Breanna Maddison

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Morissette: I was unprepared to be a mom

This new mommy has lived and learned!

Alanis Morissette became a mother for the first time on Christmas Day 2010 when she welcomed son Ever Imre, 10-months, with husband Mario "Souleye" Treadway ? and she's not afraid to admit she was a little clueless at first!

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"I remain baffled at how little I was prepared for what was to come," Morissette, 37, writes in Monday's iVillage.com blog post.

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"I had used, as usual, the I'll-rise-to-that-occasion-when-I-get-there approach to the post-child-bearing journey," the "Ironic" singer writes. "So all my DVD-watching and focus went toward the birth experience itself, and how to prepare myself for that (as though I really could prepare for a Human. Being. Coming. Out. Of. My. Body)," she wrote.

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In her column, Morissette describes the unexpected changes she felt after giving birth, admitting she felt like "a blank slate", with "no handbook" to guide her. Underneath all the fluctuating hormones, lack of sleep, and her gigantic, new responsibility of her baby son, the singer wrote of the astonishing change the "mom" title cast on her life.

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"Life literally and figuratively moved through me that morning of Dec. 25," she says of her son's birth. "Yet another example of life's unsentimental and ruthless way of shaking me awake to the direct experience of being human."

But the postpartum process wasn't just about her baby. "I had no idea the person I'd always dreamed of becoming was being born at the exact same time."

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45204002/ns/today-entertainment/

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

?Gorilla man? goes unheard

Tracking a conversation can block out peripheral sounds

Web edition : Monday, November 7th, 2011

SEATTLE ? Good listeners inadvertently turn a deaf ear to unexpected sounds. Attending closely to a conversation creates a situation in which unusual, clearly audible background utterances frequently go totally unheard, says psychologist Polly Dalton of the University of London.

This finding takes the famous ?invisible gorilla effect? from vision into the realm of hearing, Dalton reported November 4 at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. More than a decade ago, researchers observed that about half of volunteers watching a videotape of people passing a basketball fail to see a gorilla-suited person walking through the group if the viewers are instructed to focus on counting how many times the ball gets passed (SN: 5/21/11, p. 16).

An ability to prioritize what sounds and sights to monitor supports daily activities, but it can also wipe out perceptions of obvious peripheral happenings. ?We?re not aware of as much in the world as we think we are,? Dalton said.

Dalton and her colleagues created a 69-second recording of two men talking as they prepared food for a party and two women chatting as they wrapped a party gift. Headphones delivered one conversation to each ear of 41 volunteers, creating a sense of the four characters moving around a room as they talked. Partway into the recording, a man dubbed ?gorilla man? by the researchers appears in the acoustic scene for 19 seconds saying ?I?m a gorilla? over and over.

Participants were assigned to pay attention either to the men?s or the women?s conversation.

Nearly all of those following the women and almost one-third of those tracking the men didn?t hear gorilla man at all. The intrusive ape passed closer to the gabbing men in the acoustic scene, partly explaining why his voice was heard more often by those listening to the men, Dalton suggests.

But the problem wasn?t that gorilla man spoke too softly. Only one participant failed to hear the talking gorilla in a second trial, when volunteers were asked to track the men?s conversation and listen for anything unusual.

Psychologist Jeremy Wolfe of Harvard Medical School suspects that, given the power of focused attention to erase peripheral sounds, volunteers would fail to hear gorilla man even if the unseen primate made gorilla sounds or played a flute.

That?s the kind of experiment that will make some noise in the wake of gorilla man?s first silent stroll.

Found in: Humans and Psychology

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335904/title/%E2%80%98Gorilla_man%E2%80%99_goes_unheard

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Markets pressure Italy ahead of budget vote (AP)

ROME ? Italian borrowing costs have risen to fresh euro-era new highs as markets await the outcome of a vote that could force the resignation of Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi's government is under intense pressure to enact quick reforms to protect Italy from the growing sovereign debt crisis, but has been hobbled by a weak coalition.

The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds jumped another 0.07 percentage point Tuesday to 6.74 percent, its highest level since the euro was established in 1999 and nearing the 7 percent threshold that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to accept bailouts.

Parliament votes later on the 2010 state accounts ? a normally routine measure that failed by one vote last month. The opposition is trying to make the measure a vote of confidence in Berlusconi.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Monday, November 7, 2011

HP does the inevitable, announces the TouchSmart 620 with a 3D display and webcam (video)

HP's pushed out a raft of all-in-ones this past year, but until today, there was one gimmicky stone it left unturned. Say hello to the TouchSmart 620, the company's first 3D all-in-one. Essentially, it's the 610 with ATI's 3D tech shoehorned inside. Otherwise, it looks the same, with a 23-inch, 1080p panel and that sliding display that reclines at a nearly flat 60-degree angle. In addition to the 3D screen (best viewed when positioned upright), it has a webcam that captures 3D stills and video. At the base level, you'll get a pair of active shutter glasses, TV tuner, a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 1.5TB HDD and an AMD Radeon HD 6650 card with 1GB of video memory. (For whatever reason, HP didn't add HDMI-in this go 'round.) That starting configuration technically costs $1,900, but HP's going to apply $300 in instant savings when it goes on sale November 15, so for all intents and purposes it starts at $1,600. Full PR after the break, and if you need a refresher on what this thing looks like, we suggest you revisit our review of the 610.

Gallery: HP TouchSmart 620 3D Edition