Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: accessories

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

As any technophile will tell you, accessories make the getup when it comes to complementing your favorite gadgets. Whether you're decking out a smartphone, computer, tablet, gaming system or just looking for some good old-fashioned holiday kicks, we're here to help you pick from our favorite accessories of 2011. Jump past the break to find out which ones made the "Nice" list.

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Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: accessories originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bing hitches holiday hopes to Rudolph the reindeer (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Like Santa Claus on that one foggy Christmas Eve, Microsoft has summoned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to guide some precious cargo ? a holiday marketing campaign for its Bing search engine.

The advertisements, debuting online and on TV this week, star Rudolph and other characters from the animated story about the most famous reindeer of all. The campaign is part of Microsoft's attempt to trip up Google Inc., an Internet search rival as imposing as the Abominable Snowman was before Yukon Cornelius tamed the monster.

Google has been countering with its own emotional ads throughout the year. Most of Google's ads show snippets of its dominant search engine and other products at work before swirling into the logo of the company's Chrome Web browser.

The dueling ads underscore the lucrative nature of search engines. Although visitors pay nothing to use them, search engines generate billions of dollars a year in revenue from ads posted alongside the search results.

The holiday season is a particularly opportune time for search companies because that's when people do more searches ? to find gifts online, look for party supplies and plan nights out on the town. That means more people to show ads to. Advertisers also tend to be willing to pay more per ad because they know people are in a buying mode.

To capture that audience, Microsoft and Google are both thinking outside the search box to promote their brands.

Although the text ads running alongside search results do a fine job of reeling in some customers, they still lack the broader, more visceral impact of a well-done television commercial, said Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix, a firm that rates the effectiveness of ads.

"It's instructive that these companies who are all about the Internet and doing things in real time are actually doing these emotive ads on TV," Daboll said.

Search engines are particularly difficult to sell because the sophisticated technology required to make them work isn't something "you can touch or feel in a store, so you need to bring some emotion to it," said Sean Carver, Bing's advertising director. "The storytelling is important."

Microsoft Corp. licensed the rights to the characters from Rudolph's 47-year-old holiday special after convincing their owners that the Bing commercials would add an endearing chapter to the reindeer's story. The rights to Rudolph and the rest of the cast are owned by the children of Robert L. May, who wrote the story in 1939 while working as a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store (May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, later wrote the famous song).

Microsoft is far more experienced at marketing than Google.

For one thing, it's 23 years older than Google, which was founded in 1998.

More important, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were so contemptuous of traditional marketing campaigns that the company never bothered to advertise its search engine on national TV until the 2010 Super Bowl. Spending millions to be a part of TV's annual advertising extravaganza was so out of character that Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO at the time, heralded the Super Bowl ad with a post on Twitter that concluded "hell has indeed frozen over."

Since that breakthrough, Google has caught the advertising bug. Without breaking down its total ad budget, Google disclosed that it has spent $583 million more on television and other advertising during the first nine months of this year than it did at the same time last year.

The investment has won Google some respect in the advertising industry.

Google took five of the 10 top spots for most effective national TV ads that promote websites, based on Ace Metrix's study of viewer reactions to the commercials. Topping the list is an ad showing how a father used Google services such as Gmail to create an electronic journal of his daughter Sophie's life.

Three Bing ads also ranked in the 10 most effective, but it also had two ads on the least effective list.

"There doesn't seem to be a very coherent creative pattern to the Bing ads," Daboll said. "It's kind of hit and miss."

There's no mistaking the common theme in the four Rudolph ads produced for the Bing promotion. The ads are all done in the same stop-motion puppet animation used in the original 1964 TV special. One features Bumble the Abominable Snowman using Bing to get ideas for a more fearsome roar. Another shows some of the characters turning to Bing for suggestions on a vacation that leads to a getaway on an island of misfit toys.

Microsoft has bought seven slots on national TV to run those four 30-second ads. The company is going for high impact rather than high frequency and is placing those ads during holiday-themed specials, starting with "The Simpsons" on the Fox network on Thanksgiving night and ending on Dec. 21 during "South Park" on the Comedy Channel. Microsoft isn't buying time during the Rudolph special, though, which CBS is broadcasting next Tuesday and Dec. 10.

The ads also will be shown in more than 200 movie theaters before holiday films and will be available online beginning Wednesday.

Microsoft declined to say how much it's spending on the Rudolph campaign.

Aaron Lilly, a Microsoft executive who helps conceive Bing's promotions, came up with the idea to build holiday ads around the Rudolph story two years ago. It didn't happen then because the Aflac insurance company had already bought licensing rights to the characters for that holiday season.

The ads will be a success for Microsoft if they help the company gain more ground and cut its losses in Internet search, an area that remains weak for Microsoft even after years of investing in better technology.

