Article:
For those of you who were offended by a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize.

 About 10 or 15 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made gay marriage legal across the country, including the 13 states that up until now had banned it, a colleague of mine walked into the PennLive newsroom.

 A smile lit up her face and there were tears in her eyes. Up until about 10 a.m. on Friday, my gay colleague sat on pins and needles, waiting to see if nine lawyers were about to throw the life and her and her partner into absolute upheaval.

 We embraced and I offered my congratulations. And then I sat down and thought about what had just happened and what it meant to my other gay and lesbian colleagues who were rightfully celebrating Friday's ruling as a victory for both love and equal protection under the law.

 And as the comments on our main story about the ruling -- many of them openly hostile -- began to pile up, I decided I wanted to send the strongest possible message that the Opinion pages of PennLive and The Patriot-News would be space for civil discussion of one of the most important civil rights rulings of our lifetime.

 I came up with three sentences, which currently read like this:

 "As a result of Friday's ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will very strictly limit op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage.

 "These unions are now the law of the land. And we will not publish such letters and op-Eds any more than we would publish those that are racist, sexist or anti-Semitic.

 "We will, however, for a limited time, accept letters and op-Eds on the high court's decision and its legal merits."

 What almost immediately followed was an object lesson in the law of unintended consequences. And, sadly, the strongly worded message included in our editorial was lost.

 By day's end, I'd received dozens of emails and several phone calls -- not to mention the hundreds of comments appended to the editorial -- accusing me (and this news organization) of being "fascists" opposed to both the First Amendment and the right to freedom of expression.

 And those were just the polite ones.

 And as I rolled it over in my head yesterday, after hearing from professional colleagues and good friends on the right and left who questioned our policy, I reached a number of conclusions:

 First: No one at PennLive and The Patriot-News is an opponent of the First Amendment. It's a right that's foundational to us as a people. And it's a right for which many brave and noble men and women have given their lives. And I would never trample on that legacy or dishonor their sacrifice by limiting our readers' right to express themselves in a civil way.

 Second: And I cannot stress this one enough -- that's in a civil way. More than once yesterday I was referred to as "f****t-lover," among other slurs. And that's the point that I was trying to make with our statement: We will not publish such slurs any more than we would publish racist, sexist or anti-Semitic speech. There are ways to intelligently discuss an issue. The use of playground insults is not among them. And they are not welcome at PennLive/The Patriot-News.

 Third: I fully recognize that there are people of good conscience and of goodwill who will disagree with Friday's high court ruling. They include philosophers and men and women of the cloth whose objections come from deeply held religious and moral convictions that are protected by the very same First Amendment that allowed me to stick my foot in my mouth on Friday. They are, and always will be, welcome in these pages, along with all others of goodwill, who seek to have an intelligent and reasoned debate on the issues of the day.

 These pages, I remind myself finally, belong to the people of Central Pennsylvania. I'm a conduit, I recognize, for them to share their views and to have the arguments that make us better as a people. And all views are -- and always will be -- welcome.

 My mom -- and probably yours too -- once told me what the road to hell was paved with. Yesterday, I was reminded of the truth of that lesson.

 I stand with my gay and lesbian friends who, on Friday, were extended the same protections under the law that the rest of us take for granted.

 But for those of you who were offended by what was intended as a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize. ||||| You simply have to love Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler whenever they get together on TV to do one of their hilarious “Really?” Saturday Night Live-style segments. And while they’re not on SNL anymore, the duo reprised their “Really?” roles to shame a Sports Illustrated contributor who took to Twitter to say that women’s sports – not just soccer – aren’t really worth watching.

 Yeah, he said that on the Internet, while this was happening.

 DON’T MISS: The Secret Sites Cord Cutters Use to Stream Pay TV and Movies for Free

 Meyers had Poehler performed the bit on the Late Night with Seth Meyers show, and the video dedicated to Sports Illustrated’ Andy Beniot follows below.

 Everything started when Mark Mravic tweeted that “And here some people (ahem, @Andy_Benoit) argue that women’s soccer isn’t worth watching,” pointing out to a stupendous goal scored in the women’s soccer World Cup – you’ll see the goal it in the following clip, too.

 Benoit, probably not realizing that his fingers were actually typing something that would go up online in seconds, replied that “Not women’s soccer, [but] women’s sports in general [are] not worth watching.”

 Rest assured, Poehler gave Benoit advice on using Twitter, in addition to thoroughly mocking his answer together with Meyers. “Another thing,” she said. “No more tweeting, Benoit, you’re too dumb.”

 The full “Really?” clip follows below. ||||| Wal-Mart is apologizing for a store in Slidell, La., which refused to bake a cake designed as the Confederate battle flag but accepted a request to bake a cake that looked like the ISIS battle flag.

 Chuck Netzhammer, a local resident, presented his story in a YouTube video Friday, saying, “Alright, Wal-Mart, you’ve got some explaining to do. I went to go buy a cake from you all the other day with this image on it and y’all wouldn’t do it. I went back yesterday and managed to get the ISIS battle flag [cake instead].”

 Netzhammer shows the ISIS battle flag cake to the camera as well as the rejection letter Wal-Mart gave him for the confederate flag cake request. Netzhammer also shows the receipt that went along with the ISIS battle flag cake that Wal-Mart agreed to bake.

 WATCH:

 “Wal-Mart, can you please explain why you’re alienating Southern Americans with this trash that you allow to be sold at your store, while at the same point Confederate flag memorabilia is not allowed?” Netzhammer asks.

 The Daily caller was contacted by Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, who said in an email, “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.”

 Hargrove later explained to TheDC, “We made the decision to stop selling Confederate flag related items promoting the flag’s image. For that reason we did not make the cake. [Netzhammer] brought in the other image of ISIS and really, what happened, was our associate didn’t recognize what that image was and what it meant or it wouldn’t have been made.”

 Merchandise that is associated with the Confederate flag was pulled off Wal-Mart and other retailers store shelves this past week following the Charleston, S.C., shooting massacre of nine parishioners at a black church. Photos later showed the gunman, Dylan Roof, posing with the Confederate flag. ||||| TOKYO — For the first time since a crisis erupted over deadly defects in airbags made by his family’s company, the reclusive chief executive of the Japanese supplier Takata publicly addressed the issue on Thursday. He offered an apology but defended Takata’s products as fundamentally safe.

 “I apologize from my heart to those who have died or been injured,” the chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, said after bowing deeply in a show of remorse. “I feel a heavy responsibility.”

 Yet Mr. Takada, the 49-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, did not explain why he had remained all but absent during the crisis that has been at full boil for more than a year.

 Even after Toyota and Nissan said on Thursday that they would recall 2.86 million more vehicles equipped with Takata airbags than first announced, Mr. Takada dismissed suggestions that he should resign over what has become the largest automobile safety recall in history. So far, about 35 million vehicles worldwide have been affected.

 Takata admitted last month that faults in its airbags could cause their inflaters to explode with too much force when they deploy, endangering the drivers and passengers that the safety devices are intended to protect. At least eight deaths and 130 injuries have been linked to the defect.

 Mr. Takada made his remarks at a news conference after Takata’s annual shareholder meeting. He had briefly addressed the airbag issue at the last meeting a year ago, where he apologized to the company’s investors. But until Thursday, he had not spoken directly to the public or taken questions from the news media.

 Mr. Takada shed little new light on the nature of the defects, and he acknowledged that Takata was making slow progress with its investigation. The company said it had identified manufacturing failures, which it says have since been resolved, as being responsible for faults in about 10 million airbag inflaters.

 Defects traced to the manufacturing problems, mainly careless handling of inflater components at two North American factories, were called “alpha cases” inside the company, Takata executives said on Thursday.

 Questions still surround what the company calls “beta cases,” involving inflaters that were not subject to any known mishandling during production but that ruptured anyway. Prolonged exposure to heat and humidity is suspected to be a contributing factor to the failures, but Takata said it was still trying to pinpoint the exact cause or causes.

 Mr. Takada and other executives rejected the theory, put forward by some experts, that the basic design of Takata’s inflaters was dangerous because the company uses an explosive propellant, ammonium nitrate, that other airbag manufacturers have avoided because it is deemed potentially unstable.

 Continue reading the main story Danger in the Steering Wheel Airbags made by the Takata Corporation have a potential defect when they deploy. Some have ruptured, sending metal fragments into the car. At least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries have been linked to the problem. INFLATER/CANISTER PROPELLANT Cutaway view INFLATER/CANISTER STEERING WHEEL AIRBAG HOW IT WORKS: Inside the canister, pellets of a propellant based on ammonium nitrate, a common compound used in fertilizer, are ignited and generate the nitrogen gas that inflates the airbag in a fraction of a second. THE PROBLEM: Takata has said manufacturing problems, together with exposure to moisture in cars in humid regions, can cause the propellant to degrade. This can make the propellant burn too strongly when the airbag is deployed, rupturing the inflater and sending metal fragments into the car’s interior and injuring the driver or passengers.

 “We have been working with ammonium nitrate for more than 10 years, and have tested it in a variety of ways,” Mr. Takada said. “As far as I’m concerned, it is safe and reliable.”

