At its Android and Chrome event in San Francisco today, Google announced that it is bringing textbooks to the Google Play store so students will be able to purchase and rent their textbooks for their Android devices and for reading on the web. The company has partnered with five major textbook publishers to launch this service. These partners are Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Google says it will have a “comprehensive selection” of textbooks from these publishers in the store that will cover subjects like law, math and accounting, but it did not announce any exact numbers. The service will launch in August. While Google focused on the fact that students can rent their textbooks on Google Play, though, it did not announce any prices yet. The only thing Google would say is that it expect books to rent and sell for an 80 percent discount compared to regular retail prices (which tend to be very high). One thing that’s also not clear is how publishers will author books for this service and how much interactivity there will be. What we do know is that the Android app for Play Textbooks will feature a night-reading mode and will allow you to create and sync bookmarks and highlighted passages between devices.
If you haven?t heard of remote computer services, you may be surprised and delighted to know that thanks to the continued developments and advances in computers and their technologies, you can now take advantage of computer repairs that work from remote locations.
I can confirm that reseating your video card and your RAM (removing it completely and then placing it back in, with an eye out for cleaning up dust, etc. before you do so) solves the majority of ?beeping and failing to boot? problems I have run accross as a computer service specialist. Most often in these cases, the problem can be attributed to the computer being physically moved from one location to another. Video cards in particular are easy to ?unseat? when removing or connecting the video cable.
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When you are searching for the very best computer repairs Hobart has to offer, it will be incredibly important to make certain that you do everything in your power to get the services you need without paying too much money in the process. There are going to be quite a few different local companies in this area which will be able to help you out, but you will not want to choose just any of them. In the end you will be glad that you did all of this research to get exactly what you are looking for.
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[Flickr:Image:Large]
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They?re calling it the London Anniversary Games. This week?s Diamond League meet bears extra significance, the first world-class track and field competition held at London?s Olympic Stadium since the flame was extinguished last summer.
Several track and field stars are either injured or pretty much done for the season after failing to qualify for the world championships (Aug. 10-18, Moscow). Most of those still standing will compete in London on Friday or Saturday, including?Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix,?Mo Farah?and?Jessica Ennis.
Here?s a chronological rundown of key events to watch (coverage begins on Universal Sports on Friday, 3 p.m. ET):
Women?s 1,500 meters (Friday, 3:36 p.m. ET)
Mary Cain?is the headliner here. Cain, 17, the sensation of the indoor season, makes her senior European debut in the event in which she qualified for worlds.
Cain made the U.S. team by finishing second in a tactical final at nationals in Des Moines, Iowa, in June to training partner?Treniere Moser, who is running the 3,000 on Friday.
She has a great chance of winning this race given the highest-ranked woman (according to IAAF) in the field this year is No. 16?Mary Kuria?of Kenya (4:03.56). Cain is No. 24 at 4:04.62.
Also in the field is American?Morgan Uceny, who was the world No. 1 in 2011 but finished eighth at nationals.
Men?s 100 meters (Friday, 4:48 p.m. ET)
A lot has changed since Bolt last ran a 100, winning the Jamaican nationals on June 21 to qualify for worlds.
Now out of the picture are Olympic silver medalist?Yohan Blake?(injury), American record holder?Tyson Gay?(drug test) and former world record holder?Asafa Powell (drug test).
The consensus is only one man is left to challenge Bolt in Moscow, if anybody, and that?s 2004 Olympic champion?Justin Gatlin, who is not in this field in London.
However, there are two men in Friday?s 100 who have run faster than Bolt this year ? countryman?Nesta Carter and British upstart?James Dasaolu.
Carter, a longtime partner on Jamaica?s 4?100 relay squad, is suddenly the active 2013 world leader with a 9.87, but he didn?t make the Jamaican team for the 100 at worlds. Dasaolu became the second fastest Brit ever (behind 1992 Olympic champion?Linford Christie) when he ran a 9.91 at British nationals earlier this month.
Still, it would be surprising to see Bolt lose here, two weeks before the world championships. He may even have his eyes on Gay?s fastest time this year of 9.75, a time we may see expunged pending his drug-testing case.
American fans must get up bright and early to catch a glimpse of the biggest female track and field star of the 2012 Olympics ? heptathlon champion?Jessica Ennis.
