How to get started with stand-up meetings | Business Productivity

Business Productivity > Blog > Effective meetings > How to get started with stand-up meetings

Posted on October 07, 2013

It’s a well-known fact that a lot of time is wasted within organizations during meetings. In order to save time and to increase the level of knowledge transfer and collaboration many teams, primarily software development teams, are using so called stand-up meetings. A stand-up meeting is a short (5-15 min) status update meeting, where all team members get together and share what they are working on and if there is something holding them back. Instead of sitting down at a table in a conference room, all meeting participants stand up (even those joining via Skype). The goals of a stand-up meeting are to provide visibility and enhance communication, to support improvement, to reinforce focus on the right things and to improve the team spirit. In this article I’ll go through the steps of how to get started with stand-up meetings with your team.

1. Determine if stand-up meetings are suitable for your team

First of all you need to determine if stand-up meetings are suitable for your team. A stand-up meeting is not just a regular meeting where you have gotten rid of the chairs and the table in the meeting room. Stand-up meetings, sometimes called scrum meetings or just stand-ups, follow a certain format that is suitable for teams who work together on a joint initiative or project, who benefit from knowing what the others in the team are currently working on and who can help each other out. The stand-up meetings are run every day and everyone in the team joins. For instance, if you have a sales team where every sales representative has a unique portfolio of products that they sell to different customers, then your team would most probably not benefit from stand-up meetings. However if you have a team working together on launching a new product then stand up meetings might be the answer to get everyone coordinated and effective. In order to decide, you need to put the time invested by everyone in the team in relation to the positive outcomes of stand-up meetings.

2. Find a place

The stand-up meeting should ideally take place where the work happens. You don’t want people wasting time going to a meeting room somewhere far away from where the work gets done. It’s good to have visual boards where you can put Post-it’s or write down things like obstacles or other problems/issues you need to take offline and deal with outside of the stand-up meeting. If you have team members in other locations they can call or videoconference in. However, if you are using technical equipment to gather the team, you need to make sure that you can trust it to be up and running properly. You don’t have time to troubleshoot microphones and cameras or repeat what is being said because of poor audio connections.

3. Set a time

The best time for the stand-up meeting will depend on your team – what time-zones your  team members are in, their working habits, etc. Agree with your team what time works best for them. For a lot of teams the stand-up meeting is the first thing that happens in the morning before they go on and do their work. It’s the ritual that signals that work has begun and it sets the focus for the day. However, having the stand-up meeting early in the morning can be a bit tricky if you have a team with flexible hours or team members who come in later due to family commitments or traffic jams. If you set the time later in the morning, at around 9.30, people might consider the time before the meeting as “slack time”. Some prefer to have the stand-up closer to lunch at 11.45 and then have a lunch break after, this way you don’t waste valuable work time by introducing yet another break for the meeting. Whatever time you and your team decide on for the stand-up meeting make sure that the team commits and that you have the stand-up meeting the same time and same place every day.  Always start on time and don’t let the stand-up meeting extend 15 minutes.

4. Decide on the format

The typical format of a stand-up meeting is that each team member answers three questions:

1. What did I accomplish yesterday (or since the last stand-up)?


2. What will I do today (or until the next stand-up)?


3. What obstacles are impeding my progress?

You can change the wording of these questions or the order as you see fit. The important thing is to update the team on what you are working on and to raise roadblocks along the way.  In order to make the meeting efficient it’s important that everyone knows the format of the meeting – who starts, who goes next, who facilitates, and so on. Again this is for your team to decide. Some teams have a rule that says that the person who came in last is the first one to start and then you go clock-wise/counter clock wise around the ring. Other teams throw a ball or pass a token to the next speaker so that team members stay more alert.

Agree on a meeting facilitator for each meeting. The meeting facilitator should make sure that updates don’t take too long and that the team doesn’t get stuck discussing problems. All issues should be noted down, preferably on a white board or on the wall so that everyone can see them. They should be dealt with, but not during the stand-up meeting.

Make sure to have a clear signal of the start and finish of your stand-up meeting, whether it’s ringing a bell, playing music or clapping your hands.

5. Select culturally suitable symbols/rituals

In addition to increasing knowledge transfer the daily stand-up meeting serves to bring the team closer together. It’s important that the symbols and rituals of your stand-up meetings fit the culture of your team. For instance, a huddle might be a perfectly suitable ending to a stand-up meeting for a sports team, but it might feel extremely awkward to a team of financial analysts. Playing the Bob Marley song, “Get up stand up”, might be a great way to signal the start of a stand-up meeting for a marketing team, but it might be totally unsuitable for a group of nurses. The rituals and symbols should help to add energy, increase efficiency and bring the team closer together. If people feel awkward, alienated, or ridiculed by the rituals or symbols of the stand-up meetings you are not achieving the attended goals. Ask you team members in one-on-ones about the format of your stand-up meetings and how they feel about them.

6. Stick to it

You are never going to find a time that is ideal for everyone in the team, and when you first introduce the meetings you will probably have team members who will claim to be too busy to attend. If you have introduced and started with stand-up meetings with your team you need to stick to it and make sure that everyone else does as well. If you cancel the meeting every other day or delay the meeting you are signaling to the team that it’s not worth your or their time. In order to achieve the goals of the stand-up meetings you need to stick with the routine and let everyone get used to it. After a while you can adjust the format and even change the time for the meetings to optimize it for the team, but in the beginning it’s better to just stick to the initial setup until everyone gets used to it.

A great work practice in today’s digital world

I think stand-up meetings are a great work practice today where digital communication is overwhelming our lives.  It’s so easy for people to get stuck behind their screens. Instead of walking over to a colleague to ask for help people spend hours writing lengthy emails to each other. By introducing stand-up meetings you can break down the digital barriers and get your team communicating with each other in the most productive way – in person! Good luck with your stand-up meetings!

(If you have difficulties reading this article, you can access the full article in pdf here)

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Source: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/ba-pass-review-theres-no-sexual-healing-for-the-hero-of-this-movie-1007367.html

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How To Get Denzel Washington To Laugh, Featuring Mark Wahlberg

'2 Guns' actors dish to MTV News how they got their start in comedy.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711691/denzel-washington-mark-wahlberg-2-guns-laughs.jhtml

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How MOOCs Can Help India

Image: DAVID DESPAU

Digital technologies have the potential to dramatically transform Indian higher education. A new model built around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with those provided by top universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a quality not possible before.

