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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Poe fans call an end to 'Toaster' tradition (AP)
BALTIMORE ? Edgar Allan Poe fans waited long past a midnight dreary, but it appears annual visits to the writer's grave in Baltimore by a mysterious figure called the "Poe Toaster" shall occur nevermore.
Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the "Poe Toaster" was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer's legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.
"It's over with," Jerome said wearily. "It will probably hit me later, but I'm too tired now to feel anything else."
It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's original grave on the writer's birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.
The gothic master's tales of the macabre still connect with readers more than 200 years after his birth, including his most famous poem, "The Raven," and short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is considered the first modern detective story.
Jerome, who was first exposed to Poe through Vincent Price's movies, believes people still identify with Poe's suffering and his lifelong dream to be a poet. He has kept a vigil for the "Poe Toaster" each year since 1978 and built up a team of other dedicated Poe fans who stay awake all night to scan the shadows of the burial ground for the visitor.
"I've been part of a ritual that people around the world read about," he said. "I'll miss it."
One Poe tradition may have ended, but Jerome said a reading of tributes by Poe fans at the gravesite planned for Thursday night may develop into a new ritual to mark the writer's birthday.
Jerome says that wherever he travels, he's asked whether the "Poe Toaster" is real. He believes the mystery of the "Poe Toaster" tradition will remain in the public consciousness despite the end of the visits.
That mystery is what has kept Jessica Marxen, 33, a programmer from Randallstown, Md., coming back to watch for the "Poe Toaster" for years. She and her sister Jeannette, 31, an administrative assistant, got involved after Jerome visited their high school and recruited them as volunteers at the Poe House. Though she has watched for the "Poe Toaster" for years, Jessica Marxen said she wouldn't want to know who he is.
"There are so few mysteries," she said. "It's a throwback to a more romantic time when people could have secrets."
Poe, who was born in Boston, lived in Baltimore, London, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. During a visit to Baltimore in 1849, he died under mysterious circumstances at age 40. The cause of his death has been the subject of much speculation over the years, with theories ranging from murder to rabies.
Poe was buried in his grandfather's lot in Westminster Burial Ground, in what is now downtown Baltimore. In 1875, his body and that of his aunt and mother-in-law Maria Clemm were moved to a prominent spot by the entrance with a memorial marker. The body of his young wife and cousin, Virginia, was exhumed and reburied with him 10 years later.
Baltimore recently cut funding for the museum at the rowhouse where Poe lived with relatives from 1832 to 1835, before he found fame as a writer. It must close if it does not become self-sustaining by June.
The city plans to release a recommended business plan by the end of March.
The annual graveside tribute was first mentioned in print in 1950 as an aside in an article that appeared in The Evening Sun of Baltimore about an effort to restore the cemetery, Jerome said. When Jerome spoke to older members of the congregation that once worshiped at the church, they recalled hearing about a visitor in the 1930s.
The visitor has occasionally left notes with his tributes, but they haven't offered much insight into the identity of the "Poe Toaster." A few indicated the tradition passed to a new generation before the original visitor's death in the 1990s, and some even mentioned the Iraq War and Baltimore Ravens football team, which was named for Poe's poem.
The vigil inside the former church is closed to the public, but over the years, a crowd has gathered outside the gates to watch. After the "Poe Toaster" failed to show in 2010, last year's vigil attracted impersonators, including a man who arrived in a limo and a few women.
The crowd outside the gates of the burial ground into Thursday morning was more respectful than last year. Even the impersonators were more solemn, perhaps because of the sense that this could be the last vigil, according to Sherri Weaver, 40, of Randallstown, who works in finance. Weaver and a few dozen others ? some from as far away as California and Chicago ? braved a windy night with temperatures around 30 degrees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mystery visitor.
"Some people held out some optimism, but this may be the end," she said as dawn approached and it was becoming clear that the "Poe Toaster" was not showing up for a third time. "People know this is not a fluke, it's a quiet end."
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Ask the Cheesemonger iPhone app provides an overpriced cheese education (Appolicious)
Billed as a free app, Ask the Cheesemonger for iPhone and iPod Touch is anything but. You?ll get a paltry glimpse of the app?s content before being prompted to upgrade to the full version of the cheese-filled directory, but is it worth shelling out extra cash? For its regular price of $2.99, my vote is ?no.?
The good news is that the app upgrade is currently on sale for a more palatable 99 cents. ?Although the app containing information on more than 300 cheeses, synthesizing the information will take some work by neophytes.
The Cheese Challenge 10-question quiz isn?t particularly engaging, and if you?ve taken it once, there?s little point in viewing it again. The ?Ask the Cheesemonger? section is better, but currently offers fewer than 50 Q&As including the worthless ?Is the moon made of cheese?? There is a function to ask your own question, but this simply launches your native mail program so you can send an email. It seems the cheesemongers know their stuff, but it?d be useful if the answers linked back to cheeses described in the app.
Ask the Cheesemonger also offers a pairing service ? figure out what beverage to serve with a cheese you?ve bought, or select the beverages you?ve currently got on tap to see which cheese pairs the best. This feature is easy to use, however, because the applicable cheeses are displayed in list format, you?ll still have to do additional research into each to see if its even one you?d enjoy ? names alone aren?t enough in this situation.