Ennis has been battling an Achilles injury since the spring, putting major doubt into her status for not only this meet but also the world championships.
She appears ready to go after setting a personal best in the javelin at a low-key meet earlier this week. Ennis is also in the long jump field Saturday.
Another Olympic champion on the way back from injury is the London gold medalist in this event, Australian?Sally Pearson. Pearson, like Ennis, has been set back since the spring. Her ailment has been a hamstring.
Dominant in 2011 and 2012, Pearson has been slow in a handful of meets over the last two months. Her season?s best ? 12.67 ? is well off her personal best (12.28) set at 2011 worlds and even farther behind the world leader for 2013, U.S. champion?Brianna Rollins?(12.26). Rollins pulled out of Monaco last week because she her managers didn?t want her to face Pearson before worlds, according to Australian reports.
Rollins is not in the field Saturday, but the third- and fourth-place finishers from U.S. nationals are ? Nia Ali?and?Kellie Wells. They, along with Brit?Tiffany Porter, will give Pearson more than enough competition.
Men?s 110-meter hurdles (Saturday, 11:07 a.m. ET)
This event has been one of the most exciting and star-studded of all of track and field for the last few years. We?ve seen?the balance of power shift from China to Cuba to three different American men.
Saturday?s showdown will be overwhelmingly red, white and blue. In the field are 2013 U.S. champion?Ryan Wilson, former American record holder?David Oliver, 2011 world champion?Jason Richardson?and 2012 Olympic champion?Aries Merritt.?
All four men are going to worlds, so this should be a nice Moscow preview.?2008 Olympic champion?Dayron Robles?was originally in this event, but as of Thursday afternoon was no longer on the entry list.
The top non-American here is another Cuban,?Orlando Ortega, who ran a 13.08 in Eugene, Ore., in June. Only Oliver has run faster this year.
Women?s 100 meters (Saturday, 11:20 a.m. ET)
This sprint isn?t getting the pre-meet talk because it doesn?t include Bolt or a British star, but it just may be the best field of the competition. All the major players going into worlds are here.
From the U.S., there?s national and NCAA champion?English Gardner?and 2011 world champion?Carmelita Jeter. They could both use impressive times here, given Gardner ran an 11.32 in her European pro debut earlier this month (after winning nationals in 10.85). Jeter hasn?t gone sub-11 since her quadriceps injury in Shanghai in May, which caused her to skip nationals in June.
The favorites lead with two-time reigning Olympic champion?Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce?of Jamaica, who won in Paris on July 6 in 10.92 (into a slight headwind). There?s also world leader?Kelly-Ann?Baptiste?of Trinidad and Tobago. Baptiste has run a 10.83 this year but no other times sub-11. If Fraser-Pryce beats Baptiste here, there?s no doubt who the favorite is going into Moscow.
Notables:?Felix takes on a field including Americans?Shalonda Solomon, LaShauntea Moore?and?DeeDee Trotter?in the women?s 200 (Saturday, 10:27 a.m. ET). ? Farah, fresh off breaking the British 1,500 record last week, could very well break the nation?s 31-year-old record in the 3,000 meters (Saturday, 11:32 a.m. ET).
Contact: Lee Tune ltune@umd.edu 301-439-1438 University of Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Unlike humans, galaxies don't have an obesity problem. In fact there are far fewer galaxies at the most massive end of the galactic scale than expected and scientists have long sought to explain why. A new, UMD-led study published in the journal Nature suggests that one answer lies in a kind of feast and fast sequence through which large galaxies can keep their mass down.
Galaxies become more massive by 'consuming' vast clouds of gas and turning them into new stars. The new study shows in unprecedented detail how a burst of star formation in a galaxy can blow most of the remaining star-building gas out to the edge of the galaxy, resulting in a long period of starvation during which few new stars are produced.
"For the first time, we can clearly see massive concentrations of cold molecular gas being jettisoned by expanding shells of intense pressure created by young stars," says lead author Alberto Bolatto of the University of Maryland. "The amount of gas we measure gives us very convincing evidence that some growing galaxies blow out more gas than they take in, slowing star formation down to a crawl."