University enrollment in India is huge and growing. It surpassed the U.S.'s enrollment in 2010 and became second only to China that year. Every day in India 5,000 students enroll at a university and 10 new institutions open their doors.

At more than 3 percent of the country's GDP, India's spending on higher education is one of the highest in the world. Yet per-student spending is among the lowest. While recent expansion has widened access to universities, it has further reduced per-student spending and aggravated already acute faculty shortages. As a result, quality has declined.

India must continue to expand access to higher education while preserving quality and reducing costs. This situation is not unique to India, but given its enormous size and unique position, India's challenges are formidable. Digital technologies, particularly the extensive use of MOOCs, could help.

India has experimented with online classes before, but their impact has been marginal. A decade ago the country began using the Internet to distribute video and Web-based courses under a government-funded program, the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning. Developers created more than 900 courses, focused mainly on science and engineering, with about 40 hours of instruction each. With limited interactivity and uneven quality, these courses failed to attract a large body of students.

MOOCs have given Indian academics a better sense of how a lecture could be restructured into short, self-contained segments with high interactivity to engage students more effectively. Plans are afoot for the Indian Institutes of Technology, widely considered to be among the world's top engineering schools, to offer three basic IT courses in data structure, programming and algorithms to hundreds of thousands of undergraduates through MOOCs. These courses would award credits and count toward degrees.

It helps that India is full of young people who possess a high comfort level with technology. Indians are among the most aggressive users of MOOCs. Of the 2.9 million registered users of Coursera in March, more than 250,000 were from India, second only to those from the U.S.

Yet we still need to find the right model to use MOOCs in an Indian context. With a decade of experience in this space and a vibrant technology ecosystem, India will most likely find its way soon.

This article was originally published with the title An Opportunity for India.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/CdG1cdfoEs0/article.cfm

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Melbourne won't appoint replacement for vice mayor's post

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Source: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130718/NEWS01/130718007/1006/rss01/Melbourne-won-t-appoint-replacement-vice-mayor-s-post

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New apps do heavy lifting during the job search

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) - Finding a job is not easy but a range of smartphone and web apps are designed to customize employment searches and even provide information on the competition.

Free apps such as SimplyHired, Indeed, and Monster, for iPhone and Android devices, provide job opportunities through a keyword search, and web-based apps, including TwitJobSearch and TweetMyJobs, will scour Twitter for opportunities and send job alerts through the social network.

A new free iPhone app called TheLadders takes a different approach and sends a list of job opportunities to users based on their employment profile and career goals.

"One of the big frustrations for job hunters is that they go online to apply for a job and they don't hear back. It's a black hole," said Alex Douzet, chief executive and co-founder of TheLadders, headquartered in New York.

TheLadders uses algorithms to pick out the 50 best jobs for a user based on location, current title, preferences, seniority, areas of expertise, industry and salary goals.

"By doing this what we're creating is a new job discovery mechanism that ... actually matches you to opportunities that are relevant to your profile," he explained.

Job seekers browse opportunities by tapping on a listing to reveal information about the position, company and requirements. Premium users, who pay $25, can also see how they compare to other unnamed applicants who use the app in terms of salary and education.

When a user deletes a job opening it helps the algorithm learn the user's preferences. By indicating they "like" a potential job, the user's profile is sent to the recruiter.

Last week Nokia released a new job app for Windows phones called JobLens. It uses augmented reality, which overlays information on the real world as viewed through the device's camera, to show users job openings in their neighborhoods.

"Knowing proximity to a job is critical in assessing whether it's the right opportunity," said Bryan Biniak, vice president and general manager of global partner and app development at Nokia.

"We're all trying to find the right work-life balance, and minimizing your commute is an important consideration. Augmented reality gives job seekers this insight," he added.

JobLens aggregates job postings from popular job search sites including LinkedIn and Indeed. It also connects with social networks to display any personal connections to the company.

TheLadders' Douzet advises job hunters to be focused, realistic and to apply early because after 72 hours of a job being posted on TheLadders, the chances of hearing back from a recruiter drop by 50 percent.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mary Milliken)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apps-heavy-lifting-during-job-search-183843990.html

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Google Play Looks a Lot Better on the Internet Now

We knew it was coming since Google I/O but the Internet version of Google Play just got a redesign that makes it look a little more like the Android version. You'll have navigational tabs on the left corner, banner-ish cards for apps and a better preview page. Check it out. [Google Play]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/google-play-looks-a-lot-better-on-the-internet-now-793800406

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NASA aborts spacewalk due to water leak in helmet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? NASA has aborted a spacewalk at the International Space Station because of a dangerous water leak in an astronaut's helmet.

Italy's first spacewalker, Luca Parmitano, reported that he felt a lot of water on the back of his head barely an hour into Tuesday's spacewalk. The leak was so bad that he needed help from a fellow astronaut getting back into the safety of the space station.

Parmitano at first thought it was sweat because of all his exertion performing routine cable work. But he was repeatedly assured it was not sweat. His spacewalking partner, American Christopher Cassidy, said it might be water from his drink bag. Cassidy said it looks like a half-liter of water leaked out.

The water eventually got into Parmitano's eyes. That's when NASA ordered the two men back inside.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-16-Space%20Station/id-8aa74937ee794eba80f2988201ab3c38

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Will Washington regulate packaging of marijuana edibles?

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Pot Tarts, Ring Pots and Munchy Ways ? the names might sound familiar, but these aren't candy: they're marijuana-laced edibles.

?It?s insane," said a mom at Howard Amon Park after hearing about the special candy.

In the same day and age when Tide is fixing their packaging to stop kids from eating their pods, pot companies wanting to do business in newly legalized Washington state are doing the opposite.

A packaging comparison between Pot Tarts and Pop Tarts is literally the difference of one letter.

?There needs to be the same laws for the type of packaging as there is for cigarettes and alcohol,? said concerned mom, Amanda Riedinder.

What Riedinder wants is exactly what a group of concerned parents are lobbying our state legislators for.

