Using social networks for mobilization has its limits

Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
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Contact: Ana M Herrera
oic@uc3m.es
Carlos III University of Madrid

Research

This press release is available in Spanish.

The study analyzes the potential of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to coordinate people. In recent years there have been a number of examples of how social networks have served to mobilize volunteers during natural disasters, political campaigns, health emergencies, etc. But can we really depend on the use of social networks to carry out these tasks? And if it is possible, what is the risk that this strategy will fail?

Using recent results of the spacio-temporal structure of social networks and experimental data the researchers have demonstrated that social networks can be a very useful tool for coordinating people in critical situations, but have found that the risk of failure for this strategy is high. They have also demonstrated this with a practical problem: How long would it take (using only social networks) to find a person in the United States? "The response we found is two days on average, but there is also a high risk that it could take longer than a month," revealed one of the authors, Esteban Moro, UC3M Mathematic Department professor and member of Interdisciplinary Group of Complex Systems. Researchers from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Australian research center, NICTA, and the University of California at San Diego (USA) and Edinburgh (Scotland) also participated in this study.

In order to obtain these results, the researchers used as a setting results gathered from an experiment carried out in 2009 by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the US. The objective was to evaluate the efficiency of social networks in human mobilizations where time was a critical factor. For that reason, a contest was set up with a prize of 40,000 dollars inviting participants to find ten weather balloons randomly located across the United States, within the least amount of time possible. The winning team from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was able to locate them in the span of nine hours.

In this study now published by these researchers, the scientists carried out hundreds of computer simulations with geographic and demographic information and the strategy used by the team to win this challenge posed by DARPA. The conclusion reached is that weather balloons could have been exclusively located through social networks, without the help of conventional communication (radio, television, newspapers), although with certain limits. "Our results indicate that social mobilization of this type would be successful under certain optimal conditions", the study indicated. One of the critical factors for success then, is that the users who participate in the mobilization not only have many social links but also are effective when it comes to circulating information quickly, for example.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 8-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ana M Herrera
oic@uc3m.es
Carlos III University of Madrid

Research

This press release is available in Spanish.

The study analyzes the potential of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to coordinate people. In recent years there have been a number of examples of how social networks have served to mobilize volunteers during natural disasters, political campaigns, health emergencies, etc. But can we really depend on the use of social networks to carry out these tasks? And if it is possible, what is the risk that this strategy will fail?

Using recent results of the spacio-temporal structure of social networks and experimental data the researchers have demonstrated that social networks can be a very useful tool for coordinating people in critical situations, but have found that the risk of failure for this strategy is high. They have also demonstrated this with a practical problem: How long would it take (using only social networks) to find a person in the United States? "The response we found is two days on average, but there is also a high risk that it could take longer than a month," revealed one of the authors, Esteban Moro, UC3M Mathematic Department professor and member of Interdisciplinary Group of Complex Systems. Researchers from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Australian research center, NICTA, and the University of California at San Diego (USA) and Edinburgh (Scotland) also participated in this study.

In order to obtain these results, the researchers used as a setting results gathered from an experiment carried out in 2009 by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the US. The objective was to evaluate the efficiency of social networks in human mobilizations where time was a critical factor. For that reason, a contest was set up with a prize of 40,000 dollars inviting participants to find ten weather balloons randomly located across the United States, within the least amount of time possible. The winning team from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was able to locate them in the span of nine hours.

In this study now published by these researchers, the scientists carried out hundreds of computer simulations with geographic and demographic information and the strategy used by the team to win this challenge posed by DARPA. The conclusion reached is that weather balloons could have been exclusively located through social networks, without the help of conventional communication (radio, television, newspapers), although with certain limits. "Our results indicate that social mobilization of this type would be successful under certain optimal conditions", the study indicated. One of the critical factors for success then, is that the users who participate in the mobilization not only have many social links but also are effective when it comes to circulating information quickly, for example.

