Utah's state legislature has introduced a bill that would outlaw smoking in cars with under age 16 present. If it passes, Utah ?will become the sixth state with such a ban.
By Richard Read,?Guest blogger / March 2, 2013
The sun sets on Utah's Capitol, left, and the angel-topped spire of the Mormon Temple. Utah has introduced a bill that would prohibit smoking in a vehicle in the presence of children. If it passes, Utah will become the sixth state with such a ban.
Douglas C. Pizac/AP/File
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In Utah, a bill that would outlaw smoking in cars when children are present?is making its way through the state legislature. If passed, Utah would become the sixth state to enact such a law -- though many more are set to follow suit.
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Utah's bill prohibits adults from smoking in any vehicle containing children under the age of 16. The law would count as a secondary offense, meaning that an officer would have to pull someone over for another violation before citing her/him for smoking.
For the first year, there would be no fine for breaking the law. Afterward, the state would implement a $45 fee, which could be waived if the smoker agrees to enter a smoking cessation program. As in some other states, the law doesn't affect adults riding in convertibles with the top down.
Some might assume that laws like this are most popular in "blue states", since they constitute a kind of regulation that's often seen as a violation of personal freedom. But if it passes in Utah, the list of states with similar laws would be split down the middle, red and blue. Utah would join Arkansas and Louisiana on the right, with California, Hawaii, and Maine on the left.?
That implies that, just like?motorcycle helmet laws, smoking laws are of interest to constituents and elected officials on both sides of the aisle. According to the lobbying organization Global Advisors Smokefree Policy [PDF], other states considering laws against smoking in cars with children include Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington -- a fairly impressive mix.
Utah's HB 13 has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. It now goes to the Utah State Senate for debate.?
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ROME (Reuters) - The United States will send non-lethal aid directly to Syrian rebels for the first time, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, disappointing opponents of President Bashar al-Assad who are clamoring for Western weapons.
But in a change of emphasis, the mainly Western and Arab "Friends of Syria" group meeting in Rome "underlined the need to change the balance of power on the ground".
A final communique said participants would "coordinate their efforts closely so as to best empower the Syrian people and support the Supreme Military Command of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army in its efforts to help them exercise self-defense".
More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed in a fierce conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests nearly two years ago. Some 860,000 have fled abroad and several million are displaced within the country or need humanitarian assistance.
Kerry, after the talks in Rome, said Washington would more than double its aid to the Syrian civilian opposition, giving it an extra $60 million to help provide food, sanitation and medical care to devastated communities.
The United States would now "extend food and medical supplies to the opposition, including to the Syrian opposition's Supreme Military (Council)", Kerry said.
In their communique, the "Friends of Syria" pledged more political and material support to the Syrian National Coalition, a fractious Cairo-based group that has struggled to gain traction inside Syria, especially among disparate rebel forces.
Riad Seif, a coalition leader, said before the Rome meeting that the opposition would demand "qualitative military support".
Another coalition official welcomed the result of the talks. "We move forward with a great deal of cautious optimism. We heard today a different kind of discourse," Yasser Tabbara said.
But the continued U.S. refusal to send weapons may compound the frustration that prompted the coalition to say last week it would shun the Rome talks. It attended only under U.S. pressure.
Many in the coalition say Western reluctance to arm rebels only plays into the hands of Islamist militants now widely seen as the most effective forces in the struggle to topple Assad.
However, a European diplomat held out the possibility of Western military support, saying the coalition and its Western and Arab backers would meet in Istanbul next week to discuss military and humanitarian support to the insurgents.
MEALS READY TO EAT
Kerry's offer of medical aid and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), the U.S. army's basic ration, fell far short of rebel demands for sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to help turn the tables against Assad's mostly Russian-supplied forces.
It also stopped short of providing other forms of non-lethal assistance such as bullet-proof vests, armored personnel vehicles and military training to the insurgents.