 Some of Takata’s replacement inflaters also use ammonium nitrate, meaning that if the chemical turns out to be part of the problem, devices in cars that have been recalled and repaired may ultimately fail as well. Takata met with harsh criticism from American lawmakers at a congressional hearing this week, as well as with questions about the replacement airbags.

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 One automaker, Fiat Chrysler, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that it would no longer use Takata inflaters in replacement of driver’s side airbags in its cars, citing Takata’s use of ammonium nitrate.

 In a technical presentation on Thursday, Hiroshi Shimizu, a senior vice president at Takata, said it was likely that a combination of factors was behind the “beta cases.”

 “There is no evidence that the gas destabilizes on its own,” he said.

 The Takada family took the airbag manufacturer public nearly a decade ago, but it still controls a majority of shares, mostly through a family-owned holding company. And the family has tightened its grip over the course of the airbag crisis.

 Photo

 In December, the Takata board voted to replace Stefan Stocker, the Swiss citizen who became president in 2013, and handed responsibility for day-to-day operations to Mr. Takada, who was then in a more symbolic role as chairman. Mr. Takada is now both chairman and president.

 The move has had little obvious effect on Takata’s response to the crisis, which has been criticized as slow and poorly communicated.

 Takata had planned to allow journalists to observe the shareholder meeting on Thursday, but it denied access at the last moment.

 Takata’s share price has fallen about 40 percent since the shareholder meeting a year ago. The company suspended dividend payments after it reported a net loss of 29.5 billion yen, or $238 million, for the fiscal year that ended in March.

 The company’s official forecast is for a return to profit this year, but with lawsuits in North America and no clear end to the recalls in sight, analysts say the outlook is most likely too optimistic.

 Asked on Thursday if he would resign to take responsibility for the crisis, Mr. Takada said he would not.

 “My first responsibility is to ensure customers’ safety by making sure the company responds firmly to the problem,” he said. |||||Summary:

– The biggest apology of the week came from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but it was hardly the only one to make headlines: Shamed: “I apologize from my heart to those who have died or been injured. I feel a heavy responsibility.”—Shigehisa Takada, chief executive of the Japanese supplier Takata, over his company's air bag issues. Unsportsmanlike: "I got carried away responding to playful ribbing ... and, in my stupidity, overcompensated by saying something ignorant and extreme. 100% mistake on my part, for which I'm deeply sorry."—Andy Benoit of Sports Illustrated, after tweetiing that women's sports weren't worth watching. He then got skewered by Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler. Flag gaffe: “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.”—Walmart spokesperson, after a store in Louisiana made a cake adorned with an ISIS flag, ordered by someone trying to make a point about the chain's ban on the Confederate flag. Civil discourse: "But for those of you who were offended by what was intended as a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize."—John Micek, opinion editor at PennLive, after announcing a decision to "strictly limit" letters in opposition to same-sex marriage in the week of this week's Supreme Court ruling. The site is affiliated with the Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa. Celebrity interference: “I sincerely regret not discussing my editing rationale with our partners at PBS and WNET, and I apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming."—Henry Louis Gates Jr., after PBS said it would postpone his Finding Your Roots series because of its Ben Affleck miscue.


News article:

An 18-week-old baby from Ireland has given new meaning to the phrase “born a fighter.” Megan Hui of County Kildare, Ireland, was originally deemed dead by doctors at Rotunda hospital in Dublin after five scans concluded 31-year-old mom Michelle Hui had lost her baby. The mother hadn't known she was actually pregnant with twins. However, she was instructed to take two abortion pills to clear her uterus after the miscarriage of what she (and doctors) thought was one child. A pregnancy test later, doctors found Megan.

 LordSpoda/YouTube

 To everyone’s surprise, Megan — born on February 25 — weighed just under 6 pounds and became a little sister to Mya, 4, and Noah, 2, after miraculously surviving the twin miscarriage and the abortion. “I couldn’t believe it,” Hui told the Mirror. “Neither could the doctors. But as happy as I was, I was angry they had missed her on the scans.”

 Hui was asked to take a pregnancy test, which would reveal whether any harmful clots remained in the womb after taking the abortion pill. It was only after the pregnancy test came back positive that the mother of two was sent to the hospital for a D&C (dilation and curettage) — a surgical procedure to remove the contents of the uterus. Upon beginning the surgical procedure to remove the dangerous blood clots, doctors found Megan’s heartbeat on a scan — 10 days after her miscarriage.

 “You are not going to believe it, we’ve got a heartbeat,” Hui recalled. “It was the best feeling ever.” “They said that with all the blood and clots it must have created shadows so they couldn’t see her. Although the mother of now three was thrilled to have her newborn survive, she was concerned about the doctors’ oversight — the possible effect her medical abortion could have had on her newborn.

 She was given two abortion pills to prompt her womb to expel the dead fetus to prevent any infection. Patients will take mifepristone — the abortion pill — and then receive misoprostol to take home the next day, according to Planned Parenthood of Illinois. A complete abortion will occur within four to 24 hours of using misoprostol in the privacy of their home for most patients.

 Typically, medical abortion done this way has a success rate of more than 97 percent. Some of the abortion drugs prescribed to Hui do carry an increased risk of birth defects to any surviving baby. The most common severe birth defects include heart defects, neural tube defects, and Down syndrome.

 Despite the medical procedures, Megan is thriving at 18 weeks. “Now Megan is fine, she’s healthy and she is just a big healthy pudding of a baby,” Hui said, the Daily Mail reported. The doctors said it was a blessing. They have never heard of anything like it. Someone had been looking over us.”

 Megan’s story is so extraordinary that it has been written up in medical journals. Medical professionals, like Katherine Hales, a spokesman from the Association of Radical Midwives, which campaigns for improved maternity care in the NHS, acknowledges this is an “extraordinary case.” “But I have never heard of this happening. I can’t think of a medical reason for it to happen – it is just luck,” Hales said. ||||| Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email

 Expectant mum Michelle Hui was devastated when she had a miscarriage six weeks into her pregnancy.

 Five scans confirmed her loss, then she had the trauma of taking an abortion pill to make sure nothing was left behind to cause infection.

 But days later Michelle, 31, was being prepared for a final treatment to clear her uterus when incredibly a preparatory scan revealed a tiny heartbeat.

 Amazed doctors discovered that she had been pregnant with twins – and one had miraculously survived both the miscarriage and the abortion.

 Already a mum of two, Michelle went on to give birth to a beautiful baby girl, Megan, now 18 weeks old.

 She and her salesman husband Ross, 33, could not be more proud.

 (Image: SWNS)

 “The miscarriage and abortion were absolutely horrific,” she said.

 “The 10 days between the miscarriage and going back to the hospital were just a blur.

 “To find out I had to go in for another procedure, I was devastated.

 “But then I saw this little heartbeat, but I thought it couldn’t be right. After all we had been through, I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

 “The doctor went out and came back in with a more senior doctor and he did the scan again and he said, ‘you are not going to believe it, we’ve got a heartbeat’. It was the best feeling ever.

 “Now Megan is fine, she’s healthy and she is just a big healthy pudding of a baby. The doctors said it was a blessing. They have never heard of anything like it. Someone had been looking over us.”

 Michelle, who works for a bank, was six weeks and two days into her pregnancy when she suffered the miscarriage while walking to the train station last July.

 “Everything was fine initially,” she said. “I had booked in my scan and had an appointment the next day.

 “I was on my way to work and I just started gushing blood. I rang my husband and told him I was losing the baby. He couldn’t come and get me because he had the other two kids so I had to walk home.”

 (Image: SWNS)

 She then went to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin where she claims two different doctors carried out a total of five scans before concluding she had lost her baby.

 She was given two abortion pills and after an overnight stay at the hospital was allowed home.

 She said: “After I lost the baby I went out with friends and had a bottle and a half of wine. I was devastated – and drank myself silly. I never ever drink that much. I’m not a drinker.”

 While doctors said there was no chance she was still pregnant, she was told to take a pregnancy test which would reveal whether any harmful clots had remained.

 The test was positive, so she went back to hospital for a D&C (dilation and curettage) – a surgical procedure to remove the contents of the uterus. But it was at that point the doctors spotted a heartbeat on a scan. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Michelle. “Neither could the doctors. But as happy as I was, I was angry they had missed her on the scans.

 “They said that with all the blood and clots it must have created shadows so they couldn’t see her.

 “They said I was blessed.

 “I’ve been written about in medical journals, and the doctor said that in all his 25 years he has never come across or heard of anything like this.”

 Megan was born on February 25, weighing just under six pounds, a little sister to Mya, four, and Noah, two.

 (Image: SWNS)

 “She’s our little miracle,” added Michelle, of County Kildare, Ireland. “We were always a strong family, but it has just made us stronger. I wouldn’t have been able to get through it all if it had not been for my husband and my two children.

 “It was an incredibly difficult time, but now we have a precious and healthy little girl.”

 The Association of Radical Midwives said it had never heard of such a case.

 Spokeswoman Katherine Hales, a midwife of 20 years, said: “It certainly is an amazing story.

 “I have very, very occasionally heard of rare cases of a miscarriage of one baby, and then seeing another on

 the scan.