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/ciuo-usn040813.php

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Researcher offers clues on the origins of life

Monday, April 8, 2013

A structural biologist at the Florida State University College of Medicine has made discoveries that could lead scientists a step closer to understanding how life first emerged on Earth billions of years ago.

Professor Michael Blaber and his team produced data supporting the idea that 10 amino acids believed to exist on Earth around 4 billion years ago were capable of forming foldable proteins in a high-salt (halophile) environment. Such proteins would have been capable of providing metabolic activity for the first living organisms to emerge on the planet between 3.5 and 3.9 billion years ago.

The results of Blaber's three-year study, which was built around investigative techniques that took more than 17 years to develop, are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The first living organisms would have been microscopic, cell-like organizations capable of replicating and adapting to environmental conditions ? a humble beginning to life on Earth.

"The current paradigm on the emergence of life is that RNA came first and in a high-temperature environment," Blaber said. "The data we are generating are much more in favor of a protein-first view in a halophile environment."

The widely accepted view among scientists is that RNA, found in all living cells, would have likely represented the first molecules of life, hypothesizing an "RNA-first" view of the origin of living systems from non-living molecules. Blaber's results indicate that the set of amino acids produced by simple chemical processes contains the requisite information to produce complex folded proteins, which supports an opposing "protein-first" view.

Another prevailing view holds that a high-temperature (thermophile) environment, such as deep-ocean thermal vents, may have been the breeding ground for the origin of life.

"The halophile, or salt-loving, environment has typically been considered one that life adapted into, not started in," Blaber said. "Our study of the prebiotic amino acids and protein design and folding suggests the opposite."

Without the ability to fold, proteins would not be able to form the precise structures essential for functions that sustain life as we know it. Folding allows proteins to take on a globular shape through which they can interact with other proteins, perform specific chemical reactions, and adapt to enable organisms to exploit a given environment.

"There are numerous niches that life can evolve into," Blaber said. "For example, extremophiles are organisms that exist in high temperatures, high acidity, extreme cold, extreme pressure and extreme salt and so on. For life to exist in such environments it is essential that proteins are able to adapt in those conditions. In other words, they have to be able to fold."

Comet and meteorite fragments, like those that recently struck in the Urals region of Russia, have provided evidence regarding the arrival of amino acids on Earth. Such fragments predate the earth and would have been responsible for delivering a set of 10 prebiotic (before life) amino acids, whose origins are in the formation of our solar system.

Today the human body uses 20 common amino acids to make all its proteins. Ten of those emerged through biosynthetic pathways ? the way living systems evolve. Ten ? the prebiotic set ? can be made by chemical reactions without requiring any living system or biosynthetic pathway.

Scientific evidence exists to support many elements in theories of abiogenesis (the emergence of life), including the time frame (around 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago) and the conditions on Earth and in its atmosphere at that time. Earth would have been made up of volcanic land masses (the beginning of the formation of continents), salty oceans and fresh-water ponds, along with a hot (around 80 degrees Celsius) and steamy atmosphere comprising carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Oxygen would have come later as a by-product of green plant life and bacteria that emerged.

Using a technique called top-down symmetric deconstruction, Blaber's lab has been able to identify small peptide building blocks capable of spontaneous assembly into specific and complex protein architectures. His recent work explored whether such building blocks can be comprised of only the 10 prebiotic amino acids and still fold.

His team has achieved foldability in proteins down to 12 amino acids ? about 80 percent of the way to proving his hypothesis.

If Blaber's theory holds, scientists may refocus where they look for evidence in the quest to understand where, and how, life began.

"Rather than a curious niche that life evolved into, the halophile environment now may take center stage as the likely location for key aspects of abiogenesis," he said. "Likewise, the role of the formation of proteins takes on additional importance in the earliest steps in the beginnings of life on Earth."

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Florida State University: http://www.fsu.edu

Thanks to Florida State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127621/Researcher_offers_clues_on_the_origins_of_life

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Louisiana Gov. Jindal's popularity slumps after bold tax plan

By Stephanie Grace

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has fallen out of favor with local voters, and his bold plan to scrap the state income tax is running into trouble.