Really, the best feature of Ask the Cheesemonger is its Search Category function on the main cheese tab. This filter will help you narrow your focus as you can search by country, milk type or cheese style, among others. It?s definitely a better jumping-off point than going through the cheeses alphabetically.
Don?t pay full price for Ask the Cheesemonger, but if you?re willing to spend the time sorting through all of the varieties of cheese, you?ll probably come out with a solid understanding of fromage.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Microsoft adding Nokia branding to Bing Maps
Microsoft adding Nokia branding to Bing Maps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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D.C. Prostitution Moves East Of Anacostia River
WASHINGTON -- The prostitution landscape in the nation's capital is changing.
WAMU-FM's "Metro Connection" reported on the District of Columbia's crackdown on prostitution and why it is that prostitution is moving from areas downtown into residential neighborhoods, especially in Ward 7 east of the Anacostia River.
The migration mostly has to do with a 2006 law that allows chief of the Metropolitan Police Department to temporarily designate some areas of the city as "prostitution-free zones." In such areas, it is "unlawful for a group of two or more persons to congregate in a public space or property in that area for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or prostitution-related offenses."
People suspected of engaging in these activities can be told to disperse by the police. Those who don't disperse can be arrested. Contrary to public opinion, the carrying of more than two condoms is not itself enough to get a person arrested for prostitution though the City Paper's former sex columnist Amanda Hess did find that carrying multiple condoms in a prostitution-free zone can lead an officer to suspect that a person is a sex worker -- which, in a prostitute-free zone, is enough for the police to tell the person to disperse.
Most of the PFZs so far have been downtown, which has pushed prostitution into other parts of the nation's capital. WAMU reports that in Ward 2, the downtown jurisdiction traditionally known as D.C.'s prostitution hub, arrests have gone down by 10 percent in the past 10 years. But east of the Anacostia River, arrests have tripled in Ward 7.
WAMU's story features a sex worker advocacy group called Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive, or HIPS, that brings supplies to D.C. prostitutes three nights a weeks. Since the prostitution-free zones went into effect, the outreach workers are now spending more time driving, according to HIPS' executive director Cyndee Clay.
The group told WAMU it isn't seeing any overall decrease in the number of prostitutes working in D.C., though -- it's the same number of prostitutes, just working in different places-- More dangerous places, say sex worker advocates.
The criticisms of prostitution-free zone designations are similar to those levied against drug free zone laws -- that the laws do not serve their intended effect but do have heavy negative consequences. In the case of drug laws, the negative consequences mainly relate to massive racial disparities in sentencing and imprisonment while failing to keep drugs away from kids.
In the case of the prostitution-free zones, advocates say that the zones endanger sex workers by forcing them into more dangerous neighborhoods. They also say that these zones increase prostitutes' risk of contracting HIV.
The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would expand the prostitution-free zone program, by allowing for the creation of permanent prostitution-free zones. On Jan. 24, the Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on the bill.
Among this bill's sponsors are Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), who represents an area that has seen an uptick in prostitution. Her challenger in the upcoming D.C. Council election, Kevin B. Chavous, was charged with solicitation for prostitution in December, after offering money to an undercover officer "for sexual favors."
Chavous was arrested on the unit block of K Street NE and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His trial is upcoming and Chavous remains a candidate to unseat Alexander.
RELATED VIDEO: An interview about the prostitution-free zone established during President Obama's 2009 inauguration.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Notion Ink releases ICS Alpha update for Adam tablet, teases new device (video)
Continue reading Notion Ink releases ICS Alpha update for Adam tablet, teases new device (video)
Notion Ink releases ICS Alpha update for Adam tablet, teases new device (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
US wants effective Alzheimer's treatment by 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government is setting what it calls an ambitious goal for Alzheimer's disease: Development of effective ways to treat and prevent the mind-destroying illness by 2025.
The Obama administration is developing the first National Alzheimer's Plan to find better treatments for the disease and offer better day-to-day care for those afflicted.
A newly released draft of the overall goals sets the 2025 deadline, but doesn't provide details of how to fund the necessary research to meet that target date. Today's treatments only temporarily ease some dementia symptoms, and work to find better ones has been frustratingly slow.
A committee of Alzheimer's experts begins a two-day meeting Tuesday to help advise the government on how to finalize the plan.
An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's or similar dementias. It's the sixth-leading killer, and is steadily growing as the population rapidly ages. By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer's, costing $1 trillion in medical and nursing home expenditures.
The national plan is supposed to tackle both the medical and social aspects of dementia, and advocacy groups had urged that it set a deadline for progress.
Among the draft's other goals:
?Improve timely diagnosis. A recent report found as many as half of today's Alzheimer's sufferers haven't been formally diagnosed, in part because of stigma and the belief that nothing can be done. Symptomatic treatment aside, a diagnosis lets families plan, and catching the disease earlier would be crucial if scientists ever find ways to slow the disease's progress.
?Improve support and training for families so they know what resources are available for patients and what to expect as dementia worsens.
Alzheimer's sufferers gradually lose the ability to do the simplest activities of daily life and can survive that way for a decade or more. In meetings around the country last summer and fall, families urged federal health officials to make sure the national plan addresses how to help patients live their last years at home without ruining their caregivers' own health and finances.
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