The new cooling device of the future from NASA.

(Credit: NASA)

Ever wondered about the source of that humming sound coming from your computer? It’s most likely the fan that tries to ventilate the internal components. That’s a typical cooling system.

Jeff Didion (holding the pump) and his EHD-cooling technology developing partners.

(Credit: NASA)

I am not a rocket scientist, but generally speaking, as electronic components get tinier and more powerful, the amount of heat they generate gets proportionately higher. This is due to the simple fact that there’s just not enough surface for the heat to dissipate quickly enough. That’s why all computers’ processors and high-end video cards come with a heat sink with a fan on top. Take this heat sink away and you’d fry the component in a matter of seconds.

Now bring these little advanced devices into space, where there’s no air or moisture to help conduct the heat, and you’ll have an even bigger challenge. And that’s exactly what NASA has been facing.

According to NASA’s Jeff Didion, a thermal engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center, in the world of electronics, thermal control is always one of the limiting factors. He has been collaborating with Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, to partner with the U.S. Air Force and National Renewable Energy Laboratory to find ways to push the envelope of thermal-control barriers.

The result is the new electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-based thermal control technology, unveiled yesterday, that promises to make it easier and more efficient to remove heat from small spaces. This solution is meant to address a particular challenge for engineers building advanced space instruments and microprocessors that could fail if the heat they generate is not removed.

The prototype of the new thermal control technology is a tiny pump, about the size of a little finger, which, apart from the cooling function, is designed to withstand the extreme launch loads as a rocket lifts off and hurtles toward space. The pump will be demonstrated in June on a rocket mission designed to carry microsatellites into space. “Should the device survive the vibration, the technology will have achieved a major milestone in its development,” Didion said. “It will mean that it is at or near operational status, making it a viable technology for use on spaceflight instruments.”

While the device is being called a pump, the prototype has no moving parts. According to Didion, unlike current cooling technologies used today by instrument and component developers, EHD does not rely on mechanical pumps and other moving parts. Instead, it uses electric fields to pump coolant through tiny ducts inside a thermal cold plate. From there, the waste heat is dumped onto a radiator and dispersed far from heat-sensitive circuitry that must operate within certain temperature ranges.

The fact that no mechanical parts are required means the new cooling system is lighter, consumes less power, (about .5W) and most importantly, can be scaled to different sizes, from larger cold plates to micro-scale electronic components and lab-on-a-chip devices. To see how this would work out, apart from the tiny pump to be tested in the rocket mission in June, a prototype EHD cold plate is also scheduled to be used as an experiment on the International Space Station in 2013.

In the meantime, Didion said, the team is continuing its work to further advance EHD, such as developing EHD pumps in microchannels that are etched onto silicon wafers. The next step is placing the technology on circuit boards, with the ultimate goal of scaling it to the chip level where the ducts would be no larger than 100 microns, or about the width of a human hair.

There’s not yet any information available on how much the technology costs, but hopefully in the future, it will be applied to more down-to-earth applications, such as a computer’s microprocessor. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about getting a water-cooling system or a huge fan if you’re big on overclocking.

After helping to develop polarized sunglasses and proliferate the use of Velcro, this just might be the next, coolest thing–quite literally–that NASA has had to offer.

View full post on technology – Google News

Press Release Source: China Information Technology, Inc. On Friday May 27, 2011, 7:00 am EDT

SHENZHEN, China, May 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ — China Information Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNIT – News), a leading provider of Information Technologies and Display Technologies based in China, today announced Ms. Jackie You Kazmerzak will resign from her post as Chief Financial Officer effective May 30, 2011 to pursue another career opportunity. The Company is in the process of vetting suitable candidates to serve as the Company’s CFO following Ms. Kazmerzak’s departure.

“We wish to thank Jackie for her extraordinary contributions during her tenure at China Information Technology. As CFO she implemented a number of industry best-practices and raised the professionalism of our financial practices. We wish her the very best in her new endeavors,” said Mr. Jiang Huai Lin, Chairman and CEO of the Company. “We will take the time necessary to ensure that we find the best possible candidate to build on Jackie’s accomplishments. We remain fully committed to the highest levels of transparency and corporate governance,” concluded Mr. Lin.

