Once you notice your colleagues are catching up on their sleep during your PowerPoint presentations, you know you need Prezi Desktop. Using this software, you can wake up your presentations using animation that doesn't suck. Forget transitions and effects like dissolve and fly-in, Prezi Desktop focuses in on your important points within your slides, like actually visually focuses in.
Many of Prezi Desktop's 50+ templates include 3D animation. In this one, you start out in a forest and then move through the trees.
Prezi Desktop is similar to the online Prezi, but as you might guess from the name, it doesn't require an Internet connection after the initial registraion. This means that any storage limits are on your end, not on Prezi's cloud. It's also awfully handy to work offline when you're incorporating last-minute changes on a flight or at the slightly-too-rustic site for the company retreat.
The program opens with over 50 slide templates to choose from, all of which include animation built right in, and many of which include photo-realistic graphics or 3D aspects. You add text, images, and YouTube movies to areas of the slide and create a path for the animation to follow. Prezi flows seamlessly between these areas.
Filling in Prezi Desktop slides in a simple click-and-type affair.
Some of Prezi's 3D effects are better than others, with a few giving the impression of rotating the base image rather than actually occurring in three dimensions. You can add shapes and drawings from Prezi's library but they are not editable, so if you want to create a very unique Prezi you'll also need software to create PDF, PPT, or image files to import. And you may want to stick to a very basic Prezi if you're presenting to the National Association of Motion Sickness Sufferers, because the flow of the presentation can be disconcerting.
With credit card information in hand, Prezi Desktop offers a 30-day free trial of the Enjoy ($59 annually) or Pro ($159 annually) subscription, as well as the completely free (no credit card needed) Public version. Once the 30 days are up, only the Pro version supports Prezi Desktop. Your presentations are all public with the Public version of Prezi, and you get only 100MB of storage per user. With Prezi Desktop Enjoy and Pro subscriptions, you can keep your presentations private, eliminate the Prezi branding, and receive 500MB (Enjoy) or 2GB (Pro) of storage space.
You can tweak the text formatting in your Prezi Desktop slides.
Prezi Desktop can get pricey, and it won't fix a really bad presentation, but it will certainly help keep your visuals—and your audience—focused. Plus you'll never be bothered by snoring during a presentation again.
Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.
Clare Brandt , PCWorld
Clare Brandt writes about fonts and other obsessions. Her personal blog, which sometimes mentions technology, but mostly not, can be found at clarerobinsonbrandt.wordpresss.com. More by Clare Brandt
iOS 7.0.3 has been with us for almost a full week now, so it's about time we talked battery life. As is so often the way every time a new version of iOS drops, some people see improvements, some the exact opposite. As iOS 7 continues to update, we'd hope that the majority were in the first camp, but sadly it isn't the case. We've already discussed battery life on previous builds of iOS 7, so how does it compare now we're bumped up to 7.0.3?
So, how is your iOS 7.0.3 battery life? Better, about the same, worse? Drop your vote up top, and your thoughts in the comments below. Don't forget to let us know what device you're running it on!
NEW YORK (AP) — Patti Smith remembers the first time she saw Lou Reed in person. It was 1970 and Reed and the Velvet Underground were performing at the Manhattan club Max's Kansas City.
"I was so taken with their music," she said Monday as she spoke of her friend, inspiration and fellow poet-musician, who died Sunday at 71. "I made it my business to study him. His process completely spoke to me, the process of merging poetry with these surf rhythms, this pulsing loop. You could get into a trance listening to 12 minutes of 'Sister Ray.'"
Interviewed by phone, Smith said that Reed brought "the sensibility of art and literature" to rock music, a sensibility she has long shared. When she and Reed would see each other, they often talked about poetry, about Hart Crane or Walt Whitman or Federico Garcia Lorca.
"He could speak articulately about any poet," she said.
Smith said she was pleased by the global impact of Reed's passing and by the stories of how his songs affected people's lives. She cited "Pale Blue Eyes" as a personal favorite. She said that the fragile, weary ballad reminded her of her late, blue-eyed husband, guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith.
"I never fail to think of him and his gaze when I'm singing that or hear that song," she said. "Lou had a gift of taking very simple lines, 'Linger on, your pale blue eyes,' and make it so they magnify on their own. That song has always haunted me."
Smith also praised Reed's romantic "Perfect Day." She sings it often in concert and finds herself moved when audiences join in on the chorus.
"So many of us have benefited from the work he has done," she said. "We all owe him a debt. Most of us that owe a debt are not very happy to own up to it. Sometimes you like to imagine that you did everything on your own. But I think with Lou that everyone will stand in line to say thank you, in their own way."
The latest video from Odd Future co-founder Tyler, The Creator isn't at all what you might expect. The Los Angeles rapper and producer, known for his dark, dystopian hip-hop, takes on a breezy pop ballad for the short and vividly beautiful film. Tyler didn't write the song and isn't saying who did. But he was so moved by it he agreed to write and direct the video. The song from the anonymous artist is called "Glowing."
The video follows a couple who meet as children, fall in love, grow up and grow old together. As their romance blossoms, the world is in chaos, plagued by war, famine and abject poverty. The song itself is both joyful and reflective, with a bouncy, infectious melody and sweet harmonies in the spirit of late '60s or early '70s pop. Think Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)." But like that 1972 classic, "Glowing," in the hands of Tyler, is a captivating study in contrasts.