They are asking for rules to ensure pot wrappers "not bear a reasonable resemblance to packaging of any commercially branded candy that is not a marijuana-infused product."

It's because although the draft rules released last week prohibit advertising within 1,000 feet of schools or playgrounds and not using ads that with cartoon characters that appeal to kids, there's nothing about packaging or labeling.

?It's hard enough raising kids in this day and age and now we have to worry about them getting their hands on something they think is candy when it?s drugs,? questioned one mom.

"How many kids have to accidentally buy these before someone gets sick from it or dies?? said Jennifer Chambers, a mother and owner of a candy shop in Howard Amon Park.

Source: http://www.kval.com/news/business/Will-Washington-regulate-packaging-of-marijuana-edibles-215104981.html

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Astronomer uncovers the hidden identity of an exoplanet

July 1, 2013 ? Hovering about 70 light-years from Earth -- that's "next door" by astronomical standards -- is a star astronomers call HD 97658, which is almost bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the real "star" is the planet HD 97658b, not much more than twice Earth's diameter and a little less than eight times its mass. HD 97658b is a super-Earth, a class of planet for which there is no example in our home solar system.

While the discovery of this particular exoplanet is not new, determining its true size and mass is, thanks to Diana Dragomir, a postdoctoral astronomer with UC Santa Barbara's Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT). As part of her research, Dragomir looked for transits of this exoplanet with Canada's Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars (MOST) space telescope. The telescope was launched in 2003 to a pole-over-pole orbit about 510 miles high. Dragomir analyzed the data using code written by LCOGT postdoctoral fellow Jason Eastman. The results were published online today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

A super-Earth is an exoplanet with a mass and radius between those of Earth and Neptune. Don't be fooled by the moniker though. Super-Earth refers to the planet's mass and does not imply similar temperature, composition, or environment to Earth. The brightness of HD 97658 means astronomers can study this star and planet in ways not possible for most of the exoplanet systems that have been discovered around fainter stars.

HD 97658b was discovered in 2011 by a team of astronomers using the Keck Observatory and a technique sometimes called Doppler wobble. But only a lower limit could be set on the planet's mass, and nothing was known about its size.

Transits, such as those observed by Dragomir, occur when a planet's orbit carries it in front of its parent star and reduces the amount of light we see from the star ever so slightly. Dips in brightness happen every orbit, if the orbit happens to be almost exactly aligned with our line of sight from Earth. For a planet not much bigger than our Earth around a star almost as big as our Sun, the dip in light is tiny but detectable by the ultraprecise MOST space telescope.

The first report of transits in the HD 97658 system in 2011 turned out to be a false alarm. That might have been the end of the story, but Dragomir knew that the ephemeris of the planet's orbit (a timetable to predict when the planet might pass in front of the star) was not exact. She convinced the MOST team to widen the search parameters, and during the last possible observing window for this star last year, the data showed tantalizing signs of a transit -- tantalizing, but not certain beyond doubt. A year later, MOST revisited HD 97658 and found clear evidence of the planet's transits, allowing Dragomir and the MOST team to estimate the planet's true size and mass for the first time.

"Measuring an exoplanet's size and mass leads to a determination of its density, which in turn allows astronomers to say something about its composition," Dragomir said. "Measuring the properties of super-Earths in particular tells us whether they are mainly rocky, water-rich, mini gas giants, or something entirely different."

The average density of HD 97658b is about four grams per cubic centimeter, a third of the density of lead but denser than most rocks. Astronomers see great significance in that value -- about 70 percent of the average density of Earth -- since the surface gravity of HD 97658b could hold onto a thick atmosphere. But there's unlikely to be alien life breathing those gases. The planet orbits its sun every 9.5 days, at a distance a dozen times closer than we are from our Sun, which is too close to be in the Habitable Zone, nicknamed The Goldilocks Zone. The Goldilocks nickname is apropos: If a planet is too close to its star, it's too hot; if it's too far away, it's too cold, but if it's in the zone, it's "just right" for liquid water oceans, one condition that was necessary for life here on Earth.

Over the past few years, systems with massive planets at very small orbital radii have proved to be quite common despite being generally unexpected. The current number of confirmed exoplanets exceeds 600, with the vast majority having been discovered by radial velocity surveys. These are severely biased toward the detection of systems with massive planets (roughly the mass of Jupiter) in small orbits. Bucking that trend is HD 97658b, which orbits its star at a distance farther than many of the currently known exoplanets. HD 97658b is only the second super-Earth known to transit a very bright star.

"This discovery adds to the still small sample of transiting super-Earths around bright stars," said Dragomir. "In addition, it has a longer period than many known transiting exoplanets around bright stars, including 55 Cnc e, the only other super-Earth in this category. The longer period means it is cooler than many closer-in exoplanets, so studying HD 97658b's properties is part of the progression toward understanding what exoplanets in the habitable zone might be like."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/7ljS5qLwOI0/130701163941.htm

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Obama to announce new power initiative for Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a new initiative to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa, part of his effort to build on the legacy of equality and opportunity forged by his personal hero, Nelson Mandela.

Obama, who flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Sunday, is paying tribute to the ailing 94-year-old Mandela throughout the day. The president and his family visited Robben Island, where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years confined to a tiny cell, including a stop at the lime quarry where Mandela toiled and developed the lung problems that sent him to the hospital for most of the month.

The White House said Obama's guide during the tour was 83-year-old South African politician Ahmed Kathrada, who also was held at the prison for nearly two decades and guided Obama on his 2006 visit to the prison as a U.S. senator. The president also saw the prison courtyard where Mandela planted grapevines that remain today, and where he and others in the dissident leadership would discuss politics, sneak notes to one another and hide writings.

"On behalf of our family, we're deeply humbled to stand where men of such courage faced down injustice and refused to yield. The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island, who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit," Obama wrote in the guest book in the courtyard, his U.S. Secret Service agents standing watch in the old guard tower above.

During the tour, which took place under sunshine and clear, blue skies, Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha took in the expansive view of the quarry, a huge crater with views of the rusty guard tower from where Mandela was watched. Obama commented on the "hard labor" Mandela endured and asked Kathrada to remind his daughters how long Mandela was in prison.