In the interim, Ms. Eva Liu, CPA, who is the Company’s Financial Controller, will continue to manage daily financial operations, supported by the Company’s established finance team. Ms. Liu has been with the Company since 2009. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Liu worked with Ernst & Young’s Shenzhen office for over five years. She has extensive experience in financial controls and planning, and a deep understanding of the U.S. GAAP and accounting-related rules and regulations applicable to U.S.-listed companies. Ms. Liu holds a bachelor’s degree of Finance from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.

Ms. Iris Yan, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Secretary, and Ms. Margie Ma, Investor Relations Manager, will continue to manage the Company’s investor relations activities. Until a new CFO is appointed, Ms. Liu and Ms. Yan will report directly to China Information Technology’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jiang Huai Lin.

About China Information Technology, Inc.

China Information Technology, Inc., through its subsidiaries and other consolidated entities, specializes in information technologies and display technologies. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, the Company’s integrated solutions include specialized software, hardware, systems integration, and related services. To learn more about the Company, please visit its corporate website at http://www.chinacnit.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” relating to the business of China Information Technology, Inc., and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are “forward-looking statements” including statements regarding: the general ability of the Company to achieve its commercial objectives, including the Company’s plan to sustain the growth while creating shareholder value; the business strategy, plans and objectives of the Company and its subsidiaries; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects” or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (http://www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

For further information, please contact:

China Information Technology, Inc.

Margie Ma

Tel: +86-755-8370-4734

Email: IR@chinacnit.com

Iris Yan

Tel: +86-755-8370-4767

Christensen

Kathy Li

Tel: +1-480-614-3036

Email: kli@christensenir.com

Teal Willingham

Tel: +86-10-5826-4939

Email: twillingham@christensenir.com

Follow Yahoo! Finance on ; become a fan on Facebook.

View full post on technology – Yahoo! News Search Results

Public Enemy’s Chuck D leads tributes to ‘Godfather Of Hip-Hop’

Photo: PA Photos

Gil Scott-Heron has died at the age of 62 . The cause of his death is still unclear.

The influential musician and poet – often given a ‘Godfather Of Hip-Hop’ nickname he rejected – passed away in New York’s St Luke’s Hospital yesterday (May 27), reports BBC News.

It is believed that Scott-Heron fell ill after returning from a trip to Europe.

After starting his recording career in 1970, his output spanned soul, jazz, blues and the spoken word.

His work had a strong political element. ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, perhaps his best-known work, critiqued the mass media of the 1970s.

He was one of the first artists to use his music to speak out about the apartheid in South Africa, some time before the issue became the focus of a popular global campaign.

Scott-Heron went on to influence generations of musicians, both inside and outside hip-hop.

Kanye West heavily sampled Scott-Heron’s spoken word pieces on last year’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ album.

Scott-Heron’s final album was last year’s ‘I’m New Here’, his first studio LP in 16 years.

The album was reworked with The xx’s Jamie xx into a remix album, ‘We’re New Here’, which was released last February.

Public Enemy’s Chuck D has been among those paying tribute to Scott-Heron, taking to his Twitter account Twitter.com/mrchuckd to say: “RIP GSH..and we do what we do and how we do because of you. And to those that don’t know tip your hat with a hand over your heart & recognize.”

He added that he had planned to collaborate with Scott-Heron on his next album, tweeting: “Quite stunned at the fact I just wrote and recorded guest vocals on one of his next albums.This makes one realize that time is precious, damn.”

New York rapper Talib Kweli also had his say, tweeting from Twitter.com/realtalibkweli: “Wow. The rest of my night I’m gonna listen to Gil Scott-Heron. We love you brother. We will miss you. RIP.”