"This was a song I heard nine months ago and couldn't get out of my head," Odd Future manager Christian Clancy tells us. "We thought it would be a cool opportunity for Tyler to show another side of himself. I played the song for him on a plane, not knowing whether he would like it (he's a tough audience), and he did. What people take from it is up to the viewer I suppose. Controlling the narrative seems contradictive to the point. For me it's a challenge to the assumption that ignorance is bliss, and that challenge is as timely as it's ever been."
Enterprises can now run Hortonworks' Hadoop-based Data Platform in Rackspace's managed hosting environment and its public cloud.
Big data applications are difficult to deploy and harder to maintain, so many companies need help analyzing and extracting value from this vast amount of information, according to Rackspace. Like other cloud vendors, Rackspace pitches this new offering as a way to reduce the amount of time required to deploy and maintain a Hadoop-based environment.
Rackspace also offers customized configurations to address specific requirements such as high compute or high storage workloads. To minimize the work needed to move to the cloud, existing tools can still be used, it said. But convincing enterprises to move their Hadoop applications to the cloud may not be that easy.
"We used to run on [Amazon Web Services' Elastic MapReduce], but about two years ago we moved to an in-house cluster because of the costs of EMR. We've expanded that cluster to almost 700 nodes. Next to that, most of our infrastructure is in-house and with the amount of data that we produce, transferring everything to a public cloud would be very costly," said Wouter de Bie, team lead for data infrastructure at music service Spotify, via email.
Rackspace wouldn't provide the pricing for the HDP offering, but said that there is a per-node charge on top of the other hardware, software and support charges for Hadoop.
Rackspace isn't the only company HortonWorks has been working with on HDP. The company recently announced that SAP will resell the platform and provide enterprise support. It also announced the integration of Ambari -- a framework for provisioning, managing and monitoring Hadoop clusters -- and Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager.
Last week, Hortonworks announced HDP 2.0, which uses Apache Hadoop YARN as the underlying OS. That allows users to move beyond batch processing to a multi-use platform that enables batch, interactive, online and stream processing, the company said.
Hortonworks was founded in 2011 by 24 engineers from the original Yahoo Hadoop development and operations team, and has been growing since. This year the company increased its presence in Europe with teams in France, Germany, and the U.K.
The MQ-1 Predator UAV is one of America's most prolific and productive drones, having notched more than a million hours of flight time since its introduction in 1994. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for continued improvement to the platform. In fact, General Dynamics has also been hard at work with a slightly less deadly version that can fly for twice as long.
Enjoying some family bonding, Michelle Williams took her daughter Matilda to school with the help of her own mother Carla Williams this morning (October 28).
The “Shutter Island” stunner kept warm with a cream cable-knit sweater as she wished her little girl a happy 8th birthday before sending her off to her classes.
Matilda’s father Heath Ledger tragically passed away back in 2008 from a prescription drug overdose. At the time, Michelle told press, “I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father.”
“All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day. His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time, and we know that he is with us still. She will be brought up in the best memories of him.”
LONDON (AP) — Global stock markets were mostly higher Monday amid growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve won't start reducing its monetary stimulus until at least the first quarter of next year.
With uncertainty over the raising of the U.S. borrowing limit temporarily resolved, investors have focused on other matters, notably when the Federal Reserve will reduce its mammoth monetary stimulus that has been a boon for stock markets.
U.S. hiring and durable goods orders for September were weaker than expected, signaling that growth momentum may be slowing and reinforcing expectations that a scaling back of stimulus known as "tapering" won't begin until next year, Mitul Kotecha of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a market commentary.
Further U.S. data releases this week including September industrial production, retail sales, inflation and consumer confidence as well as a Fed policy meeting could reaffirm that expectation, he said. The Fed is buying $85 billion of U.S. government bonds and other securities with the aim of keeping interest rates low to support economic recovery.
"The bad news is good philosophy of markets means that data is helping to aid expectations that Fed tapering may be delayed," he said. "We continue to anticipate tapering to begin in January although admittedly the market is shifting expectations to even later."
After Asian indexes closed higher, trading was more cautious in Europe. Germany's DAX was flat at 8,981.47, as was Britain's FTSE 100, at 6,718.68. The CAC-40 in France, however, was off 0.5 percent at 4,250.40.
Wall Street was expected to rise modestly on the open, with Dow futures up 0.1 percent at 15,514 and S&P 500 futures up the same rate to 1,755.50.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.2 percent to 14,396.04, recovering from a big drop last week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.5 percent to 22,806.58.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rebounded from earlier losses to rise fractionally to 2,133.87, putting aside worries over a possible credit crunch following the Chinese central bank's refusal last week to inject funds into money markets to curb frothy credit growth.
Benchmarks in Taiwan, Seoul, Malaysia and Singapore were also higher.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was down 8 cents at $97.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 74 cents on Friday.
The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.3799, while the dollar shed 0.1 percent against the Japanese yen, to 97.66 yen.
If you ever get an uncomfortable feeling about how many eyes are on you as you wander in cyberspace, there's a new tool that will bring the lurkers out of the shadows. Mozilla's Lightbeam add-on for the Firefox browser displays three different views of tracking activity. Much of it you may find innocuous, but you might want to take further steps to tell some third-party trackers to take a hike.
Firefox creator Mozilla has released a tool to show which companies are monitoring your online browsing activity in its mission to make the Web more transparent.
Lightbeam, available as a free Firefox browser extension, shows which third-party companies are tracking your browsing activity, and how they are connected. Those third parties often represent brands and advertisers that want to share your data or display targeted ads.