 “But I have never heard of this happening after (abortion pill) mifepristone. I can’t think of a medical reason for it to happen – it is just luck. The twins should be the same size. You would presume that the second one was the same size and they would see it on the scan.

 “I suppose because they couldn’t detect the second – perhaps there was a disparity in the gestation between the two – but hormonally that really should not happen, and even if it does you are talking hours difference, not days.

 “It really is an extraordinary case and I would be interested to see if in fact there is even another case out there

 like this.”

 A spokeswoman for Rotunda Hospital declined to comment. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Megan Hui is a healthy 18-week-old girl, much to the astonishment of everyone involved. As the Daily Mirror reports, mom Michelle suffered a miscarriage six weeks into her pregnancy in Ireland's County Kildare. Doctors, however, did not know at the time that she was pregnant with twins. They gave her two abortion pills to clear out her uterus and ward off infection, and she returned to the hospital 10 days after the miscarriage to have a surgical procedure to complete the procedure. As it began, Hui recalls hearing this: “You are not going to believe it, we’ve got a heartbeat." Twin Megan had finally made herself known. Medical Daily notes that abortions conducted in this way have a success rate of about 97%, which is why Megan's case has been written up in medical journals. "I have never heard of this happening," says one professional in the field. "I can't think of a medical reason for it to happen—it's just luck." (Click to read about a US toddler whose first steps on a walker have gone viral.)


BP has agreed at the request of the Obama administration to show video of the "top kill" designed to choke off the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

 The company plans to try to execute the tricky procedure as early as dawn Wednesday. It's the latest attempt to plug the devastating oil leak.

 The "top kill" involves force-feeding heavy drilling mud and cement onto the leak.

 BP started showing live feed of the leak itself after pressure from the Obama administration. Lawmakers had said they had learned that the "top kill" procedure would not be shown.

 The company said in a statement Tuesday that it will display the video. The decision came after discussions with the federal official overseeing the spill response, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, BP said.

 "Throughout the extended top kill procedure _ which may take up to two days to complete _ very significant changes in the appearance of the flows at the seabed may be expected," BP said. "These will not provide a reliable indicator of the overall progress, or success or failure, of the top kill operation as a whole. BP will report on the progress of the operation as appropriate and on its outcome when complete." ||||| Oil Spill in the Gulf - Live Cam

 Choueset Holiday ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Choueset Holiday ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Development Driller 2 ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Development Driller 2 ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Ironhorse ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Ocean Intervention III ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Ocean Intervention III ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Boa Deep C ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Boa Deep C ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Skandi ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Skandi ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Enterprise ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Enterprise ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Q4000 ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Q4000 ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Hos ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Hos ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Oly ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Oly ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Inspire 1 ROV Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Viking Poseidon ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 Viking Poseidon ROV 2 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 West Sirus ROV 1 Please note that these live streams may freeze or be unavailable at times.

 del.icio.us Digg this Reddit Stumbleupon |||||

Write a summary.

– BP has bowed to pressure from an increasingly ticked-off White House and reversed an earlier decision to cut off a live video feed as it attempts a top kill maneuver to plug the Gulf oil leak. The company—slammed by lawmakers yesterday after executives said the feed would be cut off during the attempt—warns that changes in the appearance of oil flow during the procedure may be misleading, the AP reports. The attempt to plug the leak with mud and cement was set to begin at dawn today and last up to two days. President Obama—who snapped "Plug the damn hole" at aides in a recent meeting, according to the Washington Post— has been receiving frequent updates on BP's progress. Top government scientists will be in the room with BP to supervise the attempt and consider alternatives if it fails.


Article:

A computer model has found a smiling expression is key to a first impression of being approachable, while large eyes signal youthfulness, and dominance is linked partly to a masculine face shape.

 You may think you can judge a person you just met based on his or her facial expressions. Does a smile indicate a person is easygoing or insincere? Does squinting show concentration, or mistrust?

 First impressions of people — such as whether they are trustworthy, dominant or attractive — can develop from a glimpse as brief as 100 milliseconds or less. Brain scans suggests that such judgments are made automatically, probably outside of people's conscious control.

 But now, a computer system that mimics the human brain has identified which facial features most influence how others first perceive a person, scientists say.These findings could lead to computer programs that automatically see which photographs would help people give the best first impressions they can, the researchers added.

 Because first impressions can affect people's future behavior and can be difficult to overturn, "it's useful to know how we're being judged on our appearance, especially since these judgments might not be accurate — think of effects on court cases or democratic elections, for example," said study co-author Tom Hartley, a cognitive neuroscientist and psychologist at the University of York in England. "Should we really trust a smiling face?" [Smile Secrets: 5 Things Your Grin Reveals About You]

 Although some previous research has suggested that there may be a kernel of truth in some first impressions, Hartley noted that people typically go too far with the judgments they develop from first impressions. "For instance, someone with a young-looking face is judged to have other immature characteristics," Hartley said. "Evidence is clear that often judging a book by its cover is just plain wrong, but we all do it."

 Given the increasing presence of faces on social media sites, first impressions could be more important than ever, Hartley suggested.

 "Whereas, in the past, we got to know people through meeting them in the flesh, increasingly, our first contact is online, and our first impressions are based on the images we provide on social media profiles," Hartley told Live Science.

 Previous research has shown that "the many different judgments characterizing first impressions tend to fall along three underlying dimensions," Hartley said. "One is approachability — do they want to help me or to harm me? The next is dominance — can they help or harm me? The last is youthful-attractiveness — perhaps representing whether they would be a good romantic partner or rival."

 Judging images

 To learn more about how first impressions are formed, the research team at the University of York found 1,000 photographs of people on the Internet, and showed them to six volunteers. The participants rated their first impressions of the people in the photos on social traits such as trustworthiness and dominance. These images were typical of pictures seen every day, ranging widely in angle, lighting, ages, expressions, hairstyles and so on.

 Each face was broken down into 65 physical features, such as the shape of a person's jaw, mouth, eyes, cheekbones or eyebrows. The researchers then analyzed these faces using an artificial neural network, a kind of artificial intelligence computing system that mimics how the brain works. They had the neural network attempt to learn which facial physical features might be linked to first impressions of social traits.

 This modelsuggested "that given enough data, we can accurately gauge people's likely impressions of a given image," Hartley said. "If you're thinking about attaching a picture to their CV, résumé or online dating profile, maybe you should take a look at our paper first!"

 The model found that mouth shape and area were linked to approachability — unsurprisingly, a smiling expression is a key component of an impression of approachability. When it came to youthful-attractiveness, eye shape and area were important, in line with views linking relatively large eyes to a youthful appearance. Dominance was linked with features indicating a masculine face shape, such as eyebrow height, cheekbones, as well as color and texture differences that may relate to either masculinity or a healthy or tanned overall appearance.

 "Our results suggest that some of the features that are associated with first impressions are linked to changeable properties of the face or setting that are specific to a given image," Hartley said. "So, things like expression, pose, camera position, lighting can all, in principle, contribute alongside the structure of our faces themselves. In some ways, our model parallels or makes explicit the kinds of judgment that might be relevant to casting directors, animators and portrait photographers who select or manipulate images to create certain impressions."

 Wanna look more trustworthy?

 By reversing this process, the researchers created a model that generated cartoon faces depicting the typical characteristics of someone judged as having certain social traits. The researchers compared the results with those of 30 human judges, and found that these cartoon faces usually gave the first impressions they were designed to give. [7 Personality Traits You May Want to Change]

 Hartley suggested that future research might be able to use these findings "to select an image which conveys a desirable impression, perhaps even automatically."

 However, Hartley noted that the researchers looked only at Caucasian faces in this study, to avoid possible confounding effects of race, though they are currently conducting cross-cultural studies to find out how culture impacts the results.

 "We know that people process faces of other ethnicities differently from their own — this might be because of cultural stereotypes, but also more subtle things such as the level of experience we have with different kinds of variation in the face," Hartley said. "As it's not practical to incorporate faces and judges from every possible geographic, cultural and ethnic background, we instead try to keep these factors fixed by focusing on one ethnic and cultural group at a time. We can then investigate the ways in which different groups rely on different facial features and perhaps reach different social judgments in a step-by-step way."

 In addition to looking across cultures, future studies can also "use brain imaging to investigate how these social impressions are created in the brain," Hartley said. Another direction for research "will be to look at ways in which first impressions can be influenced by directly manipulating specific features, and whether, with the knowledge we now have, we can influence people's social decisions by choosing images with particular characteristics," he added.

 The scientists detailed their findings online July 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| Image copyright HANNAH GAL / SPL Image caption Approachable? Intelligent? People's responses to 1,000 photographs were used to build the model

 Whether it's a curled lip or a keen cheekbone, we all make quick social judgements based on strangers' faces.

 Now scientists have modelled the specific physical attributes that underpin our first impressions.

 Small changes in the dimensions of a face can make it appear more trustworthy, dominant or attractive.

 The results, published in the journal PNAS, could help film animators or anyone looking to create an instant impression on a social network.

 Dr Tom Hartley, a neuroscientist at the University of York and the study's senior author, said the work added mathematical detail to a well-known phenomenon.