While the Xbox video game console and familiar software such as Windows and Office provide most of Microsoft's earnings, Bing remains a financial drain. The online division anchored by Bing has suffered operating losses totaling $7 billion since June 2008, when Microsoft introduced the latest overhaul of its search engine.

Google's share of the Internet search market has increased since Bing's debut, according to the research firm comScore. Google now processes about two out of three search requests in the U.S. and rakes in an even larger share of the revenue that rolls when people click on ads next to search results.

Bing's market share has climbed from about 9 percent in June 2008 to roughly 15 percent in October, but most of those gains have come at the expense of Yahoo Inc., which hired Microsoft to run most of its search technology two years ago.

For Google, the ads are aimed at not only maintaining its dominance in search but also driving adoption of other Google products, including its Chrome browser. Google says Chrome now has 200 million users worldwide, up from about 120 million at the end of last year. Despite those gains, Chrome still trails Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the Mozilla's Firefox.

But Chrome has been able to narrow the gap separating it from Internet Explorer more than Bing has been able to do in its pursuit of Google in search. Bing is still hoping to emulate Rudolph, a one-time laughingstock who overcame the skeptics to leap of the front of the pack.

___

Online:

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/bing-originals-bumble-less/1vqjkdrpj

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_advertising_search_engines

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Gun issue represents tough politics for Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They are fuzzy about some issues but the Republican presidential candidates leave little doubt about where they stand on gun rights.

Rick Perry and Rick Santorum go pheasant hunting and give interviews before heading out. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain speak to the National Rifle Association convention. Michele Bachmann tells People magazine she wants to teach her daughters how to shoot because women need to be able to protect themselves. Mitt Romney, after backing some gun control measures in Massachusetts, now presents himself as a strong Second Amendment supporter.

President Barack Obama, on the other hand, is virtually silent on the issue.

He has hardly addressed it since a couple months after the January assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., when he promised to develop new steps on gun safety in response. He still has failed to do so, even as Tucson survivors came to Capitol Hill last week to push for action to close loopholes in the background check system.

Democrats have learned the hard way that embracing gun control can be terrible politics, and the 2012 presidential election is shaping up to underscore just how delicate the issue can be. With the election likely to be decided largely by states where hunting is a popular pastime, like Missouri, Ohio or Pennsylvania, candidates of both parties want to win over gun owners, not alienate them.

For Republicans, that means emphasizing their pro-gun credentials. But for Obama and the Democrats, the approach is trickier.

Obama's history in support of strict gun control measures prior to becoming president makes it difficult for him to claim he's a Second Amendment champion, even though he signed a bill allowing people to take loaded guns into national parks. At the same time, he's apparently decided that his record backing gun safety is nothing to boast of, either, perhaps because of the power of the gun lobby and their opposition to anything smacking of gun control.

The result is that while Republicans are more than happy to talk up their support for gun rights, Obama may barely be heard from on the issue at all.

"Gun control is a fight that the administration is not willing to pick. They're not likely to win it," said Harry Wilson, author of a book on gun politics and director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Virginia. "They certainly would not win it in Congress, and it's not likely to be a winner at the polls. ... It comes down to one pretty simple word: Politics."

Administration officials say they are working to develop the gun safety measures promised after the Giffords shooting, and they say have taken steps to improve the background check system. White House spokesman Matt Lehrich says the White House goal is to "protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens while keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them under existing law."

But when it comes to guns and politics, Democrats haven't forgotten what happened in 1994. That year, President Bill Clinton was pushing for passage of a landmark crime bill featuring a ban on assault weapons, and then-House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., twisted Democrats' arms to get it through the House. Come November, Democrats suffered widespread election losses and lost control of the House and the Senate. Foley was among those defeated, and Clinton and others credited the NRA's campaigning with a big role in the outcome. And when the assault weapons ban came up for congressional reauthorization in 2004, it failed.

Given that history, the NRA expects to see Obama treading carefully on guns through 2012.

"It's bad politics to be on the wrong side of the Second Amendment at election time," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president. "They're trying to fog the issue through the 2012 election and deceive gun owners into thinking he's something he's not, which is pro-Second Amendment."

For gun control advocates, it adds up to frustration with Obama and the Democrats. The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns argues that polling shows voters support certain gun safety measures like stronger background checks ? although a recent Gallup poll also finds more support for enforcing current laws than for passing new ones.

"Good policy here is good politics," said John Feinblatt, an adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a co-chair of the mayors' group. "Unfortunately, for too long the administration has bought the conventional wisdom" that gun control is bad politics.

But the NRA outspends gun-control groups by wide margins, and analysts say that when it comes time to vote, the gun issue is more likely to motivate gun rights activists than gun control supporters.