Who's Watching?
The aim of the tool, according to Mozilla, is to highlight the first- and third-party sites you interact with, including the parts of the Web that are hidden from plain view. Third parties typically place a small piece of code called a "tracking cookie" on your computer, which they use to watch how you bounce from page to page.
Lightbeam allows you to take an in-depth look at how third parties collide with your online activity using three distinct visualizations.
The Graph option displays an interactive representation of every website you've visited, and how various third-party services connect to each of those.
The List view details the first and most recent times you interacted with a site; lists how many sites you've visited and the third-party sites you've connected to; and notes the number of connections each site you've accessed has with the others on the list.
The Clock view allows you to examine the number and types of connections you've made with websites over 24 hours.
You have the option of sharing your data with the Lightbeam database, which aims to build a wider picture of how first- and third-party sites intersect. Mozilla put the Lightbeam code on Github as an open source project, to let developers "hack, expand and improve" it.
"It's important to provide users with transparency regarding cookies. That said, exactly how important it is for users to be aware of cookies depends upon the particular user," Alan Chapell, president of Chapell and Associates, told TechNewsWorld. "Some care a great deal about this stuff, while others don't care as much."
Lightbeam is the latest version of Collusion, a personal project created by Mozilla developer Atul Varma in 2011 to visualize user browsing and online data collection. Mozilla collaborated with students from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design to create visualizations for the browser extension. Lightbeam was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
Privacy Concerns
One clear consequence of Lightbeam is that it may encourage Web users to consider their privacy online. Over time, third-party marketing firms can build a wealth of information about you, which they may then sell to advertisers. Those advertisers can then use that data to display ads targeted toward your interests and demographic. Third parties also could transfer data on your browsing activity to government agencies.
"Potential dangers involve having your information spread out across the Web and in companies' databases that you don't even know about. You don't know how they're using such information," Adi Kamdar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told TechNewsWorld.
"We've seen stories where marketers end up predicting that someone is pregnant, for example, so they send information about their pregnancy, which is something that they or their family members may not know about," he pointed out.
"This data can reveal sensitive political information about people," Kamdar observed.
"Users should understand how their information is being used online," noted the EFF's Dan Auerbach. "However, it is also our role as technologists to ensure that people are protected automatically, and right now we are failing that with respect to user privacy."
Covering Your Tracks
There are a number of steps you can undertake to prevent third parties from tracking your online movements.
"Using something like Lightbeam is a great step to knowing exactly what sort of third parties are tracking you," said Kamdar. "There are some browsers that block these cookies and do a really good job of making sure these third-party requests don't happen without your consent. Some examples are Ghostery and Do Not Track Me."
Users often can go to tracking companies' websites and opt out, he added.
"Browsing histories contain incredibly sensitive information like sexual orientation and financial information," said Auerbach, who noted ad blocking tool Disconnect as one way to block tracking cookies.
Not all Web tracking is inherently intrusive. Cookies are often used to save users time by automatically filling forms and storing preferences. They're used to store items in shopping baskets on retail sites and to keep you logged in on your favorite social networks. Website owners use them to see how often you visit their domains for stat tracking.
However, there aren't too many downsides to making third-party tracking requests more transparent to users, maintained Kamdar. "It reveals how pervasive tracking is on the Web. Once people realize going to a website gives your presence away -- not just to that website, but to 10 other parties -- they're going to be more privacy-aware and more aware of the circumstances of their Web browsing."
It's been a big week in news and our host Marc Perton is joined by Dana Wollman and Peter Rojas to sort through the details. Apple focused on the tablet-size sweetspot with their iPad mini Retina, but will the steep pricing prove to be too precious? Peter muses about the meaning behind Apple's "space" gray nomenclature, Dana hashes out the details on Microsoft's Surface 2 line and Nokia's new tablet, and the crew discuss the implications of John Sculley's rumored bid for BlackBerry. Could it prove to be a rally cry or a death knell for the dark fruit? There's no certainty on that, but we do know that Peter will definitely not be in costume for next week's show. So big up your brain with a heaping helping of tech after the break in this week's episode of the Engadget Podcast.
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Hackintoshes aside, this is an interesting move for Apple, as it leaves Microsoft Windows as the last for-cost operating system holdout in the desktop space. Microsoft's business model will make it hard for the company to follow suit, as it doesn't have the advantage of profiting directly from the hardware sales underlying its OS. But it seems to me that Microsoft will have to reduce the price of Windows substantially to counter this move by Apple. It's hard to justify $100 plus for a Windows operating system upgrade when the competition gives it away in a seamless online upgrade.
This move by Apple may also legitimize desktop Linux in the minds of many casual users. I know, I know -- we've been hearing about the Year of Desktop Linux for, well, more years than I can remember, but it's never materialized. Yet we now have three major choices for desktop operating systems, and only one will cost you.
For those who don't wish to pony up for Apple hardware, the cost of Windows may very well push them toward at least trying Linux. Many desktop-focused distributions are making it easier than ever to transition to Linux. Coupled with the widespread disdain for Windows 8's interface, it may be enough to truly open up desktop Linux to the wider mind share it's always needed to succeed.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Eastern Europe's first democratic prime minister after communism, key adviser to Poland's Solidarity freedom movement and U.N. human rights envoy to Bosnia in the 1990s, has died. He was 86.