 "If people are forming these first impressions, just based on looking at somebody's face, what is it about the image of the face that's giving that impression - can we measure it exactly?"

 Three key dimensions of a first impression Approachability: how likely is this person to help (or hinder) me?

 Dominance: how capable is this person of carrying out those intentions?

 Attractiveness: is this person young and good looking - a potential romantic partner?

 Positive first impressions are especially important in a world dominated by social media, from LinkedIn to Tinder.

 Dr Hartley sees the commercial potential in applying his numerical model to the photos people use to present themselves online. "It's obviously potentially very useful," he told the BBC.

 To make the calculations, each of 1,000 face photos from the internet was shown to at least six different people, who gave it a score for 16 different social traits, like trustworthiness or intelligence.

 Overall, these scores boil down to three main characteristics: whether a face is (a) approachable, (b) dominant, and (c) attractive.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cartoon faces based on the new mathematical model, sliding along 3 scales: approachability, dominance and attractiveness

 By measuring the physical attributes of all 1,000 faces and putting them together with those scores, Dr Hartley and his team built a mathematical model of how the dimensions of a face produce those three impressions.

 The next step was to get the computer to extrapolate. Using their new model, the team produced cartoon versions of the most (and least) approachable, dominant and attractive faces - as well as all the possibilities in between.

 Image copyright T Hartley / PNAS Image caption Six faces and their computerised approximations, including study author Dr Tom Hartley (second from left)

 Image caption The same treatment given to the Today programme's John Humphrys

 You could use these kind of numbers to decide when is a good time to take a photograph, or to choose the photograph that's really optimal in putting forward the best possible impression Dr Tom Hartley, University of York

 Finally, and most importantly, these cartoon results could be tested. When the researchers quizzed more participants about their impressions of the artificial, cartoon faces, the ratings matched. People said that the computer's cartoon prediction of an approachable face was, indeed, approachable - and so on.

 So has all this work revealed humanity's ultimate trustworthy jawline, or the most assertive shape for eyebrows? Dr Hartley is cautious.

 "Lots of the features of the face tend to vary together," he explained. "So it's very difficult for us to pin down with certainty that a given feature of the face is contributing to a certain social impression."

 There are some obvious trends however - including the tendency for masculine faces to be perceived as dominant, or for a broadly smiling face to seem more approachable and trustworthy.

 This points to a potentially worrying implication: brief facial expressions can make a big difference to how we are received by strangers.

 "It might be problematic if we're forming these kind of judgements based on these rather fleeting impressions," Dr Hartley said, "particularly in today's world where we only might see one picture of a face, on social media, and have to form our impression based on that."

 Image copyright T Hartley / PNAS Image caption A mathematical model produced cartoon faces based on how people rated various facial dimensions

 On the other hand, the findings could help people put their best face forward.

 "It might be very useful for organisations who are interested in people's faces," said Dr Hartley.

 [Being] approachable is tied to smiling expressions and unapproachable to frowning or angry expressions, while dominance is tied to masculine features Dr Anthony Little, University of Stirling

 That might include interests as diverse as photographers, Facebook and Pixar.

 "You would be able to use these kind of numbers to decide when is a good time to take a photograph, or maybe to choose the photograph that's really optimal in putting forward the best possible impression - and you might want to put forward different kinds of social impressions in different situations."

 Animators, on the other hand, "have to give life, and give some social meaning, to the faces of their characters just by changing small things," Dr Hartley said.

 "What we're doing is trying to put that on a scientific footing. It's been fascinating to find out more about it."

 Dr Anthony Little, a reader in psychology at the University of Stirling, said the findings point to something "simple and important" about the way physical attributes guide our social responses.

 Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Impressions included attractiveness and trustworthiness - potential mate or used car salesman?

 "The results highlight that the way we see other people may be in relatively simple terms, as approachable/unapproachable and dominant/submissive," said Dr Little, whose own research on faces and psychology includes using a website to crowd-source ratings.

 "Each of these two factors looks to be tied to specific face features. So, approachable is tied to smiling expressions and unapproachable to frowning or angry expressions, while dominance is tied to masculine features.

 "The third factor, youthful-attractiveness, appears less distinct."

 This is because of interplay between attractiveness and the other two factors, Dr Little explained. ||||| Within moments of meeting someone new, we've make both conscious and subconscious judgments about them—even if we're just looking at a picture of them. First impressions largely hinge on a person's facial features, which we judge on three major axes: dominance, approachability and attractiveness. Now, researchers publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have revealed the underpinnings of our snap judgments.

 To create a model that could predict first impressions, the team first asked volunteers to record their first impression of more than 1,000 photos of people's faces, taken from the internet, the BBC reports. Then, the researchers built a model based on careful measurements of the faces combined with the respondents' first impressions.

 To test how accurate their program was, the researchers used it to generate cartoon faces representing different first impressions of dominance, approachability and attractiveness, the BBC continues. They asked volunteers to make judgments about both the cartoons and the real-life faces they represented and found that the impressions matched.

 The team thinks their findings could help animators create more convincing characters, as well as aid those looking to make a good first impression through an application photo or social network profile picture, the BBC adds. |||||
What is a summary?

– Have masculine or feminine features? A big smile? Characteristics like these, it seems, are central to our snap judgements of people's faces. Using a computer model, researchers have figured out how different features affect our first impressions, the BBC reports. The system is based on 1,000 pictures of different faces gathered online. In a study, researchers had respondents give opinions of these faces, focusing on approachability, dominance, and attractiveness. Researchers then created a mathematical model that translated those opinions into distinct facial measurements—an effort to "crack the code of first impressions," notes Smithsonian. The result was a computer program that generates cartoon faces intended to be dominant or submissive, approachable or off-putting. Another batch of study subjects offered their opinions of the cartoons—and they fit the computer's assessments. Masculine features and a good tan were apparently tied to the perception of dominance, while smiles were associated with approachability, LiveScience reports. Knowing how first impressions work may be particularly important these days: "Whereas in the past, we got to know people through meeting them in the flesh, increasingly, our first contact is online, and our first impressions are based on the images we provide on social media profiles," says the study's lead author. Of course, what's attractive could change a lot in the next century.


News article:

It is the most famous act of self-mutilation in the history of art, but the exact motivation – love? Jealousy? Rage? – for Vincent van Gogh’s decision to cut off his ear has remained unknown for more than a century.

 According to a new study of his time in Provence, the gruesome procedure was in fact inspired by the news his brother Theo, his most loyal confidant and financial supporter, was about to marry after a whirlwind romance. The research throws doubt on the popular theory that Van Gogh took a razor to his ear after a passionate row with fellow artist Paul Gauguin.

 It was known that Van Gogh was distressed by news of the marriage – which could have threatened the closeness of their relationship, and also left Theo with a wife and family to support, unable to fund a struggling brother who had yet to sell a single canvas – but it had been thought that he learned of it only after the incident.

 However, the writer Martin Bailey, for his new book Studio of the South, has uncovered evidence that Van Gogh almost certainly learned of it in a letter from Theo delivered on Sunday 23 December 1888.

 Later that night there was indeed a quarrel, after the two artists had spent the day working penned up together by continuous rain, and Gauguin would leave the house threatening to return to Paris – but the trigger for Van Gogh’s despair was not that, but the news from his brother, Bailey believes.

 Theo’s letter enclosed 100 francs, but also the news that only a fortnight earlier he had met an old friend, Jo Bonger, who had previously turned him down. This time, within a week, she had agreed to marry him.

 Bailey has established that Theo had already written to his mother asking permission to marry, and that Jo had written to her older brother, who responded with a telegram of congratulations that arrived on 23 December. Bailey is sure that Theo would have written to his brother at the same time, and that the news was in the letter that was delivered to the famous Yellow House at Arles, also on the 23rd.

 The razor slash left Van Gogh bleeding copiously, but he wrapped the piece of ear in paper and walked to his favourite brothel, where he gave it to a young woman he knew. Another recent book, by Bernadette Murphy, suggested that this was not a prostitute, but a local farmer’s daughter working there as a servant. Murphy also uncovered a drawing, made by a doctor long after the event, suggesting that Van Gogh had cut the entire ear off, and not just the lobe. In any event, the poor woman opened the parcel, fainted on the spot, Van Gogh fled, and the police were called.

 Gauguin returned to the house the following morning, Christmas Eve, where he found the police on the doorstep, and the artist lying in his blood-soaked bed. Theo, who had been hoping to spend a first Christmas with his fiancee, arrived on Christmas Day to visit his brother in hospital. Van Gogh – after briefly being locked in an isolation room – was discharged on 7 January, and wrote to Theo: “Soon the fine days will come and I’ll start on the orchards in blossom again.” Despite a further collapse and another spell in hospital, he continued to paint until he left Arles in April.

 The paintings from this desperate period in his life are among his best loved, and Bailey has also traced the surprising afterlife of the bed in his famous The Bedroom. It was one of two double beds bought when he was furnishing the rented house to welcome Gauguin, and Bailey touchingly suggests: “The twin pillows in the painting suggest that he still had a lingering hope that he might eventually share his bed with a woman.”