The team of astronomers used the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a giant radio telescope in the high desert of northern Chile, to discover billowing columns of cold, dense gas being pushed out of starburst galaxy NGC 253, also known as the Silver Dollar or Sculptor Galaxy. In starburst galaxies, stars form about 100 times faster than in more normal galaxies like our Milky Way.
NGC 253 with its slightly askew orientation offers astronomers an excellent view of the star formation clusters near the galaxy's center, clusters that turn out to be the point of departure for material being pushed from the galaxy.
"ALMA is opening a new window for observations of galactic winds," says Sylvain Veilleux, also at the University of Maryland and a coauthor on the paper. "Winds have the potential to be incredibly disruptive and carry away a significant fraction of the star-forming material of a galaxy."
The team says their results may help explain the universe's surprising paucity of high-mass galaxies. Computer models indicate that old red galaxies, which are far more massive than the Milky Way, should be considerably more common than they are. In their youth, these galaxies likely ejected a large fraction of their gas that would have otherwise formed stars.
Gas can be removed from a galaxy in two ways. One is through the action of a central, supermassive black hole, called an active galactic nucleus. Material is pulled into the black hole, becomes superheated and produces powerful jets or wide-angle winds that can propel material far from the galactic disk. However, evidence suggests that the black hole at the center of NGC 253 is not currently active.
The other way to potentially blow gas out of a galaxy is through galactic winds generated by star formation, but previously this had not been observed with enough resolution or sensitivity to measure the outflow of gas or its reductive impact on subsequent star formation.
As new stars form they exert powerful destructive influences on their environment. Initially, their light and winds of particles push on the surrounding gas. Later, if they are massive enough, stars explode as supernovas, a process that further drives the surrounding material away from the stellar birthplace. The current study indicates that in NGC 253, the concentration of hundreds or thousands of such destructive stars in one region is responsible for launching powerful flows of gas out of the galaxy.
Previous X-ray spectrum observations of NGC 253 have shown gas made of hot ionized hydrogen atoms streaming away from its star-forming regions. However, alone this insubstantial gas would have little if any impact on the fate of the galaxy and its ability to form future generations of stars. The new ALMA data show the far-more-dense molecular gas getting its initial "kick" from the formation of new stars and then being swept along with the thin, hot gas on its way to the galactic halo.
Using only a portion of its eventual full complement of 66 antennas, ALMA measured the mass and motion of carbon monoxide (CO) in the gas ejected from the central regions of this galaxy. The researchers determined that vast quantities of molecular gas likely 9 times the mass of our Sun and possibly much more were being ejected from the galaxy each year. At this rate, the galaxy could run out of gas and star formation slow to a crawl as in as few as 60 million years.
The researchers also determined that the gas is traveling somewhere between 25 to 155 miles (40 to 250 kilometers) per second, streaming approximately 1,500 light-years above and below the disk. This may not be fast enough for the gas to reach escape velocity from the galaxy. If not, the gas will likely get suspended in the galactic halo for many millions of years.
"More studies with the full ALMA array will help us figure out the ultimate fate of the gas carried away by the wind," said Adam Leroy with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "This will help us understand whether these starburst-driven winds recycle or truly remove star forming material."
Bolatto agrees, but says: "Probably in a galaxy like this, the gas is pulled back into the heart of the galaxy, perhaps after several hundred million years. Star formation then takes off again and the whole process repeats itself."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided core funding for this research through multiple grants to the university-based U.S. scientists as well as through NSF support of NRAO and ALMA construction and operations.
"Understanding how galaxies can evolve so radically and so dramatically is one of the hottest topics in astronomy today," said Dan Evans, NSF program officer. "This work will have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. The result also is a true testament to the partnerships forged over many years between the University of Maryland research team, NSF and its international partners in the ALMA Project.
###
Media Contacts:
Lee Tune
Associate Director, University Communications
University of Maryland
301-405-4679 office, 240-328-4914 cell
ltune@umd.edu
Charles Blue
Public Information Officer
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
434-296-0314 office, 434.242.9559 or 202-236-6324 cell phones
cblue@nrao.edu
Alberto D. Bolatto
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Lab for Millimeter-wave Astronomy
University of Maryland
(currently in Heildelberg, Germany)
49-6221-528493 office in Germany, 301-405-1521 UMD office
bolatto@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~bolatto
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Contact: Lee Tune ltune@umd.edu 301-439-1438 University of Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Unlike humans, galaxies don't have an obesity problem. In fact there are far fewer galaxies at the most massive end of the galactic scale than expected and scientists have long sought to explain why. A new, UMD-led study published in the journal Nature suggests that one answer lies in a kind of feast and fast sequence through which large galaxies can keep their mass down.
