Missing teen found alive: Nicholas Joy went missing in the Maine woods when he took a "short cut" on a ski trail. The teen was found alive Tuesday. He used survival skills, that he'd learned on TV, to stay alive.
By Lenn Adams,?Associated Press / March 6, 2013
17-year old Nicholas Joy spent two nights lost in the Maine woods.
Carrabassett Valley, Maine
?A 17-year-old skier who tried to take a backcountry shortcut survived two nights in the wild by building a shelter, drinking from a stream and walking toward the sound of snowmobiles during the day, officials said Tuesday.
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A snowmobiler who was not part of an official search party found Nicholas Joy, of Medford, Mass., at about 9 a.m. Tuesday west of Sugarloaf Mountain, the Maine Warden Service said. Joy was taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.
"I said, 'A lot of people are looking for you,'" snowmobiler Joseph Paul recalled telling the 17-year-old when they met up. "He said, 'I bet. I've been out here for two nights.'"
Paul, a 44-year-old volunteer fire captain from Warwick, Mass., said Joy told him he knew how to stay alive from watching a survival show on TV.
The 17-year-old told his rescuer he drank from a stream and used hemlock branches in a shelter he built. The teenager also said he tried to light a fire by rubbing sticks together, but wasn't successful.
Paul said he gave the skier some peanuts and crackers to eat and called 911 before whisking him about 4 miles down a mountain trail to an ambulance.
"Other than cold, he seemed to be in really good shape," Paul said.
Joy told his rescuer he got lost after cutting through the woods to try to save time after a backcountry ski trail ended. He'd had nothing to eat since he got lost, and it was a rare occasion in which he didn't have his cellphone with him, the skier told his rescuer.
The teenager's parents, Robert and Donna Joy, released a statement through the hospital thanking those who searched for their son and prayed for his recovery.
"There is great relief and happiness that Nicholas has made it through this difficult ordeal," it said.
Late in the afternoon, Donna Joy headed out of the hospital to get her son a cheeseburger and fries that he requested.
"He hasn't eaten for two days, so how would you feel?" she told reporters.
She said her son hadn't suffered any frostbite or other injuries, but would spend the night at the hospital.
The weather conditions Sunday night and Monday night were bad enough that the search had to be suspended, and Joy survived by building a mound of snow that he fashioned into a shelter that he could crawl into, said Lt. Kevin Adam, the search coordinator.
Joy was in "remarkably good shape," and it helped that the winds weren't as strong in the valley where he was found as they were up on the mountain, Adam said.
"He did the right thing in building a snow cave, and obviously he's still alive to talk about it, so he made some good decisions," Adam said.
Joy and his father split up on Sunday after taking a chairlift to the top of the mountain, and they took separate trails down in what was going to be the last run of the day, officials said. They planned to meet in a parking lot, and the father called for help when his son didn't show up.
The warden service, the Sugarloaf ski patrol, the Maine Forest Service, the U.S. Border Patrol, area rescue squads, Carrabassett Valley Academy ski volunteers and others had been searching for Joy on skis, snowshoes and snowmobiles, officials said.
Paul was not part of the official search team, but had seen the story on the news and decided to conduct an impromptu search on a trail known as the Caribou Pond Road. He owns property nearby and was out looking for Joy for about 90 minutes before the skier flagged him down.
"I know that area, so I figured I'd head that way on a snowmobile," Paul said later. "I thought that if I could help out, I would try."
When Paul brought Joy to the ambulance, the boy had a tearful reunion with his parents. David Leaming, a photographer for the Morning Sentinel newspaper, heard Joy say to his father: "I'm OK. I'm just tired."
Sugarloaf ski resort General Manager John Diller said he cried when he heard Joy was found. "It was almost like a miracle," he said.
One or two skiers get lost and are reported missing at Sugarloaf most winters, with skiers sometimes spending a night in the outdoors before being found. In a highly publicized case three years ago, four teenage snowboarders got lost after going out of bounds into ungroomed expert terrain, but they survived a cold night in dense woods and deep snow by continually moving around to stay warm.
__
Associated Press writer Bridget Murphy in Boston contributed to this report.
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? A man convicted of being an enforcer for a Taiwan-based criminal gang will be sentenced Tuesday to life in a Nevada prison without parole for murder, but could get more than 100 additional years on other charges in a bloody stabbing and slashing that left one man dead and two people wounded in a Las Vegas karaoke bar in July 2009.