Get the latest music news on your mobile with our new smartphone site – now optimised for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry

Comments

View full post on gil scott heron – Google News

The poet and musician, who had long struggled with drug addiction, had in the past two years returned into the public eye with an acclaimed solo recording, “I’m New Here,” and a follow-up remix album done by Jamie xx of the British group the XX. Scott-Heron was 62.

Last year the New Yorker published a reverent but heartbreaking profile of Scott-Heron by Alec Wilkinson.  Written after Scott-Heron had recorded “I’m New Here” but after he had relapsed and was smoking crack openly in front of the reporter, the story traced his rise, his fall and his influence.

In an interview for the feature, bassist Ron Carter, who played on “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” described Scott-Heron’s allure: “He wasn’t a great singer, but with that voice, if he had whispered it would have been dynamic. It was a voice like you would have for Shakespeare.”

In the same story, which is behind a paywall here, rapper Chuck D. discusses the role Scott-Heron played in the birth of rap: “You can go into the beat poets and [Allen] Ginsberg and [Bob] Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern world. He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else. In what way necessary? Well, if you try and make pancakes and you ain’t got the water, the milk or the eggs, you’re trying to do something you can’t. In combining music with the word, from the voice on down, you follow the template he laid out. His rapping is rhythmic. Some of it’s songs. It’s punchy, and all those qualities are still used today.”

Pop & Hiss will have more on Gil Scott-Heron’s legacy, and The Times will have a full obituary in Sunday’s paper.

RELATED:

Live review: Gil Scott-Heron at the El Rey

A first listen to Gil Scott-Heron’s “I’m New Here”

Album review: Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx’s “We’re New Here”

– Randall Roberts

View full post on gil scott heron – Yahoo! News Search Results

Scalpel. Stethoscope. Twitter account?

Modern medicine is no longer just about the expertise and tools of the trade that heal patients. It’s also about the technology — think Internet and social networking — that helps doctors connect with patients.

Increasingly, health-care providers are turning to Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and other forms of social media to market their practice and share health information.

Dr. Wally Zollman, a plastic surgeon for more than three decades, started a professional Facebook page about a year and a half ago to get the word out about his practice.

“You can’t deny that 700 billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook. There’s all this interaction,” he said. “People are looking for someone to ask about, `Who’s your plumber? Who have you had luck with?’ It’s the same thing with surgeons.”

In addition to before-and-after videos, Zollman features specials that he’s offering on the page. He receives many kinds of questions, but he answers personal ones only by phone or email.

Social media such as Facebook can act as powerful marketing tools, said Keith Humes, CEO of Rosemont Media, a search engine marketing company based in San Diego that helps physicians set up an online presence.

Facebook is “the new word-of-mouth referral,” Humes said. “Facebook allows us to take a half-step into the practice and get a feeling for what it is like.”

The American Medical Association published guidelines for the use of social media in November. The policy includes advice such as: Be aware of patient privacy issues and maintain personal-professional boundaries.

Although there’s no way to tally how many physicians have ventured into social media, doctors are embracing Facebook more than Twitter, said Dr. Kevin Pho, an expert on the intersection of health care and social media. Fewer than 10,000 doctors tweet, and many do so for personal use.

Twitter allows short messages, which can be broadcast to all of the followers of that account or can be made private. Comments are limited to 140 characters for each post. Facebook allows sharing of information, including videos and photos. But permission must be given for others to be your “friends” and see your posts.

In the future, more physicians may turn to all these modes of interaction, said Pho, an internist in Nashua, N.H.

“Gone are the days when people are going to look for doctors in the Yellow Pages,” he said. “It’s really to a physician’s advantage to have a digital footprint. . . . I try to convince other doctors (that) you need to get online sooner rather than later.”

Hospital systems also are beginning to recognize the appeal, taking the medium beyond the question of whether doctors should email patients.

Nothing can replace a face-to-face visit, but there’s still ample place for health-care providers online, said Dan Rench, vice president of e-business for Community Health Network.

“It used to be that it was just a way for people to share information that they would typically have in a brochure,” Rench said. “Now it’s become the way that people do business.”