Mazowiecki's personal secretary, Michal Prochwicz, told The Associated Press that the former prime minister died early Monday in hospital. Prochwicz said Mazowiecki was taken to hospital on Wednesday, with high fever.
A lawyer by training, a writer and thinker by temperament, Mazowiecki was well equipped for his role in ousting communism from Poland and shaping a democracy. As prime minister, he called for drawing a "thick line" to separate the communist past from new Poland, a much-criticized position which contributed to his ouster after a year in office.
He made a crucial decision in August 1980 to join thousands of workers on strike at the Gdansk Shipyard to demand restitution of a job for fired colleague, Anna Walentynowicz, better pay and a monument to workers killed in the 1970 protest. Within days, their action grew into a massive wave of strikes that gave birth to Solidarity, Eastern Europe's first free trade union and a nationwide freedom movement, led by a charismatic shipyard electrician, Lech Walesa, whose name quickly became known around the globe.
Walesa later said that "everybody was very glad that the intellectuals are with the workers. It was a very important signal for the authorities."
From the days of the strike until well into Poland's democracy in the 1990s, Mazowiecki was among Walesa's closest counselors. He advised Walesa in the tough yet successful negotiations with the communists, who granted union and civic freedoms in 1980.
He shared Walesa's lot in the bleak days of martial law that Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed on Dec.13, 1981, to curb the freedom that had irritated Moscow. Under the military clampdown Solidarity was outlawed, the economy stagnated and Walesa, his advisers, and hundreds of Solidarity activists were imprisoned for many months.
Mazowiecki spent one year in confinement. When released, he returned to Walesa's side and also wrote analytical reports about the deep stagnation of social and economic life under the rule of the military.
The hardships, shortages and a lack of prospects inspired a new wave of strikes in 1988. Mazowiecki walked arm in arm with Walesa at the head of angry workers marching through the streets of Gdansk. The protests brought the communists to the negotiating table to discuss the terms of democratization with Walesa, Mazowiecki, and other Solidarity leaders. Mazowiecki authored many of these terms.
The outcome was Eastern Europe's first partly free parliamentary election. The June 4, 1989, vote gave Solidarity seats in parliament and —hard to believe at the time — paved the way for the first democratic government in the cracking communist bloc. In September, Mazowiecki became the region's first democratic prime minister. A popular picture in which he flashes a V-for-victory sign to the chamber became the symbol of Poland's triumph over the oppressive communism.
Mazowiecki began working as a journalist and editor for Catholic magazines in the late 1940s. A declared believer, he undertook the impossible task of carving a space for ethics and religious views in politics under the anti-church communist system, imposed on Poland as a result of World War II.
In the 1960s he served as a Catholic lawmaker, but his protest in parliament against use of force on protesting students in 1968 and his demands for explanations of the deaths of dozens of shipyard workers protesting price hikes in 1970 provoked the communist authorities to expel him from his seat.
The 1970s marked Mazowiecki's growing involvement in independent, often clandestine think tanks that educated Poles toward democracy and civic rights. Mazowiecki supported and advised workers' protests — still few at the time and kept secret by the communists.
Poland's peaceful revolution set in motion rapid freedom changes in other countries of the region — climaxing in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
Usually serious and pensive, Mazowiecki showed a flash of humor during his historic policy speech in parliament, when he suddenly felt faint. Returning to the floor after a lengthy break, he drew applause by saying that the stress and hard work had brought his condition down to the level of Poland's dilapidated economy.
His government was hastily composed of Solidarity backers, who were experts in their fields but had no experience in running a country. Still, they accomplished a milestone task: in a matter of months they laid foundations for a new democratic state.
"I had this very strong conviction that we will make it, that we will be able to build the foundations of a new state on those ruins. That we must be successful," Mazowiecki said in a 2004 interview.
The finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, gained universal respect for his unprecedented plan of stringent economic reforms that halted rampant inflation, made the local currency — the zloty — convertible, curbed central governance and paved the way for private business and for a market economy. The painful effect was a sudden, high unemployment from closed steel mills and state-run farms, which still clouds Balcerowicz's reputation in Poland.
Mazowiecki also was accused of leniency for the communists, and many thought the "thick line" amounted to turning a blind eye to past evils. In retrospect, he believed his phrase was "right and wise."
"It offered democracy to the Poles, to all Poles, without dividing them into better and worse, into party members and the non-aligned," Mazowiecki told Toranska. "This paragraph was announcing a change through evolution. Not a revolution, which has always led to witch-hunts in the past."
Mazowiecki's critics point to the general impunity of communist leaders, the authors of the martial law that led to the deaths of some 100 people. Jaruzelski was defendant in two trials —concerning martial law and the 1970 workers' deaths — but they were discontinued due to his poor health before verdicts were reached. Only a handful of secret security agents have been brought to justice, while many communist-era politicians started successful businesses and are among the nation's richest people.
The price of the reforms was high. Mazowiecki's government stint ended abruptly when he unexpectedly lost in the 1990 first free presidential election to a complete unknown, a Polish emigre from Peru, Stan Tyminski. Walesa won in the runoff.
"This government's role was to make this painful beginning," Mazowiecki said in an address ending his 15-month term as the former East bloc's first non-communist leader. "We did not try to arouse hopes which could not be fulfilled."