A state court jury in Las Vegas decided in December that 26-year-old Xiao Ye Bai won't be put to death. The remainder of Bai's sentence for crimes including kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder and extortionate collection of a debt will be up to Clark County District Court Judge Michael Villani.
Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Monday that a state presentencing report recommended maximum sentences.
Bai still faces prosecution in California in a separate shooting several months before the Las Vegas attack that left one person dead and another wounded outside a karaoke bar in the city of San Gabriel.
Bai's lawyer, Robert Draskovich, said Monday he's satisfied the Nevada jury spared Bai's life for stabbing and slashing Wen Jun "James" Li at least 32 times in the Forbes KTV bar and restaurant several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip.
"Our whole case from beginning to end was about keeping him off death row," Draskovich said.
DiGiacomo said Bai was trying to collect a $10,000 gambling debt on behalf of a gang called United Bamboo when his ex-girlfriend, Pei "Nikki" Pei, drove him to the karaoke bar in Las Vegas.
Pei pleaded guilty before trial to reduced felony charges of accessory to murder and testified at trial against Bai. She was sentenced Feb. 7 to two years' probation.
As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry continues his first overseas trip with a stop in Riyadh, his focus was on the two year old civil war in Syria and Iran's nuclear ambitions. NBC's Catherine Chomiak reports.
By Arshad Mohammed and Angus McDowall, Reuters
RIYADH ? Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there was "finite" time for talks between Iran and world powers on its disputed nuclear program to bear fruit, but gave no hint how long Washington may be willing to negotiate.?
Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and convinced Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has grown impatient with the protracted talks and has threatened preemptive war against Tehran if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile.
Kerry's sentiment was largely echoed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who said that the negotiations cannot be endless like the debates of philosophers over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.?
"There is a finite amount of time," Kerry, in the Saudi capital Riyadh on his first overseas trip as the top U.S. diplomat, said of the talks between a group of six world powers and Tehran, Saudi Arabia's main regional adversary.?
Kerry was speaking at a news conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal, who suggested Iran was not showing enough seriousness about the discussions, which he said "cannot go on forever."?
Iran was positive last week after talks with the powers in Kazakhstan about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again. But Western officials said it had yet to do anything concrete to allay their concerns about its nuclear aspirations.?
The United States, China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany offered modest relief from economic sanctions in return for Iran reining in its most sensitive nuclear activity but made clear that no breakthrough was in the offing quickly.?
"We can't be like the philosophers who keep talking about how many angels a pinhead can hold," Prince Saud al-Faisal said. "They (the Iranians) have not proved to anybody the urgency in their negotiation," he said. "They reach common understanding only on issues that require further negotiation. And so this is what (has) worried us."?
Secretary of State John Kerry pledges $250 million in economic aid if Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi agrees to negotiations over economic reforms.
The United States and many of its allies suspect Iran may be using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, a possibility that Israel, which is regarded as the Middle East's only nuclear power, sees as a mortal threat.?
The possibility also deeply disturbs many Arab countries in the Gulf who, some analysts say, could choose to pursue their own nuclear programs if Iran were to acquire an atomic bomb, leading to a destabilizing arms race.?
In Vienna on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog raised pressure on Iran to finally address suspicions that it has sought to design an atomic bomb, calling for swift inspector access to a military base where relevant explosives tests are believed to have been carried out.
Diplomacy 'first choice' Iran says its program is solely for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and making medical isotopes.?
Kerry, in the final stages of a nine-nation, 11-day trip that will also take him to Abu Dhabi and Doha, also had lunch with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the possibility of reviving peace talks with Israel.?
Making his first trip abroad as secretary of state, Kerry also met Saudi Crown Prince Salman but a U.S. official said he would not see Saudi King Abdullah, who turns 90 this year.?
Kerry said a diplomatic solution on Iran is still preferred by the United States and Saudi Arabia.?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voices concern over the progress of Iran's nuclear program while addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
In 2008, Riyadh's ambassador to Washington said King Abdullah had repeatedly urged Washington to "cut off the head of the snake" by striking Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.?
"We both prefer ? and this is important for Iranians to hear and understand??? we both prefer diplomacy as the first choice, the preferred choice," Kerry said. "But the window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot by definition remain open indefinitely."?