Galaxies become more massive by 'consuming' vast clouds of gas and turning them into new stars. The new study shows in unprecedented detail how a burst of star formation in a galaxy can blow most of the remaining star-building gas out to the edge of the galaxy, resulting in a long period of starvation during which few new stars are produced.
"For the first time, we can clearly see massive concentrations of cold molecular gas being jettisoned by expanding shells of intense pressure created by young stars," says lead author Alberto Bolatto of the University of Maryland. "The amount of gas we measure gives us very convincing evidence that some growing galaxies blow out more gas than they take in, slowing star formation down to a crawl."
The team of astronomers used the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a giant radio telescope in the high desert of northern Chile, to discover billowing columns of cold, dense gas being pushed out of starburst galaxy NGC 253, also known as the Silver Dollar or Sculptor Galaxy. In starburst galaxies, stars form about 100 times faster than in more normal galaxies like our Milky Way.
NGC 253 with its slightly askew orientation offers astronomers an excellent view of the star formation clusters near the galaxy's center, clusters that turn out to be the point of departure for material being pushed from the galaxy.
"ALMA is opening a new window for observations of galactic winds," says Sylvain Veilleux, also at the University of Maryland and a coauthor on the paper. "Winds have the potential to be incredibly disruptive and carry away a significant fraction of the star-forming material of a galaxy."
The team says their results may help explain the universe's surprising paucity of high-mass galaxies. Computer models indicate that old red galaxies, which are far more massive than the Milky Way, should be considerably more common than they are. In their youth, these galaxies likely ejected a large fraction of their gas that would have otherwise formed stars.
Gas can be removed from a galaxy in two ways. One is through the action of a central, supermassive black hole, called an active galactic nucleus. Material is pulled into the black hole, becomes superheated and produces powerful jets or wide-angle winds that can propel material far from the galactic disk. However, evidence suggests that the black hole at the center of NGC 253 is not currently active.
The other way to potentially blow gas out of a galaxy is through galactic winds generated by star formation, but previously this had not been observed with enough resolution or sensitivity to measure the outflow of gas or its reductive impact on subsequent star formation.
As new stars form they exert powerful destructive influences on their environment. Initially, their light and winds of particles push on the surrounding gas. Later, if they are massive enough, stars explode as supernovas, a process that further drives the surrounding material away from the stellar birthplace. The current study indicates that in NGC 253, the concentration of hundreds or thousands of such destructive stars in one region is responsible for launching powerful flows of gas out of the galaxy.
Previous X-ray spectrum observations of NGC 253 have shown gas made of hot ionized hydrogen atoms streaming away from its star-forming regions. However, alone this insubstantial gas would have little if any impact on the fate of the galaxy and its ability to form future generations of stars. The new ALMA data show the far-more-dense molecular gas getting its initial "kick" from the formation of new stars and then being swept along with the thin, hot gas on its way to the galactic halo.
Using only a portion of its eventual full complement of 66 antennas, ALMA measured the mass and motion of carbon monoxide (CO) in the gas ejected from the central regions of this galaxy. The researchers determined that vast quantities of molecular gas likely 9 times the mass of our Sun and possibly much more were being ejected from the galaxy each year. At this rate, the galaxy could run out of gas and star formation slow to a crawl as in as few as 60 million years.
The researchers also determined that the gas is traveling somewhere between 25 to 155 miles (40 to 250 kilometers) per second, streaming approximately 1,500 light-years above and below the disk. This may not be fast enough for the gas to reach escape velocity from the galaxy. If not, the gas will likely get suspended in the galactic halo for many millions of years.
"More studies with the full ALMA array will help us figure out the ultimate fate of the gas carried away by the wind," said Adam Leroy with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "This will help us understand whether these starburst-driven winds recycle or truly remove star forming material."