Last week the European Union opened the way for direct aid to Syrian rebels, but did not lift an arms embargo on Syria.
The Rome talks again signaled the lack of appetite among the United States and its allies for direct military intervention in Syria, after the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Iraq and the drawdown under way in Afghanistan.
The communique called for an immediate halt to "unabated" arms supplies to Damascus by third countries, referring mostly to Assad's allies Russia and Iran.
It also said Syria must immediately stop indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas, which it described as crimes against humanity. NATO officials say Assad's military has fired ballistic missiles within Syria, which the government denies.
Human Rights Watch has reported that at least 171 civilians were killed in four Scud missile strikes last week.
The "Friends of Syria" pledged "more political and material support to the coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to get more concrete assistance inside Syria", but gave no details on exactly what would be provided.
Kerry said earlier this week he would not leave the Syrian opposition "dangling in the wind", unsure of getting support.
But the White House continues to resist providing weaponry to the rebel forces, arguing there is no way to guarantee the arms might not fall into the hands of Islamist militants who might eventually use them against Western or Israeli targets.
"HUGE DEBATE"
U.S. officials have said that the U.S. Defense and State departments, under former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, privately recommended that the White House arm the rebels, but were overruled.
"It's a huge debate inside the administration between those that have to deal with Syria on an everyday basis, the State Department and DoD (Defense) particularly, and the White House, which ... until now has vetoed any kind of outreach to the armed groups," said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think-tank.
The United States says it has already provided more than $50 million in non-lethal assistance such as communications gear and governance training to Syria's civilian opposition.
A source in the Syrian coalition, however, said even the extra $60 million promised by Washington was a pittance compared to what he said was the $40 million a day in humanitarian aid needed for Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons.
The United States has provided some $365 million in humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon and for internally displaced people, channeling this money through non-governmental organizations.
More than 40,000 people a week are fleeing Syria and the total number of refugees will likely pass 1 million in less than a month, far sooner than the United Nations had forecast, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ant?nio Guterres said his agency had registered 936,000 Syrians across the Middle East and North Africa, nearly 30 times as many as in April last year.
"We expected to have 1.1 million Syrian refugees by June. If things continue to accelerate like this, it will take less than a month to reach that number," he told the 15-member council.
(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
While I was in LA recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Disney Animation Studios. I was invited there to attend a Press Day for Wreck-It Ralph, to learn more about the movie and how it was made.
When you first enter the building you can?t help but see all sorts of things from the movie Wreck-It Ralph. In actuality, most of the whole building was decorated in Wreck-It Ralph theme. I learned that usually the studio changes the decor to go along with their latest movie.
Not just? anyone can visit the studio, so we were given badges. How cool it was to get a badge of my 8-bit Nicelander self!
Here?s a photo of our whole group, in our 8bit look.
Remember my Vanellope Vall post for Wordless Wednesday a few weeks ago? Here she is!
And here?s the man himself, Wreck-It Ralph!
We started by learning about how they came up with the story. The story took about a year to come up with. Raymond Persi, one of the story artists, explained to us that some portions of the story changed along the way while others stayed the same as they were in the original story idea. They knew from the start that the two main characters were going to be Vanellope and a ?big angry guy?. One of the things they do first when coming up with the storyline is work from a storyboard. These drawings often times begin as pen and ink. Then they?ll make a simple movie with temporary voices. It?s nothing fancy or edited, it?s just rough footage with someone?s voice as a placemarker, so the team can start to actually see what works. They?ll then tear that movie apart, rewriting and improving where they feel it?s needed. It was interesting to learn that early on there was another game they were considering integrating into the story ? Easy Living 2. We saw some of the clips from that, even though the concept was eventually scrapped.