Echoing Western concerns about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East in the event that Iran obtained a nuclear bomb, Kerry made a series of arguments for Gulf Arab countries not to pursue a military nuclear capability.?
Riyadh has also announced plans to develop 17 gigawatts of atomic energy by 2032 as it moves to reduce domestic oil consumption, freeing up more crude for export.?
Related:?
Netanyahu says nuclear talks a chance for Iran to 'buy time' to build the bomb
Iran says building 3,000 advanced centrifuges
West wary, Iran upbeat after nuclear talks
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Community-based HIV-prevention efforts can boost testing, help reduce new infectionsPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Enrique Rivero erivero@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2273 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
In Africa and Thailand, communities that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections, according to a new study presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health's Project Accept a trial conducted by the HIV Prevention Trials Network to test a combination of social, behavioral and structural HIV-prevention interventions demonstrated that a series of community efforts was able to boost the number of people tested for HIV and resulted in a 14 percent reduction in new HIV infections, compared with control communities.
"These study results clearly demonstrate that high rates of testing can be achieved by going into communities and that this strategy can result in increased HIV detection, which makes referral to care possible," said Project Accept's overall principal investigator, Thomas J. Coates, who directs UCLA's Center for World Health and is an associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute. "This has major public health benefit implications by not only linking infected individuals to care but also by encouraging testing in entire communities and therefore also reducing further HIV transmission."
The trial was conducted in 34 communities in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and in 14 communities in Thailand. It consisted of mobile HIV testing, post-test support services and real-time feedback.
The aim of the intervention was four-fold: (1) to increase access to voluntary counseling and testing, as well as post-test services; (2) to change community attitudes about HIV awareness and particularly about the benefit of knowing one's HIV status; (3) to remove barriers to knowing one's HIV status; and (4) to increase the safety of testing and minimize the potential negative consequences of testing by providing various forms of support.
Communities were matched into pairs based on sociodemographic, cultural and infrastructure characteristics, with one community randomly assigned to the intervention and one serving as a control for comparison. (The randomization was performed centrally, and the assignment was not blinded, due to the nature of the intervention.)
Among the findings:
Rates of testing were 45 percent higher in intervention communities than control communities, especially among men and young people.
Individuals in intervention communities, particularly those infected with HIV, reported a lower number of sexual partners and fewer multiple partners. This was particularly true among HIV-positive men, who reported 18 percent fewer sexual partners overall and 29 percent fewer concurrent sexual partners than those in control communities.
Diagnoses of HIV infection were higher in intervention communities.
Social acceptance of the importance of testing was higher in intervention communities.
Modest reductions in HIV incidence occurred in the intervention communities, compared with the control communities, particularly among women in the 25-to-32 age range.
Study participants who learned they were infected with HIV were directed to the study's post-test services, which included counseling and referrals to health and social services assistance. Those who tested negative were also directed to post-test services for further counseling, referrals and support to help ensure they remained uninfected. Local health authorities were thoroughly briefed on the study findings and encouraged to continue the implementation efforts.
Individuals need to be made aware of their HIV status through testing in order to receive the necessary care and treatment and learn how to prevent infection, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, principal investigator of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, under whose auspices the trial was conducted.
"These study findings provide clear and compelling evidence that the provision of mobile services, combined with appropriate support activities, is a strategy that can increase testing rates and also reduce HIV incidence," she said.
###
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (grants 5U01MH066687, 5U01MH066688, 5U01MH066701 and 5U01MH066702); the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and the Office of AIDS Research, all components of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, funded this research.
The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that develops and tests the safety and efficacy of interventions designed to prevent the acquisition and transmission of HIV. The HPTN research agenda is focused primarily reducing HIV transmission and acquisition through the use of antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected persons and antiretrovirals as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV-negative persons; reducing the impact of behavioral and biologic co-factors that increase the risk of infection; treating substance abuse (particularly injection-drug use); reducing behavioral risk through interventions; and structural interventions. The highest priority of the HPTN is to develop and implement combination prevention strategies that demonstrate a significant and measurable reduction in HIV incidence in a variety of populations and epidemic settings.
The UCLA Center for World Health is a joint initiative of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Health. The goal of CWH is to make UCLA a recognized global leader in health education, research and service, with a reputation for excellence in improving the health of the world's people. The center is led by Thomas J. Coates, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, and J. Thomas Rosenthal, a professor of urology and chief medical officer for UCLA Health.