Michelle Obama asked how often Mandela would work and was told he worked daily. As the family turned to leave, Obama asked Kathrada to tell his daughters how the African National Congress, the South African political party, got started.

After the tour, Obama visited retired archbishop Desmond Tutu at a youth center run by his HIV foundation before delivering what the White House has billed as the signature speech of the president's weeklong trip, an address at the University of Cape Town that will be infused with memories of Mandela.

Obama will use the address to unveil the "Power Africa" initiative, which includes an initial $7 billion investment from the United States over the next five years. Private companies, including General Electric and Symbion Power, are making an additional $9 billion in commitments with the goal of providing power to millions of Africans crippled by a lack of electricity.

Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy, said more than two-thirds of people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have electricity, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas.

"If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don't have that, so going the extra mile to reach people is more difficult," Smith said.

The U.S. and its private sector partners initially will focus its efforts on six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania, where Obama will wrap up his trip later this week. Former President George W. Bush, who supports health programs throughout the continent, will also be in Tanzania next week, and the White House did not rule out the possibility that the two men might meet.

Obama will also highlight U.S. efforts to bolster access to food and health programs on the continent. His advisers said the president sees reducing the poverty and illness that plague many parts of Africa as an extension of Mandela's example of how change can happen within countries.

The former South African president has been hospitalized in critical condition for three weeks. Obama met Saturday with members of Mandela's family, but did not visit the anti-apartheid icon, a decision the White House said was in keeping with his family's wishes.

Obama's weeklong trip, which opened last week in Senegal, marks his most significant trip to the continent since taking office. His scant personal engagement has come as a disappointment to some in the region, who had high hopes for a man whose father was from Kenya.

Obama visited Robben Island when he was a U.S. senator. But since being elected as the first black American president, Obama has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela, making Sunday's visit particularly poignant.

The president said he was eager to bring his family with him to the prison to teach them about Mandela's role in overcoming white racist rule, first as an activist and later as a president who forged a unity government with his former captors.

He told reporters Saturday he wanted to "help them to understand not only how those lessons apply to their own lives but also to their responsibilities in the future as citizens of the world, that's a great privilege and a great honor."

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Mandela's vision was always going to feature prominently in the speech. But his deteriorating health "certainly puts a finer point on just how much we can't take for granted what Nelson Mandela did."

Harkening back to a prominent theme from Obama's 2009 speech in Ghana ? his only other trip to Africa as president ? Obama will emphasize that Africans must take much of the responsibility for finishing the work started by Mandela and his contemporaries.

"The progress that Africa has made opens new doors, but frankly, it's up to the leaders in Africa and particularly young people to make sure that they're walking through those doors of opportunity," Rhodes said.

Obama will speak at the University of Cape Town nearly 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ripple of Hope" speech from the school. Kennedy spoke in Cape Town two years after Mandela was sentenced to life in prison.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler and Julie Pace on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nedrapickler and http://www.twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-announce-power-initiative-africa-085714963.html

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China's troubled Xinjiang hit by more violence: state media

BEIJING (Reuters) - More than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and wielding knives, attacked a police station in China's ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang, state media said on Saturday, in the latest unrest to hit the region in the past week.

The attack in the remote desert city of Hotan, a heavily ethnic Uighur area, comes two days after the region's deadliest unrest in four years that resulted in the deaths of 35 people. China called the incident a "terrorist attack".

Xinjiang is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language. Many of them chafe at what they call Chinese government restrictions on their culture, language and religion. China says it grants Uighurs wide-ranging freedoms and accuses extremists of separatism.

The animosity between the majority Han Chinese and the Uighurs poses a major challenge for China's Communist Party leaders. President Xi Jinping, who took office in March, has called for the unity of all ethnic groups in China.

In the latest incident, the Global Times - owned by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily - said "troublemakers" gathered at religious venues before riding on motorcycles to attack a police station in the city's Moyu county.

Authorities are counting the number of casualties and searching for suspects, the Global Times said.

In a separate incident, some 200 people attempted to "incite trouble" at a major shopping area in Hotan, the newspaper said. It said police defused the situation.

Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party's inner circle, pledged to step up "action to crack down upon terrorist groups and extremist organizations" at a meeting with government officials in the regional capital Urumqi, state news agency Xinhua said.

Chinese authorities have increased security in Urumqi, the Global Times said.

Photographs on Chinese microblogs showed dozens of military trucks with riot police patrolling the streets.

The increased security comes almost a week before the fourth anniversary of the July 2009 riots in Xinjiang that pitted Uighurs against ethnic Chinese, resulting in nearly 200 people being killed.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Xinjiang's top party chief Zhang Chunxian said: "We should be clearly aware of the complex and acute nature of the long-term struggle against separatism," according to the Xinjiang Daily, the official newspaper of the region.

"For those who dare to defy the law, the criminals who engage in violent terrorist activities have to be punished. We can't tolerate them, we have to hold no punches," the People's Daily said in a front-page editorial.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Alison Williams)

(This story was corrected to fix the spelling of knives in the first paragraph)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-troubled-xinjiang-hit-more-violence-state-media-024237052.html

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Songza introduces paid ad-free service that costs $0.99 a week

Songza joined the ad-free music streaming club today with a club of its own: Club Songza. Like the premium services on Spotify and Slacker, you'll have to cough up a few pennies to belong -- about 99 of them a week, to be exact. Listening to music without commercial interruption isn't the only benefit however; apparently paid subscribers will get additional goodies like twice as many skips and access to more premium content as well. Songza diehards can go ahead and sign up for the service at the source, though we should remind you that there are always cheaper options for your music fix.

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Club Songza, Songza

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/B_ncSXwQ3G4/

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Lebanese troops disperse Sunni protesters

BEIRUT (AP) ? Lebanese troops fired in the air Friday to disperse dozens of Sunni Muslims demonstrating in support of a hardline cleric who has been on the run since the military crushed his fighters earlier this week.

Lebanon is grappling with rising tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims linked to the more than 2-year-old conflict in neighboring Syria, which has sparked deadly street fighting on several occasions in Lebanese cities between the rival sects.

The Lebanese military moved Friday to break up the demonstration in the southern port city of Sidon after protesters tried to reach the mosque complex where the Sunni cleric Ahmad al-Assir used to give his sermons. There were similar protests by Sunnis in the capital Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon's third largest.