Since becoming president, Obama has been extremely cautious on the issue. In his 2004 Senate race, for example, Obama said it was a "scandal" that then-President George W. Bush didn't force renewal of the assault weapons ban. But Obama himself has done nothing to promote that issue since becoming president.

Obama's commitment to act on gun safety may also be complicated by an unrelated controversy over a Justice Department program aimed at stanching gun trafficking into Mexico. The government lost track of numerous weapons in connection with the program.

Obama has vowed to figure out what went wrong with the operation and make sure it's corrected, but with Republicans seizing on the issue to attack the White House, the politics around taking action on guns hasn't gotten any easier.

So for now, supporters who hoped to see Obama adopt a stronger stance on guns and act in the wake of the Giffords shooting look like they're going to be disappointed. "We haven't given up hope," said Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "but our impatience is growing with each passing day."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-24-Obama-Guns/id-e76444114fd24e53b76b2e4993e6cd3f

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A Growing Problem ? Diabetes in Pets | William H. Craig, DVM | a ...

November is American Diabetes Month. Also, November is the time to come together as a family around the Thanksgiving table and celebrate. Unfortunately, celebrating usually comes with an over indulgence in turkey, stuffing and the like followed with naps and watching football while lounging in the living room.

Just like in humans, this disease is devastating to our pets when left undiagnosed and untreated. Diabetes Mellitus is a fairly common illness found in dogs and cats. The disease is caused by excessive amount of sugar in a pet?s blood in combination with a deficiency in insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas A silent epidemic, as the disease progresses unchecked, it often advances to widespread deterioration in the health of the patient. Symptoms are often subtle in the early stages of diabetes. Still, we know certain risk factors that can contribute to the development of this disease, for example diet, obesity, genetics, age and complications from other illnesses. Although the signs are easy to overlook, catching the disease early may mean the difference in the life of your pet. Contact your veterinarian immediately if you notice your pet:

? Drinking an excessive amount of water

? Urinating more often

? Has an insatiable appetite, but seems to lose weight

? Seems lethargic

Your veterinarian can test for diabetes with a simple blood test, measuring the level of glucose in your pet?s blood. Diabetes is not curable and complications, including cataracts, recurring infections and pancreatitis can be severe. There are treatment options available, most common being insulin therapy you can administer at home. New advances in veterinary care, like home blood-glucose monitoring tests, are making it easier for owners to help diabetic pets live happy, healthy and normal lives.

This entry was posted in Cats, Dogs, Pets, Purina, pet care, pet health, veterinary medicine and tagged Cats, Dogs, health, pet care, pet health, pet wellness, veterinary medicine. Bookmark the permalink.

November is American Diabetes Month. Also, November is the time to come together as a family around the Thanksgiving table and celebrate. Unfortunately, celebrating usually comes with an over indulgence in turkey, stuffing and the like followed with naps and watching football while lounging in the living room.

Read More

Source: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/williamhcraig/2011/11/a-growing-problem-diabetes-in-pets/

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Scientists uncover new role for gene in maintaining steady weight

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Against the backdrop of the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have made an important new discovery regarding a specific gene that plays an important role in keeping a steady balance between our food intake and energy expenditure. The study may help scientists better understand the keys to fighting obesity and related disorders such as diabetes.

The study, which was published in the November 25, 2011 print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, focused on the melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R), which normally responds to signals of nutrient intake.

"What we discovered was quite a surprise," said Scripps Research Associate Professor Andrew Butler, who led the study. "We thought that the actions of the receptor expressed in the brain would be critical for metabolic homeostasis. However, what we found is that actions of the receptor expressed outside the brain appear to be equally important."

The existence of drug targets in areas outside of the central nervous system (the body's "periphery") might help in the effort to develop drugs that influence metabolism without major side effects, Butler said.

The findings were made possible by the team's development of a new transgenic animal model, where expression of the MC3R gene can be selectively "switched on" in different cell types.

In the study, the suppression of MC3R expression in the brain and peripheral tissues had a marked impact on metabolic homeostasis (equilibrium). Interestingly, mice expressing the MC3R gene in the brain only displayed an obese phenotype (physical appearance) similar to those where all types of expression was suppressed, indicating that actions of this receptor in the brain are not sufficient to protect against weight gain. The finding that loss of MC3R activity in the periphery impairs metabolic homeostasis is startling, Butler said, and point to a distinct role for MC3R signaling in the peripheral tissues. However, how the actions of these receptors impacts on obesity remains to be determined.

"It's clear that these peripheral receptors are important and the new mouse model will let us explore that potential," Butler said.