One of my favorite parts of the day was spending time with some of the folks behind the visual development of the characters. You wouldn?t believe how much works goes into determining what a character is going to look like! Mike Gabriel and Bill Schwab explained to us that early on, noone had a clear idea of what Wreck-It Ralph was going to look like. At times he was simply sort of a lump. Here?s a slideshow that includes photos I took of just some of the actual renditions and changes Wreck-It Ralph went through before he became the Wreck-It Ralph that you see in the movie. It took about two years to get the character of Wreck-It Ralph just right!
Next we went to Rigging.
Rigging is the process of taking the character model and creating movement. This is done with a computer and involves the software Maya, which you may remember was also used in the Capture state I posted about a few days ago. John Kahwaty, one of the riggers, explained to us that it can take months to get the rigging for just one character done.
We got to play with Maya and try our hand at rigging ourselves. It was a lot of fun, although I wasn?t very good at it. Here?s a quick video I made of my feeble attempt at getting Wreck-It Ralph to dance.
After that we went to the Capture Stage. If you missed that post, you can read about it here.
From there we went on to Animation. We met with one of the animators, Amy Sneed. She actually showed us how she brought some of the scenes to life. A typical scene of animation is 24 frames per second. It took her weeks just to animate a few scenes! In some instances she?d actually act out the parts so she?d be able to give the characters the most lifelike attributes and mannerisms possible in the animation.
At the end of our visit we had a round table discussion on digital downloads. Wreck-It Ralph is already available as a digital download. It was very interesting to talk strategies, as well as be asked how our families used digital downloads, what we liked, what we wanted to see, and so forth.
Besides seeing so much behind-the scenes stuff, what was really cool was seeing how much everyone loved working on the movie, and how proud they were of it. I personally loved the movie and think they did a great job and deserve to be proud.
Wreck-It Ralph arrives in stores on Blu-ray and DVD on March 5, and is already available via digital download.
Wreck-It Ralph website
Wreck-It Ralph on Facebook
Wreck-It Ralph on Twitter
My visit to the Disney Animation Studio for Wreck-It Ralph press day was part of a trip for the red carpet premiere of OZ The Great And Powerful. I attended as a guest of Disney, with all expenses paid. As always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.
Report spotlights Sandia's impact on economy Public release date: 1-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Sandia National Laboratories spent roughly $900 million on goods and services in fiscal year 2012 and New Mexico businesses were awarded more than $400 million, or 45 percent, of the total, according to the labs' latest economic impact report.
U.S. small businesses received $472.7 million in Sandia contracts, with the New Mexico share totaling $255.9 million, or 64 percent.
Sandia's annual Economic Impact report breaks down the Labs' spending and spotlights its role in the New Mexico economy. (Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories.) Click on the thumbnail to download the report as a PDF (6.6 MB) or here for a high-resolution image.
"I am proud to say that fiscal year 2012 stood out as another consecutive year where Sandia exceeded its overarching small business goal and, in addition, all but one of its sub-tier small/socio-economic goals," said Don Devoti, manager of Sandia's Small Business Utilization Program. "Sandia's commitment to identify and contract with qualified, capable small business suppliers continues to push new frontiers."
Sandia reaches out to local businesses through a variety of programs. It holds public forums with suppliers and civic leaders to discuss contracting opportunities, and lists contracts on its Business Opportunities Website. It supplies small and diverse business owners with information on doing business with Sandia and seeks qualified suppliers.
The 2012 Sandia National Laboratories Economic Impact on the State of New Mexico report breaks down Sandia's spending and spotlights its role in the state's economy. The 2012 data is based on Sandia's fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2011, and ending Sept. 30, 2012. The report reflects Sandia's continued commitment to small business.
Here are some numbers showing Sandia's overall economic impact in 2012:
$1.4 billion was spent on labor and non-contract-related payments.
$896.3 million went to contract-related payments.
$66.4 million was sent to the state of New Mexico for gross receipts taxes.
$65 million was spent through procurement card purchases.
The Small Business Act mandates that federal contractors use small businesses, including those that are small disadvantaged, owned by women or veterans, and service-disabled veterans, and small businesses in impoverished areas called Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) zones. Sandia's Small Business Utilization Department oversees the mandate and negotiates small business subcontracting goals with the National Nuclear Security Administration.