Jindal was re-elected to a second term with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll, worse than Democratic President Barack Obama in one of the most conservative states.

The poll suggested voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials for a possible White House run than tending to local matters.

As the Louisiana Legislature prepares to kick off its two-month session on Monday, Jindal's signature proposal to eliminate the state income tax is facing resistance.

His detailed plan would do away with all state personal and corporate income taxes. It also calls for a 56-percent increase in the state sales tax, a much higher cigarette tax, and the elimination of some tax loopholes to make up the $3 billion shortfall from scrapping the income taxes.

To allay fears that the plan would hurt the poor, Jindal has proposed a rebate for low-income residents and some retirees.

The governor says the change would attract business by making Louisiana competitive with states such as oil-rich neighbor Texas, which has no income tax.

In speeches across the state, he has cast it as a way to simplify the system, make it fairer, and give people more control over their own money.

Eliminating income taxes would also be an attention-getting accomplishment for a Republican governor with national aspirations.

"A lot of the pressure seems to be coming from national groups. It's hard to find a constituency in Louisiana that was demanding an end to the income tax," said Jan Moller, director of the nonprofit Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates for raising revenue to provide more services.

Jindal, who is Indian-American and chairs the Republican Governors Association, has been outspoken in the debate about how to broaden the appeal of the party after last November's painful election losses.

He made national headlines earlier this year by calling on Republicans to "stop being the stupid party," - a reference to some 2012 candidates self-destructing with comments about women and rape.

HIGH PROFILE

Jindal, 41, appears regularly on national television shows and at events where presidential hopefuls test their appeal such as the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Jindal was a leading campaign surrogate for losing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year. He gave the Republican response to Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress in 2009, but his performance received poor reviews.

His tax proposal has won plaudits from national conservatives such as Grover Norquist, the guru of anti-tax reformers who asks politicians to pledge never to raise taxes.

However, local skeptics have raised concerns that the sales tax increase would disproportionately hit poor residents, increase costs for businesses, hurt New Orleans' tourism industry and make it harder for local taxes to be imposed.

The increase would require a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature, which have Republican majorities.

But the same poll that showed Jindal's slumping popularity, conducted by Southern Media & Opinion Research, found 63 percent opposed the tax plan.

The poll of 600 likely Louisiana voters was taken March 18-20 and has a 4 percentage-point margin of error.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, normally an ally of the Republican governor, has opposed the tax plan. Republican House Speaker Chuck Kleckley has warned that the changes might increase the tax burden on businesses.

Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joel Robideaux, author of bills that make up the governor's package, said he will not schedule votes until an independent analysis of the plan is completed.

But Jindal may yet get his way. Louisiana governors historically have done well in bending the Legislature to their wills.

"If the governor is pushing something," Robideaux said in the capital of Baton Rouge recently, "it's never dead on arrival."

(Reporting by Stephanie Grace; Editing by Greg McCune and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/louisiana-governor-jindals-popularity-slumps-bold-tax-plan-120445133.html

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iTunes is out of date and out of touch ? so what's next?

Wilson Rothman , NBC News ? ? ? 6 hrs.

I was at a Starbucks last weekend, and I grabbed one of those "Pick of the Week" cards, one for Jeremy Piven's new show. I felt a momentary flutter of excitement ? sweet, free TV episode! In HD! But then I realized that I would have to download some huge file, and even then, I could only watch the show on the device I downloaded it to.

The concept suddenly seemed awkward ... antiquated, even.

And if I liked what I saw? I could pay Apple $2.99 per episode for the privilege of downloading more huge files. As a paying subscriber of Netflix and Amazon Prime ? not to mention cable TV ? my final reaction was, "No thanks."

(If you want my free download, the code is YY3FTKPH3W4F ? it'll only work once, so first come, first served. If you missed that chance, you can also watch the first episode on your iPhone or iPad for free ... on the PBS app.)