###

The first author of the study, "Genetic dissection of melanocortin-3 receptor function suggests roles for central and peripheral receptors in energy homeostasis," is Karima Begriche of Scripps Research. In addition to Butler and Begriche, other authors include Jari Rossi, Danielle Skorupa, Laura A. Solt, Brandon Young, and Thomas P. Burris from The Scripps Research Institute in Florida; Randall L. Mynatt and Jingying Zhang at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, which is part of the Louisiana State University System; and Peter R. Levasseur and Daniel L. Marks at the Oregon Health & Science University. Seehttp://www.jbc.org/content/early/2011/10/07/jbc.M111.278374.abstract?sid=8a17ce75-de95-45d1-b688-a039da52b5f1

Scripps Research Institute: http://www.scripps.edu

Thanks to Scripps Research Institute for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115456/Scientists_uncover_new_role_for_gene_in_maintaining_steady_weight

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Physicists Dive into Oscillation Frequency of Coffee

Image: Anthony Bradshaw/Getty Images

At a recent math conference, Rouslan Krechetnikov watched his colleagues gingerly carry cups of coffee. Why, he wondered, did the coffee sometimes spill and sometimes not? A research project was born.

Although the problem of why coffee spills might seem trivial, it actually brings together a variety of fundamental scientific issues. These include fluid mechanics, the stability of fluid surfaces, interactions between fluids and structures, and the complex biology of walking, explains Krechetnikov, a fluid dynamicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In experiments, he and a graduate student monitored high-speed video of the complex motions of coffee-filled cups people carried, investigating the effects of walking speed and variability among those individuals. Using a frame-by-frame analysis, the researchers found that after people reached their desired walking speed, motions of the cup consisted of large, regular oscillations caused by walking, as well as smaller, irregular and more frequent motions caused by fluctuations from stride to stride, and environmental factors such as uneven floors and distractions.

Coffee spilling depends in large part on the natural oscillation frequency of the beverage?that is, the rate at which it prefers to oscillate, much as every pendulum swings at a precise frequency given its length and the gravitational pull it experiences. When the frequency of the large, regular motions that a cuppa joe experiences is comparable to this natural oscillation frequency, a state of resonance develops: the oscillations reinforce one another, much as pushing on a playground swing at the right point makes it go higher and higher, and the chances of coffee sloshing its way over the edge rise. The small, irregular movements a cup sees can also amplify liquid motion and thus spilling. These findings were to be detailed at a November meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore.

Once the key relations between coffee motion and human behavior are understood, it might be possible to develop strategies to control spilling, ?such as using a flexible container to act as a sloshing absorber,? Krechetnikov says. A series of rings arranged up and down the inner wall of a container might also impede the liquid oscillations.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b8086e052937e7295c16c014596f8c16

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SKS Microfinance founder Akula leaves as chairman (AP)

MUMBAI, India ? SKS Microfinance executive chairman Vikram Akula stepped down Wednesday from the company he founded, the board said, as India's second largest microlender struggles to revive its flagging fortunes.

SKS shares have plunged over 90 percent since the company went public in 2010.

SKS spokesman J.S. Sai said the resignation was voluntary, answering widespread reports that Akula was forced out in a power and personality struggle with the board.

Akula clashed with investors over how to revive the company, said one person close to the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Akula didn't want to pull SKS away from its core business of making small loans and transform it into a broad-based rural financial services company ? a strategy some investors thought would help them recoup their investment more quickly, the person said.

The company's changing fortunes showcase the difficulty of meeting the expectations of investors and the needs of poor borrowers.

Akula transformed SKS into one of the sector's biggest for-profit companies. He attracted investment from George Soros and N.R. Narayana Murthy, a founder of Infosys and one of India's most respected corporate leaders, as well as from venture capitalists Sandstone Capital and WestBridge ? formerly part of Sequoia Capital ? both of which have executives on the board.

Investors greeted SKS's August 2010 initial public offering with huge enthusiasm, driving the stock price up to 1,402 rupees a share ? a valuation some say reflected unrealistic expectations about financial returns.

Meanwhile industry stalwarts ? including Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus ? pointed to SKS as a symbol of an industry that was becoming irresponsibly pro-profit and losing its focus on serving the poor.

Akula, and others, have long maintained that capital markets are the only way to meet the massive demand for small loans, which is estimated at $100 billion to $150 billion in India alone.

If SKS does diversify into other financial services, regulatory issues may make it harder for the company to get loans from commercial banks in India.

P.H. Ravikumar will take over as interim non-executive chairman. Ravikumar helped set up ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, and has been on the SKS board for five years. Akula, who founded SKS as a nonprofit in 1997, will remain as a consultant until March 2012 to ease the transition.

Akula could not be reached for comment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_bi_ge/as_india_sks_microfinance

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