In 1992 Mazowiecki was appointed the first U.N. envoy to war-torn Bosnia and widely reported on atrocities there. Angered by a lack of international reaction to the killings, which he termed as war crimes, he resigned in 1995 after the fall of Srebrenica. Serb troops overran the city and killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys, despite Srebrenica being declared by U.N. forces as a safe heaven. At the time of Mazowiecki's resignation the U.N. was already seeking to react with force, but his move was an additional impulse, although seen by some as backing out.
Mazowiecki said at the time that his resignation was "all I can do for these people to tell the world, the Western and U.N. leaders that the situation cannot go on this way."
He continued as lawmaker and politician in Poland and co-authored the 1997 Constitution. He served as adviser to President Bronislaw Komorowski since 2010.
Mazowiecki was born April 18, 1927, in the central city of Plock to the deeply religious family of medical doctor, Bronislaw Mazowiecki. His father died in 1938.
In an interview for the Plock edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, Mazowiecki said he remembered going with his father to bakeries to have whipped-cream cakes. He also remembered being terrified of the dentist to the degree that anesthesia had to be used on him.
Under the Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II, in which 6 million Polish citizens were killed, teenage Mazowiecki worked as a messenger for the city hospital and for a trade company. The Germans sent his older brother, Wojciech, to the Stutthof death camp. He never came back.
After the war, Mazowiecki studied law at the Warsaw University but did not obtain a degree, engaging instead in journalism and politics.
He was twice widowed. His first wife, Krystyna, died of tuberculosis within a year of their marriage. His second wife, Ewa, the mother of his sons Wojciech, Adam and Michal, died in 1970.
Jennifer Haselberger, former top canon lawyer for the archdiocese, found stored files detailing how some priests had histories of sexual abuse. She resigned in April.
Jennifer Simonson/Minnesota Public Radio
Jennifer Haselberger, former top canon lawyer for the archdiocese, found stored files detailing how some priests had histories of sexual abuse. She resigned in April.
Jennifer Simonson/Minnesota Public Radio
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been rocked in recent weeks by revelations from a top-level whistle-blower. The former official says church leaders covered up numerous cases of sexual misconduct by priests and even made special payments to pedophiles.
The scandal is notable not only because of the abuse but also because it happened in an archdiocese that claimed to be a national leader in dealing with the issue.
To understand what's happening now, it helps to go back to 2002, when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops faced a crisis brought on by its failure to remove abusive priests from ministry.
'I Wanted Them To Do The Right Thing'
Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis emerged as a national leader on the issue, urging bishops at a now-historic conference in Dallas to root out what he called a cancer in the church.
"This is a defining moment for us this morning as bishops," he said at the time.
Back in Minnesota, Flynn assured the faithful that the worst problems lay elsewhere and this archdiocese wasn't going to cover up abuse.
Flynn retired in 2008 and was replaced by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who hired a young canon lawyer named Jennifer Haselberger to oversee church records.
As priests came up for promotion, Haselberger searched church files for any disciplinary problems. Digging deeper, she found separate stored files detailing how some priests had long histories of sexual addiction and abuse. She warned Nienstedt about what she'd learned, she says.
"I wanted them to do the right thing," Haselberger says. "I wanted them to take allegations seriously. I wanted them to get offending priests out of ministry. I wanted them to be disclosing to the police and working with law enforcement to make sure that our churches were safe for children, and the vulnerable and the elderly."
She then discovered that some abusive priests got special payments, like the Rev. Robert Kapoun, who for 14 years received nearly $1,000 a month on top of his pension.
Kapoun retired in the late '90s after admitting in court that he sexually abused boys. He now lives in a half-million-dollar lake home. Because of his history of abuse, he's supposed to be carefully monitored.
Kapoun says he doesn't have much contact with the church these days. He says he does meet occasionally with priests to discuss "news and happenings in the world, and so on."
Haselberger says that for her, one of the last straws came when a priest was arrested for and convicted of sexually abusing children.
Several years earlier, Haselberger had examined the lengthy file of that priest, Curtis Wehmeyer. Documents showed he had approached young men for sex in a bookstore.
Haselberger says she gave the information to Nienstedt. Soon after, he appointed Wehmeyer pastor of two parishes.
A top church deputy, the Rev. Kevin McDonough, says he didn't realize Wehmeyer was abusing children until after his arrest.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing in this man's behavior known to us would have convinced any reasonable person that he was likely to harm kids," McDonough says.
Lawsuits And Calls For A Resignation
Haselberger resigned in protest in April, but she says she felt burdened by what she knew.
"Because I was still having to look people in the face who I knew that I had information that they needed," she says. "And the fact that I had this and they didn't, and no one was going to be telling them, was really difficult."
So Haselberger shared the church's secrets with Minnesota Public Radio News in a series of interviews this fall.
Nienstedt has declined to be interviewed on tape. In an emailed response to questions, he denied breaking any laws or covering up abuse. Earlier this month, his top deputy stepped down as the crisis widened.
Victims of abuse are preparing to file lawsuits now allowed under a new state law as the archdiocese braces for what could be a massive financial blow.
Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest who warned bishops in the '80s of a looming abuse crisis, says it's remarkable the revelations are coming from an insider.
"What has been happening, it seems to me, in St. Paul has been almost a chain reaction," he says. "There's something systemic; it's not accidental."
Doyle says the reckoning comes as prosecutors seem increasingly willing to file criminal charges against church leaders.
Nienstedt has responded to the scandal by creating a task force to review church policies.
But some parishioners, and even priests here, are calling for him to resign. They say they feel betrayed by church leaders who led them to believe that their archdiocese remained a safe place for children.