Community has an online chat option, where anyone older than 18 can pose health questions to a registered nurse for a “real-time,” or immediate, answer. Questions range from whether an emergency room visit is necessary after being hit on the head with a soccer ball to inquiries about sexually transmitted diseases.

Since the service started five years ago, there’s been “consistent utilization,” Rench said. In some instances the nurses, who work for a Tennessee company that provides the service for Community, may connect the person to a Community doctor.

The hospital also hosts an “Ask the Expert” interaction with video on its website. This gives visitors a chance to pose a question to a Community expert, as long as the question does not ask for a diagnosis.

View full post on technology – Google News

By TOM STARNER, a freelance writer who specializes in reporting and writing about technology

Mobile computing, driven primarily by continued growth of hardware such as smartphones and smaller, more versatile tablet devices, is taking off.

It should come as little surprise then that those same hardware devices are beginning to make an impact within the property and casualty insurance industry and risk management profession.

Mobile computing, in fact, is becoming a critical success factor in conducting business and enabling insurers and risk managers to be effective technology users. For the risk management and insurance industries, mobile computing can usher in a new era with the potential efficiencies of mobile devices, including entering new claims and resolving them faster, automating accident investigations, documenting on-site workplace safety inspections, including photos and using social networking to communicate internally and externally.

“Obviously, there has been a lot going on over the course of the last couple of years,” said Chicago-based Tom Kavanaugh, a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Diamond Advisory Services. “The smartphone and the re-emergence of the tablet, driven by Apple and a more competitive marketplace, offer a new technology engagement model.”

Kavanaugh said consumer expectations that arise from the use of Amazon, Facebook and other experiences have raised overall engagement of traditional business to consumers. But now, on these newer, smaller, smarter devices, there is availability and access on a 24/7 basis.

“People are interacting with one another, texting, commenting on pieces, making payments and purchases,” he said. “Those behaviors are sure to spill over into the world of insurance and risk management.”

Of course, Kavanaugh said mobile hardware in the form of laptops and netbooks still have a place, but smartphones reside “in the pocket,” and can engage risk management and insurance professionals in an entirely new way.

“With this type of device, they have a technology construct with them everywhere they go,” he said. For example, as the risk management platform is extended to smartphones or tablets, these technologies can be used at a warehouse and be designed as a preventative rather than a reactive tool on the safety and claims fronts. Applications, for example, that can detect when a steam boiler is running hot and could explode and transmit an immediate alert to a risk manager, potentially preventing a catastrophic event from happening.

“Over time, the technology model will change,” Kavanaugh said. “We will move from being reactive in terms of something happening to much more focused around risk prevention and claim avoidance.”

Kavanaugh said he sees insurers and risk managers already embracing these new devices, providing and using smartphone apps for initiating the claims process, for example.

Tani Pack Downing, Utah’s risk manager, said her department is in the middle of a long-term claims system overhaul. And as part of that effort, she hopes loss-control personnel in the field eventually will be equipped with smartphones that have camera and email capabilities. “Right now, they need to take a photo on a camera, upload it, sort it all out and spend time in the office doing paper work,” she said. “The goal is that they be able to do all of that in the field and not have to come into the office.”

For example, should a loss-control person inspect a school and see a live electrical socket in need of repair, right on the spot they could send a photo of it to the central office to initiate a repair. Or, a claims adjuster could visit a flooded area and shoot photos and upload them or a claim directly to the Utah risk management office, without using a laptop and camera.

“Email capability is the first step, as that allows the work to be on any smartphone,” she said. “Eventually, it is going to change our lives, but being a public entity, we have to make a strong business case that we show it can make a difference.”

Jackie Hair, executive director, risk management at Ingram Micro Inc., a Santa Ana, Calif., technology supplier, said the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan clearly demonstrated how fast information can move with the technology improvements and enhancements smartphones offer.

“If you were an organization with a heavy employee population in Japan, or even in New Zealand or Chile, you could be able to assess the impact of the damage very fast,” she said. “These devices represent an incredible way to get info to where it’s needed the fastest. I believe they are going to revolutionize the way risk management works.”