The UCLA AIDS Institute, established in 1992, is a multidisciplinary think tank drawing on the skills of top-flight researchers in the worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS, the first cases of which were reported in 1981 by UCLA physicians. Institute members include researchers in virology and immunology, genetics, cancer, neurology, ophthalmology, epidemiology, social sciences, public health, nursing and disease prevention. Their findings have led to advances in treating HIV, as well as other diseases, such as hepatitis B and C, influenza and cancer.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
Community-based HIV-prevention efforts can boost testing, help reduce new infectionsPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Enrique Rivero erivero@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2273 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
In Africa and Thailand, communities that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections, according to a new study presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health's Project Accept a trial conducted by the HIV Prevention Trials Network to test a combination of social, behavioral and structural HIV-prevention interventions demonstrated that a series of community efforts was able to boost the number of people tested for HIV and resulted in a 14 percent reduction in new HIV infections, compared with control communities.
"These study results clearly demonstrate that high rates of testing can be achieved by going into communities and that this strategy can result in increased HIV detection, which makes referral to care possible," said Project Accept's overall principal investigator, Thomas J. Coates, who directs UCLA's Center for World Health and is an associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute. "This has major public health benefit implications by not only linking infected individuals to care but also by encouraging testing in entire communities and therefore also reducing further HIV transmission."
The trial was conducted in 34 communities in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and in 14 communities in Thailand. It consisted of mobile HIV testing, post-test support services and real-time feedback.
The aim of the intervention was four-fold: (1) to increase access to voluntary counseling and testing, as well as post-test services; (2) to change community attitudes about HIV awareness and particularly about the benefit of knowing one's HIV status; (3) to remove barriers to knowing one's HIV status; and (4) to increase the safety of testing and minimize the potential negative consequences of testing by providing various forms of support.
Communities were matched into pairs based on sociodemographic, cultural and infrastructure characteristics, with one community randomly assigned to the intervention and one serving as a control for comparison. (The randomization was performed centrally, and the assignment was not blinded, due to the nature of the intervention.)
Among the findings:
Rates of testing were 45 percent higher in intervention communities than control communities, especially among men and young people.
Individuals in intervention communities, particularly those infected with HIV, reported a lower number of sexual partners and fewer multiple partners. This was particularly true among HIV-positive men, who reported 18 percent fewer sexual partners overall and 29 percent fewer concurrent sexual partners than those in control communities.
Diagnoses of HIV infection were higher in intervention communities.
Social acceptance of the importance of testing was higher in intervention communities.
Modest reductions in HIV incidence occurred in the intervention communities, compared with the control communities, particularly among women in the 25-to-32 age range.
Study participants who learned they were infected with HIV were directed to the study's post-test services, which included counseling and referrals to health and social services assistance. Those who tested negative were also directed to post-test services for further counseling, referrals and support to help ensure they remained uninfected. Local health authorities were thoroughly briefed on the study findings and encouraged to continue the implementation efforts.
Individuals need to be made aware of their HIV status through testing in order to receive the necessary care and treatment and learn how to prevent infection, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, principal investigator of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, under whose auspices the trial was conducted.
"These study findings provide clear and compelling evidence that the provision of mobile services, combined with appropriate support activities, is a strategy that can increase testing rates and also reduce HIV incidence," she said.
###
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (grants 5U01MH066687, 5U01MH066688, 5U01MH066701 and 5U01MH066702); the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and the Office of AIDS Research, all components of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, funded this research.
The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that develops and tests the safety and efficacy of interventions designed to prevent the acquisition and transmission of HIV. The HPTN research agenda is focused primarily reducing HIV transmission and acquisition through the use of antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected persons and antiretrovirals as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV-negative persons; reducing the impact of behavioral and biologic co-factors that increase the risk of infection; treating substance abuse (particularly injection-drug use); reducing behavioral risk through interventions; and structural interventions. The highest priority of the HPTN is to develop and implement combination prevention strategies that demonstrate a significant and measurable reduction in HIV incidence in a variety of populations and epidemic settings.
The UCLA Center for World Health is a joint initiative of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Health. The goal of CWH is to make UCLA a recognized global leader in health education, research and service, with a reputation for excellence in improving the health of the world's people. The center is led by Thomas J. Coates, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, and J. Thomas Rosenthal, a professor of urology and chief medical officer for UCLA Health.