Bolatto agrees, but says: "Probably in a galaxy like this, the gas is pulled back into the heart of the galaxy, perhaps after several hundred million years. Star formation then takes off again and the whole process repeats itself."
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided core funding for this research through multiple grants to the university-based U.S. scientists as well as through NSF support of NRAO and ALMA construction and operations.
"Understanding how galaxies can evolve so radically and so dramatically is one of the hottest topics in astronomy today," said Dan Evans, NSF program officer. "This work will have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the evolution of the cosmos. The result also is a true testament to the partnerships forged over many years between the University of Maryland research team, NSF and its international partners in the ALMA Project.
###
Media Contacts:
Lee Tune
Associate Director, University Communications
University of Maryland
301-405-4679 office, 240-328-4914 cell
ltune@umd.edu
Charles Blue
Public Information Officer
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
434-296-0314 office, 434.242.9559 or 202-236-6324 cell phones
cblue@nrao.edu
Alberto D. Bolatto
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Lab for Millimeter-wave Astronomy
University of Maryland
(currently in Heildelberg, Germany)
49-6221-528493 office in Germany, 301-405-1521 UMD office
bolatto@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~bolatto
[ | 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.
Every week, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz.
Pity Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The poor man can't even go to Iowa for a little praying, a little fundraising and a little defending of traditional marriage without stirring up an overheated pot of speculation about whether he plans to run for president in 2016.
Like there aren't just tons of good reasons for anyone to travel to Iowa in July. All the fashionable folk go there. It's like the St. Tropez of the Midwest, only with more corn and pigs and fewer Frenchmen, which any right-thinking American should see as a plus.
So there's Ted, up in paradise, probably just to sample the fine cuisine (mmm -- loose-meat sandwiches). He stops by to get a laying on of hands from a bunch of ministers -- common activity for Iowa visitors, as everyone knows -- and to say a prayer for marriage, which is in all the tourism brochures. "There's no issue where we need to be more on our knees," he says, which viewed in a certain light (dimmed) is actually a pretty good way to preserve marriages.
Anyhow, it's all innocent, good-time Iowa fun, and BAM! The liberal media again start questioning whether he is even eligible to run for president because he was born in Canada, the same question they raised last spring.
Damn media. Listen, his American-born mother and Cuban-immigrant father happened to be working in Calgary when Cruz was born, but his mother's citizenship makes him as American as apple pie, or its Canadian equivalent. (Apple poutine?) Besides, we're talking about Canada here, which isn't a real foreign country like Kenya or Hawaii or something. Hell, if someone farts on a street corner in Calgary on a winter day, you can smell it in Amarillo two days later if a blue norther's howling in. Of course, the air's pretty ripe most days in Amarillo, but you get the point: Even if Cruz were Canadian, which he's not, Canadians should be counted as honorary Americans. Except Celine Dion, who should be hauled out of Vegas in leg irons, sent home and put on a terrorism watch list for "My Heart Will Go On."
Listen: The important thing is, Ted is American enough to run for president. And just because his father reportedly got his U.S. citizenship long after Ted was born, let's not have any vicious "anchor baby" talk. At least not yet.
Can we just have some civility back in our political discourse? That's all Buzz is asking, and if anyone is a shining example of the need for more civility, it's Ted Cruz. We -- we're talking to you, liberal media -- don't want to start pounding on Cruz before he's even really running. It's like coaxing a squirrel to eat from your hand. Any sudden movements now might scare him off, and that could cost us many, many months of entertainment.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Three years after campaigning on a vow to "repeal and replace" President Barack Obama's health care law, House Republicans have yet to advance an alternative for the system they have voted more than three dozen times to abolish in whole or in part.
Officially, the effort is "in progress" ? and has been since Jan. 19, 2011, according to GOP.gov, a leadership-run website.
But internal divisions, disagreement about political tactics and Obama's 2012 re-election add up to uncertainty over whether Republicans will vote on a plan of their own before the 2014 elections, or if not by then, perhaps before the president leaves office, more than six years after the original promise.
Sixteen months before those elections, some Republicans cite no need to offer an alternative. "I don't think it's a matter of what we put on the floor right now," said Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, who heads the party's campaign committee. He added that what is important is "trying to delay Obamacare."
Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who leads a committee with jurisdiction over health care, said, "If we are successful in ultimately repealing this legislation, then yes, we will have a replacement bill ready to come back with."
