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Cayenne pepper may not be overwhelmingly used in America but it certainly deserves to be given a lot more attention considering the many health benefits associated to eating it. This very spicy herb has many advantages such as helping the cardiovascular system; preventing…

The food choices you make today will have a direct impact on how gracefully you age and how long you live. These are the findings of a comprehensive new research study published in The American Journal of Medicine, which found that people who stick primarily to a “Western…

The term stress is tossed around freely in this modern age and has become a casual buzzword for just about any predicament that we find unpleasant. Yet how it truly effects health and well-being in substantial ways is rarely acknowledged. Linked with a range of degenerative…

The conventional dairy lobby is currently pressing for some major regulatory changes that would further deceive the public into buying unhealthy, processed foods laced with hidden artificial sweetening chemicals. And the public only has until May 21 to prevent this assault…

New information has surfaced in the West, Texas, explosion case that could alter the course of the ongoing investigation into what caused the disaster. As it turns out, West Fertilizer Co., which used to be known as Texas Grain Storage Inc., filed a lawsuit under its…

It is one of the only major food crops left without a genetically-modified (GM) counterpart, but this could soon change if the Australian government gets its way in approving a GM wheat variety developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization…

A new national survey has been released, highlighting startling new trends in teen prescription drug abuse. The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation are confirming that one in four teens now abuse or misuse a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime…

Most people feel that a time of great change is upon us. But what kind of change is unfolding, exactly? To answer that question, we must examine current trends and attempt to understand where they are headed. Here’s my look at ten of the most sociologically-charged…

Most people nowadays are well informed about the numerous health benefits of vitamin C, and find ways to incorporate it in their diets, either by taking supplements or eating more foods that contain the vitamin. While the many benefits of vitamin C are well-documented…

Fewer than 12 hours after two bombs exploded at the tail end of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injured dozens of others in what may be the latest attack on the U.S. homeland by an international terrorist group, President Obama, according to his former top advisor…

A tropical fruit known as mangosteen is a potent immune booster and anti-inflammatory that also appears to have significant cancer-fighting powers, research has shown. Mangosteen is a small, slow-growing tropical evergreen tree native to southeast Asia. The fruit…

A new mental health law that takes effect in China on May 1, 2013 grants unprecedented patient rights and personal liberties. Meanwhile, back in the USSA, those very same rights are being eliminated. Go figure. Under the new Chinese law, which has been debated and…

A lawsuit originally filed by a former employee-turned-whistleblower of pharmaceutical giant Novartis is gaining new momentum following the announcement that the federal government has now joined on as a plaintiff. According to the suit, Novartis has committed numerous…

A Utah man’s recent discovery of an old fast food hamburger hiding in a coat pocket serves as a reminder to us all about why we continue to choose fresh foods as close to their natural states as possible over processed foods. What began as a month-long experiment to…

Using your laptop on the move can mean having to dart from one power source to another. Whether you have a new laptop with a brand new battery, or an aging system with a battery that has seen better days, the amount of time you can use your computer without plugging in is of paramount importance. There are steps you can take to maximize the life of your battery, and it is also something that FatBatt can help you with.

There are several facets to the app. Firstly, it aims to give you an accurate estimate of how long your battery is going to last before you need to charge it up. This enables you to make informed decisions about how to use the time available to you, and how to manage your next charging session.

But more than this, FatBatt provides you with tools that can be used to help maximize the life of your battery. If there are any applications that are draining resources, you will be alerted to them so you can close them down. One of the easiest ways to increase battery life is to reduce screen brightness and processor speed.

With FatBatt this is reduced to a single click process so you can switch between home and away modes very quickly. It is also possible to adjust these settings based on where you are. This is achieved by network identity. When you are at home or in the office, for example, you’re probably going to be able to plug your laptop in whenever you need to, so there is no need for aggressive powersaving. But when you’re out and about, perhaps connected to a network in a particular coffee shop. more hardcore settings can be put in place so you can go for longer between charges.

FatBatt is available for laptops running Windows 7 and Windows 8. The software costs $14.99, but you can download a free trial from the review page to see how you get on with it first.

Coursera, one of the driving forces behind the MOOC (massive open online course) movement reshaping higher education, is bringing its disruption to K-12 schools. But its target audience isn’t the students; it’s the teachers.

On Wednesday, the startup said it had partnered with several schools of education and other institutions and museums, including schools of education at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art, to bring free professional development courses to teachers via the web.

“We looked at our technology and realized that for 7-year-old kids, streaming university content for them wasn’t going [to be effective]. But the lever for that 7-year-old kid may be to help them get a better teacher,” said Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng.

Most school districts don’t have the resources to offer quality professional development programs that match the interests and needs of individual teachers, he said.  Typically, teachers are pulled out of their classrooms for a few days a year (disrupting instruction for their students) and are required to follow the same program, regardless of the subjects they teach or their strengths and weaknesses.

With its new courses, Coursera said teachers can focus on the topics, areas of expertise and pedagogies that are most relevant for them.  For example, early courses will cover topics including content development, the common core curriculum, character education and implementing flipped classroom and blended learning strategies.

The courses will follow the same format as other MOOCs on Coursera and will adopt the startup’s peer-grading approach. For example, teachers could write a lesson plan or videotape themselves teaching and then receive feedback from other members of the course.

Teachers, educators and even parents can take the new courses for free but, as with other Coursera classes, they can pay $30 to $100 for the “Signature Track” option, in which their identity is verified and they receive a certificate at the end of the course. Coursera’s hope is that, in time, school superintendents will award teachers continuing education credit for the courses. But Ng said that, so far, they’ve only had informal conversations with superintendents about the possibility.