"Our goal for small disadvantaged businesses will double from 5 percent in FY12 to 10 percent in FY13," Devoti said. "We have increased our woman owned small business goal from 10 percent to 11 percent, our veteran owned small business goal from 3 percent to 4 percent, and our service disabled veteran owned small business goal from 2 percent to 3 percent.
"The entire procurement organization, including my small business team, is driven to achieve these tougher goals by providing New Mexico small business suppliers with increased contracting opportunities at the laboratories and by continuing to implement innovative, transparent and relevant work processes and approaches."
While Sandia's Procurement organization stewards small-business contracting opportunities, Sandia President and Laboratories Director Paul Hommert echoed the labs' full support of the Small Business Act. "Sandia National Laboratories has a long and distinguished record of encouraging and partnering with highly qualified, diverse small business suppliers who assist us in achieving our national security mission," he said. "We are fully committed to continuing this track record."
Sandia also helps the state's economy through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program established by the state Legislature in 2000 to help companies receive technical support from the labs. In 2011, the Sandia NMSBA provided nearly $2.4 million in technical assistance to 194 New Mexico small businesses in 22 counties. Since 2000, it has provided more than $22.2 million in assistance, according to the report.
The 33 companies in the Sandia Science & Technology Park, a 300-acre master-planned research park adjacent to the laboratories, employ about 2,500 people at an average annual wage of $74,949. Investment in the park is more than $351 million. Since it opened in 1998, the park has generated $1.89 billion in spending on taxable goods and services and contributed $73.4 million in gross receipts taxes to the state and $10.4 million to the city.
Sandia employees and retirees gave more than $4.6 million in 2012 to the United Way of Central New Mexico as the largest corporate contributor to the agency. They logged more than 100,000 volunteer hours in 2012. And they donated more than 2,500 books, a truckload of school supplies, 450 holiday gifts and 500 pairs of new shoes to the community in 2012.
###
For more information and to view past reports, visit the Economic Impact webpage.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact:
Nancy Salem
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Report spotlights Sandia's impact on economy Public release date: 1-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nancy Salem mnsalem@sandia.gov 505-844-2739 DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Sandia National Laboratories spent roughly $900 million on goods and services in fiscal year 2012 and New Mexico businesses were awarded more than $400 million, or 45 percent, of the total, according to the labs' latest economic impact report.
U.S. small businesses received $472.7 million in Sandia contracts, with the New Mexico share totaling $255.9 million, or 64 percent.
Sandia's annual Economic Impact report breaks down the Labs' spending and spotlights its role in the New Mexico economy. (Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories.) Click on the thumbnail to download the report as a PDF (6.6 MB) or here for a high-resolution image.
"I am proud to say that fiscal year 2012 stood out as another consecutive year where Sandia exceeded its overarching small business goal and, in addition, all but one of its sub-tier small/socio-economic goals," said Don Devoti, manager of Sandia's Small Business Utilization Program. "Sandia's commitment to identify and contract with qualified, capable small business suppliers continues to push new frontiers."
Sandia reaches out to local businesses through a variety of programs. It holds public forums with suppliers and civic leaders to discuss contracting opportunities, and lists contracts on its Business Opportunities Website. It supplies small and diverse business owners with information on doing business with Sandia and seeks qualified suppliers.
The 2012 Sandia National Laboratories Economic Impact on the State of New Mexico report breaks down Sandia's spending and spotlights its role in the state's economy. The 2012 data is based on Sandia's fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2011, and ending Sept. 30, 2012. The report reflects Sandia's continued commitment to small business.
Here are some numbers showing Sandia's overall economic impact in 2012:
$1.4 billion was spent on labor and non-contract-related payments.
$896.3 million went to contract-related payments.
$66.4 million was sent to the state of New Mexico for gross receipts taxes.