Protesters briefly closed the highway linking Beirut with Tripoli Friday afternoon and damaged a Lebanese army statue near the northern city, the state-run National News Agency said.

Al-Assir's compound has been under army control since Monday following two days of fighting between troops and al-Assir's followers that left dozens of people dead.

The cleric's rapid rise in popularity among Sunnis underscored the deep frustration of many Lebanese who resent the influence Shiites have gained in government via the powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Al-Assir has been one of Hezbollah's harshest critics in Lebanon and had called on fellow Sunnis to go fight in Syria against President Bashar Assad's forces. His calls intensified earlier this year after Hezbollah fighters joined Assad's forces against the Syrian opposition, which is dominated by Sunnis.

Syria's conflict has increasingly taken on sectarian overtones. The rebels fighting to remove Assad are primarily Sunnis, and have been joined by Sunni fighters from other Muslim countries. Assad's regime, in contrast, is led by the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and his forces have been bolstered by fighters from Hezbollah, a factor that has helped fan the sectarian nature of the conflict.

Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries that are easily enflamed. Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife, has been on edge since the uprising in Syria against Assad erupted in March 2011.

Sidon, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Beirut, had largely been spared from violence plaguing Lebanon's border areas where Syria's civil war has been spilling over with increasing frequency.

On Friday, troops fired into the air with heavy machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers to disperse the protesters. People ran in fear in the streets as cars sped away from the area.

Fighting in the Mediterranean city began Sunday after troops arrested an al-Assir follower. The army says the cleric's supporters opened fire without provocation on an army checkpoint.

Official reports said at least 18 soldiers were killed and 50 wounded in the fighting, while more than 20 of al-Assir's supporters died in the battle.

Some Sunni activists said the army was joined by Hezbollah fighters in the battle against al-Assir, a claim that the army denied.

Sidon's demonstration started after thousands attended Friday prayers in a mosque in the city center. The prayer was attended by a prominent ultraconservative Sunni Salafi cleric from northern Lebanon, Daia Al-Islam Al-Shahal, and the Sunni mufti of Sidon, Sheik Salim Soussan.

Soussan urged the army to open a "fair, objective and legal investigation" into the fighting in Sidon.

"We totally reject that some illegitimate armed groups take part in the raids, provocations and interrogation of people," Soussan said in an apparent reference to Hezbollah. "We put the state responsible for that."

Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb went off on a highway near the eastern city of Zahleh, in the Bekaa Valley, without causing casualties. Local TV stations said the morning bomb hit three SUVs carrying Hezbollah members.

There have been two other similar incidents in the eastern Bekaa Valley over the past weeks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lebanese-troops-disperse-sunni-protesters-121534805.html

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House Leader Cantor on Supreme Court decisions, future of immigration reform

In a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo News, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor discussed the next steps Congress could take in the aftermath of this week's Supreme Court decisions on voting rights and same-sex marriage, the future of immigration reform, President Barack Obama's response to National Security Agency document leaker Edward Snowden and his own plan to change the perception of the Republican Party.

Cantor addressed this week's Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act, a decision that left Congress with the task of passing an new version of the law. Cantor said he planned to discuss options with Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights leader with whom Cantor traveled recently on a pilgrimage to the movement's landmarks in Alabama.

"I look forward to having some discussions," Cantor said. "I intend to talk to John Lewis about his thoughts on this matter. I think that you could probably say for both sides of the political aisle--no matter where you come from regionally--that very sacred right to vote is in the underpinning of this country."

In response to Obama's comments Thursday in which the president won't be "scrambling jets" to bring Snowden back to the United States, Cantor criticized the president for what he called a "flippant" attitude toward a "grave matter."

"I think the president's remark was kind of flippant. I don't think he gives justice to this grave matter that the country's facing," he said, adding later: "I call on the president to reverse that attitude and say we're going to get engaged and we're going to lead."

Cantor also discussed his "Making Life Work" project, a Republican effort to focus on "creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families."

Five months after he revealed his plan in a speech in Washington, D.C., Cantor's ongoing effort is still a work in progress. House Republicans have passed two bills as part of the "Making Life Work" initiative -- one that would give workers more flexibility in their work schedule and another that would promote job training programs -- but neither have been taken up in the Senate. In April, House leaders pulled a Cantor-backed health care bill from a vote on the floor when it appeared doomed to fail.

Now Cantor is focused on a another health-related bill, which would increase funding for pediatric research through the National Institutes of Health by ending federal funding of political campaigns. While the old GOP might want to use that for deficit reduction, Cantor's vision would call for using it for the research, a move that could put him at odds with some of the more conservative lawmakers in the party.

"If that money can be, instead, put towards medical research in the area of pediatrics, we could perhaps find cures, because it's the only way you can get to a cure if you apply research dollars," he said. "The federal government has always been about providing a catalyst for that."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/house-leader-cantor-supreme-court-decisions-future-immigration-124741262.html

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Avalanche looking at MacKinnon for 1st pick

Prospects, from left, Zach Fucale, Darnell Nurse, Aleksander Barkov, Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, Seth Jones, Sean Monahan and Hunter Shinkaruk pose for photographers during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Prospects, from left, Zach Fucale, Darnell Nurse, Aleksander Barkov, Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, Seth Jones, Sean Monahan and Hunter Shinkaruk pose for photographers during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Defender Seth Jones, right, talks during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Defender Seth Jones, right, talks during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Defender Seth Jones talks during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Defender Seth Jones talks during a news conference introducing the top prospects going into Sunday's NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Weehawken, N.J. The draft will be held June 29 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

The Colorado Avalanche own the top pick in the NHL draft and a whole lot of options.

Nathan MacKinnon and Seth Jones. Jonathan Drouin and Aleksander Barkov. They are the top candidates to go first Sunday at the Prudential Center.

Colorado won the draft lottery and has flirted with the idea of picking a puck-moving defenseman in Jones. But it appears the Avalanche are leaning toward choosing a forward, perhaps the 17-year-old MacKinnon.

MacKinnon, a 6-foot, 182-pound center, is a solid two-way presence with strong hands and stick-handling and skating skills. He is considered a natural scorer and a very good puck distributor.