Given the attention MOOCs have received in the last year, it’s not so surprising that the phenomenon is spreading to K-12 education. Conversations are underway about adapting the MOOC format for K-12 students and other educational organizations are offering one-off MOOCs for teachers and administrators. But Coursera is the first of the major MOOC providers to make a foray into K-12 education and given the debate it and its rivals Udacity and edX have stirred among colleges and universities, it will be interesting to see how it is received by K-12 educators.

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It’s been a wild year for The Pirate Bay as the infamous BitTorrent site has moved its domain name from one country to another in a desperate bid to stay ahead of the world’s copyright cops. TorrentFreak reports that less than a month after getting booted out of Greenland, The Pirate Bay has now moved its domain to an even more obscure location in the tiny Caribbean island of Sint Maarten, whose population in 2010 was slightly less than 38,000 people. The site has decided to move to the new ThePirateBay.sx domain because “Swedish authorities have filed a motion at the District Court of Stockholm on behalf of the entertainment industries, demanding the seizure” of two other Pirate Bay domains, TorrentFreak says. The way things are going, The Pirate Bay might have to rely on the human-fish hybrids who live in the long-lost city of Atlantis for hosting before all is said and done.

Well, it’s May 1 somewhere, which perhaps explains why Switch to Windows Phone popped up on Google Play tonight with the date. The concept is simple: Microsoft tries to ease the transition between platforms, or at least help evaluate if such move is workable. But the app-matcher comes up short and can’t resolve something more fundamental: People with money invested in apps won’t be quick to rebuy them elsewhere.

StWF is easy enough to use once installed; letting it scan and match on my Nexus claims to match 85 percent of the Android apps. But like most of the people reviewing the app, there’s no way I see to view the list. Could it be the app posted early and the supporting services aren’t switched on, or did Microsoft simply muck up?

According to the FAQ: “Your app match list will be saved to a private Windows Azure cloud service that’s just for the Switch to Windows Phone app. Your matched app list can only be accessed using the Switch to Windows Phone app along with your Microsoft Account email and password”. There’s no option I see on Android, and I couldn’t find a Windows Phone version on Microsoft’s mobile store. Surely people want to know which apps match before committing to a new platform.

The reviews are scathing, and few in number as I write since the app is live for a short time. Out of 48 reviews, 37 are one star, giving awe-inspiring 1.7 stars.

Brandon Hull calls the app “garbage. People want to know which apps with work with Windows Phone 8. A simple percentage is useless unless users are told which apps can also be found on Windows Phone 8”.

“Worthless”, Joel Sacco blames. “It basically gives you an arbitrary percentage of apps which are compatible based on your installed apps. Doesn’t actually give you a list or show any useful information past that. If you really wanted me to switch to WP8, you might want to make the data you provide a little more informative”.

Eric Weiss: “Can you imagine the meeting where this was pitched and approved? ‘How can we get people to switch to Windows Phone’. ‘An Android app that lies to them?’ ‘That’s perfect!’ Give that guy a raise!”

Luis Escobedo calls Switch to Windows Phone “downright embarrassing”.

For the record, I used the app four times, each instance getting an 85 percent but not being presented (that I could find) with option to see which ones. Again, I wonder if something isn’t working yet. That’s best case scenario, a simple screw-up releasing StWP before the Azure service is on. Otherwise, yeah, this is a helluva cock-up and makes Microsoft look stupid. Too bad, because “The Wedding” commercial airing yesterday makes the company look so smart.

A federal court has sided with Craigslist in the early stages of a bitter dispute over whether upstart data and apartment listing sites can draw on information posted by the classified giant to offer rival services.

In a ruling handed down Monday in San Francisco, US District Judge Charles Breyer refused the request of PadMapper, 3 Taps and other defendants to throw out a laundry list of claims by Craigslist, which is accusing the defendants of hacking, copyright infringement and more.

In the view of Craigslist, the newer companies are plundering data which it has collected and compiled at great effort. The defendants, meanwhile, say Craigslist is monopolizing data that belongs to users while offering an ugly, out-dated service. The lawsuit broke out last summer.

In a key part of Tuesday’s highly-technical decision, the judge examined whether Craigslist’s terms of service meant that users had given the site permission to use their ads as the basis for copyright lawsuits. The judge said Craigslist didn’t obtain such permission, except for a short period in the summer of 2012 when the site changed its terms of service — before backing down in the face of a popular backlash.

What this means is that Craigslist can rely on users’ ads to go forward with its copyright lawsuit, but only those ads written between July 16 and August 8, 2012. The judge also said said that Craigslist may have its own copyright over the way it has compiled the ads, though it will still have to prove that this compilation is an “original” artistic work.

The hacking portion of the decision, which is based on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and a similar law in California, is also nuanced. The judge wrote that the companies’ attempts to access Craigslist data after receiving cease-and-desist letters might be “unauthorized access” under the laws, but implicitly suggested that the laws are out of date.

The judge also gave Craigslist a minor victory by agreeing to shelve counter-claims from Padmapper and 3Taps over the monopoly issue. The defendants won their own minor victory when the judge threw out Craigslist’s conspiracy claims.

So what does all this mean? Monday’s decision is very preliminary and was about what can stay in the case — the real action will start at the summary judgment stage, likely later this year, where each side can try to win on a matter of law.

In the bigger picture, the case is important because it is helping to set the rules over the degree to which companies can treat data controlled by other firms as a public good.

This is just a short summary of a complex decision. If you want to get further into the weeds, here is a marked-up copy of the ruling itself:

<p  style=” margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;”>   <a title=”View Craigslist PadMapper on Scribd” href=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/138806124/Craigslist-PadMapper&#8221;  style=”text-decoration: underline;” >Craigslist PadMapper</a></p>

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