Hair said while risk management and insurance are still “on the cusp” of widespread adoption of these devices, the fact that they can allow one to get online and transmit, receive or confirm data no matter where one might be at any given moment is a game changer.

“We had not even thought of this scenario just a few years ago,” she said. “When I have questions and issues, these tools can provide an incredible resource. They can help explain to my management or carriers what I am doing and why. They potentially are huge productivity tools. Even laptops are starting to seem cumbersome in comparison.”

Ingram Micro, which has 35,000 employees and operations in 37 countries, primarily is a warehouse logistics distribution provider. Ironically, Ingram’s business side is “hugely automated,” but the risk management function, at least until recently, was not on the same level. Hair expects that to change within the next few years, and plans on using as much of the new mobile technology devices she can to make that happen.

For example, when a large loss occurs, apart from carriers being notified almost immediately, risk management can send out notices to all levels of senior management.

“We want to be able to have something they can access, and they want mobile technology that allows them to get information and read reports, but they must be able to open such reports and attachments on mobile devices,” she said.

Bob Morrell, co-founder and CEO at Marietta, Ga.-based Riskonnect, a provider of enterprise technology for the risk management industry, said being tethered to a laptop or desktop will fade from the picture within a few years. Plus, when today’s risk managers buy risk management information systems (RMIS systems), they are thinking 10 years out, he said.

“They want to know how people will access information not just now but in the future,” Morrell said. “These new devices can do a lot more than check email. If a RMIS or other risk management technology doesn’t work on these mobile platforms, you will have trouble.”

The key, he said, is it’s not just enough to say it will run, but that it will run effectively in an environment that has no traditional keyboard but rather, a touchscreen.

“There have been a lot of stops and starts over the past decade with mobile computing, but when (Oracle CEO) Larry Ellison predicted the death of the PC 15 years ago, his predictions were accurate. His timing was just off,” Morrell said. “You can say these devices are making that happen.”

Gordon Clemons, chairman of Irvine, Calif.-based CorVel Corp., a national provider of disability management services and solutions, has little doubt about the smartphone and tablet hardware platforms playing an integral role in the insurance and risk management world.

“We’re seeing the same thing everyone else is seeing, and I am not sure if it’s overhyped at all,” Clemons said.

He said that the laptop computer’s role in the insurance industry was a major advance, but now it pales against the potential smartphones and tablets offer.

“The first time I got a smartphone in my hands, it immediately made me think, ‘This feels like something big,’ ” he said. “Statistics show that pretty much everyone will have a smartphone and/or a tablet in their hands within two years. It represents a tremendous opportunity both for risk managers and any company related to the insurance industry.”

Gray Construction, a large U.S. contractor based in Lexington, Ky., is using smartphones and tablet technology for recording and monitoring data on construction projects around the world. Gray’s Randolph Wilson, director of technologies, said that began three to four years ago with photo taking and risk assessments via personal digital assistant devices (PDAs).

“Our first iteration was a PDA platform, which was a small smartphone form factor with a very small screen,” Wilson said. “The second iteration was with tablet PCs with no keyboard and a bigger form factor, so there was more screen real estate. But the tablets now have high contrast screens, along with 3G networks and wifi.”

Gray is in the process of migrating that technology to the iPad, Wilson said, because the iPad-type form factor brings the needed requirements to a different, more reporting type of device.

“The mantra we use here, make it as easy as we can for the users, regardless of the device,” he said.

Jon Wright, manager of quality management systems for Gray, said the key risk management pieces are the measurability and predictability for tracking data, not only in building an accurate baseline, but helping develop what he calls a “learning” atmosphere.

“From the quality control side, having those devices provides an invaluable real-time data collector, but it also can improve safety because we are catching current conditions and behaviors,” he said, noting that on a daily basis there are about 100 Gray employees using smartphones or tablet devices in the field.