 In 1890, Van Gogh had the bed sent by rail to Auvers, north of Paris, where he created the last works before his suicide in July. Theo died the following year, and his widow inherited the bed and used it in a small guesthouse she ran in the Netherlands. There was talk of returning it to a museum in the Yellow House, but the building was destroyed in the second world war, and the bed was instead donated by his nephew to an appeal for furniture to help villagers whose homes had been destroyed. Bailey has been unable to trace it further, but speculates that the sturdy wooden bed could still be out there somewhere, unrecognised.

 Van Gogh is now one of the best known artists in the world, but it is a measure of how obscure he was in the 1880s that of the four contemporary newspaper accounts of the ear mutilation that Bailey has traced, two spelled his name wrong, and a third, which reported that he was “suffering cruelly” from the injury, described him as Polish – “peintre de nationalité polonaise”.

 • Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence is published by Frances Lincoln, price £25, on November 3. ||||| How I followed the paper trail

 In 1945 Van Gogh’s bed formed part of a donation to a Netherlands community (© Courtesy of NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Netherlands)

 Vincent van Gogh’s painting of his bedroom gives a deep insight into his personal life in Arles in Provence, where he accomplished his greatest work. The actual bed depicted in the celebrated work survived until after the Second World War, we can reveal. In 1945, a descendant donated the bed to a community near Arnhem that suffered during the liberation of the Netherlands.Van Gogh bought the bed (and another for a guest) in September 1888, just before Gauguin arrived to stay with him at the Yellow House. Each bed cost 150 francs, a very large sum equivalent to ten months’ rent. The fact it was a double bed suggests that Van Gogh had a lingering hope that he might eventually share it with a woman. Ensconced in the first comfortable home of his own as an adult, he proudly completed a picture of his newly furnished bedroom. “The most beautiful paintings are those one dreams of while smoking a pipe in one’s bed,” he wrote. It was there that he conceived some of his finest works.Gauguin arrived a month after the beds but his stay was abruptly curtailed by the events of 23 December. It was to his bed that the bleeding Van Gogh returned after his notorious self-mutilation and visit to a local brothel where he delivered part of his ear to a girl. From then on he only spent a few nights at home, being mainly confined to the Arles hospital.He had thought of taking his bed to the asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he retreated in May 1889 but instead left it in Arles, and in 1890 had it “flat-packed” and sent by rail to Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, where he worked for the last weeks of his life. While in Auvers, he wrote to his brother, saying that, like painted portraits, “pieces of furniture one knows… recall memories for a long time”. On 27 July 1890 he shot himself in the wheat fields above the village, dying two days later.Vincent’s brother Theo, who inherited his estate, died of syphilis six months later, and the bed then passed to his widow, Jo. She immediately moved back to Holland, where she set up a small guest house. Van Gogh’s bed came, too, since it would prove useful for the lodgers. Jo died in 1925, and the bed then passed to her son, also called Vincent, who was living in the village of Laren, east of Amsterdam.While working in the archives of the Van Gogh Museum I found an unpublished reference to the bed. In 1937 there were plans to turn the Yellow House into a small museum, and Fernand Benoît, the curator of the Arles museum who championed the idea, wrote to Vincent van Gogh, the artist’s nephew who received Jo’s inheritance, to ask to borrow paintings. Vincent replied positively, adding that “I could give you the bed which appears in the painting of the bedroom”. This letter, written on flimsy paper, which has partly disintegrated, provided the first evidence that the bed had survived. The Yellow House was never turned into a museum. The building was later hit by Allied bombs in 1944 and then demolished.My next step was to contact the son of Van Gogh’s nephew, Johan van Gogh, then aged 93. I visited him at his home outside The Hague in 2015. He remembered the bed in store in his family’s cellar and recalled what had happened in 1945. That year his father had donated the bed to victims of the war who lived “somewhere in the Arnhem area” in the eastern Netherlands.Teun Koetsier, a historian in the town of Laren and author of a book on the Second World War, provided me with further information. In September 1945, the citizens of Laren had collected several truckloads of furniture to donate to Boxmeer, a small town 40km south of Arnhem. Photographs of the lorries arriving in Boxmeer survive.The needy Boxmeer recipient of Van Gogh’s bed would have had no idea of its famous provenance. It would have been nearly 60 years old and its new owner may well have replaced it some years later, when life became easier. But there remains the intriguing possibility that the bed still survives in Boxmeer—a silent witness to the story of Van Gogh in Arles. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Vincent Van Gogh may have cut off his own ear in response to what most people would consider happy news, according to a writer who has taken a fresh look at one of history's famous self-mutilations. Martin Bailey says Van Gogh didn't take a razor to his ear because of an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, though the two did quarrel that day in 1888, the Guardian reports. Instead, Van Gogh cut his ear off because he had learned that his brother, Theo, was going to get married, Bailey says. He says the struggling artist feared that the marriage would end his close relationship with his brother—and that it would cause Theo to cut off the financial support Van Gogh relied on. Bailey says that Van Gogh didn't learn of the engagement while he was recovering in hospital, as previously thought, but in a letter that was delivered to him in Provence just hours before the self-mutilation. "Had Van Gogh been elated by the engagement, it is virtually inconceivable that he would have sliced off part of his ear a few hours after receiving Theo’s news, whatever other difficulties he was facing," Bailey writes in new book Studio of the South, per the Telegraph. Bailey, writing in the Art Newspaper, says his research into Van Gogh's years in Provence has also yielded clues to the whereabouts of Van Gogh's famous bed. He believes it was donated to needy people in a small Dutch town months after the end of World War II. (This museum grew an ear from Van Gogh DNA.)


Article:

A new round of advertisements unveiled by supporters of Colorado's health insurance exchange has ignited controversy that rippled through social media Tuesday and launched debate over their portrayal of women.

 In one of the most discussed "Got insurance?" ads, produced by the liberal ProgressNow Colorado and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, a young woman holds a packet of birth-control pills and stands next to a young man, his hand wrapped around her waist.

 So what's she thinking?

 "OMG, he's hot! Let's hope he's as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers," read the words in the risqué advertisement.

 While the groups say the aim is to encourage young people to enroll in the state's new health insurance exchange — a pillar to President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act — some have said it belittles women. It also adds to the partisan back-and-forth over the new health care law.

 The enrollment of young adults is pivotal to the new law because, say White House officials, they tend to have low anticipated medical costs and can keep insurance premiums lower.

 Other advertisements in the campaign, which began in October, feature young people doing keg stands and downing shots from a "shot ski."

 Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, defended the advertisements.

 "The whole intention of these ads is to raise awareness, and that's what we're doing. It's great that more and more people are talking about it," said Runyon-Harms, who notes the ads only appear on social media and will not, for example, be displayed on billboards or buses.

 A spokesman for Connect for Health Colorado, the state-run health care exchange, which is not associated with the ad campaign, declined to comment.

 Republican strategist Kelly Maher called the ads "demeaning" and an attempt to distract from those individual policy-holders who have been notified that their 2013 insurance will not exist in 2014.

 "This ad campaign is desperately trying to distract from the fact that exchange sign-ups have essentially ground to a halt. While nearly a quarter of a million Coloradans have had their plans canceled, ProgressNow Colorado and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative are demeaning and belittling women with shallow sexual caricatures and making light of serious women's health issues," Maher, executive director of the conservative Compass Colorado, said in a statement.

 One of the many advertisements created by Progress Now Colorado in support of the Affordable Care Act. (Click image to enlarge.) (http://doyougotinsurance.com/)

 An initial glance at the advertisements led Harsha Gangadharbatla, an associate professor of advertising at the University of Colorado at Boulder, to believe it was a joke toward Obamacare created by Republicans.

 "I think it's a strategic mistake," Gangadharbatla said. "Consumers could see it as a joke, making it appear not to be a serious issue. And the issue of health care is clearly a serious issue in the United States. There's already so many negative headlines and problematic issues out there with rollout of Obamacare, so why add fuel with ads like these, if the true intent is to enroll more young people."

 Gangadharbatla said the ads could also be viewed as stereotypical of millennials.

 "Doing keg stands and shots makes it seem like that is the typical life of a young professional, which can be stretch," Gangadharbatla said.

 As for the promiscuous ads featuring birth-control, Runyon-Harms said, "People get upset when you portray women as independent."

 "We think this ad is really about healthy relationships and that people are taking control of their lives with health care," she said.

 Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee ||||| WASHINGTON — Sign up for ObamaCare and get a sleazy hookup.

 Colorado has launched a new ad campaign that attempts to entice young women to sign up for the new national health-care program with the promise of free contraceptives and carefree sex.

 In one of the print ads, a flirty young woman holding a package of birth-control pills and leaning against a young man says: “OMG, he’s hot! Let’s hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control.”

 She continues her steamy monologue: “My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers.”

 “I got insurance. Now you can too,” she says. “Thanks ObamaCare!”

 The ad, which is dripping with lusty sexuality, dubs the young couple “Susie and Nate … Hot to Trot.”

 To be on the safe side, there’s an added warning: “The pill doesn’t protect you from STDs; condoms and common sense do that.”