Divisions were evident earlier this year, when legislation to make it easier for high-risk individuals to purchase coverage died without a vote. It was sidetracked after conservatives, many of them elected with tea party support, objected to any attempt to improve the current law rather than scuttle it.
With the rank and file growing more conservative, some Republicans acknowledge that without changes, they likely couldn't pass the alternative measure they backed when Democrats won approval for Obama's bill in 2010. Among other provisions, it encouraged employers to sign up their workers for health insurance automatically, so that employees would have to "opt out" of coverage if they didn't want it, and provided federal money for state-run high-risk pools for individuals and for reinsurance in the small group market.
The current state of intentions contrasts sharply with the Pledge to America, the manifesto that Republicans campaigned on in 2010 when they took power away from the Democrats. That included a plan to "repeal and replace" what it termed a government takeover of health care.
It promised "common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs," including steps to overhaul medical malpractice laws and permit the sale of insurance across state lines. Republicans said they would "empower small businesses with greater purchasing power and create new incentives to save for future health care needs." They promised to "protect the doctor-patient relationship, and ensure that those with pre-existing conditions gain access to the coverage they need."
But Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said, "We never did see a repeal and replace bill last time," referring to the 2011-2012 two-year term that followed the Republican landslide. "I hope we can this time, and I'll keep fighting for it."
Broun, running for the Senate from Georgia in 2014 as a conservatives' conservative, has drafted legislation of his own that relies on a series of tax breaks and regulatory changes such as permitting insurance companies to sell coverage across state lines to expand access to health care.
Other Republicans are at work on different bills, in the House Energy and Commerce Committee headed by Upton, and elsewhere.
Rep. Steven Scalise of Louisiana, who leads the conservative Republican Study Conference, said the organization is working on legislation to reduce health care costs "without the mandates and the taxes" in the current law.
Like others involved with the issue, he provided no timetable and few specifics.
At the same time, the other half of the 2010 pledge to "repeal and replace" is getting a workout.
The House voted last week to delay two requirements, the 38th and 39th time they have gone on record in favor of repealing, reducing or otherwise neutering the system that bears Obama's name.
In the case of one of the rules, a requirement for businesses to provide insurance to their workers, the administration announced a one-year delay earlier this month.
Democrats and even some Republicans say the intense focus on repealing the health law is wide of the mark.
"Every voter knows what Republicans are against. They don't know what they're for" on health care, said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who heads House Democrats' campaign committee. He said the strategy would haunt Republicans next year among moderate and independent voters who want changes, not outright repeal.
The fate of legislation to put more funds into high-risk pools demonstrated a belief among some Republicans that they should advance alternatives. Polling presentations make the same point but are not uniformly persuasive among the rank and file, according to officials, and lawmakers' speeches sometimes make it sound as if the health law is disintegrating on its own.
Yet one prominent conservative, Ramesh Ponnuru, warned recently that it was a "perverse complacency" to do nothing while assuming the health law will implode.
"We can be sure that the Left would respond to any such collapse by making the case for a 'single payer' program in which the federal government directly provides everyone insurance," he wrote on May 30 in National Review Online.
Ponnuru added that in some Republican circles, "the idea that an alternative is necessary is seen as a mark of wimpiness, a weakness for big-government programs that are just slightly" weaker than what Democrats possess.
At its Android and Chrome event in San Francisco today, Google announced that it is bringing textbooks to the Google Play store so students will be able to purchase and rent their textbooks for their Android devices and for reading on the web. The company has partnered with five major textbook publishers to launch this service. These partners are Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Google says it will have a “comprehensive selection” of textbooks from these publishers in the store that will cover subjects like law, math and accounting, but it did not announce any exact numbers. The service will launch in August. While Google focused on the fact that students can rent their textbooks on Google Play, though, it did not announce any prices yet. The only thing Google would say is that it expect books to rent and sell for an 80 percent discount compared to regular retail prices (which tend to be very high). One thing that’s also not clear is how publishers will author books for this service and how much interactivity there will be. What we do know is that the Android app for Play Textbooks will feature a night-reading mode and will allow you to create and sync bookmarks and highlighted passages between devices.
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Public release date: 24-Jul-2013
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