London (AFP) - Britain faced travel chaos on Monday and more than 10,000 homes were without electricity in northwestern France as a massive storm swept in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Britain's national weather centre the Met Office warned of falling trees, damage to buildings and disruption to power supplies and transport as the storm hit England's southwest coast late Sunday.
Between 20 and 40 millimetres (0.8 to 1.6 inches) of rain were predicted to fall within six to nine hours as the storm tracked eastwards across Britain, with a chance of localised flooding.
It will be followed by widespread gusts of 60 to 70 miles (97 to 113 kilometres) an hour across southern England and south Wales on Monday, with winds reaching more than 80 miles (130 kilometres) an hour in some areas, forecasters say.
The Met Office issued an "amber" wind warning for the region, the third highest in a four-level scale, and urged people to delay their Monday morning journeys to work to avoid the worst of the bad weather.
In northwest France more than 10,000 homes were without electricity early Monday after wind gusts reached 133 kilometres (83 miles) in some areas knocking down power lines but no major damage or injury were reported.
London looked set for a chaotic rush-hour after train companies First Capital Connect, C2C, Greater Anglia, Southern and Gatwick Express services all said they would not run services on Monday until it was safe to do so. That is unlikely to be before 9:00 am (0900 GMT), according to forecasts.
Robin Gisby from line operator Network Rail warned commuters to expect severe disruption.
"If we get through this in the morning, restore the service during the afternoon and are able to start up a good service on Tuesday morning, in the circumstances I'll be pretty pleased," he added.
Major airports also warned of disruption to flights with London hub Heathrow expecting approximately 30 cancellations.
Cross-channel train service Eurostar said it would not be running trains on Monday until 7:00 am, meaning delays to early services.
Several ferry operators said they had cancelled some cross-Channel services and Irish Sea crossings.
Meanwhile, the rough conditions led to rescuers standing down the search for a 14-year-old boy who was washed out to sea from a beach in East Sussex on England's south coast.
Britain last experienced similar wind strengths in March 2008, but forecaster Helen Chivers told AFP the expected damage was more comparable with a storm seen in October 2002.
Prime Minister David Cameron received an update from officials on contingency planning in a conference call on Sunday, amid fears of similar damage wrought by the "Great Storm" of October 1987.
That left 18 people dead in Britain and four in France, felled 15 million trees and caused damages worth more than £1 billion ($1.6 billion or 1.2 billion euros at current exchange rates) as winds blew up to 115 miles (185 kilometres) an hour.
Martin Young, chief forecaster at the Met Office, said: "While this is a major storm for the UK, we don't currently expect winds to be as strong as those seen in the 'Great Storm' of 1987 or the 'Burns Day storm' of 1990.
"We could see some uprooted trees or other damage from the winds and there's a chance of some surface water flooding from the rainfall -- all of which could lead to some disruption."
Veteran weather forecaster Michael Fish also said Sunday's storm was unlikely to be as severe as 26 years ago, although his comments will be taken with a pinch of salt in Britain.
Fish was the BBC's main television weatherman in 1987 but famously denied that a major storm was on its way just hours before it hit.
This year's storm has been named St Jude after the patron saint of lost causes, whose feast day is on Monday.
Contact: Aileen Sheehy press.office@sanger.ac.uk 0044-012-234-92368 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
2 related genes underlie the development of two rare bone tumours in nearly 100 percent of patients
Scientists have made a rare discovery that allows them to attribute two types of tumour almost entirely to specific mutations that lie in two related genes.
These mutations are found in nearly 100 per cent of patients suffering from two rare bone tumours; chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of the bone.
Chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bone are benign bone tumours that primarily affect adolescents and young adults, respectively. They can be extremely debilitating tumours and recur despite surgery. Occasionally, these tumours can be difficult to differentiate from highly malignant bone cancers. The mutations found in this study may be used for diagnosis of chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour. In addition, the mutations offer a starting point into research for a specific treatment against these tumours.
"This is an exceptional, if not a once in a lifetime discovery for the team," says Dr Peter Campbell, co-lead author of the study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
"What we normally see is that the same mutations occur in many different types of tumour. These mutations, however, are highly specific to these tumours. Moreover, our findings suggest that these mutations are the key, if not the sole, driving force behind these tumours."
The team sequenced the full genomes of six chondroblastoma tumours and found that all six tumours had mutations in one of two related genes, H3F3A and H3F3B, which produce an identical protein, called histone 3.3.
Extending the study to more chondroblastoma tumours and to other bone tumours, they were able to verify that this mutation was found in almost all cases of chondroblastoma. Interestingly, the team also observed that most cases of a different type of bone tumour, giant cell tumour of bone, have a mutation in the H3F3A gene, albeit in a different position in the gene. A pattern emerged where both tumour types, chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bone, are defined by specific histone 3.3 mutations.
The team pinpointed the specificity of these mutations to affecting a single amino acid residue on the histone 3.3 protein; G34W amino acid residue underlies giant cell tumour of the bone and K36M amino acid residue underlies chondroblastoma.
"The high prevalence of these mutations in each tumour type is striking, but what's most remarkable is the unprecedented specificity of these mutations," says Dr Sam Behjati, first author from the Wellcome trust Sanger Institute. "The specificity of the mutations not only informs us about how these tumours develop, but also points to some fundamental function of these genes in normal bone development."
