reporter last fall that the president's opponents were "so narrow and so ideologically driven that it's not likely you're going to see much change there." He added at the time: "The Beltway is a very complicated and troubled place."
Critics have praised the actor for his performance in All Is Lost, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is set for wide release by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Where seniors live makes a difference not only in how much health care they receive but also the medications they're prescribed — as some miss out on key treatments while others get risky ones, new research shows.
More than 1 in 4 patients on Medicare's prescription drug plan filled at least one prescription for medications long deemed high-risk for seniors, according to the study released Tuesday by the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
Seniors who live in Alexandria, La., were more than three times as likely as those in Rochester, Minn., to receive those potentially harmful drugs, which include muscle relaxants and anxiety relievers that can cause excessive sedation, falls and other problems in older adults.
On the flip side, far more seniors who survived a heart attack were filling prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs in Ogden, Utah, than in Abilene, Texas — 91 percent compared to just 44 percent, the study found. That's even though statins are proven to reduce those patients' risk of another heart attack.
Even more surprising, the study found just 14 percent of seniors who've broken a bone because of osteoporosis were receiving proven medications to guard against another fracture — ranging from 7 percent of those patients in Newark, N.J., to 28 percent in Honolulu.
"There's no good reason" for that variation, said lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Munson, an assistant professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Researchers with the Dartmouth Atlas have long shown that the type and amount of health care that people receive varies widely around the country, and that those who live where Medicare spends more don't get better quality care.
The newest report examined 2010 prescription data from the 37 million patients who get drug coverage under Medicare Part D, and found even more of a mixed picture when it comes to seniors' medications. For example, patients in the South were more likely to fill prescriptions for those riskier medications, but less likely than those in other regions to get the long-recommended treatments for heart and bone conditions.
The average Part D patient filled 49 monthlong prescriptions — either new ones or refills — in 2010.
But the study suggests doctors in some areas prescribe more readily. The highest number of prescriptions filled was in Miami — 63 — and the lowest in Grand Junction, Colo., 39.
Overall, patients in regions where Medicare Part D spent more on medications weren't more likely to receive the most effective medications, the study found.
Yes, seniors who are sicker will use more medications, but the general health of a region's Medicare population explains less than a third of the variation, the researchers concluded.
Patients don't always fill their prescriptions, because of cost or fear of side effects or myriad other reasons — something this study couldn't measure. It also didn't examine differences in benefits between cheaper and more expensive Part D plans.
But if doctors were following guidelines on best medication practices, there would be far less variation around the country, Munson said.
Doctors "really need to ask themselves, 'Is there a good reason why my patients are getting less effective care than patients in the other regions,'" he said.
He urged patients to ask more questions, too: Why is this medicine being prescribed? What are the pros and cons? Is there something else I should consider taking?
The Dartmouth Atlas, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, studies health trends using Medicare data; similar figures aren't readily available for the general population.
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Online:
Dartmouth Atlas: http://www.dartmouthatlas.org
Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting
Rousimar Palhares won’t compete at the next edition of the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.
The jiu-jitsu black belt, who earned his spot in the 2013 edition of ADCC with a second place in the last edition in 2011, will not compete in this weekend's tournament in Beijing, China.
ADCC officials in Brazil confirmed to MMAFighting.com that Palhares was removed from this year’s tournament when he didn’t answer several messages and calls that were made since his controversial submission victory over Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 29 in Barueri, Brazil, Oct. 9. Tatame first reported the news.
"He said he would fight depending on how his fight (with Pierce) went," Wagner Gomes, the secretary of ADCC in Brazil, told MMAFighting.com on Tuesday. "I sent him several messages, but he didn’t respond. They wanted him there, but he didn’t reply any of my messages or calls."
According to Gomes, ADCC still wanted Palhares to be part of the tournament despite of what happened during his fight with Pierce.
"They called me and said ‘ask (Palhares) if he still wants to fight," he said.
Palhares used his famous heel hook to submit Dan Schon, David Avellan and Rafaelo Lovato Jr. at ADCC 2011 in Nottingham, England, but lost to Andre Galvao in the final. Galvao also won the gold medal in the absolute division, automatically giving Palhares his spot in the -88kg division.
The -88kg division now has 14 competitors, including UFC’s Dong Hyun Kim.
Ben Henderson (-77kg) and Vinny Magalhaes (+99kg) are also set to fight at ADCC 2013, and the superfights will feature Andre Galvao vs. Braulio Estima and Fabio Gurgel vs. Mario Sperry.
In this framegrabbed image from APTN the entrance to the Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angeles can be seen Tuesday Oct. 15, 2013. A baggage handler was arrested Tuesday in connection with dry ice explosions Sunday and Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after police stepped up patrols and increased its checks on employees. Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair, was booked for possession of a destructive device near an aircraft. (AP Photo\APTN)
In this framegrabbed image from APTN the entrance to the Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angeles can be seen Tuesday Oct. 15, 2013. A baggage handler was arrested Tuesday in connection with dry ice explosions Sunday and Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after police stepped up patrols and increased its checks on employees. Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair, was booked for possession of a destructive device near an aircraft. (AP Photo\APTN)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A baggage handler has been arrested following a police investigation into two dry ice explosions at Los Angeles International Airport.
Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair, was booked Tuesday for possession of a destructive device near an aircraft. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Police had stepped up patrols and increased its checks on employees after the blasts took place Sunday night and then again Monday night.
Bennett took the dry ice from a plane and placed it in an employee restroom Sunday night and another device that was found on a tarmac outside the international terminal, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation who wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Police had previously said they didn't believe the explosions were an act of terror because of the locations of the devices and because people weren't targeted.
No one was injured in either incident, although some flights were delayed Sunday.
The incidents could be the work of a disgruntled employee due to an internal labor dispute, said Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Downing, who heads the department's counter-terrorism and special operations bureau.
Swissport recently agreed to acquire Servisair and the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. An afterhours message seeking comment from Servisair was not immediately returned.
It wasn't immediately known what Bennett's motives were, but he was riding in a van with several others, including a supervisor, when he decided to plant one of the dry ice bombs, the official told The Associated Press. Those in the van were aware of the dry ice, the official said, but no other arrests have been made.
The bombs were made by putting dry ice in 20-ounce plastic bottles and could have caused serious injury to anyone in close proximity, Downing said.
One device exploded in an employee men's room Sunday night in Terminal 2. Remnants of an exploded bottle also were found that night on the tarmac area near the Tom Bradley International Terminal, but an employee threw it away. The same employee found an unexploded bottle Monday evening and then reported what he found the previous day.
While there are cameras in some of these restricted-access areas, Downing said there isn't as much camera coverage as in the public-access areas and investigators had been reviewing available video.
Dry ice is widely used by vendors to keep food fresh.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-16-LAX%20Explosion/id-2092e586e92243a3a8583eb4eb54fd06