The iTunes situation only gets worse with music. In a world where Pandora streaming radio is free and Spotify's $9.99-per-month anywhere music-on-demand service is a crazy good deal, why would anybody buy an album?

Take it from a music and movie lover who has probably spent far more money than you on iTunes: It's over! There are few reasons to pay for specific music and video files ? and still fewer reasons to download them to your hard drive and sit on them like some gigabyte-greedy dragon.

Apple will be able to milk online music sales for a while, but Netflix, Amazon and other streaming video services are already taking customers away from iTunes and its rent-or-buy download model. If Apple doesn't announce a plan at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, it risks getting shoved aside in the digital media realm like it's being shoved aside in the smartphone business.

There is hope for Apple fans: CNet is reporting that the company is "close to striking a streaming deal with two of the major music labels" for a service that resembles Pandora. It might have extra features, like the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song, or buy the track you are listening to. This won't bring back those who have already gone to Spotify, but it's a step in the direction Apple needs to go, music-wise.

As for video, what Apple should do is revisit its abandoned streaming TV approach, and allow people who purchased movies to stream them from any registered iDevice. (At the moment, if I want to watch "The Return of the King" ? which I "own" on iTunes ? I have to commit to a 4.1GB download. Ugh.)

I say this is what Apple should do. What Apple probably will do (which is fine with me but not as great for Apple) is open Apple TV to more apps like Spotify and Amazon Video on Demand. They're already available on iPad, iPhone and, of course, Macs, so it only makes sense. If Apple doesn't mind me spending money on other services, provided I use them on Apple hardware, I'm OK with that. But sooner or later, all of those services will work equally well on an HTC phone or a Samsung tablet, and then what?

Don't give away your store, Apple. It's time to evolve.

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a6d8421/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Citunes0Eout0Edate0Eout0Etouch0Eso0Ewhats0Enext0E1B9232131/story01.htm

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Engineering algae to make the 'wonder material' nanocellulose for biofuels and more

Apr. 7, 2013 ? Genes from the family of bacteria that produce vinegar, Kombucha tea and nata de coco have become stars in a project -- which scientists today said has reached an advanced stage -- that would turn algae into solar-powered factories for producing the "wonder material" nanocellulose. Their report on advances in getting those genes to produce fully functional nanocellulose was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, being held here this week.

"If we can complete the final steps, we will have accomplished one of the most important potential agricultural transformations ever," said R. Malcolm Brown, Jr., Ph.D. "We will have plants that produce nanocellulose abundantly and inexpensively. It can become the raw material for sustainable production of biofuels and many other products. While producing nanocellulose, the algae will absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming."

Brown, who has pioneered research in the field for more than 40 years, spoke at the First International Symposium on Nanocellulose, part of the ACS meeting. Abstracts of the presentations appear below.

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth, a material, like plastics, consisting of molecules linked together into long chains. Cellulose makes up tree trunks and branches, corn stalks and cotton fibers, and it is the main component of paper and cardboard. People eat cellulose in "dietary fiber," the indigestible material in fruits and vegetables. Cows, horses and termites can digest the cellulose in grass, hay and wood.

Most cellulose consists of wood fibers and cell wall remains. Very few living organisms can actually synthesize and secrete cellulose in its native nanostructure form of microfibrils. At this level, nanometer-scale fibrils are very hydrophilic and look like jelly. A nanometer is one-millionth the thickness of a U.S. dime. Nevertheless, cellulose shares the unique properties of other nanometer-sized materials -- properties much different from large quantities of the same material. Nanocellulose-based materials can be stronger than steel and stiffer than Kevlar. Great strength, light weight and other advantages has fostered interest in using it in everything from lightweight armor and ballistic glass to wound dressings and scaffolds for growing replacement organs for transplantation.

In the 1800s, French scientist Louis Pasteur first discovered that vinegar-making bacteria make "a sort of moist skin, swollen, gelatinous and slippery" -- a "skin" now known as bacterial nanocellulose. Nanocellulose made by bacteria has advantages, including ease of production and high purity that fostered the kind of scientific excitement reflected in the first international symposium on the topic, Brown pointed out.