 The ad is part of the “thanks obamacare!” campaign targeting young Coloradans — and underscores how the law’s backers will say just about anything to lure young people to sign up for the new mandatory health coverage, an outcome that is critical to ObamaCare working as planned.

 The entire health-care overhaul relies on the young and healthy buying insurance to offset the cost of covering Americans with pre-existing conditions and other new benefits.

 An earlier “Got Insurance” ad in Colorado titled “Brosurance” featured a young man doing a handstand on a keg of beer as his two “bros” each hold up one of his legs with one hand and grasp a red plastic cup in the other.

 “Keg stands are crazy. Not having health insurance is crazier,” reads the caption. “Don’t tap into your beer money to cover those medical bills.”

 Colorado officials defended the ads, admitting they were provocative by design.

 “It’s been fun to watch how it all plays out,” said Adam Fox, the director of strategic engagement for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

 “We’ve seen both positive and negative reactions, but if people are seeing the ads and purchasing health insurance, that’s a good thing.”

 Traffic to the Web site that features the ads exploded so much on Tuesday that the site went down for a few minutes.

 The depiction of young women as bubbly sexpots stirred outrage in some quarters. Conservative talk-radio host Dana Loesch in a tweet called it “The ‘You’re a whore’ ad for ObamaCare” and said, “So basically, hosurance.”

 “Liberal ladies you have lost the right to call anyone a misogynist again,” tweeted Denver-based political blogger Kelly Maher.

 Another ad in the series shows a young lady holding a package of birth-control pills and leaning against a cardboard cutout of hunky actor Ryan Gosling.

 “Hey girl,” says the caption. “You’re excited about easy access to birth control and I’m excited about getting to know you.” ||||| The “bros” made famous in a Colorado advertising campaign doing keg stands for Obamacare are proving in a new spot that they’re not just party animals, but babe magnets too.

 The latest offering from the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI), which spawned the “brosurance” campaign to encourage young people to sign up for health insurance through Colorado’s state-run health insurance exchange, features a young woman who’s excited that she’s about to bed a bro.

 “OMG, he’s hot!” reads the ad copy. “Let’s hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control.”

 The ad features pre-coital “Susie and Nate,” with Susie flashing a thumbs-up and a stash of birth control pills. It’s already been dubbed #hosurance on Twitter.

 “My health insurance covers the pill,” she says, “which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers.”

 Well, not quite, as a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad reminds all the bros and babes it’s aimed at.

 “The pill doesn’t protect you from STDs, condoms and common sense do that,” reads the comma-spliced fine print.

 The ad is one of several new offerings released in the last two days as part of the organization’s “Got Insurance?” campaign. Many depict young men and women as heavy drinkers who are in to casual sex. Two ads feature a cardboard Ryan Gosling and riff off the “Hey Girl” meme.

 “Hey girl,” one reads, “You’re excited about easy access to birth control and I’m excited about getting to know you.”

 Another features five women about to slurp shots of alcohol off a ski.

 “Shotskis keep us happy,” the ad reads. “Flu shots keep us healthy. Saving money on flu shots leaves us more money for fun shots.”

 Yet another features a guy in his shorts crouched on top of a keg, preparing to drink straight from the tap.

 “Not sure how I ended up here perched on top of this keg,” he’s saying. “I could totally fall, but that’s OK. My budget will stay balanced even if I don’t because I got insurance.”

 The brosurance ads have garnered not only national headlines and mixed reactions, but a cameo appearance at the House Energy and Commerce Committee when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled about the error-plagued Obamacare rollout.

 During the hearing, Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardner displayed a blown-up poster of an ad showing three dudes doing a keg stand and pounding beer.

 “Do you agree with this kind of ad for Obamacare?” he asked. “It’s a college student doing a keg stand.”

 But college students and other young people who are relatively healthy are critical to the success of the Affordable Care Act, according to a spokesman for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

 “They’re important to stabilize the insurance prices throughout the nation and Colorado,” said Adam Fox, CCHI’s director of strategic engagement, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

 The ads were designed to be edgy in order to hit the target market, “young adults and women, primarily,” he said.

 “I don’t think that we’re encouraging any particular behavior, but I think we’re acknowledging the reality that a lot of different behaviors happen whether we like it or not,” he said.

 “I think there are always going to be people who try to take your message and twist it for their purposes, as long as what you’re putting out there is connecting with the audience you’re targeting, it’s successful,” he said.

 The “Got Insurance?” campaign is expected to continue until at least Dec. 15. Fox said future ads might not be as edgy.

 “I don’t think that edgy is a bad thing if it is reaching the people that you’re targeting,” he said.

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 Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

 Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. |||||
What is a summary?

– ObamaCare needs those wild and crazy millennials to get on board if it's going to work, and a Colorado ad campaign that previously drew scorn over ads featuring kegstands and urging young men to get "brosurance," is now taking fresh abuse over a racier ad. As the Denver Post reports, the ad, accused of demeaning women, features a young woman holding pills next to a young man. Her thoughts: "OMG, he's hot! Let's hope he's as easy to get as this birth control." "ProgressNow Colorado and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative"—the groups behind the ads—"are demeaning and belittling women with shallow sexual caricatures and making light of serious women's health issues," says a GOP strategist. Talk-radio host Dana Loesch referred to the "'you’re a whore' ad for ObamaCare," calling it "basically 'hosurance,'" the New York Post notes. The Daily Caller opted for the same term. Says ProgressNow Colorado's director: "The whole intention of these ads is to raise awareness, and that's what we're doing. "


Sony/ATV is the defendant and could be primed to make a defense similar to the one being used against Duran Duran.

 Paul McCartney has filed suit in New York against Sony/ATV and is looking to get a declaratory judgment that states he will soon regain his copyright ownership share to a treasured catalog of songs created as a member of The Beatles.

 In what could become one of the most important legal battles in the music industry this decade, the iconic songwriter is looking to leverage the termination provisions of the Copyright Act.

 In 1976, Congress increased the period that works are under copyright protection, and, in recognition of authors who had signed over their rights to publishers and studios without much bargaining power, allowed such authors 35 years hence to reclaim rights in the latter stages of a copyright term. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Prince have used the mere threat of termination to negotiate new deals and better compensation arrangements.

 According to McCartney's complaint, he transferred rights to songs co-authored by him and John Lennon between 1962 and 1971 to various music publishers.

 It's well known that in the 1980s, after getting advice from McCartney himself that the big money in music was tied to rights in song compositions, Michael Jackson bought songs including "Yesterday," "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be." Jackson then entered a joint venture with Sony/ATV, and last year, his estate sold the late pop singer's remaining interest to Sony.

 The lawsuit notes that McCartney has been serving and recording termination notices for nearly a decade. Represented by attorneys at Morrison & Foerster, he now expects to recover copyright interests as soon as Oct. 5, 2018. "For years following service of the first Termination Notices, Defendants gave no indication to Paul McCartney that they contested the efficacy of Paul McCartney’s Termination Notices," states the complaint. "Defendants’ affiliates did, however, oppose at least one other artist’s terminations of transfers under the terms of the 1976 Copyright Act."

 That refers to Duran Duran's own attempt to regain rights under the termination protocol outlined by U.S. copyright law. In December, Sony scored a shocking win when an English court ruled that American termination law took a backseat to an interpretation of contracts under English law. The justices determined that Duran Duran's contractual promise to not transfer its interest in copyrights foreclosed its ability to terminate a grant of rights as a transfer of reversionary interest from the song publisher to themselves.

 Apparently, that has given Sony hopes of pulling off the same maneuver with respect to Beatles songs.

 Sony, states McCartney's complaint, has refused to provide confirmation of termination and has "thus attempted to reserve Defendants’ right to assert that once Paul McCartney’s terminations go into effect, Paul McCartney will have breached his contractual obligations to Defendants. Rather than provide clear assurances to Paul McCartney that Defendants will not challenge his exercise of his termination rights, Defendants are clearly reserving their rights pending the final outcome of the Duran Duran litigation in the U.K."

 By filing this suit now, McCartney clearly is looking to have an American court rather than a U.K. one rule in the dispute. By doing so, the complaint hints that he will soon be bringing arguments that in the U.S., the statutory termination right supersedes any contractual right. Whether or not an English court recognizes such a decision will be something for down the road.

 In the meantime, conversations between the parties, attached as an exhibit to the lawsuit, reveal that Sony has made arrangements with respect to John Lennon’s share and will retain its worldwide rights in his share of the compositions for the life of the copyright. Sony chairman Martin Bandier has been conversing directly on this issue, and the defendant has retained attorney Donald Zakarin for its legal defense. When the topic of Duran Duran was first addressed in December, it was interpreted as a "threat." Zakarin later wrote the other side that it had no wish to engage in litigation with McCartney and hoped to reach an agreement with him that would be mutually beneficial. But money can't buy love. The two sides haven't been able to come to a deal, and now the dispute has been put before a judge.

 In response to the lawsuit, Sony issued this statement: "Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog. We have collaborated closely with both Sir Paul and the late John Lennon’s Estate for decades to protect, preserve and promote the catalog’s long-term value. We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature.”

 Here's the full complaint: ||||| UPDATE: Paul McCartney and Sony/ATV have reached a settlement over the ownership of songs he wrote with the Beatles, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Details of the deal have not been disclosed.

