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Friday, May 4, 2012
LeafSnap App: Poison Ivy or Just Ivy
Leafsnap is a new iOS application that ?is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from?Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the?Smithsonian Institution.? This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves. Leafsnap contains beautiful high-resolution images of leaves, [...]
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Edwards trial: Aide's wife breaks down on stand
Cheri Young began to cry when asked why she went along with the cover-up of Edwards' affair.
The wife of an ex-aide to John Edwards broke down on the witness stand Monday as she recounted how the candidate asked the couple to hide an affair he was having and justified using wealthy donors' money to do it.
Skip to next paragraphTestifying at Edwards' campaign corruption trial, Cheri Young said she huddled around a phone in her Chapel Hill home during December 2007 with her husband, Andrew Young, and Edwards' pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter.
On the call, Edwards emphasized the need to preserve his campaign and keep the affair from his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, Cheri Young said. It was a couple weeks before the 2008 Iowa caucuses, and two suspicious tabloid reporters had already tracked Hunter from a doctor's appointment to the Youngs' home.
Edwards made the plan sound "as if it was for the good of the country," Cheri Young said.
Asked by a prosecutor why she went along with it, Young put her hands together, pressed them to her chin and bowed her head as if in prayer. As she began to weep, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles dismissed the jury to give her time to compose herself.
About 25 feet away, Edwards sat back in his chair and put two fingers to his pursed lips. As Young dabbed her tears with a tissue, the former U.S. Senator glanced at his watch.
Once the jury returned, Young answered the question.
"I felt like everything had been dumped in my lap," she said. "Everybody was on board but me. ... I didn't want the campaign to explode and for it to be my fault. I ultimately decided to live with a lie."
During the call, Edwards suggested that it would only be a one-day story if Andrew Young took responsibility for the baby.
"'Nobody cares about two staffers having an affair,'" Young recalled Edwards saying.
Hunter had earlier been paid as a videographer by one of the organizations linked with Edwards, who is accused of deliberately using money from two wealthy donors to hide Hunter as he sought the White House.
Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six counts related to campaign-finance violations. He faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted on all counts.
At issue are payments from a wealthy Texas lawyer, Fred Baron, who served as Edwards' campaign-finance chairman and an elderly heiress, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. Andrew Young, who testified last week under an immunity agreement, has acknowledged that he kept about $1 million in payments from the two campaign supporters.
Earlier in her testimony, Cheri Young said she had doubts about taking the "Bunny money" and using it to cover up the affair. She said Edwards hatched the plan to have her deposit the money into an account controlled by her and her husband. Concerned about violating the federal $2,300 limit on individual campaign contributions, Young said she reluctantly agreed after insisting on hearing Edwards himself say the scheme was legal.
"I heard Mr. John Edwards tell me on the phone that he checked with the campaign lawyers and that this was legal," she said.
Cheri Young took the witness stand late Friday after a full week of testimony by her husband, a former fundraiser and close aide to Edwards.
Though Andrew Young testified last week that the couple spent much of the money provided by the donors to build his family's $1.5 million home, the couple also supported the pregnant mistress out of their checking account, paying for her medical care, a BMW, a $2,700-a-month rental house and a monthly allowance of thousands of dollars in cash.
Cheri Young said she agreed to handle the money because if the public found out about Edwards' affair with Hunter, the campaign and her husband's job were in danger.
"I cannot tell you how disgusted I was. Why me? This was my husband's fight," she said. "Now I had to fix it."
After reporters for the National Enquirer tracked Hunter down in December 2007 and the Youngs agreed for Andrew to issue a public statement accepting paternity, they embarked with the pregnant mistress on a cross-country odyssey of private jets and luxury retreats, all paid for by Baron.
Eventually they settled into a $20,000-a-month rental mansion Baron paid for in Santa Barbara, Calif. Cheri Young said Hunter chose the location because that was where her "healer and spiritual advisor" lived.
Cheri Young said Hunter also had her write checks totaling thousands of dollars to the New Age healer, Bob McGovern, whom the mistress said she wanted to be with her when she gave birth.
There was also tension between the Youngs' family and Hunter.
"We were not allowed to touch the baby," Cheri Young testified. "My kids were not allowed anywhere they might breathe on the baby."
Edwards had also stopped returning the Andrew's calls, prompting the Youngs to fly to Texas to meet Baron at his home. They met with Baron and his wife, Lisa Blue.
Cheri Young said she told Baron she wanted to go home, but he told them they could never return to North Carolina or live close to the politician. Baron's wife, a lawyer and psychologist, had recently visited the Edwardses and she advised them to steer clear of Elizabeth, who was angry with the Youngs over their role in her husband's affair.
"'Mrs. Edwards is not well," Young recounted Blue as saying. "'I'm a doctor and she is not mentally healthy. There is a very good chance she would be a harm to you and your family.'"
Blue is expected to testify later in the trial. Baron died of cancer in October 2008.
After a mid-afternoon break, a lawyer for Cheri Young told the judge she was suffering from a migraine. The judge dismissed the jury early, telling them Young was expected to retake the stand Tuesday.
After Young completes her testimony, the next witness called by prosecutors could be Josh Brumberger, a young aide who was with Edwards on the night in 2006 when Hunter walked up to the candidate in the bar of a New York hotel and introduced herself. Brumberger was later pushed aside by Edwards after he tried to dissuade his boss from continuing with the affair.