Brown recalled that in 2001, a discovery by David Nobles, Ph.D., a member of the research team at the University of Texas at Austin, refocused their research on nanocellulose, but with a different microbe. Nobles established that several kinds of blue-green algae, which are mainly photosynthetic bacteria much like the vinegar-making bacteria in basic structure; however, these blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, as they are called, can produce nanocellulose. One of the largest problems with cyanobacterial nanocellulose is that it is not made in abundant amounts in nature. If it could be scaled up, Brown describes this as "one of the most important discoveries in plant biology."

Since the 1970s, Brown and colleagues began focusing on Acetobacter xylinum (A. xylinum), a bacterium that secretes nanocellulose directly into the culture medium, and using it as an ideal model for future research. Other members of the Acetobacter family find commercial uses in producing vinegar and other products. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brown's team sequenced the first nanocellulose genes from A. xylinum. They also pinpointed the genes involved in polymerizing nanocellulose (linking its molecules together into long chains) and in crystallizing (giving nanocellulose the final touches needed for it to remain stable and functional).

But Brown also recognized drawbacks in using A. xylinum or other bacteria engineered with those genes to make commercial amounts of nanocellulose. Bacteria, for instance, would need a high-purity broth of food and other nutrients to grow in the huge industrial fermentation tanks that make everything from vinegar and yogurt to insulin and other medicines.

Those drawbacks shifted their focus on engineering the A. xylinum nanocellulose genes into Nobles' blue-green algae. Brown explained that algae have multiple advantages for producing nanocellulose. Cyanobacteria, for instance, make their own nutrients from sunlight and water, and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while doing so. Cyanobacteria also have the potential to release nanocellulose into their surroundings, much like A. xylinum, making it easier to harvest.

In his report at the ACS meeting, Brown described how his team already has genetically engineered the cyanobacteria to produce one form of nanocellulose, the long-chain, or polymer, form of the material. And they are moving ahead with the next step, engineering the cyanobacteria to synthesize a more complete form of nanocellulose, one that is a polymer with a crystalline architecture. He also said that operations are being scaled up, with research moving from laboratory-sized tests to larger outdoor facilities.

Brown expressly pointed out that one of the major barriers to commercializing nanocellulose fuels involves national policy and politics, rather than science. Biofuels, he said, will face a difficult time for decades into the future in competing with the less-expensive natural gas now available with hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." In the long run, the United States will need sustainable biofuels, he said, citing the importance of national energy policies that foster parallel development and commercialization of biofuels.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society (ACS), via Newswise.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/NDXna8iki1s/130407132938.htm

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Canon EOS M

As the last major camera manufacturer to take a stab at designing a compact interchangeable lens camera, Canon had plenty of time to see what others had done right and wrong and to avoid pitfalls in design. Unfortunately, the EOS M ($799.99 direct with 22mm lens) suffers from some of the same performance issues that plagued the first generation of mirrorless cameras. Despite delivering excellent images, autofocus is slow, there's no built-in flash, and you get a very limited lens selection. It's priced like our current Editors' Choice, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5, but doesn't deliver nearly the performance.

Design and Features
The EOS M is available in two kits. The standard kit (reviewed here) ships with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens, which is the equivalent of a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera. The second kit, priced at $849.99, ships with the EF-M 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS STM, which delivers the same 29-88mm field of view captured by standard Canon D-SLR kit zooms.

The EOS M's body is impressively small when you consider that it packs the same 18-megapixel image sensor as the Canon EOS Rebel T4i. It measures just 2.6 by 4.3 by 1.3 inches (HWD), but is a bit heavy for its size at 10.5 ounces. If you pair it with the 22mm prime lens you can slide the camera into your pocket, but you won't be able to do that if you opt for the zoom. The Sony Alpha NEX-6 is a bit bigger at 2.75 by 4.75 by 1.7 inches, but it ships with a collapsible power zoom lens that doesn't add any more depth to the camera than Canon's 22mm prime. Panasonic has a similar collapsible lens, the Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH., for Micro Four Thirds cameras.