"Our findings will be highly beneficial to clinicians as we now have a diagnostic marker to differentiate chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bones from other bone tumours," says Professor Adrienne Flanagan, co-lead author from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and UCL Cancer Institute. "This study highlights the importance of continuing to sequence all types of human cancer."
"We are also extremely grateful to our patients and collaborators, without their help we would not have been able to study these extremely rare diseases," adds Professor Flanagan.
###
Notes to Editors
The Skeletal Cancer Action Trust (Scat) is a small charity, based in the heart of the RNOH with the bone cancer (Sarcoma) team. Scat is unique in its offering of high performance limbs (C-limbs) to teenagers and young adults.
http://www.scatbonecancertrust.org
Publication Details
Sam Behjati, Patrick S Tarpey, Nadge Presneau et al (2013) 'Distinct H3F3A and H3F3B driver mutations define chondroblastoma and giant cell tumor of bone'
This work was supported by funding the Wellcome Trust, and Skeletal Cancer Action Trust (SCAT), UK, and Rosetrees Trust UK.
Participating Centres
Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK
Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2XY
University College London Cancer Institute, Huntley Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Universittsklinik fr Orthopdie und Orthopdische Chirurgie, Medizinische Universitt, Graz, Austria
Histopathology, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, Stanmore, Middlesex, HA7 4LP, UK
Human Genome Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics, VIB and KU Leuven, Herestraat 49 box 602, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Department of Tumour Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital,
The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Bone Tumour Reference Centre, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Department of Haematology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK
Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2XY
Selected Websites
Scat is a unique charity which supports research into the cause and treatment of musculoskeletal tumours. Scat's 'Live life to the Full' project also tries to enhance the lives of young people who have been afflicted with this disease and fund patients who suffered the terrible trauma of amputation with high performance limbs.
In addition to Scat's 'Live Life' campaign, the charity also prime pumps key research projects, particularly regarding the DNA of bone cancer and improvements in treatment. Scat believes that research is our investment in fighting back , armed with more information and knowledge, in the hope of prevention and cure. Partners include UCL and The Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Scat is an effective, small charity in the heart of the Sarcoma Unit of the RNOH that relies heavily on every donor and fundraiser in its work to change lives of bone cancer patients both now and in the future. Donations can be made via Virgin Moneygiving on the home page of
http://www.scatbonecancertrust.org
The RNOH is the largest specialist orthopaedic hospital in the UK and is regarded as a leader in the field of orthopaedics. The Trust provides a comprehensive and unique range of neuro-musculoskeletal healthcare, ranging from acute spinal injuries to orthopaedic medicine and specialist rehabilitation for chronic back pain sufferers. RNOH has the largest spinal surgery service in Europe with a third of UK spinal scoliosis surgery and two thirds of specialist peripheral nerve injury work.
http://www.rnoh.nhs.uk/
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.
http://www.sanger.ac.uk
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
Contact details
Aileen Sheehy Press Officer
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel +44 (0)1223 492 368
Mobile +44 (0)7753 7753 97
Email press.office@sanger.ac.uk
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Novel mutations define 2 types of bone tumor
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2013
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Contact: Aileen Sheehy press.office@sanger.ac.uk 0044-012-234-92368 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
2 related genes underlie the development of two rare bone tumours in nearly 100 percent of patients
Scientists have made a rare discovery that allows them to attribute two types of tumour almost entirely to specific mutations that lie in two related genes.
These mutations are found in nearly 100 per cent of patients suffering from two rare bone tumours; chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of the bone.
Chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bone are benign bone tumours that primarily affect adolescents and young adults, respectively. They can be extremely debilitating tumours and recur despite surgery. Occasionally, these tumours can be difficult to differentiate from highly malignant bone cancers. The mutations found in this study may be used for diagnosis of chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour. In addition, the mutations offer a starting point into research for a specific treatment against these tumours.
"This is an exceptional, if not a once in a lifetime discovery for the team," says Dr Peter Campbell, co-lead author of the study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
"What we normally see is that the same mutations occur in many different types of tumour. These mutations, however, are highly specific to these tumours. Moreover, our findings suggest that these mutations are the key, if not the sole, driving force behind these tumours."
The team sequenced the full genomes of six chondroblastoma tumours and found that all six tumours had mutations in one of two related genes, H3F3A and H3F3B, which produce an identical protein, called histone 3.3.
Extending the study to more chondroblastoma tumours and to other bone tumours, they were able to verify that this mutation was found in almost all cases of chondroblastoma. Interestingly, the team also observed that most cases of a different type of bone tumour, giant cell tumour of bone, have a mutation in the H3F3A gene, albeit in a different position in the gene. A pattern emerged where both tumour types, chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bone, are defined by specific histone 3.3 mutations.
The team pinpointed the specificity of these mutations to affecting a single amino acid residue on the histone 3.3 protein; G34W amino acid residue underlies giant cell tumour of the bone and K36M amino acid residue underlies chondroblastoma.
"The high prevalence of these mutations in each tumour type is striking, but what's most remarkable is the unprecedented specificity of these mutations," says Dr Sam Behjati, first author from the Wellcome trust Sanger Institute. "The specificity of the mutations not only informs us about how these tumours develop, but also points to some fundamental function of these genes in normal bone development."
"Our findings will be highly beneficial to clinicians as we now have a diagnostic marker to differentiate chondroblastoma and giant cell tumour of bones from other bone tumours," says Professor Adrienne Flanagan, co-lead author from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and UCL Cancer Institute. "This study highlights the importance of continuing to sequence all types of human cancer."