“The challenge is bridging the gap between old and new platforms,” he said. “It’s a large undertaking to move from one to another, and keep consistency with data.”

The high mobility of these new devices helps Gray document its projects much more thoroughly. And that is important when one is controlling risk in uncontained locations across several projects worldwide.

In the end, Wright said the devices can lead to improved collaboration between vendors and suppliers, delivering more connectivity on the construction site, especially regarding safety and claims.

“When you are easily sharing data real-time, it keeps everyone on an even keel,” he said.

Using these hardware devices, Gray can better monitor the trend of expected-versus-actual losses. It can gather data to use when talking to insurance carriers and brokers. And it also can get a better feel where its risk outliers are and have more information to validate correct assessments on claims costs.

“It works the other way, too. We have the data sophistication to measure and control risk and study risk, so we can prevent claims,” Wright said.

May 1, 2011

Copyright 2011© LRP Publications

View full post on technology – Yahoo! News Search Results

ODESSA — Nola Mearl Adcock, 90, died Friday, April 22, 2011. Graveside service 2 p.m. Monday at Wingate Cemetery in Wingate. Arrangements by Acres West Funeral Chapel.

Sylvia Beatrice ‘Bea’ Atwood

Sylvia Beatrice “Bea” Atwood, 84, died Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Services 11 a.m. today at The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road. Interment to follow in Elmwood Memorial Park.

Ela Beth Bailey

Ela Beth Bailey, 88, died Friday, April 22, 2011, in Houston. Arrangements pending with Elliott-Hamil Funeral Home, 542 Hickory.

Skipper Driver

GARDEN CITY — Skipper Driver, 67, died Wednesday, April 20, 2011, in Temple. Service 10 a.m. Tuesday at First Baptist Church in Big Spring. Burial to follow at the Garden City Cemetery. Visitation 6-8 p.m. Monday at the Nalley-Pickle & Welch Rosewood Chapel.

William Frank Dunham

EARLY — William Frank Dunham died Friday, April 22, 2011. Visitation 6–8 p.m. Sunday at Heartland Funeral Home. Graveside service 2 p.m. Monday at Eastlawn Memorial Park.

James Gemberling

James Gemberling, 75, died Tuesday, April 19, 2011. Arrangements pending with Community Memorial Funeral Home, 1443 N. Second St.

Bonnie Mae Head

SNYDER — Bonnie Mae Head, 99, died Thursday, April 21, 2011. Service 1 p.m. today at Bell-Cypert-Seale Chapel. Interment to follow at Hillside Memorial Gardens.

Mary Alice Henington

SWEETWATER — Mary Alice Henington, 89, died Friday, April 22, 2011. Arrangements pending with McCoy Funeral Home of Sweetwater.

Jodena Honeycutt

Jodena Honeycutt, 89, died Friday, April 22, 2011. Arrangements pending with North’s Funeral Home, 242 Orange St.Gary Martin

Gary Martin 50, died Thursday, April 21, 2011. Arrangements pending with Dove Funeral Home.

Jimmy Parker

Jimmy Parker, 61, formerly of Stamford and Aspermont, died Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Service 11 a.m. Mondayat Double Mountain Cemetery, directed by McCoy Funeral Home of Aspermont.

Ofelia Perez

WESTBROOK — Ofelia Perez, 74, died Thursday, April 21, 2011. Service 1 p.m. today at the Rock of Salvation Church in Loraine. Arrangements by Wright Colonial Funeral Home.

Dollie Fletcher Scott

COLEMAN — Dollie Fletcher Scott, 85, died Thursday, April 21, 2011. Service 11 a.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church in Coleman. Graveside service 1 p.m. Wednesday at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston. Arrangements by Stevens Funeral Home of Coleman.

Edward Thomas

Edward Thomas, 65, died Wednesday, April 20, 2011. Arrangements pending with Dove Funeral Home.

Jasbo Whitfield

SONORA — Jasbo Whitfield, 28, died Friday, April 22, 2011. Arrangements pending with Stevens Funeral Home of Coleman.