Despite delivering images that are on par with SLRs for quality, and being part of the EOS family, the M is more like a PowerShot point-and-shoot in terms of physical control. The traditional mode dial has been replaced with a toggle switch surrounding the shutter release. It only has three settings?Scene Intelligent Auto, Still Photo, and Movie. The first setting puts all of the control into the hands of the EOS M, while the second gives you access to traditional Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, and Scene modes. These must be selected via the touch-screen interface. Even though there's a dedicated Record button on the rear, you'll need to be in Movie mode to record video.

Rear controls are sparse. There's a control wheel with integrated four-way control and a center button. From here you'll be able to set Auto Exposure Lock, adjust the Drive Mode, change Exposure Compensation, and delete a photo. The center button activates the Q menu, which you'll have to use to adjust any other settings via the touch screen. This menu was first seen on the Canon T4i, and works well here. It gives you touch access to change the autofocus settings, file capture format, white balance, JPG output settings, and the metering mode.

The 1,040k-dot 3-inch rear display is very sharp. The touch input is also quite good; you can swipe to scroll through photos during playback, and pinch to zoom in on a shot during review. You can also tap an area of the screen to move the flexible autofocus square, and if you enable it, a tap on the screen can focus and fire the camera's shutter.

There's no built-in EVF like on the Sony NEX-6 or Panasonic G5; nor is there a way to add one. Many other compact interchangeable lens cameras, including the small Olympus PEN Mini E-PM2 feature an expansion port that can accommodate an add-on EVF. The EOS M does have a standard hot shoe, which is a good thing, as the camera doesn?t have a flash. If you want to add one, the most size-appropriate option from Canon is the compact Speedlite 90EX. It's good for its size, but adds $150 to the cost of the camera. I got the best results with it in Scene Intelligent Auto mode. Photos shot in this mode were well balanced and didn't have the overblown look that you can get from similar small flashes, even when shooting at close range. Shooting in Program and Aperture Priority mode produced images with a harsh look, and ones that were completely blown out white when firing close to the subject. None of the Olympus PEN cameras include a built-in flash, but they all ship with a unit that slides into the accessory port.

Only two lenses are available now, but Canon does market an adapter that allows you to use its EF-S and EF D-SLR lenses. The Mount Adapter EF-EOS M delivers full aperture and focus control when you use it to marry Canon SLR lenses to the EOS M's small body. If you're using adapted lenses that don't have an STM motor you'll end up with slow, choppy focusing. I tested the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens using the adapter and it took about 1.9 seconds to focus and fire a shot. Video focus performance was choppy and noisy. The same lens only required 0.2-second to focus and fire when paired with the Canon EOS 6D.

There are also third party adapters on the market that allow you to use practically any vintage SLR or rangefinder lens with the camera?you'll just have to adjust aperture and focus manually. If you are a Canon SLR shooter and the idea of using your current lenses on a smaller body is appealing, you do have another option. Lens adapter manufacturer Metabones offers up a similar adapter that lets you use EF and EF-S lenses on Sony NEX cameras, but at $400, it's twice the price of the native Canon adapter and it doesn't support autofocus for every available lens.

(Next page: Performance and Conclusions)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/97xc9NxbdrM/0,2817,2416802,00.asp

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On The Film's 27th Anniversary, Real Estate of The Money Pit - Curbed

The 1986 Tom Hanks vehicle The Money Pit might not have won over critics, but its tale of exaggerated renovation woes resonates with anyone who has ever fallen victim to a property lemon. The seemingly cursed home's interiors were shot on an elaborate set (above), but the rest of the film?which was released 27 years ago today?takes place in or around some spectacular architecture, from The Northway, the Gilded Age Long Island estate that provided the mansion exteriors, to Miami's Villa Vizcaya, standing in for a Brazilian money pit at the movie's conclusion. See all the real life high-class real estate from this 80's classic, below.