"We are also extremely grateful to our patients and collaborators, without their help we would not have been able to study these extremely rare diseases," adds Professor Flanagan.
###
Notes to Editors
The Skeletal Cancer Action Trust (Scat) is a small charity, based in the heart of the RNOH with the bone cancer (Sarcoma) team. Scat is unique in its offering of high performance limbs (C-limbs) to teenagers and young adults.
http://www.scatbonecancertrust.org
Publication Details
Sam Behjati, Patrick S Tarpey, Nadge Presneau et al (2013) 'Distinct H3F3A and H3F3B driver mutations define chondroblastoma and giant cell tumor of bone'
This work was supported by funding the Wellcome Trust, and Skeletal Cancer Action Trust (SCAT), UK, and Rosetrees Trust UK.
Participating Centres
Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK
Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2XY
University College London Cancer Institute, Huntley Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Universittsklinik fr Orthopdie und Orthopdische Chirurgie, Medizinische Universitt, Graz, Austria
Histopathology, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, Stanmore, Middlesex, HA7 4LP, UK
Human Genome Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics, VIB and KU Leuven, Herestraat 49 box 602, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Department of Tumour Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital,
The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Bone Tumour Reference Centre, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Department of Haematology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK
Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2XY
Selected Websites
Scat is a unique charity which supports research into the cause and treatment of musculoskeletal tumours. Scat's 'Live life to the Full' project also tries to enhance the lives of young people who have been afflicted with this disease and fund patients who suffered the terrible trauma of amputation with high performance limbs.
In addition to Scat's 'Live Life' campaign, the charity also prime pumps key research projects, particularly regarding the DNA of bone cancer and improvements in treatment. Scat believes that research is our investment in fighting back , armed with more information and knowledge, in the hope of prevention and cure. Partners include UCL and The Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Scat is an effective, small charity in the heart of the Sarcoma Unit of the RNOH that relies heavily on every donor and fundraiser in its work to change lives of bone cancer patients both now and in the future. Donations can be made via Virgin Moneygiving on the home page of
http://www.scatbonecancertrust.org
The RNOH is the largest specialist orthopaedic hospital in the UK and is regarded as a leader in the field of orthopaedics. The Trust provides a comprehensive and unique range of neuro-musculoskeletal healthcare, ranging from acute spinal injuries to orthopaedic medicine and specialist rehabilitation for chronic back pain sufferers. RNOH has the largest spinal surgery service in Europe with a third of UK spinal scoliosis surgery and two thirds of specialist peripheral nerve injury work.
http://www.rnoh.nhs.uk/
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.
http://www.sanger.ac.uk
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
Contact details
Aileen Sheehy Press Officer
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
Tel +44 (0)1223 492 368
Mobile +44 (0)7753 7753 97
Email press.office@sanger.ac.uk
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2010, file photo former Vice President Dick Cheney hugs his daughter, Liz Cheney, after she surprised the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by bringing him as her guest in Washington. On a television talk show Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, Cheney predicted that his daughter Liz would win her Republican Senate primary challenge in Wyoming next year against Republican Sen. Mike Enzi. He said Enzi has received the majority of his campaign money from Washington, D.C.-based political groups, and that "Washington is not going to elect the next senator from Wyoming." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2010, file photo former Vice President Dick Cheney hugs his daughter, Liz Cheney, after she surprised the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by bringing him as her guest in Washington. On a television talk show Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, Cheney predicted that his daughter Liz would win her Republican Senate primary challenge in Wyoming next year against Republican Sen. Mike Enzi. He said Enzi has received the majority of his campaign money from Washington, D.C.-based political groups, and that "Washington is not going to elect the next senator from Wyoming." (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dick Cheney said Sunday that Republicans need to look to a new generation of leaders as the party deals with poor approval ratings following the government shutdown.
The former vice president said Republicans have faced challenges before and it's healthy for the party to work to rebuild.
The GOP "got whipped" in the 2012 presidential campaign, when President Barack Obama won re-election over Mitt Romney, and the party needs to build its base of supporters and find "first-class" candidates and turn to a new generation of leaders, Cheney told ABC's "This Week."
"It's not the first time we have had to go down this road and it's basically, I think, healthy for the party to be brought up short, say, OK, now it's time to go to work," Cheney said.
He predicted that his daughter, Liz Cheney, would win her Senate primary challenge against Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming next year. The former vice president said it was "simply not true" that he and Enzi were "fishing buddies," and asserted that Enzi has received the vast majority of his campaign funds from Washington-based political action committees.
"Washington is not going to elect the next senator from Wyoming. The people of Wyoming will elect that senator," Cheney said. He said his daughter's campaign is "going full speed. She's going to win."
Asked to name a prominent Republican who can attract Democrats and independent voters, Cheney said he was "not going to predict or endorse anybody. We've got a long way to go to the next presidential election."
On foreign policy matters, Cheney declined to weigh in on surveillance activities by the National Security Agency, saying he hadn't been regularly briefed in five years.
He expressed skepticism that the Obama administration would be able to force Iran to comply with demands that it show its nuclear program is peaceful. Asked if military action against Iran was "inevitable," Cheney said he had "trouble seeing how we're going to achieve our objective short of that."
Cheney faulted the Obama White House's handling of Middle East politics, saying the U.S. presence in the region had been "significantly diminished" in recent years. "I think our friends no longer count on us, no longer trust us and our adversaries don't fear us," he said.
___
Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas
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