View full post on nola – Google News

Pennsylvania-based roots-rock band Mason Porter has released two full-length albums since their self-titled debut EP dropped back in 2008. Their latter works were christened with mysterious, almost mystical, names mirroring the American music experience the band hopes to convey: First “Thunder in the Valley,” then “Story of the Rifle.”

Another EP is in the works and should be available later this year, says cofounder and mandolinist Joe D’Amico, but the band is keeping details closely guarded.

“The title has not been agreed upon,” D’Amico says. “I don’t know if I should say.”

After all, a strict, professional code exists, even among buddies.

And good pals is just what the members of Mason Porter have grown to be, says D’Amico, although when they assembled in 2006 outside of Philadelphia in the little town of West Chester, Pa., the core group – D’Amico, guitarist Paul Wilkinson and upright bassist Tim Selfo – were little more than acquaintances.

“There was just sort of a folk music scene happening in town at the time,” D’Amico says. “We all met at different parties and stuff, hanging out. We all came from a different group of friends. Some of us went to college together; some of us didn’t. It started out as an informal thing – and then grew.”

And how.

“The band has grown from a trio to … a quintet,” says Wilkinson.

Along the way, Mason Porter – named for a distant troubadour relative of D’Amico’s – picked up drummer Pat Hughes, dobro player Brad Hinton and sometimes sit-in Bob Beach on harmonica.

According to Wilkinson, the sound of the band is somewhat elusive.

“The term ‘folk-rock’ comes across as kind of cheesy to me,” he says. “But we’re definitely folk-based with a rock edge. Some people might say ‘Americana,’ but that’s also a bit hard to pinpoint. We’re rootsy, with a modern twist.”

Following four short years of modern twisting, last summer, the musicians took a bow at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

“It’s a very prestigious fest, so we were very excited and honored to be a part of it,” D’Amico says. “We met a lot of people and got a lot of great reviews. It opened a lot of doors for us. For a band just starting out, it let people know, ‘Hey, maybe we should pay attention to these guys.’”

The band has since shared the stage with national acts like Peter Rowan, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Carrie Rodriguez.

“Inspiration comes from a lot of different places, you know? A lot of times, the big act you open for isn’t necessarily the one that inspires you,” D’Amico says. “Sometimes it’s the local guy sitting in the corner who writes great songs.”

Guys, perhaps, like the musicians comprising Mason Porter once were.

Still, D’Amico says, sharing the mic with the big guns has its perks.

“It looks good on the resume,” he says.

Whatever the title, the new EP will feature a shift in instrumentals, says Wilkinson – placing an emphasis on electrical guitar, rather than acoustic.

“We’re making a slight change in direction,”he says. “We’ll still have the same vibe, the same three-part harmony, but we’re moving more toward rock than folk.”

Mason Porter performed at Cafe Nola almost a year ago, exactly, and the band is looking forward to their return engagement on Friday.

“We really enjoyed it,” says Wilkinson. “The food was delicious, people offered us couches that night. It’s a good stopping point on our way to Richmond, Va.”

D’Amico agrees.

“It’s a great venue,” he says. “We’re going to have a good time. We perform a high-energy kind of show. We go from fun and upbeat to beautiful harmonies … Some bands are just rock, rock, rock. We kind of play in between those stereotypes. We’re about the songs, you know?”

Mason Porter

-When: 9 p.m. Saturday

-Where: Café Nola, 4 E. Patrick St., Frederick

-For information: 301-694-NOLA

www.cafe-nola.com

noravec@gazette.net

View full post on nola – Yahoo! News Search Results

Voters in California and Nevada did express both an interest and an understanding about the need for deficit reduction. Yet they made clear that the economic recovery that’s given Washington lawmakers the space to start discussing longer-term fiscal matters still hasn’t fully taken hold in ways that are meaningful to them.

Obama long has said he knows the economic recovery hasn’t come to many parts of the country. But as he shifts into re-election mode, his challenge will be to show the public that he’s still focused on issues like job creation, even as the conversation in Washington changes to how to bring down the nation’s massive debt.