$65 million was spent through procurement card purchases.
The Small Business Act mandates that federal contractors use small businesses, including those that are small disadvantaged, owned by women or veterans, and service-disabled veterans, and small businesses in impoverished areas called Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) zones. Sandia's Small Business Utilization Department oversees the mandate and negotiates small business subcontracting goals with the National Nuclear Security Administration.
"Our goal for small disadvantaged businesses will double from 5 percent in FY12 to 10 percent in FY13," Devoti said. "We have increased our woman owned small business goal from 10 percent to 11 percent, our veteran owned small business goal from 3 percent to 4 percent, and our service disabled veteran owned small business goal from 2 percent to 3 percent.
"The entire procurement organization, including my small business team, is driven to achieve these tougher goals by providing New Mexico small business suppliers with increased contracting opportunities at the laboratories and by continuing to implement innovative, transparent and relevant work processes and approaches."
While Sandia's Procurement organization stewards small-business contracting opportunities, Sandia President and Laboratories Director Paul Hommert echoed the labs' full support of the Small Business Act. "Sandia National Laboratories has a long and distinguished record of encouraging and partnering with highly qualified, diverse small business suppliers who assist us in achieving our national security mission," he said. "We are fully committed to continuing this track record."
Sandia also helps the state's economy through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program established by the state Legislature in 2000 to help companies receive technical support from the labs. In 2011, the Sandia NMSBA provided nearly $2.4 million in technical assistance to 194 New Mexico small businesses in 22 counties. Since 2000, it has provided more than $22.2 million in assistance, according to the report.
The 33 companies in the Sandia Science & Technology Park, a 300-acre master-planned research park adjacent to the laboratories, employ about 2,500 people at an average annual wage of $74,949. Investment in the park is more than $351 million. Since it opened in 1998, the park has generated $1.89 billion in spending on taxable goods and services and contributed $73.4 million in gross receipts taxes to the state and $10.4 million to the city.
Sandia employees and retirees gave more than $4.6 million in 2012 to the United Way of Central New Mexico as the largest corporate contributor to the agency. They logged more than 100,000 volunteer hours in 2012. And they donated more than 2,500 books, a truckload of school supplies, 450 holiday gifts and 500 pairs of new shoes to the community in 2012.
###
For more information and to view past reports, visit the Economic Impact webpage.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies and economic competitiveness.
Sandia news media contact:
Nancy Salem
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists from a British cancer charity are teaming up with technology gurus from the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google to design and develop a mobile game aimed at speeding the search for new cancer drugs.
The project, led by the charity Cancer Research UK, should mean that anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare will be able to investigate vital scientific data at the same time as playing a mobile game.
The first step is for 40 computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists to take part in a weekend "GameJam" to turn the charity's raw genetic data into a game format for future so-called "citizen scientists".
"We're making great progress in understanding the genetic reasons cancer develops. But the clues to why some drugs will work and some won't are held in data which need to be analyzed by the human eye - and this could take years," said Carlos Caldas at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute.
"By harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists we'll accelerate the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer much more precisely."
After the GameJam, which runs in London from March 1-3, an agency will build the game concept into reality and the team plans to launch it in mid 2013.
Cancer already kills more than 7.5 million people a year and the number of people with the disease worldwide is expected to surge by more than 75 percent by 2030, according to the World Health Organization's cancer agency IARC.
CRUK's scientists are working hard to identify the genetic faults that drive cancer to try to find new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic profile and that of their tumors.
In a major international study on breast cancer genetics published last year, CRUK researchers said they are now able to classify the disease into 10 subtypes - a finding that could lead to more accurate and tailored treatment in future.
That study also found several completely new genes that drive breast cancer, offering potential targets for new types of drugs.
Yet this type of research generates colossal amounts of data that need to be analyzed, CRUK said as it announced the gaming project. And while advances in technology mean scientists can process data faster than ever, much of it still needs to be analyzed by people rather than machines.