Of course, Colorado could also decide to trade the pick to the Florida Panthers, who are slated to pick second, or to the Tampa Bay Lightning at No. 3, or even farther down to another club that is looking to make a splash and shoot to the top.

There is plenty of talent available, and this draft pool has already been touted as the best in a decade. This year's prospects have been favorably compared to the last blockbuster draft in 2003.

Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards highlighted that first round 10 years ago. Patrice Bergeron and Shea Weber went in the second round, and future All-Stars and Stanley Cup champions dotted the list of a loaded draft.

Fast forward to now and there is a new group of prospects vying to become as well known and decorated as some of today's stars.

MacKinnon, Jones, Drouin, and Barkov are likely to be taken in the top four.

Given the track record of defensemen at No. 1, the Avalanche could play it safe and nab an elite forward instead.

"As far as MacKinnon, I could tell you he's a heck of a player. Jones is a heck of a player," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "It's the same thing with Drouin. They're all premier players in the future for the NHL."

Fair or not to Jones, teams are skittish about taking a defenseman first. The last defenseman selected No. 1 was Erik Johnson by St. Louis in 2006. Johnson, who now plays for Colorado, had only four points in 31 games this season and has never lived up to his top billing.

Only 12 defensemen have gone No. 1, and Denis Potvin (1973, New York Islanders) is the only one to make the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Avalanche could make it 13 after winning the draft lottery for the first time.

Jones has deep roots with the Avalanche, dating to the early part of last decade when his father, former NBA forward Popeye Jones, struck up a friendship with Joe Sakic and Roy when they all played in Colorado.

Sakic is now the Avalanche's executive vice president of hockey operations, and Roy is the club's new coach.

Jones, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound defenseman, could become the first American picked No. 1 since Chicago's Patrick Kane in 2007 and the seventh overall. In a sport in which the majority percentage of players are white, it is that slice of history he would make as the first black selected No. 1 ? topping Evander Kane, who was picked fourth in 2009.

"Seth could be that poster child for USA hockey," Popeye Jones said.

It would make for a unique cultural twist if an American was picked No. 1 in the NHL days after Anthony Bennett of Canada was selected first by Cleveland in the NBA draft.

"We still have a high amount of interest in him," Rick Pracey, Colorado's director of amateur scouting, said of Jones.

Jones enters the draft as the top-ranked player on the NHL Central Scouting's final list of North American skaters.

Even as praise is heaped on him, Jones knows scouts believe he has only scratched the surface of his potential.

"They'd like to see the shot improve a little bit, be a little more physical, those kinds of things," Pracey said.

The Avalanche, however, appear to have narrowed their focus on MacKinnon.

"He's a player that has been front and center all year, and he continues to be so," Pracey said. "He is a player that has withstood the pressures of a draft year, withstood the pressures of high expectations and the comparable that he's been held accountable to, not only this year but the past couple of years."

MacKinnon spent this past season with Halifax of the QMJHL and had 32 goals and 43 assists in 44 games. He scored 11 goals and had 22 assists in 17 playoff games.

"I think seeing that push and seeing him elevate his game and carry a team to a championship and then into the Memorial Cup is special," Pracey said. "Having this player handle the distractions and the media and all the scrutiny that goes with being a top player and then being able to perform and raise his game, are all key, key qualities."

After Florida and Tampa Bay, Nashville and Carolina round out the top five. All seven rounds will be held on the same day for the first time since 2006.

The next decade will tell if this class was worth the hype.

"It is certainly one of the better ones probably in the last couple of years in terms of overall depth," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. "Compared to '03, it'd be difficult, now. You look back at those players, there was a lot of impact players from that draft.

"So, that's probably for future debate," Holmgren said.

___

AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-29-HKN-NHL-Draft/id-063814a69ec8445da370d5a9c17ed512

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'The Heat': A little of stars Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock goes a long way

'The Heat' milks the odd-couple film premise for all it's worth.

By Peter Rainer,?Film critic / June 28, 2013

Melissa McCarthy (r.) and Sandra Bullock (l.) star in 'The Heat.'

Gemma La Mana/20th Century Fox/AP

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Sandra Bullock plays a very straitlaced FBI special agent and Melissa McCarthy is the slobbo Boston cop she reluctantly teams up with to bring down a drug lord in ?The Heat,? a buddy-buddy action comedy that milks the odd-couple pairing until the cow runs dry. A little of McCarthy?s bullishness goes a long way ? ditto Bullock?s pinched uncomfortability.

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It?s not really such a great achievement to have women cops in the movies acting as boorish and rowdy as their male counterparts, especially since the movie seems designed for a sequel. But then again, what movie these days ? or at least this summer ? isn?t? Grade: C+ (Rated R for pervasive language, strong crude content and some violence.)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ht6HI93cDO8/The-Heat-A-little-of-stars-Melissa-McCarthy-and-Sandra-Bullock-goes-a-long-way

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Android 4.3 leaks for 'Google Play edition' Galaxy S4

The next version of Jelly Bean has leaked for the 'Google Play edition' GS4 — and there's a port for the European GS4 model already

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean isn't even official yet, but already a leaked build has appeared for the Samsung Galaxy S4 "Google Play edition." The pre-release build was uploaded by Samsung fansite SamMobile in its original form, and in the form of a custom ROM for the European Galaxy S4 — GT-i9505.

The initial batch of screnshots from the ROM (build number JWR66N) doesn't show any major differences from version 4.2.2, however we'll have to reserve judgment until we've played with the software for ourselves. For the moment, however, 4.3 looks to be a relatiely minor bump up from 4.2.

We'll bring you more coverage of this story as it unfolds.

Source: SamMobile (1, 2)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/bRY-XpsFFHM/story01.htm

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The Myth of the Komodo Dragon?s Dirty Mouth

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The Myth of the Komodo Dragon?s Dirty Mouth
In 1969, an American biologist named Walter Auffenberg moved to the Indonesia island of Komodo to study its most famous resident?the Komodo dragon. This huge lizard?the largest in the world?grows to lengths of 3 metres, and can take down large prey like deer and water buffalo. Auffenberg watched the dragons for a year and eventually published a book on their behaviour in 1981. It won him an award. It also enshrined a myth that took almost three decades to refute, and is still prevalent today.