An audience member at Obama’s town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., on aptly summarized how the shift in economic emphasis looks to the public.

“At the beginning of your term you spent a lot of time talking about job creation and the road to economic recovery,” the questioner told the president. “Since then, we’ve seen the conversation shift from that of job creation and economic recovery to that of spending cuts and the deficit.”

“I would love to know your thoughts on how you’re going to balance these two going forward, or even potentially shift the conversation back,” she added.

Obama’s response, both at Facebook and in other appearances pitching his deficit-reduction plan, is that unless lawmakers address the nation’s long-term fiscal health, further short-term economic gains could be difficult to come by.

“If we don’t have a serious plan to tackle the debt and the deficit, that could actually end up being a bigger drag on the economy than anything else,” Obama said.

While the economy has rebounded somewhat since the early days of Obama’s presidency, the national unemployment rate is still 8.8 percent and millions of jobs lost during the recession haven’t come back. A questioner at Obama’s town hall meeting in Reno, Nev., on Thursday said both he and his wife were out of work.

Compounding the economic problems for many Americans is the faltering housing market that left many homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and other prospective homeowners struggling to find the money to buy.

A question submitted for Obama online during the Facebook town hall put the public’s frustration simply: “The housing crisis will not go away.”

Obama didn’t reject that assessment, calling the housing market the “biggest drag” on the economy.

“People who want to move have a great deal of trouble selling, and people who want to buy, as you pointed out, are seeing terms a lot more restrictive,” Obama said.

Tack on rising gasoline prices and it’s no surprise that many Americans are still feeling pinched from all sides. In an Associated Press-GfK poll from March, 90 percent of people said the economy was a top priority.

The same poll found that 76 percent of Americans see budget and deficit issues as extremely important or very important. The poll was conducted before Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., announced competing plans for bringing down the deficit.

Both parties agree the deficit must be cut, but they differ greatly over how to achieve it. Obama’s plan would cut deficit spending by $4 trillion over 12 years through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy, while House Republicans have passed a plan that would cut nearly $6 trillion from the deficit, in part by overhauling Medicare and Medicare.

Obama and Republicans have accused each other by turn of pitching “radical” plans, and there are few indications of where they’ll find room for compromise.
By JULIE PACE, Associated Press

The dollar index, a measure of the greenback’s strength against a basket of currencies, dipped to a near three-year low, as record low interest rates and the crushing weight of the U.S. budget deficit pushed it closer to an all-time trough.

Spot gold edged up 0.2 percent to $1,504.99 ounce by 0238 GMT (10:38 p.m. EDT), off its record high of $1,508.75 hit on Thursday. It was poised to score its sixth consecutive week of gains.

“Gold is likely to consolidate around $1,500 level next week,” said Li Ning, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures. “The angle of the recent rally is very sharp, and we are bound to see some correction in the near term.”

Spot gold rallied over $50, or nearly 4 percent, in the past seven sessions. The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, rose to nearly 74, a level unseen since October last year, suggesting the market has been heavily overbought.

Li said gold still has more steam to run on and expected prices to peak at $1,550 by the end of the second quarter, on the ongoing Middle East unrest, sovereign debt concerns on both sides of the Atlantic and inflation worries.

Concerns on rising global inflation will likely drive gold even higher in the next few years, albeit in a slower pace, analysts polled by Reuters said.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange has started a trial for over-the-counter trading, providing a convenient tool for institutional clients to trade large quantities of gold.

Spot silver rose to as high as $46.64, just 4 cents off the 31-year high. It was trading at $46.46, up 51 percent so far this year, outstripping gold’s 6 percent rise.

Holdings in the physically backed exchange-traded precious metals funds dipped ahead of the long Easter weekend. SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s biggest gold ETF, saw holdings dip 0.6 tonnes to 1,229.643 tonnes.

Singapore and Hong Kong markets are closed on Friday for a public holiday, while Hong Kong will remain closed on Monday.

(Editing by Himani Sarkar)