The UCLA AIDS Institute, established in 1992, is a multidisciplinary think tank drawing on the skills of top-flight researchers in the worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS, the first cases of which were reported in 1981 by UCLA physicians. Institute members include researchers in virology and immunology, genetics, cancer, neurology, ophthalmology, epidemiology, social sciences, public health, nursing and disease prevention. Their findings have led to advances in treating HIV, as well as other diseases, such as hepatitis B and C, influenza and cancer.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
PARIS/GAO, Mali (Reuters) - France said on Sunday a third French soldier had been killed fighting Islamist rebels in Mali and reiterated that it could not confirm Chad's report that its own troops had killed the al Qaeda commander behind January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria.
A whirlwind seven-week campaign has driven al Qaeda-linked fighters who took over northern Mali last April into mountain and desert redoubts, where they are being hunted by hundreds of French, Chadian and Malian troops.
France's defense ministry said 26-year-old Corporal Cedric Charenton was shot dead on Saturday during an assault on an Islamist hideout in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains near Algeria, the third French soldier killed in the campaign.
French army spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said some 15 Islamists were killed there but that he could not confirm Chad's report that Chadian troops had killed al Qaeda regional leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar at another camp in the Adrar des Ifoghas.
"We are facing a very fanatical adversary," Burkhard said, noting the Islamists were armed with rocket- and grenade-launchers as well as machine guns, AK47 assault rifles and heavy weapons. "They are fighting without giving ground."
The death of Belmokhtar, nicknamed 'the uncatchable', has been reported several times in the past. The latest came a day after Chadian President Idriss Deby said Chadian forces had also killed Adelhamid Abou Zeid, al Qaeda's other senior field commander in the Sahara.
The killing of Belmokhtar and Abou Zeid, if confirmed, would eliminate all Qaeda's leadership in Mali and raise questions over the fate of seven French hostages thought to be held by the group in northern Mali, an area the size of Texas.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has pledged to avenge the French assault on its fighters in Mali, which Paris said it launched due to fears its former colony could become a launchpad for wider al Qaeda attacks.
Belmokhtar, whose smuggling activities the Sahara earned him the nickname "Mr Marlboro", became one of the world's most wanted jihadis after masterminding the raid on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in which more than 60 people were killed, including dozens of foreign hostages.
Abou Zeid is regarded as one of AQIM's most ruthless operators, responsible for the kidnapping of more than 20 Western hostages since 2008. He is believed to have executed British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009 and 78-year-old Frenchman Michel Germaneau in 2010.
France and Mali have said they could not confirm his death.
French radio RFI and Algerian daily El Khabar have reported that DNA tests were being conducted on members of Abou Zeid's family to confirm whether a body recovered after fighting in Adrar des Ifoghas was indeed the Islamist leader.
Mali's army, meanwhile, said it had killed 52 Islamist rebels in desert fighting some 70 km (45 miles) east of Gao, northern Mali's largest town, with support from French helicopters and ground troops.
"There was a big fight with lots of enemy killed," said Lieutenant Colonel Nema Sagara, the Malian army's deputy commander in Gao. "Our troops went out to battle and they met them. There are no dead on the Malian side."
(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer in Paris; writing by Daniel Flynn; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Last year's Looxcie 2 was a disappointment. The idea of turning a Bluetooth headset into a video camera is interesting, but if you can't point the camera in the right direction it doesn't work very well. If the video quality isn't particularly good, that's another problem. This time around, Looxcie abandons the Bluetooth headset idea and focuses on making a great wearable camera?with much better results. The Looxcie HD Explore may not double as a headset, but with 720p video at 60fps, 1080p video at 30fps, and a variety of included mounts including a hat clip, this $329.99 (direct) camera is a great way to record things from your own point of view.
Design and Mounting Options The Looxcie HD is a plain gray plastic rectangle measuring 1.4 by 1.9 by 3.8 inches and weighing 2.6 ounces, a little bit larger than a disposable lighter and equipped with a prominent battery that sticks out on one of the sides to give it a trapezoidal profile. The battery covers the microSD card compartment, which accepts a card readily but doesn't let you remove it without some very tricky prying, because the installed card sits flush against a little dip in the case that lets you insert the card in the first place.