Source: National Geographic
Posted on: Thursday, Jun 27, 2013, 8:51am
Views: 14

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128828/The_Myth_of_the_Komodo_Dragon___s_Dirty_Mouth

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Zebrafish study paves the way for new treatments for genetic disorder

June 26, 2013 ? Scientists from the University of Sheffield have paved the way for new treatments for a common genetic disorder thanks to pioneering research on zebrafish -- an animal capable of mending its own heart.

Charcot Marie Tooth disease (CMT) is the most common genetic disorder affecting the nervous system. More than 20,000 people in the UK suffer from CMT, which typically causes progressive weakness and long-term pain in the feet, leading to walking difficulties. There is currently no cure for CMT.

A research project conducted at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) and the MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics (CDBG) by Dr Andrew Grierson and his team has revealed that zebrafish could hold the key to finding new therapeutic approaches to treat the condition.

Dr Grierson said: "We have studied zebrafish with a genetic defect that causes CMT in humans. The fish develop normally, but once they reach adulthood they start to develop difficulties swimming.

"By looking at the muscles of these fish we have discovered that the problem lies with the connections between motor neurons and muscle, which are known to be essential for walking in humans and also swimming in fish."

CMT represents a group of neurodegenerative disorders typically characterised by demyelination (CMT1), a process which causes damage to the myelin sheaths that surround our neurons, or distal axon degeneration (CMT2) of motor and sensory neurons. The distal axon is the terminal where neurotransmitter packages within neurons are docked.

The majority of CMT2 cases are caused by mutations in mitofusin 2 (MFN2), which is an essential gene encoding a protein responsible for fusion of the mitochondrial outer membrane. Mitochondria are known as the cellular power plants because they generate most of the supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used as a source of chemical energy.

Dr Grierson said: "Previous work on this disorder using mammalian models such as mice has been problematic, because the mitofusin genes are essential for embryonic development. Using zebrafish we were able to develop a model with an adult onset, progressive phenotype with predominant symptoms of motor dysfunction similar to CMT2.

"Motor neurons are the largest cells in our bodies, and as such they are highly dependent on a cellular transport system to deliver molecules through the long nerve cell processes which connect the spinal cord to our muscles. We already know that defects in the cellular transport system occur early in the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Motor Neuron Disease and spastic paraplegia. Using our zebrafish model we have found that similar defects in transport are also a key part of the disease process in CMT."

Dr Grierson and his team are now seeking funding to identify new treatments for CMT using the zebrafish model. Because of their size and unique biology, zebrafish are ideal to be used in drug screens for the identification of new therapies for untreatable human conditions.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/AGpvAXqKerU/130626184023.htm

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10 things you need to know today: June 27, 2013

The Supreme Court hands landmark wins to gay-marriage supporters, Obama starts a tour of Africa, and more

1. GAY-MARRIAGE SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE SUPREME COURT VICTORIES
The Supreme Court delivered two major victories for supporters of gay marriage on Wednesday. In a landmark ruling, the sharply divided court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, forcing the government to recognize marriages in the 12 states where it is legal. The court also said that supporters of California's gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8, had no standing to challenge a lower court ruling striking it down, paving the way for same-sex marriages in the nation's largest state. [Reuters]
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2. OBAMA ARRIVES IN SENEGAL TO START AFRICA TOUR
President Obama arrived in Senegal Wednesday night to begin a week-long, three-country tour of Africa. The trip, focusing on strengthening economic ties and underscoring the importance of democratic reforms, begins Thursday with a meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall, followed by a trip to Goree Island, which was the largest slave trading post in Africa for centuries. [USA Today]
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SEE ALSO: WATCH: Nancy Pelosi wearily dismisses Michele Bachmann's DOMA statement

3. MANDELA'S CONDITION WORSENS
Anti-Apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's health deteriorated on Wednesday, as a government official briefed on his condition said the former South African president had been placed on life support. President Jacob Zuma canceled a trip to Mozambique scheduled for Thursday. Supporters lit candles and posted signs expressing love for Mandela, 94, who was elected the country's first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for fighting against white minority rule. [CNN]
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4. PERRY GIVES TEXAS REPUBLICANS ANOTHER CHANCE TO PASS ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
Hours after Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis' epic filibuster blocked a restrictive Texas abortion bill, Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday called a second, special legislative session to give Republicans another chance to pass it. The rules would force most Texas abortion clinics to close. Raucous outbursts by opponents prevented Republicans from getting it passed before the last session closed. Perry said the "breakdown of decorum and decency" wouldn't stop lawmakers from doing their job. [Texas Tribune, Huffington Post]
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SEE ALSO: Did a U.S. clerical mistake allow Edward Snowden to flee China?

5. FOOTBALL PLAYER AARON HERNANDEZ CHARGED WITH MURDER
NFL star Aaron Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and charged with orchestrating the murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, a friend. Prosecutors said they used surveillance video, cell phone data, and other evidence to trace Hernandez to the industrial park where Lloyd's body was found on June 17. Lloyd had been shot in the head. The New England Patriots promptly dropped Hernandez, a tight end who had signed a five-year, $40 million contract last summer. He is being held without bail. [Associated Press]
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6. TEXAS EXECUTES WOMAN IN STATE'S 500TH MODERN EXECUTION
Texas executed Kimberly McCarthy, 52, on Wednesday, for the 1997 murder of 71-year-old retired college professor Dorothy Booth. This marked the state's 500th execution since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982. Texas reached the grim milestone far ahead of other states ? Virginia is next with 110 modern executions. McCarthy, the first woman executed in the U.S. in nearly three years, was sentenced to die for killing Booth in a robbery. [Dallas Morning News]
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SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know today: June 27, 2013

7. WALMART JOINS COMPANIES DUMPING PAULA DEEN
Hours after Paula Deen appeared on the Today show to assure fans she is not a racist, three more companies cut their ties to the embattled celebrity chef. Walmart and Home Depot said Wednesday that they would stop carrying Deen-branded cooking products, and Caesars Entertainment stripped Deen's name from four restaurants it runs. Fans are rallying behind the Southern cooking star, who also lost her Food Network shows, with demand surging for a tickets on next year's annual "Paula Deen Cruise." [NBC, New York Daily News]
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8. MILITARY OVERTURNS CONVICTION AGAINST IMPRISONED MARINE
The military's highest court has overturned a conviction of a Marine, Larry Hutchins, for the killing of an unarmed Iraqi man in 2006 ? one of the highest profile cases against an American soldier in the Iraq war. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that Hutchins was improperly denied a lawyer when he was first questioned. [Los Angeles Times]
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SEE ALSO: The last word: He said he was leaving. She ignored him.