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Anna Paquin: My Bisexuality Is Not "Made Up"
Anna Paquin is married to True Blood costar Stephen Moyer and expecting her first baby this fall, but she hasn't stopped identifying as bisexual. In an interview with Zooey magazine, Paquin, 29, says that her attraction to both genders is still a part of who she is.
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Here's the First Gorgeous Slow-Motion Footage from the New Phantom Camera [Video]
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Pacemaker DJ app for BlackBerry PlayBook impressions (video)
Back in 2008, a nifty little box of tricks elbowed its way onto the market -- the Tonium Pacemaker. A gadget about the size of an OG PSP, with a complete DJ set-up hidden inside. It was a brave idea, and one that was fondly received. A few years down the line, mixed with a sprinkling of business politics, and sadly the Pacemaker's time on stage would come to an end. Like all good performances though, the show wasn't completely over. In true musical fashion its back for an encore, reinvented and more importantly -- right now at least -- in our hands. We spent sometime with the reincarnated Pacemaker DJ app, to see what life is like after hardware.
Continue reading Pacemaker DJ app for BlackBerry PlayBook impressions (video)
Pacemaker DJ app for BlackBerry PlayBook impressions (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Now Amazon Is Planning to Make Original TV Content [Amazon]
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Wasabi Prime: OMG a Recipe: Bourbon Whisky for Dessert
There's nothing wrong with a little hair o' the dog after a day in the saltmines of cubicle-land. There's also nothing wrong with a touch of sweetness at day's end. So let's put our hands together for making it a little less?socially awkward?to say you're having whiskey for dessert.We always have a bottle of Maker's Mark around the house. No, not stashed in the sock drawer or places where the late night ads ask a bunch of questions to determine if you have a problem or not. We keep it around the kitchen because it's as handy for sipping as it is for cooking. I add a little to the cheap vodka that's steeping vanilla beans for vanilla extract -- you can also draw from this to mix cocktails. I deglaze pans?with a splash of it?and some chicken broth, making a nice little sauce to go with some seared chicken paillards. It's a good?bourbon whisky, more expensive than other brands, but the flavor is nice, and you don't need much to add its caramel, lightly smoky?taste to things.
So of course I wanted to incorporate some liquor when I made a bourbon-themed dessert of ice cream and pie. Duh, who wouldn't??The pie was a basic apple pie, which I added pears in, just because I had them -- thanks, CSA box. The pie crust is, as always, Wasabi Mom's vinegar pastry crust. The filling was a?basic apple pie -- about 2 or 3 pounds' worth of cored apples (and pears, in my case) sliced thin and tossed with a couple of teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of fresh nutmeg, a quarter cup of sugar, a tablespoon of flour to help absorb any excess fruit juices, and I saw this on a food show -- a dash of Angosturra bitters. A pie shop in NYC was being profiled (sorry, I can't remember their name!!) and they mentioned their use of bitters in their pie filling, to balance out the sweetness and give it a nice balance. Brilliant! I had to try it. For this pie filling, I also folded a?bourbon caramel sauce with the seasoned fruit -- it added more volume and liquid to the mix, which I wasn't in love with, so I'd skip the caramel sauce in the filling or maybe drizzle the top with it. That part needs re-working, so I'm not listing details until I get something that's worth sharing, and it was likely just gilding the dessert-lily anyways, since I made ice cream to go with the pie.
Bourbon in ice cream = Winning. I used my standby basic ice cream recipe, and added about a tablespoon or two of good maple syrup. And I mean the real stuff, not in the squeeze?bottle shaped like a bad racial stereotype. I put a little less than a shot of whisky, so about an ounce, while the milk/sugar/vanilla/maple mixture was simmering. I do this before the eggs, as I want some time for the liquor to burn off. I know -- what's the point?! I don't want the alcohol content too high to where the ice cream won't set properly. I doubt a shot of booze would keep the ice cream from doing its thing, but I also like to keep the ice cream available for 21 and under. You still get the little bite of whisky, but the flavor is heightened with the extra vanilla and the maple really compliments it. On its own, it's a great alternative to a typical vanilla, but on a pie of any kind, it's ridonkulously good. And yes, that's a real word. An awesome one.One of the reasons I was playing around with?bourbon in desserts was because I was working on a dessert for Drink Me Magazine. I liked the combo of maple and bourbon so much, I developed a maple bourbon cheesecake for the latest issue that's out now. There's a kick of spice to it, so it's not all sweet, which I prefer with desserts. Cheesecake isn't a quickie dessert, it needs a little love, but it's worth the time and I'm particularly pleased with the brulee top. Giving it a smoky, candied sugar crunch adds a pleasant texture against the creaminess of the cheesecake. And it's?fun to shout out, "Let's kick the tires and light the fires!" as you hand torch the crap out of the top of a whole dessert.Head to Drink Me's site to check out the whole magazine online, or if you're in the San Francisco area, printed copies are available. You can also check out their new look, they've been doing some fun things with the magazine and I look forward to developing more recipes. It's always a challenge to try and incorporate wine, beer or liquor into things on a plate, versus a glass. Hope you like the recipe, or if nothing else, the notion of mixing your drinks with food!sleigh bells meek sturgis sturgis whitney houston laid to rest daytona bike week amazing race
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