The butt of the Looxcie HD holds a removable rubber panel that covers a micro USB port and a three-way power switch that lets you turn the camera off, turn it on and set it to Wi-Fi, or turn it on and disable Wi-Fi. The front holds the small lens and pinhole microphone, flush against a flat, smooth face. Besides those details, the only distinguishing features of the camera itself are a pair of rows of small, rectangular holes to let it snap securely into the included hat clip.
The camera comes with a stick-on helmet mount, a clamp-on bike mount, and a hat clip, which are necessary if you don't want to hold the Looxcie HD awkwardly while you use it. This is a mounted camera, and it's not intended to be held like point-and-shoot cameras. The helmet mount consists of a stick-on panel that you can put on a helmet or any smooth, rigid surface, and the bike mount consists of a clamp that goes over handlebars. Both mounts have a solid notch where a universal Looxcie HD holder fits securely; put the Looxcie HD in the foam ring of the holder, tighten the clamp, then slide it into either mount's notch.
The hat clip is a simple clip with a two-jointed arm that connects to a C-shaped bracket that holds the camera securely with both the aforementioned holes and two hook-and-loop straps. The hat clip is probably meant for use with the camera above the clip, but I found it worked just as well with the camera below the clip, placed right in front of one of my eyes to ensure it was pointed at whatever I was looking at. Wearing the clip this way offered me the added benefit of feeling like a cyborg.
If the three mounts aren't enough for you, you can buy additional mounts from Looxcie like a vented helmet mount, a windshield mount, and a tripod mount for $25 to $40. You can also get add-on wide-angle, macro, zoom, and fisheye lenses for $20 to $25 (with the wide-angle and macro lenses available together as a $20 pack). I didn't test any of the optional accessories, but the Looxcie HD and its included accessories were enough to evaluate the camera itself.
Interface, Performance, and Conclusions While you can record just by pressing the Record or Instant Clip buttons on the Looxcie itself (the latter snapping a quick 30-second clip), most of the camera's features must be accessed through the Looxcie iOS and Android apps. The app turns your phone into a mobile viewfinder, which refreshingly has only a split second of lag and displays the video very smoothly. The app lets you change resolution settings between 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps, 48fps, and 30fps. You can change the lighting mode to adjust for white balance, and even stream video online through Looxcie's live broadcast feature. You can also buffer video to continually capture and discard footage, then hit the Instant Clip button on the camera or in the app to save a 30-second instant replay video. You can change the settings by connecting the Looxcie HD to your computer and running the Looxcie software, but it's much more convenient to change settings (especially lighting) while you shoot.
The Looxcie app uses Wi-Fi to connect to the Looxcie HD, so if you broadcast it'll have to be over your mobile data plan. This means livestreaming video can be tricky, but it also means you can broadcast video to the Internet from anywhere with a $330 camera and a smartphone instead of a satellite van and a camera crew.
Video quality is relatively clear and smooth, but some noticeable tearing occurs when the camera is moved quickly back and forth at 1080p at 30fps. A walk down the street and through a park showed details in signs, trees, and walkways. 720p video at 60fps looks much smoother, but tearing can occasionally occur with fast lateral motion. While it's lower resolution, you should probably record in 720p at 60fps most of the time, simply because the video seems so much cleaner and blur-free. This is ostensibly an action camera, after all, but even walking around and panning through the PCMag Labs looks better at 60 fps.
The Looxcie HD is a comprehensive action camera and livestreaming system that lets you record anything from sports action to just walking around, and its smartphone app is extremely useful. The Looxcie HD has improved leaps and bounds over the Looxcie 2, and is a great choice for shooting action from a first-person perspective. If you don't have a smartphone, though, it's more limited. While you can record without a smartphone, it means you can't see what the camera is seeing, change the settings on the fly, or stream video. If you want first-person video without the need of a smartphone (and don't need helmet or bike mount support), Pivothead Video Recording Eyewear offers a more streamlined setup at the cost of video quality. If you don't want to spend three digits on a wearable camera, the MeCam is far harder to use and the video doesn't look nearly as good, but it's $50 and you can pin it onto your clothes.
More Camcorder Reviews: ??? Looxcie HD Explore ??? MeCam ??? Zoom Q2HD Handy Video Recorder ??? Panasonic HC-V700 ??? Panasonic HC-V700M ?? more
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Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
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