9. MORSI WARNS PROTESTS COULD DERAIL EGYPT'S DEMOCRACY
Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, marked his first year in office with a speech Wednesday in which he acknowledged making mistakes but warned that mounting unrest is "threatening to paralyze the country." Soldiers have been posted around the country ahead of planned weekend protests to demand Morsi's removal from power. Morsi told rivals to "enter elections if you want to change the government." [BBC News]
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10. FEDERER UPSET EARLY AT WIMBLEDON
Defending Wimbledon champion Roger Federer was knocked out of the storied tennis tournament in the second round Wednesday night by Sergiy Stakhovsky, an unseeded Ukrainian. "I'm still kind of in disbelief that that actually happened," Stakhovsky, ranked No. 116 in the world, said after the epic ? 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5, 7-6(5) ? upset. Federer's shocking defeat came two days after the elimination of another favorite, Rafael Nadal, in the first round. [Wall Street Journal]

SEE ALSO: Today in history: June 27

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-things-know-today-june-27-2013-082700166.html

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The Myth of the Cool Office Is Being Evil

Don't be fooled by the perks at all those Silicon Valley (and Alley) offices ? it's all just part of a subtle plot to control employee behavior. The founders of Fab.com, which just got itself a $1 billion valuation, admitted as much to Bloomberg's Sarah Freier. The shopping site?wields?its beer on tap, free lunch, and ice-cream machine as a means to force Fab employees to send emails in a "certain font," use high-quality paper, and always "be Fab" ? whatever terrible thing that means. Those types of office perks abound at startups, of course, not only as a way to attract the best talent, but also to get that "talent" working on message, official office font included. Each and every kegerator serves as a reminder of what you owe the company. And that's just the food and drink. Let's take a look, by way of a couple recent trend stories and startup proclamations, at how the so-called "escalation of perks" keeps employees in line all over the tech world and "progressive" companies the world over.

RELATED: Larry Ellison Is So Rich He Can Buy Part of Hawaii

Unlimited Vacation Days Nobody Takes

It sounds like the best perk ever: You could, officially, and under official policy, get paid for a three-month summer vacation. But of course the increasingly popular you-work-so-hard-that-we-won't-count strategy doesn't work that way. First, most companies wouldn't allow it. The marketing company Xiik, for example,?boasts the limitless vacation offer, but in its fine print discourages long hiatuses. "There are no hidden agendas; xiik employees can take as much paid time off as needed," claims a Xiik project manager on the company website, before clarifying what that really means: "As nice as it would be to regularly leave for months at a time, common sense prevails: In most cases, it simply doesn't make sense to be away from work for extended periods."

RELATED: A New Minimum Wage, Frank Lautenberg, and Silicon Valley's Next Political Move

Translation: non-stop vacation is a ruse.

RELATED: Silicon Valley's Incubator Glut Is Real

Sure, three months of leave is a bit much. But how much is okay to take when your HR manager says you can take as much as you like? An employee completely loses leverage when he or she doesn't have a set amount of days to claim. If a boss says no to a lengthy request under the unlimited policy, then there's not really much a worker can do; an employee with a set amount of time off can always go with the but-still-have-a-week-left-this-year line.

RELATED: Selfish Silicon Valley Has a Higher than Average Unemployment Rate

Even worse than a company that denies the unlimited vacation it promises, however, is one that discourages extra days off by convincing employees working at a cool office is more fun than not working at all. There's something incredibly?Foucauldian?about startup workers failing to indulge in their vacation because staying late at an office with a pool table is like a vacation, as Molly Young?described in a much discussed essay?in last week's?New York Times Thursday Styles section.?

RELATED: Hackers Got a Woman Fired by a Startup After She Called Out Sexual Harassment

The Open Office Space Panopticon

Despite all the idealized talk from the Yahoos and Googles of the world all about lofty, cubicle-free, office-less offices and how they increase productivity and serendiptiy?and "casual collisions of the workforce," they actually don't work like that. A recent Quartz article outlines all the terrible things that come out of the open quarters, such as decreased productivity and more airborne illnesses. Which leads one to ask (even one who works in an open, office-less loft with Quartz): What's with these proliferating wall-less floor plans?

Trading in a cubicle for a shared desk not only encourages conformity ? no more quirky puppy posters! ? but also lets your boss see what your doing at all times. Or at least he or she wants you to think. On top of that feeling of?watchfulness that also exists in a cubicle plan,?management has also made it so that your co-workers act as a surveillance state as well. Not only do workers internalize the ever-watching boss, but they have their nosy cube mates to keep them on track to. To that end, it's no surprise that when the trend first started proliferating, office workers attempted to create barriers to block people out, per The New York Times. Also, it's a crime against humanity not to include desk drawers, a detail many of these open plans neglect. (Where to put embarrassing but necessary essentials, like tampons and drugs?)?

Free Lunch Means No Lunch Break

Comped meals are an essential requirement of the fancy office these days, so much so that one Warby Parker employee acquired a "gut" after a week of working in her tricked-out office. Indeed, the startup perk-a-thon serves as an all-too-easy yet ever-so-tempting way to get employees to feel guilty about not conforming to standards, as we saw at that Fab office. And while a stocked office fridge might keep people hanging around for an extra hour on either side of their official eight hours, eating at your desk does not, in fact, make workers more productive. Workers apparently "waste" 2 billion minutes a day of "productivity" getting snacks, lunch, and coffee, according to Staples, which has a vested interest in fostering fewer coffee breaks. That same company study, however, found that short breaks increase productivity.?

People, we fought for all these worker rights after the industrial revolution. Let's not give them all up for a free beer you've earned at happy hour... outside the office.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/myth-cool-office-being-evil-210812840.html

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