 "The parties have resolved this matter by entering into a confidential settlement agreement and jointly request that the Court enter the enclosed proposed order dismissing the above-referenced action without prejudice," McCartney's attorney Michael Jacobs wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos on Thursday. The order states that the New York federal court will "enforce the terms of the parties’ Settlement Agreement, should a dispute arise."

 A rep for Sony/ATV confirmed to Rolling Stone that the parties have resolved this matter. A rep for Paul McCartney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 ***

 Paul McCartney has filed a federal lawsuit against music publisher Sony/ATV, claiming ownership to songs he wrote with the Beatles. The singer-songwriter hopes to regain his copyrights to songs such as "Yesterday," "Hey Jude" and "The Long and Winding Road" in October 2018. A rep for McCartney said that the paperwork, filed in a U.S. District Court in New York, is meant "to confirm his ownership" of the songs "which are granted to him by US copyright law." The lawsuit claims McCartney has been making several such legal filings since 2008.

 The former Beatle is seeking a "declaratory judgment," according to The Hollywood Reporter, to ensure the transfer will not be prolonged. He's also seeking a ruling that the publishing agreements are unlawful and unenforceable against McCartney, attorneys' fees and any other fees the court feels is just.

 McCartney's legal team is citing the 1976 Copyright Act that says that the rights to works made before 1978 must be returned to their creators 56 years after the date of the original copyright; 2018 will be 56 years since Lennon and McCartney first starting writing songs together in 1962.

 "Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon and McCartney song catalog," a rep for the publishing company tells Rolling Stone. "We have collaborated closely with both Sir Paul and the late John Lennon's Estate for decades to protect, preserve and promote the catalog's long-term value. We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature."

 McCartney is hoping that a U.S. court will rule in his favor ahead of a U.K. court; Duran Duran had filed a similar suit last year with a Sony/ATV subsidiary and an English court ruled that American law came second to those of Great Britain. By filing the suit in the U.S., McCartney's legal team hopes that U.S. Copyright law and its statutory termination rules – the point at which the copyright reverts back to the writer – would take precedence over any contracts in the U.K.

 McCartney and John Lennon had assigned the rights to some of the songs, written between 1962 and 1971, to various publishers; by the Eighties, a number of the songs belonged to ATV. In late 1984, Australian billionaire Robert Holmes à Court put the songs up for sale. McCartney had spoken to his then-friend, Michael Jackson, about the lucrative business of owning songs and Jackson subsequently outbid his friend, taking ownership of the Beatles' catalogue for the price of $47.5 million.

 Jackson later worked with Sony to form Sony/ATV. The book Michael Jackson, Inc. reports that as of 2014, Sony/ATV was worth $2 billion. Jackson's heirs owned half of the business until the estate sold its share to Sony last year.

 "Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will, which was completely made up and something I didn't believe for a second," McCartney said in 2009, upon news of Jackson's death and the revelation that Jackson had not given him his songs back. "Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn't leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and therefore, the report that I'm devastated is also totally false, so don't believe everything you read folks."

  ||||| Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against Sony/ATV Music Publishing, seeking a court’s declaration that he can reclaim outright many of his The Beatles compositions from the 1960s and 70s.

 In his lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, McCartney cites The Beatles songs that he and John Lennon jointly created from 1962 to 1971, noting that during that time they typically assigned their copyright interests to publishers in exchange for royalties.

 A provision of the Copyright Act allows authors and co-authors to reclaim the copyrights in their works after a set period of time, provided that they serve termination notices on the current rights holder. One aspect of the law gives authors who transferred their interests in their works before Jan. 1, 1978, the ability to reclaim the rights.

 The works at issue include some of The Beatles’ best known songs, including “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude,” “Let It Be,” “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Thank You Girl,” “Bad to Me,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “All You Need Is Love.”

 McCartney began to serve termination notices in October 2008. The terminations begin to be effective in 2018.

 Related George Clooney, Paul McCartney, Meryl Streep Among Stars at Obamas’ Farewell Bash

 “For years following the service of the first termination notices, defendants gave no indication to Paul McCartney that they contested the efficacy of Paul McCartney’s termination notices,” the lawsuit states. But McCartney’s lawsuit notes that Sony/ATV did challenge termination notices made by Duran Duran in a lawsuit filed in the United Kingdom. The High Court concluded that Duran Duran made agreements that precluded them from exercising their termination rights, but they based their decision on English law and “did not explicitly refer to U.S. termination rights,” according to McCartney’s lawsuit.

 McCartney notes in the lawsuit that Sony/ATV executives “indicated to Paul McCartney’s representatives that Sony/ATV would try to use” the Duran Duran decision against him.

 Although Martin Bandier, Sony/ATV chairman and CEO, acknowledged that McCartney’s termination notices were valid, McCartney’s attorneys are seeking assurances that the publisher still will not take legal action against him. Otherwise, McCartney’s lawsuit stated, litigation would cloud his title to The Beatles’ works.

 “Rather than provide clear assurances to Paul McCartney that defendants will not challenge his exercise of his termination rights, defendants are clearly reserving their rights pending the final outcome of the Duran Duran litigation in the U.K.,” McCartney’s lawsuit claims. “If that goes as defendants hope, defendants evidently intend to challenge Paul McCartney’s exercise of his termination rights on similar contractual grounds.”

 A spokeswoman for Sony/ATV said, in a statement, “Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog. We have collaborated closely with both Sir Paul and the late John Lennon’s Estate for decades to protect, preserve, and promote the catalog’s long-term value. We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature.” ||||| Paul McCartney is gunning to get back the copyrights to Beatles songs he wrote or co-wrote that currently are owned by the Sony/ATV publishing company.

 According to the rock legend's rep, McCartney filed a lawsuit in New York on Wednesday "to confirm his ownership in his U.S. reversionary copyrights, which are granted to him by U.S. copyright law, in the songs he wrote with John Lennon and recorded with The Beatles."

 Under copyright law, creators who sold copyrights before 1976 have a right to reclaim them at a certain point.

 The lawsuit claims that McCartney has been serving notices of his intention to reclaim them to the current owners of the copyrights since 2008, and is expecting to have these copyrights returned to him beginning in October 5, 2018.

 The suit -- which asks the court to affirm that these notices are valid and proper under the law -- seems to be an attempt to protect the former Beatle from a legal strategy the publishing company used in U.K. courts in December to hold off an attempt by Duran Duran to reclaim its publishing.

 In response to the lawsuit, Sony/ATV has issued a statement maintaining that it "has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog," while adding, "We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature."

 Last year, Sony/ATV, which was established as a joint venture between Sony and Michael Jackson in 1995, bought late the King of Pop's share of the company for $750 million. ||||| Paul McCartney I Want to Get Back My Beatles Hits from Sony

 Paul McCartney Sues Sony to Get Back Beatles Songs

 EXCLUSIVE

 Paul McCartney is putting Sony Music on notice ... he's going to reclaim his copyright on a bunch of The Beatles hits in the very near future whether the label likes it or not.

 Sony currently holds the copyright on the songs, but in legal docs Sir Paul says they will become his property again in 2018. The tracks -- including "Love Me Do," "All You Need Is Love" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" -- are part of the Sony ATV catalog.

 It's the same group of songs Michael Jackson once controlled. His estate sold it to Sony outright last year ... for $750 million.

 According to docs, McCartney's tried numerous times to get confirmation Sony will transfer the rights without a fight, but says he kept getting the run around.

 Macca says he's being proactive by filing this lawsuit to get a little help from his friends -- in the court -- to declare the songs will be his again by next year. |||||

Write a summary.

– Sony currently holds the copyright to part of the Beatles catalog, including such hits as "Love Me Do" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand"—but Paul McCartney is suing to get the songs back. Per TMZ, the songs in question are the ones Michael Jackson once held the rights to; his estate sold the rights to Sony last year for $750 million. McCartney has been trying to get Sony to transfer the rights to him by 2018; as ABC News explains, he's been notifying Sony and the prior rights holders of his intention to reclaim the rights since 2008. A McCartney rep explains, per Rolling Stone, that the suit is attempting "to confirm his ownership" of the songs "which are granted to him by US copyright law." As Rolling Stone and Variety explain, the US Copyright Act says that for works in which creators transferred their interests before 1978, rights can be reclaimed by the creators 56 years after the original copyright date as long as termination notices are served to the current rights holder; next year will mark 56 years since McCartney started writing songs with John Lennon, and his suit notes that at the time the songs in question were created, he and Lennon typically transferred their rights to publishers in exchange for royalties. The Hollywood Reporter, which says the case "could become one of the most important legal battles in the music industry this decade," has more detail on the ins and outs of the law.


Before I hacked a stranger's smart home, I asked for permission. An anonymous creep who hacked a Texas family's baby monitor was not as polite. ABC News reports that a Houston couple heard an unfamiliar voice talking to their sleeping 2-year-old daughter on Saturday night and realized that a stranger had taken control of their camera-enabled monitor. And he wasn't a very nice stranger:

 Marc Gilbert was doing the dishes after his birthday dinner and he heard strange noises coming from his daughter Allyson’s room while she was sleeping. “Right away I knew something was wrong,” he told ABC News. As he and his wife got closer to the room, they heard the voice calling his daughter an “effing moron,” and telling her,”‘wake up you little slut.”