"The human eye can detect subtle changes that machines are not programmed to look for - leading to serendipitous discoveries providing clues to the causes and drivers of the disease," the charity said.
"With the collective power of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe helping our scientists to analyze this data we could drastically speed up research."
Philip Su, engineering site director of Facebook London said his company believes the best way to solve a problem "is to bring smart people together to 'hack' a solution."
"That approach is just as valid in the field of life sciences as it is in software engineering," he said.
, Odinga spent almost eight years in jail without trial before briefly being granted political asylum/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 1 ? At 68, Raila Odinga, son of Kenya?s one-time prime minister and historical opposition leader, is having his third and likely final stab at the country?s top job.
The presidential aspirant, a Luo from the western region of Nyanza who likes to say he was ?born into politics? is optimistic that he can win straight out in the first round.
Odinga, often known rather by his first name Raila to distinguish him from his father Jaramogi, a prominent post-independence political figure, and his brother Oburu, a former Member of Parliament, has pursued his political ambitions undeterred by beatings, persecution, exile and several spells in jail.
?He?s never finished,? said political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi. ?Even when everything seems to be going against him, he pulls a rabbit out of his hat and reinvents himself.?
In all, Odinga spent almost eight years in jail without trial before briefly being granted political asylum in Norway at the beginning of the 1990s.
His admirers point to the fact that while most Kenyan politicians have their constituency in the town where they were born, Odinga is an exception, being a Nairobi MP.
?Raila is a Luo without question, but he is instinctively and ideologically a genuine nationalist as well,? one advisor says.
On the walls of his suite of offices, portraits of himself, his father, and anti-colonial rebel leader Dedan Kimathi jostle for space with the pictures that late conservationist Joy Adamson painted of the different tribes of Kenya.
Odinga was a contender in the 1997 elections where he came third after Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, now the outgoing president.
In 2002 he backed Kibaki, who won. In 2007 he ran again, against Kibaki this time, and lost, whereupon his supporters accused Kibaki of having rigged the results.
Daniel Branch, an academic and the author of a book on Kenya?s recent history, says Odinga sees the March 4 poll as an opportunity to make up for the injustice of the last elections.
?Odinga is no doubt motivated by a desire to right what he sees as the injustice of 2007, when he and his supporters think he won the presidential vote,? Branch told AFP.
Long renowned as a firebrand speaker able to galvanise any crowd, Odinga, described as stubborn and sometimes short-tempered, has lost some of his skills as an orator.
Some attribute the change to ill-health that started to take hold in 2006; others say it started when he became prime minister in 2008.
Once he became prime minister, ?he could no longer criticise things that were wrong in government without having to do something about them,? one of his advisors told AFP.
His energy has also waned ? on at least two occasions recently he has been seen almost nodding off during an interview.
However his advisors point out that his pre-election schedule is so gruelling it would exhaust a much younger candidate.
?He?s reached an age where he?s starting to get tired, and then you have to look at his hectic schedule,? said Mwalimu Mati, a prominent civil society figure and anti-corruption campaigner.
Odinga has also dropped some of his more colourful touches such as showing up at rallies in a red Hummer.
Married to Ida, Odinga has four children: Fidel, Winnie, Rosemary and Raila Junior.
Odinga grew up an Anglican and later converted to evangelicalism, being baptised in a Nairobi swimming pool by a self-proclaimed prophet in 2009.
He studied engineering in the former east Germany, in Magdeburg and Leipzig, and he called his oldest son Fidel after the Cuban revolutionary.
However, observers say the ?socialist? and ?communist? labels he was given were more an attempt to discredit him by the Moi regime than an accurate reflection of his leanings.
In a recent interview he reminded AFP that he is a businessman. Somewhat controversially he launched his petroleum import company when he was energy minister in 2001 under Daniel arap Moi.