 So not the best birthday. Luckily (?) his daughter is deaf and her cochlear implants were turned off. So the hacker turned his vitriol on her parents:

 The hacker then began shouting expletives at her parents and calling Gilbert a stupid moron and his wife a b****. “At that point I ran over and disconnected it and tried to figure out what happened,” said Gilbert. “[I] Couldn’t see the guy. All you could do was hear his voice and [that] he was controlling the camera.”

 In comments on an article about the hack, Marc Gilbert said he did take basic security precautions, including passwords for his router and the baby-stalking IP cam, as well as having a firewall enabled. Looking at the footage taken by ABC News, it appears that Gilbert was using a Foscam wireless camera. That may have been the problem, as a vulnerability in that product was disclosed by security researchers just months ago in a presentation titled "To watch or to be watched: Turning your surveillance camera against you."

 I've reached out to Foscam (but the wait time on the Hong Kong-based company's customer service line is currently 41 minutes). One of the features of the camera the Gilberts appear to have is "remote internet monitoring from anywhere in the world." That sounds eerie rather than reassuring given the vulnerability exposed earlier this year by security researchers Sergey Shekyan and Artem Harutyunyan of Qualys, Inc. (Shekyan has since moved to Shape Security.) They revealed that Foscam had a firmware vulnerability that would allow someone to take control of the company's products remotely and said that thousands of Foscam cameras in the U.S. were vulnerable. The presentation did not seem to garner much attention -- just a few articles; this is probably because the researchers called them "IP cams" rather than the more-alarming "baby monitors."

 According to connected device search engine Shodan, there are over 48,000 of these types of cameras connected to the Web, and over 400,000 around the world. It's not clear how many of those are vulnerable to the hack exposed by the researchers. The conference put the researchers' presentation online, which provides a guide on how the exploit works. Apparently, the hacker who harassed this Texas family took advantage of the vulnerability.

 A June blog post from Foscam says the company recently released a firmware update meant to fix a few issues with the product. Some of the security fixes provide insight into how the Gilberts may have been hacked; according to the Foscam blog post, the update "increased security by prompting for users to change default admin password" and "allow[s] for changing of the default admin username from 'admin' to something else." However, when the Qualys researchers revealed the vulnerability at a conference in April, they said that "99% of Internet-connected wireless Foscam IP cameras [were] still using the old firmware," reports Network World.

 So, if you've got a Foscam camera aimed at your baby or anything else in your home, make sure your firmware is updated and check out the advice at the end of this article.

 Hat tip to Trustwave security researcher Daniel Crowley for helping to identify the monitor brand. ||||| Imagine a stranger not only spying on your child, but talking to them too. It happened to a Houston dad. He heard a man yelling at his little girl through her baby monitor. Marc Gilbert says he used internet cameras as a baby monitor to watch his kids in their rooms.

 "It felt like somebody broke into our house,” Gilbert said.

 Gilbert believes a hacker got access to this internet-based baby monitor that sits in his daughter's room. He says someone hacked his router and the camera... allowing them to taunt his toddler through the camera's speakers.

 "He said, 'wake up, Allyson, you little (expletive),’” Gilbert said.

 Factfinder12 sat down with Cybertron International's Bill Ramsey for some advice on securing your internet-based baby monitor.

 “You should always change default user names and passwords on any device that you buy,” Ramsey said.

 Ramsey says change the passwords on your router and the device itself. And don't use a word out of the dictionary--make it hard.

 "If your baby monitor is a wireless baby monitor, then you really need to set-up a very strong encryption for it to talk to the wireless router,” Ramsey said.

 Finally, if your baby monitor is connected to a website, make sure you set-up a strong password on that site too.

 While internet-based baby monitors can give you access to your child's room from anywhere, Ramsey says you don't want just anyone to have that kind of access too.

 "There are some inherent security risks that come along with that and this is demonstrating that very well. Somebody being able to see and talk to your baby. Wow, that's like somebody standing in the window,” Ramsey said.

 Ramsey says a hacker could break into a monitor through your router, the device, or the device's website... if it has one. That's why it's important to protect all three of those areas with strong passwords. We also asked how a hacker could find internet-based baby monitors. Ramsey says hackers often drive around looking for open wireless networks. So make sure yours is locked. Also, they can try to hack a website to get access. ||||| HOUSTON, Texas (WTVR) – A Texas couple is warning other parents after the camera they were using to monitor their two-year-old and keep her safe was hacked.

 For two years, Marc Gilbert and his wife have come to rely on their internet cameras to keep an eye on their two toddlers when they are in their rooms, KTRK reports.

 However, over the weekend, someone else was watching, too.

 Gilbert said he first heard a strange voice with either a British or European accent coming from down the hall from the two-year-old’s room. As he and his wife got closer, what they heard left them shaken.

 “He said, ‘Wake up, Allyson, you little slut,’” Gilbert said, who the watched the cam turn and focus on he and his wife.

 Once the couple was in view of the camera, ABC News reports that the hacker called Gilbert a stupid moron and his wife a b****.

 Gilbert immediately yanked the plug from the camera.

 He now thinks someone hacked his router and the camera. The person was able to call the child by name since he could see Allyson’s name on her wall.

 The only saving grace is that Allyson never heard a thing.

 “Allyson was born deaf, so she has cochlear implants. Thankfully, we had them off, and she didn’t hear any of it and she slept right through it,” Gilbert said.

 A computer expert suggests following all security recommendations for these types of cameras, as well as making sure home networks are secure. ||||| A Houston couple is still shaken after saying they heard the voice of a strange man cursing and making lewd comments in the bedroom of their 2-year-old daughter.

 When Marc Gilbert and his wife Lauren entered the room, the voice cursed them as well.

 The creepy voice - which had a British or European accent - was coming from the family's baby monitor that was also equipped with a camera. A hacker apparently had taken over the monitor.

 The incident occurred on Aug. 10 as Marc Gilbert was doing the dishes after his birthday dinner and he heard strange noises coming from his daughter Allyson's room while she was sleeping, Gilbert said.

 "Right away I knew something was wrong," he told ABC News.

 As he and his wife got closer to the room, they heard the voice calling his daughter an "effing moron," and telling her,"'wake up you little slut."

 The hacker then began shouting expletives at her parents and calling Gilbert a stupid moron and his wife a b****.

 "At that point I ran over and disconnected it and tried to figure out what happened," said Gilbert. "[I] Couldn't see the guy. All you could do was hear his voice and [that] he was controlling the camera."

 Baby monitors can also be used by potential burglars

 Allyson is deaf, said Gilbert, so she did not wake up. "It's somewhat of a blessing," said Gilbert of his daughters' hearing impairment. "If she had heard it it would have been a big problem."

 Their son Ethan, 3, did not hear anything either and only woke up after he heard his parents that night.

 Gilbert wonders whether there were similar previous incidents that he wasn't aware of.

 "It's quite possible that this had been going on more than one day," he said. "Security vulnerabilities exist."

 Parry Aftab, a lawyer specializing in internet privacy and security law, said that such hacking is "very uncommon" but noted that is "one of our greatest fears that people are going to be able to access these baby monitors."

 Aftab said that if monitors are connected to Wi-Fi, keeping a password is imperative. Otherwise, she explained, anyone can access the Wi-Fi-and therefore has access to the monitor as well.

 In order to prevent universal access, said Aftab, it is key to maintain the secrecy of passwords.

 "Guard the people who have access to your computers and your passwords," she advised. She noted that baby sitters, housekeepers, or unattended cell phones can all be sources to obtain passwords.

 Gilbert did not report the incident to the police, but said he is still shaken up and wary about publicizing the story for fear of endangering his children. He was also reluctant to provide photographs of his children.

 He did call his internet service provider, who told him to check his passwords on the device. Gilbert said he is leaving the device permanently unplugged.

 "I don't think it ever will be connected again," he said. "I think we are going to go without the baby monitor now."

 But he wants other parents to be aware of the potential dangers of the monitors being hacked. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A Houston couple was disturbed to hear a stranger in their 2-year-old daughter's room Saturday. The man, who had a European-sounding accent, was making lewd comments ("wake up, you little slut") and called both the toddler and the parents names including "effing moron" and "bitch." But he wasn't actually in the room—he had apparently hacked the wireless IP camera that was being used as a baby monitor, which dad Marc Gilbert quickly disconnected. In what he calls "somewhat of a blessing," Gilbert's little girl is deaf, and never woke up throughout the ordeal. "If she had heard it it would have been a big problem." The hacker appeared to be controlling the IP cam; that apparently allowed him to learn the baby's name (it appears on the wall of her room), which he said aloud, WTVR reports. "I don’t think it ever will be connected again. I think we are going to go without the baby monitor now," her dad tells ABC News, adding that he is publicizing his story so other parents are aware of the danger. Based on ABC's footage, Forbes thinks the Gilberts were using a Foscam wireless camera, which it notes were found to have security vulnerabilities recently. KWCH has some basic security tips for nervous parents.