Odinga has ?accumulated? wealth during his time in politics says anti-graft campaigner Mati, ?but not on the same scale as Uhuru Kenyatta,? his main rival in the race.
If he wins, Odinga told AFP he would prioritise ?food, education and jobs? and that he wanted to make Kenya self-sufficient in food production.
He also promised that if elected he would cut the salary of the president and the vice president, but had to admit somewhat weakly he could not remember by what percentage.
In the days of the Cold War, his father Jaramogi?s closeness to the Soviet Union worried observers.
Raila, however, is seen largely favourably by the international community, particularly since his main rival Uhuru Kenyatta faces a crimes against humanity trial by the International Criminal Court.
Like many kids, my 2-year-old son can run circles around you on an iPad. He learned to unlock the screen before he learned to conjugate verbs, and nowadays he can turn it on, find Netflix or a game, and keep himself occupied forever, or at least for a merciful 40 minutes. (Email me here to tell me what a terrible parent I am.)
Computers, though, flummox him. He?s especially confused by pointing devices?I?ve tried to teach him about the relationship between his fingers on the track pad and the pointer on the screen, but he?s too innocent of the ways of the world to understand such mysticism. So when I plop him down in front of YouTube on my MacBook while my wife and I try to enjoy a lovely dinner?see that email address above?he always gets confused when a video ends. He reaches for the screen and repeatedly taps to get a new clip to play. It?s pretty funny, actually. And then he whines for me to help him, which is kind of annoying.
But of course, my kid is totally right. Why doesn?t the MacBook screen respond to his touch? In the couple of years since my son was born, nearly every screen that we interact with has become touch-enabled. Your phone, tablet, Kindle, GPS, car radio, and maybe even your fridge?you can tap that. But not your computer. Or, more specifically, not your Mac.
Last fall Microsoft released Windows 8, which brings touch capabilities to the ubiquitous PC operating system. This year PC makers are putting out dozens of touch-enabled Windows 8 laptops and desktops. Or consider Google?s new Chromebook Pixel, which has a brilliant high-definition display screen that responds to touch. At $1,299, the Pixel is a high-end machine, but what?s most interesting about touch screens is that they?re quickly becoming a standard feature even on low- and mid-range machines. The Asus VivoBook, an 11-inch touch-screen laptop, sells for under $500. The HP Pavillion TouchSmart goes for $649. When you get to machines classified as ?ultrabooks??the thin and light PCs that are meant to compete with Apple?s MacBook Air?it?s hard to find any that don?t have touch screens. The Acer Aspire S7, the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch, and the Samsung Series 7 Chronos?which go for around $1,100?can all be touched. You?ll spend around the same for a Mac, but if you touch its screen, all you?ll get are smudges.
I should note that the new touch PCs don?t dispense with track pads or mice; you?ll spend most of your time controlling them through those traditional means. But they also allow you to touch?if my son tapped a YouTube clip on the Pixel?s screen, the video would start playing, and I?d be able to continue eating dinner in peace.
The rise of touch-enabled computers raises two questions. First, what?s the point: Do you really need to be able to touch your computer?s screen rather than use a track pad or mouse? And second, why is Apple?the firm that has done more to stoke our collective touch-screen fervor than any other?apparently holding out against touch on its computers?
To answer the first question: Yes, a touch screen on a PC can be useful. Over the past few months I?ve used a few touch-enabled Windows 8 PCs, and during the last week I?ve been playing with a Chromebook Pixel that Google sent me to review. I?ve found their touch screens to be handy?the screen complements the keyboard and the track pad quite naturally, making for one more way to get your computer to do your bidding. I wouldn?t go so far as to say you need a touch screen on your PC. Touching the screen doesn?t allow you to do anything you couldn?t do on a nontouch PC. But like other high-end laptop features?a backlit keyboard, a slot for an SD card, a high-definition display?a touch screen is a nice thing to have.
arrives in stores on Blu-ray and DVD on March 5, and is already available via digital download.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 1-Mar-2013
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